The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1892-12-26
Not n Lodging House Question.

Tho question whether Columbia College
should build dormitorles or lodging rooms
for students On its new Bloomingdale site
is discussed very seriously. as II it involved
the future development OF the institution
as school OF learning. The argument used
10y the advocates OF dormitories is that
only by providing them can Columbia give
to students the college life which will en-
able it to compete in attractiveness with
colleges like Harvard and Yale. Princeton
and Cornell.
In the first place. Is it worth while for
Columbia TO go into this competition and
change the character it has maintained for
more than century? thas always been
distinctively IL city college. a New York col
lege. 1t obtains the students for Its clussi
cal and undergraduate course from NewYorli
and its neghborhood almost wholly. They
are young men who live at tho homes Of their
parents and go to the college as to day
school. Ofcourse. they loso thu life ofsuch
resident communities OF students as exist
at Harvard and Yale. which Is unques-
tionably both attractive and desirable in
many ways. since OF itself it contributes
largely to tho education OF the youth.
But would this college life result from the
mere provision OF lodging rooms on new
college grounds in the midst OF great
town like New York?
1t is true that just at present there is
something OF a rural secluson about the
improved and built up like districts to the
east and north OF them. but it will not be
long before they will be thus transformed.
and the removal Of Columbia College thither
will hasten the change. Even as the situa-
ton is now. it is not so far removed from
the bustlng town rs was the present site
Of the institution in Forty-ninth street
when the college moved to it from College
puce in 1857. College place itself not very
many years before had been a quiet and
comparatively secluded spot OF a character
almost rural in its peacefuness.
Erecting lodging houses for students on
the Bloomingdale site would therefore be
an attempt to establish the life OF col
lege community amid all the distractions
OF great surrounding town. Moreover.
who would make up the community?
Parents living In New York and its neigh
borhood would not send their boys to re-
side there. They would prefer to keep
them at home and under homo Influences
The boys themselves. II they desired to
live In a college community. would want to
go into one at IA distance from home, which
had established its independence already
and was not in its raw beginning only. Per-
haps students in tho professional schools,
more Of whom como from afur. would be
glad OF tho dornltories il they could live at
them cheaper than Mt other places in tho
town. but they do not give to college life
the character which makes 1t so attractive
to young fellows. That comes from the
youthful undergraduates only; and hence
We infer that tho earnest advocacy of tho
plan for Introducing the dormitories Is con-
fined to the alumni Of Columbia College
proper. and does not extend to the medical.
law, and engineering graduates and pupils.
most OF whom passed through the college
life and its destinations for youth before
entering these professional schools.
So long as Columbia College maintains
its undergraduate department the students
will come. as they have always como In the
past from this immediate vicinity. Such