The University Takes the Classroom to the State
In an effort to bridge the gap between Washington’s rural families and higher education, the Board of Regents announces regional entrance examinations.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The board of regents of the state university took an important step yesterday toward bringing that institution closer to the people of the state. It decided to hold entrance examinations during the month of July at all the principal points in the state, to be conducted by members of the faculty. This is a custom which has for years been followed by the largest Eastern universities. The reason for doing this is that very few students out in the state have an idea of what is required of them in order to be able to pass an examination. Their parents likewise have no adequate notion of the surroundings of the school, how their children would live, the cost of living, the character of the discipline, etc. By members of the faculty putting themselves within convenient reach of the people, parents and pupils can call on them and learn all those details which prudent parents are anxious to know before sending their children away from home to school. Students also will be saved the expense of coming to Seattle to be examined, which, with the mortification of being plucked, would be felt all the keener if they should fail to pass.
“Students also will be saved the expense of coming to Seattle to be examined, which, with the mortification of being plucked, would be felt all the keener if they should fail to pass.”
This 1893 initiative reflects an early tension in Washington’s civic life: the struggle to make the University of Washington accessible to those outside the Puget Sound urban core. Today, while the university is massive, the digital divide and the skyrocketing cost of campus housing continue the debate over who gets to claim the 'state' university as their own.
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