LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, September 11, 1915. SIR: The problems of industry, government, and life in the modern industrial and commercial city are numerous, large, and complex. For their solution are needed a larger amount of scientific knowledge and higher standards of intelligence among citizens. All the city's agencies for good and progress need to be united and vitalized for more effective functions. There is a growing conviction among thoughtful people that this can be done best by the municipal university, maintained as an essential part of the city's system of public education, or by a privately endowed university working in close sympathetic relations with all other agencies of education in the city. It will require much study of this subject to ascertain: (1) The need for the municipal university, (2) its functions, (3) the best means of organizing and supporting it, (4) its relation to all the phases of city life. The interest in this subject has resulted already in the organization of a National Association of Municipal Universities, which held its first meeting in Washington City November 9-10, 1914. The publication of the papers, addresses, and informal discussion of this meeting in the condensed form here presented will, I believe, promote further study of the subject. I therefore recommend that they be published as a bulletin of the Bureau of Education under the title "The University and the Municipality." Respectfully submitted. P. P. CLAXTON, The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. 4 Commissioner. THE UNIVERSITY AND THE MUNICIPALITY. INTRODUCTION. For several years need has been felt for an association of the institutions of learning engaged in studying civic problems and training for public service. At first it was thought that the universities and colleges controlled and financed by cities might unite with the National Association of State Universities. After mature consideration, however, the conclusion was reached that the interests of both State and city institutions would be best served by forming a new and separate association representing urban universities and colleges, particularly those cooperating in municipal affairs. Accordingly the National Association of State Universities invited the representatives "of all municipal universities and other universities in cities interested in the service of their communities" to attend its meeting to be held in Washington, D. C., November 9 and 10, 1914. The invitation stated that a conference on the city university would be held immediately after the adjournment of the Association of State Universities. The call for this meeting (which led to the formation of the Association of Urban Universities) set forth the tasks and purposes of these urban institutions as follows: The municipal colleges are aiming to do for their cities some of the things the State universities are doing so admirably for their States. Private institutions in cities, realizing the obligations resulting from freedom of taxation, are endeavoring to serve their local communities. The general public, on the one hand, is awakening to the value and necessity of expert knowledge; and the universities, on the other, are realizing as never before their duty to train men and women for municipal, State, and national positions. Since much of this is new and experimental, it is thought that a conference on the relations of civic universities to their local institutions and communities will prove helpful. The call for the meeting also said: A statement from each institution with regard to some phase of its organization or methods would prove helpful. It is therefore requested that each college will send a delegate prepared to make a brief statement of the special features of its work. These reports will be found in Part II of this bulletin (p. 42). The following persons, representing the institutions as given, constituted the conference: Fred E. Ayer, dean of the College of Engineering, Municipal University of Akron, Charles Baskerville, professor, College of the City of New York, N. Y. W. P. Burriss, dean of the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. Charles A. Cockayne, Toledo, Ohio. Charles W. Dabney, president, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. A. Y. Ford, president board of trustees, University of Louisville, Louisville, Ky. W. F. Gephart, professor, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo. Frank J. Goodnow, president, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. Charles P. Norton, chancellor, University of Buffalo, Buffalo, N. Y. William Orr, assistant commissioner of education, Massachusetts board of education, Boston, Mass. John L. Patterson, dean of College of Arts and Sciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, Ky. C. B. Robertson, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. Herman Schneider, dean, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. A. Monroe Stowe, president, Toledo University, Toledo, Ohio. P. P. Claxton, U. S. Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C. S. P. Capen, U. S. Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. The conference having temporarily organized at 4.30 p. m., November 10, and having appointed a committee on organization and permanent officers, adjourned until 9 a. m., November 11, when the following officers were elected for the coming year: President: President Dabney, of Cincinnati. Vice President: Prof. Lord, of Boston University. Secretary and treasurer: Prof. Walter E. Clark, of the College of the City of New York. After formal organization the association resolved itself into an experience meeting, each institution reporting upon the methods of cooperation with city activities which it had already adopted. The morning session and luncheon hour were occupied by these detailed reports. The afternoon was given to a more general and formal discussion of the proper field and aim of the municipal university. The papers given in Part I of this bulletin embody the gist of that general discussion. The name chosen for the new organization is the Association of Urban Universities. Membership is institutional, not personal. The following 16 institutions are the charter members: Boston University, The College of the City of New York, Hunter's College of the City of New York, Johns Hopkins University, The Municipal University of Akron, New York University, Northwestern University, Reed College, Temple University, Toledo University, University of Buffalo, University of Cincinnati, University of Louisville, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, Washington University. PART I. AIMS AND PURPOSES OF THE URBAN UNIVER SITY. 1. THE MUNICIPAL UNIVERSITY.1 By CHARLES WILLIAM DABNEY. President, University of Cincinnati. The progress of education in America has been a steady process from the common school up to the normal school and college. As fast as a new type of school has become necessary it has been established, and its opportunities have been extended more and more widely and freely to all the people. Thus progressively have the American people placed the opportunity for education within the reach of all. But what of equality of opportunity for the higher or professional education? We agree that the chance to get this education should also be within the reach of all. We believe, moreover, that colleges and universities which offer these opportunities should be so placed and arranged as to arouse the ambition of all the youth, and give them the chance to get that liberal, technical, and professional training which will qualify them for the highest service to their generation. The question then is, have we actually placed the facilities for the liberal, technical, and professional education within the reach of all our American youth? The "log college," as it was called in early days, or the "fresh water college," as we now call the private literary college, has done great work for the country. Located near the homes of the people, it provided the opportunity for a higher education for many boys and girls who otherwise would not have gotten it. In its courses of liberal studies it trained most of our great men. We should recognize, however, that the respect for learning bred by these old colleges created a sort of class feeling in America. Democracy means an honest homogeneity, and such homogeneity can not be produced unless all the people have an equal opportunity for the higher and the professional education. The free public college and the State university were necessary, therefore, to save democracy in America from class stratification. But all these noble universities can not meet the needs of all our youth. What shall we do for the youth of the cities having no colleges freely open to all? To take an illustration from Ohio: Cleve 1 Address before the National Association of State Universities, Washington, 1914. land has a great private institution to educate her people, but Cincinnati, having no such private institution, has chosen to educate its youth in a publicly supported college. Out of 2,200 students at the University of Cincinnati, over 1,500 are residents of the city. In a recent year, only 255 college students were sent away from Cincinnati to institutions of the grade of its university. An investigation of the financial condition of the families of the students at the University of Cincinnati teaches that if this city had no university giving free instruction, not more than 500 of these would be able to go off to college, and 1,000, at least, would be left at home without the higher or professional education. It is evident, therefore, that blessed as we are in Ohio with a large number of excellent colleges, they could not train all the students of Cincinnati who seek the higher education. This, then, is the raison d'être of the municipal university. To believe in the equality of opportunity for all in the development of their lives, is to believe in the municipal university-the one thing needed to complete our American system of higher education. But the city needs its university just as much as its people need it. In the development of every nation there comes the period of the cities. The age of the city has arrived for us. Originally a confederation of States, America is fast becoming a republic of cities. The most important thing revealed by the last census was the fact that the rural population has now dwindled to 52 in 100. In the Middle States it has decreased to 40, and in some States to 35 per cent of the population. In Ohio, for example, while the total population has increased 15 per cent in each of the last three decades, and the urban population 30 per cent in each, the rural population actually decreased 4 per cent the first decade and 6 per cent the second decade. Everywhere the urban population is increasing ahead of the rural, and in most of the old States the total rural population is steadily decreasing. The municipal university, therefore, is needed as the intellectual and spiritual dynamo of the city. The city, as well as the Nation, is awakening to a recognition of the necessity for intelligent and righteous leadership. It has passed through its period of corruption and shame and entered upon its period of idealism, of vision, and scientific reconstruction. Hand in hand with the demand for the purification of the ballot and of city administration goes the demand for higher ethical and educational standards. The university must make these standards, and it must train the leaders. The old university was a thing apart, a city set on a hill. When it occasionally marched out of its doors to visit the people, music and banners celebrated the event. Some 30 years ago it took on what was called "university extension." The very name "extension" implied that the university needed to be set free to serve. "Uni |