Marquette University - Hilltop Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

Page 14 text:

ROVIDING an audience, however, is the least of Milwaukee’s reciprocal cultural contributions to the University. Just as Milwaukee citizens make use of Marquette’s similar facilities. so also are the cultural facilities of the city open to Marquette. The Milwaukee library's and museum provide materials for study which are not available at the University. Radio and television stations channel Marquette's cultural activities to the public, increasing the audience even more. Professional theatrical organizations present productions far beyond the scope of the University’s resources, and Marquette students are allowed to participate in the activities of these local groups. Viewing the partnership of Marquette and Milwaukee from a purely pragmatic standpoint, one of the greatest contributions Marquette makes to Milwaukee is in the economic realm. With more than ten thousand students plus the faculty and administration. Marquette is almost a business for the city — a business responsible for an estimated eighteen million dollars spent annually in the city. The very buildings of the University contribute to the city’s economy, for local groups make extensive use of meeting-room facilities, and dormitory space relieves the strain on cits- accomodations in overcrowded seasons. Marquette’s contribution to the city’s economic life is amply returned to the University, however, bv Milwaukee’s donations. One of the important financial services Milwaukee' renders to the University is the abundance of job opportunities it offers to students who must work their way through school. Often, especially in the co-op systems offered in several schools on the campus, those jobs are related to the courses which students are following at the University. An even further advantage of this working is the air of maturity which these students contribute to the University, in addition to stimulating industry and perseverance on the part of other Marquetters. Perhaps the most evident of the city’s economic helps comes from the citizens of Milwaukee who have abvays supported the University financially. Simple proof of the community’s interest and pride in Marquette is the resounding success of the University's five and one-half million dollar fund drive which ended last December. Rut the support Milwaukee gives seems not to be in the form of a direct gift. Rather it seems to be an investment in Marquette. The University which has given so much up , to now is expected, in return, to continue to l enefit Milwaukee; the city which has provided a safe, healthy atmosphere for seventy-six years is looking forward to a corresponding assurance of future progress in partnership with Marquette.

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13 I W EGAUSE of a variety of cultural tastes, there is a wide selection of cultural programs. The ■ most frequent are the lectures offered by Marquette groups. Each year the school presents world-reknowned scholars and literary figures and introduces Milwaukee to contemporary art leaders. Local personalities also make regular contributions to Marquette’s programs throughout the year. Besides these speakers, the University offers an organized speakers service. Members of its faculty and administration respond to almost fifty requests per month for speeches before industrial, educational and social groups. Moreover. Marquette provides Milwaukee with the resources of the Memorial Library and several specialized libraries in the professional schools, all of which are open to those engaged in research. Also available to off-campus readers are the publications of the Marquette Press, including the many scliolarly works of faculty members. As a further cultural service to Milwaukee, Marquette is prepared to satisfy the demands for quality entertainment through its artistic, musical and dramatic presentations. In the process of building an imposing art collection, the University annually presents several photography and art exhibits; musical groups on the campus and nationally prominent musicians raise the city’s cultural tastes, while the school's dramatic groups, led by the Marquette Players, bring some of the best in theater to the city. Still, Marquette’s cultural offerings are not static. The inquiring nature which is synonymous with university life leads the school to explore new and modem aspects of the arts, just as it docs in the professional fields. During the Anniversary Year, the tendency to concentrate on contemporary art forms gained momentum and the University has made impressive strides in the areas of jazz, modern art and contemporary drama. However, few of these cultural programs could continue without an audience. and it is Milwaukee which provides that audience. So again, this time in their cultural developments, the mutual dependence of the partners is evidenced.

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Summarizing this attitude of the city. Mayor Frank 1 . Zeidler said: “The future of Milwaukee will see many professionally trained Marquette people in the capacity of leaders — as doctors of medicine, lawyers and dentists. In the technical world. Marquette engineers will maintain Milwaukee's economic competition with other communities. On the cultural level, Milwaukee expects Marquette to furnish a degree of cultural leadership that will not Ik narrowly confined to the interests of Marquette, but will enrich the entire community. Milwaukee expects from University graduates a knowledge of the cultures of all time, new and forward looking ideas, enabling the community to adjust to the changing times. By observing her work, we see that Marquette definitely has met in the past and is preparing to meet in the future these cultural and technological demands. But in addition to those purposes of developing graduates for professional work, the University takes a superior road of contribution to society. Marquette accepts and trains the persons she receives from Milwaukee and other communities, not only that they may become good dentists or lawyers as such, hut that her graduates may benefit the community on an even higher level. That her graduates may lead spiritually and morally good lives, based on the intellectual virtues which they have acquired, that in their moral and intellectual lives they should give greater glory to God, that they consequently should influence and enhance the community’s intellectual and spiritual life — these are the highest purposes of Marquette. And because of these purposes, the partnership which Marquette and the community enjoy becomes even more rewarding. For only through the lives which the two partners cooperate in training, is their mutual professional ami cultural help exalted. Only through the moral, intellectual and spiritual glory which the graduates offer to Cod each day does the exchange of library facilities, lalx ratories and speakers show its true benefits. As the Very Rev. Edward J. O’Donnell, S.J.. president of Marquette, said in his convocation address this year, “Only when the students and citizens provide the best ideas that reason can assemble, place them within the framework of God’s revelations, and bring these ideas to bear upon a world that Christ came to redeem is the ftdl value of this mighty partnership realized.