Oberlin College - Hi-O-Hi Yearbook (Oberlin, OH)

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OBERLIN COLLEGE HI-0-HI. OUR STUDENTS' SENATE WHERE, O WHERE CAN IT BE?

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OBERLIN COLLEGE HI-O-HI. II ALUNN I ASSOCIATIONS. General Alumni Meeting, Tuesday, July 1, 2 P. III. COLLEGE ALUM NI ASSOCIATION. PRESIDENT! JAMES O. TROUP, '70. SECRETARY! LIB'N A. S. ROOT, '84-, Oherlin. ORATQR FDR '89: PROF. WM. G. FROST, '7G. ALTERNATE: HASTINGS I-l. HART, '75. AnI1ual Meeting and Address, Tuesday, July 1, at 7:30. TIIEOLOGICAL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT: REV. J. R. NICHOLS, '83, SECRETARY: PROF. H. C. KING, '82, Oberlin. PREACIIER FOR '89: REV. C. C. CREEGAN, '79. ALTERNATE: REV. E. C. EVANS, '8O. Annual Meeting, Thursday, May 29, 7:30 P. M. NEW ENGLAND UNION OF OBERLIN ALUMNI. PRESIDENT: REV. JUDSON SMITH, '64, Theo. ' SECRETARY: PRES. HELEN A. SHAFER, '63 Lit., Wellesley, Mass. Annual Meeting at Boston in May. NEW YORK ASSOCIATION OF TI-IE ALUMNI OF OBERLIN COLLEGE. PRESIDENT: A. L. BARBER, ESQ., '67. SECRETARY: J. J. MCKELVEY, ESQ., '84-, 10 Wall street. Annual Meeting at New York in April. OBERLIN COLLEGE ASSOCIATION OF CI-IICAGO. PRESIDENT: THOMAS A. HALL, '72. SECRETARY: N. P. WILLARD, ESQ., '82, 36 Reaper Block. Annual Meeting thc Third Friday in May. NORTHWESTERN OBERLIN ASSOCIATION. PRESIDENT: REV. H. I-I. HART, '74-. SECRETARY: REV. WM. M. JONES, '82, Elmwood, Minn. Annual Meeting at Minneapolis early in May. OBERLIN ASSOCIATION OF THE MISSOURI VALLEY. PRESIDENT: REV. GEO. HINDLEY, '75 Theo. SECRETARY: REV. A. B. PENNIMAN, '79, Berlin, Wis. MID-CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION OF OBERLIN COLLEGE ALUMNI. PRESIDENT: PRES. GEORGE T. FAIRCI-IILD, '62. - SECRETARY! PROF. WILLIAM H. TIBBALS, '75, Parkville, Mo.

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OBERLIN COLLEGE H1-O-Hi. 13 THE OBERLI IDEA. BY PROFESSOR WM. G. FROST. Great colleges are seldom of mushroom growth. Giant branches and swelling terminal buds imply depth of root. Oberlin is rooted in an historic soil which contains many boulders of sturdy principle, as well as many springs of pure moral purpose. Distinetively Christian, although non-sectarian and free from all denominational control, she has been called to pioneer work in several directions. It was in 1832 that Father Shipherd, with S33 in his pocket, started for New England to secure the land, the build- ings, the citizens, the students, the endowments and the faculty! In less than a year the school opened with forty-fourstudents gathered from seven states. In 1835 the duty of opening the school to colored students was presented, and by .the casting vote of john Keep, the college took her position in favor of the oppressed. It was expected that the town would be flooded with Negroes, and when a solitary African put in his appearance some months later, the little son of one ofthe trustees rushed into the house exclaiming, Mother, they are coming. The school has seldom contained more than four per cent. of' colored students, but the servieerendered to the colored race was immeasurable, while the'obliquy and hatred encountered was something which can hardly be conceived of to- day. Oberlin still suffers somewhat in repute, among those who are uninformed, from the prejudices engendered by her boldness in the cause of reform. Following the stand for equal rights for all came the arrival of Professor Finney, with his new school theological tenet, that Ability measures obligation. His preaching upset some of the traditions of men, and increased the opposition to Oberlin, but it roused the churches, and made friends as well as enemies. At this time also, the students from Lane Theological Seminary, forbidden to discuss -slavery, came to Oberlin almost in a body, and set up a theological department in Slab Hall. The institution was started upon the broadest and most liberal basis, and when, in due time, young women applied for admission to the classical course, they were received without either hesitation for the blowing of trumpets. The first women in America to receive academic degrees were three Oberlin graduates in 1841. The young women at Oberlin, however, are not treated as if they were men, but for all purposes of discipline are under the supervision of a Womau's Board. Oberlin is further characterized by the absence of all prizes and artificial distinctions-merit is its own reward, the encouragement .of self-supporting students, the merit of her literary societies-