St Josephs College - Phase Yearbook (Rensselaer, IN)

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FOURTH DECADE Of all the decades in the history of St. Joseph's, the fourth, from 1921 to 1930, was perhaps the most normal. These were the years when the col- lege, already in its thirties, had an appreciable amount of experience from which to draw. They were possibly the years of greatest individual stu- dent achievement. Expansion by buildings was considerably les- sened during this decade. In 1922, work moved ahead on the present Power Plant. This was the only major project of the period. 1, S 'x I 1 . 5 .- ff 3 ' X , M 11 THE TIME OP INTERNAL CHANGES From 1922 to 1925 the Community students were withdrawn from Collegeville, leaving only the academy and junior college departments. From 1925 through 1930, the process was di- rectly reversed, and the campus became known as St. Joseph's Preparatory Seminary at the urgent request of several Bishops. Although outwardly more silent, these were the years of growth from within, of outward manifestation of the student body. Dramatics flourished, while the choir, band and orchestra units went abroad and gathered new laurels. Father Rapp became prominent for his results at the helm of the Columbian Literary Society. Professor Paul Tonner first began in 1925 his work of turning the music department into a veritable bedlam which always resulted in deli- cately-presented work when the great nights of presentation came. This was the era of the elaborate St. Patrick,s Day masquerades into Rensselaer, occasions when the Irish found numerous alien nationalities on the campus to aid them in extolling uthe wear- ing of the green. Came the flush years of the later twenties and student life went on beneath the clash and clang- or as tranquilly as ever. In 1930 reforestation grew into national prominence, and was again the signal for another shoulder-to-shoulder stu- dent movement. St. Joe men planted 2,000 trees in and around the campus. This was truly a social decade. For whatever was missed by the comparative absence of the contractor,s blueprints was more than offset by the great awakening of the student body. Life, spirit, study, achievement, good fellowship- those were the watchwords. '

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With the advent of the third decade, actual physical expansion continued as before. With the completion of the chapel, work began im- mediately upon the present Sisters' buildings. In 1913, after twenty years as president of St. Joseph's, Father Seifert relinquished his duties to Father Hugo Lear. Father Seifert, before his death in 1937, was certainly entitled to happy memories in his declining years. Stern enough to marshall his forces efliciently, he was at once fair and kind in the minds of his ad- mirers and associates. There were 300 students to bid farewell to their former leader. The year following had its disappointments. Athletics, since St. Joe began inter-collegiate sports ten years before, was gradually increas- ing in stature. Students of the time, possessed with a more than intense desire to carry out the old college slogan of 'imens sana in corpore sano, were sowing the seed in all present major sports. On March 24, 1914, the entire student body, fortihed with picks, shovels, barrows, and the like, in a single day con- structed the present quarter-mile practice track in the highway grove. Rensselaer High School had a high-caliber team that year, but were set down in the college's initial venture in this sport. With athletics on the upswing, it is easy to estimate the blow brought about by the burning of the old gym on the morning of April 2, 1914. Eight years' collection of equipment was destroyed in the blaze. On the strength of an appropriation from the Precious Blood Society, work began at once on the present building. Order was re- l l in 3 l fl f . FF Ss f l i XX -4,5--.. .-. ,J f ' K 1? 'l ,y 3 y ,p Q 'xx ' ZA 4, xx V ll -'mb' l,1C2 Y9 X , -fr . .ff b - ei . ,,..- WFS V W NN il .af ...--M , , . , x . stored once more on the campus by June, 1916, when the college called in her old friends and students for the observance of the Silver Jubilee. And so the tumult and shouting of the fes- tive occasion faded into summer, only to as- sume a new lease on life with the arrival of fall. Much after the manner of today, reverb- erations of imminent war echoed over the campus in the year following. Student Emil Goettemoeller put away his books and joined forces with Uncle Sam. A plaque at the rear of the St. Joseph's chapel testifies to the mem- ory of the local grads who lost their lives in the fields of France. x Looking east from the Administration Building, around the year 1910.

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Whether it has been books or wide open spaces down through the years of St. Joseph's, students have found both to be abundant. The View above shows students reading in the outer room of the library. There are considerably more than 40,000 books in the present St. Joe library, or nearly 100 per student. Nor is the eighty-acre campus particularly confin- ing, as the bottom photo bears out. Today the College- ville grounds are viewed with respect by landscape experts, a tribute to the early Fathers who laid out the campus so amply. in , ' 'sie V -.-2-1. .Hs H n . f W - . . , -. Nw R WW f' .1 .Ja ' , X ,.- , ., . L , - n 1 2?fa?ZW6BiL.,,SQ.v,sii.f'?'1. Y-L