The History and Operation of Cedarville College

11 small colleges contribute anything worthwhile toward experimental education, or will all the important experiments be conducted by larger institutions with greater financial resources? 11 2 It is not our purpoS'e to attempt an answer to these questions, nor to suggest that the small college can do the impossible in education. We do believe, however, that the small college has justified its existence, and that it has not perpetuated mediocre teaching simply because it is small and independent of State control and operation. "A good many of our citi- zens would define a university as a large and prosperous college, and a college as a second-rate university. But the only justification for such judgment would be the conclusion, which is by no means self evident, that bigness and excellence are somehow synonymous, and mountains are far superior in size to a diamond, but it may not be size that really counts ... We realize that there can be genuine merit in smallness. ir3 There are a number of advantages to the small college; we shall name but three. Unity. A large university is part college, part graduate school, part professional school, while a college has a better oppor- tunity of doing one thing in a better way because there is more unity of purpose. There may be advantages to the limitations which are brought upon small colleges due to lack of finances and equipment; 2 Alfred T. Hill, The Small College Meets the Challenge, (New York: McGraw-Hill Company, 1959), p. 9. 3 Elton Trueblood, The Idea of a College, (Parker Brothers Publishing Company, 1959), p. 11.