Part 13 (1/2)
CHAPTER VI
THE LOYAL ALUMNAE
I
Ever since we becaratulate ourselves upon the democratic character of our American system of education In the early days, neither poverty nor social position was a bar to the child who loved his books The daughter of the hired man ”spelled down” the farirl earned their board and tuition at the acadees entlemen commoners” and common folk; and as our public school systeh schools, free to any child living in the United States, irrespective of his father's health, social status, or citizenshi+p, wethat the last word in deinning of the twentieth century, t voices have begun to be heard; at first sotto voce, they have risen through a murmurous pianissimo to a decorous non troppo forte, and they continue crescendo,--the voice of the teacher and the voice of the graduate And the burden of their enuinely degestions of the teacher who is expected to carry out the systeraduate who is asked to finance it
The teachers' point of view is finding expression in the various organizations of public school teachers in Chicago, New York, and elsewhere, looking towards reforeneral; and in the movement towards the fore Professors, started in the spring of 1913 by professors of Colu at Baltimore, in November, 1913, unofficial representatives from Johns Hopkins, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, Clark, and Wisconsin were present, and a committee of twenty-five was appointed, with Professor Dewey of Coluanization and draw up a constitution” President Schurman, in a report to the trustees of Cornell, makes the situation clear when he says:
”The university is an intellectual organization, coating, so--but all dedicated to the intellectual life The Faculty is essentially the university; yet in the governing boards of American universities the Faculty is without representation”
President Schurested that one third of the board consist of faculty representatives At Wellesley, since the founder's death, the trustees have welcomed recommendations from the faculty for departmental appointments and promotions, and this practice now obtains at Yale and Princeton; the trustees of Princeton have also voted voluntarily to confer on academic questions with a committee elected by the faculty
An admirable exposition of the teachers' case is found in an article on ”Academic Freedom” by Professor Howard Crosby Warren of the Departy at Princeton, in the Atlantic Monthly for November, 1914 Professor Warren says that ”In point of fact, the teacher to-day is not a free, responsible agent His career is practically under the control of laymen Fully three quarters of our scholars occupy acadeator, whatever professional standing he may have attained, is subject to the direction of soator he may be quite untrammeled, but as teacher, it has been said, he is half tyrant and half slave
”The scholar is dependent for opportunity to practice his calling, as well as for enerally controlled by clergymen, financiers, or representatives of the state
”The absence of true professional responsibility, coupled with traditional accountability to a group of , narrows the outlook of the average college professor and dwarfs his ideals Any serious departure fro educational practice, such as the reconstruction of a course or the adoption of a new study, ent
”In deter of a scholar and the soundness of his teachings, surely the profession itself should be the court of last appeal”
The point of view of the graduate has been defining itself slowly, but with increasing clearness, ever since the governing boards of the colleges made the very practical discovery that it was the duty and privilege of the alumnus to raise funds for the support of his Alether, usually at the instigation of trustees or directors and alith their blessing, to secure the conditional gifts proffered to universities and colleges by American multimillionaires, should quickly become sensitive to the fact that they had no power to direct the spending of the money which they had so efficiently and laboriously collected An individual alumnus with sufficient wealth to endow a chair or to erect a building could usually give his gift on his own ter the policy of the institutions which they were helping to support
The result of this awakening has been what President Emeritus William Jewett Tucker of Dartmouth has called the ”Aluo, President Hadley of Yale are of the stirrings of this movement, when he said, ”The influence of the public senti, that wherever there is a chance for its organized cooperation, faculties and students are only too glad to follow it”
It would be incorrect, however, to give the iovernes before the Alumni Movement assumed its present proportions
Representatives of the alumni have had a voice in the affairs of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton Self-perpetuating boards of trustees have elected to their membershi+p a certain number of mature alumni
In soraduates noraduate vacancies on these boards
The benefits of alumnae representation on the Board of Trustees seem to have occurred to the alumnae and the trustees of Wellesley almost simultaneously As early as June, 1888, the Alumnae association of Wellesley appointed a committee to present to the trustees a request for alumnae representation on the Board; but as the association met but once a year, results could not be achieved rapidly, and in June, 1889, the committee reported that it had not presented the petition as it had been informed unofficially that the possibility of alumnae representation was already under consideration by the trustees In fact, the trustees, at aof the Alumnae association, this very June of 1889, had elected Mrs Marian Pelton Guild, of the class of 1880, a life h appreciating the honor done them by the election of Mrs Guild, still did not feel that the question of representation had been adequately met, and in June, 1891, a new committee was appointed with instructions to infores to insure the representation of the graduate body on governing boards, and also to convey to the trustees the alu desire for representation of a specified character And a second time the trustees forestalled the committee and, in a letter addressed to the association and read at the annualin June, 1892, made known their desire ”to avail themselves of the cooperation of the association” and to ”cee by granting them further representation on the Board of Trustees A committee from the association was then appointed to discuss methods with a committee froiven by Harriet Brewer Sterling, Wellesley, '86, in an article in the Wellesley Magazine for March, 1895 By the terreement between the Board and the association, the association has the right to nominate three members from its own number for raduates of seven years' standing, not e faculty Graduates of less than three years' standing are not qualified to vote for the nominees The nominations must be ratified by the Board of Trustees The term of service of these alumnae trustees is six years, but a nominee is chosen every two years In order to establish this method of rotation, two of the three candidates first nominated served for two and four years respectively, instead of six The first election was held in the spring of 1894, the nominations were confirmed by the Board in November, and the three new trustees sat with the Board for the first tianizations have increased in size, and raphical area, it has becoraduate opinion on college matters and to make sure that alumni, or alumnae, representatives actually do represent their constituents and carry out their wishes And the Alureater unity of organization in alumni bodies”
In an article on Graduate Councils, in the Wellesley College News for April, 1914, Florence S Marcy Crofut, Wellesley, '97, has collected interesting evidence of the ie world She writes, ”More clearly than generalization would show, proofs lie in actual organization and accomplishments of the 'Alumni Movement' which has worked itself out in what may be called the Graduate Council Moveanization of the Graduate Council of Princeton University in January, 1905, the Secretary, Mr H G Murray, to whom Wellesley is deeply indebted, has received requests froard to the work of Princeton's Council”
Aes was Wellesley, and the plan for her Graduate Council, presented by the Executive Board of the Alu of the association on June 21, 1911, and voted at that rowth of the ideals which led to the formation of the Alumnae association in 1880 The preamble of the associationthe benefits we have received from our alma mater, we desire to extend the helpful associations of student life, and to e that we , to the end that her usefulnessthe formation of the Wellesley Graduate Council, in the Wellesley College News for October 5, 1911, it is explained that, ”From the time since the 1910-12 Executive Board (of the Alumnae association) came into office, it has felt that there was need for a bond between the alue administration; and it believes that this need will be raphical) definitely chosen graduate body, which shall act as a clearing-house for the larger Alunized also as an additional reason for organizing such a graduate body, that it was necessary to do so if the Wellesley Alumnae association is to keep abreast of the activities in sianizations” The purpose of the Council, as stated in 1911, is a fitting expansion of the association's prea in large numbers and are scattered e to theroup of alumnae shall be chosen froe authorities on raduate interests, as well as to furnish the college, by this group, the hout the country on anya pioneer, and Wellesley has been able to profit by the experience of her predecessors in this movement, particularly Princeton and Smith Membershi+p in the Councils of Wellesley and Sraphical basis, but Wellesley is unique a a faculty representation The relation between faculty and alumnae at Wellesley has always beento the Council representatives of the faculty who are not graduates of the college, the alumnae would seem to indicate that their aims and ideals for their Alma Mater are at one with those of the faculty
The membershi+p of the Wellesley Graduate Council is coe, ex officio; ten members of the Academic Council, chosen by that body, no more than two of whom may be alumnae; the three alumnae trustees; the members of the Executive Board of the Alumnae association; and the councilors from the Wellesley clubs As there were more than fifty Wellesley clubs already in existence in 1915, and every club of from twenty-five to one hundred members is allowed one councilor, and every club of more than one hundred members is allowed one councilor for each additional hundred, while neighboring clubs of less than twenty-five members may unite and be represented jointly by one councilor, it will be seen that the Council is a large and constantly growing body Clubs such as the Boston Wellesley Club, and the New York Wellesley Club, which already had a large membershi+p, received a tremendous impetus to increase their numbers after the formation of the Council All members of the Council, with the exception of the president of the college and the dean, who are permanent, serve for two years
The officers of the Graduate Council are the corresponding officers of the Alumnae association, and also serve for two years The Executive Committee of five members includes the president and secretary of the Council, an alumna trustee chosen annually from their own nue
The Council e; in February, for a period of three days or less, following theis held at so of the Aluain differs from that of Smith, whose committee of five e,--in January The ”Vassar Provisional Alumnae Council”, like the Wellesley Graduate Council, e, but unlike Wellesley, it elects a chairman who may not be at the same time the President of the Vassar associate Alumnae Bryn Mae are told by Miss Crofut, has no Graduate Council corresponding exactly to the Councils of other colleges; but her academic committee of seven members e and a committee of the faculty to discuss academic affairs”