University of Washington - Tyee Yearbook (Seattle, WA)

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What The University Stands For t E recognize that the highest object of the University is to produce good citizens. men of character, patriotism and lofty purpose. Perhaps the University's policy is revealed in regard to character training as satisfactorily as it can be revealed when it is said that we do recognize that this is the first duty and the highest object of the University. Character cannot be made as we make concrete or hardened steel: character cannot be tested and modified as we test for impurities in the laboratories and throw them out. In character building we are dealing with the human will, the human taste, the human choice. It is important for a student to come to do the right thing, but it is still more important that the atmosphere and spirit of the University be such that the student will of his own moral judgment come to see the wisdom of doing the right thing. Our belief, then, is that to secure given conduct in the student in the University is important, but that it is even more important to develop independence of character, personal responsibility and self- accountability. This principle is the great undercurrent of all government at the Univer- sity. This is the principle which determines the attitude of the instructors toward the stu- dents both in and out of the class room. To this end the regents and president of the University endeavor to appoint to the faculty men who primarily are well prepared for the University work, and men who at the same time are manly, whose lives are wholesome and association with whom will be beneficial. We cannot, as a state institution, ask for a given creed or a given faith. Xve extend a liberality which will insure sincerity, a liberality which will secure to each indi- vidual the right to work toward the ideals of the University in the way in which he can be most efficient. ' However different may be the methods of the individual instructors toward moral ends. 'lfi

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PRESIDENT THOMAS FRANKLIN KAXE

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the ideals are the same as to the importance of moral development and character in the University work. Vlfhatever may be the departrnenls or curriculums of the University, the obligation and opportunity for developing manly character are the same. ln thinking of our State University's policy in moral training it would be well to keep two facts in mind: First, that more than hall of our students are twenty-one years old or older: and second, that the students themselves are left free to maintain religious organizations. The Y. M. C. A. and the Y. XV. C. A. both have organizations in the University, each with a paid secretary on lull time, and there is also an organization of the Catholic students of the University known as the Newman Club. The work ot' the students through these asso- ciations is, in the main, sane, wholesome and benehcial, and commands the esteem of all classes of students. The second great object of the University is to prepare students for lives of usefulness in the state. Vlfe should call attention, too, to the importance as a moral force of the useful in education and training. The student that is prepared at the University for a life of usefulness and service will be given at the same time strong impulses toward upright- ness and character. To prepare men for lives of usefulness means to prepare them to do the work which needs to be done in the state. The maintenance of every school of the University can be justified on the ground of its service to the state, in preparing men for the work that needs to be done in the state. The College of Liberal Arts, which is the nucleus about which most of our universi- ties have been built, would be justified on the ground of any one of several services which it is rendering. For example, in this college, at the present time, are registered many students who are preparing themselves as teachers for the high schools of the state. At the last commencement in June, l908, Fifty-hve graduates took the normal diploma at the University, which is equivalent to a state teacher's certificate for life. In this college, too, is the general training for the men who are to become lawyers, physicians, ministers, professional men generally, and business men. Already in the cur- riculum courses are provided for the student who is later to study law, who is later to study medicine, who is later to go into commercial lines. There is a special course for the student who is to take up newspaper work. On this principle of the statels need and of service to the state, the schools of the University have been established, including the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Engineering, which embraces chemical, civil, elec- trical and mechanical engineering, the School of Mines, the School of Law, the School of Pharmacy, and the School of Forestry. The student may select his college training with reference to any calling which he expects to follow. THOMAS F. KANE. 17