Vanderbilt University - Commodore Yearbook (Nashville, TN)

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FINAL BANQUET, ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN 6287

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The Endowment Campaign 1? VL ROM February to December, 1916, the chief concern of the University was the raising of a one million L dollar endowment fund for the Academic Department. Everybody connected with the University had some ?f part in it. The Chancellor had done the biggest part when he announced to the Trusteess conditional gifts ll Si of S700,000 from the General Education Board and the Vanderbilt family. For securing the remaining M Q S300,000 it was necessary to have the co-operation of all forces. The Trustees responded first, and then the faculty, but the University community as a whole was awakened to the seriousness of th task and to the need of consecration by a great mass-meeting in the chapel, adressed by the Chancellor. The students threw themselves into the campaign with a generosity and loyalty that reaches a high-tide of university spirit. As the result of the West Campus campaign, the faculty subscribed about 512,000 and the student body 56,000 The next step was the campaign among the alumni of Nashville. Prior to the opening meeting at the Vendome Theatre, there was a torchlight parade, in which every element of the University participated. As the procession, over a mile in length, passed over the viaduct, every engine in the railroad yards turned loose with full head of steam. All the downtown streets were illuminated and decorated, and the streets were lined with spectators who entered enthusiastically into the spirit of the occasion. Never was the Vendome the scene of such a demonstration, crowded as it was from pit to roost with wildly cheering students, alumni, faculty, and trustees. Speeches by Chancellor Kirkland, John Bell Keeble, and Gus Dyer, singing by the Glee Club and the original quartet of the first Glee Club, and the constant cheering of the undergraduates, made the meeting a memorable one. Then came a four days'-campaign, which netted the great sum of SI40,000 from the Vanderbilt family, as it came to be called, in Nashville. The alumni in Nashville now proposed to enlist the co-operation of the alumni in other places, and definite and aggressive plans were pursued to this end. The Founderls Day dinners in a dozen Southern cities served to lay before rep- resentative alumni the responsibility and the opportunity. For two months during the summer Mr. Charles Cason, Coach Dan lVlcC-ugin, and Dr. Edwin Mims presented the situation to groups and individuals who could be conveniently reached, with the result that approximately 370,000 was subscribed,the gifts ranging from S500 to 55.00. The alumni in Mem- phis, Dallas, Birmingham, New Orleans, Little Rock, New York. and St. Louis were especially generous. Despite the diffi- culties of conducting a campaign among such a widely scattered constituency, the results were most satisfactory. The last stage of the campaign was reached in October, when the citizens of Nashville were asked to contribute the remainder-namely, Sl25,000. In spite of grave obstacles that hampered the workers in the early days of the cam- paign, Nashville came to a brilliant climax. The banquet in the Maxwell House, coming immediately after the defeat of Virginia on the gridiron, will long be remembered as one of the great events in th history of the University. With this endowment the University will enter upon a new era. f - 4293