Harrisse, Henry, 1829-1910
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The University of
North Carolina
.
Does the internal condition of the Institution correspond to its external
prosperity?
A
Memorial
Submitted to the consideration of the Executive
Committee of the Board of Trustees.
"It is our clear opinion that the usefulness of the Institution depends not so much on the number of students as on
their exemplary conduct."
(Extract from the minutes of the Board)
September 29th 1856.
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A few years ago, the University
of Oxford gloried in a prosperity which time has not sanctioned.
The number of students was rapidly increasing; Districts which usually sent their
young men to be educated in other institutions now directed their steps towards
Christ Church or
Exeter. The old
chairs were being filled up and new Professorships established; the endowment
had been increased and most of the salaries raised; the dilapidated buildings
pulled down, and fine, spacious halls erected in their place; and if we except
the library, which by an unaccountable and strange policy, possessed but few
books, and no name at all, all seemed to thrive and florish under the
enlightened administration of then Lord Rector.
To the great regret of a few, and the utter surprise of all, the MENE, TEKEL,
UPHARSIN, suddenly blazed out upon the wall. The
Edimburg
Review, in a series of remarkable articles, called the attention of the
public to the state of things which was prevailing inside of that florishing University, and uttered the pithy axiom so
little understood among us, "that the intrinsic excellence of a Literary Institution is not to be estimated by
the multitude of those who flock to it for education."
The voice of Sir
William
Hamilton long remained unheeded: he was a foreigner, a Scotchman. But he
continued to repeat his charges and warnings; he
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appealed to the Press, gained access to the records of
Oxford, and laid before his readers
proofs, tangible proofs, which neither sophistry nor idle assertions could
refute. And he had at last the satisfaction so dear to a consciencious upholder
of right and truth, to see a commission appointed to investigate carefully and
patiently how great was that vaunted prosperity, and whether
Oxford as it seemed, was really
Oxford as it should
be.
The Commission in its
report substantiated Sir William’s disclosures. The Curators, for the most part men of nerve and
independence, saw at once that great changes were needed. Deaf to all threats,
fears and entreaties, they seized the pick ax and shovel with a firm hand,
picking, prying, uprooting and removing every thing which threatened to hinder
the internal and real prosperity of the Institution.
What has been the result of their energetic measures? Oxford is now advancing steadily in the
path of progress; the students have returned to her with alacrity and
confidence; the curriculum is carried out systematically and successfully:
— respect for the instructors, veneration for the Alma-mater, love
for the text-books, study instead of idleness, silence instead of discord, are
now the watch words. Order reigns, and the old University can now challenge
the attacks of Scotch Reviews and the investigations of the power that be.
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It is this result, Gentlemen, which I envy for an Institution which is very dear
to us all; it is your initiative which I respectfully solicit for the
introduction of reforms which I most sincerely deem necessary to the welfare and
lasting prosperity of the University of the
State of North Carolina.
I owe it to myself to declare at the outset that my remarks are not prompted by a
spirit of spite or rancour. Although I have suffered and still suffer greatly,
from the effects of a policy which did to some extent impair my career of
usefulness in the Institution, yet, I am free to say that no such
motives can be justly imputed to me. Grateful for the kind treatment I have
always received at your hands, and good intentions which though thus far
unsuccessful, I am glad to consider as claims which I ever will be ready to
acknowledge, I calmly step forth, and point out to your just consideration,
evils which must be cured, and reforms that have long been needed.
Your time is precious, the evenings are short, and I shall dwell only upon one
point.
The main, if not the sole object of a literary institution, is the imparting to
young men of that share of wholesome knowledge which they most absolutely need,
and strive at great sacrifice of money,
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efforts,
and time, to acquire, retain and evolve in after life. It is self-evident then
that any thing whatever which hinders the acquisition of that knowledge, is a
paramount evil which defeats the very object of the College.
The doors of the
University of North Carolina are flung open to
all comers, and whether deserving of it or not, when once matriculated it is
with the greatest difficulty that they can be removed. At all events, I am free
to assert, and will prove to your satisfaction, that idleness and intolerable
scholarship, are never a cause of suspension or dismissal. I have carefully
perused the records of the
Institution
during the last four years, — for I wish to limit my remarks to my
own experience here; — taken notes of the very many complaints
uttered against the bad scholarship of very many students; frequently heard
those complaints echoed and reechoed by almost all the members of the Faculty
and in regard to the same individuals; ascertained that those complaints had
been made known to the delinquents, that notwithstanding repeated warnings and
threats they had not improved either in deportment or scholarship, and yet, I
have invariably seen those very students follow the class in its progress
towards graduation, as steadily, as securely, as if they really did attend to
their duties in an exemplary manner: thus clinging to the class, and like
restless parasites, sponging on the time and attention of their fellow
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students. This disorderly crowd is recruited from
all ranks, from all classes, from all districts. Disappointed ambition in one, a
fancied injustice on the part of the Faculty in another; natural or acquired
idleness in a third, innate restleness in a fourth,
impunity in all, soon bring out of their shells these outcries of
mischief and disorder. They could be easily checked on first exhibiting their
proclivities; but they are suffered to go on unmolested, unpunished. Impunity
renders them bolder and bolder. It is no longer to tease their teacher that they
set the whole recitation in an uproar, but to gain the plaudits of their class
mates; it is to merit the reputation of a bold, fearless hero, that they insult
the professor himself in his very chair. Impunity, repeated impunity, removes
all checks, opens all sluices and hardens the most timid of students.
The people, the trustees, are not aware and could scarcely realise to what
extent disorder is suffered to exist within the walls of the University of North Carolina. It is a matter of surprise to the
stranger, of daily regrets to the instructor; and if there be in the whole
catalogue of College evils, one, a single one, which loudly claims censure and
reform, it is the tumult and turmoil which at times disgrace the recitation
rooms during recitation hours.
I do not hesitate to assert that as a rule our Students behave in a very
disorderly manner; and so far as I can judge from the opinion expressed by
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the young men who come here from abroad, and the
members of the Faculty who have visited or been educated in other Colleges,
there is not a single institution in the land, except ours, where students are
suffered to be inattentive, talkative and clamourous to such a degree. Not a
day, not a study hour passes, but an outcry, a burst of ironic laughter echoes
and reechoes to our most distant groves. The war-hoop of the Indian is not
shriller than the vociferations which often burst forth from the very recitation
rooms. When no such tumult prevails, they talk, and scuffle, and laugh and yawn,
without any more respect for the place they are in than if they were alone or in
a Fish Market. If the teacher makes a remark, his voice is reechoed by loud
sneers and laughings; does he censure his class for the impropriety of their
conduct, they laugh again; does he order them to appear before the Faculty, are
they in the very presence of the Faculty, they laugh still!
I must not be understood to say that such a state of things exists at all times
and in all recitation rooms; for this would be tantamount to saying that the
No. Ca. University is a chaos, a
Babel. There are some in which
such outbreaks rarely take place; there is one where no noise is ever heard, but
I know of no other. When the classes recited in small divisions and in a room
furnished with black boards, in the Mathematical Department for instance, where
the instructor can "take up" ten and twelve scholars at one
time, no very great
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disturbance need be
apprehended; and yet even there, we hear of hubbubs. Where the blackboard fails
to subdue the petulance of a young man, it may be safely said of him that no
admonition on the part of the Faculty, however solemn, can ever be of any
effect. But let the same crowd assemble in the other departments, let one or two
sections be thrown together, and then the ordeal commences. If you call a whole
class, it is no longer a recitation room but a circus. Let the
President
himself venture to adress all the classes in the Chapel, it
matters little whether his remarks are useful and well worded, it matters little
whether he be the first officer of the
Institution, a
man of note, a man of age; it matters little whether they are in a consecrated
place, a place of divine worship, in three cases out of four, they laugh, stamp
and almost drown his voice.
I have stated, and beg leave to repeat, that the aim of a University is not to
assemble a great many young men and keep them together
quibus cum que viis; its object does not consist in being able to
print yearly a voluminous catalogue with long strings of names; its glory does
not lie in having it heralded through the columns of newspapers that it is in a
florishing condition, because it contains within its walls three hundred
students or more, a Faculty of fifteen instructors, a library without books and
$200000 in bank and rail roadstocks! No, it consists in making of those
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young men entrusted to our care, learned,
studious, well-disciplined and good citizens; in uprooting those evil passions
which young men so easily acquire on the threshold of life; and in preparing
them, through a severe mental discipline, for those avocations which after
leaving college become a means of support to them and usefulness to the
commonwealth. It is self-evident then that every thing should be made to yield
to the claims of knowledge; and that this claim remains unheeded whenever such a
state of things as I have just described, and which I most sincerely believe to
be true, is suffered to prevail in a literary institution, whatever be its
wealth, name or popularity.
Teaching is arduous at all times, so arduous indeed, as to require all the
energies, talents and attention which the instructor can possibly bring into the
discharge of his duties. Now, I ask, how can a teacher do justice to the
studious portion of the class, how can he impart to them rules, and expound
principles, which require a full command of memory and an association of ideas,
the thread of which is sometimes connected at both ends to the most incongruous
sciences, when he must be constantly on the alert, and watch the tongue, hands
and feet of the class; when he is interrupted in his remarks by sneers and
laughter; when at times the noise is so great that he cannot even make himself
heard? But how painful to think that in this motley crowd, there are young men,
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often a large majority of the class, who are
very anxious to learn, watch all your motions and endeavor to discover in your
eyes what your tongue fails to express! These young men, the objects of our
solicitude, are sometimes in reduced circumstances; their fond parents have
stretched all their energies to send them here to be educated; each recitation
perhaps, is purchased by a dire privation!
In a short time, the instructor himself becomes discouraged. The recitation no
longer bears the appearance of a meeting for the inter change of thoughts, but
of a contest of a war. He arms himself with reproofs and censures; he threatens,
all in vain! He then requests, sometimes he flatters, at times he ceases to see
and hear. This, however, is the result of long practice, and before sinking into
an apparent supiness or indifference, he usually has exhausted all other
weapons. He has used and blounted one that never was very sharp, but the most
dreaded of all, the ratio ultima, — a
summons before the Faculty.
Now I ask permission to appeal to figures. Despite the reluctance with which the
instructor resorts to coercive measures, I find on the Faculty journal, just for
our last collegiate year (from July 1855 to July 1856) and independently of all
omissions and private admonitions, between fifty five
and sixty summons for irregularity of conduct in the
recitation room alone: some of the delinquents actually appearing for the eleventh and fifteenth
time!!!
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Out of that vast number, how many were suspended, dismissed or otherwise
punished? To be sure, they all were told less or more severely, "Now,
Sir, you ought to be ashamed of yourself" or "Don’t you do
such a thing again" &c; but out of these 55, only four were
sent home, some to return, however, and become to this day, the dread of their
instructors and a plague to the class, — a wart on the body public!
The circumstances under which this punishment was inflicted need be told.
They were Freshman, and had been in the
institution
about one session and a half; and during that whole time, I do not think that
two Faculty meetings passed off, without complaints being reported by their
teachers. All the mischief done was imputed to them; and although there must
have been some exaggerations in these reports, there is no doubt of their having
been part and parcel of an association called the "Pente,"
which by the common voice of college was charged with tarring the benches,
ringing the bell, and incessantly disturbing the recitation. They had been
brought before the Faculty several times, admonished in private, all in vain. At
last their conduct became so intolerable that they were summoned once more. The
President
was absent from the
Hill. They were all
four dismissed; and, as usual, reinstated a short time afterwards.
Now, mark the effect.
One of these had scarcely returned, when the Faculty
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had to suspend him again for repeated disobedience and disorder, another after
appearing under the charge of being publicly intoxicated and disturbing the
recitation saw himself again "most solemnly warned," the third
has been admonished several times for the same offence; the fourth for a gross
exposure of his person, and, I am sorry to say, for having among other
delinquencies, missed upwards of thirty college duties the very first month he
had been reinstated
Despite all that, these young men, with the exception of one, who, was dismissed
as late as last week, for the third time, are still in our midst, clinging to
the class to the last, and ranking as low in scholarship as they do in
behaviour.
When the stranger, the uniniated one, enquires and wonders at such a strange and
unaccountable leniency, he is politely told by the older members of the Faculty,
"You do not understand it; that is the way we always did manage to get
along; it is a good policy, it keeps the young men here, and after all, they are
gradually improving."
So is mankind in general, and I can scarcely believe that either the public or
the
Trustees, are reposed to wait until the millennium to see the college
graced with orderly students and quiet recitations. At all events, that
improvement is not due to the policy of the Faculty; it is the result of the
wholesome influence of civilization which now begins to make itself felt to the
most remote borders of our land. All the American colleges testify to the fact
that less disorder and dissoluteness exist in their midst than
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in former times. We boast here of having none of
those outbreaks which have so often shaken the very foundations of our
sister-universities; but for one I can answer, that I have several times seen
occasions for such revolutions; and if we do not experience them, it is simply
because of the pithy truism, "that it takes two to make a
fight." However, not very long since, the students burnt one of their
Professors in effigy, amidst the reels and stamping of three hundred and fifty
young men, dancing by the glare of the funeral pile, to the music of their own
yells and vociferations!
Our students, taken one by one, are not in themselves worse than those of other
institutions; they are, as a rule, well-brought up and of good mind, and if soon
after being matriculated, many of them forsake their text-books, and acquire bad
habits, this is simply to be ascribed to the natural bent of the student, who,
if permitted to follow his impulse as a student,
which is quite different from his impulse as a man,
without being effectually checked and curbed in due time, rarely stops until age
mutters to him that the time has come to desist. But then it is generally too
late; the mind has lost its suppleness and those brilliant qualities which are
the appanage of youth. Let the discipline be as lax at Yale, at Princeton, at Columbia, as it is at Chapel Hill, and
they will have there just such a state of things as we have here.
How was it in the days of D
r.
Caldwell
? That
venerable man, to whom is due the credit of having laid the foundation of the
reputation which we enjoy, was
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fully aware of the
real wants and object of a literary institution. Scholarship, good scholarship,
was his sole aim, a moderate, but
certain and
invariable discipline his only method. A scholar
himself, a man capable of appreciating learning in others and to devise the
means to impart it, everything here, bears the mark of his impress! The few
books we possess, and which are rendered still more conspicuous by the sad
appearance of the empty shelves around them, themselves attest his taste, his
erudition and that far sighted policy which exacts as much from dead as from
living teachers. Prudent, paternal, but independent and inflexible in his
principles, he scorned to cater for a puerile popularity. He knew the importance
of his trust, watched the
studies as well as the
behaviour of his pupils, and when he had ascertained
that one was wasting his time and the pecuniary resources of his parents, he did
not wait until he had admonished him fifteen times to remove him: a short but
very distinct intimation to the father or guardian, soon gave to understand that
the interest of the
institution as well as the welfare of his son or
ward, required his immediate withdrawal from the
University:
and
molens volens, withdrawn he invariably was! "A
few good scholars," D
r.
Caldwell
was wont to say, "are better than many bad
ones," and time has sanctioned the wise policy of that good man. Let the
Hoopers, the Hawks, the Masons, the Polks, the Moreheads, the Grahams, and many others whom I cannot well cite, attest the truth
of my words! Living monuments of a strict but enlightened policy, their very
names are more eloquent
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than the fulsome praises
in which some seem to delight, and the bulky catalogues we are so eager to
expose to the public gaze!
The truth is that in our University
there prevails an apprehension that if cogent measures were adopted on just
grounds and enforced for good reasons, the parents, the public, the press, would
not sustain us. This, if true, is a melancholy state of things, indeed; if
unfounded, a gratuitous disbelief in the impartiality and good sense of the
community. But, supposing it is really desirable and profitable, to keep a
student here, whose conduct is disorderly and idleness intolerable, for fear of
hurting the feelings of his friends or incurring the displeasure of the public,
what right have we to make the good students suffer for the sake of the bad
ones? Is not the disorder which they create, and the example they set forth, a
source of annoyance and mischief to the studious and attentive portion of the
class? And in permitting them for months, for years, to carry on their
propensity to such harm and damage, does it not amount to robbing Peter to pay Paul?
Now, where is the father, the citizen, who can ever be so blind to the claims of
justice, his own interest and that of his son, to countenance, to desire a
tolerance which costs so dear both to others and himself? I say, and am proud to
say, that there is not one in a hundred!
The evils which I have pointed out to you, Gentlemen of the
Executive Committee, can be easily
checked. We possess ordinances which if fully enforced would soon
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remove all obstacles and add to our
external prosperity, which is very great, an
internal State of welfare and
intrinsic worth, which could not fail to become a source of happiness
to our citizens, to our
State, and enhance the reputation of an
institution which is so dear to us all. Let a Committee be appointed to visit
the
Institution; and although I am fully aware that
their task will be arduous, and their means of eliciting the truth, much more
limited than is generally supposed, I confidently believe, that they will agree
in the opinion that in the
University of the
State of North Carolina there are crying evils which need to be cured
at once and forever!
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