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The Roots of Higher Education in Minnesota

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The Roots of Higher Education in Minnesota 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.
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