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Vor FX: No. A,
Copyright, 1899,
by Yale Alumni Weekly.
Pride 10 Cents.
NEW HAVEN, CONN., WEDNESDAY, OCT. 18, 1899.
THE INAUGURATION
As the ALUMNI WEEKLY goes to press,
the preparations for Inauguration Day,
including many features which were not
to be announced in advance, promise a
day altogether unusual in the history of
Yale, and of great completeness, dig-
nity and interest. The formal cere-
monies of the day are not to shut out
the display of that enthusiasm, which is
the great charm of all popular University
affairs. It is safe to predict at this writ-
ing that the blending of the two will be
most harmonious.
The preparations for the day were
given in completeness in the last issue of
the paper, and the names of the guests
who had, at that time, accepted the in-
vitation, were there printed. There are
some additions to be made to that list
of guests as the WEEKLY goes to press,
and, as it is quite impossible to make the
record complete until the guests them-
selves are here, it has been decided to
leave, for another week, this complete
record. -At that time this paper hopes
to supplement the account of the day in
such a way as to make the two papers
a complete historv of Inauguration Day.
The only change of importance in the
preparations from that announced last
week, is that, in the line of march, State
>treet will be substituted for Orange
Street. An additional feature of inter-
est about the preparations, is the readt-
ness with which the officials and the
people of New Haven are preparing to
participate in the affair as an occasion in
which New Haven, in inaugurating one
of her sons as the head of Yale Univer-
sity, has a very deep pride. : The very
warm enthusiasm of the students in their
participation in the exercises is to be
expected, since their enthusiasm for the
new President was well known even in
advance of his election, and has been
many times demonstrated since.
THE MUSIC.
The program of the orchestral music
in the Chapel was definitely announced
Tuesday morning, as follows:
Prelude from Athalia...... Mendelssohn
Overture to Iphigenia in Aulis...Gluck
Ode, by Edmund Stedman, LL.D., Yale.
53; Music by Prof. Horatio Wil-
liam Patker, M.A:, for Orches-
tra and Chorus
March fromm Athalia +. Mendelssohn
The opening prayer was by ex-Presi-
dent Dwight and the ceremony of formal
induction into office was carried out by
Rev. Joseph H. Twichell, the senior
member of the Corporation. President
a inaugural address was as fol-
Ows:
The Address,
Thirteen years ago my honored pre-
decessor traced in his inaugural address
the changes which two centuries had de-
veloped in Yale’s educational methods
and ideals, and showed with clearness
what were the corresponding changes in
organization which would best fit her to”
apply these methods and approach these
ideals. What has once been done so well
we need not undertake to do again, Let
us rather proceed to a detailed considera-
tion of the problems which now confront
us in the various departments of college
and university life. Let us formulate
the. questions which press for solution.
Let us study the good and evil attend-
ant on various methods of dealing with
‘them. Let 1ts- see, as ‘far as we May,
what lines of policy in these matters of
immediate practical moment will enable
us best to meet the demands of the
oncoming century. ;
These problems are for the most part
not peculiar to Yale. The questions
which present themselves to the college
authorities here are in large measure
the same which arise elsewhere. But
‘the conditions governing their solution
are different. We may best understand
the work which Yale has to do if we
study the problems in their general form,
as they come before the whole brother-
hood of educators as a body; and then
try to solve them in the particular form
which is fixed by the special circum-
stances, past and present, which have
made Yale University what it is.
Fifty years ago the duties of college
administration were relatively simple.
‘There was at that time a certain curricu-
lum of studies, chiefly in classics and in
deductive science, which the public
accepted as necessary for the develop-
ment 106 sam educatée@y-man.t hese
studies ‘were taught by traditional
methods which compelled the pupil to
perform a considerable amount of work
whether he liked it or not. The student
body was a homogeneous one, meeting in
the same recitation room day by day.
The classes readily acquired a spirit of
good fellowship and democracy. Out-
side conditions favored the main-
tenance of ‘this spirit. Differences
in wealth throughout the commun-
ity were less conspicuous than they
are today. College education was so
cheap that it fell within the reach of all.
Most of the studentswere poor. . The
few who possessed wealth found com-
paratively little opportunity for spending
it in legitimate ways. Rich and poor
stood on a common footing as regarded
participation in the social ambitions and
privileges of college life’ The intellec-
tual education which such a college gave
to the majority of its students was but
an incidental service as,compared with
the education in sterling virtue. The
institution which could furnish this
double training met fully the require-
ments: which public opinion imposed.
THE PROBLEM COMPLICATED.
The first of the disturbing elements
which entered to complicate the problem
of college education was found in the
development of professional schools.
Down to the early part of the present
century, professional study was largely
done in private, in the office of some
successful lawyer or doctor or in the
study of some experienced minister.
Even when schools of theology, of law,
or of medicine were established, they at
first occupied themselves largely with
teaching the same kind of things that
might have been learned in the office by
the old method. But about the middle
of the present century a new and more
enlightened view of technical training
arose. It was seen that a professional
school did its best work when it taught
principles rather than practice. Instead
of cramming the students with details.
which they would otherwise learn after-
ward, it was found much better to train
them in methods of reasoning which
otherwise they would not learn at all.
This study of principles, to be thoroughly
effective, necessarily occupied several
years. There was a strong pressure to
introduce the elements of these studies
into the college curriculum; and a de-
mand that when once they were incor-
-porated in the college course they should
AMUEtY TWINING) HADLEY, bh
; Photograph by Pach.
Inaugurated President of Yale University, Oct. 18, 1899.
be taught, not in a perfunctory way, but
with the same standard of excellence
which was achieved in our best profes-
sional schools.
Meantime, apart from these changes in
the. method of technical training, the
sphere of interest of the cultivated man
‘of the country was constantly widening.
The course of college study which satis-
fied an earlier generation was inade-
quate for a later one. The man who
would have breadth of sympathy with
the various departments of human
knowledge could not content himself
with classics, mathematics and’ psychol-
ogy. He must be familiar with modern
literature as well as ancient, with physi-
cal science as well as deductive.
If we had at once widened the college
curriculum enough to correspond to the
increased range of human interest, and
lengthened the period of professional
study enough to give each man the ful-
lest recognized training for his specialty
—if, to quote the old educational phrase,
we had taught each man something of
everything and everything of something
—the time of university education would
have lengthened itself to ten or fifteen
years. Its complete fruition would have
been a luxury out of reach of all but
the favored few. The difficulty could
be met only by the adoption of an elec-
tive system; a system which ceased to
treat the college course as a fixed curri-
culum for all, and gave an opportunity
for the selection of groups of studies
adapted to the varying needs of the
several students.
THE NEW EDUCATION’S DANGERS
The introduction of these * methods of
university education, necessary as it was,
has been nevertheless attended with
serious dangers and evils.
In the first place, there is apt to be a
change in the mode of instruction which,
while good for the best students, runs
the risk of proving bad for the ordinary
ones. The old. method of handling large
classes in a fixed course of study, under
the recitation system required all the
students to do a modicum of work, and
enabled the teacher to see whether they
were doing it or not. The divisions
were adjusted and could be constantly
readjusted with that end in view. The
time of the instructors was so far econo-
mized by the narrow range of subjects
taught that their attention could be
properly concentrated on this one point
of keeping the students up to their work
by a daily oral examination. But. with
the increasing number of things to be
taught, the variation in the size of
classes, and the demands which the best
students now make for really advanced
teaching, this supervision and concentra-
tion is no longer possible. The instruc-
tor who is teaching small groups of
selected men who have a_ particular