he coming of Dr. Tappan the movement, already foreshadowed by the
Legislature in the very terms under which the University was organized,
gained a new impetus and effective guidance, and it was not long before
a remarkable series of constructive measures in the interest of higher
education began. Most of them have been mentioned elsewhere, but it may
not be amiss to suggest some of them once more; such as the emphasis on
modern science, with the parallel classical and scientific courses
within the academic department; the wide range of elections eventually
introduced; the early inauguration of professional and graduate schools;
the introduction of seminary and laboratory methods; the admission of
women; the diploma system of admission from the high schools; and the
recognition of the claims of special students.

Until within recent years also, the University had no marking system.
The students were merely "passed," "not passed," or "conditioned." This
undoubtedly stimulated interest in study and scholarship for its own
sake in the case of many students, though, in the absence of any of the
usual college honors it encouraged a certain level of mediocrity in
others. The change in the system and the introduction of the Phi Beta
Kappa Society and similar organizations after 1907 resulted in a marked
alteration in the attitude toward study and has undoubtedly raised
appreciably the general level of scholarship.

Thus, though the University throughout its whole history necessarily has
had to recognize the first claims of the students for instruction, often
of a somewhat elementary character, there have always been influences
which have kept the ideals of higher scholarship constantly in view. In
the older days the idea of research in its modern sense was hardly
understood; but as the atmosphere of European learning began to pervade
American academic life the double function of a true university came to
be more clearly recognized. Not only were facilities for research
developed, but the scientific spirit, which refused to accept the
limitations long established, and sought new truths, or new
interpretations of old principles, became the order of the day.

This was the ideal of Michigan's first President. But in his time the
need for less advanced work was too pressing, the foundations had to be
laid; though his efforts bore fruit long after he left, the victim in
part of his high ideals of scholarship. Even in his time, howev