Source Document

University of Illinois Committee on Admissions From Higher Institutions, "Rating of Burlington Junior College," Mimeograph (1929).

Interpretation

Iowa's Burlington Junior College was typical of most midwestern junior colleges founded before 1940. It was a small, selective institution that catered to students intent upon attaining either a elementary teaching credential, transfer to a baccaluareate program at a standard college or university, or admission to school of law or medicine. In part, its small size and academic exclusivity were inevitable consequences of the conditions under which the institution operated. Even as late as 1940, few youth attained a high school diploma -- a prerequities to junior college admission -- and the vast majority of these students, as Counts and Koos both documented, were from affluent families. Moroever, because of the requirements of Iowa state law governing "higher institutions", Burlington Junior College was obligated to charge a substantial tuition, likely $100 a year, that precluded the enrollment of the few among the city's less affluent youth who might have nevertheless graduated from high school.

Yet no less influential in maintaining Burlington Junior College's climate of academic exclusivity was, in the language of that time, the process of university standardization -- what today is known as accreditation. Like junior colleges in every other state except California, Burlington was closely monitored by those universities to which its students transferred, and not solely by its own state university and the appropriate regional association. Because students from Burlington transferred to the University of Illinois (which was a relatively short and direct train trip from the city of Burlington), the junior college college was subject to inspection by Illinois' Committee on Admissions from Higher Institutions, in much the same way that Illinois' Joliet Junior College was surveyed by a faculty committee from the University of Michigan.

Had Burlington failed to meet any of the University of Illinois' standards -- and these standards covered nearly every aspect of institutional life except the student extracurriculum -- its students would have experienced great difficulty in university acceptance of the credits they had earned while students at Burlington. Further, as the report of the University of Illinois' accreditation team of its 1929 visit to Burlington reveals, the university's accreditation team took its responsibility seriously, examing virtually every aspect of Burlington's academic program, administrative practices, and financial circumstance. Quite literally, the team examined every student's record, departmental budgets, and the qualifications of every faculty member.

listed. Burlington, which was a relatively large and well-funded junior college by Iowa standards, was found to have admitted some unqualified students, to have underfunded its library and its science laboratories, and to have employed an instructor in Biology who was not fully qualified for his position. A "nearly complete" Master's degree was simply unacceptable, and it cost the junior college the transferability of its biology offering for its "normal" (i.e., teacher ed) students.

The gradual substitution of the regional associations for the state universities as the principal watchdogs of institutional accreditation over the course of the late 1920s did not immediately lead to any general loosening of the standards evident in the assessment of Burlington by the University of Illinois. As Chicago's Crane Junior College would learn in 1932, the North Central Association at least was more than willing to withdraw accredited status for any breach of its standards. Crane, it seems, had elected to not only offer a pre-college level English course for credit, but it had abandoned the 15 high school unit admissions prerequisite. In effect, Chicago's only public junior college had begun to take on some of the characteristics of the modern, open admissions community college - a reasonable action given the large number of unemployed young men and women recently immigrated to the city for Europe, for whom the junior college represented their only real opportunity to put their time to good purpose.

The North Central Association, however, did not see the greater good in Crane's actions. Acting swiftly, the association lifted the school's accreditation, leading to its closure by a school board looking for excuses to economize during the worst period of the Great Depression. However, school officials quickly capitulated to North Central, re-imposed strict admissions requirements and dropped its pre-collegiate English course. The school board, faced with a public outcry to reinstate the college, reversed course and a smaller Crane Junior College reopened by 1933, to be followed by other campuses that would, in time, form the basis of today's Chicago community college system.

Text

Mr. Roy E. Bracewell, Principal
Burlington Junior College
Burlington, Iowa

Dear Mr. Bracewell:

On the basis of the data, which you very kindly furnished us for the use of our Committee on Admissions from Higher Institutions, a final rating of Burlington Junior College has now been completed. I enclose a memorandum of this rating herewith. There is also included a copy of the data which our Committee had before it and which formed the basis of the action.
I desire to thank you for your courtesy and helpfulness in furnishing us with the information required.
Very truly yours,

Rating of

BURLINGTON JUNIOR COLLEGE

(Location) Burlington, Iowa

Tentative Action:

Class B Junior College, except no credit in Normal Training Biology.

Date Dec. 22, 1928

Final Action:

Class B Junior College, except no credit in Normal Training Biology

Date Jan. 19, 1929

Committee on Admissions From Higher Institutions

[Signature: J. P Tuttle]
Secretary

(FORM 32,2500-11-23-27-3673-S)BURLINGTON JUNIOR COLLEGE

Burlington, Iowa

STANDARD I - ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS (Satisfactory)
(Equivalent to the admission requirements of the University of Illinois,)

15 units are required; the minimum acceptable is 14 units.. Last year 61 students presented 15 units, 3 presented 14 units and 5, 13 units. Deficiencies in entrance credit must be made up by taking work under private tutor. and examination or by taking work in high school.

STANDARD II - GRADUATION (Not entirely satisfactory)
(60 semester hours of college work. One-half of the work in Liberal Arts should be prescribed and should include not loss than 6 hours each In Rhetoric, History, and Foreign Language and a total of not less than 16 hours from. the three groups of Mathematics, Physical Science and Biological Science provided that not fewer then four hours should be offered from these three groups.)

60 semester hours including 6 hours of English composition are required for graduation. Those students who are preparing to teach are required to take the state program; other students are advised to take courses which will fit in with the curriculum of the institution they later expect to enter.

STANDARD III - ENROLLMENT (Satisfactory)
(Not less than 50 students of college grade.)

Last Term This Term
2nd year students 29 26
1st year students 52 69
Specials 3 2
Total 84 97

STANDARD IV- NUMBER OF DEPARTMENTS (Satisfactory)
(Not fewer than 6 distinct departments.)

There are 12 departments.

STANDARD V - PREPARATION OF FACULTY (Satisfactory)
(Each teacher should have the Bachelor's degree and in addition at least a year of graduate. study in a. university of recognized standing, No new teacher of academic. subjects should be employed who does not hold the Master's or Doctor's degree from an institution of the standing of those recognized by the North Central Association.)

I. Modern Language, 1
(1) Ph.B., M.A., Univ. of Chicago

2. English, 2
(1) B.A., M.A., Univ. of Iowa (Also teaching senior English In high school)
(2) B.A., Simpson College:, M.A., Univ. of Iowa (Also teaching Public Speaking in high school)

3. History & Government, 1
(1) B.A., M.A., Univ. of Illinois (Also teaching sophomore Social Science in high school)

Burlington Junior College, page 2

4, Economics & Sociology, 1
(1) B.A., Penn Collage; M.A., Univ. of Iowa (Also teaching Civics and Economics in high school and coaching the debate team)

5. Psychology, 1
(1) B.A., M.A., Univ. of Iowa

6. Mathematics, 1
(1) B.S. North Dakota Agr. College, M.S., Univ. of Illinois

7. Chemistry, I
(1) B.S. Beloit College; M.S. Univ. of Illinois (Also teaching Chemistry in high school)

8. Physics, 1
(1) B.A., M.A., Indiana Univ. (Also teaching Physics and General Science in high school)

9. Biology, 1
(1) B.A., Iowa Wesleyan Univ.; M.A., Northwestern Univ., practically completed (Also teaching Biology in high school)

10. Engineering Drawing, I
(1) Ph.B., Univ. of Wisconsin: M.A.., Univ. of Iowa (Also teaching Mechanical Drawing in high school)

Physical Education - I instructor
Music - 1 instructor

STANDARD VI - TEACHING SCHEDULES (Satisfactory)
(Not more than 20 hours per week.)

No instructor is teaching over 20 hours. The institution attempts to arrange its programs so that each instructor will have approximately 16 hours of college teaching.

STANDARD VII - SIZE OF CLASSES
(Not over 30)

Only one class exceeds 30 in number - Psychology, with an enrollment of 31.

STANDARD VIII - LIBRARY (Not satisfactory)
(Not less than 5.000 volumes exclusive of periodicals and public documents, At least $600.00 per year should be expended for books.)

4,165 volumes in the library. This library is used by high school and junior college together. However, there ore separate reading rooms for junior college students. Last year $485 was expended for new books. The library Is open throughout the day until 4:30 in the afternoon. It is in charge of a full time Librarian, who is well trained.

STANDARD IX - LABORATORY EQUIPMENT (Not entirely satisfactory)
(Physics, $3,000 - Chemistry, $2,500 - Biology, $2,500)

Physics Chemistry Biology
Value of equipment $3,000.00 $2,000.00 $1,,400.00
Include high school equipment? Yes Yes Yes
Separate laboratory, for junior college? No No No

*Under laboratory equipment, number 12: We are this year offering a five-hour course in Normal Training Biology which is intended entirely for our teacher training course. We have planned this course with teacher training as the primary objective rather than earning credit towards a Baccalaureate Degree. The second semester, these same students will take a two-hour course in Physiology and a three-hour course in Physical Geography. If these students should later attend our own State University I have been informed that they would probably receive half credit for this course. It In likely that next year, with the consent of the state department. we will begin offering this course as a regular college course in Biology. (From letter of Ray B. Bracewell, Principal)

STANDARD X - PHYSICAL PLANT (Not entirely satisfactory)
(Junior college quarters should be entirely separated frm the high school quarters.)

There is no separate building for junior college department. However, the junior college classes are aII assigned to a certain section of the high school building.

STANDARD XI - FINANCIAL SUPPORT (Satisfactory)
(Income of at least $10.000 available exclusively for the support of the junior college work.)

The institution derives income from fees and from general tax funds. Approximately $8,000 is received from tuition fees, the remaining funds from the general tax levy.

STANDARD XII - ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION (Satisfactory)
(There should be a separate administrative organization of the junior college work with a Dean in charge.)

Under the charge of the Principal, Mr, Ray H. Bracewell,. who has all of the administrative responsibility of the high school and the junior college. There is a Dean of the junior college, who teaches 15 hours of college French and who is responsible for all personal problems growing out of the college.

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