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Albion Stirred Up

Albion Stirred Up image
Parent Issue
Day
26
Month
March
Year
1884
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

To the Editor oi the Ann Arbor Courier : A few faots plainly stated vvill dispose pretly fully of the critieisms on Albion College contained in au article in your issue of the l!)th inst. The criticisms are summarized in these two proposilions : " 1. Michigan MctbodWU wil] bullü l'nr Albion a dozen observatorios" - & little extravagant - " but protest against education in the starry scienees by a professor of prohibilion. 2. Michigan MethoJlsts will give Albion i munifieent enJowineut, but when its avails are prostituteil to the building of a Conservatory :f Music which is offioered by eleven instructora and professors (with a D.D., LL. D. at tueir head) tlmy will send their ons and daughters whero a college cdu;ation raay be had, etc." The latter proposition first. I will intorm your contributor of a fact that will mrely be of interest to liim, which is this' ;hat not one dollar of the inconie from Jie eiidowment is used to support the 3onservatory of Music. The receipts for nstruetion In music have paid for this intruction, takin yie entlre time the dejartment has been in existence. Alliough iu two 3reas the nuraber of natructoia has increased fioui otie to six. ure a-mservatory has not cailid upon m general irtí..M.v for anv ( 0, ta support, but has itself purcnased tour pianos, and one $1,000 urgrtn. Shotild he institution be denouuced because it lias so miccessfully managed these int r;sts tliat the Conservatory is attracting arjre nwnbers of students, at the saine me making no deiuands upon the treasjry ? As to the second proposition, tliat the l'iofessor of Astronomy is au outspokcn lirohibitionist, it is a faet tliat everybody iu Michigin undi'istands. 1 can cou2eive of a college professor holding opinions more dangerous to public interests iml the chuich tlian to entertain the belief, and everywhere express it, that the liquor traiiic ouglit to be snppressed, and that it is our duty to employ both moral mil legal torces to aocomplish tliis end. ir. so liiinnens Mmt. it is m rare thinc to find a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Cliurch that is not a piohlbitionist; and it is ajuO doubtles true that the inemberibip, of the M. E. Cliurch now amounting to nearly two niillions of souls, are, trom Blahopï down to the youngest proLibltinnist, overwheluiinirly iu favor of prohibitio'i. Albion college in appointing professors, does not on this, any more than any other poiut, prescribe poütical tes:s. Tourconlributor attempts to show that the college is not meeting a public deinand because so many of the students that gradúate are catalogued as residing at Albion. If he has been at the institution he could not hare failed to learn that a very large majority of sucU persona reside here because their pareuts have moved to Albiou expressly to give thera a college education. If your contributor h:v been veryanxious to get at the exact triith he would hardly have made the statement wlth the catalogue open before hiin, that the col lege ''is today devoting her largest energies to teach some six score of young ladies and gentlemen the elegant use of the piano." By looking he would have dlscovered that there were 07 instead ol about 120 persons studying piano tnnslc, We wish the number had been up to the" latter figure, and if it will be anysatisfaclion to the wrlter we will inform liim that the catalogue of this year will show an enrollnient alinost up to the ligure which so alanns hini. We hope the value of the work done in the Conservatory will continue to attract students in a very rapidly increasing proportioa. I5ut we must not fail to state that more than two-thirds of all students in the Conservatory are also pursuing literary studies. Now f your oontributor Will eximiue the coureea of study at Albion with refeience to their extent, the nature of these csurses, the niethods employed, the requireniüiits for gnuluation, the changes whirh have been made in the last two or three years, and vvill visit the institution and study is spirit and learn all tlie facts of its present inoyaments, he will probably witlulraw some portions of nis criticisms. Some of the colleges to which h reten have a Ladies course from whicb graduation takes place somo years sooner than students eau finish up tbeir work with us, and these help to swell the list of their gruduates. la some colleges, alo, the general curriculum requires two or three years les time for completion than at Albion. Were we to adopt 1 1 i - pollcy and sborten our time, lessenin-r onr requireinents we sbould not lind it difflcult to gradúate three times as many students as now. But would sucli a move be in the interest of liberal scholarslup? Instead of adopting this plan we have jast added another year to our prepartitory requirements, to this extent making it more illfftcnl.t to gradúate. Supposing your contributor to be familiar witli the history of our educational movementi', he will not need to be informed that tlie institution was chartered at first as a seminary After a few years there was added to this a Feinale College. Iu 18G1 tiie charter was so ainended as to embrace general college powers. The institution is cJoing a three-fold work. It is doing the complete woik of i a coll.ge. It possesses a preparatoiy school. It also h:is a school of art. lts college curriculum covers tour years. lts i preparatoiy courses extend over a period ' of four years. The coursc of literary studies ii the conservatory of niusic requires five yetrs for cómpletlon. The sime time is required for the completion of the Hterary studies of the school of painting. As contributor brins his heaviest blows to benrupon the instltution because of the prouiineuce of the conservatory of music, is he iguoraiitof the fact that ie is regarrled as one of the vital departments - even before luw and medicine - of the grf at European universities. The membership of the college classes in 1883 wal flfty per cent. greater than in 1882, and the enrollment thisyear Bhows a considerable #ain over 1883. When Michigan Univereity had been in existence ten years it liad no larger atteudance in the school of liberal arts than Albion has to-day. lts curriculum of studies was much Ie3s complete, and its appliances were far trom bein;? as simple. We have reason for considerable agcinent.

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Subjects
Ann Arbor Courier
Old News