University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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I- W NINttXRKN-TEN MICHIGANENSIA.M The Past Year By ARTHUR J. ABBOTT, ' 09- ' ll L. R. EDWARD E. SLOSSON in his treatises on American Universities speaks of the situation at Michigan. Harvard and Minnesota as, in a certain sense, critical, owing to the significant changes in the administration of these univer- sities during past year. However this may be, it is certain that from a Michigan stand- point at least, nineteen hundred nine has been pre-eminently a year of transition in all departments of University activity. A general awakening of alumni interest leading to the appointment of a permanent alumni improvement committee ; a well defined extension of faculty influence in the direction of more adequate control of under- graduate activities; a general progressive spirit in the administrative councils of the university; and, lastly, the initation of great projects for the betterment of undergraduate life the enumeration of these is but to indicate the general trend of events in a year re- plete with change. By far the most significant change in American Universities during the past year, was the retirement of the three oldest and most experienced University presi- dents, Eliot of Harvard at the age of seventy -five after twenty-five years of service; Northrup of Minnesota at the age of seventy-five after twenty-five years of service; and Dr. Angell at the age of eighty-one years after thirty-eight years as President of the University of Michigan. During Dr. Angell ' s administration, Michigan has grown to be the greatest commonwealth university and at the present time has more undergraduate students in its regular session than any educational institution in the United States. Its alumni body numbering approximately thirty thousand, is the largest in the country and has representatives in the United States Supreme O ' ourt, in the highest state tribunals, in the chairs of great universities and in places of high responsibility in every walk of life throughout the world. The alumni arc the back bone of a university and it is therefore of extra- ordinary significance to chronicle the fact that a definite plan of alumni organiza- tion has been evolved during the past year, along lines such as were discussed by Professor James R. Angell at the Michigan Union Banquet of last fall. The scope of this article does not permit of an extended survey of the service which may inure to the University from the organization of Michigan Alumni; but among the benefits which may and should readily flow from such an effort are: First, the formation of public opinion leading to more favorable appreciation of the needs of the univer- sity in the legislature; Second, the awakening of alumni to the need for gifts and endowments from wealthy graduates: Third, suggestions for improvement in the organization, administration and instruction of the University; Eourth, the insur- ance of alumni aid in great student enterprises, such as the raising of funds for the proposed Union CMub House. President Lane of the Alumni Association has m m m i [161

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CM NIMETEEN-TEN MICHICA.MENSIA.M m appointed a committee of twenty-one representative alumni with Professor James R. Angell as chairman, and the progress of this body, fraught, as it is, with consider- ation of such tremendous importance, will be observed with interest. A new institution which intimately involves the whole stratum of under- graduate organization is the Board in Control of Student Activities. This body requires each student society to file articles of incorporation as a condition prece- dent to its existence and has the power to dissolve such organizations as it considers unnecessary or deleterious adjuncts of University life. Some have been inclined to criticise this innovation because it smacks of paternalism and red tape : but, nevertheless, it is certain to exert a most salutary influence on student life. Al- though the university with its one-hundred, seventy-six student organizations is probably not over-organized, and although, according to statistics, only one-tenth of the undergraduates are identified with organization life, yet there is a strong tendency for mushroom societies of doubtful merit to spring up overnight and this tendency senate supervision should, effectually curb. Moreover, such regulation lends greater dignity to those organizations which have passed the scrutiny of the university authorities and been presented with a clean bill of health. Worthy student organizations should welcome the change. Another faculty institution, which has been initiated in recognition of the lack of personal relation between the faculty and undergraduates, is the freshman advisory system. At the beginning of the school year, the entire Freshman literary class was entertained at Harbour Gymnasium where the first year students became acquainted with their advisors and with each other. The distinct aid which the advisory board aims to furnish these students is: First, counsel in the election of their studies; Second, to advise delinquent students, and, if possible, ascertain the cause of their inability to do satisfactory work; Third, in general, to break down the divergence between students and faculty, and to make the faculty appear less a teaching machine and more a body of co-workers in the interest of thestudents ' social as well as intellectual development. The advisory system, if its influence be aggressively exerted, will come to be a valuable asset both to the faculty and undergraduates. In that department of student life which President Woodrow Wilson calls the side-shows, the past year has been one of distinct advancement. The Mich- igan Union has lent a degree of solidarity to student and alumni life even greater than would appear at first glance. Commensurate in its own sphere with the influence of the Michigan Union is that of the Women ' s League. This organization has officers on the first floor of Barbour Gymnasium and furnishes Club House privileges in two parlors supplied with comfortable furniture and a reading room. During the past year, the League has given several dances and an ice carnival to reduce the indebtedness on the Women ' s Athletic Field, the property recently acquired near the observatory. It is the intention of the League to devote this field to tennis, basketball and other sports as soon as the field is free from debt and properly equipped. The Student Council during the past year has vindicated itself in the estima- tion of its critics, particularly by the thoroughness with which it conducted the investigation in the Miller controversy. By its failure to cope with the Star Theatre situation a year ago last fall, the Council had been severely criticised and it is par- ticularly fortunate that its members have this year so adequately demonstrated the efficiency of the Council in dealing with great campus problems. In the field of inter-collegiate activity, Michigan ' s record during the past year has been extremely creditable. The baseball squad, under the tutelage of Coach McAllister, made an enviable record in the South, at home and among the Eastern institutions. After a successful southern trip, the team played several games in the Middle West and concluded the season abroad with an Eastern trip III t