What has he acquired in the four years? At least some insight into the terms and common places of liberal learning and some discipline in the central categories of knowledge, some moral training acquired in the punctual performance of perhaps unwelcome daily duty and some rev erence for things intellectual and spiritual. He is not only a very different man from what he was when he entered, but very different from what he could have become had he not entered. He is wiser socially. He is becoming cosmopolitan. Awkwardness, personal eccen tricity, conceit, diffidence and all that is callow or forward or perverse have been taken from him, so far as the ceaseless attrition of his fel low-students and professors has touched him. He has been unconsciously developed into the genuine collegian. He is still frank and un conventional. But he has become more tolerant, better balanced, more cultivated and more open-minded, and thus better able to direct himself and others. It is little wonder his student affiliations last. As he goes out to take his place among the thousands of his fellow alumni it is natural that his and their filial de votion to their academic mother should last through life. No matter what university he may subsequently attend, here or abroad, his college allegiance remains unshaken. It is this which explains the active interest shown by our alumni. In the best sense they advertise their college to the public, and it is to their exertions the recent rapid advancement of many of our colleges is due.
Organization and The form of government is simple. A college corporation, legally considered, consists of a body of men who have obtained the charter and who hold and administer the property. Where a particular State has established a college or even a university, which regularly includes a college, the members of the cor poration are commonly styled regents, and are appointed by the State to hold office for a limited term of years. But most colleges have been established as private corporations. In this case the title is vested in a board of trus tees, sometimes composed of members who hold office for life, or else composed of these asso ciated with others who are elected for a term of years. Boards of trustees holding office for life usually constitute a close corporation, electing their own successors as vacancies occur. The two chief functions of such governing bod ies, whether known as regents or trustees or by any, other name, are to safeguard the intent of the charter and to manage the property. They give stability to our college system. To tarry out the main purpose for which the charter was obtained they create a faculty of professors and instructors and entrust the general headship to a president. The president and professors usu ally hold office for life. In many places provi
sion is made for the retirement of professors on pensions as they grow old. This is usually done with help from the Carnegie Foundation. In structors and sometimes assistant professors are appointed for a limited time, such appointments being subject to renewal or promotion. In the larger colleges the president is assisted in his administrative work by one or more deans. By immemorial tradition the president and faculty are charged with the conduct of tie entire in struction and discipline. They have the power to admit and dismiss students. The conferring of degrees belongs to the corporation, but this power is almost invariably exercised according to recommendations made by the faculty. Honorary degrees, however, are commonly given by the trustees or regents on their own initiative.
In State colleges the income is derived from taxation ; in others from endowments, often supplemented by annual subscriptions for spe cial purposes. But the private colleges are cut off from dependence on the State, and have to rely onprivate gifts. This stream of private liberality flows almost unceasingly. The fact that many colleges are integral parts of real or so-called universities makes it difficult to say how much the specifically collegiate endow ments and incomes amount to. But a few sig nificant facts may be mentioned. No college president, unless he is at the same time the president of a university, receives as high a sal ary as $10,000 annually. He is more likely to receive $5,000 or $6,000. While $2,000 is con sidered a fair professor's salary in small col leges, $3,000 is a usual salary in the larger col leges, while few professors receive more than $4,000.
The expenses of individual students vary greatly. In some places there is no charge for tuition; in others they must pay as much as $100 or $150 or more. In little country colleges the total cost for a year often falls within $300; in the larger old eastern colleges, drawing pa tronage from all parts of the land, the student who must pay all his bills and receives no aid in the form of a scholarship can hardly get along with less than $600 or $700, exclusive of his expenses in the summer vacation. The average expenses in some of the oldest colleges, according to tables prepared by successive senior classes, is higher than this, running up to $800 or $900, or even more. But these institu tions afford the student of limited means mul tiplied opportunities for self-help. Moreover many colleges possess scholarships which are open to able students who need temporary pe cuniary help. The young American of narrow means, if he be of fair ability and industry, can almost always manage to find his way through college.