The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-19

| is the question of college expenses
Though the increase in this respect is
less than is popularity supposed, there is
no doubt that 1t is large enough tc
constitute serious danger 1t is fan
from easy to see how this danger is to
be avoided. 1t is all be very we'll to talk
of returning to the Spartan simplicity OF
ancient times, but we cannot do it, nor
ought we to if we could. We cannot,
for the sake of saving the cost of a
| bathroom, return to the time when
| people took no baths. Nor can we meet
the difficulty by furnishing the comforts
of modern civilization and charging no
price for them. If the university could
! afford to do it for every one, it might
be well; but to do it for some and not
for Others works against the spirit Of
democracy. may readily become a
form of pauperization. This same dan
ger turks in the whole system of benefi-
ciary aid as at present given in Yale
and in most other colleges. To avoid
this danger and at the same time give
the men the help which they fairly ough
the men the help they fairly ought
to have, we need not so much an in
crease of beneficiary funds as an in
crease of the opportunities for students
to earn their living. Aid in education,
If given without exacting a correspond
iNg return, becomes demoraliZing. If 1t
IS earned by the student as he goes, 1t
has just the opposite effect. This holds
good of graduate scholarships and fell
lOWships no less than of undergraduate
ones. There is no doubt that In the
somewhat indiscriminate competition Of
different universities anxious to increase
real or apparent, Of their eltu-sa
the size, real or apparent, of their
graduate departments, there has been
an abuse Of these appliances which, I'M
less promptly corrected, threatens the
future of the teaching profession with
an over-abundant influx of inferior men.
The true policy in the matter of
expenses and beneficiary aids would ap-
pear to be as follows:
list. In building new dormitories and
other appliances connected with the dali
other appliances connected with the
daily life of the students, we should
strive to use the kind of intelligent
economy which any but the richest man
would use in building house for him
self. We should construct them on the
standard set by our homes rather than
by our clubs In this way we should
create a general level of average ex-
pense in the college life which would at
tract rather than repel the boy who has
to make his own way. We should in
deed welcome beautiful buildings, given
to the university as memorials of af-
lection; but we should strive to have
them so designed that their beauty may
be means of enjoyment to the whole
community.
3D. Tuition should be RENTED with
the utmost freedom to those who main
tain a respectable standing in college. |
Such tuition should be either earned by
service or regarded as loan-a loan
without interest. if you please, or at any |
rate at purely nominal interest charge, |
and payable at the option Of the holder,
but in it's essence a loan-a thing to be
paid ultimately, unless disease or death |
intervene By establishing a system Of |
such repayment we could give aid far |
more universally than we now do, could
lower the tuition fees in gene
raj, and could avoid system of fraud
which is at present practiced somewhat
on our colleges.
Sd. All scholarship aid beyond the
tuition fees, whether for undergraduates
Or for graduates, should be distinctly
in the nature of prize for really dis
work, or a payment for SER
vices rendered. l am aware that there
are great practical obstacles which OPP
pose the carrying out of this view, and
do not feel sure how quickly Yale will
90 in position to put it into effect;
out that it is desirable ideal and goal
here appears to be no doubt whatever
rather than pauperiza-
ion should be the principle underlying
such aid.
4th. Above all things-and this is a
natter where we need the cooperation
If persons outside as well as inside the
utmost study should be
bestowed on the possibility of utilizing
he powers of the students in such "a
way that they can be of service to the
College community and the world at
arge, and thus earn the aid which is
,iven them. The problem is a most
lifficult one; too difficult even to be
lnaIyzed in the brief time before us
o-day. But the amunot of progress
made already in the few experiments
which have been seriously tried leads
ne to believe in an almost unbounded
for ultimate development
f this idea.
Our third group of problems is con-
ected with the development and pre-
ervation of common student interests
nd student life outside of the immedi-
tie work of the class room.
OF all these interests, the most funda- ,
rental are those connected with relig-
JUS observances and religious feeling.
ale is, and has been from the first, a
'hristian college. All her institutions [
how this throughout their structure. '
his was the dominant purpose in Yale's
and the work and thought G
the children have conformed to the s
fish of the fathers What changes time {
lay bring in the outward observances. s
r how soon it may bring them, l know I
OF. The question of compulsory {
tendance on religious exercises Is one
hitch is seriously discussed by the c
lculty; the students and the graduate G
or can we predict the outcome of such t
iscussion. But this know; that it is '
pproached by all, young as well as old, t
spirit if wise conservatism and t
averence for past usage, and that no 7
1anpe will he made J1pleSc If cbolJ 8