Presidents

A President for the 20th Century

Charles E. Dowman, Class of 1873
1849-1914

President 1898-1902

Although "internationalization" would not become a buzzword at Emory for another century, in 1898 Emory College had become international in its student body and, for the only time in its history, named to the presidency someone not born in the United States. A native of Kent, England, Charles Dowman was born in 1849 but immigrated to America as a child. He graduated from Emory in 1873 and for nearly a decade served Methodist churches in Florida and North Georgia. Joining the faculty as an adjunct professor of languages at Emory in 1882, he became a popular teacher for the next six years but left in order to return to ministry.

Elected to follow the illustrious Warren Candler as president of Emory in 1898, Dowman set about charting a course for the college into a purely academic curriculum. Although Emory had introduced a training school for preachers and a program in law, as well as Hopkins's technology department, by 1902 all of these "practical" departments had been abolished. Instead, a more rigorous program leading to the master of arts degree took the college a step closer in the direction of graduate education. Until Haygood's administration, any Emory graduate could apply for and be granted an M.A. degree three years after the B.A. for having simply been on good behavior for three years. Haygood instituted an examination requirement for the degree, and Hopkins had asked the board, unsuccessfully, to require a thesis for the degree. In 1899, however, Dowman successfully petitioned the board to approve a residency requirement and a regular course of study for the master of arts degree.

President Dowman's most significant achievement may have been raising the academic standards of the College. This was no small matter, for although Emory was one of six men's colleges to meet the criteria for recognition by the Educational Commission of the Southern Methodist Church in 1900, the college really only squeaked by. On the one hand, Dowman was caught between the constituency close to home that wanted to keep college education—and, hence, admission standards—within reach of the average Georgian student. On the other hand, the Education Commission wanted Emory to adopt higher admission standards than any other college in the state of Georgia.

One result of this dilemma was the salutary infusion of faculty governance into the matter. Scheduling conferences with counterparts from Mercer College and the University of Georgia, Emory faculty developed a Joint College Conference, which in 1902 proposed common entrance requirements and entrance examinations to be given throughout the state.

In 1899 Emory also introduced a very modest number of elective courses—two. President Dowman had proposed three, but the board thought better of it. That year the college also instituted the first athletics requirement—two hours of work in the gym each week.

During Dowman's administration the endowment grew to $203,000, the trustees repaired old student residences that had begun to deteriorate, and funds were raised for a new science building that was begun after Dowman's departure. He resigned in 1902 to become a presiding elder of the North Georgia Conference of the Methodist church.