The Expansion of Middlebury College By PRESIDENT JOHN M. THOMAS MIDDLEBURY, VERMONT MAY, 1910 '<-■>• ■■: The Expansion of Middlebury College. "The main thing that gives me confidence as to Mid- dlebury is the justice of her claim!' A, Barton Hepburn, Two years ago I assumed the administration of Middlebury College. I found an institution unsur- passed among American colleges for the honor of its record in proportion to the means at its command. The roster of its graduates in early years is a continuous narrative of distinguished services in the life of the American people. Mention of a few names, like Edward J. Phelps, Solomon Foot, Silas Wright, Henry Norman Hudson, and John G. Saxe, does injustice to that record, since the essential fact is not the graduation of a few men of note, but the constant stream of men of worth and power. In the early decades the College was almost the only outlet into the larger world for the youth of a rural populace signally endowed with virile force and the genius of expansion. Traditions of youth in homespun who became leaders in the nation linger about the walls of Middlebury and create an atmosphere favorable to the building of strong char- acter and the growth of wholesome ideals of plain living and the achievement of success by merit. 2 EXPANSION OF MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE. There was no debt hanging over the Careful institution, and we are not now in Administration, debt. Despite the severe temptation in the recent vast expansion of higher education to install new departments and courses, the College had consistently refused to undertake more than could be paid for from current receipts. I can not be too grateful that my first work was not to wipe out a burdensome indebtedness and to struggle with an habit- ual deficit. The College has never impaired its capital, and during all its no years has never lost a dollar of trust funds by defalcation or by unfortunate investment. That fact alone speaks volumes for the wise conserv- atism of its management. Wisely, no effort had been made to expand into a university. But one course was given, that leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree, and that course compared favorably with the similar course in larger institutions. The time-honored departments in literature, mathe- matics, and the fundamental sciences were well manned and well equipped for the work they assumed to do. There was nothing cheap or superficial about Middle- bury' s work, no pretence to do more than facilities allowed. The catalogue was an honest book, and students were not deceived with high-sounding an- nouncements which could not be fulfilled. When I began my work for Middle- A Solid bury, the College had enjoyed a steady, Foundation. healthful growth for about twenty years. For six years there had been an average net gain of twenty students a year, showing that the MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE BULLETIN. 3 institution was working its way into increasing favor without spectacular methods or lowering of its standards. These facts indicate the solid foundation upon which Middlebury College rests. Appeal for its further support is not an invitation to invest in an experiment. To give money to a college ought to mean to place funds where they will work forever — which is a very long while — and in such a long-time investment the inquirer ought to demand a considerable record of sane, wise management. Middlebury College can meet the scrutiny of the most prudent as to the careful safe- guarding of its funds and the utmost possible employ- ment of them in beneficent work. Other considerations which forced Difficulties. themselves to my notice when I took up my work for Middlebury were not so heartening. The endowment of the College was but $410,000, yielding but $21,500 a year. This is a very small sum for the administration of a college. Williams has $1,500,000 endowment, Amherst $1,750,- 000, Dartmouth $2,500,000, Yale $10,000,000, Harvard $20,000,000. These figures include endowment only, not the value of buildings, libraries, and laboratories. The five buildings of Middlebury are valued at $225,000, less than the cost of the Thompson Chapel at Williams, or the Carnegie Lake at Princeton, or the Archbold Gymnasium at Syracuse. The total value of the buildings at Williams is $1,204,025; Amherst, $582,- 900; Dartmouth, $1,400,000; Harvard, $11,000,000. Middlebury had published no statement of her resources, and the general impression was that the 4 EXPANSION OF MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE. College was rich, whereas in fact few colleges in New England have had less to do with. From the year of its founding, Middle- Makmg a bury has rendered special encouragement College Pay. to young men who have a hard time to get a start. Early benefactions to the institution almost invariably took the form of scholar- ship foundations, designed to yield the tuition charges of deserving students. The dispensing of these scholar- ships established the habit among its constituency of seeking beneficiary aid, and I learned that very few of the students paid any large proportion of their tuition. The more prosperous colleges can count upon a dollar from tuition for every dollar from endowments, and thus our small endowment was proportionately less effective than the larger sums of the more favored insti- tutions. I soon perceived that it was a hopeless task to think of providing for needed expansion by the income from additional invested funds, and that the College itself must be put upon a better paying basis. I was told that it was impossible : that the students were too poor ; that boys came to Middlebury because it was cheap and would not come if they had to pay tuition ; that many scholarships were in the hands of private trustees, who had purchased the right to them by small gifts in early years, and who would come forward to claim them. But notwithstanding every difficulty, the income from tuition was increased $4,000 the first year, a similar gain has been made the present year, and the receipts from tuition are now eight times what they were two years ago. There is every reason to expect an advance of MIDDLKBURY COLLEGE BULLETIN. 5 $4, 000 a year from this source for at least two years more. Other notable advances may be indicated briefly : A gain of 25 per cent, in the number Gains of the of studentS5 from ^ to ^ the last as wo freshman class numbering 97, the largest number both of men and of women ever received at one time in the history of the College. The establishment of a Department of Pedagogy for the training of high school teachers by the State, with an annual appropriation of $6, 000, making the College an integral part of the State's system of educa- tion, in a field proper to its genius and of great pros- pective value both to the institution itself and to the State of Vermont. The addition of seven instructors to the Faculty, an increase of 50 per cent., young men who will give the best years of their lives to the College at very mod- erate cost. The securing of the Pearsons Fund of $100,000, of which $70,000 will be used for a beautiful marble dor- mitory for women, accommodating, with the adjacent cottage, nearly 100 girls. The acquisition of 35 acres of land across the street from the present grounds, providing an adequate campus for a college for women. The beginning of a successful Summer Session, with an attendance of 87 the first year. I have been working thus far to estab- A Basis for Hsh confidence, and I think I have a Confidence. right now to ask for it. It has been proved that something may be done for 6 EXPANSION OK MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE. Middlebury : that the College has an appeal for a trained benefactor like Dr. D. K. Pearsons, whose survey of the educational situation is as wide as the nation and who investigates before he gives ; that Middlebury has a hold upon the State of Vermont, which entrusts to her an important part of her educa- tional work ; that the College can be made to pay, to the extent that it is wise to make such an institution pay . On the basis of these facts I ask for the good will of men of judgment. Now as to the present situation of our Inadequate College. Only two Professorships are Endowment. adequately endowed, the Jermain Pro- fessorship of Political Science and the Hepburn Foundation for the Dean of Women. We have other Professorships, but the funds are insufficient to sustain the chairs, except one whose income is not yet available. An increase in Professorships, for each of which $30,000 should be the minimum sum, or of general endowment, is greatly needed. Our plant is large enough for a col- Insufficient lege of 200 students, and we have now Plant. 256 and can count upon not less than 275 next year. Our recitation rooms are too few, and those we have are overcrowded. It is difficult to make one's way through the halls of the old Chapel, our only general recitation building, at the times of the change of classes. The Warner Science Hall, finished only eight years ago, is full to overflow- ing. We should have twice the room for Chemistry at once and another instructor. We have no geological MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE BULLETIN. J laboratory ; with the large quarrying interests of Ver- mont, this is a great lack. No dormitory for men has been What $75,000 erected since 1865. Every room in Would Do. the present dormitories is occupied. What we are to do with next year's class I simply do not know, nor do I know how we can provide places for them in chapel. We now hold chapel in two sections ; some of the young men have seats on the platform, and the young women in the Science Hall require chairs in the aisles. We need a new dormitory for men , plainly and economically built, but with adequate toilets and baths, and such a general appearance as will encourage gentlemanliness. Seventy-five thousand dollars would equip such a dor- mitory for 75 boys ; while the income from the building would sustain a Professor, and the tuition of the students whom it would attract would pay the salaries of two more. No college, especially in a northern A Gymnasium. region, is equipped for the proper care of young men and women which has not a gymnasium and a physical director. Every stu- dent should have a physical examination immediately on entering college, and should be required, for two years at least, to take systematic exercise under trained direc- tion. The gain to our students from such an equip- ment would be immeasurable. It would multiply their effectiveness in after years and impart a more wholesome tone to the life of the entire College. I want to install a physical director in an adequate gym- 8 EXPANSION OF MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE. nasium at the earliest possible moment. It will not be a training room for athletes, but a place of physical discipline for every student. I have written a dozen college presidents, and every one of them tells me that a gymnasium is an essential part of the equipment of a modern college. They tes- tify also that $60,000 is an adequate sum for such a gymnasium, for a college of our size, though some of them add that they would prefer to wait for a larger amount. Fifteen years ago Hon. John G. An Immediate McCullough gave us $1,000 for a Opportunity, gymnasium. The fund has been carefully guarded, and now amounts to $1,477. ^e same generous donor now offers to give $25,000 provided the balance of a gymnasium fund of $60,000 can be pledged before Commencement of this year. Thus far the Alumni and students have brought the fund to $40,000, including Governor McCullough' s offer. I appeal to the friends of Middle- bury, and of young men and women, for the balance. The reasonable expansion, then, of Middlebury College in the years immediately future should include the following : General Endowment, or Professorships, $75,000 00 Dormitory for Men, - - 75> 000 °° New Scientific L,ab oratories, - - 75>°°° °° Recitation Hall for Women, - 60,000 00 Central Heating and Lighting Plant, 30,000 00 Gymnasium, ... - 60,000 00 Chapel, - 75>°°° °° Total, - - - $450,000 00 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE BULLETIN. 9 Every one of these buildings could be profitably em- ployed as soon as it could be erected. Maintenance of the present rate of growth will make them absolutely necessary in a very short time. The high school popu- lation of Vermont has increased 80 per cent, in twenty years, and in the surrounding States the growth is not less rapid. The demand for higher education is increas- ing with its increasing saneness and profitableness. Colleges for women especially are overcrowded ; every woman's college in New England is refusing deserving applicants with money to pay the high cost, and most of them have increased their charges beyond the reach of the girls of frugal homes. There is a magnificent opportunity at Future of Middlebury for a sensible, plain, effi- Mtddlebury. cient college, where a modest scale of living is encouraged. Such an institu- tion will attract the superior students, of eager ambi- tion, scholarly ideals, and sensible ideas of living. The one hundred years of Middlebury' s past furnish a superb background for such a college. All the tradi- tions favor ; there are no disheartening obstacles in the nature of aristocratic or non-academic sentiments. All that is necessary is additional funds, modest in com- parison with the requirements of great universities, which will yield large returns in educational result on the capital invested. The other day I visited the Bal- A Plea for linger High School in Newark, N. J., Vermont Boys, and was shown the new gymnasium, costing about the sum I am seeking IO EXPANSION OF MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE. for Middlebury. It is a beautiful building, plain but serviceable. I looked at the names of pupils on the school register : they were Jay Bach, James Fausto, Johanna Begieburg, Pauline Plemenik, Edgar Iyieb- scher, Benjamin Yawitz, Abraham Reich, et al. I am glad that these children of the stranger have such advantages ; but I covet for our Middlebury students, 60 per cent, of whom come from Vermont and over 90 per cent, from New England, whose fathers made this nation and fought to save it, some of the good things freely afforded to Benjamin Yawitz and Abraham Reich. The function of a college is the service Practical of the State. Higher education is not Education. for luxury, but for the training of lead- ers in the hard work and exacting tasks demanded by the community life. We must send out strong men and noble-minded women, and equip them definitely and practically for the particular work that needs doing in the present day. The cost per student at Middlebury is less than at almost any other American college of similar grade. We are doing well with what we have, but we need more in order that we may do more, and build for the youth of the best stock America affords the college they deserve. They are worth larger educational opportunities than are now at their disposal, and whatever sacrifice any friend will devote to their uplift will bear fruit a hundred fold. It does not take a Carnegie or a Rocke- The Moral. feller to help a college. Our dormitory for girls will be built with the money of 397 contributors ; 377 individuals gave $100 or less. MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE BULLETIN. II It would be a pleasure to confer with any donor who would consider the personal gift of an entire building, or the foundation of a Professorship, perhaps with the guarantee of the College of an annuity during the life time of the giver, but the privilege is offered a large number of friends to help in any amount toward the securing of the needed $20,000 for the completion of the Gymnasium Fund. Checks may be made payable to John A. Fletcher, Treasurer, or cards may be signed pledging payment before June, 191 1. JOHN M. THOMAS. MiddlEBURY, Vt., May 20, 1910. The corporate name of Middlebury College is THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE. Bequests should be made in this name. . MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE BULLETIN Vol. IV. No. 5 Published by the College September, October, December, February, May, and July. Entered as second class matter at the postofftce, Middlebury, Vermont, under act of Congress, of July 16, 1894.