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About Yale Alumni Magazine | View Entire Issue (March 15, 1899)
md ‘yaLE ALUMNI WEEKLY is called her “unique contribution to the cause of American education.” Many question whether the contribution is worth the making. If they are right, the contribution should cease. Many, on the other hand, agree that it is worth the making, and that Yale has evolved a system of undergraduate training far superior to the full elective system of Harvard, or the group system of Johns Hopkins. If they are right, then the peculiar system should be rather empha- sized and accentuated than modified or abandoned. The slight introduction of the elective principle already made in the scheme of Sophomore year is costly and disintegrating. More election,— “REV. CHARLES RAY PALMER, D.D: Member of Yale Corporation. and this is the natural tendency of things, would still further complicate the administration and weaken the efiiciency of what is wished to be essen- tially a required curriculum. THE GREATEST ANOMALY. By far the greatest anomaly in the situation is the one enlarged upon by Mr. D. Cady Eaton in a recent letter io the New Haven Journal and Courter. The University having grown out of the old College, the Faculty of the College proper, or Academical Department, is often called upon to deal with questions which affect the University. It is in- competent to do this. A great step in advance is taken, when, as a faculty of the Graduate School, the various Pro- fessors of the Academical Department, of the Sheffield School, of the School of the Fine Arts and the School of Music, - meet together. But this is too un- wieldy a body, and the relation of the Graduate School to the undergraduate departments too nebulous, to be pro- ductive, thus far, of much tangible good. What is urgently needed, and what the new President will perhaps secure, is a University Senate, composed of the Deans of the Medical, Law, Theo- logical, Graduate and Sheffield Schools, and of the Academical Department, together with one or more Pro- fessors from each, both Dean and Pro- fessors elected by the several faculties to represent them, the Dean ex-officio. Over this body, and not over the several faculties, the President of the Uni- versity should preside. This would and should relegate to the Dean of the Academical Department most of what used to devolve upon the President of the College. If, further, the President of the University desired to have all the faculties more fully represented, he could convene all the full Pro- fessors into a University House. These are matters of detail, of course. The great principle, however, of University government by a University faculty, and of departmental government by de- partmental faculties, needs clearer state- ment and practice. . If the Graduate School is put fully on a par with the Medical, Law, and Theo- logical Schools; if it can secure a faculty at leisure to devote itself exclu- sively to graduate work, and free from the distracting details of undergraduate government and instruction, a great advance will be made. A position on the Faculty of the Graduate School should be a promotion, a reward for faithful service and scholarly achieve- ment. As it is, its older and abler mem- bers are hampered by details of under- graduate work which are incompatible with the highest efficiency in graduate work. Many of the courses now offered as Graduate courses should belong to ‘ : sees et the Elective courses, and all Graduate courses should have an exclusively Uni- versity character. es THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY. With greater differentiation of the Graduate from the Undergraduate De- partment, it would be easier, if desired, to preserve intact the distinctively col- legiate features of the two lower years, or even to emphasize them. Here seems to: lie, after all, Yale’s great opportunity, if her future growth is to be on the line of evolution rather than revolution. The undergraduate facul- ties of the College and the Sheffield School do not form one body, as is the case with the corresponding faculties at Harvard. Each department has, therefore, thus far, preserved the integ- rity and distinctiveness of its own course of study. Yale has a collegiate classi- cal and a collegiate scientific course of two years’ required work on the old- fashioned recitation plan. Greek may or may not be required in the classical course. That is a minor detail. If now the third year of the Sheffield School, with a free application of the elective principle, could be blended with the Junior and Senior years of the present Academical Department, so that gradu- ates of either the collegiate classical, or the collegiate scientific courses could pass with equal privileges of election to two years of elective work and the same B.A. degree, much grievous duplication of effort and waste of resources would be avoided, and the demands of society and secondary schools upon the Univer- sity could be squarely and generously met. One of President Dwight’s most salutary achievements is the rapproche- ment between Sheffield School and Yale College. It paves the way for what may be the greatest achievement’ of his successor, the harmonious union of these departments as feeders of the elective courses of Junior and Senior years, and of the purely University work of the Graduate Schools. From the increased privileges of the Elective department such groups of courses could easily be formed as would be accepted by the various Graduate Schools in lieu of one year of their dis- tinctive courses. Professor Simeon E. Baldwin has recently voiced the strong demand for this abbreviation of the mecessary preparation for a professional career, AP: i Be THE YALE CORPORATION, Something About the Members of the Governing Body. With all eyes turned upon the govern- ing body of Yale, it may be of interest to those who have never studied the personnel of the Corporation, to look at some of the facts about each of the lay and clerical members. Besides these mentioned in this article are the Governor, Hon. George E. Lounsbury, Yale ’63, and the Lieu- tenant-Governor, Hon. Lyman J. Mills, who are ex-officio members. The President of the University, Dr. Dwight, is a member of the Cornoration and its presiding officer. Dr. George Leon Walker: of Hartford is not mentioned, as he is incapacitated by illness. REV. DR. BURDETT HART, D.D. Rey. Dr. Burdett Hart is a native of New Britain, a graduate of Yale in the ,Class of Forty-Two and of the Yale Divinity School in 1846. He was installed as pastor of the First Church in Fair Haven, Conn., immediately after his graduation and re- tained his pastorate there fourteen years. Resigning on account of poor health he went abroad for travel and on returning engaged in mercantile pursuits in Phila- delphia, giving much time meanwhile to the charitable and benevolent insti- tutions of the city and aiding in the founding of a Congregational church there. In 1873, his health being re- stored, he returned to his old congrega- tion in Fair Haven and preached there till 1889, when the resigned and was made pas’eor emeritus. Dr. Hart has published a number of religious books of much circulation. His election to oe Yale Corporation was in October, 1885. 2 REV. JOSEPH BACKUS, D.D. Dr. Joseph W. Backus, 746, was hoe February 19, 1823 in Franklin, Conn. He fitted for College at the Bacon Academy, Colchester; and after gradu- ating from Yale with the Class of Fifty- Six he spent five years in teaching. After completing his theological course at Yale Seminary, he was licensed to preach in 1851, and since that time has had charge io several different churches in Massachusetts and Connecticut. He was elected to the Corporation in June, 1875, and lives in Farmington, Conn. HON. FREDERICK J. KINGSBURY, LL.D. Hon. Frederick J. Kingsbury, LL.D., was born in Waterbury, Conn., Jan. 1, 1823, and after graduation from Yale in his twenty-third year, took up the study of Law. He was admitted to the Bos- ton Bar in 1848 and the next year opened an office for the practice of his profession in his native town. Every- thing seemed to point to a bright legal career for the young man, but after a few years he gave up his practice and began an active banking and manu- facturing life. Fifty years of success- ful life in the business world, during which period he has filled positions of great importance and handled large monied interests, have shown that the step was not a mistake. Mr. Kingsbury has been often characterized as a typical Yale man, aggressive, progressive, yet conservative. With every move for the public good in the municipality in which he lives, he has been identified, and as Director, Treasurer and Presi- dent of the Scovill Manufacturing Company his reputation as an execu- tive has extended far beyond the con- fines of the State. He represented Waterbury in the legislature in 1850, 1858 and 1865, and was a member of the committee on the revision of the Con- necticut statutes. His election to the Yale Corporation was in June, 1881. REV. THEODORE T. MUNGER, D.D. Rey. Dr. Theodore T. Munger is one of the clerical members of the Corpora- tion who helps wonderfully to strengthen the argument for continuation of cleri- cal control. He is adapted by nature to university service. Men who have sat under his. preaching or read his books, of whom there have been thou- sands of graduates, know what this means from an intellectual standpoint. He is a very excellent judge of teachers, and his counsel and information are particularly valuable when new instruc- tors are needecti. He has been very HON. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, LL.D. Member of Yale Corporation. successful in raising money for different purposes. : Dr. Munger was graduated from the Academic Department of Yale in 1851 and five years later from the Theologi- cal Department. He has held several pastorates in Massachusetts, and during a stay in California he established a Congregational church in San Jose in 1875. He came from North Adams to the United Church in New Haven,— the northern of the three churches on the Green,—in 1885, and was made a member of the Yale Corporation in 1887. His best known book is “On the Threshold.” Others of his writings are “Freedom of Thought,” “Lamps and Paths,” and “The Appeal to Life.” $$. Dr. Munger has always been ad ) and liberal in his theology and eee fifteen years ago was the target for a great deal of criticism for alleged heresy. . REV. JOSEPH ANDERSON, D.D. Rev. Joseph Anderson, DD. at Waterbury, Conn., represents well the broadest scholarship of the Christian ministry in the Congregational Church of Connecticut, in which he has labored for forty years. A believer in wide liberty of thought, a sound thinker, and @ man of great thoroughness, he has been for many years one of the fore- most figures in the Congregational Church in the East, and for the cause of education in Waterbury has done in- estimable good. Dr. Anderson was one of the or- ganizers of the American Congress of Churches and was a delegate to the International Council of Congregational REV. EDWIN P. PARKER, D.D. Member of Yale Corporation. Churches held in London in 1891. He has twice been Moderator of the General Association and once Moderator of the General Conference. Among the learned bodies of which he is a mem- ‘ber are the American Antiquarian So- ciety, the American Philological So- ciety, and the Historical and Social Science Associations. Dr. Anderson is a graduate of the College of the City of New York in 1854 and Yale gave him the degree of D.D. in 1878. He was elected to the Corporation in October, 1884. HON. HENRY E. HOWLAND, M.A. Hon. H. E. Howland, M.A. is known to practically all Yale men as a promi- nent lawyer of New York and a public speaker of unusual ability. He was born in Walpole, N. H., graduated from Yale in 1854 and then studied Law. During a portion of the Civil war, he served with distinction in the United States Army. In 1873 he was appointed Judge of the Marine Court of New York City. Five years later was formed the partnership of Anderson, - Howland & Murray, which was changed some years ago to Howland & Murray. He became a member of the Corpora- tion in June, 1892. He keeps closely in touch with Yale affairs. REV, CHARLES RAY PALMER, D.D. Rev. Charles Ray Palmer, D.D., of New Haven, graduated from Yale in 18ss and from the Andover Theological. Seminary four years later. His first pastorate was in Salem, Mass., at the Tabernacle Congregational Church, where he remained twelve years, Re- signing on account of the uncongenial climate, he accepted a call to the First Congregational Church of Bridgeport, Conn., and preached there until 1895, being at present pastor emeritus of that church, but living in New Haven. Dr. Palmer was for ten years a mem- ber of the School board of Salem, and during that time did a great and lasting work in building up the public school system in that town. He represented Yale at the opening of Mansfield Col- lege at Oxford, England in 1889, and two years later was a delegate to the International Council of Congregational Churches in London. He was also commissioned as Yale’s representative
