Ohio Wesleyan University - Le Bijou Yearbook (Delaware, OH)

Page 31 text:

PRESIDENT AND MRS. SOPER PRESIDENT SOPER

Page 30 text:

u r y Prexy is like the proverbial cat — he has nine lives. He is not like the cat, however, which has its lives one after another. Prexy lives his nine lives almost interchangeably, several at one time. What I mean is that there are just about nine distinct relations which the president of a college has with that number of different kinds of people, and each one constitutes a different life and a changed approach on his part. Now there are the students; he leads a real life with them. He must be young with them in spirit even though increasingly not young in years. It is what keeps him young in spirit in spite of his years. Another life is lived at the same time; that is, he also lives a life with the faculty, and it is not the same life by any means. They just do not look at things alike, faculty and students; they never have and they never will. And so, on the prexy ' s part, it is necessary time after time to make a sudden switch and go one way or the other, as the case may be. Again another life; it is with the trustees. Does anyone imagine a trustee and a faculty member seeing things alike? This life is not so frequently lived by the president, but it is real when it occurs, for do not the trustees control the college and are they not his bosses? Then there are the alumni, our output, those whom we point to with pride, those who are out in the world making the college what it is in the eyes of everybody. This is their Alma Mater and they are very solicitous about their parent. They differ greatly from the faculty and from the students and even from the trustees. And when one deals with them he finds himself making an approach very different from any other. That is four; now for number five — the town of Delaware, with its downtown coaches, its college widows, its Bun Hoffman, and whatnot, everything which goes into the making of the community in which we live. We could not get along without Delaware; could Delaware get along without us? — let Delaware settle that. But just to raise the question makes me feel different. Another of these lives is that with the church, not necessarily with a long-tailed coat and with a white necktie, but it is a life quite different. He must remember that Ohio Wesleyan would never have been born had it not been for the Methodist Church, which willed it into existence and has been its firm friend ever since. The seventh life is that which the prexy lives with the other college prexies in Ohio and out beyond. He is a very different man when he goes to Chicago and New York to educational meetings than he is on the campus, for prexies when they get together have things to say which they do not say to any other group. Number eight is the life lived with the parents of students, and what a life! Parents that are solicitous and parents that are grateful. Many of them are not alumni; they do not know the attitude of the trustees; their life is one apart and yet very closely connected with Ohio Wesleyan. And finally, the financial constituency, the pros- pective givers, those who have in the post put up our buildings and must do so in the future. And here again a different life is lived. And now take out your magnifying glass and look at each of these little thumbnail brevities and enlarge them in your imagination until you see them big and distinct; then you will know what it means to be a prexy with his nine lives, ail devoted to Ohio Wesleyan. Edmund D. Soper President of Ohio Wesleyan University

Page 32 text:

(BocUicL o Jauajqqa. John Edwin Brown .President Harvey O. Yoder Vice-President Clarence H. LoRue Second Vice-President Fred L. Rosemond Counsel Burleigh E. Cartmeli ...Secretary Donald J, Hornberger ..Treasurer Donald B. Watkins .Assistant Treasurer The actual governing body of Ohio Wesleyan is the Board of Trustees. This Board consists of thirty-eight members, two of which are new this year. Mrs. Lillian Ferguson has replaced Mrs. Laylin, and Mr. Andrew P. Martin has replaced Mr. Guthery. All trustees ore elected for a five-year term and may be reelected after the expiration of this term. The Board of Trustees selects the administration and approves all of the recommendations for new professors and for promotions in rank. Special meetings of the Board may be called at any time by the President, John Edwin Brown. The Board holds two regular meetings each year in Delaware, the mid-year meeting being on the lost Monday in November, and the final one being on the Friday preceding Commencement. Various committees of the board have definite functions and duties which they perform. The members of the committees ore changed from year to year. 26