Ohio University - Athena Yearbook (Athens, OH)

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lEM . D ' lOCTOR Elmer Burritt Bryan came to Ohio University as its president in the fall of 1921. Since that time Ohio Uni- versity has grown and developed at a pace that is almost unbelievable. During the last ten years more persons have received degrees and diplomas from Ohio University than in the preceding one hundred sixteen years of the school ' s history; the enrollment has increased one hundred thir- teen percent, and the faculty has grown from eighty three members to two hundred eight highly trained members, while nine major build- ings have been added to the campus, not includ- ing seven dormitory cottages during this time. We offer these few facts as a great tribute that can be paid to the President of Ohio University. {m«teen

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Our President Doctor Elmer Burritt Bryan The Premier Bobcat ' - Eighteen

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The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences pROM Its beginning, over a hun- - - dred and twenty-five years ago, Ohio University has had its Col- lege of Liberal Arts and Sciences; in fact Ohio University was a Liberal Arts College. Its curricu- lum included Latin, Greek, An- cient History, Mathematics, and Philosophy: the last named sub- ject being divided into Mental and Natural. Gradually the curricu- lum expanded to its present in- clusiveness. Until about forty years ago, in all colleges, the course leading to a Bachelor of Arts degree was fixed and definite. Today there is usually but one definite require- ment — English Composition, and the English Department of Colum- bia University has asked that that requirement be removed. Since the liberal arts college aims to enable the student to dis- cover his limitations as well as his aptitudes and powers, it does not ask him to choose his major inter- est in studies until after he has ac- quired positive convictions; it be- lieves that the more one knows, the more wisely he can choose. Today the liberal arts colleges of the United States are flourishing even in an age supposed to be given over to practical training for money-making. Within the present century the number of liberal arts colleges has increased about forty per cent, the number of students has increased six hundred per cent, and the productive funds five hundred per cent. The Canons of hberal education, writes Bernard de Voto, may be summar- ized as receptiveness to new ideas, freedom from prejudice, insistence on factual or logical demonstration of everything presented as truth, ability to distinguish between appearance and reality .... refusal to accept authority or tradition as final, and skepticism of the fads, propagandas, and panaceas that may be called the patent med- icines of the mind. Dean Edv.in Watts Chubb k:. ! ;— - Twenty