President Winston
Tells Why Many Students Failed…40 of the 500 Students Did Not Return After the
Holidays
Scenes all about the Agricultural and Mechanical college are
all indicative of the fact that the holidays are a thing of the past as old
students and new and untried ones pace the beautiful campus, ramble from place
to place and pass in review for placement and the beginning of the work of the
spring term. There were registered today 133 students, six of whom are new men,
out of a total at the close of the holiday season of 467. Your correspondent
called this afternoon and was admitted to an interview with President George T.
Winston in regards to two matters of special interest, the first of these being
the recent editorial utterance in the Wilmington
Messenger, in which the president and the conduct of the college are
caustically criticized. At first there was a soberness in the face of the
president, and then he smiled and slowly said: “I have nothing to say in
reply.” This utterance then suggested the rumor that has been heard for a day
or two in regard to the failure of so many students to return to the college
for the last half term, and there naturally followed a query from your
correspondent as to the proportion of athletes among the students, and the
average in their attainments under discipline. President Wilson entered into
details of the situation and made clear the situation in all its various
phrases. He said in part, as follows: “It is true that there are 41 students
who have not been able to make the average required by this institution in
order to remain with us. If we have boys here who are disposed to waste their
own time, the means and indulgence of parents and guardians, and unnecessarily
occupy rooms that would otherwise be occupied by earnest and painstaking
students, and who place a needless tax and strain upon the teachers, we feel
they should apply what energies and ability they may have in other lines to
that particular thing and to relieve all other conditions, for they retard
things. Out of a total of about 500 students, 40 failed in their work, and we
had nothing to do but require them either to start again at the bottom, or to
remain away from the college. Now out of this number, in regards to the matter
of athletics, only five of these boys are athletes, and that cannot be charged
against them or the institution. It simply means that the college and crowded
and has been crowded, and as we are giving a practical, independent education,
we therefore cannot be indulgent to the boys who do not work and do not want to
work. We deal in utmost frankness with the boys and with their parents, and as
quietly as possible inform them that work is the thing for them or the real
beginning in preparatory schools and not with us here at the A. & M.”
The real situation is made more clear when the practical
side of the matter is considered. President Winston is in receipt of a number
of letters from students who failed as well as their parents. In some instances
there is acceptance of the truth of the situation, and again there is
complaint, but all in all it is as the head of the college says. “It is a waste
of life and energy and everything else to allow such students to remain within
the college.” In the end many will return to resume study at the first end,
while others will not face the mortification, and will follow their own bents
and enter the world of trade and traffic.
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