The Columbia evening Missourian., 1922-03-20
PROGRESS OF
STATE MARKED
BY COLUMBIA
Growth of Educational Center
Shows Missouri's Advance,
According to Globe,
DemOcrt.
STUDENTS NUMBER $500
Publication Believes Size of En-.
rollment Here Affords Ad.
vantage Over Larg-
er Schools.

From The 81. Louis Clobe-DemOcfG:
Figures on the growing importance OF
Columbia, Mo-, as an educational center
are Of gratifying nature because they
mark the educational progress Of the en-
tire state. Ii appears that faculty mem-
bers and other teachers in that town
number 5O4, divided as follows: State
University, 329; Stephens College, As;
Christian College, 81; Military School,
10; Bible College, 8; Rosenihal School,
s; Hall Coaching School. a; local public
schools, 76. The total number of stu.
DENTS and pupils is placed at 1900, Of
whom 2,300 are pupils in the public
schools, leaving $500 as the number pur-
suing higher learning and other courses.
II is said that teachers of various grades
make up ii per cent of the towns po-
pulation, students and pupils more than
so per cent.
Other figures having at least some per-
iinence to these have lately come TO pub
lie attention on account Of the rival claims
Of two great American seats Of learning,
each Of which asserts that j, has the
greatest university in the world. One is
Columbia University, New York City.
which supports its case with exhibit OF
a total enrolment containing 32,420
names, Of which 1888 are in IFS Eek
tension department But the University
Of California at Berkeley casts only
scornful glance at these figures and
brings forward an exhibit Of 22,744 in its
extension department, in contrast with
Columbias 1888, and an academic stu
dent body Of 20,522 in regular courses
besides, making a total Of 1920, or TO-
$40 more than Columbia University as
serts a claim to. Ours is the greatest
university in the world: Q. Z. D. says
California.
OF students in regular attendance at
Columbia only 2,846 are undergraduates,
much fewer than at Missouri University,
but it has 8,l93 st-graduate and profes-
sional students in regular attendance and
more than 5000 special students.
Can collegiate graduates Of only few
years ago visualize the conditions under
which a student Of the present will pur-
sue his studies with l2,467 others in
regular attendance at Columbia Univer-
sity and can he even conceive Of the
handicaps under which he would strive
for his degree among the 2O,522 making
up the student body in regular attendance
at Berkeley? To what will the megaloma-
MIA which has seized on our institutions Of
higher learning lead US? What contribu-
iions can these swarming numbers make
to precision and depth Of learning, to
authentic culture, to ihoroughness, the
direction in which the great deficiencies
in American education have been found
in the past? The rush to conspicuous
seats Of learning make them excellent
places in which to study human nature,
by reason Of their endless diversity in
types Of students, but what is their ad.
vantage in other branches?
We may believe that comparison would
reveal many points Of superiority in
such institutions as our own state uni.
versity. Its student body of thousands
is large enough to pass beyond the limi-
tations Of provincialism and still not so
large that, in some traditional explora-
tions into scholasticism. one is made to
feel that he is pursuing elusive points
in philosophy or delving into the abtrus-
ties of the higher calculus while in the
midst of a buffeting mob.