During the years of President Angell's administration not only have buildings been erected and new facilities offered, but in every department of the university the requirements for graduation have been increased and the standard of scholarship has been raised. The course of study in the law department was lengthened by action of the board at its July meeting, 1883, to two terms of nine months each, instead of six months each.

In the medical department the requirements for graduation have greatly increased. At first, to obtain the degree of doctor of medicine, the student was required to have studied for a term of three years and to have attended two full courses of lectures, the courses being of six months each. In 1877 the term was lengthened to nine months, and the calendar for 1879-'80 announced that the term had been extended to three years of nine months each. The announcement for 1889-'90 includes this statement:

All students entering after July 1, 1890, will be required to spend 4 years in professional study, including the time spent in attendance upon lectures, before presenting themselves as candidates for the degree of doctor of medicine.

In the literary department many advances have been made in extending courses of study and offering new facilities to students. Larger fields were opened and a greater choice of studies was allowed to the seniors early in the history of this administration. The following account, taken partly verbatim from the president's report to the board of regents for the year ending June 30, 1878, includes the main changes of this nature. From the beginning of the life of the university its authorities seem to have been distinguished for boldness and originality. They have aimed not so much to follow blindly the traditionary course of older colleges as to seek with wisdom to make the institution do the largest and best work possible. Animated by this spirit the faculty diligently inquired into the advisability of making many useful changes in the plans of the curriculum of the literary department. The happy results which had followed from opening elective studies to the senior class impressed them with the belief that some liberty of choice might properly be extended to all students. Again they had long felt that, while the university courses were coördinate with most of the courses in certain prominent high schools, still the so-called English course, which was prolonged and thorough, in many schools covering the same period of study as the preparatory classical course, had no sequel here. Ought not the university, the faculty inquired, to try, without sacrificing the interests of good scholarship, to bring itself into some harmonious relationship with that large number of high schools which provide no classical course, but do provide a thorough English course of instruction?

The faculty inspired by this same independent spirit considered the question of time in college education. The regular four-years' course, then in vogue in all colleges of the country, entailed as a necessity four

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years of residence for allotted work, no matter what might be the aptitude of the student; and where electives were not freely offered the brightest students with acquisitive minds were kept back in marching order with the average of the class and no stimulant was offered to press on to greater attainment or to further proficiency. Leisure time was spent in idleness. The faculty saw the danger which unlimited election would involve, a danger of cramming without digesting or assimilating. But with precautions against that danger they advocated a free elective system which would permit the diligent and unusually capable student to complete a course of study in less than four years, or which would permit such a student to pursue more studies and accomplish more in the four years of his collegiate residence. It will be observed that this plan, which has been in operation in the University of Michigau for thirteen years, has within the last two years occasioned a great deal of discussion in connection with proposed changes in the curricu lum of Harvard College.

Another innovation contemplated by the faculty at the same time was to allow persons of maturity, who gave evidence of an ability to pursue studies in the university to their advantage in certain lines of work, to enter upon such studies without having passed the regular examinations required for admission. The idea was that there were many men and women, especially school teachers, who have had a good deal of intellectual training, who, while not in condition to pass the somewhat minute and technical examination for admittance, would profit by a residence at the university without detracting from its scholarship.

It will be seen that these contemplated innovations were comprehensive and radical. The university was at once to be broadened from its old "college" foundations, on which the literary department still in general stood, till it not only comprehended in its generosity diversified courses of study, but offered those courses freely and openly with as few restrictions as good scholarship could tolerate. These changes meant the establishment of the "elective system," the" credit system,” the "English course," and the "special course" opened to students without examination. Each of these will be briefly described in order.

The elective system gives to the student the privilege of selecting the course of study which he wishes to pursue in each semester of his residence at the university. There are, however, certain limitations and restrictions, which regulate rather than confine.

In general he is required to elect at some time during his residence at the university the courses requisite for the degree for which he is a candidate. For instance, if he is a candidate for the degree of A. B., he is required to complete at least a certain amount of Greek, and a certain amount of Latin, French, mathematics, English, and philosophy, and enough other work elected to equal 120 "hours" during his college course, an "hour" being 1 hour per week during a semester. But the

faculty does not state the order in which these studies shall be taken; it suggests the studies for the freshman year, and its suggestion has proved to be for the most part equivalent to a command. The professors of the different branches of study hedge about their special courses by this or that prerequisite, which results in the student's selecting the studies in each department to his best advantage, without being restrained from following the guidance of his taste and his proclivities.

Various changes in the system have been made as experience dictated. But they have been slight, and have not been opposed to the underlying principle. The elective system has not been carried to the extent of allowing a student to get the degree of A. B. without first doing work that has in the past generally been considered the prerequisite for that degree. Each of the several degrees offered in the literary department must be earned by the completion of a certain amount of work, including studies especially designated. The "credit system" has been touched upon ex necessitate in the discussion of the foregoing topic. It is, however, a distinct system, though it works with and assists the elective system. By adopting the system of credits the university discarded the plan of making time a qualification for obtaining a degree. When a student has completed a certain amount of work he has earned the degree, even if he has spent but 3 years in residence at the university. Under the credit system the faculty recommend for graduation students who have completed a stated number of "full courses" of study. A "full course" of study comprises five exercises a week during a semester, whether in recitations, laboratory work, or lectures. It is not essential that the exercises constituting a "full course" shall be in one and the same branch of study. Thus a part (two, for instance, a "two-fifths course," being 2 hours per week for a semester) may be in mathematics and a part (say two) in Greek, and a part (say one, a "onefifth course") in Latin.

The results of these two systems have been to stimulate students to more continuous industry and greater interest in their work. Occasionally a student completes his course in 3 years and a half and severs his connection with the university. In rare cases an unusually capable student entering slightly in advance of his comrades finishes in 3 years. More often the amount of required work has been so reduced by the beginning of the fourth year, that the student has an opportunity of beginning his professional studies in connection with his academical work. Much more often still the student spends the whole 4 years in collegiate studies, getting as much done as possible, nearly every student doing something more in the 4 years than if the course had been cut and dried and fitted to him without volition on his part. An earnest attention to duty during the first 3 years enables him to enter upon courses of individual research and of general reading in the fourth year, and this conduces much to broad and liberal culture, the desideratum of university residence.

It is not necessary to say much of the "English course " which first appeared in the catalogue for the year 1878-79. It has proved itself useful in bringing the university into connection with many schools which are not ready to offer preparation for other courses and with the larger high schools, where students entering upon a course of study without languages had hitherto found themselves debarred the privi leges of higher education from the State. In 1890, 20 students graduated from this course, receiving the degree of bachelor of letters, while 51 took the degree of A. B.

The special course of study aliowed students over 21 years of age without examination has not been detrimental to the university. Such students have proved themselves with few exceptions thorough students, at times almost too desirous to work, filled with a thirst for knowledge which needs no artificial condiments.

It is sometimes asked what has been the effect of all this on the life and literary atmosphere of the university? The answer must be the effect has been greater and more beneficial than was hoped. The elective and credit systems have abolished class distinctions. Petty class rivalries are unknown, and have given place to personal zeal for knowledge, stimulated by neither prize uor "honor." There has been, and there still is a danger arising from the elective and credit system -students are tempted to undertake too much. It is the earnest desire of the faculty to impress upon students that their college course is for themselves, that it is a period of growth in the direction toward which individual aptitude leads, that thorough knowledge is preferable to superficial acquaintance, and that "cramming" is not assimilation and growth.

There was introduced in 1882 a new scheme of collegiate study known distinctively as the "university system." By this method of work a student, after completing 2 years of residence and after obtaining credit for the certain specified studies necessary for his degree, is no longer obliged to attend any fixed number of courses, but may concentrate his energies upon one major and two minor studies, which he pursues under the direction of a committee of the faculty. At the end of his fourth year he is called upon to pass an examination in the studies so chosen. In this way "men of decided taste and ability may by assiduous cultivation of a specialty" acquire more than ordinary proficiency, and a freer, deeper, and broader spirit of research is encour aged. The system has adapted itself well to the university needs. In June, 1888, thirteen students presented themselves for examination before their respective committees.

In 1871-72 Professor Adams introduced the "seminary" method of studying history. Students electing history in their senior year were grouped in sections of twelve to fourteen students each, for the purpose of historical investigation. At the first meeting of the class a series of historical questions was assigned for special investigation and numerous

references to historical authorities were given. This system, altered as occasion suggested in its details, has been adopted in other departments of study, until now nearly all branches of work can be thus pursued by proficient students after they have completed certain studies qualifying them thus to be thrown on their own resources. The English department, profiting by the experience of the historical department, adopted the seminary or individual method of studying English masterpieces; and here also it has been a complete success. It is the laboratory method, the scientific method, the modern method of studying history, language, and philosophy. The University of Michigan was the first institution in America to introduce this method of work.

In accordance with the provisions made by the regents in June, 1881, the school of political science was organized and work begun in the autumn of that year, with Prof. C. K. Adams as dean. The course of study in the school covered a period of 3 years, to be entered upon at the end of the second year of residence at the university or at some other respectable American college or university. The degree offered at the expiration and completion of the course was doctor of philosophy. Various courses in political and social science were at once offered, including political and constitutional history, international law, political economy, sanitary science, etc. The president reported for the year ending June 30, 1883, that fifteen undergraduates and three graduates were in attendance and that the following courses of study were offered: Political and constitutional history, twelve courses; economic sciences, eight courses; social, sanitary, and educational science, three courses; constitutional administration and international law, six courses. Excellent results were for some time obtained; various interesting and valuable papers on historical and political subJects were written by the students in the school. The catalogue of 1887-88, however, includes this statement, which may be taken as the close of the history of this school:

Experience has shown that under the flexible elective system now in force in this department instruction in the studies peculiar to such a school may be provided without maintaining any sharply defined independent organization.

Courses are now freely offered to be freely chosen, covering the branches above mentioned, in social, political, educational, and economic sciences, and the degree of Ph. D. can be obtained by study, in course, in the branches so offered for election.

In addition to the other numerous innovations which gave the university a new aspect at the beginning of the collegiate year of 1879-'80 there were for the first time offered courses in the science and art of teaching. The faculty of the literary department desired that courses of this kind be offered, which would enable students to become familiar with the principles which should govern the administration of graded schools. With no desire to invade the territory of the normal school, the faculty did desire to aid undergraduates who came for collegiate 713-No. 4- -6