Athens State College - Columns Yearbook (Athens, AL)

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' T-r ■;Tr MA D OF ATHENS 924 , «-f Ma KJ ' It must not be forgotten, however, that educational standards and re- quirements are being raised every year. This is true not only so far as the student is concerned, but is even more true of the school itself. Some of these standards, in the case of the college, are artificial. For instance, in order to be recognized as a standard college, laboratory equipment must have a certain monetary value, rather than a certain practical value. The library must hve a certain number of volumes, regardless of their value to the stu- dent. The endowment must be a certain sum of invested money, regardless of the willingness of consecrated and competent teachers to disregard standard salaries. However much we may depreciate these conditions, they seem to be unavoidable and the college must keep pace with the times. We believe that because of its proved value in the past and the present, its friends and particularly its alumnae will give it such loyal support that its usefulness will never be curtailed and its glory never dimned. Our prophecy is that future generations as well as those who have gone to rest, will continue to call its name Blessed. GEO. W. READ.

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i j MA D OF ATHENS 1924- [ potential force for the development of the republic. It wishes to be large enough to render the best service to Church and state, and small enough to prevent the individual girl from being lost in the mass and so deprived of the personal touch of the President and Faculty. What of the future? The divinely inspired prophet of old spake as the Lord spake to him. The modern prophet can only reason from the experi- ences of the past, and the facts that confront him in the present. This is a new day for woman. Opportunities for service are found in business, professional and industrial life that were undreamed of a genera- tion ago. With these opportunities have come obligations which the modern woman cannot shirk. No longer are her activities confined to the home, the Church, the school. Woman must take her place side by side with man in all the relationships of life. Public life calls her. Professional life calls her. Business life calls her. These changed conditions require a different kind of preparation. She must be not only accomplished, she must be practically and technically educated. In short, she must have the same mental devel- opment and the same kind of training that her brothers have received through all the past. She must be trained to be the executive officer for big busi- ness. She must be trained in statesmanship. She must be ready to fill any place in our complex civilization. The questions are now asked, Can woman thus be trained for a service as broad as that service which has heretofore been rendered by man alone and not lose those charms and graces so characteristic of our mothers? Can she do a man ' s work without becoming masculine? Can she stand on man ' s level, participating in his virtues and yet avoiding his vices? From some colleges for women the answer is in the negative. It is reported that in some institutions cigarette smoking and the drinking of illicit liquors is indulged in, not by the exceptional student, but almost as a matter of course; and that in some instances members of the faculty not only condone these practices, but actually encourage them. But from Athens comes the affirma- tive answer and there is no reason to doubt it. From its halls still come the same consecrated Christian women. The curriculum has been expanded to meet the needs of modern times, but the same care is and always will be taken to maintain the refined Christian atmosphere that has obtained from the beginning, so that its students will be graduated polished after the simili- tude of a palace. It is still the basic ideal of Athens College to send out women equipped mentally for any place in life, but at the same time to send them with that spiritual equipment that will make them, wherever they may go, the salt that savors and the light that lights the world. With in- creased equipment, with sufficient appliances, with a thoroughly trained fac- ulty and with the Christian ideal always and increasingly emphasized Athens , College will mean relatively as much in this new age as it has meant in the former years of its glorious history.

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