It was explained to the meeting by one of the members present, that
at a session of the Board of Trustees recently held in
Raleigh, it had become an object to devise and adopt the
most eligible scheme of instruction and internal regulation
especially for the Sophomore and Freshman Classes, which the present
state of the institution will admit.
For the accomplishment of this object a select Committee had been
appointed by the Board. In prosecuting the business
assigned to them, the Committee had requested of the professors, or
as many of them as could be assembled, such suggestions and
expositions as might be pertinent to the object proposed, and most
instrumental in its attainment.
After deliberation the professors would offer the following plan as
the most eligible that occurs to them in
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existing circumstances.
It is proposed that there shall be three Tutors, of whom one is to be
styled the first or principal Tutor. His business as an instructor
is to teach the latin and french languages, with a salary of
$750 a year.
A second Tutor is proposed to give instruction exclusively in greek,
and a third in mathematics.
From the opportunity which the professors have had in times past, of
being conversant with the influences which act upon young men in
regard to the tutorships, it is thought that the salary of
$400 is not sufficient to induce persons of competent
qualifications to accept these offices. In our own State,
the University itself is the source to
which we are to look principally, if not entirely for young men who
can act with requisite ability as Tutors. We shall not possess the
advantages common to the colleges of our country, if we be not able
to secure and induce into the tutorship, graduates of the very first
rank in scholarship and talents, when their services are wanted from
year to year.
If we limit the salaries of tutors to $400,
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gentlemen of high qualifications will
undoubtedly be called away from us, or if they accept of our
tutorships for want of instant offers of higher salaries, they will
soon be tempted to desert us by the more liberal compensations which
it is in the power of every petty institution in the country to
proffer over our heads. To effectual action in a tutorship, weight
of character is of very great importance. The requisite influence
can be established only by time. A new tutor must always continue to
officiate for the first months after entering on his office, under
disadvantages necessarily greater or less. It is not until he has
passed through many trials in instruction and government that his
authority can be established. It is desirable, nay it is of the
first consequence to the discipline and character of the college
that this authority should be united with the best scholarship,
& the most commendatory qualifications in the instructors.
With the salary of a tutor as it now is, it is hopeless to secure
either eminent abilities or continuance in office.
To obtain for the
University a tolerable
prospect of success in competing for the services of her own
graduates
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we would propose that the
salaries of Tutors be established as follows:
A graduate who has never taught shall receive per annum . . .
. .$450
A graduate who has taught one year . . . . .500
A graduate who has taught two years . . . . .600
Some regulations respecting the duties of the Tutors have been
already adopted by the Board at a former meeting. They are
repeated here for the sake of connection, and are as follows.
"It shall be the duty of the Tutors to reside in the college
buildings and to be personally present in them with as much
constancy as possible, not only in the hours of study, but at all
other times: to maintain order and decorum among the students, and
to assist under the direction of the president and professors in the
instruction of the classes."
"Should a Tutor at any time find it necessary to be absent
from the college during the session, the case should be stated by
him to the president (that it may be known whether the college can
dispense with his personal attendance in existing circumstances, and
the case to be judged of by the president
*) that provision may be made
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for the instruction and government
which are to devolve upon others during his absence."
"It is the duty of every member of the Faculty individually
to be vigilant in carrying into effect the laws of the college, and
to report to the president or to the Faculty, transgressions which
ought to be punished by that body. A great object of the
Board in appointing tutors to occupy rooms in the college
buildings is to suppress disorders and to prevent noise and mischief
(at all times) in the rooms and passages, and in other places either
in the village, or in the neighborhood of the colleges."
(In doing this they are expected to set not only individually, but
unitedly; nor in one building only, but in all the buildings
promiscuously, as emergencies may require.
*)
To these provisions already adopted by the Board, it it
is recommended to add the following.
It shall be the duty of a Tutor when he is to hear a class recite, to
go to the recitation room and take possession of it a reasonable
time before the hour for the bell to ring, to prevent assemblages of
students
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before the proper time, and
to see that the recitation room is in a proper condition for the
reception of the class. The recitation of a class shall continue
through the whole hour at least, or till the bell shall give notice
of its expiration.