Princeton University

“ During the fourteen years of his administration the college increased from 603 to 1354 students, and the faculty from 40 to 100 instructors, while 17 new buildings were added to the equipment. On October 22, 1896, the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the first charter of the College of New Jersey, the corporate title was changed to Princeton University. ”

“ At that the old graduate laughed with much amusement: "So you think I have been worrying about the college, do you? You really think that you, little man, are of sufficient consequence to cause anxiety for the university? Princeton certainly is changed in many ways—many things are much better than when I was in college; we did not have that magnificent library, nor such athletic facilities, nor the honor system, nor many advantages that you have. Yes, many things are much better than when I was in college, but you do not happen to be one of them. ”

“ Dean Fine said to the alumni of Princeton University: "The typical boy entering a college like Princeton in these days is much more vitally interested in other boys and in sports than in books. To him the lure of college is not in its studies, but in its life." Professor Churchman of Clark College regards success in athletics and the social life of the college as "the honest ambition of an appalling proportion of fathers and mothers who are sending their sons to fashionable colleges, in the same spirit that accompanies their daughters to fashionable finishing-schools." ”

“ Now at Princeton, what there is of a town is little more than a setting for the University. There are no outside distractions, such as theatres and the like, as at most large institutions of learning. The campus life is the only life, and the college students are dependent upon the college world for all their amusements and between-hour interests. Everyone keeps in touch with everything that is going on. ”

“ It has become something that a man wishes to use in order to get the better of his fellow-men; to enhance his fortunes; to do all the things that center in and upon himself; and it is professionalism that spoils the game, the game of life, the game of humanity, the game of cooperation in social undertaking, the whole handsome game that we are seeking to throw light upon by the processes of education. It is a remarkable and interesting fact that Princeton is becoming a great university and a great scientific center almost in spite of those in control. ”

“ Among the graduates of Princeton, which has always ranked with Yale and Harvard, stand some of the most distinguished men in American history. The university consists of the academic and graduate departments and of John C. Green School of Science, the last including departments of science, civil engineering and electrical engineering. ”

“ Proctor, once withdrawn but now renewed, and the Wyman bequest, amounting probably to over $2,000,000, are all for the graduate school and give it a free endowment scarcely equaled at any other university.
Like all our institutions Princeton has spent relatively too much money on buildings and too little on men. But the money has come freely and the architectural setting at Princeton will appeal to the alumni and to the general public as the worthy exterior manifestation of a great university. It is also true that Princeton has done much for its men. ”

“ The secret history of almost any American university is not less complicated than recent events at Princeton, but it is certainly unusual for such family quarrels to be so completely exploited before a public which can scarcely be expected to understand them. It is, however, probably not a bad thing for a university to conduct its affairs in the open and for large numbers to become interested in them, even though the principles involved may not be so vital as they appear to those immediately concerned. ”

“ In the preceptorial system it has undertaken to extend the personal contact between teacher and student which is one of the most marked advantages in the teaching of the sciences, to the departments not having laboratories, and has brought to Princeton some fifty selected men of the younger generation with the rank of assistant professors. The method adopted may be open to certain criticisms, but this group of men has added greatly to the strength of the university. In the meanwhile the laboratory departments have been developed both by buildings and by men. ”

“ It matters not to what family we belong—Harvard, Yale, Columbia, or Princeton—we are all of us one in our welcome to them, for they represent the university spirit and what it teaches—honor, high- mindedness, intelligence, truthfulness, unselfishness, courage, and patriotism. ”

“ Why they have not come to occupy the prominent place that two similar organizations hold at Princeton, the Clio and Whig societies, whose two marble temples are one of the distinguishing marks of Princeton's Campus, is a matter for speculation. Probably the fact that Princeton long remained a college while Michigan early became a university with a more inclusive curriculum, will best explain it. As it is, however, these societies have in the past done a great service for the University and deserve to survive. ”

“ It was the usual colorful crowd, bedecked with the crimson of Harvard and the yellow and black of the Tigers, that wended its way from the special trains from New York and Philadelphia early to-day to Palmer Stadium. Automobiles by the hundreds brought thousands of spectators. Old Princeton graduates, back for the annual game, held impromptu reunions on the campus or on Nassau Street, or made a tour of inspection of the University buildings to note the changes since they were last here. ”

“ Editors, essayists, college presidents and reformers assure us that we are on the verge of a change, and perhaps a great change, in our system of higher education. They dilate upon the indisputable fact that most of our older colleges have made rapid strides within the past ten years, augmenting their endowments, erecting handsome buildings, establishing new departments of study and increasing the number of students. Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Amherst, Princeton, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, were never so well off, in point of money and men, as they are at this day. ”

“ The divinity school is academically independent, though closely allied. There are no other professional schools. Thus Princeton is distinctly “a collegiate university,” with a very definite idea of what a liberal education ought to include, and a fixed purpose of developing the individual by leading him through a regulated intellectual discipline.
Yale, the second in age of the American universities, occupies a middle ground, and fills it with immense vigour. Very slow in yielding to the elective system, Yale theoretically adopted it four years ago in its extreme form. ”

“ In the language of President Thwing, it may be said that "it is to the people that the college and university desire to give more than they receive from the people. It is not unjust to say that the people are debtors. The community has given to Yale, and to Princeton, and to Harvard, much, but Yale, and Princeton, and Harvard have given to the community more. For the college and the university are set to hold up the worth of things to the mind, and these things are the worthiest. ”

“ Guyot Hall. gradually developed at Princeton in the course of the past few years, and there is likely to be now a mutation which will place the university among those where productive scholarship and creative research are most cultivated. The difficulties in regard to the graduate school which have been so widely exploited are in fact rather trivial and are now fairly solved, as the university has not only money for a residence hall but also for the men who are the real university. ”

“ Whether the residence hall should be in the midst of the Princeton campus or on its outskirts can not be a matter of serious consequence. The fact is that the president of the university and some of the trustees were unwilling to place the dean of the graduate school in as complete control of its development as the acceptance of Mr. Proctor's gift might have implied. The real trouble is one of men rather than of measures. ”

“ The college-edifice at Princeton is a stately and durable one, constructed of stone; and it will afford satisfaction to the reader, to be informed, that in this building is deposited the Rittenhouse Orrery. He will derive additional pleasure from learning, that this grand machine has, lately, been repaired in some considerable degree, and at a great expence, by the ingenious Mr. Henry Voight, of the Mint: by whom, that belonging to the University of Pennsylvania, has likewise been put in good order. ”

“ Princeton, it is true, has no professional schools, except its departments of civil and electrical engineering. A law school was once established, but it lasted only two years. No school of medicine is in contemplation, though the first two years of a medical course could be given to advantage. The theological seminary in the village has supplied a large proportion of the students registered in the graduate department, but it has no official connection with the university and is too narrowly denominational to be regarded as a graduate school of theology. ”

“ Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, it will generally be admitted, still stand foremost, but New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore have built up universities whose subordination needs to be qualified in some particulars—for the scientific department of Johns Hopkins and the medical branch of the University of Pennsylvania rank at least as high as those of the older colleges, while Columbia’s rapidly increasing wealth has enabled it to advance with greater rapidity than any of its sisters. ”

“ This is an excellent rule, and will effectively put a stop to summer ball-playing by young men who are preparing for Princeton, and who hope to achieve the honor of playing on the university nine. It is to be hoped that every other university and college in this country will adopt similar rules. ”

“ Secret societies are prohibited at Princeton, but there are two strong literary societies, the Cliosophic and American Whig, founded before the Revolution, and having valuable independent libraries. There are also two undergraduate religious societies, the Philadelphian (founded in 1825) and St. ”

“ The fact that of all the important university elevens Harvard and Princeton are the only two that have not met defeat204 this season is taken into account as emphasizing the importance of the game, there being something of a supplemental thrill in the probability that by five o’clock this afternoon the record of two unbeaten elevens will be reduced to one. ”

“ Princeton offers opportunities for study and research in the natural and exact sciences which are in some ways unique. The situation in the country, but within easy reach of New York and Philadelphia, offers many advantages. With its peculiar attractions, Princeton takes its place with the great universities so closely lining the eastern seaboard—Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Pennsylvania and the Johns Hopkins. ”

“ By resolution of the Board of Trustees of Princeton College any help may be given to Evelyn College by the Princeton Faculty which does not interfere with their duties in the University, and the use of the libraries, museums, etc., is granted.
41 COLUMBIA COLLEGE IN RELATION TO THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN. The first college for women to confer degrees upon graduates of an affiliated college is Columbia College, New York City. ”

“ It is only when society is old, long settled to its ways, confident in habit, and without self-que stioning upon any vital point of conduct, that study can affect seclusion and despise the passing interests of the day. America has never yet had a season of leisured quiet in which students could seek a life apart without sharp rigours of conscience, or college instructors easily forget that they were training citizens as well as drilling pupils; and Princeton is not likely to forget that sharp schooling of her youth, when she first learned the lesson of public service. ”

“ The preceptors intended for less modern purposes brought to Princeton a large group of younger men from various institutions who have given it new life. The efforts for a graduate residential college, which in Dean West's words should "show that God is the end of all our knowing and Christ is the Master of the Schools," or, in President Wilson's phrase, should be "quick to look toward heaven for the confirmation of its hope," will lead to a true graduate school for the training of professional scholars and the advancement of knowledge. ”

“ The most developed form of knowledge, that which has created modern civilization, and opened up a new world of truth to the human mind, he passes by as if it had no existence. He advocates the theory of college education of which Princeton has recently illustrated the practice—the theory to which students are immolated. It is an insult to the intelligence of the age. Any college, supported by forced exactions upon the people, which omits the sciences from its curriculum, is an outrage upon the community ”

“ After seeing to it that the actual scholarship and discipline corresponded properly to what they were scheduled in the catalogue to be, demanding genuine work to win a diploma and banishing the social pull that had theretofore existed, Doctor Wilson laid his hand to the revision of the course of study. Princeton must not only be a place of work, but of work which should be intelligent and calculated to put the worker in a position best to serve society in the twentieth century. ”