DePauw University - Mirage Yearbook (Greencastle, IN)

Page 18 text:

My . . .- . ' ' ' 111.5 M Alia' V . .ai lNfl'CKEEN ATHLETIC FIELD The Uklnihersitp : : em rnjetts A NEW ATHLETIC FIELD Perhaps the best news that those interested in DePauw and its athletics have listened to recently is the news that an active campaign has been launched to secure for DePauw a new and thoroughly modern athletic field. It is the more Welcome because it fills one of DePauw's most glaring needs. Other departments are fairly well equipped. The need for a woman's dormitory, a new gymnasium, and an administration building has been admirably met during the past few years. At the same time that these improvements have been going on, there has been a marked improvement in the calibre of DePauw's athletic teams. Coach Buss is to be congratulated on the results he has attained in spite of the handi- caps that the run-down condition and concrete surface of McKeen Field have imposed upon him. Certain it is that the injuries received by men due to the hardness of the field have seriously weakened the teams, to say nothing of the inexcusability of crippling men who come out to represent the school in athletics. Otherwise, the condition and appearance of the field is run down to the point where it does not reflect any particular credit on the school. At the annual Football Dinner held at Indianapolis at the close of the past season, the first steps and plans were considered for a new field. Since that time, the Alumni Athletic Board has been actively engaged in securing proper backing for the project, and it is now thought that a new field will be realized in the immed- iate future. At the time that this book goes to press, those in charge have refused to di- vulge any particular plans or information, but there is every reason to believe that the new stadium will measure up in size and completeness with all of De- Pauw's recently constructed buildings and will lack no feature of modern athletic requirements. XYitl1 this added equipment, DePauw teams will be able, in a greater and greater degree, to prove their calibre, and the presence of such a new structure will greatly enhance the appearance of the campus. 12

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OLD ASBURY HALL The Uflnihersitp : : I :Kits Ziaistnrp Eighty-three years ago the corner stone of Asbury Hall was lowered into place, and the first building of what is now DePauw University was begun. Five years before, in 1832, the Indiana Conference of the Methodist Epis- copal Church had determined to found a school of higher learning in this state. From then on, until 1837, the work of securing funds and deciding on location for the school progressed. By that date, Greencastle had been chosen for the seat of the school and the erection of buildings begun. The school opened the following year under the corporate title of Indiana Asbury University in honor of the great pioneer bishop, Francis Asbury. Its first president was Bishop Mathew Simpson. The Civil war stripped the college of its men, and the financial troubles of 1883 threatened to close the school. It was then that Washington C. DePauw made the first of a series of gifts to the University, which averted the disaster. In recognition of these gifts, the name of the school was changed, in 1884, to DePauw University. Having passed through some of the most trying periods of the country's his- tory, and at one time faced with financial failure, DePauw University now stands with an equipment of more than a million dollars in buildings and land, and an endowment of upward of two millions, perhaps more than that possessed by other than state schools in this section of the country. 11

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The little Zllibeatre jlltluhement NEW PROjECTS LTo bring a realization of the need for a well-equipped Little Theater to the attention of those alumni and friends of DePauw who are interested in seeing the college go forward, is the task which the Duzer Du Dramatic Fraternity took upon itself at its annual banquet, January 17, IQIQ. Following the announce- ment of its aims, President G. R. Grose, Professor H. B. Longden, Dean Katherine S. Alvord, Professor H. B. Gough, and other prominent campus figures made it known that they heartily endorsed the movement, and would lend their aid in bringing the project to the attention of the friends of the college. The present auditorium and stage in West College is totally inadequate for the production of plays as they should and can be presented by Duzer Du and other campus groups. Time after time the need is felt for an auditorium which will seat large crowds, and yet combine with it a stage fitted for the production of the drama. Until .YZICTL an Audiforium can be comtrtzcted DePauw will bf Juj- ering under a handicap. A careful observer among students of the drama said recently that he is con- vinced that in the theatrical experiments in our universities quite independent of professional endeavor, rather than in the present day professional stage,lies the real hope for the future of the theatre in this country . Certain it is that with the commercialized stage being Hooded with theat- rical offal, offensive to the nostrilsl'-suggestive musical comedy and lascivious lingerie farce-the responsibility for the future of the dramatic art bears more weightly upon the shoulders of the amateur and the student in the colleges and universities of the country. Indeed, it is not inconceivable that the new trend toward a more wholesome and a more artistic stage will be the result of the work of the amateur collegians. That time is not so far removed when there were those who refused to grant to dramatic interpretation a place in liberal education. Today, all this is changed, and even the most conservative admit the value of sincere efforts in amateur theatricals, from every viewpoint. Lord Dunsany told Harvard students that undergraduate dramatics is one of the finest institutions of the American collegesw, at the time of his recent visit in this country. The achievements possible in dramatic study and interpretation on the De- Pauw campus are limitless. But the realization of these glowing possibilities is halted by a very practical consideration. That stumbling block athwart the path to the development of DePauw's brilliant dramatic attainments is THE LACK OE AN AUDITORIUM AND STAGE ADEQUATE TO THE NEEDS AND POTENTIALITIES OF THE CAMPUS, both now and for the future. No undergraduate, no group of undergraduates, have the time nor ability to agitate this movement further than merely bringing emphatically to the at- tention of men and women who are established financially, the need for such an addition. When some alumnus or friend of the institution-some one who has already arrived -sees and appreciates the abundant harvest to be reaped as a result of such an improvement, then a real step forward will have been taken, and it will be but a short time until the new Theatre rises upon the campus of our beloved Alma Mater. David E. Liliffzflzal 13