The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-12
A CHANGE At BERKELEY,
The University of California
Adopts a New Sys-
tenn.
1t Gives Two Years of College and
Two to Five of University
Work.

The old type of college is fast going out
of existence. 1t lay down the few rigid
courses which all were compelled to fol-
low regardless of capacity or individuality.
The change came about when science took
hold of the mind of thinkers and it was
found necessary to give the student a
choice of science or classics. Then came
another great change. The college ceased
to regard its students as schoolboys and be-
gan to look upon them as men capable of
judging for themselves the kind of work
which they should pursue. This led by
the extreme reaction, to complete election
of subjects. Harvard led the way and prac-
tically gave the student free field to Craze
in. AS colleges were gathered together
into universities and graduate students
came in as a medium between the young
collegian and the advanced learner-the
professor investigating in the laboratory
it came to be seen that there was a differ
ence in degree between the freshmen, who
were but high-school boys after a three
months vacation, and the older students,
which neither the old-time conservatism
nor the present radical, free elective policy
took cognizance of.
lie OIllNGTslly VI OdlIOTHld TSCGHUly
solved the question for itself in an inter-
esting way that seems satisfactory recon-
Citation of the two extreme views. The
change is momentous, and, while silent. is
epoch making in the history of the uni
versity. 1t satisfactorily answers the
charge of undue conservatism often made
against the university, and avoids the
evil too often seen in the free elective sys-
tenn of students pursuing "snap' courses,
dot
coming out OF the university with a con-
ceit of much learning that is patchwork
of unrelated subjects.
The plan adopted by the University of
California is already used in graduate
work in Johns Hopkins University, where
it is known as the group-elective system.
The faculty at Berkeley adapted the group
elective system to undergraduate work:
dividing the university work into two
parts-collegiate and university work
proper, the collegiate work prescribed, the
other part elective by groups. The entire
course, consisting of 12G hours, is divided
into sixty prescribed hours-the work of
the freshman and sophomore years; that
is, each student must take say ten hours
of mathematics, fourteen of history,
twelve of science, twelve of English and
twelve of languages, ancient or modern.
But after the student has reached his junior
year he is considered mature enough to Sc
lect know what he needs and he is allowed
to his sixty hours of work. Thirty hours
he elects as group elective. Thus if he is
to be a lawyer he elects group in juris-
prudence and political science, or in pre-
pairing for medicine, biology, botany,
zoology, etc. His other thirty hours he
can take as single electives, and he has
free choice to elect his purely culture SUBJ
jects, or to begin his complete Specialize
ton at once by adding all this to his group
elective. The groups are selected by the
faculty according to the cognate relations
of the subjects. The student is not OBJ
liged to lumber his mind with what he will
never use, while his university course is
really shortened as he begins technical
preparation during the last two years, and
yet need not neglect the culture of collie
giate work.
The group-elective system changes the
old division of graduate and undergraduate
students into collegiate and university
students. the collegians completing their
work in two years. If he will take his
degree of doctor of philosophy, which re-
quires three years longer, the student now
has a great gain over the old system by
being well started in his speciality both in
method and ground work.