The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-04-22
A New Era for tho City's College.

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A New Era for tho City's College.
The acceptance by DR.. JOHN HUSTON
FINLEY Of the presidency of the College
Of the City Of New York affords promise
Of q development in that institution which
will make it one of the foremost American
schools OF learning, taking rank with the
great universities whose evolution from
provincial colleges has distinguished the
last twenty-five years.
The College of the City OF New York
was first established in 1s4S as q high
school and was called the Free Academy.
The year before a committee OF the
Board Of Education, appointed to con-
slider means Of providing scheme Of
higher education as a logical extension
of our free school system, reported in
favor Of the foundation OF an institution
on which public funds should be e1-
pended with q view to the greatest
good to the greatest number , in the way
OF such an education. At that time the
two existing colleges Of New York were
relatively feeble, with a small number
of students. all told. An opportunity
for the new institution lay in the absence,
or. at least, poverty. of provisions for
the distinctively practical education re-
quired more specifically in the great COM
mercial centre Of the Union.
In is47, when an act was passed by the
Legislature authorizing the establish
ment Of the Free Academy, subject to the
approval Of the citizens, given at an cleo
ton the next year. New York was town
OF not less than half million inhabitants;
but it was not remarkable that project
Of founding public school for the higher
education should have appealed to the
imagination of the people OF the then rap
idly growing town. The aim Of the Free
Academy, as described by Mr. ROBERT
KELLY in an address at it's opening, was
to be "a school intermediate between the
college system and that Of the polytech-
mic schools Of Europe imbuing its
course OF classical and liberal education
with something OF practical spirit, and
uniting its course OF business, mechanical
and industrial education with general
mental culture" These principles, which
have continued to govern it, may be said
to have guided the more recent devel-
opment of our American university sys-
TEN generally, through the means of
their technical schools, more especially.
In 1896 the Free Academy became by
Legislative act the College Of the City OF
New York, with the powers and privi-
leges Of college.
We need not follow the course OF the
institution since that time, for its educa-
tional advantages and achievements, as
illustrated in its many graduates and the
far greater number who went through
its partial courses only, are apparent in
every profession and every department
Of business in New York Not unnatu-
rally, this great and loyal body Of alumni
has been resentful of criticisms of its
college. But these criticisms have been
justified, and now the election of DR..
FINLEY to its presidency indicates that
they have been fruitful Of good. A col
lege bearing the name OF the city of New
York and supported at its cost should
accord in the dignity Of it's character and
the superiority OF It's educational facili-
ties with the supreme distinction Of New
York as the financial. commercial and
intellectual centre Of America. This in
stitution, it cannot be denied, has never
yet held 80 high place. In the number
Of its students II has been among the
leading American universities, but in
scholarship 1t has been put in an in.
ferior rank. lower. perhaps, than that to
which 1t was entitled actually.
A great development In university
education has gone on since it's establish
ment, but heretofore the College Of the
City Of New York has not kept pace with
IL. When the roll Of the leading Ameri-
can colleges and universities has been
called this college has not been put among
them; yet it has been demonstrated that
the great city is the true site for great
university; that the facilities for educa-
ton afforded by the libraries, the hospi-
tails, the scientific collections, the varied
enterprises and industries, and the tenn
ing life OF q populous centre of civiliza-
ton are Of prime importance in the devel. |
opment Of university fitted to prepare
students to enter on practical career.
When. therefore, We cay that the en-
trance Of Dr.. FINLEY into the presidency
Of the College Of the City Of New York |
viii mark O new era in the history Of tho |
we mean that under his |
direction there 10 good reason |
TO expect that the college viii be brought |
into the place Of importance which it |
ought to hold II it Is to exist at all with |
the name IL bears. DR.. FINLEY, now a
professor at Prinoston University, will |
falsify the promise Of biz whole career,
which began with his presidency of Knox
College in Illinois, in 1892. when be was
only % yeap Of age, II be does not bring
the New York college to that enviable