St Josephs College - Footprints Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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for present and future needs. This was done, and college-wide elections were held for the choice of a president, secretary and treasurer. In addi- tion, each class chose two representatives to sit on Student Council. The Rev. Thomas E. Molloy was made Honorary President. The chief pur- pose of the Undergraduate Association was to systematize activities and to establish a general treasury for the support of student clubs. In 1922 the Honor System was inaugurated, with its Court of Honor for the administration of unproctored exams and the judging of all infrac- tions. This was under the supervision of the Un- dergraduate Association with a member of the faculty as advisor. In 1923 a Student Attendance Committee was established with power to pass upon the legitimacy of excuses for absence. Machinery for student government obviously had already been created by 1925. What hap- pened in that year was that the faculty gave to the students whatever was needful for a true experiment in responsible self-government. All rights given to the students by the faculty were incorporated in a constitution which became the organic law governing student activity. By it the Undergraduate Association was given power to charter the various clubs and activities and to give them financial support; they, in turn, were, to some degree, responsible to the Undergraduate Association. The concept of student self-government at St. Joseph ' s was not a static thing. In the spring of 1929 a number of students had manifested a sincere interest to make the religious life of the campus a unique system of Catholic living, domi- nated so far as possible, by the same ideal of self-direction and personal responsibility as was now the motive-spring of their extra-curricular life. Their hope, they said, was to make their religion so indigenous to themselves that its func- tions and practices would be self-controlled and initiated. Under Father Dillon ' s leadership they organized the Committee on Religion with its motto make this college Catholic. Because of its mission, the Committee was freed from re- sponsibility to any power in the institution except Father Dillon. No coercion was to be imposed on any student to participate in religious activi- ties, but the Religion Committee would service the religious needs of the students insofar as this was possible. As time went on, the students won for them- selves increasing rights and privileges inherent in those already granted. The student control of their own current budget operated with a mini- mal amount of faculty supervision. The manage- ment of their funds was designed to give a sense of stewardship and to teach them to live within their income. Practically considered, the common treasury gave them the means of supporting a wide range of extra-curricular activities for the informal education of those students who joined them without special taxes levied on individual students. 10

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When in 1920. Dr. Thomas E. Molloy was made Titular Bishop of Loria and Auxiliary Bishop of Brooklyn, he gave up his teaching at the College but continued to be President of the Faculty. In his place Bishop McDonnell ap- pointed the Rev. William T. Dillon. This young priest, ordained on June 2. 1917 and assigned to St. Francis of Assisi Parish, now became a curate in Queen of All Saints Parish and professor of Philosophy at St. Joseph ' s College. From the first, he was an articulate member of the faculty, and then, very shortly, of the Board of Trustees. In this latter capacity he was sent, in October 1924. to Albany to get first-hand information on the requirements necessary for procuring a permanent charter. He reported what he had learned to the Board of Trustees at its January 1925 meeting. Bishop Molloy, who in 1921 had succeeded Bishop McDonnell as Bishop of Brooklyn, (and therefore, as President of the College ' s Board of Trustees), having great confidence in Father Dillon ' s exceptional ability, and especially in his legal knowledge, appointed him as Chairman of the Committee on the Per- manent Charter. Acting in this capacity Father Dillon was in- strumental in bringing about sweeping changes in all aspects of the College. Reporting to the Board of Trustees in January 1926. he said that during the preceding year the College had been re- organized, not just because it had grown in stu- dent population, but chiefly in order to raise standards before applying for the charter. On his own testimony it seems fair to say that this stock- taking was what led Father Dillon to the formu- lation of his basic educational ideals. Many years later, speaking at a convention, he told how he had suddenly become aware of the discrepancy between ideals and practices that existed in most educational institutions. This, he said, was at a time when many places, including St. Joseph ' s College, were toying with the new progressive objective of giving students an active role in their own education. He determined to go the whole way in a daring venture of real student govern- ment. Without question, this was the most con- troversial, and at the same time, the most notable aspect of Father Dillon ' s administration. For this he was praised and he was condemned; he was loved and he was mistrusted. The New York Stale Board of Regents voted the absolute charter at their meeting on February 22. 1929. thereby establishing the College on an independent basis. In June. 1929, for the first time, the College was able to confer its own de- grees by its own authority. An Undergraduate Association was created in the very first year of the College ' s existence. Naturally, this would be only a rudimentary or- ganization. But. with the admission of the fourth class in September 1920. the student body sug- gested that it was time for the four class presi- dents to draw up a constitution for an Under- graduate Association which would be adequate

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By 1930 the College had been accredited by the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of the Middle States and Maryland, by the University of the State of New York, by the Catholic Education Association, and by the Department of Education of the State of New York. It had also been invited to. and accepted, membership in the American Council on Educa- tion, and the Association of Colleges of the State of New York. During the decade 1930-40. the College pio- neered a program of pre-school child develop- ment courses within the framework of the liberal arts curriculum. In October 1934 the Pre-School for children between the ages of two and four- and-a-half came into being. It was largely the work of Miss Margaret Gardiner with the en- couragement of Father Dillon. Sister Charitina became Executive Secretary of the School and two of the Sister-students became assistants. In establishing the Nursery School the College had as one of its aims the broad education of the col- lege student. In 1940 the College introduced a major in Child Study with a view to the vocational prepa- ration of those students who were interested in teaching children of pre-school age. Further progress was made toward professional accredi- tation for its graduates when, in 1944. an affilia- tion was made with the New York City Board of Education whereby students were enabled to do practice teaching in the public school kinder- gartens. By 1941 the enrollment of the College was 469 full-time students. The graduating class of that year numbered 108 members, and the fac- ulty comprised 49 members, fifteen of whom were nuns and five, priests. The College was now twenty-five years old. and had an alumnae num- bering 1200. The second quarter-century, like the first, was to commence on the eve of American involvement in a catastrophic war. Another very significant development of the forties was the election of two members of the Alumnae to the Board of Trustees of the Col- lege. Dr. Helen D ' Albora and Mary St. John Murphy had both been intimately involved for many years in college affairs and would become even more so as active members of the Board. The imprint of the mind and personality of Monsignor Dillon on the collegiate institution which he guided for so many years more than warranted the title of President that was fin- ally bestowed upon him in 1945. For the next ten years he was to continue to exert his energies in behalf of the College, but, in 1955, Arch- bishop Molloy appointed him pastor of the Church of St. Teresa of Avila. His interest in the Colle?e, however, continued since he remained on the Board of Trustees until his death on Oc- tober 12. 1964. Archbishop Molloy. whose love for and in- terest in the College and its students (including alumnae) was second only to that of Monsignor 11