Sept. 23, 1917
By May Belle Kuller
On Friday, Sept. 28, the College of the City of El Paso will open its doors to students for the first time and the handsome buildings of the Texas State School of Mines will be filled with young men and women all eager to answer the call to higher education which, according to President Wilson, is the very best way that they can do their "bit."
Some of these, though they well know that "by pursing their courses with earnestness and diligence, they also are preparing themselves for valuable service to the nation," would, nevertheless, have had to forego a college education were it not for the new college, because a college course would have made it necessary for them to travel a long distance from home.
First Class College Here
In the College of the City of El Paso,however, they have a first class college at their very doors. Then there will be some among the students who had planned to go to Austin or to other Texas towns for their schooling, and still others who had planned to go east. But the founding of a college of the very first rank in their own city has caused them, one by one, to change their plans. There will also be a number of students here from other towns who found the offerings and standards of the College of the City of El Paso such that they felt it was to their advantage to come here for their education, many of them having transferred their grades here from other schools. And together these young people are to form a student-body of earnest workers which promises to be a credit to the school, and which will no doubt make the first year of the College of the City of El Paso one which may be looked back to with pride.
Three Courses of Study
The college offers to its students three courses of study, comprising a junior college course in the liberal arts offered in the college of arts and sciences, the first year of a junior college course in business offered in the school of commerce, and a four-years' normal course offered in the teachers' college.
The course in the liberal arts makes for broad citizenship and a non-vocational culture that will be helpful in any walk of life, the object of such a course being, in the words of President Wilson, "general intellectual training and moral enlightenment." The first two years of a four-years' course are offered here, giving a Texas student two years of work in the environment of his home state, which is in itself both necessary and helpful, after which he may take his grades to one of the large eastern universities and there earn his baccalaureate degree, receiving in the last years of his course the benefits of a foreign environment. Or the student may, should he prefer a degree from his state university, take his grades to the University of Texas.
Commercial Course
The commercial course offered in the school of commerce prepares the students for the world of business, and they receive such training as is demanded by the business world of today, both in our own and in other countries. Courses are offered in economics, accounting and general business efficiency. Only the first year of a junior college course is offered this year, the second year work to be put in next year. Students completing the two years course will receive a certificate to that effect. Those who desire may take their grades to an affiliated college offering a four-years' course and do two years of addition work for a Bachelor's degree.
Teacher's College
The Teachers' College offers a full four years' normal course beginning two years below high school graduation and extending two years above, which leads to a Teachers' College Diploma and the degree of L.I. (Licensed Initiate). This course is offered because of the increasing demand not only in this country, but in the Spanish-American countries for qualified teachers. Even those who do not intend to teach, however, would make no mistake in enrolling in the Teachers' College for the course is a very practical one, combining as it does work on the arts with an educational or professional course which teaches one valuable lessons in discipline.
Courses in Domestic Science, School Music and government also will be offered by the college.
Offers Extension Work
The three courses outlined above are offered to regularly enrolled students; the college also will carry on extensive work. Correspondence is invited, and anyone desiring information that comes withing the scope of the college may feel free to write for it. Extension lectures, open to the general public, will be held from time to time. Then there will be the night school, which opens later at some conveniently located place in the business district. Here classes will be held twice a week for nine months, giving the young business men of the city an opportunity to grasp the principles of "Business Economics." This course will be found helpful to any young man in any business, and though the college has not yet began to enroll students, it is expected that a large number will take advantage of it.
Military Training Available
Like in other leading colleges and universities, military training is available in the College of the City of El Paso to the young men of the college, and Red Cross first aid, offered in the second semester, is available to both the young men and the women. Instruction will also be given in food administration and food conservation.
In conclusion it may be said that the college will be an educational and social unit of the city whose importance can hardly be overestimated, and from which everyone may derive some benefit if but enough interest be taken in the school to learn its scope. For then the many ways in which the college can be of help to every citizen as an individual will at once be apparent.
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