The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-06-25

Delivered at the Commencement Exer-
 eises Yssterday-The Elective system Its Possible ResuIGs-The Chief Mem
 ace Co the Solidarity of Yaie College
 Lifeline Forest schuoI-Gradaate
 Dspartmsnt-Kent LabOratory-Re-
 cent Gifts.
 Every American university which gives the degree of Bachelor of Arts has been confronted with two ques- tfons: Shall the four years course be retained? and shall Greek still be made an indispensable requisite for the de- gree? The first of these questions Yale continues to answer in the affirmative. The second it has decided to answer in the negative.
 The movement toward a three years course does not seem as strong to-day as it did twelve months ago. A very distinct check to it's general adoption was given by the publication of the last report of the president of Columbia un- iversity. In that report it was suggest ed that two kinds of bachelors degrees should be offered, one at the end of four years, and the other at the end of two; and that the second or inferior bache- lor's degree should be made the basis of admission to professional schools. It was said that the two year degree rep scented all that was really essential as a preliminary to professional study, and quite as much as was represented by the four year degree of a generation ago. Without entering into the discus sion of this last point, it is at any rate obvious that 1t does not mean as much as the Columbia four year degree means to-day. The report was in effect an admission by President Butler that in his opinion our professional schools were not prepared to require an amunt of preliminary study equivalent to the existing course in our best colleges, and that our best colleges ought not to be encouraged to reduce their course to the minimum which the professional schools could require.
 The Yale requirement. for the degree of Bachelor of Arts is based on the as- sumption that a student will take an average of fifteen hours week for four  gate. Of these sixty hours, six can be devoted to studies, which, though inclu- ded in the Academic pamphlet, are es- sentially professional in their character. Besides these six hours of professional study which help to count for the de- gree in arts. the student can. if his strength permits, take in his senior year additional. hours Of professional study not counting for his B. A. degree; and if he has frightened the amount of required work of the senior year by ex- tra hours in years previous he may, as an undergradua senior, be in posi- tion to take. substantial years course in one of the professional schools As matters are nv arranged at Yale col lege, this is the chief opportunity for shortening his time of study which Is offered to man who comes with only the ordinary degree of preparation.
 After several years discussion, the a principle that the degree of Bachelor of Arts should be given only to those who have studied Greek has been definitely abandoned. It is indeed expected that the great majority of candidates for the degree will have studied Greek in prep aration for college, and that it will be extensively pursued in the college course itself; but for those who feel un- able or unwilling ao pudsue it, the sub stitution of other courses of equal diffi- culty is allowed. The number of those who have advocated this change has every year increased; and even those who have advocated this change has every year increased; and even those who have questioned it's wisdom tend to acquiesce' in it as inevitable. Among the colleges and universities of Ameri- } ca and of the world, the study of Greek no longer holds the same position of dominance which it held a generation or two ago. Nearly every university on both sides of the Atlantic has aban- doned it as requirement for ad1nis- sion.
 In our experiments with the elective system we have found that the consec- utiveness and difficulty of study which were characteristic of the rigid classical course of earlier days can, by proper restrictions, be secured in other sub- iects also. We believe that we can bet ter cooperate with the secondary schools, and better meet the demands of those who seek an academic course, by insisting upon these standards of difficulty and consecutiveness, than by demanding as an indispensable condi- tion for the degree in arts one particu- lar study, which some schools cannot teach and some parents do not wish their sons to learn.
 In providing for substitute for en- trance Greek, we have had to consider the needs of two classes of students. First there are those who wish a course analogous to that which was formerly required, but who come from schols where the prvision for the teaching of Greek is quite inadequate. These can- didates are allowed to substitute extra work in mathematics for part of their Greek. The other class consists of those who do not wish to study Greek at all. For these we provide equiva- Tents in modern languages which will be at least as difficult as the Greek for which they are to be substituted.
 Whether the carrying down of the elective system, through the Freshman wear of the college course and into the prepara tory school itself, will result in the loss of that coherence and public snirit for which Yale college has been