Bryan College - Commoner Yearbook (Dayton, TN)

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Z L2 -= f77 i-J ® EDI CATION P sP The first student body of the William Jennings ryan University reverently dedi- cates this volume to rr The Qreat Qommoner in memory of whom Tlryan University has been founded. £ V Vi i s-7- 3

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THE BIRTH CHE William Jennings Bryan University opened its doors for freshman students on September 18, 1930, approximately five years after the renowned anti-evolution trial in Dayton, Tennessee. The inaugural ceremony was held in the courtroom in which Mr. Bryan assisted in the prosecution of Mr. John T. Scopes. Many thinking men and women feel that this trial and its attendant widespread publicity mark the turning point in the effort to check the swelling tide of materialisic and agnostic philosophy which had made such marked progress toward engulfing the young students in our educational institutions. At the conclusion of the trial John T. Scopes, the young teacher charged with violating the Tennessee State law against the teaching of evolution, was found guilty. The Supreme Court of Tennessee held that the law was constitutional and that Scopes had been guilty of violating it as charged in the indictment. On the Thursday preceding his death, on Sunday, July 25, 1925, Mr. Bryan suggested the establishment of a school for young men upon one of the suburban hills. In consequence of his sudden death in Dayton, on the field of the legal battle, his friends fe ' t that the movement inaugurated by him should be amplified and that a great co-educational, non-sectarian, but thoroughly Christian institution should be built as a national memorial to his life and character. Nearly a million dollars has been subscribed for this purpose. A most beautiful site of eighty-four acres on a wooded hill overlooking Dayton has been purchased. The Administration Building, planned to accommodate 400 students in all departments of college life, is now under construction. Dr. George E. Guille, of Athens, Tennessee, for fifteen years Extension Bible Teacher for the Moody Bible Institute, was selected as the first president of the institution. Mr. Malcolm Lockhart, formerly connected in a promotional way with several outstanding Southern colleges, was selected as vice-president. All members of the faculty have at least two academic degrees or their equivalent, thus insuring the highest educational and scholastic standards.

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The Qreat Commoner