TABLE 48.-Annual budget of the division of commerce and business in landgrant institutions for the years 1923-1928

Chapter VI.-Offerings and Services

This survey has shown thus far that land-grant institutions have failed to discover the needs for higher business education. They have also failed to analyze commerce and business students-the raw materials of higher business education. An examination of the mechanisms set up by land-grant institutions to handle commerce and business students has been made. In Chapter VI the offerings of land-grant institutions to meet the needs of higher business education will be examined.

These offerings will be studied under three heads. The first point to be considered concerns internal offerings; that is, offerings in commerce and business to individual students and to the institution itself. Offerings to the individual will be discussed in terms of curricular and noncurricular offerings. Offerings to the institution itself will be discussed in terms of general economic and business services which the division of commerce and business may render the institution. The second head involves external offerings. Here commerce and business will be examined in terms of public and private contacts and in terms of the correlation of commerce and business offerings with other institutions in the territories served by land-grant colleges and universities. Under the third head an examination will be made of internal and external offerings in terms of the institution as a whole particularly with reference to their correlation.

Following the foregoing outline internal curricular offerings to individual students will first be examined. This involves at once

a study of the content of higher business education and leads to curriculum making.

There are many methods of formulating the curriculum. Landgrant institutions have followed to a greater or lesser extent all of the known methods. However, the method that it has followed most is one of imitation. When land-grant institutions have decided to engage in instruction in commerce and business, those responsible for formulating policies have quite frequently assembled the catalogues of other institutions and apparently copied therefrom. What courses other institutions required they required. What courses were elective they made elective. If other institutions set up group requirements, they set up group requirements.

While land-grant institutions have copied each other they tend to copy more the privately endowed institutions and nonland-grant State universities. This is particularly true of land-grant State universities when they have initiated schools or colleges of commerce and business. Instead of following the spirit of the Morrill Act and engaging in pioneering and experimentation to meet State situations they have frequently taken the line of least resistance and imitated.

Land-grant institutions can perform only a part of the task of business education. There are commercial high schools, private business colleges, continuation schools, corporation schools, and collegiate schools of business in nonland-grant and privately endowed institutions. All of these are engaged in curriculum making and are participating in business education. Instead of specialization, landgrant institutions as well as all other agencies have tended to cover the whole field. Consequently efforts have been duplicated more than is desirable.

Land-grant institutions have had an excellent opportunity to achieve distinction and to carry out the intent of the Morrill Act, namely, to provide "a liberal and practical education for the industrial classes." However, instead of blazing new trails in business education, they traveled the old trails. They were more anxious to do what other institutions were doing, particularly nonland-grant State universities, than to experiment and achieve new results.

Table 1 has already shown that relatively few land-grant institutions recognized the function of land-grant colleges to serve business. They established offerings in commerce and business because of the favorable attitude of the division of economics toward the organization of such courses and more because of superficial contacts of the representatives of the institution with business men and prospective students than because of a desire to put into effect the purposes of the Morrill Act. They made no comprehensive studies of the present and probable future trends of higher business education. They were merely followers and not leaders.

It is worth while in this connection to review Table 6 also. From that table it will be seen that land-grant institutions have set up pretty generally curricular offerings extending over a period of four years. Their objectives have been to provide a general education, to assure a better understanding of the relationships of business and the communities, to provide a functional background in business subjects for students of other major divisions, such as agriculture and engineering, and to provide education and training for positions in minor and major executive work and research work extending generally over a period of four years.

The various land-grant, institutions were asked to indicate whether or not they offered any 1, 2, or 3 year nondegree short curricula in commerce and business.

Thirty-six institutions replied in the negative to this question; 3 replied in the affirmative; 1 reported that it formerly had a 2-year short secretarial curriculum but had discontinued it at the end of 1927. The three institutions that replied in the affirmative were asked to give the name of the curricula and the name of the diploma or certificate granted, indicate the types of students for whom the curricula were designed, state the specific purposes of the curricula, and indicate whether or not full credit, part, or no credit was granted toward a bachelor's degree to students taking courses in these short curricula. The names of these short curricula are generally "secretarial training," "training in secretarial science," or "stenographic training." In one of the institutions a certificate in secretarial science is awarded at the end of two years. In another institution a commercial certificate is awarded at the end of two years. In another institution a commercial certificate is awarded at the end of one year and a diploma at the end of two years. Admission requirements for these curricula is the same as to the curricula four years in length.

The types of students appealed to are those who look forward to working their way through college. The specific purposes of the curricula are to prepare students for general office work or to produce bookkeepers or stenographers as quickly as possible. Three institutions report that full credit on courses in these short curricula are granted toward a bachelor's degree.

Table 49 gives the number of students pursuing curricula in land-grant institutions leading to the first degree. This table also affords data as to the types of curricula. It will be seen from this table that the curriculum in general business contains the largest number of students; accounting, advertising, and banking and finance are next in order in so far as the total number of students is concerned. Either many land-grant institutions do not offer the various types of curricula listed except general business or they failed to answer the questionnaire accurately. The data in this table are very meager except for the curricula in general business. Many institutions merely answered "No data."

TABLE 49.-Number of students pursuing curricula in land-grant institutions leading to first degree

Land-grant institutions were asked to indicate the major divisions in which the degree was granted for the several curricula in commerce and business leading to the first degree. Two institutions reported that the degree is granted in agriculture; one reports that the degree is granted in engineering; seven report that their curriculum in teacher training is granted both in the teacher-training division and in the commerce and business division. A number of institutions report that the degree is granted in the college of arts and sciences. For the several curricula the degree is reported by more institutions to be granted in the division of commerce and business than in any other division.

An attempt was made in the questionnaire to secure data concerning the number of students who were minoring in the various curricula in commerce and business although majoring in such divisions as agriculture, engineering, home economics, teacher training, and arts and sciences. No institution was able to furnish the figures.

Table 50 gives the average minimum number of semester hours' credit required for the completion of curricula in commerce and business in land-grant institutions leading to the first degree.

The table should be read in the following fashion: Reading from left to right, beginning with the line entitled "general business": 25 institutions reported an average of 132.1 semester hours' credit in all subjects for the completion of the curriculum in general business; 19 institutions report 45.3 as the average minimum number of semester hours' credit required in arts and science, excluding economics, for the completion of the curricula in general business; 19 institutions report 41.7 as the average minimum number of semester hours' credit required in commerce and business, excluding economics, and

so on.

This table warrants careful scrutiny. It will be seen that the average minimum number of semester hours' credit in all subjects required for the completion of all the various curricula ranges from 120 to 139. There seems to be no uniformity among the various curricula in so far as the number of semester hours' credit in all subjects required for the completion of the various curricula is concerned. There is considerable variation in the average minimum number of semester hours' credit required in arts and science, excluding economics. The range is from 25.6 in case of the curriculum of insurance to 58 in the case of journalism. There is also a wide range in the average minimum number of semester hours' credit required in commerce and business, excluding economics. The range is not nearly so great in the average minimum number of semester hours' credit. required in economics if the one institution reporting an average of five in case of public service and civic work is excluded. The range again is very great in case of the average minimum number of semester hours required in technical subjects. Although the number of institutions reporting on this item is not very large, the average minimum number of semester hours required in electives in all subjects varies widely ranging from 9.6 in case of secretarial training to 32.1 in other curricula "unspecified."