University of Texas Austin - Cactus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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1 B. S. and M. A., The University of Texas; Ph. D., Harvard; LL. D., Baylor University and Southwestern University (Georgetown). Fellow A. A. A. S.; member American Mathematics Society, American Astronomical Society, Society for Promotion of Engineering Education, Phi Beta Kappa, Tau Beta Phi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Fellow in pure mathe- matics, tutor pure and applied mathematics. The University of Texas; assistant Leander McCormick Observatory, University of Virginia; instructor in charge, ad interim, mathematics and astronomy, Vanderbilt University; instructor, adjunct professorj associate professor, professor, director department of extension, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, president since 1927, The University of Texas. President Harry Yandell Bened ict died on May 19, 1937, w ' hile performing one 1 of his many duties in a busy and useful life | devoted to the upbui Iding of the Univer- 1 sity and the advancement of the cause of | education in America. H. y. Benedict, President

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The Texas Declaration of Independence, March 2, 1836, injected a new element into history when it listed a neglect of public education as one of the legitimate reasons for revolution. Seven weeks later, April 21, on the San Jacinto battlefield the new Republic practically won its independence, and eighteen months after San Jacinto, in the Second Congress of the Republic, General Kelsey hi. Douglass introduced a bill to incorporate The University of Texas. Although nothing more is known of this bill, the University was thus the first part of the public educational system to get attention in the Congress of the Republic. In 1838 provision was made for a University campus at the seat of government, and in 1839, 220,000 acres of land were set aside as an endowment for two colleges or universities. From the 1838 message of President Mirabeau B. Lamar has been taken the motto of the University, Cultivated mind is the guardian genius of Democracy, and while guided and controlled by virtue, the noblest attribute of man. It is the only dictator that freemen acknowledge and the only security that freemen desire. It was not until 1858 that an act to establish the University was actually passed. It gave to the University the 220,000 acres above referred to, $100,000 in United States bonds, and one acre for every ten acres granted to railways as subsidies for construction. The Constitution of 1876 repealed the one acre for every ten acres granted to railways provision of 1858 and in lieu thereof gave to the University and its branches (meaning A. M. College and a negro branch not yet started) one million acres of land in West Texas, the Legislature adding a second million acres in 1883. In 1881 the Legislature passed the act which made possible the opening of the University on September 15, 1883. Support from the general revenue of the State began in 1889, but the Constitution still prohibits the Legislature from appropriating money to the University for the construction of buildings. Income from surface leases on the two million western acres has grown to $250,000 a year, and since 1925 about $20,000,000 has come out of these acres by way of oil royalties. This $20,000,000 belongs to the permanent University fund, the unexpendable endow- ment fund NA hich by constitutional provision must be invested in high-grade bonds — United States, state, county, and municipal. Practically all of the University part of this income from the endowment is being used now to retire indebtedness incurred in the construction of new buildings since 1932. One of the three southern members of the exclusive Association of American Universities, the University is today certainly one of the ten greatest state universities of the United States, one of the thirty greatest Universities in North America. Contrariwise, its cost per student is very low, quite below the average for the state universities as a group. The educational task of the next ten years is to make The University of Texas a worthy rival of any state university. The boys and girls of Texas are as good as any and they deserve a University as good as any. Actually, the University is to be judged mainly by its effect on the students who flow through it in such large numbers. But it is impossible for any human being to make the measurements wherewithal to arrive even approximately at such a judgment. Each student upon entering the University has certain capacities, habits and accomplishments that make a totality so unknown, even to fond parents, as to be called X. Each student upon leaving has also a totality Z almost as unknown as the X. And since the University is not the only influence operating on a student during his residence in it, the University is not to be debited or credited with the difference between the unknown Z and the unknown X. A few differences between Z and X may be known fairly accurately to a few people, but there is no Registrar ' s Office where the University part of all the differences may be added up and the effect of the University on all its students determined. We of the staff of the University work on in the faith that Z is greater than X in most of the cases and that enough of the favorable difference is due to the University amply to justify its existence. Despite the fact that Commencement is a time of parting and therefore of sorrow, we come to each end of the college year buoyed up by the cheerful faith that the out- going students are in the main worthy and are carrying away from the University some precious benefits. Let me close with a quotation from Governor Roberts: Our Constitution says it is to be of the first class,- be it the labor of love to make it so. dy - - . d0 t6 Cc { ■ w wxmw an» t v ». ffiHM ■m

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BOARD OF REGENTS The Board of Regents, consisting of nine members appointed in groups of three every two years, has full authority, subject only to appropriations of the legislature and the law of the State and Federal governments, over the administration of the University. The Board, the Supreme Court on campus problems, now has thirteen standing committees. Dr. Edward Randall is Chairman and J. R. Parten Vice-Chairman of the Board. DR. EDWARD RANDALL, Chairman A real Southern gentleman and one of the finest characters in the medical profession. Dr. Randall has contributed much to the development of our University in all fields. We honor him mainly for the development of the Medical School at Galveston. To him above all others goes the credit for its progress. H. J. LUTCHER STARK Dynamic and forceful, Mr. Stark is a born leader, and he has devoted the fullness of his energies to the University. He has served on the Board since 1919 and has been the moving force behind nearly every worthwhile University project since tfiat time. His generosity has made possible many of the Library collections and also scholarships for deserving students. DR. K. H. AYNESWORTH A practicing physician in Waco, Dr. Aynesworth is very prominent in Waco civic circles. After graduating from the University Medical School, he studied abroad. In addition to his many contributions to our University, he has done much for Baylor University. H. H. WEINERT Capable and energetic, Mr. Weinert has brought success to every enterprise he has undertaken. As a student in the University he was truly an outstanding one. At the age of twenty-one he was mayor of Seguin. He has since been lawyer, banker, farmer, and oil man. Paye 2(i