Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1907-05-30
GOOD NEWS ABOUT THE NoRMALs.

Unofficial information comes to US
that the Board of Regents of the State
Normal Schools will at their next
meeting rescind the order degrading
the four normal schools at Shepherds
town, West Liberty, Chenille and
Athens by cutting the senior year
from their course. It is stated that
the board did not mean to make so
sweeping an order, and that the intent
of the resolutions pushed by Mr.. Tough
was not fully understood by the mem
bers. Now that the effect of the or
der has been shown so plainly, and
such general protest having been made
against its enforcement, the regents
will either rescind it entirely or modi-
fy it so that the course of study will
remain as it is at present.
We are glad to note this evidence
of the desire of the board to tote fair
with our normals. We believed from
the beginning that the majority had
been misled and that they did not
realize what Mr.. Lough's resolution
was leading them into.
One effect of the agitation of this
question is to arouse the friends of the
schools to that point where they will
ask fair play from the board for all
the schools alike. The Legislature at
its last session gave largely increased
appropriation for the pay Of normal
school teachers. Mr.. Lough at once
began to dispose of this money by de-
Gliding that the principal Of the Fair
mont school should have his salary
increased from $500 to $4,000 a
year. that training teacher at 81 500
and an assistant training teacher at
$500 year should be employed, and
that all of the Fairmont teachers should
get big raise. with an incidental
donation of 800 a year each to stu.
dent assistants. 1t seems to have all
been nicely arranged that Fairmont
and Marshall College should absorb
the increased appropriation, without
any regard whatever for the other
schools.
That this programme will go through
seems very improbable, for many of
the influential members of the Legis.
lature who worked hard to secure the
additional appropriation will insist
that it be used, not to further swell
the attendance at Huntington and
Fairmont, or to fatten. the teachers in
these schools, but to place the other
schools on an equal footing and give
them training teachers, too, as well
as other advantages enjoyed by the
favorite normals.
The fallacy of the argument that
the normal schools at Shepherdstown
West Liberty, Glenville and Athens
are simply local schools has been clear.
" demonstrated the past week. Thir.
ty.Gve members of Prof. J. D. Null.
doon's class in Shepherd College, every
one of them teacher in rural schools,
representing eleven counties in West
Virginia, passed resolutions protest
ing against the enforcement of the
order. This doesn't look as if Shep-
herd College lie purely local school.
Prof. A. S. Bell, a former instructor
in the West Liberty school. gives still
more striking figures. He shows that
in 1895 about 81 per cent of the
students at the Fairmont school came
from other counties, while Sc per cent
of the West Liberty students were
from other counties; in other words,
while Fairmont had l07 students from
outside the county in which the school
is located, West Liberty the same year
had 113. AS to which school has
more oflocal characteristics, the figures
speak for themselves.
Give all the normal schools equal
facilities, and none of the four that
have been placed in a false position
by partisans of the two others will be
ashamed of its record.