The sun., 1903-12-27
FOR SHORTER COLLEGE COURSE
PRESIDENT BUTLER OF COLUM-
BIA EXPLAINS HIS VIEWS.
The College OF To-day and OF the Past
New Needs OF the Students-Gen
BENEFITS Predicted From Two Year
COurse-POst Graduate Departments.


In his first report as president of Columbia
University, DR.. Nicholas Murray Butler
made a suggestion that startled some
people. 1t was that instead Of the present
course of four years there should be pro-
yided two courses to choose between, one
of two and the other of four years. In
the interview below DR.. Butler elaborates
his views of the subject.
President Roosevelt Is greatly interested
In the National University. whose work
is made possible by the endowment given
bv Andrew Carnegie OF 3l0,OOO,0OO. DR..
Butler was asked if there was any relation
between the National University and the
suggested change in the curriculum OF a
college proper
-Of course, there is the closest relation" !"
he replied "The National University is.
in its scope and purpose, to furnish final
opportunity for original research nvesti-
cation and study of a character which it is
not possible, perhaps, to obtain in any one
of the great universities.
THE Federal Departments at Washington
are to be open TO such students as are GER
tilted as qualified to pursue original re-
search in them: as, for instance, in the
Naval Observatory, in the Smithsonian
Institution, in the Geological Survey or
In the Coast and Geodetio Survey, as well
as in the Treasury Department.
at ia my view that after the methods
Of this institution are understood and it
has been thoroughly organized, our col
leges and professional schools will be found
sending to the National University men Of
the highest ability and qualification, the
result of whose researches will be vastly
1alr in oil nrt ma
of learning and undoubtedly with the most
beneficial effects upon civilization and the
welfare of mankind.
Now, have long felt that if there is too
much time taken in the academic course,
or il students enter it at too late period
In life, then they are at altogether too ad-
vanced an age upon graduation to pursue
higher professional or technical studies
such as those of the National University,
unless they expect to be students all their
lives
Therefore, it seemed to me that it 10
speedily to be essential that there be some
modification of the college curriculum,
especially in view Of the fact that the prepar-
atory, or the secondary schools, the high
schools, are 80 advancing their studies
that they really overlap the work done in
many colleges in the first or second year of
the courses
rs it to be inferred that you favor the
subordination, or the belittling, Of the col
lege proper to the end that the high. or
preparatory school. on the one hand, and
the professional school, upon the other.
NAV continue to increase their require
ments?"
In my opinion the American college-by
which mean the academic department
50 called-is the chief characteristic Of our
entire educational system. 1t is in the
college that the great advantages over the
educational system Of Continental Europe
are to be found.
4In a recent address l said that the spirit
and the purpose of the college are our strong
est defence against the purely materialistic
and commercial ideals in education and
in life. want to save the college. want
to keep for it those influences which are
the best of it's results and which ought
/ feel certain that there are forces at work
which will surely impair, il not destroy,
the American college as we have known 1t,
within a few years, unless this harmful
tendency is checked
II profess to be-and believe with all
my heart that l am-as warm and true
friend of the American college as any
educator or any alumnus can possibly
be and IL is 1OT tlau reason ufldJ l Hill 81
earnestly advocating this change
Gould you identify these harmful ten
denotes of which you speak, Dr. Butler9'
Certainly. On the one hand they are
caused by the very swift and marvellous
especially of the public high school 8. al
though the secondary school is deserving OF
all praise for this development. Many Of
these schools to-day graduate students
after curriculum almost as far advanced
as that maintained by many of the smaller
colleges of a generation ago.
THE public high school in the United
States is now, in many of its requirements,
upon par with the requirements of some
OF the colleges for the first and second years
of their courses The tendency in the
public high schools is to advance more
and more into the field hitherto occupied
by the freshman and sophomore years Of
the college,
SOn the other hand, we have the pro-
fessional schools, those which prepare
students for the vocation Of the law, medi-
cine. higher science and the ministry. The
tendency has been strong and is increasing,
I regret to say, to displace in the junior
and senior years of the college proper
the curriculum adapted for those years
and to adopt professional and technical
studies which are. in my opinion, foreign
to the spirit and the purpose of the studies
thus displaced.
Some are of the opinion. doubtless,
that these changes are all for the BETTER
tendencies of American life. Well, if they
are, then there is no occasion for the modif-
cation of the college curriculum which
am advocating.
But | am persuaded that they are not
In the interest of better or more effective
educational standards in a democracy
I am thoroughly persuaded that the growth
OF the public high schools has been of in
conceivable advantage to the youth Of the
United States.
"They have given educational oppor-
tunities TO thousands of students who could
not have obtained such education in any
other way. or who were unable to consider
q college education
Il recently said that l accept these
changes not only inevitable, but bene-
fetal | know that the best of the public
hgh schools nave so maintained an educa-
tional system to compare most favor
ably with the work that many colleges
have done in the freshman and sophomore
years.
Therefore. would not for moment
be regarded as favoring the curtailment
of the high school curriculum or the pre-
vention of the further advance of the
secondary schools. But l do feel that the
work of the professional schools-law,
IL.