University of San Francisco - USF Don Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

Page 25 text:

THE DIGNITY OF TIIE SMALL COLLEGE 19 dear to her. They will cement hearty, lasting friendships for their fellows; unlike the large universities, which despite their reputation for establishing social relations among students, harbor many who know no one at all. In the small college, each man has an intimate acquaintanceship with all his comrades. There is, we may safely say, a burning, lasting, fervent love in the heart of every student of a small college for Alma Mater. We can say of every small college in the country what Daniel Webster said of his own: “She is small, but there are those who love her.” One more point in our comparison.. The large university is often regarded as the normal American institution—the small college as either some new, untried, unreliable affair, or else as some mediaeval, obsolete thing which perished, or should have perished long ago. But is it known that the large university of today is simply an overgrown college, swollen to abnormal size within the last twenty-five years? President Thompson, himself of the large university of Ohio State says that “They are so young that their real value and efficiency arc still problematical.” Is it known that throughout the entire history of education in our country the small college has been the normal institution of higher learning? In 1850 no college in the land had more than four hundred students, and even today only one in every six has more than five hundred. So that we can readily see that the small college has been the main source of higher education in the past and it has done its work remarkably well. For whence came the educated men who in the past built America? From the small college. We have herein reviewed a matter of great importance. For America in the future will need sound-principled, broadminded, right-thinking, educated men. America needs such men to work for her; to guide the Ship of State through all the storms that will come, to form a strong bulwark for the future of the country. And so when we know that the day is hastening when the large university will again enter its proper field, that of specializing, and the small college will

Page 24 text:

18 THE I (i SAT IAS student and teacher, co-operation is obtained, and success in college is assured. The first point of our little comparison has been considered. Let us proceed now to one which will not only be of greatest interest to students, but which will also appeal to everyone who has the welfare of our educational institutions at heart. That point concerns college spirit. There is a certain grandeur about a large university, an allurement in the magnificent buildings, the green campus, the shady walks, the stadium perhaps, the athletics. We sec too frequent exhibitions of the students’ unrestrained enthusiasm for their Alma Mater, when thousands of them assemble to give frantic demonstration in support of a little band of eleven football players; we see many an ivy-walled fraternity house festooned throughout with the university colors, where to the soft strains of a hidden orchestra, hundreds of male and female students nightly dance away their cares, and forget their studies; we hear the lusty voices and twanging banjoes of the glee club, making night musical with rollicking college songs, and perhaps we are fascinated by the splendor of it all. But upon reflection, we find that college spirit does not consist in these. Undoubtedly there is spirit in large universities, but let not the tinsel effect of the various activities of such institutions tend to suggest that the small college lacks proper college spirit. Just as in abodes of wealth it sometimes happens that the proper spirit of the home is lost to the children, while the smaller home of the poor man is continually made bright by love, so can we not also affirm that the spirit of the small college is at least as ardent and strong as that of the university with all its seeming splendor? For in what does true college spirit consist ? Is it not in working for, in loving Alma Mater and all of her sons? And this we know that the students of a small college do. They will work for her in many ways, not the least of which is maintaining her high scholastic standing; they will love her, since as she has but few sons, she is especially dear to them, and they equally

Page 26 text:

20 THE IGX AT I Ay continue its great work of giving liberal education to the future citizens of the nation, it is well to know that the small college is a dependable, reliable, well-established institution. It is well to know that it is the normal American college, that it has that priceless possession, true college spirit, that it affords its students great scholastic opportunities. Let us not then despise or make apologies for a college because it is small. It is well to remember that from it may have come forth men of education whose service to the country has been incalculable. It may be that its limited size is the greatest factor for its greatness. This article must not be taken as an attack on our large universities. We feel their worth, and we maintain that in their proper sphere their success is great indeed. We have referred to them merely because they are the natural basis for comparison with the small college. Nor is it its purpose to exaggerate the qualities of the small college, but to present its true value, to show what it has done in the past, what it is doing in the present, and the still greater things confidently expected of it in the future. .