University of Santo Tomas

“ That, although the ministry of the colonies can alter at its discretion the system of public education in Manila, it has no right to apply the funds and properties of a private origin, today assigned to the college-university of Santo Tomás, to the establishment which it organizes, without considering the religious corporation of the Dominicans, or by infringing in any other manner on the foundation of the said college. ”

“ Inside the city they have a sumptuous church and convent, which is the head of the most devout province of Santísimo Rosario. Near the same convent is the college and seminary of Santo Tomás, with collegiates, which has its own rector. There are taught all the belles lettres, commencing with grammar. It is a pontifical and royal university, and is attended by a sufficient number of students when one considers the small size of this community. ”

“ French, English, Tagálog, and Visayan; surveying; spherical trigonometry; cosmography, pilotage, and maneuvers; theoretical and applied mechanics; physics and chemistry applied to the arts; topographical drawing and hydrography; lineal and ornamental drawing—landscape, figures, and painting. The university of Santo Tomás, which changed its title to that of the university of the Philippines by this decree was organized as to its faculties of law and medicine, and the latter contained the following studies: descriptive and general anatomy, two courses ”

“ At present it maintains at its own cost twenty-one Spanish orphan lads, with the 600 pesos to which amounts the product of the annuities which are collected from the alcalde-mayor of Pangasinan by a Dominican religious. It also receives Indian and mestizo collegiates who pay fifty pesos per year apiece for their support. Their number is not fixed. Under the title of sacristan, porters, librarians, and other mechanical trades, there are various people who pay nothing. Their studies are carried on in the university of Santo Tomás, except that of grammar. ”

“ In 1652 Fray Pedro de Ledo becomes provincial; at this same chapter-session is formally announced the erection of Santo Tomás college into a university; and the mission of Ituy is more fully organized. The savage mountaineers of that region are well described by our author; their conversion is a difficult matter. In 1653 distinguished personages arrive at Manila, including Governor Manrique de Lara and Archbishop Poblete. The Dominican chapter enact that every lecturer in their university must know at least one of the native languages. ”

“ To the illustrious Marqués de Castel Rodrigo, my cousin, member of my Council, and ambassador in Roma: the bearer, Fray Mateo de Villa, of the Order of Preachers, procurator of the province of Santo Rosario of the Filipinas Islands in my Western Yndias, has informed me that his province has a college called Santo Tomas in the city of Manila, of which I am the patron, where there are thirty secular collegiates; that for some years past that college has been a university through royal permission; that bulls have been conceded twice for its conservation ”

“ They have also the college of Santo Tomàs, in which are taught grammar, the arts, and scholastic and moral theology, to the benefit of all that community and the entire archipelago. They support students holding fellowships, usually twenty-four to thirty, without receiving any stipend: and have thus sent out, as they are still doing, graduates of much learning, for the dignities and curacies of those islands. ”

“ He was a person of all good qualities, a native of [98] Mexico, and of noble parentage in that city. He took the habit and professed in this convent of Santo Domingo in Manila. In his studies he gave so good an account of himself that he lectured in arts and theology, and became regent in our college of Santo Tomas. He always had the name of an excellent student and learned man. On that account, and because of his great prudence, known to us by experience, the religious elected him to the post of provincial, which he filled very successfully and with great credit. ”

“ The examiner [i.e., Campos y Valdivia] , playing the rôle of a reconciler, obliged the fathers of the Society to go to attend a feast-day of the Dominicans, and the latter to be present at another in the Society’s house. Afterward the archbishop arranged the cabildo to suit himself, without accepting or noticing the prebends who came appointed by his Majesty, and replaced all of them from his own college of Santo Tomas; and among these were men most unworthy [of such posts] , mestizos who were half negro. ”

“ Hitherto, it was necessary for young men desiring a superior and especially a scientific education to attend the universities of Mexico, Santo Domingo or Seville. With the opening of this institution of learning in the metropolis of the island, Havana, the intellectual life received a strong impulse. The credit for having secured the permission to open this university is due to the Dominican order which was mainly instrumental in promoting the cause of education in Latin America and especially the West Indies. ”

“ In argument he is shrewd and incisive; in criticism, candid but unsparing. His Principios criticos is a scathing arraignment of the government of New Spain under the viceroys. His Filosofía is a part of the same discussion. It forms a large octavo volume. It begins with presenting two Latin documents of the eighteenth century, programs of public actos, given at the Seminario and the Colegio de Santo Tomás in Guadalajara. These serve as the basis for a severe criticism of the philosophical thought{45} and teaching in Spain and New Spain during the vice-regal period. ”

“ Work along the humanities at the Catholic university of St. Tomas and by the Jesuit Fathers, at their famous school, the “Ateneo,” has prepared the way for a national university whose buildings are rising and whose instruction has already commenced.
The work of the nuns, Spanish and French and German, has been an excellent training for Filipina mothers and their family life.
They have formed whole generations of good women, whose grace and true womanhood put to the blush most of the American, or European importations, with their petty jealousies, their slanders and their utter frivolity. ”

“ The first rector of Saint Thomasʼ University was Fray Martin Real de la Cruz. In the meantime, the Jesuitsʼ University had been established. Until 1645 it was the only place of learning superior to primary education, and conferred degrees. The Saint Thomasʼ University (under the direction of Dominican friars) now disputed the Jesuitsʼ privilege to confer degrees, claiming for themselves exclusive right by Papal Bull. A lawsuit followed, and the Supreme Court of Manila decided in favour of Saint Thomasʼ. The Jesuits appealed to the King against this decision. ”

“ Tomás University, controlled entrance to all higher institutions.
June 26.—Entered the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, then a public school, as a day scholar.
1875, June 14. Age 14.—Became a boarder in the Ateneo.
1876, March 23. Age 15.—Received the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree, with highest honors, from Ateneo de Manila.
June.—Entered Sto. Tomás University in Philosophy course.
1877, June. Age 16.—Matriculated in medical course. Won Liceo Artístico-Literario prize, in poetical competition for “Indians and Mestizos”, with poem “To Philippine Youth.” ”

“ The public schools are better organized today, and have in charge of them teachers who have graduated from the normal school of Manila. It cannot fail to be worthy of striking the attention that almost all the boys and girls who attend the schools read Spanish without understanding it, and write our language by drawing the letters materially.
Secondary education is studied in the college of San Juan de Letrán, created into an institute in 1820, in that of Santo Tomás, in charge of the Dominican fathers ”

“ In the normal schools, where the pupils are trained to enter the public service as primary teachers, not only is the tuition free, but also books, board, lodging and everything needed in their school work. The national university at Santiago comprises faculties of theology, law and political science, medicine and pharmacy, natural sciences and mathematics, and philosophy. ”

“ The middle and upper classes pay much attention to education. In Santiago there are two universities, the larger the University of Chile, open also to women, and the Catholic University, each with various departments ”

“ Spanish-Americans now studying in the States are devoting their attention chiefly to engineering and dentistry. Very few South Americans are likely to care for our academic or collegiate course or anything corresponding to it. It does not fit in at all with their customary scheme of education. To the average South American, a “college” means a kind of high school from which a student graduates to enter at once upon his professional studies. At first glance it looks like the familiar German idea of a gymnasium course followed immediately by professional studies in the university. ”

“ These arguments will have greater force and power in the future, because of the two universities which your Majesty has permitted in this city—one in the residence of the Society of Jesus, and the other in that of Santo Tomas of the Dominican friars, where students are being trained and many graduated. Thus this city is today full of poverty-stricken seculars, and one must fear that there will be so many within a few years that they will die of hunger, because we have not any benefices to give them in this archbishopric or throughout the islands ”

“ The occasion was one of solemn ceremony, President Pardo attending, with his cabinet. The address of the rector included a résumé of the year’s events in the university, showing that its influence and usefulness had been increased, and notable advancement made in its affairs. The prestige of the university was enhanced last year through the brilliant record of its delegates at the congress of students in Montevideo, when this institution was shown to be in the first rank among Spanish-American institutions in culture and progress. ”

“ The salaries paid to teachers were good, comparing favorably with those paid in the United States.
THE UNIVERSITY OF HAVANA
Cuba is enviably distinguished for providing not only elementary but higher education, even of the best university grade, practically without cost to the children of her citizens. The University of Havana, which is the crown of the whole educational system of the country, was founded in 1728, and formerly was housed in the old convent of Santo Domingo. ”

“ As one of the professors was promoted to the royal Audiencia of México, the chair of the morning classes in canonical law was given to the very reverend father Pedro Murillo Velarde, of the same Society, who had been professor of these branches in the universities of Granada and Salamanca, as a collegiate in the imperial university of San Miguel of Granada, and of the chief [college] of Cuenca at Salamanca. ”

“ The universities of Argentina are those of Buenos Aires, Cordoba, and La Plata, which are national, and those of Santa Fe and Tucuman, which are provincial but will soon be nationalized. In 1917 there was a growing feeling in university circles in favor of decentralization, with greater degree of autonomy for each university. The report of the rector of the university of Buenos Aires for 1917 was of interest as showing the effect of this upon the colegios as well as the universities. ”

“ Autonomous universities shall adopt their own rules for their governance and operation and the efficient management of their property, under such control and vigilance as may be established by law to this end. Autonomy of universities is established in the planning, organization, preparation and updating of research, teaching and extension programs. The inviolability of the university campus is established. Experimental national universities shall attain their autonomy in accordance with law. ”

“ The Rector of the Leland Stanford Junior University places at the disposal of the University his library of 7000 volumes on Brazil. Scholarships are granted in the Universities to Latin-American women students. In the year 1913, Latin-American students in American universities numbered 813. American scientific missions are at work in Latin America, as well as missions of teachers to study educational methods in those lands and to invite return visits to the United States. ”

“ Much judgment, as well as vivacity, are displayed in the scholastic disputations, and nothing is wanting but greater liberality in the professors, or rather a removal of all ecclesiastical restrictions, with a better selection of books and instruments, to enable the university of Quito to vie with some of those of the most polished countries in Europe. If the young men, educated in the colleges do not become such adepts in science as might be expected, it is their misfortune, not their fault. ”

“ There are quite a number of North American ladies employed in these schools, throughout the several districts of Argentina, receiving a liberal compensation therefor, and commanding a high degree of respect. The University of Buenos Ayres, with about fifty professors and some eight hundred students, stands at the head of the national system of education. ”

“ Of interest is the projected foundation of a popular university at Buenos Aires, constituted along industrial lines and frankly designed to counteract the technical and industrial influence of North American universities in South American countries. ”

“ When by chance a group of professors with real knowledge and enthusiasm happens to be formed in an university, the results are surprising. This has occurred at Oviedo, where, thanks to the existence of such a teaching staff, an educational atmosphere was formed, the students were educated and not merely crammed with a few useless facts, and extension lectures were established with extraordinary success, especially among the working classes. ”