When we left off last week, our super-founders had graduated 10 students with diverse studies in geology, zoology, chemistry, and botany. Motivated by desire and with their ideas off the ground, the curriculum gained a welcome rigidity. The year was divided into three terms of 15 weeks each. Each term, labeled by season, was itself divided into five sub-terms, each of three weeks in length. Generally, the students studied a focused subject for each sub-term, then switched topics.
School started with Fall term, with all students attending 15 lectures on botany. For the following four sub-terms, students rotated through four areas of study, until all groups had spent three weeks learning natural history, chemical experimentation, experimental philosophy, and work with cisterns, forges, and bellows. With only one year to learn everything, academics were concentrated, and student life diverged sharply from what we modern students experience today. Their average schedule looked something like this:
First bell was rung at sunrise. Twenty minutes after, second bell was rung. Five minutes after second bell, all students were expected to be in the common room and ready for a review and examination of the previous day’s work. This went on until 9 am, when a professor lectured the students on the topic of the day. At 10 am, students took the floor to deliver their own lectures on relevant material, each student speaking and receiving criticisms and corrections from those in attendance. This went on until 1 pm, forcing each student to speak before the others every day. No other classes in communication were expected.
The mid-day meal was served until 1:30 pm, at which point students began preparatory work for the following day’s class. Finishing their tasks at 4 pm, students then met for what were termed the “afternoon amusements.” These consisted of excursions to shops and factories, artists’ workspaces, and field trips to gather samples. This lasted for as long as there was light, with students returning to campus for the evening.
Even back then, boys would be boys. They needed time off. So, every other Saturday, students were released onto greater Troy after morning review. Back then, Troy was a booming city, listed as the fifth greatest in the country. Just imagine how much damage college males could do in such a town—the word “disastrous” comes to mind. Perhaps for that reason, the students were kept indoors the following week. In their common room, they convened for the first student club in RPI history. Each student represented a state in the U.S. House of Representatives , and took turns debating issues. Even with a moderator, discussions got lively.
Students’ lives were different back then, and so too was campus. The first several school buildings were in downtown Troy. Come back after Thanksgiving as RPI begins its journey up the hill.
