Part V. State Institutions
- University of Wisconsin
The University and the State
[pp. 763-764]
The University of Wisconsin is the culmination of the free
educational system of the State. In the educational policy of
the State, the University sustains a similar relation to
the high schools that the high schools sustain to the primary
and grammar schools. As those who have passed through the grammar
grades may freely avail themselves of the high schools, so those
who have completed with credit a full high school course may
advance to the opportunities afforded by the University. It is
not expected that all pupils who complete the grammar grades
will advance to the high school; nor is it expected that all
those who complete a high school course shall go forward to the
University. But the school system of the State has been so arranged
as to make the passage from one grade to another as easy and
natural as possible, in order to afford every encouragement to
thorough education. The State through the University undertakes
to furnish instruction to the various branches requisite for
a liberal education, in the technical branches of engineering,
law, agriculture, pharmacy, commerce, home economics, and music.
It also aims to encourage research work in all departments, to
produce creative scholars, and thus do its part in the enlargement
of the domain of knowledge. Thus it is the general policy of
the institution to foster the higher education interests of the
State, broadly and generously interpreted. By prescribing a large
number of studies during the first two years of undergraduate
work, and by leaving all, or a large part of the work of the
last two years to the free selection of the student, under a
definite system, the University endeavors to give a wise measure
of direction, leaving at the same time sufficient room for choice
to encourage individual adaption and special development. The
graduate work is, of course, wholly elective.