COLUMBIA COLLEGE

REPORT OF THE DEAN

FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1924

To the President of the University

SIR:

As Dean of Columbia College I have the honor to present the following report for the academic year 1923–1924:

The year has not been prolific in the initiation of new ideas. So many important projects of a somewhat experimental nature, requiring careful observation and occasional modification, have been adopted during the past five or six years that further sweeping changes either in curriculum or administration are not to be expected at present. I shall, however, mention in the course of this report a number of modest beginnings which indicate tendencies, and which may develop into movements of considerable significance.

The year has been a critical one for the Honors Course. At the time when this work was first planned it was recognized that there was great danger of its gradually losing the informal and individual quality which is one of its most characteristic features, and degenerating into a course of the regular standardized type. This danger was not serious so long as the stimulation which comes with novelty remained. But the plan has now been in operation long enough so that the new is worn off, and the inevitable tendency both for students and instructors to fall back into the familiar class room methods has begun to assert itself. It has been necessary to attempt to re-evaluate the various elements in the whole project, and to analyze the effectiveness of the method of instruction employed, in order that the most effective technique may be followed. This has been accomplished by weekly conferences over the lunch table by the dozen or more Honors Directors. Several conferences with

the students or their representatives have also been held. As a result, all of the parties concerned understand more clearly what is being attempted, and a balance seems to have been struck between a rigid requirement and complete freedom from restraint both for student and teacher. At any rate, a strong group consciousness both among students and instructors has developed out of the year's experience.

The experience gained through the first presentation of the course in the History of Science, referred to in my report. of last year, enables us to answer some of the questions that caused almost endless debate while the course was being planned. Many members of the scientific departments felt that it was useless and worse than useless to attempt to outline the development of scientific ideas until the student was familiar with the scientific method as gained in the laboratory. This meant, in the opinion of many of those who first discussed the course, a prerequisite of at least three years of college chemistry, three years of college mathematics, about two years of physics, and a year of zoology, a requirement quite out of the question if anybody was expected to take the course. During the past year a course has been given which begins with the emergence of science from Greek philosophy and comes down to modern times, tracing the growth and continuity of scientific thought through the various civilizations to which it has contributed. Students with a variety of scientific training were authorized to take the course in order to find out how far they could profit by it. It turns out that the development of science down to the beginning of the Eighteenth Century is entirely within the capacity of a serious student who has taken only the mathematics and science usually covered in the high school and the freshman year in college. Further experimentation will be necessary to determine just how it will be wise to treat the subject after the time of Newton. We have, however, demonstrated that it is possible to give to students of sophomore grade a course in the History of Science which is full of ideas and which will stimulate them to work prodigiously, and to think carefully.

Assurance of this one fact is worth all that the year's work has cost.

In this connection it might be observed that the theory that a college course should only be presented to students who have gained the maturity and background adequate for complete mastery of every topic considered is not the theory which is followed, either in the course just mentioned or in many other courses in Columbia College. To assert that a freshman course would be a good course for seniors is one of the most important reasons why it is good for freshmen, provided there is an abundance of material in it which the freshman can assimilate, and provided it is presented in such a manner as to cause the freshman to follow out the ideas gained with further reading and study. The assumption that our college students are not competent to use their minds except in the groove plowed by their instructors, and that college courses should be self-contained, complete and open only at the top, is responsible for a good deal of the lack of intellectual vitality so often observed among college students.

The study preliminary to the reorganization of instruction in elementary economics has gone forward successfully and will be continued for another year. A set of cases is being prepared somewhat after the fashion of the case books used in the Law School. From a study of these carefully selected cases of actual economic situations, the student will gradually be inducted into a study and reasonable understanding of the fabric of our society, and of the social and economic forces that are operating to mould it. The method is far enough along to be used to a certain extent in the course in elementary economics during the year 1924-1925, but nothing will be published until the cases have been tried out and the effectiveness of the method thoroughly established.

The organization of some kind of an alternative to the present six year course in Engineering has been discussed for several years by all members of the University who are interested in Engineering education. At the last Faculty meeting of the year a resolution was passed authorizing the Dean to

approve schedules of study which will enable College students to pursue a four year course leading to the degree of B.S., which will be conferred on the recommendation of the Faculty of Applied Science. So far as the College is concerned, the only effect of the new plan will be to accept as College students these prospective four year men, with the expectation that they will remain in the College for two years, the remaining two years being under the Faculty of Applied Science. Since, with our present accommodations, the registration in the College cannot be allowed to increase, this means that for every four year Engineering man who is admitted to College someone else must be refused admission. Hence the inclusion of a considerable number of four year engineers would give the College a less permanent student body and a smaller opportunity to present a worthy climax of the College course to juniors and seniors. At the same time, Columbia College is a part of Columbia University, and if it is to enjoy the advantages of that relation it must expect occasionally to contribute to the general good, even though the immediate result is not what the College would most desire for itself. The strength of the College depends on the strength of the University, and of each one of its Schools. Any action by the College, not too unfavorable to its welfare, which tends to strengthen some other school of the University will in time react to its advantage. In the meantime, the College should make its offering so stimulating and worth while that serious students will wish to get as much of it as they possibly can, and consequently lengthen their collegiate course from two to three, or even four, years.

Each of my annual reports has emphasized in one form or another the conviction that Columbia College should educate the whole man: the physical, the social, the esthetic, the religious, the intellectual aspects, each in its appropriate manner. This does not mean that the College should attempt to segregate these traits from each other, but rather that in the entire scheme of education provided by the College each of them should have its place, and each should be approached in a manner in keeping with the main business of a liberal

arts college. It would be easy enough to organize a number of units in each of which one of these aspects should receive exclusive attention. It is not so easy to keep them all harnessed in a team that pulls evenly and always in the direction of an orderly development of the entire personality.

Whether it is possible permanently to keep the athletic interests of a large and vigorous college harnessed to the educational wagon some are inclined to doubt. One fact, however, is certain. Unless the athletics of an institution are conducted on a high level of sportsmanship, by men of character who realize that athletics are a vital though secondary element in an educational institution, they may well do more harm than good. An athletic policy which brings about in both the faculty and the athletic people a feeling that they are pulling in opposite directions is all too common in our colleges. It is, of course, inevitable that there will be a few members of any faculty who have a blind spot for athletics, just as some otherwise educated people have a blind spot for religion, or for art. But unless the athletic management also has a blind spot for studies, good character and sportsmanship, no controversy can arise.

There is a difference of opinion as to whether even the most desirable and successful athletic policy brings to a college the kind of students that the college most desires. Of course successful athletics attracts athletes, but a college of athletes who are not primarily students is a damage instead of a blessing. In fact, I am inclined to think that among the elements that go to make the solid reputation of a college, athletic supremacy comes far down on the list in the minds of those, both young and old, whose judgment really counts. This means that the cultivation of athletics in the college should be in the interest of the part that it plays in the education both of players and of spectators. Unless athletics can take its place in the picture, in its proper perspective, and in cooperative relations with the rest of the college, trouble is certain to arise.

The sine qua non of the athletic problem is a staff of coaches and managers who know a college when they see one, and