Columbia University School of Engineering - Yearbook (New York, NY)

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etn tal fur ngineers DEAN loseiari NV. BARKER Tlzc1'e' are more things in herwen and earth, Horatio, than are dwfeamt of in your philosophy. -Slzakespeare. oiz .x NUMBER OF YEARS you have been subjected to an educational system calculated to lay the nrm foundation and to erect the naked steel work of your inental structure. Unlike a physical building this mental structure cannot be tested for ultimate strength with any degree of precision. Wfe shall never know precisely nor for many years even approximately whether or not we have turned out individual products conforming to specifications. The grades which you have obtained from us are purely subjective measures of our guesses as to your ability to absorb certain material after due exposure to its principles in class and laboratory. Wfe do know however that we have not, nor could we have, given you instruction in ewrytlzirzg necessary for progress toward being an engineer in the truest and highest meaning of that word. Even if it has been true in the past that the engineer has thought of his work in purely technical terms it is no longer possible for him to divorce himself or his work from the larger and more important problems of the society in which we live, At the same time that we owe a duty to ourselves, our family and our employer or colleague -we owe a more important duty to humanity at large and to the community about us. Vlfe must learn to take our responsibilities in the problems confronting our civilization and our share of the community activities. It is probably true that there is no method of teaching you how to do such things, it is certainly true that we have not done so. All we have done is to attempt to introduce the barest outlines of the development of this civilization, of the technical applications of science and of the economics of these technologies. It is up to you to determine the interrelationships as they develop in your own particular cases. Such a determination makes it essential that you learn to know your fellow men, that you broaden your contacts as widely as possible and that you keep your minds open and alert to the implications of the occurrences through which you will live. There are selish advantages in such things as well, for upon your breadth of contacts and the alertness of your minds will depend the opportunities for better employment and advancement. r Here in one of the largest metropolitan regions of the world you have had rich opportunities for contacts with the world of affairs and of men, the world of arts, science and technology, the world of literature, painting, sculpture, drama and music, the World of society in its largest sense. Do I hear you again shouting, Yes, but you've kept us too busy with reports and home preparation for us to have time to grasp these opportunities. VVe couldn't hnish the assignments, let alone do any of these other things. All that only goes to prove how much there is left for you to study. You know in your inmost hearts that you didnlt master all the technical material presented to you and that at the same time you found some opportunities for the other things. Your own student life has been a miniature replica of the greater life into which you enter on leaving Morningside. Some of the problems you have here encountered will be again presented to you on a much larger scale. lt is one of the drawbacks of a great urban university that so many of the students live at home, and have their student contacts limited to the classrooms and laboratories. It is one of the advantages of our L'niversity that we are not continually living on a

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of budget and policy and of the Executive Committee of the University Council which prepares legislation for the general direction of the University, He was a member of the Butler Commission on Economic Aiairs which presented its report to President Butler during the past winter. ln addition, he is chairman of the Committee on Men's Residence Halls, which has made a splendid start in the reorganization and rehabilitation of the dormitories at Columbia. He is a member of the Century Association of New York, Engineers Club, Columbia University Club and the Saltaire Yacht Club. A member of Phi Kappa Sigma, Tau Beta Pi, and Sigma Xi, Dean Barker holds the distinction of having been created an otihcer of the Order of Prince Danilo I of the Nlontenegran Royal House.

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small stage where student lite is the all-important thing but that we have been exposed to the ebb and How of life on one of its largest stages. As you leave us I ask that you study yourselves for your points of strength and weakness. loin your professional society to keep in touch with progress in your technology, become active in its affairs and contribute to its proceedings, broaden your contacts with your confreres. lVatch the work of the Engineers' Council for Professional Development to which your society already belongs and participate in the program of its Committee on Professional Training. loin the Engineering Schools Alumni Association to keep in active touch with Columbia and your brother graduates. And finally, come back often to Morningside and tell us, out of the wealth of your own experiences, those things We did Well and those things We did poorly or tailed to do. In your participation in business and in society remember the World will iuclcfe Columbia University and our School of Engineering by your accomplish- . fb ments. Wfe gladly entrust our reputation in your hands for We have done for and with you the very best we know how to do. Wfe have done our part, will you do yours? mn.,--9,