University of Arkansas Fayetteville - Razorback Yearbook (Fayetteville, AR)

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THE GRADUATE SCEICCL ' T ' HE student in his first year of graduate work has two aims: He endeavors, by learning from others, to increase his knowledge of his chosen subject; and he tries to learn something of methods in research which will enable him to carry on his studies inde¬ pendently, to increase not only his private stores of knowledge but also the general knowledge of man¬ kind. In accordance with these two desired ends he undertakes two kinds of work, namely, courses of lectures or reading or laboratory experiments from which he expects to gain more information than he has already come into possession of from his under¬ graduate studies; and the solution of a problem by which he hopes to discover what has not before been known. Small as his discovery may be, it yet has been independent, and it is his own. The graduate school of the University of Arkansas, like all other graduate schools, keeps these two principles in mind. It requires of its students the pursuit of advanced courses under instructors competent to give them, and the completion of a thesis designed to test ability to do original work. The degree of concentration is naturally much more intense than in the under¬ graduate college, for the graduate student confines himself to two closely related fields of knowledge. His choice of courses and his thesis problem are limited by this consideration. His studies are in many respects free from the ordinary restraints of under¬ graduate work, but the purposes of graduate work he must constantly keep in mind. He must remember that interest and independence are more essential than formal requirements. A graduate school cannot be created out of hand. It must be constructed upon a significant under¬ graduate life, and not something imposed from above. You cannot, therefore, give sound graduate training without giving sound graduate work. It is impossible for the University of Arkansas to offer the Ph. D. degree at present for these very reasons, but with the present library and research facilities, the splen¬ did faculty, and the program of work outlined for graduate work, we are able to give a master’s degree with a pedigree behind it. To do this, however, absolute co-operation between students and faculty members is necessary. Page 28

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PRESIDENT JCEIN CLINTCN EDTR SLL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS TT IS with no inconsiderable degree of satisfaction that 1 look back over the seventeen years that have elapsed since I became the chief executive of the University of Arkansas. 1 make this statement without apology, for the progress that has been made represents the achievements of many able and loyal men, not only in this period but of an earlier generation. During these years, in the face of the establishment of almost a dozen other colleges in the state, and in spite of an elevation of standards for en¬ trance and for graduation, the number of students on the campus has trebled. The library has grown from a miscel¬ laneous collection of 15,000 or 20,000 books to a well-organized library of approximately 100,000 volumes, and is now rated as one of the best university libraries in the South. Technical and scientific apparatus and equipment have increased in the same ratio. Two of the best and most beautiful educational buildings in the nation have been President John Clinton Futrall erected. In the general estimation of the public and of educators, and in accordance with a published report of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, the quality of the faculty of the University of Arkansas is of an unusually high order. The curriculum has been extended to include law, business administration, journalism, home economics, and other subjects. There has been a notable increase in the amount of research work done by faculty scholars. A graduate school has been established. The institution has begun to take on the atmosphere of a real university. The in¬ fluence of the University has been widely extended through direct contacts made with thousands of citizens in all parts of the state. The University has, however, still great problems to overcome before it can be the important factor in life and development of the state that a great uni¬ versity may be. For this purpose it needs money; money for buildings, for equipment, for better faculty salaries, for scholarships and student loans. The solving of these problems is one that calls for the best efforts of the University governing board, the admin¬ istration, the faculty, the students, the alumni, and all friends of education in the state. Page 27

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COLLEGE CE ACTS AND SCIENCES “T CALL therefore a complete and generous educa¬ tion, that which fits a man to perform justly, skillfully, and magnanimously all the offices, both public and private, of peace and war,” said John Milton, writing in 1644 of what he spoke of as a “better education” than that in vogue. The wording of that definition might be changed to bring it within the range of the “peppy” English of our day, but a better definition of the aims of liberal educa¬ tion has yet to be drawn. Perhaps the next genera¬ tion will be able to omit “of war.” Modern science and industry have added a multitude of facts and machines unknown to Milton, have created hundreds of trades and professions which the creator of “Para¬ dise Lost” could not have imagined, even though he was familiar with the new philosophy of Bacon, and had met at Florence the great Galileo who had invented the “optic glass” that was to bring the rest of the universe close to us. No one can learn more than a small part of the knowledge that man has accumulated; still less can he perform “skillfully” all the public duties or the private trades now so numerous because of the complexity of our civilization, but a properly educated person should be able to know the meaning of these duties and these trades, and their relation to the past and the future. He should know the method by which scientists pioneer beyond the border of known facts. He should be able to distinguish the important among the shifting currents of civilization. He should be able to find uses for his leisure that would minimize the horrors of an “old Age of Cards.” There is abundant proof in human experience that may have found such values as those in liberal education. There is no reason why liberal education should not, in greater degree, continue to serve some of the most deeply-rooted desires of humanity. The continued development of machines promises vastly more leisure for a multitude of persons than the present offers. “Technological unemployment,” the five-day week, overcrowded professions, elimination of middlemen, a surplus of farmers, or coal miners—with such terms we are already familiar, and they promise to figure even more largely in the future. For all these and for other contingencies it is well that the man of the next generation be prepared to understand the mean¬ ing of “all the offices, public and private, of peace,” and to perform whatever work he is fitted to do in the light of that knowledge. Page 29