James Burrill Angell

“ Eastern critics of the system of State support of universities have often assumed that the institutions would become embarrassed by being entangled in the controversies of party politics. It can be affirmed that such has never been the case in the support or control of this University. Different parties have been in control in this State during the life of the Institution. But we have fared equally well, whichever party was in power, and no political controversy in the Legislature or in the State at large has ever embarrassed us. ”

“ I wonder that the President even of a great University willingly foregoes the satisfaction which comes from such an intimate relation with even a portion of his students as comes from giving instruction in some subject. ”

“ In 1879, under the pressure of urgent requests which I had made for some years, the Regents established the Chair of the Art and Science of Teaching, to aid in preparing our graduates to teach in our schools or to superintend schools. Our action was severely criticized for a time by some college men who maintained that teaching could not be taught through formal instruction. But only a few years elapsed before nearly every university of standing, including those which had criticized us most severely, appointed Professors of Education or Pedagogy. ”

“ The year before I came, the doors of every department of the University had, under the pressure of public opinion in the State, been thrown open to women. Most of the professors and of the students would have preferred that they should not be admitted. On my arrival the subject of their admission was still under discussion. The objections raised were, first, that women could not master the difficult studies of college, and,. secondly, that the health of women would suffer under the strenuousness of college life. ”

“ I have endeavoured to induce every citizen to regard himself as a stockholder in the Institution, who had a real interest in helping make it of the greatest service to his children and those of his neighbours.
Secondly : I have sought to make all the schools and teachers in the State understand that they and the University are parts of one united system and that therefore the young pupil in the most secluded school house in the State should be encouraged to see that the path was open from his home up to and through the University. ”

“ After a few years of experimentation, we found that judging by the first year of college work the students received on certificate made a better showing than those received on examination. Perhaps in nothing has the University been more useful to the educational system of the State than in the cultivation of the friendly relation with the schools by the introduction of the diploma system of admission of students. ”

“ I have heard his pupils say that sometimes while discussing an intricate problem he would have an entirely new demonstration suddenly flash upon his mind as by inspiration and then and there he would write it out upon the blackboard. ”

“ That idea gave shape to the constitutional Article on Education and to the legislation afterwards enacted in accordance with it. When Dr. Tappan was made President in 1852, he brought from Germany, where he had studied, ideals quite in harmony with those which Pierce and Crary had cherished at the outset, and with his vigorous mind he left a deep impression on the life and spirit of the University. The Institution had in its Faculties at the time of my arrival men of marked ability. I will name some of the more prominent of the professors who are no longer living. ”

“ M. L. D'Ooge, Professor of Greek, was absent in Europe, but the department was in the hands of Elisha Jones and Albert H. Pattengill, than whom better classroom teachers of the classics were to be found in no American college.
In the Medical Department, which was crowded with over five hundred students, were Professor Corydon L. Ford, doubtless the best lecturer in the country on anatomy, as it was then taught; Dr. Sager, a man of large scientific attainments for his time; Dr. Palmer, so long the efficient Dean; Dr. Prescott, the distinguished chemist, and a group of brilliant younger men. ”

“ Furthermore it is quite essential to wise administration that the authorities of a University should be able to lay plans for some years ahead; and resting on a tax bill which experience shows is not likely to be repealed, they can adopt wise policies for the future, when they might not be able to do so if they had to depend on specific appropriations to be renewed at every session of the Legislature. ”

“ It cannot be doubted that the example of this University conduced largely to this result, and, judging by our correspondence, was helpful in opening the doors of some European Universities to women.
Our friends in the East have always expressed surprise that most of the colleges and the universities in the West have for the last thirty years educated the sexes together. They fail to see that co-education in those institutions was the natural development of the plan followed in the high schools of the West. ”

“ The requirements for admission to the professional schools have been materially raised. Excellent hospitals for the use of the medical schools have been constructed and upon the highly advantageous plan of being entirely under the direction of the Medical Faculties. This allows students access to the patients with a freedom quite impossible in hospitals otherwise conducted. The idea of establishing hospitals on this basis originated here, and is now being adopted wherever practicable by medical schools.
It is not intended to give here a history of the University. ”

“ As it required some courage for women to come at first, fortunately those who did present themselves were generally earnest, self-reliant, scholarly persons. By their discretion and their scholarship, they won the respect of teachers and fellow students and made the path easy for those who came after them. A good number of them, after graduation, obtained commanding positions in the Faculties of Women's Colleges, which were springing up in the East, and won honour for themselves and the University. ”

“ But when they had graduated in the same classes with the most scholarly men who were teaching, both they and the school boards had confidence in their training. The schools, in which a majority of the teachers have always been women, took on new vigour and life. ”

“ Henry M. Stanley, the African traveller, and his wife were most entertaining guests on the occasion of his visit here to lecture.
Our Law students have for many years celebrated Washington's birthday by securing an address from some eminent man. The February before Mr. Cleveland's second election to the Presidency, he was the orator of the day. I invited a number of the prominent citizens of both political parties to meet him at my house at luncheon. An immense throng from various parts of the State came to hear his address, which was very felicitous. ”

“ The collegiate education of women has proved of great value to the schools. Formerly they could not easily find opportunities for training which fitted them for the best work in the high schools. If by any means they had obtained it, they did not feel sure of it. ”