The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-05-31
Colu mbia University.

The volume CoIum bid, by FREDERICK
PAUL KEPPEL (OSford University Press).
a member Of the american College
and University Series" is carefully pre-
pared and brightly written. The story
of the expansion of Columbia Is not
less interesting than the story of Its
original foundation as Kings College
in 1854. This latter and earlier story
Dean Keppel does not undertake to tell
in any detail, highly amusing as 1t Is
with the sectarian controversies which
the original foundation excited, and for
the partial appeasement OF which the
New York University was founded
three quarters Of a century later. These
things may be found in professed his
tories Of Columbia, in tho luminous
page" for example, Of Dean Van Am
ringe, the predecessor in Office OF the
present historian, or expositor. Ger
tainly the stigma, IL It ought to be
called 80, OF being a Church college"
long outlasted any justification there
may have been for 1t at the beginning,
when the quarters Of the embryo col
lege were provided for 1t by Trinity
Church. In his analysis OF the en-
dowments OF Columbia Dean Keppel
assures us that for a century and
a half nothing has been received from
any religious body. Yet for most of
that century and n half the careless
world has been in the habit of regard
ing Columbia as an adjunct and organ
of tho Protestant Episcopal Church.
Such a misconception Is no longer
possible, nor has 1t been possible for
many years; not since the expansion
definitely began of which the present
volume tells the story. Dean Keppel
quotes DR.. Slosson: 1.-TWO decades ago
Columbia was a small college. with
three loosely attached professional
schools, crowded In old buildings down
town. and regarded by the outside world
as local, sectarian and unpromising.
Now II is metropolitan and cosmopolitan,
and II It continues. to progress as 1t has
in recent years It is likely to take a
position among the universities of the
country similar to that Of New York
among the cities" This Is considerably
postdated, for the college made its mi
grafton from College place to Madison
avenue and Forty-ninth street before
the civil war, and the first of the Gothic
buildings erected on that site was built
in 1874. On the other hand Dean KEEP
pei will seem to readers who are not
as specially informed as he to have
antedated the expansion of Columbia by
assigning the beginning OF 1t to a GER
tain trustees report of 1857. The law
school, the earliest of the professional
schools. almost Immediately followed,
and by reason OF the aptitude for teach
Ing of Prof. Dwight attained great pres
tige, and In 1868 came the beginning of
the second of the professional schools,
the school OF mines. 1t was these
foundations which made President Bar
nard, to whose foresight and wisdom
Dean Keppel pays an elaborate tribute,
declare that up to 1857 was the gym
nasial period" of the history Of CO.
lumbia and from that to 1880 the period
OF the professional school. while with
this latter date came the establishment
OF the graduate school, and so the be-
ginning of the university properly "a
called.
But the university under Presidents
Low and Butler has expanded far be-
yond the dreams Of President Barnard
! In 1889, even, the registration of stu
dents amounted to hut l,76S; in 1918 II
was $3.50. OF this latter figure little
less than third. exactly 81 per cent,