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Hobart, William Smith Unique

Diocesan Press Service. December 8, 1966 [49-7]

Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York are unique in several ways in the field of higher education.

This is not because they are located on the shores of one of the Finger Lakes. There are other colleges in this section of New York State.

Hobart, for men, and William Smith, for women, trace their history back to days when they were on the western frontier. Geneva, where Hobart became a reality in 1822, was founded shortly after the Revolution. Its first school was Geneva Academy, organized in 1796, and Hobart College is its direct descendant.

Hobart is the oldest college in America affiliated with the Episcopal Church. William Smith, founded in 1908 through a gift from the benefactor of that name, by deed of gift is non-denominational.

In addition to bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees, the colleges offer a five-year combined program with Columbia University leading to the bachelor of science degree in engineering.

One of their greatest distinctions is the program of interdepartmental coordinate courses in general education, adopted in 1945 under the leadership of the then president, Dr. John Milton Potter.

The undergraduate program is built around an emphasis on the nature and history of western civilization. It is given within a three-term, three course-per term calendar in the traditional September to June academic year.

Setting a new high in enrollment this year, the colleges have 1,441 students: 1,064 Hobart men and 377 William Smith women.

THREE TERM SYSTEM

Actually, the three term system -- for Hobart at least -- is not completely new. Hobart students of the early 19th century attended for three semesters: "Trinity," which ran from mid-September to Christmas; "Epiphany," continuing from early January to late April; and "Easter, " beginning in May and ending early in August. Summer vacation was only six weeks and school was in session for a total of 40 weeks instead of the present 32.

Hobart, with its long history of affiliation with the Episcopal Church, has educated 30 men who have gone on to become bishops of the Church. Today there are 11 living bishops who attended Hobart, ranging from the youngest, the Rt. Rev. Robert C. Rusack, class of 1946, Suffragan Bishop of Los Angeles, to the Rt. Rev. Frank W. Sterrett, class of 1906, retired bishop of Bethlehem.

Any list of the colleges' distinguished alumni must mention Elizabeth Blackwell, class of 1849, first woman in the western world to receive the degree of Doctor of Medicine when she was graduated from the medical school of then Geneva College.

FIRST IN WESTERN NEW YORK

It was all due to the efforts of the Rt. Rev. John Henry Hobart that Geneva became the site of the first college in western New York. Traveling through the then near wilderness, he became impressed with the opportunity to build on the foundations of Geneva Academy, founded in 1796.

In 1818 the Bishop met with four Geneva citizens to outline his plan for establishing the college. The plan called for the reopening of Geneva Academy at a new site, public subscription for funds to erect a stone building, and finally, elevation of the academy to college status.

Geneva is now a city of more than 17,000 in the heart of the scenic Finger Lakes area of New York State.

But only a generation before Bishop Hobart wended his way through the near wilderness, Indians skulked in the deep forests and emerged to commit such horrors as the Wyoming and Cherry Valley massacres.

In the college's founding year, the citizens of Geneva raised money to build a stone building as a gift to the infant institution. It still stands, regularly in use, with a plaque testifying it to be the "gift of the citizens of Geneva -- 1822."

The curriculum is designed to eliminate fragmentary teaching of liberal arts by presenting varied areas of knowledge in logical and related sequence. Each student is made aware of the meaning and design of a liberal arts education and provided with certain broad outlines of knowledge about his world before he begins concentrated or general studies in fields of his own interest.

In addition to the work in general education, each student establishes at the beginning of his junior year a plan of studies, usually concentrating in a major field, and based on his particular needs and interest.

MANY DO GRADUATE WORK

More than 50 per cent of the graduates of Hobart, and 25 per cent of the graduates of William Smith, now continue their education at the graduate level. Many go on to medical schools.

Other significant numbers go on to advanced work in theology, education, law, dentistry, and business administration, with lesser numbers in many other academic areas.

Both colleges are accepted by every agency approved for academic accreditation in the area in which they are located. These include the Middle States Association and the Regents of the University of the State of New York.

A chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Zeta of New York, was established at Hobart in 1871, and has since been extended to William Smith.

While emphasis here has been on education, one facet of college life deserves mention, and that is athletics. Hobart is a member of the Independent College Athletic Conference, the Eastern College Athletic Conference, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. It has ranked high in lacrosse for 68 years -- since 1898 -- and its late coach, Francis L. "Babe" Kraus, dean of American coaches of the sport with a record of 40 consecutive years, had produced more then 50 All America lacrosse starts.

In football, the Statesmen had a golden age from 1953 through 1958 with 36 victories to only five losses and two ties.

Farther back, in 1928, Merle Gulick, then of Maumee, Ohio, was the second high scorer in the East as he dashed through the opposition. Today, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Colleges, he has been elected to the National Football Hall of Fame, the only representative of a small college in Hobart's class to be named to that exalted state.

Now, with a new president, Dr. Albert E. Holland, just inaugurated, the Colleges look forward to continued advancement with the idea foremost in the mind of the recognition of the strengths of a liberal arts education and its concomitant of individual responsibility as the basis for one's life's work.