Oberlin College is a privately controlled non-denominational institution of higher learning, in Oberlin, Ohio. It was founded in 1833, and known as Oberlin Collegiate Institute until 1850, when its present name was adopted. Oberlin was the first co-educational college in the USA. Two years after its founding the college admitted students 'without respect to color', becoming the first American college to do so; before the American Civil War it was known as a centre for anti-slavery activities. Charles Grandison Finney, professor of theology and president of Oberlin from 1851 to 1866, first promulgated at the college his doctrine of evangelical Calvinism known as OberlinTheology. Oberlin has two divisions: the College of Arts and Sciences and the Conservatory of Music. The college awards the bachelor of arts degree in the humanities and the natural and social sciences; the master's degree in art history is also granted. The conservatory awards the bachelor of music, as well as master's degrees in conducting, music education, opera theatre, performance on historical instruments, and teaching. Research Oberlin College
University is the name given to a national institution for advanced teaching and study, recognized for that purpose by a charter from the state. A university is empowered by its charter to confer degrees upon its students, after they have conformed to the regulations laid down in the statutes. These regulations determine the conditions of length of residence, attendance on lectures, and the requisite examinations to be passed, precedent to the conferment of degrees.
Most universities are teaching universities, i.e. they contain a staff of teachers, styled professors, lecturers or readers, appointed each for the teaching of a special subject, to give instruction, and to direct the studies of students. Such students as are admitted to the university have had to qualify by passing an entrance examination, and are then said to be matriculated. From the time of matriculation to that of taking the degree, the student is called an undergraduate, and after conferment of the degree, a graduate. Degrees are of different grades, usually bachelor, master, and doctor. They can be taken in various groups of subjects, known as faculties. In the modern university examinations complete the courses of study followed under the instruction and direction of professors.
Historically, it is to be noted that the original term for a university was studium generate, which means a place in which were established facilities for teaching and learning, open to all comers, and not restricted to a special community of a town, or of a monastery. Thus, to the medieval universities of Italy, and to that of Paris, students went from various European countries, and found it convenient to group themselves into nations, according to the country or province from which they came. Thus, a studium generale contained many associations or groups, not altogether without analogy to trade and craft guilds.
It was in the latter part of the 14th century that universitas came to be used in the sense of a university. In other words, the first use of universitas was for voluntary groups, and only developed gradually into the idea of the whole institution, as recognized by the emperor or the pope, when its position was guaranteed by an imperial charter or papal bull. This seal of authority not only gave unity to the community of teachers and scholars as a whole, but also became a symbol of the unity of the whole learned world, because universities thus chartered were alone enabled to confer on their graduates degrees (certifying studies and training in teaching) which carried with them the right of teaching not only in their own university or their own country, but also in any studium generate.
This right was particularly valuable in the spread of knowledge, because medieval teachers and scholars communicated everywhere, both orally and by writing, through the medium of the Latin language and not through the vernacular. They naturally valued highly the facility of moving about from university to university at home and abroad. Roughly speaking, this use of Latin, as the language of teaching and learning, broke up with the decline of the Renaissance. We may date the beginning of the downfall of the Latin language for England with the Restoration of 1660. Not only has Latin fallen entirely out of use as a spoken language, but in some modern universities movements have arisen to minimise the study of ancient languages for degrees, if not to remove them as necessary subjects for all degrees. The modern civic universities are inclined to lay great stress on the subjects underlying the special industries of their localities. Hence, in some ways and to some extent there has been a reversal of the old idea that the university developed in the student a power of entering into the knowledge and learning common to all the universities.
On the other hand the since the Great War universities have laid more and more stress on the 'university spirit'. This means a constant watchfulness to aid and promote the advancement of learning and discovery of knowledge, to provide the stimulus of intellectual inquiry in every subject, and to raise the tone and level in all professional training. Particularly, it aims at encouraging in teachers and in taught a right and effective attitude towards methods of research. Research University
Bachelor was a term applied anciently to a person in the first or probationary stage of knighthood who has not yet raised his standard in the field. The term also denotes a person who has taken the first degree in the liberal arts and sciences, or in divinity, law, or medicine, at a college or university; or a man of any age who has not been married. Research Bachelor
Oliver Goldsmith was an Anglo-Irish journalist, essayist, novelist, dramatist and poet. He was born in 1728 at Pallas, county LongfordIreland and died in 1774. Among his more famous works are 'The Vicar of Wakefield' and ' The Deserted Village'. His father, a clergyman of the Established Church, held the living of Kilkenny West. In 1745 he was entered as a sizar at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1749, shortly after his father's death, he left Dublin with the degree of Bachelor, and was advised by an uncle, who had already borne a large part of the expenses of his education, to prepare for holy orders. Rejected for holy orders he became tutor in a family, but soon lost his situation on account of a dispute with the master of the house over a game at cards.
The same uncle who had given him assistance before now gave him 50 pounds to go to Dublin to study law, but he had scarcely arrived at the city when he lost the whole sum in gambling. In spite of his repeated imprudences he was once more succoured by his uncle, who supplied him with means to go to Edinburgh to study medicine. Here he remained eighteen months, during which he acquired some slight knowledge of chemistry and natural history. At the end of this period he removed to Leyden, again at the expense of his uncle; and afterwards wandered over a large part of France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. It was probably at Padua that he took a medical degree, as he remained there six months; but his uncle dying while he was in Italy he wag obliged to travel on foot to England, and reached London in 1756 with a few pence in his pocket. After some years of hard experience as a chemist's assistant, medical practitioner, proof-reader, and school usher, he drifted into literature. He conducted a department in the Monthly Review, wrote essays in the Public Ledger (afterwards published under the title of the Citizen of the World), and a weekly pamphlet, entitled the Bee. In 1761 he was introduced to Dr. Johnson.
In 1764 he appeared as a poet by the publication of his Traveller. In 1766 appeared his Vicar of Wakefield, which at once secured merited applause. In 1768 his comedy of the Good-natured Man was acted at Covent-Gardenwith but indifferent success. His poetical fame was greatly enhanced by the publication of his The Deserted Village in 1770. In 1773 he produced his comedy of She Stoops to Conquer, which was completely successful. He also compiled histories of England, Greece, and Rome; and a History of the Earth and Animated Nature, a pleasing work, but one of no scientific value. His last days were embittered by the pressure of debt, incurred partly by his improvidence and partly by his generosity. The manners of Oliver Goldsmith were eccentric, even to absurdity. Research Oliver Goldsmith
Thomas Aird was a Scottish poet and miscellaneous writer. He was born in 1802 and died in 1876. A friend of Professor Wilson, De Quincey, and Carlyle, he was for a long time editor of a newspaper in Dumfries. He wrote the Devil's Dream on Mount Aksbeck, The Old Bachelor, and other works. Research Thomas Aird
William Congreve was an English playwright. He was born in 1670 at Leeds and died in 1729. He was educated at Kilkenny, and at Trinity College, Dublin, from which he entered the Middle Temple, London. A novel entitled the Incognita, under the pseudonym of Cleophil, was followed, at the age of twenty-one, by his comedy of the Old Bachelor, the success of which procured for him the patronage of LordHalifax, who made him a commissioner for licensing hackney-coaches; soon after gave him a place in the pipe office; and finally conferred on him a very lucrative place in the customs. He afterwards received an additional sinecure in the appointment of secretary to the island of Jamaica.
His next play, The Double Dealer, was less successful; his third comedy, Love for Love, and his tragedy, The Mourning Bride (1697), were both popular; but after the cold reception of his Way of the World, in 1700, he ceased altogether to write for the stage. He, however, continued to write occasional verses on public subjects; and in 1710 published a collection of his plays and poems, which he dedicated to his early patron, LordHalifax, to whose person and party he remained attached in all fortunes.
His plays belong to the artificial school of comedy, which aimed rather at the production of a sustained flow of wit than at the precise delineation of character.
Sir William Congreve was an English soldier and inventor. He was born in 1772 and died in 1828. He entered the army, from which he retired in 1816 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel of artillery and entered the House of Commons. He invented the Congreve rocket about 1804. It was first used in active service in the attack on Boulogne, 1806, and on Copenhagen, 1807. He took out patents also for the manufacture of gunpowder and of banknote paper, and wrote treatises on the mounting of naval ordnance and on the hydropneumatic lock. Research William Congreve
Barbara Steele is an English actress and film producer. She was born in 1938 at Birkenhead, Cheshire. First studying to become a painter, in 1957, she joined an acting repertory company and made her debut in the 1958 British comedy 'Bachelor of Hearts', before becoming type-cast as a horror-movie beauty. Research Barbara Steele
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