Earning while learning

EVENING INSTITUTE OF THE BOSTON YMCA

The College of Engineering was the first of Northeastern’s colleges to offer a co-op program. In 1909, the Evening Institute of the Boston YMCA began offering engineering courses with co-op in the Polytechnic School. The YMCA established the second co-op program in the United States; the first was at the University of Cincinnati three years earlier. The program created in Boston was influenced by what worked in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati program was conceptually rooted in modernizing apprenticeships and adjusting them for the industrial age.

Frank Palmer Speare, the educational director of the Evening Institute and the man who would later become Northeastern’s first president, never cited a reason for pursuing a co-op program. Given the YMCA’s noted academic experimentation in the 1900s, however, he likely wanted to try out new programs to determine whether academia and hands-on technical training could be combined for a more cohesive learning experience. While evening vocational departments already existed at the Evening Institute, this was the first foray into full-fledged day work. As such, the school which housed these new programs was named the Day School of Cooperative Engineering.

The Day School’s first cooperative engineering courses were launched with eight students enrolled in a four-year daytime program, which consisted of one week alternating periods of academic study in the classroom and hands-on work on the job. To clearly convey the program’s mission, the slogan, “earning while learning,” was conceived. This slogan reflected the first major phase of co-op, which considered the program as a financial model for the university to help students finance their education.

Only four companies were available for employment: the Boston Consolidated Gas Company, Boston and Maine Railroad, Boston and Albany Railroad, and Boston Elevated Railway Company. Two students were employed at each of these companies, and they maintained this employment throughout all four years. Each student earned a wage of 10 cents per hour, which increased by two cents per hour for each additional year in the program. Dean Hercules W. Geromanos directed and oversaw the Day School.

The first few years of the Day School of Cooperative Engineering immediately demonstrated significant growth. In 1910, student enrollment increased to 30, and curricula in civil engineering and mechanical engineering were introduced. It was also during this year that Carl S. Ell, a graduate student at MIT, started teaching part-time for a surveying course. Ell was one of seven members of the teaching staff and was named head of the Department of Civil Engineering in 1912. By the 1912-1913 academic year, curricula in electrical engineering and chemical engineering was added. By this point, there were 70 enrolled students, 18 faculty members, and 10 companies involved in the program. When the original class of eight students graduated in 1913, there were 110 students enrolled.