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

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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

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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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i r PJ §CHCCL cr LAW r PHE School of Law during the academic year A entered upon a new period in its development. For the first five years of the history of the School the efforts of the law faculty were directed to the organization of the curriculum and the law clubs, and the building up of the law library. With the exception of several pamphlets on legal topics which were distributed and of certain addresses the School of Law had not come in as close contact with the bar of the State as it had desired to do. A number of research articles were prepared by members of the law staff but were published in the law reviews of other universities and did not, as a rule, come to the attention of our own bar. Dean j. s. W aterman j n November, 1929, the School of Law began to issue a series of bulletins containing articles of interest to the legal profession in Arkansas. This publication, called “The Law School Bulletin,” is distributed without cost to the members of the bar of the State. It includes legal articles, comments on recent Arkansas cases, discussions of existing and proposed legisla¬ tion, and brief announcements concerning the law school. In time it is hoped that lawyers in the State will contribute articles to this bulletin and that it will serve as a place for the discussion of the legal problems confronting the State. In addition to being of practical value to the lawyers of the State, the bulletin should be of considerable aid to the young man studying law in the University of Arkansas. Since it is devoted almost entirely to a consideration of the case and statutory law of Arkansas, there will be available studies of law of this jurisdiction to which the law student can be referred. The bulletin should also stimulate the law students to prepare articles for publication based on the results of their in¬ vestigation of the moot cases assigned in their law club work. Additional recognition of the quality of work of the School of Law came from the General Assem¬ bly in 1929. By a legislative act the graduates of the school are admitted to practice in the State without being required to take the bar examination. The members of the graduating class of 1930 will be the first beneficiaries of this privilege. The future outlook for the L T niversity of Arkan¬ sas law school is bright. The school will grow in years to come, not only in enrollment, but in equip¬ ment, faculty staffs, and laboratory equipment for legal study. The evolution of the law school is hoped and expected to be fast and to grow in prestige with the growth and prestige of a greater University of Arkansas. Page 30