The history of Colby College, Part 72

Author: Colby College
Publication date: 1963
Publisher: Waterville, Colby College Press
Number of Pages: 716

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An encouraging feature has been the interest shown, not merely in the lectures, but also in the collateral reading. Nevertheless, there exists considerable haziness in regard to what University Extension really is. As the name indicates, it is extension of college work to those who are not connected with colleges. The work consists of lectures, and for those who wish it, study.

At first the possibility of college credit for extension courses seems not to have arisen. Enrollment was invited of those "who desire merely entertainment of a literary sort or something more like college work." The announcement for 1892-93 listed nine offerings: Aryan and Semitic Languages, under Professor Julian Taylor; History of Italian Painting, with Professor Laban Warren; As- tronomy, taught by the great physicist, William Rogers; Glaciers and their De- posits, with Professor William Bayley; Mineralogy, under the same man; History of the French Revolution, taught by Professor Shailer Mathews; Biblical Literature, with Professor George D. B. Pepper; Classical Periods of German Literature, with Professor Anton Marquardt; and the Art of Expression, taught by Instructor George Currie.

The plan called for not more than six lectures in any course. There was only a vague announcement of cost: "The cost is such that it is possible for a sponsoring organization to realize a profit from the sale of tickets. Young Peo- ple's Societies, Christian Associations, and Women's Clubs are especially adapted to form a class." Clearly the original interest was to promote Colby Extension Courses in the same manner that lecture and lyceum series were sponsored in Maine cities at that time.

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In 1894-95, not only was the plan continued, but it was also extended to a program of correspondence courses. The College announced: "Arrangements have been made with the Lewiston Journal, whereby there will appear in the Saturday edition of that paper, each week, lectures, reading lists, questions and answers on our extension courses. It is hoped that other papers may care to be furnished with similar material. There is no charge for correspondence classes."

By 1895-96 two new names had entered the program. The new President, Nathaniel Butler, offered a course in English and American Literature, and J. William Black taught two extension courses: American History, and Money and Banking.

During the decade of the 1890's, when Colby's first extension work was given, there was impressive demand for single lectures in the smaller as well as the larger communities of Maine. The extension announcement of 1896 pre- sented an imposing list of such lectures. Dr. Pepper would speak on The Sermon on the Mount, or on The Beatitudes, or on The Personal Element in Teaching. Professor Warren had a lecture on Florence, illustrated by stereopticon views, or if an audience preferred, he would talk on Rome. Professor Rogers was glad to discuss The Old and the New Astronomy. Professor Bayley would give a choice of four topics: The Origin of Soils, The Iron Region of Lake Superior, The Superior North Shore and the Ougibwas, and What is Evolution? That last topic was a ticklish subject in a Baptist college in the 1890's and may have had something to do with President White's willingness to let the scholarly Bayley depart for other educational pastures. Professor Black would lecture on The Tidewater Region of Virginia, or on The Valley of the Shenandoah, or on Savage Customs and their Reminders.

The last extension course of that early period was given in 1897-98. In the following year, Dr. Black, director of the extension program, announced that only single lectures were available. One of those was The Bible as Literature, by Arthur J. Roberts. In the college catalogue for 1900 the term "university extension" does not appear. In its place appears "public lectures." By 1902 that heading also had disappeared.

Why did a project begun with such zeal and optimism last less than ten years? It is probable that a hard worked faculty found it increasingly difficult to journey to distant Maine towns, that gradually the "market" was absorbed, be- cause the same persons did not care to attend year after year, and finally that the public lyceum and the ubiquitous Chautauqua were more enticingly meeting the same need. But all honor to those Colby pioneers! It was they who sowed the seeds that, half a century later, ripened into Colby's modern program of adult education.

Not until 1924 were extension courses revived. In the autumn of that year, under the leadership of Professor Carl Weber, an ambitious plan of evening courses was initiated. Each course met on twenty-five Monday evenings from October to May. Commenting on the program, the Waterville Sentinel said:

A very interesting experiment is to be tried by Colby College this year. Arrangements have been made whereby anyone who desires, regard- less of age or previous education, may 'go to college'. Courses will be given by the regular professors on Monday evenings. Those seeking credit will be given examinations, but others need not take them, either for entrance or during the course. By this plan the facilities of the College are thrown open to the general public, and it is hoped the

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privilege will be enjoyed by enough persons to make it successful and permanent.1

The courses were indeed designed to meet the needs of different groups. Teachers could improve their professional standing and keep their certificates up to date. Courses in the business field appealed to clerical and industrial em- ployees. Cultural subjects were directed toward the women's groups. Special attractions were offered to college graduates whose undergraduate work had left gaps they now longed to fill.

In its first year, the new program offered five courses: The Teaching of Biology, under Professor Webster Chester; The Teaching of English, under Pro- fessor Ernest Marriner; The World's Greatest Painters, under Professor Clarence White; The Economics of Business, with Professor Morrow; and Nineteenth Cen- tury Poetry, with Professor Weber. The schedule permitted a person to take two courses at a comprehensive fee of $25, or one course for $15.

In 1925, Colby's new and immediately popular professor of history joined the program, and for several years the largest enrollment in any course was en- joyed by Professor William J. Wilkinson. The courses for teachers were expanded by the coming to Colby of Professor Edward Colgan, who was eager to help teachers in service, as well as the prospective teachers in the undergraduate body.

Extension courses were soon offered beyond the bounds of the Waterville campus. In 1926, Professors Weber and Marriner traveled to Skowhegan for twenty-five Tuesday evenings. Each gave two courses to Skowhegan teachers and other interested citizens. It was a tough winter, presenting many hazards of snow, ice, mud and water, as the two professors drove in an open touring car over a road that had then not been paved. A feature of that Skowhegan winter was a lecture by President Roberts. Only with the help of a farmer's big work horses did Weber's car, with its presidential passenger, get through, and there was considerable relief when the President, late but safe, was delivered to the anxious Mrs. Roberts at the presidential home on College Avenue.

Enrollment dropped in 1927. For that reason, and because the College was upset by the death of President Roberts, it was decided to omit extension work until conditions should be more favorable. Those conditions appeared with the coming of President Johnson in 1929. Having participated in an elaborate exten- sion program at Columbia, Johnson believed that such work was an important service to the community. In the autumn of 1930, with Marriner succeeding Weber as director, the Colby extension courses were resumed. The former schedule of twenty-five weeks was reduced to fifteen, and uniform credit of one semester hour was granted for the completion of each course. Weber, Marriner, Colgan and Wilkinson again offered courses, and two new names appeared. Professor Elmer Warren offered Educational Statistics, and Professor Galen Eustis gave a very popular course on Investment Procedures.

In 1931-32 the program was expanded to eight courses, and similar offerings were made the following year. Then a moratorium was again declared, but 1934- 35 saw a richly revived program. President Johnson himself gave a course called The Public Schools and the New Social Order. Professor Libby gave a very popular course in Public Speaking. Marriner made weekly trips to Augusta, where he gave two courses to teachers in that city's public schools.

With the exception of 1937-38, there were annual offerings of Colby extension courses until they were interrupted by World War II. The coming of that war, in December, 1941, with its restrictions on automobile travel, the enlistment of

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many faculty members in the armed forces, and the assignment of other members to teaching the uniformed men of the CTD, made extension work no longer feasible. In 1940-41, however, the Extension Department signed off with a group of distinguished courses. Professor Wilkinson and his associate, Mr. Pres- cott, jointly taught The United States and Contemporary World Problems. Pro- fessor Schoenberg, a brilliant mathematician and a refugee from Nazi Germany, taught Mathematics for the Million. Professor Warren offered Statistics for Classroom Teachers. Professor C. Lennart Carlson taught America Through Her Authors, and Professor Ermanno Comparetti gave Colby's first extension course in Appreciation of Music.

The first suggestion for a summer school of foreign languages came in the spring of 1946 when President Bixler received a letter from the President of Swarthmore College, suggesting that the two institutions combine in operating such a school on the Mayflower Hill campus. It was not until November, 1947, however, that a definite decision was made. The Colby Trustees then voted to authorize the establishment of a summer school of languages, under the joint auspices of Colby and Swarthmore. Professor John F. McCoy of Colby was appointed director, and Professor Phillips of Swarthmore associate director of the school, which opened in 1948.

From the beginning it was the intent to cooperate, not compete, with the long-established summer school of languages at Middlebury College. Hence the Colby-Swarthmore School set up no program of graduate study, did not attempt to enroll teachers, and made no liaison with foreign universities. It was dis- tinctly an undergraduate school, except that it gave opportunity for the Ph.D. candidates in other fields to meet their foreign language requirements.

The school at once proved appealing to several groups of students. Some enrolled for occupational reasons, among the first being a man of middle age, reporter on a Boston newspaper, who wished to study Russian with a view to eventual journalistic assignment behind the Iron Curtain. Younger persons came to the school to complete undergraduate language requirements, or to accelerate their language studies in college. A few who needed to complete requirement for college entrance were admitted. At first high school students were frowned upon, but as the program developed, eleventh grade youngsters came in increas- ing numbers, to accelerate their language credits.

Four languages have been offered annually: French, German, Russian, and Spanish. Usually two courses have been given in each language, one at elemen- tary, the other at advanced level. It has been an intensive program, because during the seven weeks of the school the student takes only one course. Every day he has a class meeting, a laboratory assignment and a conference with in- structor. Much attention is given to the spoken language through recordings.

Before the school was in operation it was thought that the faculty would come from Colby and Swarthmore. From the beginning that proved to be not the case. Although in the early years, a majority were regular teachers at the spon- soring colleges, they were augmented by men and women from Smith, Mount Holyoke, Hood, Wellesley, Bucknell, Georgetown, Cornell, Iowa, Hunter, and Dickinson. Every year has seen at least one native person on the staff of each language. For instance, in 1952, Russian was taught by Daniel Zaret, a native of Russia, with a Ph.D. from the University of Moscow; a native German, Leonie Sachs, with a Ph.D. from the University of Berlin, taught that language. Liliane Fabre, from the University of Grenoble, taught French; and Manuel Guerra was instructor in Spanish.

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In 1953 Swarthmore withdrew from the joint enterprise, and the school has since been conducted as the Colby College Summer School of Languages. All instructors live in the dormitories, conduct language tables, and are constantly available to encourage oral practice of the language. A metropolitan reporter who visited the campus was surprised to find students "playing tennis in Spanish."

During the first five years, language school students came from 153 dif- ferent colleges, from 36 states, and from four foreign countries. One student wrote: "Much of the fascination of the Colby College Summer School of Lan- guages lies in the diversity of the people who are here. Students come from many different places, are of all ages, and seek different goals. The faculty, many of them brilliant lecturers and research scholars, are patient and sympathetic with young people. Many are foreign born, but all have rare skill to make the lan- guage come alive for those who speak it ever so haltingly."

The modern program of adult education at Colby developed neither from the old extension courses nor from the summer school of languages. It was, rather, the inspiration of one man, Dr. Frederick T. Hill, 1910, prominent specialist in the diseases of ear, nose and throat, and a member of the Colby Trustees. Dr. Hill, long interested in the professional improvement of hospital service, ar- ranged for an Institute in Hospital Administration to be held in the Women's Union on the Mayflower Hill campus, from September 20 through 22 in 1945. The purpose was stated, "to serve the hospitals of Maine and other New England states with a program coordinated around the central idea of sound administra- tive practice in the human and public relations of the hospital administrator's duties."

The director of that first institute was Frank E. Wing of the New England Medical Center in Boston. Other instructors were Dr. Joseph Doane of the Jewish Hospital, Philadelphia; Abbie E. Dunks, assistant director of the New England Medical Center; Oliver Pratt, director of the Salem (Mass.) Hospital; and Raymond P. Sloan, editor of the Modern Hospital. In 1946 the course was directed jointly by Dr. Sloan and Miss Elizabeth Bixler of the Yale Graduate School of Nursing. Since 1947 Dr. Sloan has been the director, ably assisted by Miss Pearl Fisher, R. N., administrator of the Thayer Hospital in Waterville.

Even before the first hospital institute, a number of organizations had been granted facilities at Colby for the holding of summer conferences. In 1943, such conferences were held by the Maine Health Association, the Maine Conference of Social Welfare, the Maine Philosophical Institute, and the Maine Federation of Women's Clubs. The Maine Hospital Association had also held meetings at the Hill before the plan for a formal institute was inaugurated.

In 1946 Dr. Hill expanded the institute program to three courses: hospital administrators, nursing education, and social welfare. He reported to the Trus- tees that there would soon be further extension into such fields as banking and taxation. In 1947 the Department of Health and Physical Education started its popular Coaching School, and the Hazen Foundation brought a hundred persons to the campus for a week's conference on student counseling. In subsequent years other organizations that held occasional sessions at Colby were the Country Day School Headmasters, the Maine Vocal Institute, Maine Life Underwriters Conference, Maine Savings Institutions, Maine Library Association, New Eng- land Accounting Conference, and United Nations Committee for Maine. Several summers saw the Great Books Leader Training Course, Workshop in Library Science, and a Tax Institute.

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It was, however, the medical institutes, promoted by Dr. Hill, that became the permanent heart of Colby's summer program in adult education. A very important addition was the eleven-weeks program of the Lancaster Courses in Ophthalmology, which since 1954 has annually brought a hundred ophthalmolo- gists from all over the world for intensive study at Colby. Dr. Hill's professional interest in problems of the deaf prompted him to start a course in Audiology for Industry, to which some of America's largest corporations sent representa- tives. A course for Medical Record Librarians became an annual fixture, as did the conference of Maine Public Health Nurses.

Medical courses, however, have not monopolized the program. Besides the coaching school, an annual feature has been Dirigo Girls State, bringing more than two hundred high school girls for a week's study of government. In 1956 began an annual Institute of Church Music, under the direction of Professor Everett Strong, a member of the Colby Department of Modern Languages and an ac- complished organist. In 1958 was added the Summer Institute for Science under the auspices of the National Science Foundation.

The wide scope of the adult program in the summer months is shown by the listings for 1959, when more than 2000 persons spent from one to eleven weeks in study on Mayflower Hill. The courses and institutes totaled nineteen: Dirigo Girls State, Coaching School, Lancaster Courses in Ophthalmology, Li- brary Science Workshop, Safety Courses, Summer School of Languages, Insti- tute for Science, Maine Baptist Missionary Conference, Great Books Institute, Tax Institute, Tax Assessors, Tax Collectors, Institute on Occupational Hearing Loss, Maine Methodist Women, Josselyn Botanical Society of Maine, Church Music Institute, School for Young Executives conducted by Maine Savings Bank Association, Institute of Hospital Administrators, and Medical Record Librarians.

As early as 1946 Dr. Hill had advised that the summer program be placed under the direction of some member of the faculty or administration. When Professor Ralph Williams finally took on that responsibility, the program gained an enviable reputation for its efficiency of operation, and the College received enthusiastic commendation for hospitality. In 1954 the time had come for a full-time director of adult education, because already the offerings encompassed the entire year, not merely the summer months. William Macomber, a member of the Class of 1927 and the widely known principal of Cony High School at Augusta, became Colby's first full-time director of Adult Education and Extension.

Under Macomber's vigorous promotion, evening courses became a regularly established part of the program in 1954, and were soon thereafter fixed in two blocks, one in the fall semester, the other in the spring. Announcing the evening program for the spring semester of 1956, President Bixler said: "An institution of liberal arts, such as Colby, must not withdraw from the life around it, but must be concerned with what its neighbors find important. Our goal is not only to teach our own students imaginatively, but to encourage those in our neighbor- hood and wider constituency to see the creative possibilities in their work." Those 1956 courses included Great Collections at Colby, with Professor Weber; Per- sonal Finance, with Professor Ralph Williams; Choral Workshop, under Profes- sor Re; World's Great Religions, taught by President Bixler himself; and two courses conducted cooperatively by several faculty members: Public Affairs Forum, and Freedom and Authority. At other times the evening courses covered such subjects as Contemporary American Novel, Arts in the Twentieth Century, From Toddler to Teenage, Appreciation of Music, Life and Teachings of Jesus, Great Artists, Mass Media in Modern Society, The Beginnings of the Church, Statistical

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Analysis, Modern Physics, Chemistry in Wood Derivatives, The Movies, Great Re- ligious Personalities, Our Age of Conflict, Comparative Economic Systems, The Middle East, Popular Culture, The American School and Its Critics, Russian His- tory, the Modern Dance, Social Problems at Mid-century, Federal Income Tax, and elementary courses in German, Spanish, and Russian.

In 1956 Colby entered the field of educational television, and has since of- fered regular adult instruction over the services of Mount Washington TV and the station at Presque Isle, thus covering all of northern New England. The first course was "Faiths of Other Lands," given each Sunday afternoon in a half hour showing by President Bixler. The College had already experimented with television by cooperating in a course, "Introduction to the Atom," conducted over the Mount Washington Station by Professor Jonas Karas of the University of New Hampshire. In subsequent years the television screen showed Professor Julius Brown in Astronomy, Professor James Carpenter in Art, Professor Richard Newhall in The Middle East, Dean Robert Strider in American Literature, and Professor Albert Mavrinac in Constitutionalism and Totalitarianism. In 1960 Colby entered into cooperation with Bates and Bowdoin in founding Station WCBB, an exclusively educational channel covering southern and eastern Maine.

As early as 1949 Colby began an important association with business and industry when it presented the first Business Management Institute, sponsored jointly by the Colby Department of Business Administration and the Associated Industries of Maine. For several years the chairman was Ellerton Jette of the C. F. Hathaway Company, a prominent member of the Colby Trustees. In 1952 the name was changed to the Institute of Maine Industry, and since that year it has annually been held at the time of the spring recess. Energetic chairmen were Wallace Parsons, President of the Keyes Fibre Company, and John H. Mc- Gowan, President of the Wyandotte Worsted Company. Besides the Associated Industries, other sponsors have been the Maine Food Growers and Processors, Maine Members of the American Pulp and Paper Association, the Maine Mer- chants Association, the National Association of Wool Manufacturers, the Northern Textile Association, the New England Shoe and Leather Association, Maine Bank- ers Association, and Investment Bankers of America.

Among prominent speakers at sessions of the Institute have been Sinclair Weeks, Secretary of Commerce; Edward McCormick, President of the American Stock Exchange; Ira T. Ellis, Economist of E. I. duPont deNemours and Com- pany. In 1959 attention was given to Maine's rapidly increasing industry of poul- try processing, with Donald P. Corbett, Treasurer of the Fort Halifax Packing Company, presiding.

Also sponsored by the Associated Industries of Maine have been the courses on Industrial Safety Training, begun in 1957. Widely supported by other indus- trial organizations and by the departments of labor and industry of several New England states, these courses attracted large enrollment.

What the summer program alone had come to mean as early as 1956 is shown in Director Macomber's report for that year. Seventeen different groups had assembled on the campus for periods ranging from four days to eleven weeks. More than 2000 individuals had registered, of whom 1200 had stayed at least one night. Room service had made 10,000 beds and dining service had prepared 60,000 meals. As for extension courses, the fall program of seven courses had attracted 175 registrants, while the spring offering of ten courses enrolled 200. "We have," said Macomber, "many courses geared to the needs of industry."

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Another phase of adult education at Colby has been the impressive annual series of lectures and concerts, open to the public without charge. Most impor- tant are the Averill Lectures, sponsored by Dr. George G. Averill, and since his death by Mrs. Averill; the Gabrielson Lectures on Government, sponsored by Hon. Guy Gabrielson; and the Ingraham Lectures in Philosophy and Religion, sponsored by Robert Ingraham, 1951. In all of these programs the lecturer not only delivers a public address, but also attends classes and confers with small groups. Several concerts are given annually by the Colby Community Symphony Orchestra under Dr. Ermanno Comparetti, and by the choral groups under Pro- fessor Peter Re. Powder and Wig, the college dramatic society, directed by Pro- fessor Irving Suss, presents noteworthy productions.

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The history of Colby College, Part 72

Author: Colby College Publication date: 1963 Publisher: Waterville, Colby College Press Number of Pages: 716

Author: Colby College
Publication date: 1963
Publisher: Waterville, Colby College Press
Number of Pages: 716