Birmingham Southern College - Southern Accent Yearbook (Birmingham, AL)

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The role of a college president is not faced with problems, but with challenges. The administration is a service organization — a service to both the faculty and students. The student is the central purpose of the college.

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President Completes Third Year: Academic and Physical Progress Evident. Cynicism and negativism were the prevailing cam- pus attitudes in 1963. Accepting the implied chal- lenge, Dr. Howard M. Phillips instituted a progres- sive program that has begun to operate on both the educational and physical level. In an effort to maintain top efficiency in every area, a reorganization of administrative offices was effected, and the acquisition of superior personnel in every position has been an object of major con- cern. In conjunction with his progressive develop- ment, the building and renovating program is an answer to the necessity of providing facilities equal to the greater stimulative challenge which higher education is providing. Aware that progress could too easily be instigated at the expense of the student. Dr. Phillips is con- cerned with maintaining the small campus atmos- phere of educational excellence and interpersonal relationship between educator and student. Wishing to avoid the critical appellation of administration- ism, he must insist, however, that academic free- dom cannot be maintained without self-discipline. To combine discernment with firmness is his objec- tive in realizing his goal of maintaining and surpass- ing the academic excellence which belongs to Birmingham -Southern.

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Chancellor Snavely: The Beginning of a Search for Excellence Dr. Guy E. Snavely served as President of Birmingham-Southern College from 1912 through 1937 and also as interim president in 1 955. He has often been introduced as Mr. Birmingham- Southern for it was during his first administration that Birmingham-Southern began her continuous search for excellence. First a professor at Allegheny College, then Dean and Director of Development at Converse College, he became President of Birmingham-Southern Col- lege, and later of Lafayette College. He has served as a consultant to the U.S. Information Agency, and has received from France the decoration of Officer of the Legion of Honor. Dr. Snavely has known all of the U.S. Presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy, and such international figures as Nehru and Hammarskjold. He is the recipient of numerous honors; he has received twenty-three honorary doctorates and has served as a Senator of Phi Beta Kappa, and as national president of Omicron Delta Kappa. Dr. and Mrs. Snavely now reside in Birmingham, and at eighty-four he is anything but retired, al- though he has, by count, retired four times. Pres- ently, in addition to serving as chancellor, he is a consultant in locating competent persons for ad- ministrative positions in the college world. Dr. and Mrs. Guy E. Snavely 20