UNIVERSITY ADMISSIONS REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1924 To the President of the University SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report for the academic year ending June 30, 1924: Important changes in the requirements for admission have been made in the past year by the Schools of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry. These changes provide an alternative method of admission for candidates for admission from Columbia College who on entering the College have been able to offer among their entrance subjects Physics, Chemistry and Advanced Entrance Mathematics. Such students may be admitted to the Schools of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry on the completion of a program of studies which may be covered by especially competent students in two regular academic years and a Summer Session. This program includes all the work heretofore prescribed for admission to the Schools of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry except a year of advanced foreign language. The requirement in elective subjects is also somewhat smaller than for other candidates. Students who enter by this alternative method will not be eligible for the degree of Bachelor of Arts since they will not have met the Columbia College requirements for the exercise of a professional option. They will, however, be eligible for the degree of Bachelor of Science on the completion of the first two years of the course in the Schools of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry. The authorization of this degree for the students in question is in accordance with the policy under which students who have completed two years of work in the Schools of Business, Journalism, Practical Arts or Dentistry may receive a Bachelor's degree. In each case not less than four years of work beyond the completion of a secondary school course or its equivalent must have been completed before the student is eligible for a Bachelor's degree. No important changes in entrance requirements have been made in any of the other schools of the University, though the changes adopted by the School of Practical Arts, whereby the School requires two full years of college work for admission, become fully effective only for the class entering in September, 1924. The numbers admitted to the several schools of the University have not been sufficiently different from those in recent years to indicate any change in the general trend. The number of new students who can be accepted in Columbia College and in the College of Physicians and Surgeons and in the School of Journalism in any year is practically fixed by the fact that these schools have for several years been obliged to restrict their numbers for lack of room. The number of new students admitted to Barnard College was considerably larger than in the previous year and the student body as a whole was markedly larger. In most of the other schools there was a healthy growth. In some of the more crowded schools it would seem to be evident that some sort of selective system comparable with that employed in Columbia College and the College of Physicians and Surgeons might profitably be tried. One of the most important problems claiming the attention of this office in the academic year 1923-1924 has been that of providing for the admission of candidates in foreign countries who desire to enter the United States under the special provisions of the new Immigration Law whereby persons admitted as students to a college on the approved list of the Bureau of Immigration may be allowed to enter the United States as non-quota immigrants. A very large number of applications from intending foreign students has been received. Before such an application is accepted the student must have filed an application over his own signature and must have submitted full and detailed credentials guaranteeing his fitness to enter the school of the University in which he desires to study. There is no doubt that many of these applicants are coming as students simply as a means of entering the United States outside the quota. Every effort has been made to learn. whether or not the applicants are bona fide students. Special arrangements have been made whereby such students must report at regular intervals at the office of the Registrar to guarantee their continued attendance upon courses in the University. In case of failure to report as required, information will be sent to the Bureau of Immigration to the effect that the student has discontinued his work. The law provides that on discontinuing their University work such students. shall be required to return to the countries from which they have come. Definite arrangements have been entered into with the Immigration authorities who have cooperated fully in making proper provision for bona fide students. It is evident that for some time at least the University will be called upon for the instruction and guidance of a large number of students from foreign countries. While most of them are candidates for admission to graduate study or to one of the professional schools, a considerable number will desire or need instruction in undergraduate subjects. It will not prove practicable to care for many of them in Columbia College, but the provision for University Undergraduates will make it possible to provide a definite University status for them and to provide suitably and conveniently for their educational needs. It is most fortunate that the new International House, so generously provided by private benefaction, is ready for use, since it will supply living accommodations for a large number of foreign students. The greatest number of foreign candidates are from the Eastern Asiatic countries, from Central and Eastern Europe and from the Scandinavian countries. The presence of this large body of foreign students intending to return later to their own countries would seem to offer an extraordinary opportunity for rendering a service to scholarship and for assisting in promoting better international understanding. While it is doubtless true that our first duty is to provide the best possible educational advantages for these students, the opportunity for cultivating better mutual understanding and the great need for such understanding are so great as to make it seem imperative that we do everything possible to promote full acquaintance and the cultivation of human relations. There is no excuse for an attitude of benevolent condescension. Our opportunity for better knowledge of our foreign students and of what they have to offer is perhaps as valuable as is theirs for knowing what we have to offer. The best method for accomplishing the desired results is by no means obvious. Its discovery should be the task of the Committee on Foreign Students of the University Council. Respectfully submitted, June 30, 1924 LEROY JONES, Director REPORT OF THE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL OFFICER FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1924 To the President of the University SIR: As University Medical Officer, I have the honor to submit the following report for the academic year ending June 30, 1924: The medical office has during the past year run close to the point of maximum capacity as to the amount of work that can be done efficiently by the present staff. The records show, however, satisfactory results in the treatment of our patients and we are gratified to find that the health enjoyed by our community during the year was exceptionally good. There is no other city in the world more happily situated than is New York for the encouragment of health. Its geographic and climatic conditions favor normal functioning of the body and the ill effects produced by its crowded population are minimized by the excellent work of the City and State Boards of Health, supported as they are by the progressive, scientific medical men and women of the City and State. The university site is one of the ideal locations in New York for the maintenance of health, situated on the summit of Morningside Heights about one hundred and twenty feet above the high water mark of the Hudson. The parks to the east and west of the Campus are added protection to the health of our community. The University has wisely fortified the health assets of Manhattan Island by erecting for its students dormitories that are sanitary and hygienic. As Medical Officer of the University, I cannot express too forcibly my personal appreciation of the needs which these dormitories fulfill. For the past decade each year has demonstrated that our dormitory |