THE St. Cloud Normal School's building in 1874

The ROOTS of Higher Education in Minnesota

OLIVER C. CARMICHAEL

I AM SENSIBLE OF the high honor you than I —I am nevertheless grateful to you have done me in inviting me to deliver this for giving me the opportunity and the occa­ address at the one-hundred-and-fifth an­ sion for exploring what seems to me to be nual meeting of the Minnesota Historical one of the richest backgrounds of higher Society, though at the moment I confess education provided by any of the forty- to great trepidation as I undertake the task eight states. The fascinating material which assigned me. While I do not know by what reached me from the several institutions right I should speak to you on the "Roots has engaged my attention far into the nights of Higher Education in Minnesota" — for of many days that were filled with heavy many of you know so much more about it administrative duties. But it has provided relaxation and a degree of excitement, since DR. CARMICHAEL scrvcd for sevcu years as it has given me a new sense of the variety president of the Carnegie Foundation for the and richness of the sources of motivation Advancement of Teaching before assuming the and inspiration which gave rise to the presidency of the University of Alabama in American system of higher education and 1953. This address was presented on May 11, 1954, before the luncheon session of the which still undergird it. society's annual meeting at the Curtis Hotel, Obviously, I cannot do justice to the sub­ Minneapolis. Eighteen Minnesota colleges and ject in the few minutes allotted me. Each universities were represented in the audience. institution deserves special mention, since

90 MINNESOTA Htstory it seems to me that each has certain unique nesota settlers migrated, but also into features worthy of your attention, but if Europe and Great Britain, where the vari­ I should take the time to particularize I ous religious denominations had theff be­ should have no time left for generalization, ginnings. for sketching the larger picture which has It would be highly intriguing, if time evolved in the course of my preparation for permitted, to search out the influences of this occasion. So, if I seem to slight the Martin Luther, John Wesley, John Calvin, institution which you represent, please for­ St. Benedict of Nursia, and others on the give me, remembering that it is not lack of spirit, outlook, and idealism of the colleges appreciation of its unique virtues, but lack and universities of Minnesota. Let us exam­ of time to single out institutions and at the ine an institution or two in each of the same time to deal adequately with the categories listed by extracting from their broad subject assigned me. literature passages that seem to hark back For the sake of clarity and brevity, I to leaders of earlier centuries to illustrate should like to treat the subject under three how fascinating a thorough study of back­ headings: institutions with a religious back­ ground influences might be. ground, the teachers colleges, and the state The restless energy and spiritual insight university. While the taproot of all three of Martin Luther comes to mind as one is the same — faith in education as a means reads such passages as the following: of social progress — this branches out early "Moral and spiritual impulses, principles, into three powerful roots from which the and ideals — these are the values that make present system of higher education in the an institution truly great. Behind St. Olaf state sprang and by which it is currently is the story of men and women who were sustained. The common denominator of all not satisfied to settle down upon the prairies three is a belief in a particular kind of and grow soft with indulgent living. They program traditionally called liberal educa­ were men and women who refused to yield tion and now sometimes referred to as their people to ignorance and careless ease. general education. At least for the purposes And America has become infinitely richer of this paper I shall deal with the twenty- because of theff indefatigable zeal." three institutions that have this common Listen to another statement: "The educa­ base with varying degrees of emphasis upon tional purposes of Augsburg College and the humanistic-social-scientific studies as Theological Seminary spring from the con­ the foundation for the more abundant life viction that Christianity is the fundamental or for specialized vocational, technical, or force for good in human Iffe. All the aims jDrofessional training. of the College as well as those of the Seminary are bound together by this prin­ RELIGIOUS BACKGROUNDS. Of the ciple." These statements are reminiscent of twenty-three institutions included in this the confessions and the creeds out of the study, sixteen have, or have had, affiliations sixteenth-century Reformation. They reflect with religious bodies. In most instances the also the outlook, the spirit, and the convic­ motivation of the founders was Christian tions of the sturdy Norwegian pioneers who idealism. Numerous branches of the Chris­ settled in Minnesota and the Northwest. tian faith are represented in the founding Macalester College, one of the strong groups: Lutheran, Baptist, Congregational, Presbyterian colleges in the country, re­ Methodist, Presbyterian, and several Catho­ minds us of the idealism of Calvin and lic orders. Thus the roots of higher educa­ Knox in its emphasis upon sound learning tion in this state reach back not only and Christian living and in the record into New England, Pennsylvania, and of its graduates for full-time Chi-istian serv­ other Eastern communities whence Min­ ice. One out of every ten graduates, since

Autumn 1954 91 COURTESY ST. PAUL DISPATCH-PIONEER PRESS BOE Memorial Chapel, St. Olaf College, Northfield it became a collegiate institution in 1885, These few samples of the antiquity and has entered the Christian ministry. variety of the religious influences that have Hamline, chartered as a university by the helped to shape the spirit and outlook of territorial legislature and supported by a American institutions of higher learning gift of twenty-five thousand dollars from impress upon one the extraordinary com­ Bishop Leonidas L. Hamline, was estab­ plexity of the forces which have played lished in 1854. The pioneering spirit and upon our educational system. But another optimism of early Methodism are reflected influence more powerful perhaps than any in its being denominated a university and other in the early history of American edu­ in the faith, courage, and purpose which cation remains yet to be mentioned. It is characterized its founders, who have been that of the studium generale in English uni­ described as follows: "There was in their versities, particularly Oxford and Cam­ attitude a pronounced element of consecra­ bridge, the forerunner of the American tion. Through the years those who have liberal arts college. While many continental guided Hamline's destiny have been men universities began as faculties of medicine, of like spirit. Beyond the attention they gave or law, or theology, or a combination of to immediate demands was the vision of these three and others, British universities future achievement." stressed more particularly the general Several colleges in Minnesota trace their studies. It was after this model that Har­ spiritual ancestry to St. Benedict of Nursia, vard, William and Mary, and Yale were who lived and taught in Italy in the fifth fashioned. The liberal arts tradition is not and sixth centuries. The Rule of St. Bene­ usually thought of as being motivated by dict has been a source of instruction and religious ideals, and yet ffi the British pro­ inspffation in three of Minnesota's colleges. totypes a strong flavor of spiritual concern Thus one might say the origins of higher is characteristic. In earlier centuries, un­ education in Minnesota reach back to the believers were denied admission to the dissolution of the Roman Empire, when the coUeges of Oxford. Teutons from the North overran it and took The program of Harvard and Yale left possession. its mark on all coUeges that feature liberal

92 MINNESOTA History arts instruction. It is particularly in evi­ since he recognized that the effectiveness dence at Carleton College, which boasts not of the schools depended upon a supply of only a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, but also a qualified teachers. chapter of Sigma Xi. This latter is a dis­ The spirit of Horace Mann is epitomized tinction rarely attained by liberal arts col­ in his last statement to the students of leges. Macalester, Hamline, Concordia, Antioch College, where he was president St. Olaf, St. John's, and St. Thomas likewise at the time of his death in 1859. He said: show marked traces of the influence of "Be ashamed to die until you have won the early American ideal of higher educa­ some victory for humanity." By this spirit, tion which derived from the British. It his zeal, enthusiasm, and vision, Mann had should be remembered, however, that all stirred up the entire country on the ques­ the other institutions within the purview tion of the education of youth and had of this discussion, including the state-sup­ actually launched the movement that pro­ ported institutions, have felt the impact of vided for free or low-cost education at the older ideal in the undergraduate cur­ public expense, from the kindergarten riculum and in instruction. through the university. Incidentally, I believe the future of the Thus, under the influence of this move­ liberal arts college is brighter than it has ment and under the pressure of need to been since the turn of the century. The past provide more teachers for the expanding fifty years have seen the expansion of tech­ public schools, the legislature of Minne­ nical education and specialized programs. sota, in July, 1858, passed the bill estab­ The next half century will see a renais­ lishing the normal-school system for the sance of interest in basic, liberal education. state. The legislators were doubtless mo­ That trend seems to me clearly to be be­ tivated also by the vision of a unique sys­ ginning. The vast educational ferment in tem of public education that would provide the country points in that direction. for the educational needs of youth from seven to twenty-one years — one of the bold­ THE TEACHERS COLLEGES. Let us est social experiments ever undertaken by turn now from the church-related colleges any people. to a consideration of the state-supported The result of the passage of that act institutions, dealing first with the teachers and subsequent legislation was the estab­ colleges. Here we have a different back­ lishment over a period of years of the five ground and pattern, a new motivation and state teachers cofleges, located at Bemidji, purpose. In order to understand the rise Mankato, Moorhead, St. Cloud, and Wi­ of teacher training institutions — normal nona, that serve the state today. schools and colleges — it is necessary to bear The history of these institutions is a story in mind what was happening on the lower of struggle, disappointment, anxiety, and, educational levels. in many of their efforts, temporary defeat. The year 1837, when Horace Mann for­ In this, the Minnesota colleges are not un­ sook his law oflBce and took future genera­ like those in other states. But the experi­ tions as his clients, is usually considered ence of Winona, Mankato, and St. Cloud the beginning of our system of public edu­ in 1874, the only ones established up to cation. Mann served as secretary of the that time, is perhaps not duplicated else­ first board of education in Massachusetts where. A bill was introduced providing for twelve years, from 1837 to 1848. Dur­ for the closing of these schools and the sale ing the period he aroused an interest in of the property. This effort was thwarted public education which persists to this day. by Senator H. C. Burbank, who in a speech As a part of his program he advocated of February, 1875, poffited out the unfeasi- teachers' institutes and normal schools. bility of selling the property and "then pro-

Autumn 1954 93 no doubt that Minnesota wifl rise to the occasion, for the issues at stake are over­ whelmingly significant — no less than the education, welfare, and effectiveness of the oncoming generation upon which the future progress of the state must depend.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA. One of the extraordinary facts of American history is the consuming interest of the people in education. Less than twenty years after the landing of the "Mayflower," the colonists founded theff first college. The same concern which was manifested by the first settlers has characterized their suc­ cessors and descendants century after cen­ tury. Indeed, America's faith in education seems to have waxed stronger with each succeeding generation, until it strikes me as truly the marvel of the twentieth cen­ tury. The history of Minnesota is a splen­ did fllustration. COURTESY ST. PAUL DISPATCH-PIONEER PRESS Even before Minnesota was admitted as OLD Main, Macalester College, St. Paul a state, the territorial legislature had es­ tablished the University of Minnesota. Its roots were nourished by the characteristic ceeded to demonstrate the value of normal American faith in the magic of education schools to the state as a whole." While the without which it would have surely per­ speech defeated the bill, the legislature of ished, so great were the buffetings of mis­ 1875 refused to make an appropriation for fortune in its early history. For a time it maintaining these schools. Thus they had did actually go into eclipse, but it appeared to exist for two years on a small stand­ again on a new site, the present one, only ing appropriation, in one case at least, to find new afiflictions — financial difficul­ less than five thousand dollars. Despite ties, resulting from a nation-wide depres­ this setback, the schools continued to op­ sion, Indian uprisings, and finally, three erate. As late as November, 1888, the pres­ years after the territory became a state, ident of St. Cloud "in a private letter," the distraction of civil war. wrote of the bitter fight waged on normal The fact that this weak and struggling schools and high schools in the state legis­ infant survived its aflBictions and misfor­ lature. tunes is abundantly attested by the mag­ Despite such trials and tribulations, these nificent university of today. Nurtured by institutions have gradually grown in popu­ Minnesotans' faith in education and guided larity, in service, and in support from dec­ by some of America's outstanding educa­ ade to decade. Even with an impressive tional statesmen, the University of Minne­ enrollment today, they are far from able sota has achieved a position of high distinc­ to meet the expanding demands occasioned tion in the roster of American universities. by the high birth rate of the past twelve Though junior in age to many of the state years. Despite present and future strug­ universities, it has few peers among institu­ gles to meet the mounting needs, I have tions of its type in the country.

94 MINNESOTA History Building on its early foundations, the MANY STATES .have backgrounds in Iffgh- University of Minnesota added the insti­ er education somewhat similar to those of tute of agriculture and mechanic arts, made Minnesota just sketched, though few if possible by the Agricultural College Land any have such varied and rich resources. Grant Act of 1862. Minnesota quickly cap­ But Minnesota has one great asset that italized on this revolutionary innovation in seems to me almost without parallel —a higher education, adopting not only the historical society more than a century old program for which it provided, but also which has through the years sought to serve embodying the genius of the new idea into higher education in manifold ways. Its in­ the spirit and program of the university fluence has been strategic not only through as a whole. Today it is exemplified par­ providing rich resources for historical re­ ticularly in the Center for Continuation search, but indirectly through its en­ Study, which stands as a great monument couragement of historical interests and to the leadership of one of your distin­ perspective in all the institutions of higher guished presidents, Lotus D. Coffman. learning. It would be difficult to estimate Then, when the conception of the mod­ the importance of this agency in the edu­ ern university came into vogue, after the cational history of Minnesota. founding of Johns Hopkins with its great In thinking of the value of historical per­ emphasis upon research, graduate work, spective, 1 am reminded of a paragraph and professional education, Minnesota was from Robert E. Lee's message to the people alert to the possibflities and rapidly forged of the South after Appomattox. He said: to the front as a leading exponent of the "The march of providence is so slow and new program. Thus your state university, our desires so impatient, the work of prog­ with roots in the ancient liberal arts tradi­ ress so vast and our means of aiding it so tion with which it began, has been nurtured feeble, the life of society is so long and that also by the newer roots which are repre­ of the individual so brief, that we are likely sented by the land-grant colleges and by to see the ebb of the advancing tide and the conception of the modern university. thus become discouraged. It is history that Three germinal movements in American teaches us to hope." higher education in the last half of the 1 congratulate Minnesota on the rich nineteenth century were the land grant background of its colleges and universities college act, the adoption of the elective and particularly on the wonderful institu­ system, and the conception of the modern tion which is celebrating its one-hundred- university. The University of Minnesota and-fifth birthday today —the Minnesota exploited the fruits of all three. Historical Society.

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