NYU Washington Square College - Album Yearbook (New York, NY)

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The Sections VIEWS FACULTY CLASSES EVENING ORGANIZATIONS PUBLICATIONS SORORITIES FRATERNITIES ATHLETICS HUMOR

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Mr Y- .v 3:,f'N-'YH 'S J ll UI The Argument N choosing a motif for the year book of a school as metropolitan as ours, one's first tendency is to choose a modernistic motif, a skyscraper motif, a futuristic motif-a motif, in short, which will reflect the crowded life, the hectic struggle, the intense activity which we observe in the city about us. It was, therefore, only after much rationalization that we could finally find justifiable reasons for using the motif upon which we had set our hearts for purely emotional reasons-the Craftsman. The period is that of the early Renaissance-the time when Benvenuto Cellini, that master among crafts- men, flourished. Our reasons are many. In the first place, as has been so often pointed out, we here at Washington Square are getting back to that ideal of the University which originally flourished in the Middle Ages. The Medieval school was situated, not in a cloistered spot where ivy could creep slowly up the walls, undisturbed by the noises of progress which are found in towns, but in the midst of the city, where it was an integral part in the life of the community, where the vast facilities of the city were available to the students. During the last few decades this ideal has been changed for that of a college in which students dwell in storied halls, apart from life, seeking to learn from dusty books what they could more easily learn from life itself. While all of the small-town colleges have persisted in their endeavors to become more and more cloistered, have tried to be the only institution in the towns where they were situated, Washington Square College has been forced to adopt other ideals. While they tried to ma-ke the town a part of the college, we have tried to make the college a part of the town Our efforts, whether they have been induced by necessity or by choice, have brought about results which no student at a small-town college can appreciate. Where the out-of-town student studies art from a text book, we can use the museums, the public buildings, as well as all of the resources which the other students have at their disposal. We have, moreover, the concerts for the music student, the theaters for the drama student, and the hospitals the bureaus of economic research, the social service bureaus, and scores of other institutions in the city which co-operate with the various departments of our school. We are, then, getting back to the medieval idea of a Uni- versity in a ciy, and it is quite fitting that we revert to late medieval, or early Ren- aissance times for our motif. VIN' Hb.. ,, v 1 2 5'53fi'-Tl'?'9Fff??Zi ?1?L54:-i - A-4l3 '2l:,'5': -.,t' f T. 1- 'fi' ? Hi'Tf1. .Q - 'l'i1l-'-- Us-iTihVv.E .-,' . fe 1- .iiialliiisl . W ,, , .u ..K ,. N:-. e- 41:,,'f-V A I