The sun., 1919-09-25
COLUMBIA BEGINS
166TH SCHOOL YEAR
Enrolment Of 10000 Looked
For With Pre-War Con-
ditiOns Prevailing.
DIR. ERsKINE GIVES TALK
Americans Love Dancing Bet
ter Than Any Other Art,
He Declares.

day on the 16eth academic year with a
record enrolment representative OF about
every nook and corner Of this earth
The revival OF pre-war conditions was
complete.
1t was estimated on incomplete totals
last night that 10000 students will at
tend the various departments, where en-
rolments last night were approximately
as follows: Teachers College. 1000;
Department Of Extension Teaching,
5000; School Of Law, LILO; College Of
Physicians and Surgeons, All ; School Of
Mines, 365 Engineering and Chemistry,
1874; School of Architecture, 40; School
Of Journalism, 62: Graduate Faculties,
SIS; School OF Business, 164; School of
dentistry, Q; Barnard College. 5S1; un-
classified, 81.
Whereas the teachers department and
department of Extension Teaching
showed record enrolment despite the
widespread agitation, such as that pre-
sented in the August American maga-
zine by President Hibben of Princeton
relative to the growing pecuniary i'm
Loverishment of teachers, the School Of
Dentistry appeared neglected. Only three
prospective molar mechanics applied.
Since the registration does not close until
late Saturday this deficiency may be
made up.
e. L. Thorndyke. who had charge of
mental tests In the army, concocted the
psychology tests applied to the new
comers. They consist of thirty sets Of
questions, which have to be answered
under q stop watch. The examiner says
Co.. like that. And the nervous can
didate shifts his cranial machinery into
high, and upon reading the first ques-
ton, for example, 'who led Pickett's
charger thinks back to the time that
query was first sprung on him. II he
makes the trip back fast enough and
gets the difficult thing right he is as
sumed to have been brought up in a
slightly jocular atmosphere. At least
that's the general principle.
New York University Opens.
New York University, with a mere
eighty-seven academic winters in retro
spect likewise opened with a record at
tendance and likewise probed into the
Intellectual reservoirs of it's freshmen
by the psychology method. Military train
ing Is another new feature at New York
University, with Capt. Hathaway. u. S.
A, assigned by the War Department to
be in command. Freshmen and sopho-
mores will be required to- take physical
training or 'non-combatant duty" II
unable to qualify for the drilling.
Columbia's formal opening exercises,
held in the gymnasium. consisted mainly
of an address by DR.. John Erskine, who
quoted the soldiers remark. I'D rather
dance any time than have Isadora Dun
can do It for me-" in the course Of
declaration that the college of to-day
is out of step with modernity II It does
not teach men and women the practical
uses of education.
''It Is hardly an exaggeration TO say
that the university and the university
professors views are no longer looked
upon hs authoritative by those who seri-
ously desire to know the world and to
know life." DR.. Erskine surprised his
audience by saying. "If the university
would really serve the men and women
around 1t II must not insist upon solving
the problems of a society that his dis
appeared, and II It asks the present
America what problems to solve the
answer will show more often the wish
to do than the wish to hear about some
thing.
To-day we would live more deeply
than before. and since to live requires a
technique as well as a theory. we ask
for the kind of knowledge that can be
converted Immediately into living This
disposition is as strong at home as Il
was among the army students abroad.
Offer a course in the history OF paint
ing. in the history of music. in the his
tory of engineering and you will have
few students, however profitable such
instruction in some circumstances might
be- But offer to teach men how to paint,
how to play the piano, how to be engi-
neers and your classes overflow. For us
Americans there Is no joy in being a
spectator.
"This wish to practise life colors our
thoughts of our three principal needs
the need of skill to earn our living the
equal need OF skill to enjoy our leisure
and the need to know what is going on
in other countries. what other men are
doing. Droll as the prophecy may
sound, we shall yet train our scholar
carpenters and scholar plumbers, who
will make their contribution to our
spiritual saDity as well rs serve with
their hands"
Pays Tribute to Dancing.
Nor old DR.. Erskine weaken on the
subject of dancing. "It takes courage
to mention dancing before ones scholarly
colleagues" he confessed, but the truth
is that Americans love dancing better
than any other art. l had almost said
better than any other occupationl IL
this is one of our talents why not in
crease e? Serious 1t is now, why should
1t not be significant? II the graduate
faculty hesitates to install a practical
course in dancing how inconsistent of
them to accept a documented thesis on
the dancing the Greeks did some time
ago.
II speak OF dancing, but the principle
concerns all the arts in which we have
made a beginning If our use OF leisure
Is to be satisfying and happy we must
learn to do beautifully and significantly
the things we like to do, we must de-
velop them into fine arts"
The publisher of popular music would
have warmed tn DR.. Erskine when he
went on to apply the theory to music
and to Justify, on the principle Of what
America likes, the syncopated confuse
so frowned upon by the classicist. Or
the movie director would have applauded
similar defence Of the cinema which
Dr. Ersldne presented. He did. to be
sure, say that II should be raised ''from
an appetite of the nerves to an art. I
admit I don't know how this is to be
done, but that is only my ignorance"
The university should point the way, he
concluded.
President Nicholas Murray Butler. who
spoke only briefly at these exercises,
was, with DR.. William Darrnch, new
dean of the faculty of medicine, a
speaker at the opening OF the College of
Physicians and Surgeons. This is the
era OF preventive medicine, rather than
merely curative medicine, according TO
the latter, who said that the suffix M. ID,
TO ones name ID only the beginning OF
medical education. with thA tncrAa 90