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Higher Education's Outlook for 1935-36

I

NSTITUTIONS of higher education
over the country are looking forward

to the school year 1935-36 with a little more optimism than at any time since 1932, to judge from reports recently summarized in the Office of Education.1 Few institutions expect great decreases in funds from 1934-35, whereas increases are not uncommon. The average increase for all institutions reporting is 6.2 percent.

A questionnaire on this subject was sent out early in August, 740 institutions being circularized. Up to September 16, usable replies had been received from 319 institutions, representing the District of Columbia and all except one of the 48 States. These included 73 publicly controlled degree-granting universities, colleges, and professional schools, 86 publicly controlled teachers colleges and normal schools and 160 privately controlled degree granting universities and colleges. Twenty-two of the institutions are for Negroes.

The accompanying table shows the average anticipated increase or decrease in current and capital income (except additions to endowment) and in current educational and general expenditures from 1934-35 to 1935-36 and from 1929-30 to 1935-36. It is significant that in all sections of the country and for all types of institutions, increases over last year are expected in both income and expenditures.

When the coming year is compared with 1929-30, decreases in income are apparent, with the national total standing at approximately five-sixths of the amount available for use the earlier year. A slight increase in expenditures is expected, this increase being quite largely concentrated in the privately controlled institutions in the section from Pennsylvania north and east.

Few changes are taking place in the tuition rates of last year. Of 305 schools reporting, 276 are making no change, 3 are reducing, and 26 are increasing. Some

of the increases are rather large in proportion to the old rates, but none are large in terms of actual money involved;

1 The Economic Outlook in Higher Education for 1935-36. United States Office of Education. Circular No. 148. Single copies gratis.

Henry G. Badger, Office of Education Statistician, Re-
veals Findings of Study Which Brought Reports From
More Than 300 Colleges and Universities Throughout
the United States

increases of very nominal rates in teacher-
training schools account for most of the

cases.

Tuition rates show a more marked change from 1929-30. Of 292 schools reporting, 171 are holding to the 1929-30 level, 26 are reducing, and 95 are increasing. In some of the teacher-training ing schools these rates are tripled or quadrupled, but even in these schools the rates for 1935-36 are still not prohibitive.

Salaries will remain practically stationary, fewer than half of the schools reporting changes. Most of these changes are slight increases, although there are a few cuts of as much as 20 percent from the 1934-35 schedules, A stationary salary schedule may be the equivalent of a reduction in view of a rising cost of living, but in some institutions the average salary per person is actually slightly increased without increasing the most common salary by promotion of

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teachers who had been receiving less than the most common salary. In other schools, teachers are being promoted from one rank to another, thus increasing the salary per person without disturbing the standard salary for the grades affected. Most of the increases are explained as full or partial restoration of salary cuts made a few years ago.

An encouraging feature is that last year's pay roll is practically all paid. Of 289 schools reporting on this item, all but 28 had paid in full. This contrasts with the 1934 situation, in which out of 381 schools reporting, 67, or 17.6 percent, had failed to pay in full. Again, this year only one school had as much as half its 1934-35 pay roll unpaid, whereas last year nine schools were in this condition, two of them having met less than onefourth of their salary obligations.

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TRENDS IN COLLEGIATE INCOME

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Religion

The Colleges

In many universities the evolution of chapel services is similar to that in Vermont.

At the University of Vermont chapel services are held once a week, on Wednesday morning, at the university. Attend

ance is voluntary and speakers are from widely scattered parishes about the State; vesper services are held approximately one Sunday a month. Chapel services have long been held at the university with few interruptions since its earliest days. The earliest building, started in 1801, contained a chapel. Its successor, erected in 1824 after fire had destroyed the original building, also provided for a chapel. A hundred years ago chapel was held daily before breakfast, the rising bell ringing at 5:30 and chapel coming 15 minutes later, to be followed by a recitation period and then breakfast. The service consisted of scripture reading and extemporaneous prayer. There was no organ, responsive reading, nor singing. Singing was introduced in the late fifties. Gradually, under changing conditions, Sunday evening and morning devotions abandoned and the week-day services became fewer. Compulsory chapel was discontinued and voluntary chapel substituted. The first agitation against chapel was in the 1890's. Such agitation, under the voluntary system, no longer

exists.

were

At Princeton University new regulations for the attendance at chapel became effective early this year. Until then all undergraduates were required to attend chapel or church on half of the Sundays during the college year; now only freshmen and sophomores are required to attend.

At Pennsylvania State College a student pastor for Jewish students has been provided by B'nai B'rith with the formation of a chapter of the Hillel Foundation at the College this fall. The Hillel Foundation, which serves Jewish college students as the Christian associations serve Gentile students, has chapters at Ohio State, Cornell, Wisconsin, Michigan, West Virginia, Illinois, and University of Califor

nia.

Rabbi Ephraim Fischoff, formerly of New York, has been named by B'nai B'rith as student pastor at Penn State and has temporary headquarters in the Christian association offices. Approximately 300 of the 5,000 students at Penn State are of the Hebrew faith.

At the University of Iowa, an enrollment of 279 students, largest in the eightyear history of the school of religion, is reported. There are 120 students enrolled in the course in modern marriage, compared with 45 a year ago; this course takes up the subject from practically every

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point of view and brings before the class specialists from numerous other university departments.

The University of Texas freshman students are permitted this year for the first time, to enroll for courses in Bible, taught by the association or religious teachers. These courses are taught by the various denominational Bible chairs in the university community and may be taken for university credit. Not more than 12 semester hours, or the equivalent of four 1-semester courses, may be counted toward any university degree. Two courses, previously open only to students of sophomore or higher standing, have been opened to freshmen this year, namely, The Life of Christ and The Life of Paul.

Four Bible chairs are located at the university. The Wesley Bible Chair carries on the work of the Methodist Churches of Texas; Baptist students may take A. R. T. courses at the John C. Townes Bible Chair; the courses for Presbyterian students are offered in the university Young Men's Christian Association building; and the Texas Bible Chair offers courses to members of the Christian Church.

New Courses

Manager of wildlife, a new 2-year vocational training course, will be given to 16 men this year for the first time at Massachusetts State College. Training environment, soil character, adaptability will include a knowledge of forestry, of various species to various living conditions. The wildlife manager will be able to make surveys and maps, investigate the biological and ecological condition of streams, have a fundamental knowledge of methods of propagation of fish, birds, and fur-bearing animals, understand diseases and practicable methods for controlling them, undertake elimination of vermin, and have as his working knowledge, because he must deal with the public, understanding of Federal and State laws which have been enacted for the protection of wildlife.

In the Northwest, Washington State College claims to be the first institution to offer instruction in conservation of wildlife, the first course being given in 1927. More courses have been added so that it is now possible for a student to specialize in this field. Training includes courses in mammalogy, ecology, ornithology, aquatic biology, game management, natural history of vertebrates, conservation of wildlife, economic mammals and birds and other subjects which lead to a career as a game conservationist.

WALTER J. GREENLEAF

Dance of 18 Nations

HE International Folk Dance Festival that took place in London, England, from July 15 to 20, 1935, was the first of its kind ever held on so large a scale and giving so fine an opportunity to compare the representative dances of the European countries. And because some of my readers may not have very much information about the illustrative traditional dances of any race of people, I shall explain at once that folk dancing is the customs and beliefs of a common people expressed in rhythmic movement. Any nation may have a large number of such dances. Spain, I believe, boasts over 60.

With this meaning in mind, one can grasp something of the significance and magnitude of an international dance festival in which 18 countries participate, each sending a troupe of folk dancers ranging in number from 10 to 60. England alone was represented by 150 dancers, and teams came from Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Rumania, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The brilliance of the native costumes, the color harmonies of the materials from which they were made, the various and sundry instruments in each unique orchestra, and the spirited action of the different dancers made a glorious spectacle. Briefly, the festival gave a birdseye view of the customs, dress, costumes, music, and temperaments of the European peoples as expressed through their folk dances.

Note that I write European. While countries outside of Europe were invited to send official representatives, they were not allowed to enter dance teams mainly because the festival would have become much too large to be successful. The delegates from India and Canada and we of the United States could sit in at the conferences and attend all the performances, both of which were rare privileges, but troupes from these countries could have no place on the programs.

To answer your direct question, "Why hold such a meeting?" I reply that the festival came distinctly within the activ

1 Miss Dorminy is president of the Dance Masters of North Carolina and was a member of the official delega tion from the United States to the festival.

International Folk Dance Festival Held in London,
England, Described by Miss Jacqueline Dorminy,1 Mem-
ber of Official Delegation from the United States

ities of the League of Nations, and was
purposed to promote understanding and
friendship between nations thicus com-
mon interest in the folk dance, demon-
strate the value of folk dancing in the
social life of today, and further the com-
parative study of these primal dances.
These objects were accomplished, I think,
in a very real way. Certainly none of us
who attended could feel other than kindly
toward our hostess, England, and the many
participating groups and naturally we
would carry that feeling back to our own
countries. At the conferences held each
morning at Cecil Sharpe House, plans
were laid for an international bureau of
folklore to be established in London and to
be of service to the entire world. Of
course, the time and place of the next
festival were considered. They were not
finally decided. Holland and Switzerland
each extended an invitation that it be held
there, and we all hope that it will come
within the next 4 years. It is to be world-
wide, not simply European.

Were I to describe for you even one dance for each of the countries represented, it would fill a volume, so I shall mention only a few high lights. Understand at once that in Europe dancing of this kind is a man's business and that most

of the performers are men. If women take part at all, it is in only a minor way. Of course, from Austria came a sword dance, but the most impressive of the exhibitions from that country was a men's carnival dance, the "Tresterer'' specially learned for this festival from traditional dancers, but with great difficulty because of the secrecy about it that is maintained by the Tresterer guilds.

Germany was represented in 13 different dances, the most compelling of which was the Rothenburg Shepherds' Dance, an ancient ceremonial for Whitsunday, when the shepherds go into the towns to dance with the burghers' daughters. This dance is first mentioned in 1516, but probably it dates back to about 1300. Hungary also furnished 13 dances, includ

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ing their Turkish Dance, which recalls the Turkish invasion, and the Swineherds' Dance, a most difficult performance over crossed sticks.

An ancient Epiphany ritual dance, that of the Hobbyhorse and Calusari, came from Rumania. The Calusari are the dancing attendants of the Horse and they wear jangling bells which, from one end of Europe to the other, denote magic-making at the seasonal feasts. The famous La Tarantella which we see in our own motion-picture houses and which takes its name from the rapid twirling of the tarantula came over from Naples. The outstanding feature from the Netherlands was the ceremonial flag waving by a flag waver of North Brabant.

The Spanish representation was from the Province of Catalonia. The city of Barcelona furnished the dancers, but they demonstrated dances of every section that they had learned in the villages from the Pyrenees to the coast. The Sardana is usually considered the great Catalan dance, but in reality it is only an upstart in the choreographical history of the country.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics provided two troupes, one from Moscow, the other from Asiatic Russia. The Moscow group was probably the fastest, most colorful at the festival. The work from Asia was in a very different Turkish style of quick movements of the head and chin.

In the English presentations were the Hobbyhorse dance, and the Sellenger's Round which was once a Maypole dance and known even before the sixteenth century. The dancers and pipers of the Second Battalion of the queen's own Cameron Highlanders, a troop of men clad in very smart brown and green plaids, came in from the highlands of Scotland.

The international bureau of folklore that I have already mentioned, is to have its headquarters at Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regents Park Road, London, and is to include a folk-dance library to which anyone may turn for the authentic records of the folk dances and music, and their expression of the customs and traditions of different peoples in every country of the civilized world. The House is a worthy center for such an activity. It was built in 1930 to honor the memory of Cecil Sharp, the man "who restored to the English people the songs and dances of their country."

Mr. Sharp died in 1924 after devoting the last 20 years of his life to collecting, teaching, publishing, and revising English traditional dances and songs. He founded the English Folk Dance Society in 1911

SCHOOL LIFE ✰ November 1935

to provide a nucleus of dancers who would pour new life into a national art which was in danger of disappearing altogether. He had previously aided enthusiastically in the work of rescuing and preserving the rich heritage of English folk songs, had himself collected several thousand songs, and in various ways, notably by writing suitable piano accompaniments, contributed preeminently to the healthy revival of the national folk song. When he came to undertake the same service for the folk dance, he found a new obstacle-there was no dance notation comparable to the universally understood musical notation in which the tune of a song can be communicated to all the world. So he devised a system of notation and was thus able to make accessible to anyone who wished to dance them an unsuspectedly large number of English dances.

Though fully aware of the great antiquarian interest of folk dances whose roots go back far beyond the centuries of their known history, Mr. Sharp aimed primarily at making the dances known by practice rather than by study. He wished to repopularize what had been in the past a favorite recreation and a ritual observance, and at the same time to maintain certain artistic standards in the execution of the dances. To him the folk arts in general owe an immense debt of gratitude.

Electrifying Education

The National Park Service (U. S.
Department of the Interior, Washington,
D. C.), announces the availability of six
new talking motion pictures in geology.
They are Atmospheric Graduation, Work
of Rivers, Underground Water, Mountain
Building, Geological Work of Ice, and
Volcanoes.

The Motion Picture Section of the
Federal Housing Administration (Wash-
ington, D. C.), recently announced that
the first of their Better Housing News
Flashes, which have been running in
motion picture theaters, is now available
free for use by schools and clubs.
films are 35 millimeters sound nitrate.
It is anticipated that other films in the

These

series will soon be available for nontheatri-
cal exhibition. They do not handle the
National Housing Act in a perfunctory
manner, but are high in entertainment
value and show various phases of better
housing which are of interest to home

owners and merchants.

The United States Office of Education is cooperating with the American Council

on Education in making a comprehensive survey of educational films. Readers of

this column who have films that they wish to have considered should communicate with Dr. John W. Studebaker, United States Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C.

The work of the University Broadcasting Council, 230 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Ill., is worthy of consideration by educators and broadcasters who are interested in extending the educational use of radio on a cooperative basis.

Harper & Bros., 49 East Thirty-third Street, New York City, announce the publication of the Psychology of Radio, by Drs. Hadley Cantril and Gordon W. Allport. This book contains tested conclusions on how broadcasts influence listeners.

Teachers on the west coast indicate that

they are very much interested in the New World series of broadcasts being offered by the California Teachers Association on Mondays at 9:30 a.m. Pacific standard time over the gold-and-blue network of the National Broadcasting Co.

With their usual foresight the National Council of Teachers of English have set up a radio committee to consider the desirability of teaching radio-program appreciation in English classes. The English Journal (college edition) September 1935 contains an article entitled "Tentative Units in Radio Program Appreciation”, by Max J. Herzberg, committee chairman,

Peabody College is presenting a series of broadcasts entitled "The Teachers College of the Air" each Friday evening from 6:30 to 7 eastern standard time over station WSM, Nashville, Tenn.

In response to the growing demand for information about motion pictures in education, the United States Office of Education recently issued a circular entitled Sources of Educational Films and Equipment, which is available free from the Editorial Division, United States Office of Education, Washington, D. C.

piled in the Office of Education, approxiAccording to information recently commately 10,000,000 people attended the nontheatrical exhibition of Federal Government motion pictures between July 1, 1934, and June 30, 1935.

CLINE Μ. ΚΟΟΝ

Indian Education

Talking pictures and the radio are helping bring to Indians an understanding of English, says Dr. Carl H. Skinner, superintendent of the Phoenix, Ariz., Indian School. The many tribal languages among the students also bring an acceptance of and training in the students' only common tongue, English.

Broadening the curricula in Indian schools, which today face a problem of satisfying the differences of situation and the needs of 220 tribes, has brought about greater efficiency, writes John Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in a recent issue of Indians at Work.

Concentrating on boarding schools, the Indian Office formerly cared for the education of slightly more than half of the Indian children at a cost of approximately $9,000,000. Because of their heavy cost these schools were expected to produce far-reaching results. However, a lack of variety in the courses caused them to lag in efficiency.

Because of a shrinkage in the appropriation, it became necessary to shift the funds to a less expensive type of work and, as a result, Government day schools and public schools were aided.

The Government day school system, though by no means as large as either public or boarding schools strives for a qualitative rather than a quantitative change. This system has gone beyond the public schools in the flexibility of its curriculum and has built its activity around the problem of conservation in the use of natural resources, Conserving the soil, breeding sheep, and flood-water farming are natural elements in the courses of these schools.

In addition, writes Mr. Collier, the benefits derived from the special educational innovations, such as, the activity schools that go on during school vacations, the nurses' training school to commence at Kiowa Hospital, the important school conducted this year at Santa Fe, and the trachoma school at Fort Apache, all are deserving of mention.

For the first time, boarding schools sent teachers into Indian communities to conduct summer schools, instead of having the children come from their communities to be educated in Indian schools, according to Lela M. Cheney, acting supervisor of social work, Office of Indian Affairs. At least 35 such schools were carried on during the past summer, the pupils ranging from preschool children to adults.

Indian legends, local Indian history, the study of native flowers, trees, and birds, and of wild plants and berries good for food, the production of beautiful designs, and of Indian arts and crafts, all tended to awaken new appreciations of the native culture of their own environment.

Many of the activities centered around the home and the family. Mothers and daughters cut and made new clothing and remodeled old garments. Preparation of noon lunches (the food contributed by the families) gave practical experience in planning, preparing, and serving meals. Even the boys insisted on helping, writes Miss Cheney.

Stimulated by the general interest in home improvement, adults and children found themselves busy reshingling houses, chinking logs with lime from stones they fired themselves, repairing and painting old furniture and making new from available materials; trimming trees, cleaning yards, planting flowers and vegetables, raising chickens; and for the interior of the home, making sheets, pillowcases, and curtains from flour sacks, drapes and bedspreads from burlap dyed or decorated, quilts and rugs from scraps of cloth, iceless refrigerators, shelves, fly traps and fly swatters, and screens for both doors and windows.

Measurement Today

out the mathematics prerequisite to an understanding of the study of statistics.

The June 1935 issue of the Review of Educational Research on Psychological Tests covers the literature on tests of

personality, intelligence, and aptitude for 1932 through 1934. A valuable point in the presentation is the studies of the validity and uses of the different tests. The attempt to evaluate the different studies rather than just listing them as was done in early numbers of this Review of Educational Research is an improvement.

A study of the effect of using student teachers on the achievement of pupils in high school had been reported upon by Harry P. Smith in the Journal of Educational Research for May 1935. Using experimental and control groups in several high-school subjects and analyzing the data carefully the conclusion is arrived at that the presence of student teachers in these classes under the conditions obtaining in Syracuse at present may or may not affect the achievement of the pupils adversely."

A study of the use of elementary graduating examinations has been made by the Office of Education. It is in press and will be available shortly from the Superintendent of Documents. The elementary school leaving examination is an old institution in our country and it is interesting to note the influence of standardized tests and the new-type test techniques upon it. The variations in the construction and use of this test in the different States show the flexibility in educational practice throughout our country.

THORNDIKE'S latest report on his studies of the psychology of adults is Adult Interests, published by the Macmillan Company. This volume of 265 pages presents valuable data on the change of interests from youth to adulthood as to type and strength. It is an important contribution to the psychology of adults. Much of the data is of direct and immediate value to Financial Advisory Service

teachers of adult classes and to the adult education program. Suggestions for measuring the interests and abilities of adults are given. It is gratifying to see this growth in our knowledge of adult psychology occurring at the same time that the social exigencies of the time demand adult education.

Helen Walker's Mathematics Essential for Elementary Statistics is a text which has been needed for some time. Graduate students in education have for too long a time attempted statistics courses without any adequate review of the mathematics they once knew. This volume has culled

DAVID SEGEL

ALL colleges and universities, educational groups, and agencies throughout the country may avail themselves of a financial advisory service recently established by the American Council on Education, 744 Jackson Place NW., Washington, D. C. Inquiries should be addressed to Mr. George E. Van Dyke, technical associate in charge of the Washington office, although the service is being carried on under general supervision of Dr. Lloyd Morey, comptroller, University of Illinois, and formerly chairman of the National Committee on Standard Reports for Institutions of Higher Education.

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