Indiana University - Arbutus Yearbook (Bloomington, IN)

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Washington Hall homogeneous institution that the meaning of the term university has been al- tered. And under the fine old precept of the will of the majority, this sort of university may rob the old one of its very name and call it a Scholarship Shop or Intellectual Inn, after the modem advertising fashion of exposition. There is, no doubt, cause for alarm in the educational trend, with its obvious glorification of the average student and disregard of bookishness and pedantry. Still it is the inevitable offshoot of a democracy, where the guiding principle is that the people know what is good for them. If they don ' t, they never appre- ciate hearing about it. It isn ' t the business of the 1925 Arbutus to advance any pros or cons on that interesting hypothesis. But this book was published on the honest conviction that Indiana University isn ' t half bad and that its policy of standardized service to the greatest number is much more its field than specialized stimulation for the few. 1 m [Page 21]

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if A Memorial Stadium pay homage to the concrete and stone and athletic prowess and yearly output of the present. Lately there has been a great hue and cry about the growth of our University. The University is becoming too large! It is nothing but an educational fac- tory ! They ' re trying to sell learning by the yard ! — and many other such dire wails rise from the ranks of the erudite. We shudder to think of the awful possibilities attending the accumulation of any gen- eral knowledge by the hoi polloi. They might ridicule some of the intellectual idols and fetishes out of the tabernacle. There is a doctrinary difference between an American and a European uni- versity, just as much as there is a difference between the railroad trains, attitudes toward birth control, and the methods of eating spaghetti on the two continents. For, while the European university is typically a composite of colleges, a group of idea- tionally unrelated schools, the American university is so fundamentally one big, Prof. Paul McNutt Making Address [Page 20]

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For, after all, this is a state university. Don ' t we learn when we break its rules or injure its equipment that we are not only transgressing the laws of the school but also sinning against that mysteriously uncorporeal object called the state? And isn ' t it the state legislature that has to be wheedled and cajoled into inter- rupting its benign philanthropy in behalf of the poor Pendleton prisoners long enough to look to the welfare of its intellectually ambitious young citizens? And isn ' t it this same legislature that responds so handsomely by providing its institu- tion of learning with enough funds to buy coal for the ensuing year? It sure is, and if the movement to turn this into a Utopia of Ultra-Culture were successful, there might even be a coal shortage. The American university, which is Indiana University, is something more than the proverbial fountain of learning. The motto of our school is Lux et Veritas, but nothing is said about Lux et Veritas Librorum, to the exclusion of everything else. From rather close observation, the Spirit of Old I. U. seems to be a blatant ex-collegian telling the awe-stricken student body about it. This school has the reputation of turning out more master bunk artists per square graduate than any other in the Conference. These atmosphere disturbers no doubt fulfilled an impor- tant mission. But, unfortunately, atmosphere was about all that was ever disturbed. The spirit of the New I. U. may not be so inspiring, we may not hear so much about the Greater Indiana and the Pride of the Middle West, but there ' s a whole lot more of it here. The New I. U. is the I. U. of thunderous football games, of the Commerce School, the Stadium, and the Activities Fee, of unscrupulous journalism, lemon cokes and freshman composition. The great god. Materialism, is no greater than his enemies make him. If he dominated this school, we ' d all be taking courses in manual training as well as the manual of arms. A state university is not primarily to develop a few genii, who may or may not be powers for the betterment of mankind in general, but to enable the greatest possible number of people to live, work, and play just a little more understandingly, a little more vividly than they would otherwise. Anyway, most of us prefer to take care of our own betterments. It isn ' t likely that any one will care much for the past faltering throb of an over- worked brain. The Arbutus probably would blush a more glowing pink and wilt with chagrin if any one did. But if the ideas refuse to be consistent, if they only scratch and don ' t dig, remember that they, too, are typical of the New I. U. where they ridicule with equal zest, both heretic convention and conventional heresy. I 1 ■M HNiMi 1 m fl Ml HI in IS WW L ii III ill wygl HI K! 4l ll||g||||g|g The Men ' s Gymnasium [Page 22]