Some Aspects of a Junior College

Abstract

What is a junior college? At least three types of institutions have been called junior colleges by one or another writer. First, the freshman and sophomore years of the ordinary college course are designated by many universities as the junior college. Secondly, certain minor colleges in some of the states, notably Missouri, have found themselves unable to cope with the increasing outlay necessary to meet the requirements set by standardizing associations and state legislatures for institutions offering a complete college or university course. Hence, many of these institutions have arranged to give only two years of work and of such a nature as to articulate well with the upper two years of regular college courses. Such institutions are called junior colleges. Thirdly, in an increasing number of communities there is a demand for post-graduate work in high school or for an extension of the high school to include the first or first and second years of the college. The most common expansion includes both the first and second years. This extension of high school, or this adding of two years to the usual four years of high-school work, comprises the junior college as discussed throughout this article. The junior college of this type probably first originated in definite form at Joliet, Illinois, under Principal J. Stanley Brown of the Township High School. It has since spread to a number of states but has received its highest development in California. In California, the junior college has a definite legal standing and receives state aid directly according to law. In Minnesota, a number of junior colleges have been organized as integral parts of publicschool systems. Rochester, Faribault, Jackson, Cloquet, Eveleth, and Hibbing have all attempted the organization of such an institution. In this state, there is no legal recognition of the junior college as an institution, but the school revenue laws are of such a nature as to make it possible for a community to determine upon its own