The sun., 1895-04-22
Yale.


ident Of Yale University for the year ending
Dec. 81, 1894. Notwithstanding the recent
untoward conditions of the American COM
munity the growth of this institution has
been uninterrupted. Other interesting facts
brought out by DR.. DWIGHT are the change
in the course of the law department, and
the transformation Of commencement day
which will take place this year.
The number of students in the academical
department, or college proper, is in the
present year ], ,150, against 1,OS6 year
ago. 1t Is twice what it was in the year
1SS5-S6. The freshman class is the larg-
est which has ever been connected with the
institution. AS the President points
out, this increase in number Is remarka-
bic, when the financial pressure of the last
two years is borne in mind In the Sheffield
Scientific School there is the same proof of
prosperity, there being now 682 students in
attendance, against COL a year ago. The
number of students in the three undergrad
uate classes Of the theological department
! is somewhat larger. and the number in the
graduate or fourth-year class is somewhat
smaller, in the present academic year than
in lS93-94. The graduate class Of last year
was the largest in the history of the Yale
Divinity School. There are now 116 stu
dents III regular attendance, including un-
dergraduates, fourth-year men. and resident
licentiates.
In the law school, the new building for
which is now nearly ready for occupancy,
there are 1875 students; last year there were
1873. After the close of the academic year
1S9o-06. the course of study for the degree
~ hac Of =. J.
from two years to three; only two years,
however need be passed in the school, pro-
vided proof is forthcoming that the work
prescribed for the missing year has been ac-
complished. This lengthenng of the course
may result at first in lessening the number
of students, but it will signally enhance
the value of the degree conferred In the
medical school the number of students at
the present time is 100; this represents an
increase of 2o per cent. as compared with
the year preceding, and Of nearly 100 per
cent. in the last eight years This depart
ment Of Yale University seems to have
passed beyond the state in which doubts as
to its ability to continue as an efficient in
stitution could be entertained. The meas
ure Of its future growth will, of course, be
determined by the resources supplied.
We are told that the custom of centring
commencement exercises in one department
only, the academical or college proper, has
for some time been regarded as an ana
chronism by many members Of the Yale
corporation and faculties. What was fitting
in 1898 is inappropriate to the existing
conditions OF great university, in which
no single department should he recognized
to the exclusion of the rest. Moreover, the
character of the exercises, even when
viewed in relation to the college proper AS
distinguished from the university, has
struck many persons as belonging to the
past, and out of accord with the present
and the future. The exhibition which
the college has habitually made of itself
to the world on the most prominent
day of the academic year was mainly
In the line Of display of mere
oratory on the part of the graduating
class. These opinions have now prevailed
at Yale, and have brought about the aban-
donment of the speaking exercises of COM
mencement day, SO far as the academical de-
partment is concerned. and also of the
public reading of theses on the Monday even
ing preceding commencement, which in past
years has been connected with the ami
versary of the Sheffield Scientific School
Henceforward, the central part of the exer-
cises OF commencement day will be no
longer the giving Of brief addresses by
graduating students, but the bestowal of
degrees. The ceremony of comforting de-
grees will be more formal, and more char
acteristic of the university, as distinguished
from the college, than it has been in the
past. In word, commencement week at
Yale is to be to some extent assimilated to
commemoration week at Oxford.