ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the problems faced by Columbia after the Civil War and shows why its authorities, notably President Frederick A. P. Barnard, considered inadequate any reforms short of thoroughgoing changes in the institution's mission. Butler's career, his proposals, and his actions concerning reform are then discussed. Despite the continued importance that Butler attributed to the College, a shift in relative influence at Columbia from the undergraduate to the graduate and professional divisions had taken place. As early as 1890, Butler critically noted that a student could be graduated from Columbia College without having any courses that would reflect the intellectual and scientific advances of the nineteenth century, and that would equip him for professional study. Butler's vision demanded certain human material—a steady and heavy flow of able students from the high schools, a smaller but appropriately prepared flow of students into graduate and professional schools from the college.
