DePauw University - Mirage Yearbook (Greencastle, IN)

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Platform of the Mirage. HE class of '93, in convention assembled, looks back with pride upon the work which has been accom- plished bv those who in the past have advocated through the MIRAGE, the principles of progress and reform. lnspired by the progressive spirit of the times, marching under the banner of reason and keeping step to the music of free-thought, before their attacks, shams and relics of antiquity have given way, institutions out of harmony with present conditions have been relegated to the rear, blinded bigotry and pompous pretense have been put to ignominious flight. Within a few years a revolution has taken place in the administrative policy of the university. Reason and tolerance have succeeded arbitrary power and blind worship of exploded su- perstitions of the past. Judgment and candor, not stubborn and acetic will, now grace the presidential chair. In departments of instruction, which were once a huge joke on education, magic-lantern exhibitions and automatic reeitations from text-books have given place to original research and independent thought. Com- pulsory chapel speeehes, obnoxious Junior performances, the grade system, together with a score of other petty rules and practices better suited to the kindergarten than to a great University, are now things of the past. The old iron-clad curriculum has been modified to suit the needs ofthe modern student, opportunities for concentration on a certain line are now given, and the new DePauw, so long a creature of the imagination, is now an accomplished fact. We congratulate the University upon these signs of present prosperity and indications of future success. We welcome these changes representing, as they do, substantial growth. We greet the new men who have come into our faculty, men, broad, brainy, young, progressive, liberal, men who fairly represent modern thought, men, wide awake and fully abreast of the times, men who possess not merely knowledge of their own particular departments but power to think and ability to inspire thought in their students. Pitching our tents upon the heights of progressive thought, with faces turned toward the rising sun, with charity for all and malice toward none, we pledge ourselves to the support of those principles of Justice and Reason and Eternal Truth the promotion of which has ever been the guiding purpose of the MIRAGE. While congratulat- ing ourselves upon the substantial victories of the past, we cannot ignore the fact that wrongs still exist, that much remains to be done before DePauw will completely conform to the standard of a broad and liberal in- stitution, unhampered by tradition and free from prejudice and bigotry. - Applying those general ideas which form the basis of our belief to existing conditions we present the fol- lowing platform of principles and policies. ' 1. We hold that the University can never accomplish its true purpose until it discovers and defines its true relation to the church organization which supervises and controls its affairs. Creeds and dogmas have ever been the enemies of education. Every victory of thought, every triumph of science, every achievement an r

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of philosophy has been won against decree of Pope and Priest and Bishop. That University which is the slave of a creed, the servile tool of a religious theory, is hampered and restrained. Original investigation is discouraged for fear some sacred tenet of the church may be exploded. reason is crushed out because some superstitious proposition in ritual or discipline may be disprovcd. Education should not be limited by tra- ditions of the past, but should itself remodel religion until man's faith agrees with his reason and common sense. The school should not be subservient to thc church, but should infuse new life into antiquated the- ology. Men in the faculty should be free and willing to express their honest convictions, the truth should be to them no less the truth because it may perchance strike at some pet doetrince or so-called miracle. Adhering to the fundamental principles of true morality and human brotherhood, we advocate as necessary to the success of our University greater liberalty of thought, broader views on matters of theology, less regard for church and sect and creed, and more concern for the everlasting truth which exists regardless of religions, creeds or dogmas framed in the midnight of human history to enslave thought and hamper civilization. 2.. The Board of Trustees constitute the original source of power in university government. The policy of the University is in a great measure determined by the character of the men who sit upon this supreme board of control. If the university is to be progressive, liberal, abreast of the times, the Board of Trustees must be composed of broad-minded, brainy,clea1'-thinking men. Every wrong in our university govern- ment, every fraud in the faculty retained, every pretense protected and protracted can be traced directly to little-minded incompetent men on the Board of Trustees. That bigoted circuit riders, who know nothing whatever about the purposes of the modern University, should assume to lay down laws for the government of a great institution of learning is a burlesque upon intelligence and a mockery on education. To make everything conform to a standard which modern thought has repudiated and which the educated world de- 1'ides, is to destroy in a great measure the influence ofthe University and to bring it into disrepute and contempt in the educated world. 'As the most important reform demanded to-day we .advocate the re-organization of the Board of Trustees on a sensible basis, the abolition of that clerical nuisance, the Board of Visitors, a diminution in the number of members, a fair and equitable distribution of the memberships among all the professional lines of business, putting an end to blind illiberal ministerial domination, the election to places upon the board, of men renowned for their ability and distinguished for the positions they hold in the ad- vanced thought of the times. Above everything else we denounce a policy by which a large body of alumni, men and women, many of whom occupy prominent positions in the world of affairs, are ostracized and cut off from all participation in the management of university affairs, that clerical control may be the more com- plete, and we advocate that not less than one-third of the Board be composed of representatives elected by the alunmi. 3. No department of the University is of greater importance than the one of philosophy. The study of the great problems of thought ailects the true student more than all other branches of study combined. The students of the University have for a number of years endured a huge farce under the name of philosophy. Thought dares not assert itself, reason is set aside and modern theories and systems are wholly disregarded or given at best but a casual glance, while the exploded ideas of the middle ages are held up as sacred and au- thentic. To one who has never experienced the dull, listless atmosphere of a class noon, where discussion is E121