A Survey of Educational Institutions of the State of Washington (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 Excerpt: ...university system; that no one part should attempt to cover the whole field; that the sole object of the system is to serve the State economically and effectively and not to serve any particular institution or locality; that this larger State service can best be accomplished by friendly cooperation, rather than by competition and rivalry; and that no institution should attempt to maintain a particular branch of training when it can be proved that greater benefit would accrue to the State if this branch were cultivated elsewhere. If the problem of differentiation were approached by the university and State college in this spirit, it would doubtless be necessary to disregard the sanction of State laws, which may provide that certain subjects may be taught at one or the other institution, and to consider the question entirely with a view to the higher good of the State. Laws, in so far as they are mandatory, can be easily amended, if the present institutional beneficiaries favor their amendment. If they are merely permissive, institutional policies can be changed without recourse to legislative action. It is perhaps impossible to bring about at once and by a single drastic action an absolutely complete differentiation of the fields of State institutions in any State where the institutions affected have been long established and have built up extensive patronage and costly equipment. Certain peculiar local factors may also enter into the ques tion, making a sweeping reorganization at least temporarily unwise. In the committee's judgment, Washington is one of the States in which these inhibiting factors to some extent exist. Two of these factors are the great size of the State and the peculiar distribution of the population. Nevertheless, the committee believes ...