LACs with good art??

Mastadon
Wed, 01 Jul 2015 18:56:40 +0000

@circuitrider I think the reason behind Williams not separating out Art History majors dates back to the 1700’s when Williams was in a political battle with Harvard over setting up a second degree granting college in Massachusetts.

Since Williams was created to serve “midling and lower class citizens”, granting degrees in Art History would be probably be viewed as inconsistent with their original petition and they are probably concerned about attracting the attention of Harvard’s overly aggressive Law School…

[quote]
Until 1792, West College did house the “free school” that Williams’ will specified, but worries that after grammar-school, many young men were leaving Massachusetts for better matriculating possibilities elsewhere (in spite of Harvard’s assurances otherwise), caused the Williams’ trustees to petition the Massachusetts General Court to convert it into a degree granting college. Better to serve “the midling and lower class of citizens,” meaning, of course, only male midling and lower class of citizens. On June 22, 1793, the General Court approved the petition, and on October 9 of the same year, Williams College officially opened its classroom doors to twenty eager “freshmen.” However, “freshwomen” had to wait until 1975 to do the same.[/quote}