Berea College - Chimes Yearbook (Berea, KY)

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DR. EDWIN McNEILL poteat Pastor, Euclid Ave. Baptist Church, Cleveland I believe that Berea must make available to her students the very finest academic education. We surely do not wish, any more than any other college wishes, to graduate robot scholars who raise their right or left arm or hand in unison to salute the great what-not. Each student is an individual, capable of understanding in some degree the background of our nation, the ideas which form our culture and ways of living, capable in some degree of thinking for the future. Each is capable, too, of understanding and carrying with him something of art and music, of perceiving the meaning of true religion and its place in cur daily life. If we could build a wall about Kentucky, or the Appalachians, we might minimize the importance of the work which we do. This we cannot do. We are citizens of a nation, not a region. It is reported that in 1930, more than 800,000 Kentucky born per- sons were living elsewhere in the U.S. With the South furnish- ing the basis for the population increase of the nation according to a recent Federal report, we must demand that the quality of the academic work we do, be the very finest. We must do this not only for the sake of the individual students, but for his place in the nation. If we know anything about the Berea student, and the young man and woman that are likely to be Berea students in the coming decades, we know that after the years spent in formal study, they are going to be forced to earn a living. We know that our society is demanding the services of men and women qualified to make contributions in some particular field. Now Berea, in addition to and through the general cultural courses of the college, is preparing pro- fessionally teachers, those who will promote agriculture, those who have at heart the improving of our home life — those who serve the sick and aid in programs to prevent disease. I would suggest that there may be additional fields of work in which Berea may give preparation to her students. These await study and consideration. I would not lose sight of the fact t hat the essential need in the community is for rounded per- sonalities, men and women who think clearly and a:t unselfishly. The core of our curriculum must always be those cultural subjects which will enable us to think, and understand the world in which we live. A college course has been described as a four year loaf. Another described it as sitting on a mountain peak to get a proper view of the world. If the four year loaf, or the sitting on top of the mountain, resulted in clarity of thought, a knowledge of life and modes of living, with the items ar- ranged in proper perspective, that would be fine. If a student leaves the doors of Alma Mater with n greater clarity of thought, he steps down from his mountain top into clouds of discouragement and despair. His education has not yet begun. It is my sincere hope while helping to equi p our students with basic conceptions for life in the coming decades, we may also make it possible for many to find the curricula suitable for assisting them in making a distinct contribution to society. It is unnecessary to argue the point that Berea is more than an ordinary college. One of its most im- portant characteristics is that it reaches off the campus into the community. In China colleges have walls about them. In some cases, colleges in the United States have invisible walls about them. Perhaps we have already undertaken too much, but I am bold enough to suggest that Berea should continue to intertwine and interweave the life of the campus with the life of the people who live in the regions about us. When our teachers and students carry new thoughts, new conceptions, new solutions for old prob- lems to communities off the campus, and bring back to the campus a mo re realistic view of the world and our educational problems, they are fulfilling th; purpose of the institution. Such contacts prevent us from developing a white collar superiority, and fr;m suffocating in the fumes of our own laboratories. In accepting the Presidency of Berea, 1 do so with the knowledge that Berea has been most fortunate during the years to have the loving aid and cooperation of many institutions, public and private. I re- joice in these cordial relations, which have bound us together in a common cause, enlarging our useful- ness. I would hope in the years to come that these ties of affection and cooperation, increasing our effectiveness in the cause of education, might be strengthened. —(From the INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT HUTCH1NS)

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DR. FRANK PORTER GRAHAM President, University of N. C. All who have gathered in this room this morning are interested in education for one reason or another. Some of us are involved in administration, engaged in research or actual teaching, some are students seeking an education, and others are admiring or critical friends of our institutions of learning. To return from a foreign land and investigate the colleges and universities of the United States, is to recognize with pride the achievements of our country. A visitor from abroad might spend many happy months visiting our libraries, laboratories, classrooms, gymnasiums, and dormitories. While we always show visitors our campus, as educators we are even prouder of our faculties, their ability in discovering new truths, their ability to lead the thinking of students. We rightly believe that the faculty is the crux of the entire educational pro- cess. It is our hope that we may provide these men and women with the requirements for their best work, libraries, laboratories, and freedom. We wish these men and women to instruct and stimulate their students, to lead them to a basic, sound under- standing of our world and its culture, to aid them in forming attitudes of minds which will enable them to meet courageously the situations of life. We are very proud too of our students. We select them with discrimination, we nurture them as carefully as we can, we graduate them when they hive fulfilled certain requirements. Viewing the beautiful campuses of American colleges and universities, noting the faculties with their highly degreed quality, thinking of the million students in institutions of higher learning (some nineteen thousand in the State of Kentucky alone), may we not then face with complacency the world, with the conviction that nothing is going to happen, that everything is all right? May we not hold the belief, that all that we need is more college graduates? Will not the problems of our world be solved, little by little? Shall not we enter then upon a new high plane, not only of economic prosperity, but also moral well-being and spiritual growth? We know that complacency is not for us. Anyone who has roamed from his home country will have noticed the constant intermingling of ideas, culture, and goods from one nation to another. » In spite of this world-wide exchange of ideas in which our colleges and universities take a leading part, in spite of the economic net work thrown over the whole world, we find that nations are today fighting, or preparing to fight. There are aspects of our own national situation which cause us the greatest distress. No one would think of blaming the public educational system for these situations, nor the colleges and universities. No American would advocate less education as a means of solving these problems In accepting the Presidency of Berea College, I should like to formulate, in general terms at least, what appear to be guiding principles for the present. In coming to Berea one finds certain assumptions basic to Berea ' s way of life: 1 ) Berea ' s doors are open to young men and young women from the Southern mountains. This is in keeping with the history of Berea. Conditions have changed rapidly in recent years, but there is no indication that this particular restriction has been outlived. 2) Labor is not only a part of the economic life of our students, but it is also a distinctively edu- cative process. 3 ) A third assumption is that the finest education in this country should be available to the young men and women of the mountains, regardless of geographic or economic handicaps. 4) A final fundamental assumption is that a vital relationship with God as exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ, has a place in the foundation of our individual and corporate life. The Preamble of the Constitution of Berea College begins with these words: In order to promote the cause of Christ . . . On these foundation stones Berea College stands. With these assumptions in mind as basic to the life of Berea, I would propose no radical scheme which might by its novelty be applauded. Berea must keep close to the real needs of the region she serves. —(From the INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT HUTCHINS)

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TO THIS HERITAGE . . . I do not know another institution that is doing a more necessary work among native Americans of fine natural capacities, who have been denied the chance that should be theirs for higher education. I earnestly wish you success. THEODORE ROOSEVELT I do not see how anybody can think of Berea and the work it has to do without catching fire. WOODROW WILSON You always have my best wishes and my belief that you are nobly performing a noble work. JUSTICE OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES THE PAST YEAR HAS ADDED THESE . . . I have come to know and to love an institution which has for more than eighty years been the inspira- tion of thousands of young people. STEWART W. McCLELLAND, President, Lincoln Memorial University. Berea College in the persons of its distinguished, nobly useful, and beloved President Emeritus and Pres- ident Elect, in the strength of its great traditions and the robustness of its clear purpose, moves us to a new realization of the spiritual value of its high simplicity above all the complexity and confusion of our modern world. Berea lifts above triteness and makes vivid the significance of the individual and the sacredness of personality. Study of books, work with the hands, play and sports, student government, learning and living, all join in the making of self-reliant individuals, integrated personalities, with the whole view toward intelligent social adjustments, as the students respond to the inner glimpses of their nobler selves and a nobler society. FRANK PORTER GRAHAM, President, University of North Carolina. On our campus here at Berea are fine buildings and splendid modern equipment which testify to great progress and achievement, but what we prize most is that which we possess here which was not wrought with human hands, that priceless something which we may call the Berea tradition; the composite spirit of all the courageous self-sacrificing, and loyal devotion of those who have gone before and those who now carry on that same pattern. It is a far easier task to find a president for Yale, Harvard or Princeton than to find a suitable presi- dent for Berea College. In this field God asks for a very special service, a service that only an unusual and consecrated leader can give. And now again in the choice of a new president we feel sure that we have been divinely guided. He has in large measure the qualities which his distinguished father brought to the work. He has in large measure the qualities which have built up the fine Berea tradition. WILLIAM DEAN EMBREE An institution founded by humble people and working for and with humble people. An institution primarily interested in the kind of life our boys and girls may live after they leave us. An institution which believes in the dignity of labor and tries to make each student feel he is a partner with God in any creative task whether with mind or hand. An institution which believes the foundation of character is a firm conviction and a living experience with a living God, and hence desires that all its graduates shall know something of the way in which all people have experienced that God. W. D. WEATHERFORD I feel that Berea College is doing a unique and distinguished work in education It has a warm place in my heart. LEW SARETT