Lebanon Valley College Alumni Number

Lebanon Valley College
BULLETIN

Vol. XXII

NOVEMBER, 1933

No. 6

o^LUMNI .^A(UMBER

PRESIDENT LYNCH

PRESIDENT LYNCH S INAUGURAL ADDRESS

DR. cowling's COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS

COLLEGE NEWS ALUMNI NEWS COMING EVENTS

Published by Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pa.

ALUMNI NEWS

GREETINGS

It is with grateful appreciation of the confidence placed in me that I greet
you as president of the Lebanon Valley College Alumni Association.

Aware of the responsibilities of this office, I ask you to share with me the
thought that an active association is of vital importance for the advancement
of our Alma Mater. I do not believe in a meddlesome alumni but have great faith
in the possibilities of an enterprising association.

With the above thought in mind your officers and executive committee have
met with the college administration in an effort to bring about co-operation.

The administration is eagerly looking forward to an increase in interest from
the alumni and have co-operated to the extent of providing the capable services
of Dr. H. H. Shenk, who has assumed the duties of akimni field secretary. We also
are privileged to have the services of Mr. L. P. Clements, a graduate of last year's
class, who has returned to assume the duties of college publicity agent and press
representative. With this talented assistance procured through the efforts of the
administration our own efforts are challenged.

You will receive formal announcement in the near future of the first annual
Alumni Homecoming day, to be held November i8. May I take this opportunity
to assure you that we are planning for a big day. Your presence is not only
requested but required.

I truly hope that the bright future of our Alma Mater and her Alumni Asso-
ciation may in the passing years be recalled as a happy and perfect past through
the united efforts of all. D. K. Shroyer

One of the features of the Home Coming Celebration, November i8, will be
the presence of former students who are not graduates of the college. It is hoped
that a large number of these associate alumni will have a part in the exercises.

The Harrisburg Branch of the Lebanon Valley Alumni is planning a dinner
in honor of President Lynch and Mrs. Lynch in the near future in which all gradu-
ates and former students are invited to participate. The tentative date set is
Saturday evening, December 9. This organization, of which Miss Lillian M.
Quigley, '91, of 263 Boas Street, is president and Miss Laura Carman, '28, 1606
Penn Street, Harrisburg, is secretary, has been active in the interest of the college.
The alumni of the adjoining district will receive detailed information at an early
date. ... ... ...

A revised hst of Alumni with latest available information is in preparation.

Plans are being perfected for the organization of the Alumni of Western
Pennsylvania, New England, York County, Lancaster County, and other sections.

INAUGURAL ADDRESS

PRESIDENT CLYDE A. LYNCH

June 5, 1933

N COMPLIANCE with the wishes of the new administration, the Inaugural

Committee has agreed to dispense with the more formal and elaborate pro-
gram that had been arranged for this occasion, and to prepare a simpler and briefer
induction ceremony in connection with the regular commencement exercises.
Our only regret is that we do not have with us today delegates from other insti-
tutions of higher learning, whose presence on our campus would have been an
inspiration indeed. But it was thought wise to avoid the criticism that is expressed
so freely in these difficult days when the custodians of other people's money seem
to disburse such funds extravagantly. While it was not in the mind of the mem-
bers of the Committee to arrange for an expensive inauguration, it was decided
to yield to the recommendation of your new president and to substitute our present
plan in harmony with the general insistence on simplicity and economy, especially
m the field of education.

But the substitution of this briefer and simpler type of program does not lessen
the significance of this occasion. I am deeply appreciative of the solemn meaning
of this hour, for there falls upon my untried shoulders the mantle of my distinguished
and sainted predecessor, Dr. George Daniel Gossard, who, having served the college
most efficiently for nearly twenty years, silently stole away from his office and
its burdens to his eternal rest and reward, leaving behind him a college that was
transformed by the magic wand of his consecrated leadership from comparative
obscurity and poverty into an institution that has won high scholastic recognition
and has secured a substantial endowment, attracting to its halls large numbers of
the finest students any college may hope to obtain. The living products of this
institution have gone out into the world to fill important positions, to reflect
credit on their Alma Mater.

As I approached the chair of office with fear and trembUng, that lady of extra-
ordinary ability and grace who still occupies an honored place among us, and who
shared the problems, the joys and the sorrows of her husband's long administration,
conveyed to me the information that our late president would have been highly
pleased could he have known that his mantle was destined to fall upon its present
recipient. This testimonial came as an inspiration and a challenge to the man who
has been called to succeed our departed leader. It has engendered the ambition and
hope that with this change in administrative leadership there may be no deviation
from the path of progress; that Lebanon Valley College may continue to embody
the highest educational and moral ideals, and that her students may progressively
realize these ideals in personal development and social competency.

It is also fitting that the new administration should acknowledge the valuable

LEBANON VALLEY COLLEGE BULLETIN

service rendered the institution by Dr. J. Raymond Engle, President of the Board
of Trustees, who assumed the leadership of the college ad interim; also the splendid
cooperation of my esteemed Assistant, Dr. Paul S. Wagner.

In further conformity with the revised plans of the Committee, no formal
and extended inaugural address is to be given on this occasion. We have to offer,
therefore, only brief statements of policy and certain guiding principles.

We shall endeavor to practice economy within necessary and reasonable limits;
to plan for increased endowment and additional buildings, especially a new gym-
nasium, whenever conditions are favorable to such a program of expansion; to
revise our educational procedure in harmony with the most recent developments
in the field of higher learning; to increase the efficiency of the faculty by pro-
viding for sabbatical years or their equivalents; to recognize the human values
that so often become submerged in the professional and technical activities of the
college; to encourage closer relationships between the faculty and the students;
to promote goodwill and harmony among all the members of the institution; to
keep the college before the pubhc and its constituency by utilizing modern pub-
licity methods; to provide for closer contacts between the college and the alumni;
and to improve the organization for student solicitation.

Tn addition to these brief statements of aims, there are three major emphases
which I shall indicate in a more extended way. I have profound convictions with
reference to these most important issues. Their consideration will ever furnish me
with the activating principles of my new administration.

The Christian College is not just another college. It not only provides gen-
erous offerings in the field of Bible and reUgion, but seeks to permeate all knowl-
edge with the spirit of Him who said, "And ye shall know the truth and the truth
shall make you free." The presence on the faculty of learned men and women
who exert a positive Christian attitude in the class room and on the campus is the
most potent factor in the operation of a Christian institution of higher learning.

There is no place in such an institution for professors who deny the existence
of God, even though they may claim to have a positive faith in his non-existence, —
no place for pagan ethics or an atheistic biology or psychology. Without yielding
in point of scholarship these leaders of youth in their quest for truth are expected
to create an atmosphere friendly to Christian truth and conduct.

Fearing the encroachment of a menacing sectarianism, the state eliminated the
teaching of religion from its schools. ReKgion is the neglected factor in education
today. There are millions of taxpayers who are not willing to trust their children
to influences that are wholly secular or even antagonistic to the components of a
Christian culture and destructive of a Christian philosophy of life.

We are deeply conscious of our obHgations to Christian parents, pastors, and
teachers who have committed their young men and women to us, confident that in
a Christian college their simple faith shall grow into a satisfying philosophy of
life, and that conduct conditioned by authority and imitation shall be raised to
the highest levels of morality by reason of personal choices made in an atmosphere
friendly to Christian standards of life.

ALUMNI NUMBER, NOVEMBER, 1935

We are not unmindful of the embarrassing questions that may be raised con-
cerning academic freedom; bvit even tolerance has its Hmitations. How long would
the state continue to employ a professor who took advantage of his position to
teach anarchy? Can the church, then, betray the faith of its founders and the
confidence of its loyal supporters by permitting teachings and attitudes hostile to
the Christian way of life? As I conceive it, one of the most important functions
of my administrative office is to select and retain members of the faculty who
combine with the highest type of scholarship convictions and attitudes that will
support the purposes of the college. If a professor is not a Christian, how can
he cooperate in maintaining a Christian college? To procure such co5peration,
it is not desirable that restraints and coercions be employed. Christianity is not
propagated by force. But there should be an understanding on the part of teachers
and students that our college has been founded on Christian principles. Persons
who are not in sympathy with these principles do themselves and the college an
injustice when they identify themselves with a group whose very unity is con-
ditioned by common fundamental religious experiences, attitudes, and practices.
The Christian college, without being sectarian, is committed to the ministry
of the spirit quite as much as to its service to the intellect. To realize its aims,
it is not so much the course in philosophy that counts, as the philosophy of all the
courses taught in the institution.

In view of the reactionary tendencies so prominently revealed in our last Gen-
eral Conference, it is evident that the church-related college is under obligation
to make new discoveries, fresh interpretations, and modern applications of truth.
We must furnish the church with a ministerial and a lay leadership that will
guarantee the progress of our beloved church and the advancement of the Kingdom
of God.

We affirm our belief in the ideals of the Liberal Arts College Movement, and
promise to guard jealously the essentials of a broad cultural education in the neces-
sary revision of the curriculum from time to time. While recognizing the im-
portance of professional courses and a wide range of electives, we must not be
unmindful of the dangers associated with too early specialization.

Our graduates leave college, not merely to devote themselves to their particular
callings, but to participate in the life and activities of the community as individuals
who are particularly fitted by their cultural heritage to enjoy, enrich, stimulate,
and direct the social life of which they become a part.

Even the school rooms are not without their examples of restricted programs
of education. Many teachers who have run the gamut of specialization courses
and have thereby acquired proficiency in certain methods of procedure, skills,
aiid techniques, are partially or even totally lacking in cultural orientation and
symm.etrical personal development. Only those who have become acquainted with
the general body of knowledge can see the relation of one department of knowl-
edge to other departments and to the whole.

As the result of changing conditions, the professional teachers' college is mov-
ing rapidly in the direction of a more liberal curriculum; on the other hand, the
Liberal Arts College is moving just as rapidly in the direction of becoming a

LEBANON VALLEY COLLEGE BULLETIN

professional school for the preparation of teachers. With this condition obtaining,
it is not surprising that the leaders of both types of school should view the situa-
tion with alarm. Strong prejudices growing out of the urge for self-preservation
are giving rise to a controversy in which charges and counter-charges are often
made with more heat than light. This is deplorable indeed. Wise counsel and co-
operation, along with the influence of social and economic factors, will result
ultimately in a proper division of labor conducive to the mutual advantage of
these two types of institutions.

The State cannot help acknowdedging its indebtedness to the Liberal Arts
Colleges of this Commonwealth. It is reported that the Liberal Arts Colleges of
Pennsylvania have saved the taxpayers of the state $15,000,000 in the last eleven
years by preparing teachers v/hose educational costs were shared by them
and the college alike. For years there have gone forth into our schools,
especially on the level of secondary education, a great company of well-qualified
teachers who have given a good account of themselves in their chosen calling.
Lebanon Valley College ranks high in the number of its alumni who are certified
to teach in Pennsylvania, and there are not a few who hold important administrative
positions in the school system.

There is a growing conviction that prospective teachers should avail themselves
of the opportunity to procure a liberal education and to pay a reasonable amount
of tuition as other students are required to do. It may be the function of the
state to prepare its teachers professionally, but the question is raised whether the
state is under obligations to finance the higher general education of its prospective
teachers. Liberal scholarships could be provided to assist selected students who
may lack the means of self-support.

Students preparing for teaching could then go into graduate schools of educa-
tion for their professional training, just as doctors, lawyers, ministers, and engineers
go from college into their ifespective professional schools. If the state sees fit to
maintain such schools and finance the professional education of its teachers, there
could be little or no objection. The church does the same for its ministers in
theological seminaries, though candidates for the ministry are usually required
to pay a large share of the cost of their college education. Since the procuring of
an education is profitable to the individual as well as to the state, there seems
no good reason why the students who are preparing to teach should not pay a
reasonable share of the cost. The less the state is obliged to pay for the higher non-
professional education of its teachers, the more it will be able to pay in increased
salaries to those who are employed in its school system. This plan would weed
out many undesirable candidates for the teaching profession and would tend to
prevent an over-supply of applicants for schools. It would guarantee a sufficiently
high remuneration for teachers in service to compensate them for the use of their
own money in financing their way through college.

We must lay increasing emphasis on the social sciences. The biological sciences
have contributed much to the physical well-being of men. But our various pat-
terns of group behavior have not been affected so vitally by the social sciences.
Democracies are being replaced by dictatorships, avowed or unavowed. Within the

ALUMNI NUMBER, NOVEMBER, 1 93 3

same nations and their subdivisions class consciousness is increasing and internecine
struggles are becoming more acute. Problems of international relations must be
attacked and solved before any one nation can with peace and security give itself
to the task of internal development.

Too many college undergraduates are satisfied with the earning of credits. Con-
temporary social problems are of mere academic interest. Such graduates go out
from the miniature society of the campus into the larger world of practical affairs
without displaying any vital interest in current problems or any real proficiency in
discharging their duties as citizens of the republic in a socially intelligent manner.

College men responded readily and enthusiastically when America entered the
world war. If college-trained leaders would rally to give direction to the groping
masses, our social ills would yield to combined attacks intelligently directed, and
the devastating results of ignorance and corruption would be stopped. The greatest
enemy of America today is the racketeer. Prohibition did not create him, nor will
its repeal abolish him. The dry regime merely disclosed to our citizens the in-
credible weakness of our political structure. We become greatly excited when
foreign bandits kidnap or kill American citizens. We wave our flags and rattle
our swords and send a punitive expedition across the Rio Grande or gun boats to
China. But our cities are literally infested with the most despicable and deadly
social parasites. Legitimate industry is bled white and honest men and women
are subjected to lawless interference and violence. Our homes and our children
are not safe, and even the tragedy that involved the home of one of America's
most far-famed sons failed to arouse the lethargic public to militant action. The
state and the church have a right to look to their institutions of higher learning
for social leaders who will justify the expenditures of millions of dollars on educa-
tional institutions that claim to prepare their students for citizenship.

But the teaching of the social sciences is not sufficient to prepare the graduate
for social leadership. The extra-curricular activities promoted by the college and
the various student organizations tend to help or hinder the student in his post-
college life. Often clever students are permitted to evade just financial obHgations,
and student-government organizations fail to administer the laws of the campus
fairly and effectually. The administration that winks the eye at such burlesques
of business and government is accessory before the fact to the many types of bad
citizenship that are prevalent today. The college is under obligations to encourage
campus activities that will be conducive to the building of desirable social attitudes
by means of wisely-directed student participation.

And now, Mr. Chairman, you will permit me to acknowledge my debt of
gratitude to my parents, my good wife, my teachers, my pastors, and my colleagues
and friends, who have invested their lives in mine and have made this hour pos-
sible; also, to the Heavenly Father, who has led his servant by his kindly light
into this new and responsible commission. Surrounded by a great host of witnesses,
both of the living and of the departed, I approach the presidency of Lebanon
Valley College with a chastened and humble spirit, accepting this high office as a
sacred trust, and to the faithful performance of its exacting duties I pledge my
hfe and honor.

THE PLACE OF LIBERAL ARTS IN
AMERICAN EDUCATION

By Dr. Donald J. Cowling
'President of Carleton College, Norfhfield, Minn.

{Commencement Address, Lebanon Y alley College, June 5, 1933)

^^ '

yjf MERICA'S faith in education is steadily growing. In this country of popu-
G/lL lar government, where the stabiUty of the Nation is dependent on the in-
telligence and integrity of its citizens, education is bound to assume larger and
larger proportions, and to occupy an increasingly important sphere as the problems
of citizenship themselves become more complex and difficult.

No government of the people and by the people can endure unless the people
be intelligent, able to see and choose their own best good. Ignorance and democracy
cannot live together permanently. In a land where the rights and liberties of all
men are recognized, where all classes have a voice in the affairs of State, it is essen-
tial to the life and permanence of that sort of government, that the people bound
together under it be people of intelligence and character, able to understand public
needs and willing to work for the common good. The production of such men
and women is the goal of education, and education is necessary for their production.

It is somewhat strange that at such a time as this, when education is being
given such wide recognition as it is in our country today, and is being looked to
with so much confidence as our hope for the days to come, it is somewhat strange
that at such a time the content and meaning of education itself should be the
subject of so much controversy and dispute.

During the past thirty odd years there has been continuous discussion as to
what our high schools and colleges should teach. There has been a feeling that too
mvich of our teaching is not adapted to the needs of the students, and does not
fit them for their life work. The subjects are not practical, it is held, and the
feeling in many quarters is strong that they should be replaced by others more
nearly related to the demands of every day life.

There can be no objection to the various forms of industrial and vocational
education which have been so splendidly developed in recent years. Underlying
any permanent social structure are the great economic necessities for physical well-
being that must be provided if there is to be any society at all. The result of this
unalterable necessity is the further necessity that the vast majority of any popula-
tion must be employed in productive industries and the trades.

The changes which the last few decades have brought about in our high school
and college courses have been inevitable, in view of the spirit and emphasis of our

ALUMNI NUMBER, NOVEMBER, I933

times, and perhaps for the most part wise. I feel in sympathy with the present
day efforts of the high school to concern itself more with the great majority
who go out to their life work without further training, than with the compara-
tively few who go on to college.

1 believe the day is past when our high schools can be regarded merely as fitting
schools for college. They have become great training schools for the people, and
institutions where the children of all classes may receive such instruction as shall
make them intelligent citizens and lay a broad foundation for their work in
industry and the trades.

For this reason I believe in the introduction in our high schools of manual
training and of agriculture, of the coininercial courses and domestic science. It
is well that the training of the hand and of the eye be united with the training
of the mind, and it is well, too, that boys and girls be taught to recognize the
dignity of labor and the value of honest toil.

But in our effort to make our training practical, let us not forget to make
it worth while. Life is more than meat and the body than raiment. While I be-
lieve that students should be taught to make their living and that any education
is a failure which leaves them dependent on others for support, I also believe that
at least a few, drawn from all ranks and conditions of society — no distinctions of
wealth or social standing here — that at least a few should be given a higher edu-
cation whose value cannot be measured in dollars and cents, and which those who
have it w^ould never barter for silver nor gold.

One sometimes wonders whether there is not a great deal of educational
machinery today with but little educational motive back of it. The motive in too
many cases is economic and industrial, and not educational and cultural. The aim
is to increase industrial efficiency and not to develop human worth. It is not
enough that students be put in possession of facts, nor that they be trained in
some profession that will bring them a living. An education means more than
that. It fails of its most important work if it does not inspire the student with
a belief in the ideal values of life and a loyalty to them; if it does not enable him
to understand the social order of which he is a part and develop in him a feeling
of responsibility for its welfare; if it does not bring him to consider his relations
to the universe and to feel himself in sympathy with the heart of the world.

It is the very genius of education to ripen and bring to full fruition the native
powers of men and women, and to increase their love and loyalty to the truth.
Whatever fails in this, whatever leaves them with their powers still latent, their
lives circumscribed and cramped; whatever limits their horizon or narrows their
sympathies or neglects their character is not education in the full meaning of the
term.

The time is coming in this country when what we shall need most is not men
of greater industrial or economic efficiency, but men and women of greater char-
acter and more insight into human values; not so much people capable of produc-
ing more wealth, as people capable of directing their fellows in the wise and worthy
use of the wealth already gained.

Hence I cannot regard as progress that disposition which would gauge the

LEBANON VALLEY COLLEGE BULLETIN

value of all studies in terms of their money-getting power, nor which holds that
the chief business of higher education is to increase the economic value and money-
earning capacity of its students.

With all due allowance for the undoubted advantages that have been intro-
duced by recent changes in our courses, I cannot help admiring the curriculum
of the older colleges. From the standpoint of the work they vindertook to do in
training a few men to be leaders in letters, in statesmanship, and in the professions,
the older colleges were a splendid success. Their course was not rich in content,
nor was it calculated to make the student familiar with the learning of the world,
but it did put him in possession of himself and it did train him to think and to
judge and to rely on his own judgment. It consisted of a few subjects chosen
from the whole realm of knowledge, selected not for their own sake, but for their
value in the training of men.

These few subjects were well organized and well applied, and the student got
the benefit of what there was. What they did they did well, and it was perform-
ance rather than opportunity that constituted the distinguishing mark of the early
colleges, as contrasted with the emphasis upon opportunity and so little upon
performance, so characteristic of the colleges and universities of our day. The
old course was simple, compact, effective. What it lacked in breadth, it more than
made up in intensity, and as an instrument of intellectual and moral training it
has in my judgment never yet been excelled.

1 do not advocate a return to the rigid course of the older colleges, but I do
believe that the ideals they cherished are fundamental ideals, and that the qualities
they developed are permanent possessions of educated people everywhere.

The basis of such a course is the languages, and it would seem that every
student should have considerable knowledge of at least two, — one ancient and
one modern. The method of acquiring this knowledge gives the student invaluable
mental discipline, and there is no surer way of developing insight and appreciation
of any civilization than by learning its language.

The second great group of liberal arts subjects comprises the philosophical and
social disciplines. These attempt to give the student some understanding of the
relations that exist among persons; the social sciences, the persons comprising
human society; and the philosophical sciences, the personality of the universe
with all that that pregnant phrase imphes. This should include some general
knowledge of the conclusions of the outstanding thinkers of our race on these
great themes and some training also of the student for fresh thought on his own
part.

The third group represents the facts of nature and attempts to give the
student practical instruction as to how he should behave in the presence of these
facts, so that nature may help and not hinder him in his progress. These three
aspects of a liberal arts curriculum are about equally important, and the disposition
to allow the student to specialize in one to the neglect of either or both of the
others, such as an open elective system permits, has proven unwise and even its
most confident advocates have given it up, while the disposition to substitute
professional or technical subjects in place of these liberalizing disciplines has dc-

ALUMNI NUMBER, NOVEMBER, I 93 3

feated the purpose of liberal arts and has turned out specialists rather than broadly
educated men.

The aim of a college is just as definite as that of any professional school. That
aim is to develop the student with respect to all his capacities into a mature, sym-
metrical, well balanced person, in full possession of all his powers, physical, social,
mental and spiritual, with an intelligent understanding of the past and a sympa-
thetic insight into the needs and problems of the present.

I would use the word "culture" to define what I mean, if that term were not
so much misused that many people with red blood in their veins have come to
feel a repugnance for it. I am not advocating that pseudo-culture which is too
refined to concern itself with the things of real life, and too haughty and too
supercilious to keep in touch and in sympathy with common men. A college
training should broaden a man's sympathies and deepen his purpose to serve the
common good.

It should create in a student a disposition to face facts squarely, whatever
they may be, and the ability properly to interpret and evaluate them when found.
It should enable him to recognize and to test his own prejudices; it should keep
him open-minded and tolerant in his attitude toward others. He will be able to
live worthily in the present because he understands the past. He will be in pos-
session of convictions based on the experience of the race, and not be unsettled
and blown about by every Utopian wind stirred up by those who would cure the
world's ills in a day.

At a time like this, when there is so much uncertainty in public life, when
social standards are changing, and religious convictions are unsettled, at such a
time what we need most of all is men and women of leadership, wise, sane, well-
balanced people in every department of life — men and women who shall be able
to steady and to reassure, and to lead on unfailingly to higher things.

I do not maintain that the training of these leaders is the only work of the
college, but I do believe that it is its most important work, and that our colleges
will fail in doing for society today what their prototypes did for our fathers of
old, if they fail in this supremely important function of training a few people
who shall be to their fellows trustworthy guides and interpreters of the finer and
higher meaning of life. This is the most important work of the college and the
college is the best instrument for its accomplishment.

During the past twenty-five years the four-year college of liberal arts has been
called upon in a very definite way to defend itself. There has been very little
disposition to call in question the good work it has done in the past. Its record
constitutes one of the brightest pages of our country's history, and its contribu-
tion to our national life in statesmanship, in scholarly achievements, and in moral
and spiritual upHft, has been excelled by the fruits of no other type of institution
to this day.

But with the marvelous development of the public high schools on the one
hand and the equally marvelous development of technical and professional schools
on the other, there has come to the minds of many friends of education a question
as to the further need of the four-year college of liberal arts. There are those who

LEBANON VALLEY COLLEGE BULLETIN

say that the day of the separately organized college has passed; that it has served
a good purpose and done its work, and should now be replaced by other types of
institutions better adapted to the conditions and spirit of our time.

Let us consider briefly a few of the suggestions which have been proposed by
those who do not regard the four-year college of liberal arts as an essential feature
of our educational system. Let us consider first the proposal that the high school
course be expanded to include the first two years of college, and that at the end
of this six-year period the student enter at once upon his technical or professional
training in the university. This suggestion of course means the complete elimina-
tion of the college as a distinct institution, and what is of even greater importance,
the elimination also of the ideals for which the college stands.

I should be sorry to see the high schools, as such, attempt to take up this work.
From the point of view of preparing students for college, our high schools today
are not meeting the demands made upon them. The great majority have neither
the equipment nor the teachers, and none of thtm have either the spirit or the
method to furnish what a well-equipped college can offer in its first two years.

In large centers of population where money is available for the separate organi-
zation of jvuiior colleges in connection with public school systems, there is every
reason to encourage the multiplication of local opportunities for higher work. I
also believe that many institutions v/hich carry the college name without possess-
ing resources sufficient to offer substantial college work should become junior
colleges and limit their efforts to the first two years.

But such institutions, designed for those who do not intend to take a regular col-
lege course, should not turn aside those who are qualified and who should be encour-
aged to undertake a full college program. The exceptional student for whom the col-
lege of liberal arts is designed, should select a good college at the very beginning, and
should be given the benefit of the full four years of regular college opportunities.
I feel particularly convinced that the needs of the so-called poor boy should not
be met by purely local opportunities. On the average the children from the less
privileged homes who desire a college training are a much more highly selected
group than those who come from the more privileged homes. These unusual minds
should be brought into early contact with the most capable and inspiring teachers.
They are the ones who will profit most by such opportunities. The problem of the
poor bov should not be solved by sending him to a poor college.

A second suggestion for modifying the four-year college of liberal arts, is to
compress its work into three years. If some sure method could be devised for
selecting students of superior ability and if these came with adequate preparation
for college work, including satisfactory language training and a genuine desire
for what the colleges have to offer, three years would doubtless be svifficient for
accomplishing all that the degree of A.B. now represents, without lowering present
standards. Under present conditions, however, the freshman -year is necessary to
identify those of college calibre and to enable them to complete their preparation
for work of college grade.

A third proposed method of dealing with the problem is to combine three
years of liberal arts with one year of professional training and grant an A.B. for

ALUMNI NUMBER, NOVEMBER, I 93 3 I 3

this four year combination. The temptations of this plan are more alluring in
colleges associated with universities than in those separately organized, although
there have been many instances of agreements of this sort between colleges and
universities. For example, nearly thirty years ago the institution which I serve
had arrangements with the medical schools of Harvard, Northwestern and Min-
nesota by which our men would leave us at the end of our junior year and after
completing the first year of the medical course at the University would be given
our bachelor's degree. Harvard at this time had the nominal requirement of an
A.B. for entrance into its medical school. When President Eliot learned of the
arrangement he disapproved, with the result that it was discontinued. President
Eliot said in effect that the arrangement was a subterfuge and that men who had
had only three years of college work were not college graduates and were not
entitled either to the degree or to entrance into professional courses based upon
the degree. Following this incident, we, of our own accord, discontinued the
arrangements with Northwestern and with the University of Minnesota. The plan
stood as an open invitation to our men to leave us ?t the end of three years and
the results of the brief experiment were altogether unsatisfactory. Our degree
now stands squarely for four years of liberal arts work.

A college cannot accomplish its full purpose with the average student in less
than four years and any college which has a majority of its students for only part
of the time cannot do for the four-year men what an institution with a majority
of full-time students can do. If I were asked to assist a prospective student in
selecting a college, I should strongly advise him to inquire how large a percentage
of its students a given college graduates, and, other things being equal, I should
advise him to go to the college that graduates the largest percentage of those who
enter. Such an institution is able to maintain scholarly standards of a far higher
level than ungraded colleges which are willing to do the miscellaneous work re-
quired by irregular students.

A college with a large majority of four-year students is also able to maintain
a richer and more inspiring atmosphere than other types of schools; the incidental
phases of its life are more significant. G. Stanley Hall has well emphasized the
importance of the indirect educational influences of a college. He says, "The best
education is not that which comes with effort from direct attention and applica-
tion, but there is an unconscious education, which is much more important, and
which is carried on in the penumbral regions of the mind. This environmental
education needs more time."

This statement from Dr. Hall not only buttresses the argument for the four-
year course, but it also sounds a note of warning to the college that it should
jealously guard that intangible something which we call its atmosphere, in order
that the influences that affect the marginal regions of the students' minds may be
influences saturated with scholarly ideals and earnestness of spirit.

Furthermore, I think it may justly be maintained that it is in the last two
years, and not in the first two, that a college accomplishes its purpose with a
student, and creates within him its distinctive ideal. It is not in connection with
freshman mathematics, or the beginning languages, or elementary sciences, that

L

14 LEBANON VALLEY COLLEGE BULLETIN

a college finds its real opportunity. The work of these first years is largely a
preparation for what the college has to offer in the years that follow. It is only
when the student begins to study philosophy and economics and the social sciences,
when he begins to understand the natural sciences in their implications, and has
developed a real taste for literature and something of perspective in history, — it
is only then that his personal philosophy of life can begin intelligently to take form.

If the colleges of liberal arts cannot develop citizens of broader outlook and
deeper sympathies than other types of institutions can do, then they fail of their
chief function, and there would be little hope or reason for their permanent exist-
ence. But I believe there is a difference, and I am convinced that their difference
is shown chiefly in those who have taken the full course and have become the
children of their Alma Mater, and not by those who have joined the college house-
hold temporarily.

Any college in taking a student does so with the hope that ultimately the
student will come to represent the ideals for which the college stands, and every
genuine college in the country desires to graduate the great majority of her students
and have them permanently for her children. The sentiments and loyalties that
cluster around an alumni relationship to a college that has really inspired and
given one a start, are among the most significant and satisfying influences that
can ever possess a man. They constitute the chief asset of a college, and are a lasting
blessing to the graduate himself.

The four-year college of liberal arts is America's unique contribution to the
educational organization of the world. Its ideals were never more needed than
now, and in the improvement of undergraduate work both in colleges connected
with universities and in those separately organized, lies our greatest hope for educa-
tional advancement.

In closing I wish to express my congratulations and good wishes to the mem-
bers of the graduating class. You are a small and select company from a much
larger group who started out sixteen years ago as your friends and companions
in the first grade. Through eight years in the grades, four years in high school and
now four years in college, you have pursued your course and today your Alma
Mater sends you out with pride and confidence to places of leadership in behalf of
life's ideals. Remember that leadership is not egotism, nor conceit, nor aggressive
selfishness. It is the quiet, courageous, unqualified, effective giving of ourselves
to the best. "He that would be greatest among you, let him be servant of all,"
and he that would save his life and make the most of it, let him lose it in unselfish
service for the common good.

COLLEGE NEWS

THE OPENING OF COLLEGE

College opened to freshmen on Wednesday, September 14. There followed
three days in which the newcomers, by means of lectures and orientation tests,
were assisted in adjusting themselves to the new freedom and responsibilities of
college life. The Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. reception to new students was
held in the Chapel and North Hall on Saturday, September 17.

The opening exercises were held on Monday, September 19. President Lynch de-
livered an address of welcome to the new students. Dr. P. B. Gibble, pastor of the
Palmyra United Brethren church, addressed the student body with point and force
on the subject, "One Step of Progress."

ENROLMENT

The college has 374 students regularly enrolled in Liberal Arts and the Con-
servatory. It is holding up remarkably well during the depression.

CHAPEL ADDRESSES

In the Chapel period, during the opening weeks, the following local pastors
addressed the student body:

The Rev. K. O. Spessard of the Reformed Church; the Rev. U. E. Apple of
the First Lutheran Church; the Rev. H. J. Kline of the Evangelical Congrega-
tional Church; the Rev. Malcolm Eichner of the Evangelical Lutheran Church;
Dr. Stonecipher, representing the Rev. J. Owen Jones of the College Church.

Dr. Hough (Executive Secretary of the Board of Administration of the United
Brethren Church), and Mrs. Hough (National President of the U. B. Women's
Missionary Society) , have given short talks to the students.

The Y. M. C. A. introduced "Dad" Elliott to the college, where he carried
on a quick and intensive campaign. He spoke twice in chapel, again to the entire
student body in an evening session, and also to the football squad, to various
student organizations, and to the faculty in a Retreat. He exerted a powerful
influence on the campus.

Dr. Cornelius Weygandt, Professor of English at the University of Pennsyl-
vania, and noted scholar, author, and lecturer, addressed the student body, October
z6, on the subject, "Poets Off Parade." Dr. Weygandt's rich and stimulating
personality provided live wire contacts with modern poets from Walt Whitman
to Robert Frost.

CHANGES IN THE STAFF

Dr. Wagner has returned, after a semester's leave of absence, in excellent health
and spirits to resume his lectures and his dijties as Assistant to the President.

Dr. H. H. Shenk has been given additional work in the department of history,
and has been appointed Alumni Secretary.

1 6 LEBANON VALLEY COLLEGE BULLETLV

Miss Nella Miller, of Oklahoma City, who has studied under Carl Friedberg,
Olga SamoroflF, and other distinguished musicians, and who has had striking success
as a pianist in concert and solo work, has joined the Lebanon Valley College
Conservatory of Music.

Mr. D. Clark Carmean, A.B., M.A., who has had wide experience as supervisor
of music in the public schools, has also joined the faculty of the Conservatory.
He will instruct all beginners in brass, woodwind, and strings. He will in addition
conduct a class in sight singing and direct a string quartet.

COMING EVENTS

ALUMNI HOMECOMING DAY: SATURDAY, NOV. 1 8

The programme:

1. Morning Assembly in the chapel.

2. Football game, Lebanon Valley College against Drexel, on the Bethlehem
Steel field at Third and Green Streets, Lebanon.

3. Band Concert by the newly organized college band.

4. Open house by the four literary societies.

For those who come for the day, meals will be served at moderate rates in the
college dining hall. Lodging will be reserved for those who desire it and who place
their request for it in the college office in good time.

RADIO PROGRAMME: STATION WCOD, HARRISBURG
MONDAY AT 8:30 P. M.

Nov. 6 — Professor Gingrich Governments and Economic Systems

Nov. 13 — Dr. Bender The Relation of CJoemistry to Medicine

Nov. 20 — Mylin and Gelbert {Dialogue on Athletics)

Nov. 27 — Dr. Wallace Innocents Abroad 300 Years Ago

Dec. 4 — Dr. Richie Science and Religion

Dec. 1 1 — Professor Stokes Subject to be selected

Dec. 16 to Jan. i inclusive, omitted on account of vacation.

Jan. 8 — Dr. Struble America's Imaginative Background

Jan. I 5 — Dr. Butterwick Philosophy of Life

Jan. 22 — Dr. Reynolds A Century of Progress in Education

Jan. 29 — Dr. Wagner. . Alice in Wonderland and its Mathem-atical Significance

Feb. 5 — Dr. Stevenson The World Potvers and Disarmajnent

Feb. 1 2 — Dr. Stonecipher Latin, a Practical Study

Feb. 19 — Mrs. Stevenson . . Romain Rolland

Feb. 26 — Dr. Lietzau The Inheritance of the Pennsylvania German

Mar. 5 — Dr. Bailey Subject to be announced

Mar. 1 2 — Dr. Light Some Common Misconceptions in Biology