Chemical Education in American Institutions THE JUNIOR COLLEGES aOBERT D. ROWE San Diego State College, San Diego, California
POPULAR demand for an upward extension of the high school to round out the general education of those not intending to go on to the university was the chief factor leading to the development of the junior 'ollege. There was a strong feeling that such a school would develop qualities of leadership, thus proving a great assetto the community. To relieve the university of part of the first t v o years of work was originally a secondary a@, but it was pointed out that the junior college could give a student an opportunity to try himself in college work, and in more than one field if he desired, without great expense and while still living under the influence of his own home. He could be taught by instructors to whom teaching rather than research was a lifetime work. This has proved to be more satisfactory for many students than large university classes which are often taught by the lecture method and by beginners in teaching. It should be noted that some junior colleges have grown so large as to lose part of this advantage. These benefits of the junior college apply t,o chemistry as much as to the other subjects taught there. William Rainey Harper, the first president of the University of Chicago, has been called the father of the junior college movement which developed first in the area under his influence. The LewisInstitute and the Bradley Polytechnic Institute, both private schools, were founded in 1896, and the first public funior college was founded in Joliet, Illinios, in 1901. Soon the junior college had become the fastest growing unit in American education with its most rapid development coming after 1915. Today there are 650 jnnior colleges, ranging in size from fifty to over eight thousand students and with a total enrollment around 300,000. California, Texas, and Illinois lead in the size of their junior college enrollments. Only half of our junior colleges are publicly controlled, hut these enroll about 75 per cent of the students. In California these public schools are tuition free to residents of the state. In many of them outside California a small tuition fee is charged. In order to find out what is being done in chemistry since the war a number of junior colleges were asked to send information on their present programs to the author for this study. While this is a small sampling including only eleven schools, it is thought that the findings are fairly typical of the chemical training in junior colleges as a whole.
While a demand for a school which would round out the education of those not going on to the university had been a large factor in the founding of many junior colleges, nevertheless in the majority of cases the first curriculum set up largely duplicated the first two years of college work. This was particularly true in chemistry. Thus almost all junior colleges give a course which is the equivalent.of freshman chemistly a t any college. Most of them also offer standard courses in organic chemistry and quantitative analysis, but this is not universally true. To meet the aim of rounding out the education of the students who are not going to he chemists a general course is often given which is more descriptive in nature with less individual laboratory work and more group demonstration. Texarkana and Kilgore CoUeges in Texas offer such a course which is intended to be largely of cultural value. Such courses are now being taken up hy some universities, notably the University of California a t Los Angeles. Many junior colleges also give pre-profes'sional courses intended for nurses, occupational and physical therapists, technicians, plant scientists, and other special groups. As public junior colleges usually have to accept any high-school graduate who comes to them and, since the war, have accepted some veterans who.do not have highschool diplomas, it often requires very expert teaching to train adequately those who are capable of doing university work, while at the same time giving something of value to those who are not so capable or who do not plan to go on. In the larger schools preliminary placement examinations are often given in an effort to separate the two groups into different sectionsorintoentirely different courses. Compared with the four-year institutions, the junior colleges probably have a larger percentage of students who are potentially capable of advanced work but who have not done well in high school because of emotional difficulties or because of a lack of basic skills such as common arithmetic. It is these students who benefit particularly from the type of teaching found in the junior college. It has been shown that junior college students transferring to colleges and universities do very well, after the initial period of adjustment to the new school. Eellsl 1 EELLS, WALTERQ, Chapter 12, "The Junior College." Ed.), Stanford University Press, 1927. (WILLIAMM. PROCTOR.
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found that junior college transfers admitted to Stanford University had higher Thorndike Intelligence Test scores than native Stanford students, that they did almost as well scholastically in their junior year, and that more than a proportionate share of them were graduated with distinction. Both the Chicago City Junior College and the Los Angeles City College repotithat only 25 to 50 per cent of their chemistry students go on to the university, showing that much of the work of these schools is really terminal in nature. In Chicago 25 per cent of all the chemistry students become chemical technicians after a course of study includmg general chemistry (with qualitative analysis as the laboratory work of the second semester), a semester of organic chemistry, and a semester of quantitative analysis. This is the same course of study taken by those who plan to continue in college. The Chicago City Junior College also offers courses in photography, chemistry of materials, and special methods of analysis, as well as a survey course in physical science. In the Chicago' area these technicians start work a t initial salaries only about ten dollars a week less than those who have the B.S. degree in chemistry, though the spread between the salaries of the two groups will be somewhat greater after a few years. In Chicago most of the rest of the chemistry students go into lines of work not directly related to their chemical training. The pressure of California's very rapid growth in population has developed a need for more four-year institutions to relieve the State University and to provide this education while the student lives a t home. The Los Angeles City College was until this year a typical large junior college, but i t is now in a state of transition, functioning in the 194748 academic year for the first time as a four-year college, a part of the California State College system. A similar change is taking place a t the Sacramento City College and has been prcposed for several others in the state. Los Angeles City College gives many courses in the evening-its so-called Twilight Session. These inchdl both lecture courses and laboratory courses, such as organic chemistry. It has for a long time offered a five-unit general, applied chemistry course designed primarily for pre-nursing students, in addition to the usual freshman and sophomore college chemistry courses. The San Angelo College in Texas is typical of the rapid expansion many junior colleges are undergoing. It moved this year to a completely new physical plant, and new departments are being added, including a new agricultural curriculum. San Angelo College gives a junior college diploma to nurses graduating from the Shannon Memorial School of Nursing who have taken thirty-three hours of work a t the college. Such special departments all send students to the chemistry courses, increasing not only the volume of the classes but adding new interests and often creating a demand for special-i -z--d cn~lr~rfi~ - - -- -- -. rioneer work in a two-year agricultural curriculum was done a t the Chaffee Junior College in Ontario, California, more than twenty years ago. Among the
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
schools offering this type of work now, the Kilgore College in Texas offers a varied agricultural course of which chemistry is a part. Settmg up a pattern quite its own is the San Diego Junior College in California which has been influenced by the fact that the city also contains a State College. This lessens the need for giving lower-division college work, whichis done to a limited extent only in the ni&t school division. The new Applied Arts and Science Center (day school) offers at present a general survey course of inorganic and organic chemistry which emphasizes the scientific method and the role of science in society. The best students do individual library and laboratory work, while a special effort also is made to help potentially capable students who have special problems. The school considers itself primarily responsible for fitting all its students for life in the community rather than training just a few for further work in some university. The development of special courses to meet particular local needs is a subject in itself. This may involve only chemistry, hut more often it brings several departments together. The first step is an investigation of the particular industry and an analysis of the theoretical material essential to understanding the work to be done in the laboratory. As an example, Morgan and Hibbardz discuss the development of a training program leading to work as a supervisor for electroplating rooms. So far only public junior colleges have been discussed. One quarter of the junior college students are enrolled in private schools, however. These range in character from purely secretarial business schools to somewhat exclusive boarding schools. The range of their course offeringsis equally broad. Colby Junior College in New London, New Hampshire, is an outgrowth of an old New England academy, founded in 1837 by Susan Colby, which in 1928 tranformed itself from a coeducational high school to a juni~collegefor young women. Although the original building is still standing in New London, the college occupies an attractive new campus. Its students in 1947 came from twenty-four states, the District of Columbia, and three foreign countries. Colby offers a strong chemistry program as a part of its course for medical technicians. General chemistry and organic chemistry are 'standard college courses, but quantitative analysis is designed especially for medical technicians and medical secretaries. Colby also gives a chemistry review course for students planning to become medical secretaries. The currriculum for medical technicians is especially interesting. It is a three-year course of study which with a fourth year in an approved training school for medical technologists prepares for the examination given by the Board of Registry of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists. To graduates of this curriculum who have succe~~fully completed one year in an approved hospital laboratory, Colbv Junior Colleee eives a B.S. degree. " Junior colleges probably differ as widely in what 3 MOEGAN, ROY E.,AND WALTER R. HIBEARD, JR., ~~~~i~~ College Jownal, xvn, No. 3, 92-100 (Nav., 1946).
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might be called their personalities as they do in their course offerings. A few, like Colby, are very old institutions with many traditions. Most of them however, are not more than twenty years old, and, indeed, new junior colleges are still being established. Often these use parts of the high-school buildings in their early days. This creates 'many problems of morale as well as of use of equipment, and it is a happy day when the junior college moves to its own campus. Many schools are influenced by adjacent universities in one way or another. The San Antonio Junior College was under the direction of the University of Texas during its first year and has continued to feel its influence strongly. The chemistry textbooks have in general been those used in Austin, and the instructors have for the most part received their training in the chemistry department of the University of Texas. Several of their students have received assistantships a t the University. In California there was previously a law permitting junior colleges to amiate with the University of California. Under this agreement all collegiate courses and the qualifications of faculty members were subject to the approval of inspectors sent out by the university. This proved to be of little advantage, to either the junior colleges or the University, and the plan has been abandoned. However, most junior colleges in the state prepare their stpdents in chemistry for transfer to the University of California. An exception to this is the Menlo Junior College, a private institution for young men, which has always pointed its students for entrance into neighboring Stanford University. Since the war the junior college h d s that it is called upon to train increasingly large numbers of students who plan to transfer to the universities, for its enrollment is as swollen as that of other units of our edu-
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cational system. Not being bound completely by the university tradition, a junior college teacher is somewhat freer to experiment with course content and teaching methods. One such trial made a t the Wright Branch of the Chicago City Junior Colleges was reported before the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society in 1940 by W. E. Morrell and N. D. Cheronis. They made an effort to eliminate from the freshman chemistry course repetition of rnaterial with which the student was already familiir from his high-school course and to permit the unusually talented student to progress as fast as he could. For a selected group of students it was found that eliminating repetition saved the good pupil from boredom, and time was found to teach some work in quantitative analysis along with the qualitative analysis. This experiment is continuing to develop. The junior college h d s also more demand for chemistry for the student seeking a general education, and in this field chemistry teachers expFess themselves as being dissatisfied with the accomplishment so far. New ideas are constantly being given a trial. In the development of chemistry courses to meet special professional or subprofessional needs, the greatest progress has been in the fields for nurses and for laboratory technicians. The author wishes to achowledge the help of Nicholas D. Cheronis who sent much information on the Chicago City Junior Colleges, H. Leslie Sawyer of Colby Junior College, Imo P. Baughman of the Los Angeles City College, Robert Heilbron and Jack Salyers of the San Diego Junior College, W. P. Akin of the Texarkana College, and of a member of the San Antonio Junior College faculty who wishes to remain unnamed here, but who was most helpful in sending the catalogues of a number of Texas schools.
