University of Chicago - Cap and Gown Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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ALUMNI ln Memphis is a club of Chicago Alumni. They are interested in what happens at the University, and alive to problems of general import. Mr. Paul H. Davis, head of the Clubs Committee of the Alumni Council, by con- stant personal correspondence with a leading member of this club, knows its interests, the nature of its personnel, and its dates of meet- ing. Alumni Council and Board of Alumni Rela- tions exchange information, the Alumni Secre- tary notifies the Memphis Club of the pro- fessor's trip, the Club arranges a meeting and invites the professor. Other clubs along the road to Memphis may make similar arrange- ments. Some clubs are more remote than Mem- phis, and not so likely to be visited in the course of the professor's business. The Board will plan tours to these at regular intervals by certain selected professors. What discoveries the Board of Alumni Relations and the Alumni Council make in this beginning of their work together, they will apply as they extend this work into other parts of the unifying program. The President's office, with the benefit of the experience already gained, has mailed to all Alumni and former students a news letter, in which Mr. John Dollard, Assistant to the President, has collected interesting facts about the activity of every department-from studies of the geography of Chicago to investigations of the causes of suicide. In the spring, the departments will combine, under the guidance of the Alumni and Dean Filbey's Board, to add something new to the Reunion program: a University open-house. Returning Alumni will have an opportunity never given them at previous Reunions to tour the Quadrangles and see the work of the University on display. Laboratories, the new hospitals, precious relics in the Haskell Museum, photographs of Chaucer manuscripts, etc., will be on hand for inspection. Favorite professors will be in their offices, with plenty of cigars on hand, to greet old friends. The more serious phase of University life will have a greater share than before in the Reunion program. By such a general method as this, the University proposes to achieve a new degree of co-operation, and to direct ua new force toward strengthening and advancing the Universityf, HEALD Page 29

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ALUMNI A committee of Alumni and members of the Faculty began Work last spring with this major premise: 'LThe Alumni are to be recog- nized as a part of the University body. They comprize a group to be cultivated and a new force to be properly directed toward strength- ening and advancing the University. Wiith this assumption the committee set to work. The program which it adopted for strengthening the connections of Alumni with their Alma Mater provides for more than a dozen lines of approach to the problem. For one thing, it includes a more intensive use of machinery already set up: adaptation and wider circulation of The University of Chi- cago Magazineg a fuller and more interesting program for Reunion and Homecomingg co- operation in the development of Alumni clubs, extension of the records of the Alumnig an organized plan for the reception of visiting Alumni, with opportunities for attending classes, seeing new buildings, and chatting with favorite faculty membersg radio programs planned especially for the Alumni. The program includes frequent communications-booklets, letters from the President or favorite deans or professors-giving the Alumni information about the University. It provides for visits by professors to Alumni clubs and individual Alumni throughout the country. The University accepted the proposal, and created a committee of the Faculty, called the Board of Alumni Relations, to carry out the University's share of the Work, in co-operation with the Alumni Council. Dean Emery T. Filbey was released last Fall from his teaching duties for one year to take charge of the work of this Board. A certain professor, let us say, plans to do a piece of research Work in Mem- phis, Tennessee. He is an authority in political science, his studies in the ma- chinery of city government have attracted Wide attention. He can tell a story about the University's Work in this field that will interest anybody who is awake to the day's problems. Dean Filbey, in touch with all departments and schools of the University, learns of this professor's contemplated trip. TI1im1ERMAN Page 26'

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In the group of colleges organized around the central hub of the administration is found the undergraduate realm of the University of Chicago. Cobb Hall, the first building erected upon the campus, probably symbolizes most ellectually the ideas, the traditions, and the associations connected with undergraduate classes. For practically every student has, at some time between his matriculation and graduation, had at least one class in Cobbu, and has stood in the chattering crowd in front of Cobb between morning sessions. The system and personnel of the ad- ministration which guide the undergraduate schools, are indeed the unifying element which they are intended to be, and are Worthy of the highest comment for their excellence and efhciency.