mm
i
THE HESPERIAN
ka, to work for tbein even in ways that may
not be appreciated.
This spirit accounts for the continuance
of the Preparatory courses; an endeavor,
and a very costly and trying endeavor, to
keep touch with the eighty per cent of the
school children still without opportunity for
secondary education and sound training.
This spirit explains the maintenance of short
and special courses for those who for any
reason cannot push through to graduation.
It lies back of the permission given students
of mature years to select any studies which
they are prepared to carry. It sends mem
bers of the faculty into all parts of the state;
visiting and examining high schools, coun
selling with local school authorities, planning
and attending Farmers1 Institutes, speaking
before agricultural and industrial organiza
tions, prominent in all educational gather
ings; quick to observe, eager to plan, and
ready to execute in behalf of their fellow
men. It is a recognition of this helpful
spirit, of this willingness to serve, that makes
the University the centre of such practical
and far-reaching influence; that draws to the
institution each year such associations as the
State Board of Agriculture, the State Histor
ical Society, the State Press Association, the
State Horticultural Society, the State Teach
ers' Association, the State Dairymen's Asso
ciation, the Annual Corn Exhibit, the State
College Y. M. C. A. meeting, and others
of like nature. This it is that led the last
legislature to make the heads of certain Uni
versity departments acting state officers: as
botanist, chemist, geologist, and entomolo
gist. This it is that inspired the united ap
peal to the last legislature by every state
industrial, agricultural, professional, and ed
ucational organization, made for a building
suitable for the business and other meetings
of such organizations, to be erected upon
the University campus.
So it is this determination to serve all, to
reach the greatest number with what the
greatest number demands and needs, that
has broken the old fixed courses into eight
groups of equal values; that has made the
curriculum so flexible; that carefully studies
the time-schedule in order to avoid all pos
sible conflicts; that extends the hours of
work from eight in the morning till six at
night; that permits evening work in the
libraries and laboratories; that makes Satur
day almost as busy a day as any other in the
week; that organizes the Science Club, the
Camera Club, the Microscope Club, the
Political Economy Club, the Botanical and
Historical Seminars, and the several other
similar associations of students and faculty.
It is in recognition of this spirit of help
fulness and with keen appreciation of it, that
the names of nearly twelve hundred students
are upon our rolls today; that these students
present to the most casual observer evidence
of a sincerity of purpose, a maturity of
thought, a strength of character, and earnest
ness of life rarely known elsewhere ; that
their intelligence, their self-control, their
patience, have united to preserve unbroken
the cordiality and good-will of the student
body and of the relation of instructors and
instructed; that without a "rule" on our
books, the work of this vast body of young
people moves forward so regularly, so in
tensely, so methodically, so evenly, with
such unbroken peace, that there has not been
a case of discipline before the faculty for
more than two years; that without dormitories,
under no surveillance, with perfect freedom
of intercourse, these students have mingled
in classes, in the halls, in literary socities, as
spectators at athletic games, in the most
varied social relations, for twenty-five years
yet no whisper of scandal has ever attacked
the name or reputation of one of these young
women ; and if any young man has so far
forgotten himself and his obligations, oppor
tunities and responsibilities as to deviate
from the path of duty and rectitude, it has
been a case of very willful and deliberate
error which would have occurred anywhere
else and under any other conditions.
This then is the University of today: an
integral part of the state system of public
Mi
wm