Alma Mater/Spring 2014
2nd Hour Exam
April 2, 2014
Part I – Short Stuff – 20 Minutes
Link the academic personages in Column A to attributes in Columns B and C:
Column A – Personages |
Column B |
Column C |
Annie Nathan Meyer | Harvard psychologist-philosopher | Funded Yale colleges, Harvard houses and Butler Library |
Edward Harkness | Vermont senator | WW I anti-interventionist and critic of trustees |
Woodrow Wilson | Prime mover in founding of Barnard | President of Princeton, 1904-10 |
William James | Progressive era journalist | WW I interventionist and critic of trustees |
Frederick P. Keppel | Philanthropist | Promoter of land-grant colleges |
Charles A. Beard | Hopkins PhD 1881 | “Twilight of Idols” |
Elizabeth Milbank Anderson | Psychologist | Popularizer of the pragmatic method |
Nicholas Murray Butler | Columbia College dean | Grappled with “Hebrew problem” |
James McKeen Cattell | political scientist – historian | Leading early Barnard benefactor |
Justin Morrill | Spectator editor, 1931-32 | Member of New York’s Sephardic Jewish community |
Randolph Bourne | Heiress to Borden Milk fortune | Expelled for union organizing activities on campus |
Reed Harris | Columbia PhD in philosophy | Prime mover behind College Entrance Examination Board |
Column A – Personages |
Column B |
Column C |
Annie Nathan Meyer | Prime mover of Barnard | Sephardic Jewish Community |
Edward Harkness | Philanthropist | Funded Harvard houses, Yale colleges, Butler Library |
Woodrow Wilson | Hopkins PhD 1881 | Princeton president, 1902-10 |
William James | Harvard psychologist-philosopher | Popularizer of Pragmatic Method |
Frederick P. Keppel | Columbia College dean | Grappled with “Hebrew Problem” |
Charles A. Beard | Columbia political scientist | WW I interventionist and trustee critic |
Elizabeth Milbank Anderson | Heiress to Borden Milk fortune | Principal early Barnard benefactor |
Nicholas Murray Butler | Columbia PhD in philosophy 1884 | Organizer of CEEB |
James McKeen Cattell | Columbia psychologist | WW I anti-interventionist and trustee critic |
Justin Morrill | Vermont senator | Author of Land Grant Colleges Act |
Randolph Bourne | NYC journalist and CC graduate |
“twilight of Idols” |
Reed Harris | Spectator editor, 1931-32 | Expelled for anti-adminsitration editorials |
I. B. Link the following institutional foundings with their prime movers and date of founding:
Institution |
Founding Benefactor |
Ist Administrative head |
Year of Founding/Opening |
Johns Hopkins | Ezra Cornell | Daniel Coit Gilman | 1865/1868 |
Stanford | Leland Stanford | Ella Weed | 1876 |
Barnard College | John D. Rockefeller | M. Carey Thomas | 1885 |
University of Chicago | None | Wm. Rainey Harper | 1889 |
Cornell | Philadelphia Quakers | David Starr Jordan | 1885/1891 |
Bryn Mawr | Johns Hopkins | Andrew Dickson White | 1891 |
Institution |
Founding Benefactor |
Ist Administrative head |
Year of Founding/Opening |
Johns Hopkins | Johns Hopkins | Daniel Coit Gilman | 1876 |
Stanford | Leland Stanford | David Starr Jordan | 1885/1891 |
Barnard College | None | Ella Weed | 1889 |
University of Chicago | John D. Rockefeller | Wm. Rainey Harper | 1891 |
Cornell | Ezra Cornell | Andrew Dickson White | 1865/1868 |
Bryn Mawr | Philadelphia Quakers | M. Carey Thomas | 1885 |
Part II. Mid-Sized Stuff – 20 Minutes — Choose three and respond with three or four sentences/ bullets.
a. What were F. A. P. Barnard’s views on the education of women?
b. What were William James’s views on the PhD?
c. What were George Santayana’s views on Yale?
c. What were John Dewey’s views on pacifism and non-interventionism in 1916-17
d. Which of the university’s constituencies did the rise of football bring together?
e. What was Randolph Bourne’s complaint with his professors?
Part III. Longer Stuff — 40 Minutes — Respond to two of the following propositions with two 20-minute critical essays in which you take a considered position. Facts welcome.
a. The rise of the university in the late 19th century is best accounted for by pointing out the intellectual shortcomings of the ante-bellum colleges that preceded them. On this all contemporary observers of academe were agreed.
b. The return of the colleges in the 1920s is best accounted for by pointing out the intellectual failings of the turn-of-the-century universities that preceded them. On this all contemporary observers of academe were agreed.
c. Efforts in the interwar era to limit the admission of Jews to academic institutions founded, funded and governed by Protestants were both understandable and defensible. And besides, the means by which Jews were excluded were relatively non-punitive.
d. As of 1940, America’s leading colleges and universities had yet to demonstrate that they had made good use of all the financial resources, public and private, lavished on them. To the contrary, they represented to many thoughtful observers the nation’s most conspicuous instance of “conspicuous consumption” and class-enforcing extravagance.