THE FREE LANCE.
Published Monthly during the College Year by the Students of
The Pennsylvania State College.
Vol. IX
CHRISTIANITY AND OUR COLLEGES.
Sermon delivered by John M. Gregory, LI,. D., Pnbritary 23rd, 1896
I come first, to some certain facts in regard to our higher insti
tutions of learning. In the report of the Commissioner of Edu
cation for the year 1892 (the later reports are not yet in print)
we are told that there are 451 colleges and universities in the
United States. Four hundred and fifty-one colleges and universi
ties! Of these 310 were for men and women both. This is an in
crease of thirty colleges over those of previous reports. and an
increase of three per cent. over those that admitted women to
their classes. Besides these, there are 143 colleges for women
alone.
Turning to the first number, 451. In these colleges there
were 5,679 instructors and professors, the first men of the land
in learning and intelligence, in the college departments. Taking
in all the departments, college, preparatory and professional,
there were 10,247 teachers, men and women, pledged to this
great 'wOrk. They are the staff and officers of the regiments and
brigades
. in this great army that marches forward to conquer
knowledge and scatter . intelligence. In these colleges there
were 44,054 preparatory students, but there were in the college
classes 55,553 students, mostly young men. I speak this, not
'with a feeling that it is better thus, for I long ago came to the
belief that woman has the same right to education, the same need
for education, and that in the hands of woman education is of
equal importance and value to the country itself and to mankind
at large; so that I, for one, am glad with every college that
throws open its doors to the daughters as well as the sons of the
people. Counting both preparatory and college students, we
have a grand total of 140,053. What an army of young men
MARCH, 1896.
No. 9.