Rockford College - Recensio / Cupola Yearbook (Rockford, IL)

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INAUGURATION On the morning of October tenth, with as dignified a ceremony as has ever been held on the campus of Rockford College, Dr. Gordon Keith Chalmers was inaugurated the ninth president of our institution. Distinguished figures in the educational and literary worlds came to Rockford to take part in the installation. -ls a stringed quartet played the M'zzrchf Fc7JfZ.i'H!t', by Klendelssohn-Bartholdy, the assembled guests in the quadrangle watched the academic processicn walk slowly down the court. It was led by the senior marshalls, Dr. John Gordon, acting president of the college last year. Klr. llvebb Stevens, vice-president of the Board foew f Trustees, Dr. Chalmers, and Dr. Norman Foerster, guest speaker. The Howing black robes with brilliant bands, the symbolic hoods, and the mwrtar boards passed in dignilied line amid the drifting leaves ofthe golden Qctober day. Behind Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Foerster marched the trustees ofthe college. the presidents and representatives of other colleges and universities, the members ofthe Rockford College faculty, and the senior class, in its newly acquired academic dress. 1

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DR. MARY V. BRAGINTON

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After an invocation pronounced by Dr. John Gordon, Dr. Norman Foerster, of the State University of Iowa, addressed the college and its guests. His subject was The Individual and Society. He enjoined the college to maintain the liberal tradition it derived from Greece and Judea against the dangers of what he called materialistic emphasis of science and humanitarianism. And he hoped that though civilization has placed responsibility for human affairs upon society, the college would help to return it to the individual. Nlr. VVebb Stevens, acting in behalf of the Board of Trustees, invested Dr. Chalmers with the oflice of President of Rockford College. In Dr. Chalmers, inaugural address, The College and Alexandria, he drew a comparison between the barrenness of contemporary thought and the failure of Alexandria to create any- thing valuable. He said that today we place too much emphasis upon quantity instead of quality. The college, by its structure, by its philosophy, and by the character of its teachers, has a unique opportunity to save its members from Alexandrianism, by aiding them in the mastery of the small body of generally useful knowledge, and by encouraging them to utilize their knowledge in gracious and productive living. 5