Sweet Briar College - Briar Patch Yearbook (Sweet Briar, VA)

Page 26 text:

PATCH all aspects of the life of the modern community, but the higher education lays an obligation upon each member of the faculty to do some part through investigation, or through active personal participation, to make himself a necessary part of the institution and of the community. Such universities as Wisconsin have issued a call to the service of the state, to which no college can fail to hearken. Nowhere is this service more needed than in the South. Never before has tin- South been more keenly alive to its educational needs and to its ability to contribute materially and spiritually to the life of the nation through the re-creation of its rural and agricultural life. To this end it needs leaders, both men and women, who will understand its possibilities, sympathize with its aspirations, and have the sound judgment and trained minds to best direct its energies. Such a college as Sweet Briar, drawing its students as it does from every part of the country, can do much, not only to turn the minds of its students to the needs of the community, but also to the meaning of the larger nationalism, free from prejudice, free from sexualism. a nationalism which should be the possession of the educated mind and heart. Emilie M: McVea.

Page 25 text:

BRIAR PATCH clarify and interpret the individual and social life of women. Thus, in its earliesi statement of educational policy. Sweet Briar anticipated the best thought of to-day on the relation of all education of life. The first decade of the history of the college has been spent in developing the physical plant, that is. completing the necessary buildings and re-creating from worn-out farm lands a source of small endowment, and in fixing standards. The .secondary schools of our country, particularly in the South, where money has been scant and where a double system of schools imposes a heavy burden, have not always been able to meet the demands of the college in the matter of preparation. Sweet Briar, like other colleges, has had to contend with the difficulties of inadequate preparation on the part of the students. The institution, with its wonderful campus, its outdoor life, its ideal climate, has a distinct charm, which drew to it students in large numbers. It was difficult to resist the popular demand for low-admission standards and easy courses, hut it has been done. Through patience, hard work, and high purpose on the part of the faculty and the former President, Dr. Mary K. Benedict, the college has been placed on a firm basis of sound endeavor and good scholarship. In the past ten years Sweet Briar has steadily advanced its standards and strengthened its curriculum. To-day its degree is a hard-won honor; its gradu- ates are influential as teachers and as graduate students of Cornell. Columbia, Johns Hopkins, etc. Sweet Briar College stands at the beginning of a new decade. The work of the past has been to establish; the work of the future must be to enlarge. Its curricu- lum, though high, has been inelastic. It has been able to realize one part of the program laid down by its directors; it remains now to carry out the other part, to enrich the curriculum, to relate it more closely to the needs of our complex modern life, to bring the college into firm and vital relationship with educational and com- munity centers. The physical isolation of most of our smaller women ' s colleges, makes the problem of educational and community cooperation more difficult for them than for others of the larger institutions, but to-day the demand of community and educational responsibility is imperative upon private foundations as well as upon state-supported institutions. This responsibility entails the training of stu- dents, too. in political and social science, in the problems of housing, in the needs of cities and rural communities, m the laws controlling the activities of the schools and of homes. It demands from the faculties not only teaching of a high order, but also research, production, and extension work. No one person can enter into 19

Page 27 text:

: % BRIAR PATCH C1)r Jirst Cm J)rars of mt Briar Sweet Briar College opened on Septembei 27, this number was small i1 was a great beginning, and deeply indebted to them, for they were the pioneers of a college without am ideals or customs and entireh with thirty-six students. Though ve who K« k back on the early .lays are lur college history. Think of beginning unfamiliar surroundings. The college consisted of the Refectory, Carson, Gray, and the Academic Building. There were ihapel and no gym, but they used our present library for a chapel and the English room for the library. Sine., the number of students was so small there was no need for a large faculty and administrative force. Among the fevi who have been at Sweet Briar since its founding are Mr. Dew, Dr. Harley, and -Miss Carroll. The most significant fact about the whole beginning was that S. G. A. was in force from a Larkins the association ml tier associates we owe h e have onlj modified as life of unrestricted ease. rush madly down to the refectory, thej breakfast ed in real comfort, for dining the start. Under the presidency of An made great strides. To Anna Larkins the constitution of our S. G. A., which we have found need. Truly theirs was Where we in 191 luxuriated in bed a rules were practically unknown. They were allowed to receive their men friends in the middle rooms of the suite-. In the days of the original thirty-six they had little need to make, such re- strictions. The Y. W. C. A., under Nan Powell, made it- first start, ami laid the foundation id ' the association which now ha- such an active life. A Dramatic Association was formed, but it was not then separated into chapters as it is at the present time. As then- were no gym and hockey field, there was little of what might he termed organized athletics, but to the efforts of Helen Schultz, we owe our present well-established athletic association. The May Day of the year 1906 was in truth quite simple. Instead 21