Haverford College - Record Yearbook (Haverford, PA)

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the few days immcdi.itely preceding. For, to the stu- dents ' point of view, the Inauguration really began about a week previous to the ceremonies. Six days, to be exact. On Sunday, 13 October, residents of Lloyd Hall woke up to discover a crew of men driving stakes into the quadrangle in front of the dormitory. These were the first steps in the erection of the Haverford Tent a structure and symbol which was to monopolize cam- pus attention for a week. As workmen l.ibored all day Sunday (presumably at double time), it became evident that the tent was to be no mean feature of the campus during its ten- ancy of the Lloyd lawn. It was to cover the whole space with three sections (forming a bloated U ) and run over into the lawn at the side of Founders Hall. As construction proceeded Monday and Tuesday, more became known about it. It was to be completely enclosed and artificially heated, given doors and its own lighting system. And it was to seat 1,700 people. The tent, it turned out. was to be an appurtenance to the Inauguration. The college had sent out invitations to over 6.000 individuals — all alumni, all students ' par- ents, friends of the college, other institutions, and per- sonal friends of Hugh Borton. The response had over- whelmed the inaugural committee: requests for over 2.000 tickets eventually poured into the ofHces in Founders basement and began to overflow into the laundry room. Tha-coUege found itself utterly unable to feed all of the guests in available space, even if the dining hall, gymnasium, common room, and all other open rooms in campus buildings were used. The weather could not be depended upon for outdoor eat- ing. Hence the tent. Student reaction was not characterized by this sort of cold calculation, though. It tended to become bi- ] )oIari;ed at levity and distress — levity because the tent was the obvious butt of innumerable iokes; distress be- cause of feelings that the tent (1) was a blot on the campus landscape, even for only a week, (2) repre- sented a pompous inaugural ceremony repugnant to the Quaker tradition of simplicity, and or {}) caused a great, needless expense to the college. One student vented his feelings in poetry: They ' ve erected a tent Wherein to repent The money they re sf- ent For the dazzlenient Of the mteUectual nation ' it i Hugh ,s coronatioyi In iinld celebration And mad tittUation Our veneration For the new administration . . . Other students hung a circus poster from the second stor ' of Fifth Entry. Protests and jokes spread through the campus, and the rumor mill produced tales of spir- iting elephants and dancing girls (Bryn Mawr variety) Twenty-nine

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Inauguration of President Hugh Borton The Inauguration was the outstanding single event of the academic year. It combined elements of a new start, hints of a new course, and generous portions of a Mike Todd spectacle. Besides ceremoniously start- ing the term of office of President Hugh Borton, it provided an opportunity for recognition of the man who had guided the college for the previous two years, Archibald Macintosh. The inaugural ceremonies, highlighed by President Borton ' s address, took place before over 2,000 stu- dents, delegates from other colleges, and guests in the field House on Saturday, 19 October 1957. The ceremonies were simple. S. Emlen Stokes, chair- man of the Board of Managers, introduced Borton to the guests, paying tribute to his past achievements as an administrator and scholar, particularly in his most recent post as director of the East Asian Institute, Columbia University. Stokes then conferred the presi- dency on Borton. Borton then took the rostrum, and his first official act as president was to award an honorary Doctor of Laws degree to vice president Archibald Macintosh in a surprise addi tion to the proceedings. He cited Mac as an esteemed alumnus, perenially youthful adven- turer, director of admissions for a quarter of a century; vice president who twice assumed the arduous task of administering the college (1945-46 and 1955-57); be- loved and wise custodian of those high qualities of per- sonality and character required of Haverford ' s student body; steadfast, patient, unselfish exemplar of the col- lege ' s ideals. The audience responded to this tribute to Mac with a spontaneous standing ovation. In his address, Borton said, The small liberal arts college cannot escape the pressure [of the increased number of students desiring an education] and may have to carry a share of the burden. If such a college sets a limit on the number of its students for the next decade and a half, it will place an impossible task on its admissions office to select a well rounded group of students. If such an institution refuses to enlarge its student body, it will be neglecting its responsibility to the society of which it is a part and from which it cannot be isolated on our present age. The whole address concerned itself with various ramifications of organic change in colleges in general, and in Haverford in particular. Borton mildly chided the tendency of alumni to feel that the college was of ideal size at the time of their graduation, and he as- serted that increases in the size of the college have been accompanied often by growth in the college ' s reputa- tion. The ideal size of any institution is relative to both internal and external factors, he went on to state. Borton discussed two other aspects of change in the colleges — teachers and the nature of the liberal arts college. Here, though, he spoke in more general terms, aiming no special significance at the Haverford campus. The principal problem, to which Borton referred back time and again, was the influx of students in the com- ing years. Like all academic ceremonies, Haverford ' s Inaugura- tion was well adorned with academic delegates. Henry Joel Cadbur ' (14. HoUis Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Harvard, led the procession of representatives from 16? colleges, universities, secondary schools, learned societies, and community organizations into the red- and-black bedecked field house, which was used that day for its first public event. H: ii In contrast to the solemnity and dignity of the pro- ceedings on Inauguration Day were the goings-on in Twent -eig,ht

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onto the campus as a counterattraction to Saturday ' s academic festivities, and of surreptitiously sabotaging the tent ' s complex systems. The latter rumors appar- ently spread outside the student body, for the tent was guarded by a squadron of uniformed men from Burns Detective Agency on Thursday and Friday nights. Throughout the week, the green-and-dirty-white can- vas monster was verbally pilloried up and down the campus: This tent I will consent WitJi Its striped emblazoyiment . . . Fifth Day ' s meeting for worship became a meeting for debate of the merits of the latest addition to the campus. Members of the radical section of the stu- dent body attacked the tent ' s aesthetic qualities and cost, and the ceremonies for which it stood. Arnold Post replied from the Front Bench with an exposition of the need to accommodate the people who had ex- When the Inauguration passed, almost all traces of it passed into the outer reaches of the fourth dimen- sion, as is common with most events at Haverford. The size of the college has not yet been increased; nor has there been any further mention of Haverford ' s obli- gation to expand, despite the appointment of a new vice president for development. The tent was taken down on the day following the Inauguration (presum- ably again at double time) . Even the box lunches dis- appeared into the past after the extras had been made integral components of Mrs. Nugent ' s meals of Sunday and Monday. Tempiw eAax rerum. Especially at Haverford. pressed a positive interest in Haverford by requesting tickets, and a reference to the 75th anniversary cele- bration of the college in 1908. Happily, none of the threatened dire consequences came to pass. The radiators and fluorescent lights func- tioned perfectly. It did not even rain on Saturday. The guests and students ate their lunches in the tent — box lunches of fried chicken, with the boxes suitably in- scribed. But for a while, at least, the prevailing opinion on campus remained : We have our nobility In our frugality True dignity In simplicity Thirty