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

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CMe Cjraouaie SckooL Rev. Thurber M. Smith, S.J., Dean of the Gradu- ate Schooh With whatever modifications may arise from local conditions or traditions, a university must devote itself to the realization in appropriate ways of four major objectives: the conservation of knowledge and ideas; their interpretation and evaluation; the advancement of truth; the training of students who will carry on the struggle. Conservation of knowledge and ideas is, and always has been recognized as the business of universities, both by themselves and others. However they may change in form, this will or should remain one of their major objectives. It should be noted, however, that conservation and interpretation of accumulated intellectual treasures are one thing in institutions that are chiefly concerned with that. They are a very diiferent thing in a university where, as a result of the struggle to push back the frontiers of ignorance, fresh streams of thought are con- tinually playing upon the preserved treasures of man ' s achievements. The Graduate School shares, of course, with the other schools of the University, the duty of preserving the past and transmitting it in an ordered synthesis. But one function the Graduate School claims as its peculiar preroga- tive: the creation of the future, the gradual pushing back by research and experiment of the boundaries of ignorance. The Graduate School aims at producing an expert in a given field by means of highly spe- cialized training. It seems to be the accepted thing, at least among some, to sneer at spe- cialization; but the truth is that specialization is largely responsible for whatever gains we have made in the past. The process of advanc- ing knowledge must begin with an artificial simplification, divide et inipera, and this, not because the problems of life or of the physical world are simple, but because we cannot advance by way of observation and experiment unless the field is circumscribed. Once results are thus obtained, but only then, is there a place 26

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SSi |!£pg i!i:;J-= While the theory in the College of Arts and Sciences is attained primarily in the classroom and the practice, in the laboratory, the library unites and blends the efforts of both. Lejt — Chemistry experiments are carried on in the laboratories located in the Medical School building. Center — The Arts library contains over 80,000 volumes. R: ht — A class in analytic geometry discusses the properties of a circle. many schools and departments as illustrated in this Archive. A thing which seems most strange is the fact that in so many of the modern educational institutions the elementary principle of educa- tion is lost sight of. The house is built with- out a foundation. The tendency is to turn ever more and more towards intense speciali- zation in a given field with absolute disregard for the necessity for at least some semblance of that broadening of view which a liberal education imparts. The lesson of all history that this liberal education has, through all the centuries, been accepted as the means whereby culture and civilization have come down to us, is utterly ignored. The consequence is the loss of the fullness of intellectual growth in the individual man with the consequent weak- ening in the nation made up of such individ- uals, and even in the Church if her member- ship should follow the prevailing trends. At the base of all this confusion of purpose and ideal is the false doctrine of Pragmatism or ad hoc ism. In accordance with its falla- cious precepts, everything which, in the past, has been revered as liberal and cultural, is discarded. Whereas, in all the preceding centuries, the study of the classics has been considered the very seat and source of all culture and learning, the modern tendency is, in most cases, to relegate it to a very insignifi- cant position in the college curriculum, and, in many cases, to drop it entirely. If there is to be any hope for the future, if there is ever to be any emergence from the chaos in which the world finds itself today, that hope lies in the men who are trained thinkers, the men who are versed in literature, the clas- sics, history and Christian philosophy. And though it may seem idealistic to expect the youth of the world suddenly to awaken to the problems that confront them, or will confront them in the very near future, yet it is con- ceivable that repeated and continued adversity may arouse a sufficient number of them to save the situation by an introspective attitude that will turn their minds to a contemplation of God. It is still the peculiar function of the Col- lege of Arts and Sciences of any Catholic university to share in a special way, by her delegation, the role of fostering mother exer- cised to the full by the Church. Under the influence of the spirit of Catholicism, there should flourish in every Catholic college a strong alliance and intertwining of the highest intellectual aspirations of man with his spirit- ual life and his supernatural destiny. Here man ' s Christ-given heritage of divine truth is bestowed on youth; and here youth ' s soul is enriched with the heritage also of human thought. This combination of spiritual wealth, divine and human, makes up Christian culture, the primary objective in a Catholic university. It gives life, and gives it ever more abundantly. It perpetuates Christocracy. 25

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for careful integration. It is true that speciali- zation alone does not suffice. The university must possess, or somehow draw into itself, minds that are capable of both specialization and generalization. The new material which is accumulated must be organized, integrated, tried out in new patterns. Anything less would leave the process of scholarship incom- plete. Amidst the ever-growing complications of modern educational methods and techniques there is a danger at times that attention will be so centered on means that they are mistaken for ends. Techniques of scholarship are not scholarship itself, but are merely its tools. Nor is the same tool suitable in all fields. It is probably true that in the past there has been too much forcing of the techniques of research developed in the natural sciences, where experiments are relatively simple — verification is usually possible and control available — into the social sciences and humanities, where con- ditions are very different. More important than this, it must never be forgotten that learning does not advance itself. It is always some man or some woman who does the advaiKing. In other words, knowl- edge advances only as those who know increase and develop. A graduate school, and above all a Catholic graduate school, can never for- get that its peculiar prerogative — the creation of the future — depends on the scholars it develops. The Graduate School is often alleged to be the leader of that harmonic orchestra of schools which comprise the University. She sounds the keynote for a thrilling 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. This, then, is the keynote of the Graduate School, this her indication of the tone of the University. And if she but repeats that note, which she has been sounding since her birth, it is because there can be no other correct one. Indeed it has been sounded from the beginning of time, and it will be maintained until the very end. The Graduate School, thus, is an essential unit of an integrated University. Individual research, seminars and the laboratory are important factors in the work done by the Graduate School. Left — The Department of Geophysics maintains offices and laboratories in Sodality Hall. Center — The microscope is an essential instrument for students specializing in the physical sciences. Right — A Latin seminar discusses Roman religion and its effect on classical literature. 27