Augustana College - Rockety I Yearbook (Rock Island, IL)

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4' ' 'Sn'-.', 'w1 -4 'za . ' fs X. ' i f -. w ,Af ,-Q . . .- .1 5fQ'f'1'wS. Q -.sr - We 5- -- A taaf- N V. .-- -lr ii- 1 Z, 555.-agrsif' 1 , ,' . T , j gh YE, ga, aa' .lla N .ga 4 -4,9 -: V -,L+ ,R 1' ' , T - -ci., . i . - 1. . f 'ff ' , ,' .-- -fu ' ' W ACRCSS . W. .4-1'-sf' 'Jew ' '5-:ff -' TI-IE Ti2EASUl2Ei?'S DESK By Rav. C. J. Joi-1NsoN The Editor of the Rocxnry-I asked for a contribution setting forth some of the main problems of our office. YVe promised very reluctantly to do so, knowing that all financial problems are hard to explain in a few words. The position of school treasurer is not as easy as many seem to believe. The income is, as a rule, very limited but expenses are many. Sala- ries must be paid promptly, because teachers and other work- ers are dependent on them for their livelihood. Bills for supplies and equipment must be paid in a few days after pur- chase. If this is not done, the credit and buying power will suffer, which in turn will make it more difficult to buy at any advantage and at thelowest possible prices. At Augustana we have three principal sources of income: Tuition from students, income from Endowment Funds and contribution from the Synod. Other items of income are small and not to be depended upon. Some activities, such as Ath- letics, Concerts, Lecture Courses, Dormitories, Cafeteria, etc., are supposed to pay for themselves, but this is not always the case. Rev- C-I-Johnson Collecting tuition is rather diflicult in times such as ours. Many young people like to attend school, both in order to irn- prove their knowledge and because they cannot get anything to do. Paying positions are scarce. In order to help them it has been necessary to extend credit and let them give notes for their tuition. These notes are to be paid within the semester period but often the expected income will not materialize. This will leave quite a sum of unpaid tuition on our books. Augustana College and Theological Seminary has about a million dollar endowment fund. Loans and investments were carefully made but the financial condition of the country has made it impossible for many borrowers to pay ,interest on their loans. This deprives the institution of ready cash when needed. The churches of the Synod have always given liberal support to the school work, but during the past few years it has been impossible for them to contribute the amount asked for and prom- ised. The people simply had nothing to give. Again a handicap. The above mentioned causes will clearly show that we are laboring under difliculties. VVhen we look back over the past five years, it is really a marvel that we have been getting along as well as we have. The expenses for running an institution like ours is no small item. Salaries alone amount to if115,000.00 a year. Repairs, supplies, heat and light, etc., run up into thousands. Total salaries and expenses for 1934 amounted to iB199,125.90. Our charges are very reasonable. Tuition is only 3180.00 per school year. This includes all expenses for instruction, except laboratory fees, which are very small. Rooms at the dormitories cost from 352.00 per week up to 33.50. Meals are served at the cafeteria at cost. A student who is careful with his money need not spend over 95450.00 a year. Tuition paid by the students is far from enough to cover expenses of instruction. The income from the Endowment Funds and contribution from the Synod is used to cover this shortage. It takes about 350,000.00 a year more than is received from tuition to care for all the expenses of the college department. Anyone can readily see that the students receive their education for a sum far below actual cost. The Synod and College are glad to render this service to the young people. The youth of to- day are the leaders of tomo1'row and it is our duty to give them an opportunity to prepare for future leadership. We rejoice over the opportunity to help them. The students of Augustana carry the banner of the college onward with honor both to them- selves and their Alma Mater. We congratulate them and say Be Strong, be courageous in your glorious work . CARL J. JOHNSON. 44 rr

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general discontent with traditional methods and organization and the eager desire to discover more rational solutions. A volume appearing in 1932 described no less than 128 outstanding changes and experiments reported by seventy-Hve colleges. Many of these may perhaps have proved im- practicable and may have been destined to early modification or rejection. But the principle of well-considered, carefully controlled experimentation in education is now no longer called into question but is given all possible official encouragement. No more striking example of the new attitude and outlook can be cited! than the new policy of the North Central Association which shifts the emphasis from quantative to qualitative criteria, acknowledges the desirability of educational- ly sound variations from pattern in the colleges, and approves of well-considered experiments to improve educational processesn. Out of the current unrest and confusion what are the trends that appear most definite and the values that seem most likely to survive? The general and growing distrust of the point and credit-earning system with its substitution of numerical symbols for intellectual values, its measurement of individual achievement on the basis of time spent or teachers' term grades will no doubt result in the ultimate abandonment of this distinctively American contribution to education. The practice of handing out course cou- pons at half-year intervals, a suHicient number of which entitles the holder to the coveted degree, represents a mischievous distortion of the process and results of true education. Evidence abounds that mastery of the subject, the only rational goal, is not adequately measured by semester hours and course grades. When course examinations, given and graded by the instructor. are replaced by comprehensive final examinations constructed and administered as an independent major function of the college apart from instruction, the relation between teacher and student will be improved beyond belief, learning will receive an immense stimulus and the process of interrelating and in- tegrating knowledge in various fields will create unsuspected insights for the learner. The student's right to proceed at his own best rate and to secure recognition of his progress independently of others seems undeniable. In realizing such individualization of instruction the great wealth of new testing material being made increasingly available provides indispensable aid. The prinpiple of general education in the first two years of college which is being given in- creasing stress must be recognized as altogether sound and valid. Progress in this direction will involve modification of existing courses and the creation of new ones to provide for all students in the lower division more comprehensive overviews of the important Helds of instruction. Depart- mental introductory courses now elective will be merged into required broader survey courses in re- lated fields. The upper division will thus be left free in a far larger and more significant way to provide for more intensive study of a more freely chosen major interest. This differentiation in purpose as between the two levels should of course not be so rigid as to exclude adequate pre-pro- fessional preparation or the earlier development of a special interest in the lower division. The danger of overspecialization at the upper level may be prevented by a well-conceived plan of in- terdepartmental majors. In the Senior College at least we may safely endeavor to break the lock- step of classes and revise our methods and procedure to encourage a greater measure of indepen- dent study. - A survey of the contemporary scene in higher education is disquieting enough in its implica- tions and is not calculated to encourage administrative or faculty peace of mind. Gone are com- placeny and self-satisfaction. Never has the educational task called for more earnest thought and more constant alertness or been beset with mo1'e serious problems. Let us not fail to recognize in the present confusion and discontent a sincere effort to discover more basic definitions of educa- tional values and more sure and effective means of attaining them. lVe may well grant the inevi- tability and need of change in academic patterns and revisions of cumbersome tho venerable methods. But we shall not be carried away by any lust for educational adventuring nor shall we attempt to escape any possible stigma of stagnation by launching into a feverish program of experimentation. 'We shall not stake our academic salvation on any Augustana Plan or on any new device or procedure. And we shall not lose sight of the fundamental and enduring truth that under any plan or with whatever organization, nothing can ever be or become a substitute for scholarly, mature, goal-conscious, life-inspiring, vision-creating, character-motivating teaching by men and women who are aware of vital issues, who are free from provincialism and rich in human sympathy and who give themselves to their great task with unreserved consecration. cc if

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REFLECTIQNS By PROP. J. P. NIAGNUSSON The founders thought that a school consisted of a building. The Old Dorm was their Augustana College. Now, how many are there on the campus? Count them. They thought the necessary equipment consisted of a desk and some chairs, with possibly a blackboard. Now-yes we have them too, but we have also some other things. They thought that studying consisted in memorizing the sayings of the wise men of the past and faithfully and accurately repeating them to a stern and dignified individual called a professor-he of the hickory stick type. Now-yes we do this too, but we surely do more. Some say we do less. Building-growing. It is a far cry from the first Old Main to our present building complex--from Proij-Plmagnusson the little red school house by the road to a state university. Growing-building, yes, we of the present generation are building, not only farms and factories and cities and roads and autos and airships and college buildings, slowly and surely we are also rearing an educational structure. During the past year we have watched the rise of another building on our campus. Does this mean just another building? It is tl1e third or fourth building on our campus designed for a specific educational purpose, and more, it is tl1e first building among our church colleges designed and equipped solely for the study of then basic sciences. VVhat does this imply? Does it not mean that, in our higher educational work, we are passing from the phase of a generalized pioneer type of education to a more specialized type demanded by a highly indust1'ial society in general and by the younger generation of our own church constituency in par- ticular? Many will perhaps shake their heads and say that they no longer recognize their beloved Augustana, that as a Wayward child she has left the straight and narrow way laid out for her by tl1e fathers. 'However, in the historical article by President Andreen there is brought out the fact that the pioneer founders by no means had a narrow conception of the scope and purpose of the institution they were founding. The establishment of technical and scientihc departments is clearly implied in their statement of purpose. As one views the new Wallberg Hall of Science with its pleasing though simple exterior and its equally pleasing and complete interior appointments, one wonders what will be its significance for our institution and particularly for the sciences. An immediate result should be an increased enrollment not only in the sciences but throughout the institution. VVith facilities such as the new building will offer in science, together with the new offerings in the other departments of instruc- tion, the library, physical education, music, art, athletics, forensics, etc., the educational program of Augustana from now on should be such as to attract the widest circle of young people who are looking to an education beyond that of the secondary schools. Closely associated with this effect is the thought of an ideally complete system of thorough college courses. VVith the establishment of a well equipped science department we can say that our educational structure as a college of liberal arts is complete, at least in outline. The necessary dc- partments arc there. The necessary physical equipment is, for the most part. there. lVhat is the next task? As in the erection of the new science building there was the laying of thc rcinforcccl concrete footings deep in the solid earth. the pouring of the floors, the building of thc walls. stone 44 sr . nQ1n-r'