SYSTEM OF WESTERN EXCHANGES

In the Alumni Bulletin for November 4, Professor C. H. Moore '89 gives an excellent idea of the exchange system now in operation between the University and five colleges in the Middle West. By this arrangement the authorities both here and in the West can more advantageously keep in touch with educational opportunities and needs of both sections of the country. Professor Moore says in part:

"In the spring of 1911, Harvard University entered into an agreement with four colleges in the Middle West where-by what is now commonly known as the Western Exchange was established. The institutions concerned were Knox College at Galesburg, Illinois, Beloit College at Beloit, Wisconsin, Grinnell College, at Grinnell, Iowa, and Colorado College at Colorado Springs, Colorado. Carleton College at Northfield, Minnesota, which shared in the arrangement informally from the first, has now been admitted on equal footing with the original four. According to the agreement the University sends to these colleges annually for half a year a professor who divides his time among them, giving such regular instruction and public lectures as may be arranged; in return each college is entitled to send to Harvard each year a member of its teaching staff who may give instruction requiring not more than one-third of his time, the remainder being given to study or research in the field of his special interest.

"Fortunately none of these institutions is under denominational control. This is not due to change but to the unusual good sense of the founders and their successors. Yet while free from sectarian control, these colleges have had close ties with the Congregationalists and Presbyterians especially, and have always maintained a healthy religious life among their students.

Their endowments range from about $400,000 to $1,200,000 of interest-bearing funds, and measures are now on foot to increase these endowments, for it is realized that the salaries of the teaching staff are inadequate. The faculties have a high proportion of well-trained men whose abilities and devotion merit a much larger financial recognition than is now possible. In material equipment all are provided with scientific laboratories fairly well suited to their needs. The provision made in their libraries varies. As at the University the library funds are comparatively slight. The greatest need of these institutions at present is money for increased salaries and for books.

"These colleges are all co-educational. The attendance varied in 1913-14 from about four hundred to six hundred and thirty-five. The students, however, are not drawn exclusively from the immediate communities. Last year Beloit, for example had students from eighteen different states; while Colorado College gathered its company from no less than thirty-four states and foreign countries.

"In all these institutions liberal studies in the broad sense are primarily cultivated. The state universities must give their attention largely to technical training; there are few in which liberal studies are not overshadowed by the so-called "practical" interests. Colleges like those in the exchange are maintaining an interest in literature, history, art, and science, on the preservation of which the best elements of our civilization depend.

"During the three years in which the Exchange has been in operation the University has sent to the West Professors A. B. Hart '80, G. H. Palmer '64, and C. H. Moore '89; the second half of the current academic year Professor L. J. Henderson '98 will be the representation. According to the agreement the exchange Professor, during his stay at each college, takes one of the regular classes in his subject, teaching it as he would in the University. Professor Hart gave instruction in American History. Professor Palmer in Ethics, and Professor Moore in Latin Literature. Each visiting Professor gives also a course of lectures of more general interest to which the public is admitted. Besides these regular engagements he is invited to speak on many occasions and on varied topics.