Ripon College - Crimson Yearbook (Ripon, WI)

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GROWTH OF THE COLLEGE A table will clearly show the growth in 53 69 122 39 69 108 4» »5 126 - 30 1 3 43 40 57 97 1901 -1907. All Kipon students art watching with interest the growth of our College. Comparing last year with this we may see a decided growth along many lines, hut the upward tendency is far more marked when we look from the condition of five r six years ago to that of tot the number of students: 1902- 3................... 1903- 4................... 1904 5.................... 905-6......................... 30 1906-7.................... Adding, to the last total, art and music students we have the total of 241 for this year. Marked improvements have been made on the Campus. Five years ago Smith Hall (then Middle College) was in a decidedly dilapidated condition. Many generations of college lx ys had wrought havoc with the interior. Today it is one of the best men’s dormitories in the Middle West—a hall that the College is proud of. A similar transformation has taken place in Ingram Hall. Not long ago recitation rooms were scattered over the campus. When the student after a long journey finally did reach his class room he found nothing attractive about it. Today all class rooms are conveniently grouped together in Ingram Mall, and all are tastefully decorated. The departmental libraries also, instead of being scattered in various places on the campus, are now located together in Ingram Hall, just above the general Library. The partitions of old West Build- ing were, a short time ago. removed, and in the place of our old recitation rooms we have Commons Hall, a gift of the Alumni. ()n the two floors above arc con- veniently arranged rooms for men. Bartlett Hall was also improved last summer. 'Hus progress, marked though it is, gives way in importance to other im- provements which have too often failed to receive due recognition because they are less material and tangible. But it is in them that we find the truest progress. Cage Seven

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President Richard Cecil Hughes, A. M, D. D. 1901-

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the surest signs of growth. The whole attitude of the public, including the alumni, has changed during the period in question. few short years ago the good people of a nearin town were laboring under the delusion that Ripon was a training school for thcologs —a noble work surely, hut not true to fact. Alumni were absolutely indifferent. Townspeople had no pride in the school. In a word, the outlook was dark. With this condition before ns our present state is all the more surprising. The College now stands upon an entirely different plane. Neighboring towns recognize in Ripon an institution representing the best in religious aim. scholarship, and athletics. Alumni now give hundreds with more ease and pleasure than they would have given cents; more than this, their interest is constantly centered in all things that pertain, in any sense, to Ripon College. Townspeople heartily endorse the institution. Our teams find some of their warmest supporters, outside of the student body, in the local High School students. in a sti',1 wider field, in the broader and more far reaching aspects of college activity. Ripon is known and respected by her sister institutions of the Middle West. In all progressive policies she may he found in the van. 11 this has come of itself. Ilcliind it must have been some compelling power, some motive force, and this motive force may be found in the person of l)r. Hughes. A trying time has surely been his. Discouragement has followed discouragement, but through it all and in apparent defeat, his courage has not faltered, nor has his eye failed to see the higher future, the larger outlook of the College. Through his efforts the College has come to stand for something, has realized its larger purpose in large measure. Material progress has undoubtedly come, and that too in large amount, hut it has been a means, not an end. The end has been the training of a student body in the higher things of life, the develop- ment of manliness and womanliness with all that these mean. I low complete the fulfillment of this purpose, the realization of this aim. the future only can reveal, but we are confident that the results will he a satisfaction, a reward for the long years. nd as we look for. and finally see. the results, the quiet, self- sacrificing work of Dr. Hughes and his colleagues must never he forgotten. And so with courage and hope we look to the future, believing that Ripon has but scarcely begun to realize her great mission. Page Kight