APPENDIX.

I. THE ASSOCIATION OF OHIO COLLEGES.

The following history of this association has been prepared for use in the present monograph by Prof. John M. Ellis, of Oberlin College, president of the association for the years 1888-89. It serves in many ways to bring out the peculiar problem and the character of the colleges of Ohio, since the association itself has found its prime usefulness in elevating the standard of the colleges and in sharply discriminating between those which do and those which do not meet the requirements of a progressive standard:

Like all valuable institutions this association is an evolution or growth. It is another illustration of the prevalent tendency toward combina tion or union effort. For some years before its formation, on various occasions, representatives of different colleges had met in convention with the Ohio Teachers' Association or other gatherings for mutual conference. At such a meeting prior to 1867, a committee seems to have been appointed to prepare a plan of organization of the colleges of the State.

The first records of this association begin as follows:

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At a meeting of college officers at Springfield, Ohio, July 2, 1867, President Howard, of Ohio University, was appointed temporary chairman; President J. W. Andrews, of Marietta College, temporary secretary.

Then follows a list of the college men present, representing the following institutions: Marietta, Farmers' College, Mount Union, Western Reserve, Ohio University, Urbana University, Wittenberg, Kenyon, and Antioch.

The report then continues:

Professor Tappan, from a committee previously appointed, made a report on organization. The report was discussed and adopted.

This report was substantially the present constitution of the association. The purpose of the organization is stated not very clearly or definitely in article 1, as follows:

The object of this association shall be an interchange of opinions among those engaged in the higher departments of instruction, and the adoption of such common rules as may seem fitted to promote efficient and harmonious working.

The association was to be composed of the presidents and professors of the colleges in the State of Ohio, together with the governor, the commissioner of common schools, and the president of the Ohio State Teachers' Association as members ex officio.

It was manifestly the plan, as it was the custom for several years, to hold the sessions of the association in connection with the annual meetings of the Ohio State Teachers' Association. Hence the article making the president of the teachers' association a member ex officio of the college association.

This arrangement it was thought would bring the common school men and college men in contact and serve to adjust the public schools to the colleges. For 6 or 7 years this plan was carried out. There seems to have been little preparation for the college meetings; few or no papers were provided and little effort was made to secure the attendance of college men. Little if any provision was made for the college meeting in the general programme. Those college men who were interested in attending the Teachers' Association would be called together at such times as were not occupied by the general sessions of the Teachers' Association and discuss any questions that might be proposed at the time, and such papers were read as members present happened to have prepared. The sessions were held in July, when college men were off on summer vacations, and the attendance was small, with apparantly little enthusiasm in the meetings. During the first 7 years. two special meetings were called in the holiday vacation, which seem to have been more fully provided for and more largely attended. No meeting is quoted for 1871, and at the meeting in 1872 at Put-in Bay President Tappan, who was secretary, announced "that the question immediately before the association was one of life or death.”

The result of the discussion was a resolution to continue the association. The following year a meeting was held during the holiday vacation, at Westerville, with largely increased attendance and interest. Several important papers were presented, and various questions of practical interest were considered.

Since that time the meetings have been held in the winter vacation and been attended with constantly increasing interest and profit. In 1875 the association met at Gambier, the following year at Delaware, where a new era began in its history. A full and interesting programme had been prepared, efforts had been made to give notice of the meeting to all the college men in the State, and 40 presidents and professors, representing 14 different colleges, were present and took part in the discussions. The following year 48 were present at Cincinnati, representing 23 colleges. From that time the interest has continued, and the attendance has been varying from 22 at Wooster to 53 at Cleveland.

A wide range of topics has been considered, scientific and practical. The work of the colleges has been unified and a profitable mutual acquaintance promoted.

One question has engaged attention from the first and is still before the association, viz: How to adjust the high school and college to education. At the second meeting of the association, in 1868, the following resolution was discussed and adopted:

Whereas there is properly no antagonism between the higher and lower schools of education, and as it would be exceedingly desirable that the forces of each in the work of education should as much as possible be encouraged by mutual coöperation, therefore

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this association, on the one hand the course of study in the high school should be so arranged as to enable the youth who have that object in view to gain the qualification necessary for admission into college classes; and on the other hand, the college curriculum should, so far as is consistent with a thorough scientific training, be so modified as to make this practicable.

At the special meeting in Columbus the same year, in pursuance of the above resolution, the following resolution was adopted by the association :

The colleges will admit students from the high schools who have not studied Greek to the college classes for which they are prepared in mathematics, in Latin, and in natural science, and will furnish such students the opportunity to make up their Greek to the grade of their other studies.

At the next session this action was explained or modified by the following:

Resolved, That the action of the association in December, 1868, was intended simply to recommend to the colleges of the State to receive students who may be defective in Greek, but whose attainments in Latin and mathematics may constitute a full equivalent for said deficiency.

This is still the standing rule of the association upon this question, and probably the general practice of the colleges of the State. At the meeting in Delaware, in 1876, letters were read from a committee of the Ohio Teachers' Association on the relation of the high schools to the colleges. A committee of the association was appointed to respond and to request the teachers' association to appoint a similar committee to report the next year.

At Cincinnati the following year the resolution was again considered. Dr. John Howard, from the Ohio Teachers' Association, addressed the association. The committee appointed the previous year reported, recommending a resolution, almost identical with that passed in 1868, as to admission of high school graduates without Greek, which was again adopted.

In 1885, at Cleveland, the question was again before the association in a discussion of the topic, "What relations between the Ohio schools and the colleges are practicable?"

It was voted that a committee be appointed to confer upon this subject with a similar committee to be appointed by the Ohio Teachers' Association and with high schools, for the purpose of agreeing upon a plan for the admission of high-school graduates to college without further examination. This conference was held and, subsequently, reports made to the association.

At Columbus, in 1888, an extended report was presented with a scheme of studies for schools and colleges, fully adjusting the relations of the two, and rendering it practicable for the schools adopting it to enter their graduates at once as freshmen in the best colleges. This report is still before the college association and the high schools. It is clear that if there is want of harmony between the schools and the colleges it is not for lack of efforts to reach an adjustment.

Of other topics discussed, the methods of teaching in different branches, the lecture system, the value of laboratory work, the use to be made of the library, the plan and conduct of examinations have received constant attention and valuable treatment. The whole subject of what may be called the new education, embracing the whole of scientific studies, modern languages vs. the ancient, English in college, elective studies, and original investigation, has been canvassed and argued on all sides. On the whole, conservative tendency seems to have been predominant, and a strong bias has been manifest for the methods and studies having the approval of long and successful usage, yet there has been a readiness and manifest desire to adopt all improvements as fast as they are shown to be real improvements on the old.

The most interest and effort has been given to this college curriculum and to the standard of work that should be required for the different college degrees.

The object of the association as at first proposed was only for mental interchange of views and mutual improvement of all the higher schools of the State. There was no disposition or effort to discriminate or raise the question whether a school called a college deserved the name

or not.

Any of the thirty or more schools bearing the name of college or university could send its president and professors to the meetings of the association, where they were received without question.

But very early there appeared a disposition to make the association useful in elevating the standard of the colleges of the State, and in removing a somewhat prevalent reproach against them for inferior grade of work and of requirements. In the second year of its existence the record states that the executive committee presented as a proper subject for consideration the following: An examination of the curriculum of each institution represented, for the purpose of ascertaining the relative amount of time given to the studies of each department, viz, languages, ancient and modern; mathematics, sciences, mental and moral philosophy; and such further consideration of the whole subject thus presented as may be thought necessary to secure a somewhat uniform method in this regard among the institutions of the State.

This topic was considered and the courses of the colleges were reported and compared.

Three years later, in 1870, there is this record:

President Tappan, of Kenyon, read a paper containing statistics of several colleges of the State with reference to the course of study. The report was accepted and President Tappan was requested to tabulate and publish his report.

At the meeting in 1873 a paper was presented proposing " that a board of examiners should be created by and for the State of Ohio, with power to examine and graduate the candidates for academic degrees." This paper was discussed and the need of some such arrangement was urged to secure a uniform and worthy standard of requirements for these degrees. The paper was referred to a committee to report at the next meeting.

The next year this committee seems not to have reported, but a paper was read on post-graduate studies and degrees, which again brought up the subject for consideration, and at the following large meeting in 1875 at Delaware, Professor Scott, from this committee, presented an extended report on the requirements for degrees in the various colleges of the State.

This paper was discussed at length, and it was clearly the opinion of those present that the association should fix some standard to which a college must conform in order to be received into its membership.

The whole question was referred to a committee of five, to report the following year what action should be taken to bring this result to pass.

This committee, consisting of representatives from Western Reserve, Denison, Ohio Wesleyan, Kenyon, and Oberlin colleges, had several sessions during the year, and presented the following report at the next meeting in Cincinnati :

It is the judgment of this committee that colleges holding or claiming membership in the association should be able to fulfill three conditions.

(1) There should be the four regular college classes in full operation.

(2) The college course should comprise 4 years of solid work with 15 recitations per week.

(3) The minimum of requirements for admission to the freshman class should be, besides the common English branches, from 2 to 3 years of Latin study with daily recitations, 2 years of Greek with daily recitations, and algebra to quadratic equations. (4) With reference to the propriety of erecting a State board of examiners for degrees, your committee deem such a project impracticable and inadvisable.

This report with slight amendments was adopted, and the question of carrying it into effect was informally discussed without action at this meeting.

Interest in the subject of the standing of Ohio colleges was increased by the opening address of President Taylor, which was upon the topic, "The present condition of collegiate education in Ohio.”

With this discussion and the above report further action weat over to the next annual meeting at Oberlin. At an early stage of this meeting it was voted that a committee of five be appointed to ascertain what colleges come within the conditions of the resolution adopted in 1877 upon the subject of membership in the association, and a committee of three was appointed to nominate the members of this committee of five.