New-York tribune., 1920-02-01
Columbia Dean
w ants Latitude
Given Students
Greater Freedom Should Be
Allowed in Selecting
Choice of Studies, Says
Dr. Hawkes. in Report
Change in Requirements
Organization of a Univcr-
sity College Also Is Rec
commended to President

American college requirements sug.
eest standards Of emotion rather than
OF reason. Herbert E. Hawkes.. dean et
S"'cmola College, declares in his an
noa' report to DR.. Nicholas Murray
Butler, president of the institution
made public yesterday Dean Hawkes.
recommends several radical departures
from university tradition. Organiza-
tlon OF university college. correlated
WIN Columbia Co lege and the other
schools of the university, is declared
to be the next great problem which the
college authorities must solve.
Greater freedom in the choice of
studies should be given to undergradu-
atcs, he says. urging that one who sat
!shes the requirements prescribed by
the faculty for degree may have at
his disposal any educational offering
OF the university that is wise for him
to take.
Dean Hawkes's proposal for univer-
stty college would affect the thousands
OF students in the rapidly growing
department of extension teaching who,
regularly employed in the metropoli-
tan district during the day, pursue late
afternoon and night courses at Colum-
bia. These students, deprived of the
opportunity of doing academic work in
the usual way, would, under Dean
HAWKES. plan, be enabled to win a
university degree.
Opportunity for Workers
The student body of this new col
lege would. the dean says, consist also
OF men who are at present registered
IN Coium bia College and are candidates
for the degree OF Bachelor of Science,
q ind nj torf y
graduate faculties.
"To bring all of these together as
candidates for single degree" tie re-
port adds, would be a work commen-
surate with the breadth Of the univer-
slty and with the scope Of the demand
for sound and thorough education
which it ought to meet
Dean Hawkes. asserts that Columbia's
central problem should be envisaged as
one Of education, not Of housing If
the educational problems are settled
correctly he thinks those of housing,
eating and other material considera-
tions will follow in due order.
The relation of the university to
those students who are doing work of
bAccalaureate grade, but who at pres
snt are not candidates for bacca-
laureate degree, is described by Dean
hawkes. as complex aspect of the
educational problem in which Columbia
college is vlta!ly interested.
New System Urged
There Is In the university" he con-
stnues, "a rapidly increasing group of
men who would be able to meet the re-
quirements for admission to many col
ieges. but perhaps not precisely those
at present prescribed at Columbia
Moreover. they wish to do work Of col
Io kt,t Frr \
;nc0nvenlent to meet the requirements
Tor degree in Columbia College
"A recent computation indicates that
there are II 7,00O 900 600 ways in which
person may comp etc the require
ments Tor the A. b. degree in the
United States. To assert that one of
these is the requirement indicates a
complacency with ores own way of
dong things that has risen out of the
domain Of reality into that of the emo
tions.
at is undoubtedly true that In most
colleges, including Columbia, it makes
Cor simplicity of administration and
for sound education to decide upon
certain set Of requirements for admis-
sion and graduation and to adhere
xigdly to them. But 1t does not fol-
low that the baccalaureate degree
should not be conferred at Columbia
much more flexible. though no less
severe, standard of adm IS ion and
graduation"
Dormitory Facilities Lacking
Socializing influences such as com
pulsory physical training for freshmen
and sophmores, an assembly hour at
which once week he whole un .versity
community is represented. and the FIVE
hour required course In contemporary
civilization for freshmen, are already
at work at Columbia to bring the dis
tinct,y college students together, and
now, Dean Hawkes. asserts, the ques-
tion arises with increasing insistencc
as to what should be done for those
who are more loosely connected with
the college.
with the increasing number of
men in college from remote parts of
the country, the present dormitory
facilities are entirely taken up. do
not feel however, that the dormitory
question, important AS 1t is, is the
primary problem in the development
Of Columbia College. The primary
prob EN- IS one of education
Dean Hawkes. takes up the relation Of
the college to the university, saying
that it is the simplest aspect o. the
educational problem. "One image of
the college" he continues, "is that of a
cube inclosed on all six sides Rounded
below by its entrance examinations,
separated all four sides from Che
other schools Of the university and
closed off top by its requirements
for the degree, we have a definite. self
contained and snug, not to say snug,
institution.
'This concept of Columbia College
seems to me to be entirely obivous 20
The opportunities that are before the
college. For some time there have
been means of egress from the college
to the professional schools through per-
forations in the lid of our cube. 1t is
hoped that as fast as suitable arrange
ments and safeguards can be arranged
the lid may gradually be removed and
. student who enters Columbia College
may do so with the assurance that, pro
vided lie satiafies the reluren ents Ia d
down for the degree by the faculty Of
the college, AIRY educate offering Of
the university that Is wise for him to
take and which he is qualified to make
6se of. Is at his disposal"