Proceedings of the Annual Convocation (Volume 56-64)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1915. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... dentistry, schools of pharmacy. Every conceivable kind of training anybody wanted had a school organized for it. In several states the agricultural departments became an integral part of the institution. A great deal of friction arose, because the group of classicists in charge of the college were not in sympathy with utilitarian ideas of the technical and professional schools. There were misunderstandings, conflicts, rivalries -- but no comprehensive purpose, no well-considered program. Then the graduate school idea came in. Germany and Johns Hopkins together produced it. No institution amounts to anything in these days unless it has a graduate school. The state universities in the Middle West -- if they are anything they are progressive and advanced -- established graduate schools and then looked around to see what they really meant. In many cases these graduate schools had very little substantial basis. Improvements came gradually until now we have in a number of our state universities of the Middle and the Far West admirably conducted graduate departments with high standards. But they introduced one unfortunate result. Most of the graduate work done had to be brought in surreptitiously because the graduate school idea is not very interesting to the members of the legislature. Then there has come this recent interest in university extension. University extension, you will remember, came over from the English universities. It was taken up in Philadelphia and in New York, was introduced in the Middle West by the University of Chicago and was finally taken up by the State University of Wisconsin which has probably developed this particular plan to the highest point any university has been able to attain. But all the state universities are in some measure carryin...