The History of the University of Pennsylvania/Chapter XII
Chapter XII.
Languishing Condition of the Schools in the University.—Defective Arrangements Upon Which This Condition Depended.
The inquiry may now be reasonably made, whether the success of the university was such as to justify those high and apparently well grounded expectations to which the union of the schools had given rise. For the honour of Philadelphia it would be well could we truly answer this question in the affirmative; but the fact is too notorious to be denied, that, with the exception of the pecuniary affairs, which were soon brought into good order and comparative prosperity, there was reason for several years rather to regret a still further depression, than to boast of an advancement in the fortunes of the institution. Since the first establishment of the college, there had scarcely been a period, unless during the severest commotions of the revolution, when the students in the higher branches were less numerous, or the reputation of the seminary at a lower ebb. In the philosophical school, consisting of the two highest classes, there were in the year 1797 only twelve students; the numbers qualified to graduate were in several instances so few, that it was deemed unnecessary and impolitic to hold commencements; and when the practice of conferring degrees publicly was resumed, it not unfrequently happened, that only five or six individuals appeared as candidates for the honours. It is not to be supposed that this state of things was regarded with indifference by the trustees: on the contrary, committees of investigation were frequently appointed; the sources of the evil were diligently explored; as each mistake or deficiency was rendered sensible, efforts were made to correct or supply it; till at length the features of the institution were completely changed, and its whole system so remodled as to bring it into closer accordance with the character of the times, and to extend considerably its sphere of usefulness.
The historian of nations deems it his duty not only to record alternations of prosperity and misfortune, glory and disgrace; but also to search out and explain the causes of these changes, that useful lessons may thus be afforded to statesmen, and the good of the past augmented, and its evil diminished, by the example and warning it is made to hold out to the future. The same principle should influence the humbler author, who confines his attention to small communities; for they, too, may have successors to be benefited by the picture of their vicissitudes. No excuse, therefore, is necessary for attempting to expose the causes of the very low condition into which the university was depressed, at the close of the last, and commencement of the present century.
Among these causes may, perhaps, be included the practice of compensating the professors by fixed salaries, without allowing them any share in the proceeds of tuition. There is a vis inertiæ in mind as well as in matter, and the best men acknowledge that, to put forth their highest energies, they require the incitement of powerful motives. An officer with a fixed salary, of which he neither fears the diminution nor expects the increase, without any apprehension, so long as he exhibits no gross negligence or misconduct, of losing his situation, and equally without the hope of higher advancement, will, if an honest man, perform punctually his prescribed routine of duties; but he will seldom be willing to sacrifice allowable gratifications, to devote to labour his hours of permitted leisure, to task, in fine, all his faculties to the utmost, with no other reward in view than the welfare of those by whom he may be employed, or of the institution to which he may be attached. In great seminaries, where so much depends upon the talents and energy of the teachers, the lukewarmness resulting from this want of strong personal interest, may be seriously felt in the languor of their operations, and the consequent disrepute into which, if not strongly supported by local attachments, or the force of opinion, they will be apt to fall. With regard to the school of Philadelphia, it may, indeed, be said, that the regulation alluded to, had been introduced at its origin, and had been maintained during its greatest prosperity. But at that early period, there was comparatively little competition to encounter; novelty itself afforded no moderate stimulus to exertion; and in the instability and immaturity of the infant establishment, there was, in fact, a strong inducement held out to the professors to spare no efforts which might tend to fix it on a more elevated and firmer basis, and thus render their own situation more honourable and secure. That afterwards, when age had given it stability, and its continued existence was secured by its own internal strength, the system of compensation by fixed salaries became highly injurious to its interests, cannot be reasonably doubted. The fact, indeed, was so obvious, that it at length attracted the notice and interference of the trustees, who in the spring of 1800, came to a resolution, that the professors, in addition to their regular salaries, which at that time varied from two hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty pounds per annum, should be entitled to the tuition money of their respective schools, thus giving them a motive for exertion which could not but be productive of favourable results.
These results, however, were not immediate. There were yet some radical errors, the injurious influence of which, so long as they were allowed to remain, no industry nor talent in the teachers could wholly counteract. But by their late resolve the trustees had brought a principle into action, which never rests till all its purposes are accomplished. The interests of the professors having become identical with those of the seminary, there now existed, in the faculty of arts, a body of men watchful over its concerns, quick-sighted in detecting all the weak parts of its structure, sagacious in discovering remedies for present evils and sources of new vigour, and eager to bring their views into practical application. The board of trustees, which, though composed of some of the wisest and best men in the community, is naturally slow in the formation of opinions, and still slower in its decisions, was quickened by this spirit of its own creation into clearer views and more energetic action. The subsequent changes may therefore be said to have grown out of that first regulation, which, planted in the principles of our nature, could not but spring up into vigorous and fruitful increase.
The system of the seminary was fundamentally wrong. In the first place, the professors had no sufficient bond of union by which, in the business of instruction, their efforts might harmonize, and their strength operate to the greatest advantage by being exerted in one direction. With the exception of the professors of moral and natural philosophy, who divided the philosophical classes between them, each had his distinct school, which he managed at his own discretion, and the pupils of which had no other connexion with the university than such as arose from the office held by their teacher. With such an organization, the pursuit of any systematic course of instruction, if possible at all, must have been liable to continual interruptions, alike injurious to the scholar, and derogatory to the credit of the school.
Another evil existed in the want of proper classification among the students. The distinction between the collegiate and academical parts of the institution, which had never been sufficiently marked, was now scarcely perceptible. Almost every branch of knowledge considered essential in a course of education, from the lowest to the highest, was included in its scheme; and if we except the two philosophical classes, the students of every grade were mingled together, not only under the same roof, but in the same apartment, and under the same teachers; so that the boy learning the simplest rules of arithmetic, or the first lesson in grammar, was neighbour to the young man engaged in the highest mathematical and classical studies. In this absence of discrimination, an impolitic disregard was exhibited to that strongest feeling of the youthful breast, the desire of distinction; which gives to the priority of a few years in age, or a slight superiority of attainment, a degree of importance, the influence of which we are apt, in manhood, to forget or undervalue. To be associated as pupils in the same establishment, even to be seen coming out of the same door with children but just out of their petticoats, was to the elder students, who began to look upon themselves as young men, a highly disagreeable necessity; but to be mingled in the close fellowship of a schoolroom, was a degradation to which only the force of parental authority could induce them to submit. All whose own inclinations were consulted, were naturally induced to prefer some other seminary, where their claims to a proper consideration would be respected; and numbers were thus directed away from the school of Philadelphia, whom the advantages of proximity, united with their local attachments, would otherwise have connected with it.
Another circumstance contributed to the same result. It is the custom in most colleges for the students to pursue their studies in private, and to be collected together in the presence of the professors for a short time only each day, for the recital of the prescribed lessons, or to attend the lectures which are usually given. But, by the regulations of the university, it was required that the scholars of the higher as well as lower classes should be detained for several hours, both in the morning and afternoon, within the walls of the seminary, where they were compelled to attend to their several subjects of study under the immediate eye of their teachers, being considered as too young or too giddy to be trusted to their own private exertions, and as needing some other incentive to exertion, than the desire of applause, fear of shame, or sense of duty.
From these causes it happened that the alumni of the university were not only few, but often of an age better adapted to the commencement than to the completion of a course of the higher studies; and the institution came to be regarded as a seminary of inferior grade, which, however well it might have been adapted to those circumstances of a young community in accordance with which it was originally established, had not kept pace with the general march of improvement, and was now behind many others of which it had formerly enjoyed the undoubted precedence.
opened for the reception of students in the autumn of 1830. During the progress of the building, the classes were accommodated in the old academy in Fourth Street A representation of the former university edifice may be seen in the "Views in Philadelphia and its Vicinity," published in Philadelphia in 1827, by C. G. Childs.—January, 1834.