My i^\„>~-CL J ^ Harvard University, 7 Jan., 1891. At a meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences held on Tuesday, Jan. 6th, 1891, the committee appointed to prepare a statement of the Faculty's reasons for its proposals relating to the reduction of the College course presented their report. The report was accepted ; and the Faculty directed that it be forwarded, together with a statement prepared by dissenting members of the Faculty, to the Corporation and Board of Overseers. FRANK BOLLES, Secretary. The College Faculty's proposals* of March 26th, 1890, which re- ceived the approval of the Corporation and are now before the Board of Overseers, have been but imperfectly understood by the graduates and undergraduates of the University and by the educated public. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences f welcomes, therefore, the opportu- nity afforded it by the vote of the Overseers on the 22nd of October to make an exposition of the problem which the College Faculty was called upon to solve, and of the considerations which determined its action. Of the four measures proposed, the second — to reduce the number of courses required for the A.B. to sixteen — was far from command- ing general assent in the Faculty ; but the other three were adopted by strong majorities (from 3 to 1 to 6 to 1). The discussion was chiefly on the second proposal. When the final vote was taken on that proposition there were found in the affirmative the President, the * 1. That the requirements for the degree of A.B. be expressed, under suitable regulations with regard to length of residence and distribution of work, in terms of courses of study satisfactorily accomplished. 2. That the number of courses required for the degree be sixteen. 3. That when a student enters College there shall be placed to his credit towards satisfying the foregoing requirement of sixteen courses, (1) any "ad- vanced studies " on which he has passed in his admission examination beyond the number required for admission, and (2) any other college studies which he has anticipated. 4. That a student may be recommended for the degree of A.B. in the middle, as well as at the end, of the academic year. t In June last, the College Faculty was succeeded by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, a body the personal composition of which is essentially the same as that of the former College Faculty, but which has larger powers. UJ Dean, Professors Lane, Norton, B6cher, Greenongh, Toy, Paine, Goodale, Palmer, Trowbridge, James, J. W. Wiiite, Peabody, Lan- man, Wright, and Lyon, Assistant Professors Bartlett, de Sumiehrast, Sheldon, Sanderson, Royce, Francke, Yon Jagemann, Wendell, Channing, Taussig, and Hart, Instructors Moore, Clymer, Parker, Gross, and Wolff, and Tutor Morgan (34) ; and in the negative Pro- fessors Child, Cooke, Everett, A. S. Hill, Nash, C. J. White, Shaler, Allen, Jackson, H. B. Hill, Chaplin, Byerly, Mark, Mac- vane, Assistant Professors Davis, Cohn, Briggs, and Hall, and Listructors Snow, Bendelari, Huntington, and Kittredge (22). Four members of the Faculty were in Europe, of whom. Professors Dunbar and J. M. Peirce would have voted in the affirmative, and Professors Goodwin and Emerton in the negative. Professors Hagen, Whitney, and Farlow were absent wJien the vote was taken, and did not record their opinions when subsequently invited by the Faculty'' to do so. Professor B. O. Peirce was disabled by serious illness. Every member of the Faculty as then composed is thus accounted for. The shades of opinion were numerous, and there were not a few cases in which neither an affirmative nor a negative vote expressed satisfactorily the real opinions of the voter. In order to make clear the force and scope of the proposal to reduce to sixteen the number of courses required for the A.B. it is desirable in the first place to state precisely what the present require- ment is. The requirement in March last, stated in courses, was eighteen and four tenths ; but the four tenths consisted of two series of illustrated lectures intended for Freshmen — one on elementary chemistry and one on elementary physics, neither series numbering more than four- teen lectures. In June last, at the request of the department of physics, the Faculty ordered that the examination on the lectures in physics be discontinued ; and they are only awaiting a similar request from the department of chemistry to discontinue the examination in chemistry also. The actual requirement is, therefore, eighteen and one fifth courses, from which the one fifth maj' at any time disappear. For the purposes of the present statement the number of courses now required for the degree of A.B. will be considered to be eighteen. This number of eighteen includes, however, an arbitrary rating of twelve Sophomore themes and six Junior forensics (rewritten if re- quired) as one course.* * This rating is but a recent one — the number of forensics having lately been reduced without reducing the time to be devoted to the subject — and is liable to change. It should be observed that a "course" in the language of the College regulations is not a definite and invariable quantity. It ordinarily means a course of instruction in which the instructor meets his class three times a week throughout the year ; but there are some advanced courses in which two meetings a week with the instructor are held to be sufficient. Again, a course is ordinarily supposed to occupy one fourth of the students' whole working time, and the instructor may consequently demand of his class an amount of reading and study which fairly represents one fourth of their year's work. Yet this estimate is strictly applicable, under the regulations, only to Seniors ; for a Junior must write six forensics, and a Sophomore twelve themes, beside taking four courses, while a Freshman is actually required to take five courses. Most of the courses open to Freshmen being also open to Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors, it follows from the requirements made of Freshmen that a course which must not be too severe for one fifth of a Freshman's time may be, and often is, counted for one quarter of a Senior's time, and for more than one fifth of the time of a Junior or a Sophomore. Furthermore, the personal qualities of different instruc- tors affect very much the amount of work which their several courses represent. One instructor is more alert and stimulating than another ; one is constantly urging his class to read copiously, make notes, and write theses, another defines accurately and in detail the work de- manded ; the examination-papers of one are more various and diflQcult than those of another. A "course" then is not a fixed quantity. Whether eighteen or sixteen be the number of courses required by the regulations for the degree of A.B., the real requirement expressed in work or attainments can only be maintained by the discretion and fidelitj' of the individual instructors and of the Faculty. It would be easy to reduce the number of courses to sixteen and yet increase the real requirements for the degree ; and equally easy to maintain the number of courses at eighteen and yet diminish the requirements. Between 1860 and 1870 the number of courses required was reduced by a little more than three, between 1870 and 1880 it was again reduced by one, and between 1880 and 1890 the number was further reduced by a half course ; yet during all three decades the real require- ments for the degree, expressed in work done, were undoubtedly increased. In all these cases the Faculty, in reducing the number of courses required for the degree, had no intention whatever of reducing the requirements in substance. They reduced the prescribed number of courses, but raised the average standard in the individual courses, with the result that the work of the average student was both increased and improved, a part of the improvement being due to the greater con- centration of his work. The more mature and advanced the student, the greater the advantage of reasonable concentration. In the future, as in the past, what is reasonable and desirable in this respect can best be determined from time to time by observation and cautious experiment under the direction of the Faculty. In voting to reduce the number of courses from eighteen to six- teen, the majority of the Faculty had, however, a purpose which had not influenced the Faculty in making any of the previous reductions, and it was the novelty of this purpose which made it appropriate to lay the votes of March last before the President and Fellows. The majority desired so to arrange the requirements for the degree of A.B. that any ambitious and capable student might take it in three years, or in three years and a half, on conditions which should be in every respect advantageous. The majority of the Faculty con- sidered the present requirement of eighteen courses disadvantageous for such a student ; since it would be likely to tempt him either to choose some courses because they were easy rather than profitable for him, or to be content in some courses with only moderate attain- ments. Experience has abundantly proved that eighteen courses can be accomplished in three years by an able student who knows how to avail himself of the permissible reliefs (particularly if considerable parts of the vacations be emplo3^ed for reading, or for laboratory or field work) ; but it seemed to the majority of the Faculty that better work would be done, on the whole, by candidates for the degree in three years or three years and a half, if the prescribed number of courses, and therefore of examinations to be passed, Avere reduced from- eighteen to sixteen. In voting for this reduction, however, they did not propose to compel anybody to seek the degree in less time than four years, but only to offer a thoroughl}^ advantageous option to any one who had a strong motive for reducing the traditional period for obtain- ing the A.B. They did not conceive that the liberal discipline received by those competent students, who should obtain the degree of A.B. in three years, or three years and a half, on sixteen courses, would necessarily be less valuable than that received by similar students who now take the same degree in four years on eighteen courses. Since a main end of liberal training is a quick and strong mental grasp on a variety of subjects, whether novel or familiar, the majority of the Faculty conceived that the more strenuous and concentrated labor of the shorter course might achieve this end quite as often as the less strenuous labor of the longer. They also believed that a considerable proportion of all those who took the degree in less time than four years would seek a higher degree in arts, and that this further resi- dence might particularly be expected of the intellectually ambitious whose fathers can afford to give them every advantage, and of those who are going to be teachers. The}^ relied on the third proposal of the Faculty to diminish the stress of the College demands upon students who should seek the A.B. in three years. The proposed requirements for the degree are obviously much more elastic than the present requirements. The number of courses is indeed fixed at sixteen ; but the term of residence may be three years, three years and a half, or four years. How would these combined changes affect that considerable proportion of students who because of defective preparation, slender parts, undeveloped tastes, or unawakened ambition might be expected not to avail themselves of the option to take the degree in less time than four years ? The experience of the Facult}^ under the present s^'stem justifies the confident expectation that the great body of these students would make a faithful and profitable use of all their 3*ears spent as undergraduates. Most of those who needed four 3'ears to obtain the degree would take more than the required sixteen courses, following the present common practice of taking extra courses. Others would confine themselves to the required number, but would select, in one or both of the last two years, advanced courses to which their whole time could be advantageously given ; and the work of such students would often be better distributed than it is now. As to that small proportion of undergraduates on whom pressure must be brought to prevent idleness, there is nothing in the proposed measures to preclude the maintenance of the present requirement that every student, unless good reasons for exceptional treatment are shown, must take at least four courses in each year of his residence. The majority supposed that the Faculty would in no case depart from the principle, emphasized in the new regulations adopted two years ago, of requiring every student to show that he is making a good use of his opportunities. Indeed, the clause in the first proposal of the Faculty — ' ' under suitable regulations with regard to length of residence and distribution of work" — was intended to cover the prevention of both over-work and under- work. The new element in the main proposal adopted by the Faculty is, therefore, not the reduction of the number of courses required for the degree, such reductions, as already stated, having been repeatedly made since 1860 with good results, and not the expression of the requirements for the A.B. in terms of courses of study, for that method of expressing and recording academic standing is inevitable under a wide elective system, and has accordingly^ been explicitly 6 stated in the College Catalogue ever since 1876. The Regulations have always assumed, however, that the period of residence for the A.B. is regnlaiiy four years, and that the student is normally to accomplish a specified number of courses each year. The novel feature in the action of the Facult}' is their proposition to facil- itate systematicall}' the obtaining of the A.B. in less time than four years by zealous and able students who wish to economize their time or their money. In this new dii'ection, liowever, the majority propose no sweeping change ; they only propose to alter the present requirements to that limited extent which will give the student a fair option on taking the degree in less time than four 3'ears — an option from the use of which safe conclusions can be drawn after a trial of six or eight years. For the student to exercise some choice as to the time to be spent in obtaining the degree of A.B. , in addition to the free choice of the subjects of study on which it shall be taken, seems to them a reasonable libertj'. The differences of opinion which exist in the Faculty as to the policy of the University in respect to the degree of A.B. are not due only to differences of judgment about the effect of that polic\' upon the standard of scholarship within the University, but even more to different views of the educational situation in the United States, and to different judgments as to the action which that situation calls for. An examination of the principal features of the educational situation, and of the main lines of policy which it suggests, is required to bring out the reasons which influenced the majorit}' of the Faculty. I. The age of the average student on entering Harvard College is and has been for thirty years past undesirably high. For eleven years past the average age at entrance (Oct. 1) has been just about nineteen years ; and in the judgment of the Faculty this average is a trustworthy and significant figure.* So far as information can be obtained about the other New England colleges, the probability is that their students are about as old on the average as those of Harvard. Graduates of other New England colleges who enter the Harvard professional schools are on the average some- what older than Harvard Bachelors of Arts of the same year. * If any be inclined to distrust an average, because it might be affected by a few extreme cases on either side — although in this case it is not — the same facts can easily be put into another form. Omitting all persons under fifteen or over twenty-one, 46^ per cent, of the persons between those ages who entered the College in the eleven years from 1880 to 1890 inclusive were between 15 and 18i, and 53^ per cent, were between 18i and 21 ; or in other words, more than The Faculty are not without hope that the average age at entrance may be somewhat reduced, and they will not cease to urge that the primary and secondar}^ schools should prepare their pupils well on all the subjects required for admission by the time the boys are eighteen ; but the Facult}^ see no reason to believe that the average age at entrance will fall below eighteen, although boys who' are exceptionally bright and stead}^, and who have excep- tional advantages, may undoubtedly be made ready for college at an earlier age. The college requirements for admission have been decidedly raised during the past twenty years, the preparatory schools give a much greater variety of instruction than formerly, and their discipline is for the most part appropriate to boys who are not more than eighteen years old. On the other hand eighteen is young enough, though not too young, for the ordinary boy to venture into the inevit- able freedom of college life, and to exercise the self-control which that freedom is intended to develop. The members of the Faculty, majority and minority alike, see cleaiiy that the present teaching functions of the best secondary schools are very much like the functions of Har- vard College less than two generations ago ; they look forward to, and indeed are steadily trying to produce, a continuous develop- ment and improvement in the instruction given in those schools ; and they recognize the fact that important changes in the functions of American secondary schools, and in their relations to the com- munity, involve corresponding changes in the functions and relations of the American colleges. The majority of the Faculty think that in addition to receiving from the schools better prepared boys at an earlier age, the College should facilitate an optional shortening of the time spent on its own course of study leading to the A.B. half were over 18i years of age. Moreover, the percentage of Freshmen who enter under eighteen has greatly diminished during the past thirty-five years, and the percentage who enter over nineteen has greatly increased. 1856-66. 1880-90. ering between 15 and 16 62 12 " " 16 " 17 267 130 " " 17 " 18 446 649 U a 18 " 18i " 18?^ 19 }329{ 581 515 19 " 20 160 748 U 1( 20 " 21 62 314 Total " 15 " 21 1326 or 93^% 2949 or 92% Under 15 . . . . . 6 4 Over 21 . . . . . 85 252 Total number in eleven years, 1417 3205 8 II. In those great departments of education which lie beyond the college walls ^ the professional schools of law, medicine, and theology — prodigious changes have taken place within twenty years, and are still going on. These professions still claim one half of all the Harvard Bachelors of Arts. The training given for each of these three professions is much more thorough, vari- ous, and prolonged than it used to be ; and for the professions of law and medicine an adequate training is ver}^ generally en- forced by rules of courts or legislative enactments. The present period of professional training for the best trained men in these pro- fessions may fairl}^ be said to be four j^ears. How great is the improvement iu education for the learned professions may be inferred from the historj" of the Harvard schools since 1870. In the Law School the course for the degree was eighteen mouths long in 1870 ; it is now three years long. The required course of the Medical School covered in 1870 about four months in each of three years, the same public lectures being repeated everj' year, so that the student could not follow a properly graded course ; the re- quired course now covers nine mouths in each of three j^ears, and the instruction is different in each year of the student's course. In addition, a voluntary fourth-j^ear's course is main- tained, and a great variet}' of instruction for graduates is given. In 1870 neither the Law School nor the Medical School had any examination for admission, and the Law School had no examination for its degree. Both schools now require admission examinations, and their degrees are protected by strict annual examinations. The Divinity School had in 1870 a low standard for admission, and, giving no degree, had no examinations for graduation. The School now requires that all candidates for its degree should be Bachelors of Arts before entering the School, and gives its degree on examinations which cover an ample and vari- ous three-years' course of study. It also offers much instruction for graduates in divinity. Simultaneously with the increase in its amount the methods of instruction in all these Schools have been greatl}^ im- proved. These striking changes in the Harvard schools only exemplify in a high degree a transformation in professional education which has been going on all over the United States. The transformation means that much more time than formerly must be given to his pro- fessional training by every ambitious candidate for the learned professions, and that much more money must be spent on it ; and also that the training itself is much more valuable as mental disci- pline than it formerly was. 9 The ultimate influence of these facts on the resort to colleges is not doubtful. The professional training seems to the youth and to his parents the prime necessity. If both college and professiona training cannot be afforded, it is the college training which is sacrificed ; and the more time the professional training takes, and the better its quality as intellectual discipline, the more likely is the college training to be dispensed with bj young men who are pressed for either time or money. Moreover, since the expansion of professional education is unquestionably for the good of the professions and the public, and has by no means reached as yet in the United States the development which it has received in Europe, this influence adverse to college education will grow stronger and not weaker with time. As matters now stand, one half of the students who enter Harvard College — that half, namely, who become ministers, lawyers, or physicians — enter, on the average, at nineteen, take the degree of Bachelor of Arts at twenty- two and three quarters, and complete their training for the learned professions at twenty-flve and three quarters or twenty-six and three quarters years. In the opinion of the majority of the Faculty these ages are all unreasonably high ; and, since the}^ cannot recommend any abridgment of the period of professional education, they desire so to frame' their own require- ments that it shall be possible, and even advantageous, for many young men to enter college at eighteen, to obtain the A.B. at twenty-one, and to complete their professional education at twenty- five, — and this without compelling all to abbreviate their college course. They regard the present state of things as very burdensome to parents, and as injurious to the state because it tends to confine the benefits of university education to the children of people more than ordinarily prosperous. An earlier age of graduation is desirable also for that considerable proportion of Harvard Bachelors of Arts — from one fifth to one third of their number — who go into business after graduation. Three methods of procedure would be open to this class of students : the first would lead to the A.B. at twenty-one, supposing the entrance age to be eighteen, the second to the A.B. at twenty-two, and the third to the A.B. and A.M. at twenty-two. Either the first or last of these methods would, in the judgment of the majority of the Faculty, have decided advantages over the present method, while the variet}^ of possible pro- cedures would secure all interests. For some members of the Faculty one of the strongest arguments in favor of the proposed changes is the desirability of increasing the attraction of liberal education not only for those who mean to enter the professions, but also 10 for those intending to go into business life.. A larger infusion of liberal culture seems to them essential for the wiser use of the rapidly growing wealth of the business men of the community. III. Within twenty years another great change has been made at Harvard University, and at several other leading American univer- sities, which affects the relative position among degrees of the A.B. degree, and has, therefore, in the opinion of the majorit}' of the Faculty, an important bearing on the requirements for that degree. The Graduate School has been created, and has developed a body of advanced instruction in the arts and sciences that bears alwaj'S a larger and larger proportion to the body of more elementar}^ courses which are mainly resorted to by candidates for the Bachelor's degree. This School attracts an increasing number of students, who are already Bachelors of Arts or Science, and gives after residence and on exam- ination three degrees (A.M., Ph.D., and S.D.), the value of which is every year more clearly recognized. In 1869 Harvard University gave no public and regular instruction in the arts and sciences beyond what was required for the Bachelor's degree ; now a considerable part of the time of most of the best teachers con- nected with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences is devoted to the instruction of persons who have already received the Bachelor's degree. The degree of Bachelor of Arts, therefore, no longer marks the goal and end of liberal culture. All students who mean to be teachers, publicists, men of letters, or competent journalists, must now-a-days seek one of the higher degrees, and for the majority of capable students the Bachelor's degree in arts or science will here- after mark a stage of their progress towards a higher degree in arts or science, or towards a professional degree. It has been supposed b}' some persons that the majority of the Faculty were so anxious to build up the Graduate School that they were will- ing to accomplish that end at the expense of Harvard College, and so eager to increase the use of the higher degrees in arts that they could not appreciate the objections to lessening the time required for obtaining the A.B. But this is not the case. It is certain — and the fact deserves special consideration — that the requirements for the A.B., after the adoption of the sixteen-course proposition, would be decidedly higher — considering the increase inthe require- ments for admission — than they were in 1872, when the develop- ment of the Graduate School was begun. All parties in the Faculty agree that the influence of the Graduate School on the College is highly beneficial. It is the unanimous desire of the whole Faculty to build up the Graduate School, and to promote the use of the higher degrees. 11 IV. The majority of the Faculty recognize in the fact that the number of students in American colleges has not increased pro- portionately with the increase of the population at large, and in the very small proportion of college-bred men in the learned* and sci- entific professions, signs that the traditional four-years' course for the A.B. may wisely be made more elastic ; and they can find no warrant in the educational history of older nations for the American practice of holding the best educated young men back from professional study until they are twenty-three years of age, or more. Thus, at Oxford and Cambridge professional studies may be counted to a large extent for the A.B., — both the '' pass " and the " honor " degree — and the common period of residence for the ordi- nary A.B. is three years, although the A.B. in England has been almost exclusively a privilege of the well-to-do ; the German youth leaves the Gymnasium at from nineteen to twenty years of age on the average, and at once is free to begin in the University his preparation for some learned profession ; the French boy is even younger when he chooses a career and begins professional study. European experience all indi- cates that where secondary schools are highlj^ organized and well con- ducted, and professional education amply developed, four years of liberal study cannot be maintained between the school period and the period of professional stud}'. Although Harvard College, and the New England colleges tal^en together, have grown in proportion to the growth of the population of the United States, American colleges as a whole have not-t The majority of the Faculty believe that the common American college is already in an anomalous and untenable position, and that it will get more and more out of relation with its surroundings, as secondary schools improve, unless it gradually raises the grade of its work, and makes its requirements for the * According to the Eeport for 1887-88 of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, the percentages of the stvidents of theology, law, and medicine in that year avIio had received a degree in arts or science before entering upon their professional studies were very low, — namely, of students of theology 23 per cent, of law 18 per cent, and of medicine not quite 8 per cent. fin the ten-year period from 1875 to 1884 inclusive, the universities and colleges included in the tables published by the Commissioner of Education at Washington show an increase in the number of their students of only 11 per cent. In the ten-year period from 1876 to 1885, the increase is 16 per cent., but this higher percentage of increase is due to the abnormally small number of students in 1876, — 2400 below the number in 1875. Some doubt has lately been thrown upon the rate of increase of the total population ; but during the periods mentioned this rate was certainly not lower than 20 per cent and not higher than 30 per cent. Since 1885 the universities and colleges have been more prosperous than in the preceding decade. 12 A.B. more elastic. It is to be observed that the most prosperous and serviceable American colleges are those in which the most liberal changes have already been made. The great majority of the colleges enumerated in the list of the Commissioner of Education are now doing secondary school work for a year, many of them for two years, out of their nominal course of four years. The improvement of secondarj^ education will grad- ually deprive them of this work ; and then the question which alread}^ presses upon Harvard College will confront them. Mean- time all the students in these numerous institutions are counted as of college grade, — as in the statistics just now given, — whereas many of them are really of school grade. One may reasonabl}^ doubt the accuracy both of the general census and of the college census ; but thus much is clear — there is no such increasing diffusion of liberal education as the country needs, or as its growing wealth should produce. Y. The members of the Faculty have had before them, during the whole of the discussion on the optional shortening of the College course, a feasible method of reducing the age at which young men who go through college and professional school are now ready to practice their professions, without reducing the college course for persons who do not go through a professional school. This method, when reduced to its simplest terms, consists in counting certain agreed-upon courses of professional instruction both for the degree of Bachelor of Arts and for the professional degree. There are members of both the majority and the minority of the Faculty on the vote of March last who prefer to any other this method of meeting an evil which seems to them real ; but a large majority of the Faculty are opposed to this double counting of professional courses, in spite of the simplicity and effectiveness of the method. It would easily save one year for students of law or medicine, and two years for students of theology, and it would be an inducement to students in Harvard College to continue their studies in one of the Harvard professional schools. There is also an apparent reasonableness in conceding something on the A.B. to a student who is going to remain in the University one, two, or three j^ears more, — something which need not be conceded to the student who seeks the A.B. and nothing beyond. Moreover, it brings the strong motive of professional aspira- tion "nearer to the college student. On the other hand, this method confounds all distinctions between pure and applied science, alters gravely the signification of the A.B., has no clear natural limits which might prevent its abuse, and in the absence of treaties between 13 different universities is not applicable to all candidates for the A.B. who intend to study for a learned profession, but only to a part of them. Universities which maintain a variety of professional schools would probably be benefitted b}^ it, so far as numbers go ; and smaller colleges would probably have to ask a similar privilege at university professional schools, and reconcile themselves to the loss of a part of their students at the end of the Junior year. Considered as a reduction of the requirements for the A.B., this method is much more serious than the conservative proposal now made ; indeed, it may fairly be called revolutionary, for it abolishes the fundamental distinctior^ between liberal and professional studies, and has a scope which no man can measure. Yet this method is the only alternative to the modest recommendation of the Faculty which obtained any strong support during the prolonged discussion. Finally, the Faculty have not acted in this matter under stress of losses, or of declining prosperity, in Harvard College, or from any inordinate desire to see the number of students in the College or in the Graduate School increased. The proposition under considera- tion is to try a cautious but promising experiment on a number of persons which at first would presumably be small. If the experiment should meet a want distinctly felt by a considerable number of students and parents, the number of persons taking the degree in less time than four years would gradually increase ; if not, the usual period of residence would remain unchanged. The major- it}^ of the Faculty believe that it is for the interest of Harvard College, of all American colleges, and of liberal education in the United States, that the experiment they have recommended should be tried. They believe that the reduction of the time required for obtaining the Bachelor's degree, producing as it does the double economy of both money and time, will open the doors of the College to many youths who are now prevented by want of time or money from entering them. The}^ believe that every interest concerned would gain by the adoption of the policy which they recommend — the commu- nity, through more boys going to college from a greater variety of households, and more professional men receiving a liberal edu- cation ; the students who should still spend four or five years under the charge of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as candi- dates for the A.B. and the A.M. or Ph.D., through working in smaller groups, with more select comrades, and with more pro- fessional aims ; the candidates for the A.B. in three years, or three years and a half, through the brisker pace, the nearer dsiy of reckoning, and the closer touch with the realities of life. All parties 14 agree that the main question concerns not the relation of the College to the professional schools, but the interests of liberal education in the widest sense ; although the majority believe that the measures recommended to the Governing Boards would in a few years sensibly reduce the average age at which Harvard Bachelors of Arts now enter the professional schools. It is in view of the importance to the community at large of extend- ing as widely as possible the benefits of a liberal education that the adoption of the proposed scheme is especially desired by the majority of the Faculty. They believe that the nation suffers both politically and socially from the lack of a due proportion of men who have had the advantage of that intellectual and moral discipline which colleges offer, and that the measures which they recommend will contribute to the correction of this grave deficiency. It is their conviction that the University wiU thus render its best service to the nation, and will thus bring itself more and more into influential relations with the national life. They desire to maintain the highest standard of learn- ing, and at the same time to diffuse that learning to the utmost. Harvard University, December 23, 1890. In accordance with the request of the Board of Overseers, the undersigned respectfully submit the following statement of their reasons for opposing the proposal of the College Faculty for the reduction of the College course, which was adopted in March, 1890 : — Our first and strongest objection to the plan is, that we believe it will inevitably lower the standard of our College education and degrade the Bachelor's degree. Whether the proposed reduction be great or small, the same momentous principle is involved. The smallest reduction would be a step backwards, and would reverse the best traditions of the College and the fixed policy of the past thirty years. This period has witnessed a slow but steady raising of the standard of the degree, as the result of a radical improvement in the whole system of teaching. We can look back on this time with pride and satisfaction, feeling that everj;^ opportunity to elevate and broaden our scholarship has been eagerly improved. If this long and honor- able record is now to be closed and our policy reversed, if our degree is to be degraded by our own free act, we shall be compelled to abandon our position as leaders in American scholarship and to take our place without excuse in the second rank. It must never be for- gotten that, with all our improvement, we have not yet reached any such height of scholarship that we can afford to lower our standard, — indeed, we cannot lower it without positive discredit. To a few of us, who have taken part in all the changes of the past thirty years, the present proposal seems to threaten to destroy by one blow nearly all that has been gained during that period by the per- sistent labor of a whole generation of scholars. The present Senior year may fairly be said to represent the net gain in scholarsliip which Harvard College has made since 1860 ; and if this year is lost, we must begin again at the foot of the long and toilsome hill which we have slowly climbed. But, it is argued, a reduction in the number of courses from eighteen to sixteen would not result in lowering the standard of the A.B. No one will be so bold as to deny that it would be possible to select sixteen courses which should represent as large and as valuable an 16 amount of work for the student as eighteen other courses which could be named. But it should be borne in mind that those who advise a reduction in the number of courses have not even hinted that they would limit the selection of the proposed sixteen to studies more difficult than our present average courses. On the contrary, it seems to us perfectl}^ plain that, if the number of courses is reduced, prac- ticall}^ the same list of studies, some easy, some difficult, will be offered to the student as at present. He is now obliged to take eighteen ; he will then be obliged to take only sixteen ; and the inference is inevitable that the sum total of the requirements for the degree will be less then than now. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive of any scheme by which certain courses should be selected for the shorter term of study, which could command the general assent of the Faculty. The proposed reduction from eighteen to sixteen courses thus carries no compensation, while the earlier reduction from twenty to eighteen was balanced by the more advanced character of the instruction which was rendered possible by the simultaneous exten- sion of the elective system. Or are we to suppose that with the present eighteen courses the energies of our students are overtaxed, and that, relieved of two courses, they would really accomplish more? We are not aware that either the Faculty or the public believes that the average Harvard student is overworked ; and our legislation must haA^e in view the average, not the exceptionally good nor the exceptionally bad, stu- dent. The public, at times over-credulous, but on the whole dis- cerning, undoubtedly believes that our students suffer more from undue indulgence in athletics and society than from over-study. But, supposing the public to be wrong, have we any evidence showing what the students themselves think regarding the number of courses? Yes. Bearing on this point we have the important fact that a large number of students voluntarily choose more than eighteen courses. Although the extra courses are sometimes after a time abandoned, the number of those who successfully pursue such courses to the end is surprisingly large. To this considerable number of students, at least, it is evident that eighteen courses do not seem excessive. Nor is there any force in the objection that with eighteen courses a student is tempted to desultory study, while with sixteen he would limit his range with advantage. The distinction should be borne clearly in mind that eighteen different courses and eighteen distinct and unrelated subjects are very different things. Most of the departments offer a considerable number of courses, several 17 offering more than twenty ; and it is thought by many of the Faculty that, on the whole, the tendency is rather to too great specialization on the part of the less mature students. The apprehension of the Faculty is shown by the existence of the rule that Freshmen cannot take more than two elective courses in the same department. For the more mature and advanced students who might profitablj^ specialize their work, the Board of Overseers may, perhaps, not be aware that a special provision already exists in some departments, by which, with the consent of the Faculty, a good student is allowed to count double work in a single difficult course for two whole courses towards his degree. Perhaps it may be thought unfair to discuss the present plan as if it proposed to reduce the college course to three years by cutting off the Senior j-ear. But it is the right and the duty of those who are asked to take a given step, to inquire what further steps are likely to follow the one proposed, and especially what is the intention of those who propose it. This is all the more necessary when the step involves the reversal of the long established policj^ of a great institution, so that an error, if made, cannot easily be corrected. No one who has followed the history of the present movement can doubt that the object of those most interested in its success is to secure a three-years' course. No one seriously doubts that the actual proposal, which relates to the work of half a year, is only an entering wedge, and that more will be demanded for consistency's sake if this fails on trial to secure at least one additional year for professional study. The Faculty's plan would lead to many difficulties if it should be adopted as it stands. It can hardly be expected that many would avail themselves of the privilege of graduating in the middle of the Senior year. If the plan should be adopted, our students would form two distinct sets, — those who would compress three and a half years' work into three years, and those who would spread three and a half years' work over four years. As both sets would be taught in the same classes, there could be no accommo- dation of the severity of the courses to either. The desire to do three and a half years' work in three years would tend to encourage the choice of studies which demand easier work or have less dangerous examinations. This evil already puts the courses which demand severe and continuous work at a serious disadvantage, and it is unavoidably aggravated by the close competition for scholarships. Everything which strengthens this tendency, or makes it more widely spread, is a direct discouragement to our higher scholarship. It can hardly be expected that the more studious undergraduates 18 would work harder if the ordinary term of residence were reduced to three years than they do now. They would then merely distribute the same amount of work over a greater number of courses each year, and thus receive the degree for three years of work instead of four. The plan would invite the student to sacrifice thoroughness for the sake of passing each year in the largest permissible number of courses. A given amount of work would count more towards the degree if spread over six courses than if devoted to more thorough mastery of four. No extra studies would then be taken. The tempta- tion, further, to choose courses with a view to the ease of passing in them rather than for their educational advantage would be consider- ably increased. We believe, therefore, that the reduction of work for the better students who would take their degree in three years would prove to be nearer a fourth than a ninth. Those, on the other hand, who would remain in College four years could hardly be benefited by a reduction of the courses of study. This applies particularly to the large and important class who have no marked taste for study and are not specially industrious, and who need especial care to preserve them from the temptations of college life. The Faculty can give this care most effectively by providing them with sufficient and regular occu- pation. That the amount of occupation given at present is none too great is proved by this very proposition to have a large part of the students take five courses in each 3'ear (instead of four courses in each of the last three years, as at present) in order to graduate in three years, and by the fact that able men have taken the present eighteen courses with credit in three years, and have still had time to be prominent in athletics. Most of the less studious men, however, would take four years for the degree under the proposed sixteen -course system, and this would give them four courses instead of the present five in the Freshman year, and only three courses and a fraction instead of the present four and a fraction in some later year. It is plain that greater opportunities for idleness and dissipation would thus be offered. An argument for the proposed plan is sometimes sought in the much-quoted statistics which show that the growth of American col- leges has not kept pace with the increase in population. When we consider the nature of this increase, it would be surprising if it had done so. But all this does not concern Harvard College in the least. The number of our undergraduates has trebled since 1860, while the population of the United States has only doubled. This shows, among other things, that our higher requisitions have attracted stu- dents, not repelled them, and that the American public does not 19 think our present standard too high. It can hardly be that we are asked to make this change in the interest of other colleges which have not kept up with the growth of the country. Certainly these colleges do not appear to be making any very vigorous calls upon us for this- kind of aid. Indeed, it is hard to see whence an}" strong demand for a reduction of our course now comes, except from our own Medical Faculty. The statistics given in the report of the Committee of the Board of Overseers show how little the Medical School is really affected by the length of our college course. It appears, further, that the per- centage of students with academic degrees in the Medical School has steadily increased since 1874. In 1875-79 these were 31.6 per cent; in 1880-84 they were 43.3 per cent; and in 1885-89 they were 50.4 per cent. Our Medical School is surel}' not losing its- hold on college graduates. As to the fear that the College is to be " crowded out " of its place hj the professional schools above and the preparatory schools below, our professional schools have thus far given no ground for alarm ; and, as to pressure from below, we should be only too glad to see any signs of a disposition on the part of the preparatory schools to ' ' crowd ' ' the College out of any of its present elementary work. In view of our large and increasing classes, we see no reason whatever to believe that any considerable number of students are kept away from the College by the four-years' course. The only danger which now seems to us to threaten seriously the position of the College is the present proposal to curtail its courses of study. Even if it is necessary to gain another year for professional study, does not the notorious fact that most of our students now enter col- lege at or about nineteen, with merely the knowledge which they ought to have at seventeen, suggest a better solution of the problem than cutting down the Senior year ? The address delivered by President Eliot before the National Educational Association at Washington in 1888 shows conclusively where not merely one year, but two years at least, are worse than wasted in our elementary schools. When we are told that Exeter Academy can demand of pupils who enter at the average age of more than sixteen nothing more than " some knowledge of common-school arithmetic, writing, spelling, and of the elements of English grammar," the whole melancholy story is told. If this is all that one of the best and largest of the endowed academies on which we depend for our students can expect of pupils whom they have still to prepare for college, what must be the requisitions of other less favored schools? Is it not mockery to ask young men who have been thus treated in boyhood to give up afterwards the 20 whole or a half of their last and best year in college in order to save time? B3' a combined effort of our colleges and preparatory schools a reform could be effected in the lower schools by which this disgrace would be removed. After stating the necessity for reducing the age at which students graduate at American colleges, President Eliot says : — "The first partial remedy that suggests itself is to reduce the average age of admission to college to eighteen. This reduction would save about a year. In effecting this saving of time it is greatly to be desired that no reduction should be made in the attain- ments which the average candidate for admission now brings to the American colleges ; for it is probable that the saving thus effected will not be sufficient in itself, and that the public interests will require in addition some shortening of the ordinary college course of four years. College men, therefore, are anxiously looking to see if the American school course can be both shortened and enriched ; short- ened so that our boys may come to college at eighteen instead of nineteen, and enriched in order that they may bring to college at eighteen more than they now bring at nineteen, so that the standard of the A.B. may not be lowered." It will be noticed that this looks forward to two changes, a reduc- tion of the age of admission, and an eventual reduction of the col- lege course, both to be effected by much needed reforms in school education tvithout lovjering the standard of the Bachelor's degree. It is sometimes urged, that this plan will benefit the Graduate School, in which all friends of the higher education take the warmest interest. Anything which would increase the number of graduates pursuing advanced studies at this University would certainly be most welcome to us all. But it is not easy to see how the change of name of the same students from Seniors to Graduates is to effect this end. Whatever m2ij be the amount of reduction of the college course, either in time or efficiency, the value of the Graduate student will be reduced by the same amount. If, for example, we should dismiss 250 or 300 Juniors next June as Bachelors of Arts, and then receive back fifty or sixty of them in October as Graduate students, to pur- sue essentially the same studies which they would have had as Seniors, how great would be the gain to the higher education? If any sudden accession is to come to the Graduate School from cutting off the Senior year, it will consist chiefly of students who will differ little in their scholarship from the present Seniors. An appeal is sometimes made to the example of Oxford and Cam- bridge in support of the present scheme, in the belief that the Bachelor's degree is regularl}' taken at both of these universities in 21 three years or less. At Oxford only one of the 131 who graduated in Literae Humaniores in June, 1889, took his degree in three years : 6 graduated in three years and a half, and 2 in five years, while 122 remained four full years, having entered in October, 1885.* These are what we should term full academic years of college study. Of 72 (in alphabetical order) of those who took the pass degree in 1889 at Oxford, 48 (or two thirds) were four full years in college, 9 remained one or two terms beyond three years, and 15 remained three years. At Cambridge, where an old statute still limits the time of residence for the degree to three years, it is well under- stood that no one who expects to gain credit as a student or to graduate with honor ever comes to the university with merely the preparation for admission actually required by the colleges. All such students secure at least one year of additional study at school before entering. Most of the best colleges at Oxford now practically require an additional year's study of honor students through high examina- tions for admission, which are intended to exclude " pass-men" ; and four of the six who took the Oxford degree in Literae Humaniores in 1889 in three years and a half came from colleges of this class. The English universities have thus practically abandoned the policy upon which it is now proposed that Harvard College shall enter as an experiment. It is difficult to see how this plan can be called ' ' a cautious experiment." A sudden reversal of the traditions of the College, even though the backward movement were very slight at first, could be no mere experiment. It would be a step on an entirely new road, and one which it would be almost impossible to retrace. It would also inaugurate a new and most dangerous polic}^, for the College is now asked for the first time to cut off a part of its best education to regain time which has been worse than wasted in the lower schools, * The school of the Literae Humaniores, the ancient classical school with which the Oxford degree with honors is chiefly associated, is taken as the fairest representative of Oxford scholarsliip. But even in the next largest school, that of Modern History (established in 1873), where there is a different standard and little or no account can be taken of studies pursued before entering college, a majority (a very large majority of the better candidates) study four years. Of 108 graduates of this school in 1889, whose history in college can be traced, 61 studied four years or more, 7 studied three years and one or two terms, and 40 studied three years. Of the forty who passed in three years, all but eight are found in the third and fourth (the two lowest) classes, which shows that the three-year men fall below the standard set for the degree. Our colleges fortunately have no class corresponding to English "pass-men," who have both instruction and examinations distinct from the other students. 22 while there is no hint of any attempt to strike at the real cause of our delays in education. We feel, indeed, that the consequences of the proposed step would be so momentous to the welfare of this and other colleges and to the whole community, that it ought not to be taken without the hearty and almost unanimous concurrence of aU •the boards which have the fate of Harvard College in their hands. J. D. WHITNEY, F. J. CHILD, JOSIAH P. COOKE, C. C. EVERETT, W. W. GOODWIN, BENNETT H. NASH, C. J. WHITE, N. S. SHALER, EREDERIC D. ALLEN, W. G. EARLOW, CHARLES L. JACKSON, W. M. DAVIS, HENRY B. HILL, W. S. CHAPLIN, W. E. BYERLY, EPHRAIM EMERTON, EDWARD L. MARK, ADOLPHE COHN, S. M. MAC VANE, L. B. R. BRIGGS, E. H. HALL, B. O. PEIRCE, GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE, FREEMAN SNOW, P. B. MARCOU, OLIVER W. HUNTINGTON, ALBERT A. HOWARD, G. P. BAKER. xDi^MKT uh LUNURESS 029 934 356 fl