The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-02-10

DIscussion o f ootbaII Kules-l hanErs
~ Latter Have Inc, eased Accidents
Exa3gernt,on o. Ath ettcs and son-
.eqnent Evil
Cambridge, Mass, Feb. 9.-The an
nual report of President Eliot, of Har-
ward university, to the beard of over
seers, covering the last academic year,
was made public to-day.
The report has been awaited with an
unusual degree of interest on account
of the expectation that President Eliot
would have something to say on the
absorbing topic Of the maintenance of
the college course leading to the degree
of B. A. and the relation of that course
to the professional schools.
1t will be remembered that in the last
report of President Hadley, of Yale uni
versity, that institution definitely de-
clared it's intention to abstain from the
policy of requiring some degree in arts
or sciences or an equivalent standard,
for admission to it's professional schools,
and that President Butler, of Columbia
university, in his recently published re-
port, while maintaining that profess
sional study should be based upon a
sound foundation of liberal culture, as
serted that the first two years of a
good college course furnished that foun-
dation and should earn the bachelors
degree.
! Harvard's policy is now emphatically
declared by President Eliot to be one of
determined support to the requirement
of bachelors degree, or it's equivalent,
for admission to the professional
schools, as now in force in the Depart
ments of theology, law and medicine
at Harvard, and to an even higher
standard than has hitherto been set for
the degree of B. A.
It is true that President Eliot de-
scribes the recognition and encourage
ment now given at Harvard to the three
| years or the three and half years
| college course, but he makes it clear
that the quantity of work, measured by
the required number of courses, is the
same for the three years course as for
the four years course, while the quail
ity of work as measured by grades has
I been substantially raised during the
past year. :
| In short, President Eliot maintains
| that Harvard is unshaken In its adher-
| ence to the highest standards for both
undergraduate and professional depart
ments, and shows that this policy
strengthens university numerically in
the long run, in both its higher and its
lower members, while assuring to itself
a uniform output of highly and liberal
/ " trained youth.
Dean Briggs In his report to the pres
ident on the faculty Of arts and sci
ences touches briefly but emphatically
on the subject from the standpoint OF
the college.
II write" he says, "as one who holds
that the college is the very heart of the
university, and that out of the heart
are the issues of life; and l write the
more earnestly because I see some
American universities pushing blndly
out from under them the college props
on which they stand"
President Eliot begins his discussion
of the requirements for the degree of
3. A. by reviewing the recent steps by
which they have been brought to their
present state, and he sums up as fol-
lows:
"It is obvious from this review that
the three years course for the degree
of B. A. at Harvard college is intended
to demand as much work and as high
attainments as are demanded in the
four years course. The governing
boards and the faculty have had no in
fhn requirement q
for the Harvard B. A. to be lowered,
although they have made it possible for
dilgent students to attain the degree in
thre years, or three years and half.
This insistence on the sum of attain
ments for the degree is the character
istic feature of the whole evolution.
Since the general effect of the elective
system during the past thirty years has
been greatly to raise the quality OF the
instruction throughout all the courses
and half courses offered by the faculty
of arts and sciences, it is obvious that
the candidate who shall hereafter OBJ
tain the Harvard degree in three years
will have to give on the average. dis
tinct evidences of higher scholarship
than has been expected of his prede-
cessors in any former generation.
'"The faculty of arts and sciences has
now done what it can to combat the
great evil of too late entrance upon the
professional career or the business ca
reer. 1t has expressed its preference
for the age of eighteen as the age, OF
entering college, and it's conviction that
boys can be well prepared for college
bv that age, and it has made 1t possi-
BILE for any diligent student to get the
degree of bachelor of arts in three years.
These two measures combined should
enable parents to get their we'll trained
sons into the learned professions by
twenty -four or twenty-five years OF age
and into business careers much earlier
To effect these improvements, however
the cooperation Of parents, schools and
the community at large is essential.
THE foregoing narrative shows con-
clusively that Harvard university has
no sympathy with any efforts to lower
the standard of the degree of bachelor
of arts, or to substitute for 1t an infer
ior degree. 1t proposes to uphold the
standard of that degree by all appro-
pirate legislation within it's own walls
And by the effect of its admission ex.
aminations on the secondary schools
and it has already done all that uni
versity can do to support the primary
degrees in arts and sciences, by requir-
ing such a degree for admission to its