Los Angeles Junior College - Junior Campus Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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jj-2 , ,: , .L . Q l ,4 4.3.3.4--.L-:gag 3.3.3 , NI' '-enable them to make good in life. HE college is about to finish its second year. Its enrollment has exceeded all expectations.The problems of unifying the great mass of students which has come to it has been a tremendous one. The student body has, however, risen to its taslg and built up a college spirit which is developing a worthy and ejlective morale. We are appreciatin g the fact that the true aim of an educational institution is to aid its members in acquiring those traits which will enable them to malqe good in life. The hnest faculty and the most superior equipment alone can not accomplish this. It can only be the result of prevailing high ideals in the student body. Our great taslq for the coming years is to con- tinue the development of these ideals. The real success of this college is dependent upon the atti- tude tahen by the student body. The men and women of the college will in large measure de- termine its future. The present graduating class has done a worthy pioneer worlg. -W. H. SNYDER twenty The College In the fall of 1928, a committee of which Dr. William Henry Snyder was a member, appointed by the Board of Education, endeavored to determ- ine, by a careful summary of city educational sys- tems, the value of a junior college and to consider possibilities of location and enrollment. Upon reaching a decision to found the junior college, it was necessary to choose a director capable of tak- ing the great responsibility of leading this new ex- periment. Within its own midst the committee found a man rich with the experience of thirty years in the field of education and imbued with a wisdom of life and vision of higher educational ideals, Dr. William H. Snyder. Representative of his wide education are his A.B. degree from Colby College, Maine, his M.A. from Harvard University, and his D. Sc. from Colby College, where he was also a trustee for many years. Besides much instructional experi- ence, Doctor Snyder was for twenty one years the principal of a local high school. He was no less notable as an author than as an educator, having been the author of three of the most widely used science text books in American schools, and co- author and editor of several other prominent texts. After his appointment on May 31, 1929 to the position of director of Los Angeles Iunior College, Director Snyder made a tour of the Eastern states to investigate conditions of colleges in that section of the country and to determine there what limi- tations had been found in junior college under- takings and what capacity had thus far been de- veloped in such institutions. Upon returning, Doctor Snyder spent the remainder of the time left be- fore the opening of the college in plan- ning departments, in organizing de- partments, and se- lecting the charter members of the fac- ' ulty. At that time, With McMillan, Arctic ex- also he appointed a plorer, after assembly i

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Director committee to investigate the types of student or- ganizations most successful in the other junior col- leges in California. With the thorough faith that the junior college holds a unique function in citizenship training, he has devoted his wealth of skill and energy in giv- ing the college what he, together with many noted educators, believes to be a field of its own. It should not merely reproduce the work of the uni- vcrstiy but must train the non-commissioned of- ficers of industry both culturally and specifically to fill positions in the semi-professions. He has felt that the main function of the junior college is the assisting of the non-academic high school gradu- ates Who, in his opinion, have thus far been un- provicled for. We are pioneers in Work in the semi-profession- al field and these courses will determine the ca- reer of this institution. We want our students ot go OLlt among people and say that the things they have had here are worthwilef' This was the hope of Doctor Snyder from the beginning and it has been towards this goal that he has directed all his plans. If we do this, he said, we will have done a great thing for the city of Los Angeles and have contributed to the Wholesomeness of civic life. To make the college unique not only in func- tion, but in the attitude of faculty towards the stu- dents, Doctor Snyder has striven. Los Angeles Iun- ior College, he determined, must have neither the standards of high schools nor those of the univer- sity, but must claim its own individual identity as f' NJQ3' With Hi: Honor, Mayor Porter a separate. unique unit of public edu- cation. In his own words, the Los Angeles Junior Col- lege represents a re- turn to the human- istic IIOIC. The fac- ulty of our college stands willing to help students to re- move as far is is Hiprczffziling high ideals in the student body possible the obstacles which stand in their way, but the faculty will not prod students. Although basing the college curricula and activ- ities on the needs of semi-professional students, he has endeavored to make advantages equal to all students, to make good in life. Doctor Snyder has received the verdict of many prominent educators that the development of col- lege morale was impossible within two years time, nevertheless, with the firm conviction that a col- lege that has not an intangible spirit that shapes the lives of those who come into it is not educa- tionally worthwile, he has dared the almost im- possible, putting his soul into the building of an inherent coherence in the college. In the brief two years of its existence the Los Angeles Iunior College has Won a place as being among the two or three outstanding junior col- leges in the entire country. The renown achieved in the many fields of collegiate activity is evidence of the cooperative functioning of its members-of the achievement of the dreamed-of morale. The importance of the semi-professional courses to the students has been evidenced by the enrollment of seventy-two per cent of the student body in them. Already the inHuence of the junior college aims is being felt in the community. twenty one I