Morningside College - Sioux Yearbook (Sioux City, IA)

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Slmtccn .....i......L.....-- comes the leaves will fall, but trunk and limb remain to welcome the master trans- former Chlorophyll, each recurring springtime. The College student there will find special emphasis placed on those simple lines of study marked out by the trunk line of the years. The great store- house of history will be opened to him and his view of events will not be con- fused by speculative theorizing or super- hcial splitting of the subject into drawfish and freakish electives. The language in which he speaks will become manifold in its meaning when he has found and feels its relation to that in which Homer wrote and Cicero spoke. The season's Best Seller will find no place in an estimate of literature. The stars will become familiar in constant Constellations rather than by the midnight presence of a stray comet. Euclid will prove to be a true friend to him. He will be taught to walk and talk with Plato and Kant, how to find 'much 1915 SIOUX good in Herbert Spencer and Dr. Huxley, and will leave posterity to pass judgment on, or forget, Bernard Shaw. His year of Science will be chosen for its own sake and not for future credits at the Univer- sity, His College course then will be unlike: The Angels of Wind and of Fire, who Chant only one hymn and expire, The appeal to save him from the Frivolous incidental in study applies equally to the atmosphere and associations of the four years. His athletic ability will be culti- vated with a view of keeping him out of mischief, but a more earnest attempt will be made to discover his Aesthetic nature. A number will suffice for his room, but he will be known by name in the class room. Tuition has a right to claim a larger share of the students' expenses than any demand of superficial social extrava- gance. Closer to the ideal than any other College will be MORNINGSIDE. flllnrniiigaiilv from ai ill E1Il1P1',H Svtanhpuint The most important question, we as fathers, ask of the College of today, is what kind of a boy or girl has your Col- lege training made of them? As a father who has watched carefully the progress of his sons through College, I have become convinced that this ques- tion is all there is to consider or to look into. I have little concern for his Latin, Mathematics, or the balance of his Col- lege curriculum, whether it is good or bad. If bad, there remains plenty of time to correct it fas occasion demandsj. But my sons' or daughters' moral training can- not be so treated. If not looked after at this time fwhile in Collegej ,then the Phychological time is surely past. This is llie time and this is the place that it must be done. It matters not whether it has MORNINGSIDE been done before or not. The question I would more seriously consider than all others, would be, Wliat College will give my boy 'or girl the best moral training. And when this question was decidecl that is the College they would most likely attend. To express my thought in a few words, it would be this: If I am sure that my child's moral training is right, I am willing to take all chances on his Latin, Mathematics, etc., or shorter yet, the Col- lege that sends my boy or girl home a Christian, is the one I prefer to send them to. A young man's or girl's moral training very correctly indicates to me more than all things else, the sort of a life of future usefulness his will be.

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1915 SIOUX ,::::ggA., ' the one vital element in the College. It is so strong that no College generation can warp its purpose, and so sensitive that it responds to the impress of the most ob- scure Freshman. It is so real that it af- fects the mental and moral tone of every student, and so intangible that no Senior can say where or what it is. Without analyzing exhaustively the spirit of Morningside, I wish to call at- tention to one phase in which there is need for a change. Morningside College is in a transition period. We have the virtues and weaknesses of youth, but we are trying desperately hard to slough our swaddling clothes. New buildings, in- creased library and laboratory facilities, additional instructors, new courses, and a general stiffening of the whole curricu- lum mark the change. In a word Morn- ingside is realizing itself as a College from the standpoint of the administration. ls student sentiment changing to meet the new order? The esprit dc coeur of the student body is an inheritance from the past. Tradi- tions are handed down from class to class and students accept an intellectual and social code evolved under conditions at variance with the present. As the Col- lege goes forward, the philosophy of the student body must advance-and this in the face of established custom and tradi- tion. Students must realize that they come to Morningside better prepared than ever before, that they graduate later in life, that they must do more and better scholastic work than in former years, and that they are expected to deport them- selves in accord with these conditions. It is natural for the students to accept the old standards and traditions, and equally difficult for them to realize that the old order is changing and that they must change with it. This is the great need of Morningside students just now. More of the traits of men and women, and less of the characteristics of the l-ligh School age, are necessary to meet the en- larging demands of our College life. We must advance along the following three lines unless the student body is satisfied to fall behind in the forward march of the College: The cultivation of a more generous spirit of real scholarship in the student body, and more students who are not sat- isfied with C and D grades. More students in legitimate College ac- tivities other than athletics, and more gen- uine student recognition and support of such activities, for instance, the field of forensics, the Collegian Reporter, and the Sioux. A healthily readjustment of our Col- lege political and social life leading to a more democratic recognition of individual worth regardless of society affiliation, and, for the members of the girls' societies, a lowering of the unchristian and uncharita- ble membership bar now applying to so many of our students. Around these suggestions, it seems to me, the student body can build better and saner student ideals than those in force at the present. what 31 Mant My Sun tn C521 frnm illllnrningnihe fBy Prominent Men in the Conferencej I want my son to get from his College course that modification of himself, which shall set him at his best, in right relations to the world in which he lives. Not the present world only, but the world of all time. The events of today are but the leaves on the tree which has its roots deep down in the past. When the frost MORNINGSIDE 'NAT'-LT- -.A- ll-.- Fifteen

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1915 SIOUX Efmhitinn CF rom the Viewpoint of a Seniorj Perhaps there are institutions of learn- ing where iconoclastic methods are need- ed to rid them of a host of useless tradi- tions and customs, which inhibit individ- ualism and preclude progress. However, Morningside is not of these. The icono- clast is not wanted here. Traditions are necessary to the modern College and Morningside lacks traditions. It will be recalled that the more con- servative statesmen of 1787 recognized the danger that this government, drunk with its newly gotten power and latent democracy, might run to excess unless checks could be placed upon it. And so a system of checks was devised,-of the Nation upon the States, of the Senate up- on the House, of the President upon Con- gress, of the Senate upon the President, of the Judiciary upon the l..egislature,-- all for the purpose of restraining when feeling should run high or action become ill-advised. That they have aided ma- terially in keeping the Ship of State upon the general course mapped out for it by the men of '87 is, of course, not open to dispute. It was the first of these checks which held the Union together in 1832 and which should have done so again in l860. The second prevented the dis- grace of a conviction' after the impeach- ment of a President in '6S. So the re- peated application of each of them could be noted in the attempts to maintain the character and dignity of this new world experiment in democracy. Tradition, when strengthened by the accumulated prestige of years, is as potent as law, civil' or natural. It restrains the hand of wild excess. It lays down prin- ciples of moral and aesthetic action im- possible for the State to call law and impolitic for the institution to call rule. It is not so much the nature of the regu- lation which hurts, it is the character of the power that imposes it. The stamp acts of I765 and l89S were little differ- ent, but the former was levied by a for- eign power and caused rebellion, while the latter was levied by ourselves and was not opposed. Thus, if the State should say that every student who is ap- prehended in the act of making a path across his campus should. be expelled from his College the law would be thrown out by the courts. If the administration of the institution should make such a regulation the students would rebel. But if the students themselves make such a rule tradition, and back it up with con- sistent action, it will be obeyed and hon- ored. A rule providing for the expul- sion of all students found cheating at ex- aminations would hardly come within the purview of State legislation, nor would it be politic for the school to put such a statement in its catalogue, but the stu- dents, through tradition, can make it as imprudent for anyone to cheat at exam- inations as to make a bold robbery on the open street at high noon. But tradition is not only a potent de- terrant from riotous acts, it is equipollent as an incitant of that vague something called College Spirit. Who has not been inspired to deeper, truer, nobler ac- tion by the recital of the traditions of his family, of his country, yes, and of his school? The custom that a holiday be granted after any notable victory, be it forensic or athletic, is an illustration in point. The reiteration of the College records, songs, yells, foolishness, on such occasions increase the pleasure of going to school, and because of that, if for no other reason, they are beneficial. The MORNINGSIDE Seurnfren