St Louis University - Archive Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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Sodality Mall is the home of the Graduate School, which directs all graduate study and research work of the University. This school aims at the extension of the frontiers of knowledge through the work of its students. . . Rev. Thurber M. Smith, S.J., dean of the school, at work in his office.

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EDUCATION IT is generally understood that a man ' s ability to discriminate enables him to establish a sense of values. The manner in which these values are ordered, the manner in which each is singly appreciated shall deter- mine his success. The prime purpose of life shovild be a pow erful motive in his every act, and with that end in vie v should he pattern his career. To classify and apply his criteria to whatsoever he contacts, to evaluate accurately — these are becoming more significant, more important than ever before. This process requires a far-seeing mind, a mind vith acute perception, and a will able to carry out the mind ' s convictions. To mold and develop the mind, to offer criteria for sound, accurate discrimination, to shape character in conformity vith Catholic principles — this is the role of the Catholic university. Established to that end, she must carry out this purpose to justify her existence. The curricula of the university, then, is the index of her efforts to create the Catholic man of culture. Elements of change make it necessary from time to time for an edu- cational institution to incorporate into its curricula courses concerned with newer tendencies and trends. The growing emphasis on Scholastic Philosophy as an eflfective antidote for the ills of the day has brovight about a renewed interest in philosophy in general. Again, in a Catholic university such as St. Louis University, apologetics coines in for an ever- increasing amount of attention in these days when Catholicism is asserting itself with ever-increasing emphasis. In the professional schools of the Catholic university it is imperative for her to inculcate in her students a spirit of militant defense of Christian ethics, the utter neglect of which has so disordered the modern world. In her liberal arts curricula, her main concerns must be the instilling of an intelligent aspect of current thought and problems, the Catholic attitvxde and interpretation of inoot questions, and a confidence in Catholicisin as an adequate means of solving all moral difficulties. We have reason to feel secure in this, that St. Louis University is carrying out the ideals of Catholic education. St. Louis University, by her facility of adapting her curi ' icvila to the need of the times, is demon- strating at once her ow n powers as well as evincing an intelligent ap- preciation of the role the ideal university should play in offering its students a more perfect education.

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PUSHING BACK THE FRONTIERS OF IGNORANCE It is rather with the unanswered than the answered questions that the modern graduate school deals. An eternal quest to make the unknown the known the obscure the obvious — a constant challenge to ignorance is its function. THE role of the graduate school in any univer- sity, while important, is usually unobtrusive, and her plaudits are most frequently confined to a few stereotyped paragraphs on her allotted page in the yearbook. She furnishes no candidates for the athletic or social activities and, hence, seldom occupies the student limelight. And so it has become necessary, when kind words and appropri- ate sentiments are to be meted out, to credit her with noble and lofty achievements, to pacify her workers with assurances of appreciation for their usually thankless efforts. It is commonly averred, in eulogistic phrase, that she lays her mighty shoulder against the towering barriers of ignorance and, bit by bit, by dint of profuse, scholarly perspiration, forces them back, creating new territories of knowledge upon which her more callow sisters may safely disport themselves. While much of this is but grandiose nonsense, it obviously has some basis, and is not entirely untrue. ■ Secondly, she is often alleged to be the leader of the harmonic orchestra of schools which com- prise the university. She sounds the keynote for a trilling arpeggio which constitutes the audible tone of the entire institution. The metaphor may be prolonged indefinitely, even to drawing parallels with the brasses and woodwinds. In fact, it often has been. And again there are some grains of truth in this assertion. ■ But the university, and specifically, the gradu- ate school, form an integral part of a civilization which has grown skeptical of viewings with pride and pointings with alarm, and vague generali- ties are not satisfactory to an era harassed with problems unknown to a more placid age. Now, as never before, the baffled victims of the complexi- ties o f life are looking about for succor. If the graduate school is to fulfill her traditional role, she must be able to furnish a satisfactory answer to those whose querulous questions are unanswered. What, in short, is the graduate school doing to meet the demands of the world whose fall has succeeded its pride? Has it an answer when an answer is so sorely needed? HERBERT AUGUST APPRILL St. Louis. Missouri Certificate in Commercial Science MARGUERITE V. V. ARAND St, Louis. Missouri Bachelor of Science in Social II or Ij JOHN GREGORY AUER. S.J. Menasha. Wisconsin Bachelor of Arts CLAUDE IGNATIUS BAKEWELL. A.B. St. Louis. Missouri Bachelor of Laws JOSEPH HERMAN BALTES Fort Wayne. Indiana Doctor of Medicine .MORRIS BASTACKY. B.S. Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania Doctor of Medicine MICHAEL ARTHUR BATEMAN Freeburg. Illinois Doctor of Medicine Apprill Arand Bastacky Bateman ■ 19 b