Oregon State University - Beaver Yearbook (Corvallis, OR)

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In the closing hours of the year we mingle with the concourse assembled under the great dome arching the military arena, amid a scene made happy by the bloom and fragrance of flowers, and extend congratulations and say our farewells to the classmen soon to quit the halls of learning. Up the long aisle there passes a slow-moving procession of caps and gowns. There arc strains of harmony from voices blending in the anthem. The last chord has sounded, and for a moment the scene a solemn stillness holds. Now in words of momentous interest the spokesman of the occasion begins to awaken in us sublime thoughts and stir within us tender emotions. The classmen hear life’s lessons interpreted and enforced; and in the very last moments, before the parting receive honors and awards, and listen with bowed heads to the benediction of their alma mater. The tread of feet and the sound of voices that enlivened the scenes of that magnificent occasion are dying away, hut the truths taught are vitally present with us. The unique character of the epochal event clearly pronounced and interpreted the distinctive mission, and forcefully proclaimed the achievements of the Oregon Agricultural College. Men distinguished as profound students of public affairs, directors of colossal enterprises, spokesmen of public opinion, critically expounded the distinctive functions of the institution, with deserved eulogy reviewed its eventful career, and with optimism inspired by large vision predicted a continuous expansion of its sphere of influence for the years to come. The inception of the Oregon Agricultural College was but a resultant of Oregon’s strenuous struggle to achieve material development. It modestly took its place in the educational world, avowing as its purpose the rendering to mankind 3 service, by offering a practical training to practical people, to enable them successfully to meet the exigencies of practical life. What mav to some have seemed but an etherial project when phrased in the enabling acts of legislation, when heard in conventional form in the ceremony of inauguration, when committed, by the exploitation of the plan, to mighty achievements, has become, in the process of events, a material fact, a fulfillment of prophecy, a happy fruition. The unintermittent successes of a movement considered by some in the beginning innovative, even impracticable, have been due to the permanence, power and prestige of the agencies behind the movement. The foundation of the institution rests broad and deep in the resources of the commonwealth. The administrative policy ingeniously and happily accommodates itself 14

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THE YEAR OF JUBILEE lly Professor Loren Burton Biildwjn TWELVEMONTH ago the Oregon Agricultural College celebrated with fitting and impressive ceremonies a quarter centennial jubilee. The covering of the first J B twenty-five-year stretch of a century course was deemed an achievement of epochal S — • importance in the history of the institution, and worthy of eventful celebration. When withdrawn from the world’s noise and strife we give over to the illusions of reverie, wc live again in the joyous days and nights of the jubilee—days and nights filled with the exquisite delights of reunion and association. Transported in seasons of spiritual elevation to the scenes of those June days, we stroll along walks winding amid greenswards, beautified by foliage and flowers; wc pass into the shadows of academic halls, which look sagely down and knowingly admonish us that art is long and lore is deep. Reposed on the sloping lawn, under spreading boughs of leafv tree, we listen enraptured to the rising and falling, the swelling and diminishing strains of martial music from the Regiment Band, and thrill with patriotic emotion as companies and battalions glittering with the panoply of war and militant with banners move with measured step in brilliant evolutions of parade. As the scene shifts, we watch a stately procession of automobiles rolling along the avenues and drives. Now with the descent of evening shadows, under the glare of the campus lights, breaks forth a wild pandemonium—sights and sounds, fantastic, grotesque, grim, grewsome, demoniacal, blood-curdling, marrow-freezing. The multitude look on, some with mute amazement, others with hilarious demonstration, others with unimprcssiblc stoicism. “What meaneth this? Why coineth hence those unsightly forms? What region of the universe is the abode of such hideous spectres?” queries the throng. These arc mortals of earth that have Inrcii touched by the magic wand of an enchanter,” is the answer passed along by the wise ones; “nor can they resume human shape and mien until he reverses his rod and mutters his mystic mummeries. The uproar ceases; the spell is broken; we behold the faces of fellow mortals in the flesh; the illusion is explained—we have been witnessing the student pageant announced last evening in the city paper. Passing days and nights witness alumnal reunions, class rallies, the dedication of class trophies. Classmen of 75 claim comradeship with classmen of '10 in the feast, music and mirth of banquet hall. The reminiscences and prophecies of Class Day reveal buoyancy of hope, abounding vigor, trial and struggle, glowing ambition, defeats and triumphs, as the experiences and expectancies of the Senior Classmen. 13

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to the multifarious conditions of a state-wide constituency. The personnel and appliances employed meet the requirements of efficiency. The environment holds many potential influences and varied that symmetrically shape and ennoble character. The distinctive type of education exemplified in the curriculum scheme of the Oregon Agricultural College contemplates a training that brings under discipline the mind, the eye, the ear, the tongue, the hand, the foot—the entire man. The product of such training is the scholar possessing qualifications intellectual, cultural, distinctive for successful competition with the actors and factors of the age in the endeavors that promote material and social progress. The reconstructed organization, one of the salient features of the policy of the present administration, has resulted in modernizing appreciably the spirit and workings of the institution. The centralizing of administrative powers, the fixing of definite rftyionsihilitv, the extension of the field of operations, the emphasis laid upon specialization, all mean an expansion of the college into a greater O. A. C. within the first years of the second quarter century era. The new organization plan disposes the work, in part, under four schools supervised by deans and, in part, under departments independent of the schools, supervised by head professors. Then there are departments auxiliary both to departments grouped under schools and to departments independent of schools. In the School of Agriculture are grouped the departments of Agronomy. Animal Husbandv, Dairy Husbandry, Poultry Husbandry, Horticulture Bacteriology. Entomology, Botany and Plant Pathology. Agricultural Chemistry, and Veterinary Science. The School of Domestic Science and Art maintains courses in cookery, serving, laundering, sanitation, nursing, plain and fancy sewing, basket weaving, entertaining, and other subjects germane to domiculture. The School of Kngineering and Mechanic Arts comprises the departments of Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Mining Engineering. The School of Commerce has arranged its courses under the heads of Business Administration, Stenography, Political Economy and Political Science. The departments operating independently of schools are those of Forestry ami Pharmacy. To this class of departments is to be added next year a department of Highway Construction. The departments auxiliary to those of distinctive work are the departments of Physics, Mathematics, English. Public Speaking, Modern Languages, Latin, History, Industrial Pedagogy, Physical Education, Military Science and Tactics. Library Practice. Art and Music. The blending of literary subjects belonging to the high school and academy courses with the elemental phases of certain technical subjects constitutes the curricula of the two-year Secondary 15