Lehigh University - Epitome Yearbook (Bethlehem, PA)

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The main contact between the Administration and the students, however, is made not through any of these men but through the office of the Dean of Undergraduates. Here the evanescent cut policies of the University are made clear to those who have wittingly or unwittingly transgressed them, and here Lehigh men go to receive advice and guidance, to wangle excuses for vari- ous tilings, and to talk their way out of multifarious jams. A Dean of Under- graduates must be almost superhuman: he must be firm, yet kind; authorita- tive, yet easily approached; a disciplinarian, yet an understanding man. Such a man Lehigh had in Dean McConn, who relinquished his post in 1938; such a man Lehigh now has in Wray Hollowell Congdon, who succeeded Mc- Conn in office. Dean Congdon graduated with an A.B. from Syracuse in 19 14, and re- ceived his M.A. the following year. He has had a long and varied career in education, having held positions in China, and having been principal of academies there. He has been a teaching fellow at the University of Michigan, and was at one time Professor of Education at that institution. Dean Congdon came to Lehigh in 1934 as associate Dean of Undergraduates; he still teaches graduate courses in his field, and his signature is written on the flyleaves of several books on Education in the University library. Dean Congdon ' s job is no enviable one, for he must not only restrain undergraduate enthusiasms from overstepping the bounds of reason, but must also maintain as frictionless as possible a state between the University and the people of Bethlehem. He engineers the details of University functions, and keeps vigilance over the many outside activities held by groups within the school. The Dean is assisted by his secretaries, Miss Beatrice Flickinger and Miss Virginia Kirkhuff. In his office can generally be found several students waiting to see him about their dire crimes or their courses, their scholarships or their grades. They sit across the desk from him in conference, unfold their woes, and receive his considered advice. An enormous amount of routine work passes through the Dean ' s office, for every time a student group wishes to function in some fashion it must be approved by the Administration. Dean Congdon also spends a considerable part of his time, as do most of the Administration officials and many of Lehigh ' s faculty, in interviewing prospective freshmen, and in speaking before high school and preparatory school audiences. All in all, Dean Wray Hollowell Congdon acts as a sort of bearing between the Board of Trustees and the Faculty on one hand, and the students of Lehigh on the other. Wray H. Congdon, Dean of Undergraduates. 10

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Besides the duties performed by the officers of Lehigh University men- tioned so far, there is a multitude of tasks which must be taken care of smoothly and efficiently if order is to be wrought out of the complex chaos attending education. Students must be obtained, selected and considered; they must be formally admitted; monies must be wrung from them to pay partially for their learning; their place of habitation must be swept and garnished, must be advertised and made known— and in the end they must be assisted in the very vital pursuit of jobs. The job of selecting from the candidates falls on the shoulders of E. Ken- neth Smiley, whose title is Director of Admissions. Mr. Smiley, who had been at Lehigh previously when he was Registrar from 1923 to 1926, re- turned in 1934 to take over the post of Assistant Director of Admissions. He later took charge of his department. The Director of Admissions acquaints prospective students with Lehigh, and helps select from those seeking ad- mission the ones to be taken in. After gaining access to the portals, and semi- annually thereafter, all Lehigh men pass through the familiar assembly line of the cohorts of George B. Curtis, the Registrar and University Editor. He it is who enforces University policy as to who shall, or shall not continue; he heads the Register committee of the Faculty. Mr. Curtis ' s passion for the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy is well known. Frederick R. Ashbaugh, the Bursar and Purchasing Agent, is one of the oldest Administration officials in point of service, having come here in 1896 as secretary to President Drown— there were no female employees on the campus in those days. He assumed his present position in 1908. Responsible to both the students and the administration for the way Le- high ' s store conducts itself is John W. Maxwell, Manager of the Supply Bureau in the basement of the Alumni Memorial building. Mr. Maxwell, a Lehigh man of the class of ' 26, supplies many thousand textbooks each year to students as well as hundreds of other items of civilization and culture. Publicity at Lehigh is handled by Dale H. Gramley, journalism professor and University News Editor, and by Charles J. Moravec, Assistant Univer- sity News Editor. Mr. Gramley and Mr. Moravec, familiar figures to all engaged in publications work, see to it that Lehigh ' s achievements and dis- tinctions receive their proper acknowledgment. This year more seniors than ever have received jobs before graduation; although this press for qualified men is partially due to Rearmament, the in- dustry of E. Robins Morgan, Director of Placement, has played a large part. Mr. Morgan, another Lehigh graduate (M.E. ' 03), is as efficie nt in getting jobs for seniors as he was in pole vaulting during his college days; his record in that sport still hangs in the gym. above -E. Kenneth Smiley, George B. Curtis. center - Frederick R. Ashbaugh, John W. Maxwell. below - Dale H. Gramley.

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