University of Oklahoma - Sooner Yearbook (Norman, OK)

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.fifiq-. 57 Zif'-1, NT .f . ,Z ,,, . D 1 ff . O Q4 0 D in I I, O : fir Q: l iligaiffl 1 I STRATTON D. BROOKS PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY Six UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

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0 gs QJ 1-Q -1 l f? ,..,,g.6XOllsllliJEQ llgml.-e C' 1.5-xi...-' HY did you come to the University? What thought did you give to the subject before coming and what was the compelling motive that decided you to take a college course? For what purpose were you willing to give four or more years of precious time, spend your money and forego the chance to earn more? Why did a college degree seem so desirable to you that you were willing to go to the trouble of getting it? If you, or possibly your parents, did not answer these questions before you came to college, can you answer them now? In most cases you will say, I came to improve myself . Were it not nearer the truth to say that you came to improve your opportunities in life, or to state it even more boldly and bluntly, to increase your earning power? After all, was it not the belief that as a lawyer, a physician, or an engineer you could earn more than as a clerk, a stenographer, a farm hand, that caused you to decide to be- come a professional man? Either you or your parents knew that a college trained man could reasonably expect to occupy a position of greater prominence and larger financial reward than the same man could attain to without a college education. To be sure there were the allurements of college life, and even some altruistic conceptions of higher service but after all was not the real fundamental and directing impulse the selfish one of pre- paring yourself to compete against your fellow men in life's struggle with a greater chance to win? 1 Thus stated, your aim seems a sordid one, but let us state it the other way, namely: that it is the duty of every one to make the most of himself, to develop his abilities, and to train his mind and body for the highest accomplishment. In college, the greatest opportunity is the chance to find one's self, to determine the line of one's major interests or the field in which lies the greatest possibility of success. One purpose of the college is to enable every one to educate himself for himself. You have, however, missed the best of university life if the selfish side of education is still dominant in your thoughts. No doubt you dream of the growing practice that will come to you in your profession, and spend, in imagination, a princely income 5 but un- der these dreams there lies another thought. If a conception of education for service has not been so clearly formed as to be a guiding principle, then indeed you have failed to fulfill the ambitions that we have had for you. If the appreciation of the obligation that rests upon you to repay to the State by unselfish service to humanity the money that the State has paid to educate you, has not filled you with a desire for service, then it were better that you had never come to college. The equality of a democracy does not mean that all men are equal, but that they shall have equal opportunities to become leaders. The maintenance of a democracy demands the untiring service of men of vision willing to work for the betterment of a con- dition effecting our civilization. To you as college graduates will come the chance to aid UNIIVERSIITFY 01? OKLAHOMA Seven