Knox College - Gale Yearbook (Galesburg, IL)

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THE NAUGHT-NINE GA 'JET K N bf' SIXTEEN. YK V,i . .

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I1-I 3 S A , 4 I X C3 Ii P L 7 .1 ,. .J f 7 ,-1 YJ ,-. E THE XFN' tZYMX.XSIl'M

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THE NEW ERA HE founders of Knox, like those of Harvard and Yale, were most deeply concerned with the business of furnishing a devoted and efficient ministry To the same end they planned an institution to provide for the thorough and well directed education of females not as preachers of the Gospel but as help meets for those who are and as instructors and guides of the rising generations In the college charter granted in 1837 this ambition was broadened into that of qualifying young men in the best manner for the various professional and business occu patrons of society When we consider that this purpose was to be attained by means of a faculty of less than half a dozen and by means of a classlcal curriculum this seems to day a rather pretentious ambition Training for the professions in pioneer days however did not make the same demands upon an institu tion as at present and it is not at all unlikely that the college authorities of those days may have felt that the purposes and pro visions of the charter were realized Between the ideals of the early college and those of the pres ent the contrast is striking The narrow and elementary curricu lum of pioneer days has broadened mto that of the liberal arts and sciences of the modern college with the cultured ideal as its chief end While the college no longer attempts professional training no narrowing of the curriculum has accompanied the change which has been so profound that almost the only evi- dence of continued identity as an institution is found in the per- sistence of the religious and ethical motive guiding its instruction The college still cherxshes the earnest moral and Christian spirit of the founders as the most sacred heritage of the institution and its most vital educational force ' With the broadening of its work however there has been no corresponding increase of its productive endowment. As a re- sult durmg the past two decades the trustees have been obliged to face annual deficits part of which have accumulated as a fioat mg debt The uncertain future of the American college as a part of our educational system together with the increase in this float- mg debt has made it diliicult to secure additional endowment The growth of the universities lavishly endowed by state and private funds and elaborately equipped has threatened the exist- ence of the small college with its meagre equipment and endow- ment Yet the final outcome of the discussion of the last two decades has been the re-establishment of the small college. Space forbids statement of the factors which have brought this about. The important fact is that the opening years of the Twentieth Century and of the administration of President McClelland have seen the beginning of a new era for American colleges in general and for Knox College in particular. The General Education Board and Mr. Carnegie have expressed a desire to place the THE NAUGI-IT-NINE GALE . . H - .. . .. ,, ' J . . . H . . l x a ' . . -. , H , . . ' 3 .. . H .. , L - . , ,, . . . u ' so - ' - ! . .k, 7 - ' 9 1 sn a- s- n - ' 0 rc n . . ' 1 J . . H. . es. 3 . . . 3 ! . . . . 5 9 . 7. - . V 9 . 7 1 o I ? . .N 5 . . . . SEVENTEEN.