PART VI. STUDENT RELATIONS AND WELFARE

Chapter I. Introduction

The college or university community is a peculiar and interesting social unit. This is largely true because it is a transitional period of community living. A large proportion of the members of the college and university community come to it with experience only of community living under conditions of considerable control of their activities and interests. Parents, school, and the home community have in large part guided and limited their lives; even under modern conditions of youthful freedom the degree of responsibility placed upon the student prior to his entrance to college is relatively slight. During the period of college and university life he must develop attitudes, interests, and abilities, which will enable him to reenter the community from which he came in very different capacities from those he occupied when he first went to college.

It is a function of the university or college to assist the student in making these changes of attitudes, interests, and abilities. This is done in part only by the academic and curricular activities provided by the institution. Of equal or even greater importance in the process are the material conditions of living, the social atmosphere, and the opportunities for self-expression provided by the institution during the period of college life. The transformation from living under control to living independently can not be accomplished effectively when "institutionalism" prescribes rigidly and imposes by authority conditions comparable to those of the nursery or the penitentiary. On the other hand, the institution that assumes no responsibility whatsoever outside the academic program but throws the immature young man or woman entirely upon his or her own resources, is failing to function in the fullest sense as an educational agency.

One purpose of the college experience is to prepare for participation in the life of a community, whether community is interpreted in strictly local or in national terms. The creation and utilization of self-directed effort on the part of the student must operate in an atmosphere of institutional interest in these matters. Data provided for the survey of student relations and welfare in the land-grant

institutions may be regarded, therefore, somewhat artificially, from the standpoints first, of those activities and services that are furnished by the institution and that are controlled administratively by the institution in the interest of the student's college life, and secondly, those activities that are controlled and operated by the students independently or in conjunction with institutional authority. In many instances the primary interest of the institution in the individual student's human welfare is dictated by considerations of contribution to the academic and curricular welfare of the student. In other cases institutional interest is merely an expression of common social responsibility for the welfare of the individual or is directed to make definite provision to encourage individual initiative in relationships other than those of class work. The first section of this report will deal with the institutional welfare and advisory staff designed to accomplish these ends. It is concerned with the housing and feeding of students; with personnel systems; with the health service; with the means used to introduce and orient new students into the college community; with provisions for physical education and athletic activities; with religious interests and institutional convocations; with the aids provided to enable students to meet their academic and financial responsibility; and with the assistance given when the student leaves the institution to take up his work in the outside community. The second portion of the report will deal with the student organizations intended for the personal benefit of their members, for the benefit of the college community, and for the benefit of larger phases of community life.

Chapter II.-Welfare and Advisory Staff

The student personnel work in all the land-grant institutions centers in two offices, those of the dean of men and of the dean of women. Even though many of the activities that concern student welfare are directed by other persons and though several institutions have a separate department of personnel under a director who is supposed to centralize all of the personnel work of the institution, the dean of men and the dean of women maintain the closest direct contact with the entire student body. It is through their offices that the work of the student organizations is conducted. The measure of the success of these two administrators in any institution may well be judged by the amount of voluntary cooperation requested from them by the various organizations of the campus. A study of the organization of the offices of the dean of men and the dean of women is essential.

Office of the Dean of Women

Since the office of the dean of men is a more recent organization than that of the dean of women, it may be well to take up the latter first. Reports concerning student relations were received from 44 institutions. Of these, two have no women registered and three have so few as to be negligible. Thirty-nine of the land-grant institutions maintain the office of the dean of women and give this title to the woman who has general supervision of women students. The earliest date of establishment of this office in the land-grant institutions was 1897. Two institutions report the establishment of the office in that year. It was established before 1913 in half of the institutions reporting.

The salaries of the deans of women range from $2,000 to $6,000, with the median at $3,600. In all but three of the land-grant institutions this salary is paid entirely from State funds; in three, it is paid partly from student fees. The qualifications for this office are stated in general terms and with little definiteness. A more significant picture is obtained by studying the actual preparation of women who held the office in 1927. The data furnished by the land-grand college survey has been supplemented by valuable material gathered by Miss Madge McGlade, of Iowa State College, who made a study of the office of dean of women in the land-grant institutions in 1927. The age

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range of deans of women is stated as from "under 30" to "45 or above," with the median at 45. Only 4 deans of the 39 reporting were under 35 years of age, and only 15 of the entire number were under 45 years of age. This would indicate that those who select the person to fill the office of dean of women in the land-grant institions are not inclined to select her from among the lower age levels, perhaps because they feel that actual experience in living is necessary to give sound judgment in dealing with the problems that come to this office for solution. On the other hand, too old a woman may not be sympathetic with the problems of present-day youth. After all, however, the matter of age is relative, not chronological, and does not depend upon actual years.

It is quite evident to anyone familiar with the earlier policy of administrations in filling this position that a real change has taken place in the point of view regarding the training that is necessary. Only five of the institutions failed to report some degree for the dean of women. One had the training of a graduate nurse, 8 held only the bachelor's degree, 22 held the master's degree, and 6 held the Ph. D. A number of those holding master's degrees had done one or more years of graduate work beyond this degree, although not sufficient to complete work for the Ph. D. Twelve had taken some one of the special courses offered in various colleges on the work of the dean of women. Of these the greater number had taken their work at Columbia University in the highly theoretical course offered there.

In faculty rank, the recognition was generous. Of the 39 who reported, 38 were members of the general faculty, though 7 were given no actual professorial rating. Ten held full professorships, 6 associate professorships, 5 assistant professorships, and only 1 was ranked as an instructor. In addition to this list, 2 were rated as deans of divisions, 1 as dean of the college, 2 as heads of departments, and 1 as chairman of the faculty in the absence of the president. Twenty-nine reported that they held equal rank with the deans of the colleges in their institutions and were members of the board of deans. It is clear that the dean of women in the greater number of the land-grant institutions is in the upper ranks of the faculty and has both academic and administrative recognition.

The duties of the office are not yet any more standardized than are the qualifications of appointees. Certain functions, however, stand out clearly. Practically all of the deans of women give full time to the work of their offices. Work with student organizations, direction of the social activities of women students, individual student advising and discipline, are the duties most frequently listed by the reports; supervision of housing, feeding, and scholarship, orienta