University of Washington - Tyee Yearbook (Seattle, WA)

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own cap and gown (the Faculty did not wear them) were always loaned to some senior and they graduated regularly until the gown came to grief at the hands (no, the feet) of a short fellow who walked all over the hem of the garment and tore it to shreds. As the years sped by many changes came about in the University membership. The number of students increased in a notable degree, and class spirit became strong and dominant. Students were drawn from everywhere and not alone from the shadows of the institution. The enrollment became cosmopolitan and no longer provincial. The high schools had an amazing development and the students entered the University younger in years and at the same time better prepared for college work. Games and sports came to their own as the institution waxed strong in numbers, and out of it all has been evolved the present elaborate series of intercollegiate contests of brawn and muscle. In my twenty years of daily association with the Washington student I have come to know him thoroughly and it is with genuine pleasure that I take this opportunity of giving him a word of tribute for his many fine qualities. As I have found him he is unusually versatile — rich in profitable experiences — ready to meet every emergency; he is an honorable contender — undismayed in defeat — magnanimous in victory; he has -in intense pride in his institution — faith in himself — and optimism unbounded for the future; he is sincere in his desire to learn, and is determined to make ample preparation to do his share of the world ' s work; he is chivalrous — brave — eager to make sure that his ' scutcheon has no blot; he believes in the nobility of character, and the best traditions of the purple and gold v ll always be safe in his hands. One is said to show the shelf-mark of Time when he delights in reminiscences or indulges in retrospect. I will admit that judged by years alone or by the natural span of a life-time I have reached a place where my shadow falls a little to the eastward. But in hope, in enthusiasm, and in everything that belongs to the spirit I wall not admit that the winged years have left a single furrow. At Washington we have found the fountain of perpetual youth and a time of old age is unthinkable.

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IMPRESSIONS THEN AND NOW Arthur R. Priest, Dean of Men. N THE years from 1 900 to 1 9 1 the University of Washington was so busy grow- ing that it had little time to take stock. With a rapidly changing student body and a constant influx of new instructors, the establishment of traditions was almost an im- possibility. Com.mon standards of scholarship or common ideals of life were not to be found either among the students or among the Faculty. The students on the whole were ingenious and, on first registering, were overflowing with undirected enthusiasm. The mem- bers of the Faculty, under the burden of too many instructional hours per week, were trying to get the best possible results out of classes generally too large. The result was inevitabi-; discouragement not only to the Faculty but to many, many students who were lost in the mass and who failed to get a proper conception of the real purpose of University training. Such students soon dropped from the college rolls; they had never been in college in spirit. These years were also years of financial good times and many young people came to the University because they had sufficient money and not because they had a vision of true education. Such students rarely graced the campus more than one or two semesters before moving on. The greatest weakness of all, however, was the feeling on the Campus in both student and Faculty circles, that leadership was lacking. There was little disposition on the part of a freshman to look up to and take advice from a senior. The freshman rarely felt that he was passing through a trying-out period. What if he should fail in studies! He felt it no disgrace or reproof, for he could immediately turn his attention to business and possibly make more money in a month selling real estate than his former instructors were receiving for a year ' s grind of teaching! Instructors also felt the pull of outside distractions and many times held to their legitimate work more from a sense of duty than because of single-hearted love for their teaching. Yet through these years of confusion and immaturity there were two notable factors making for stability, two forces at work to make an abiding institution. One of these forces was the Board of Control of the Associated Students. This Board was the one continuous body running through the student life of these years always working for definite standards and laboring at all times for a uniform policy of efficiency in student affairs. This Board it was that conserved whatever of good there was in one generation of students and carried it on to the next. The other favorable factor was a group of a few leading spirits among the Faculty who were deeply interested in every student enrolled in their classes and who sought to point the students to higher ideals of service through scholarship. These men and women toiled early and late to create an enthusiasm for ' he things of the mind. On the Campus today there is a marked contrast to the conditions of ten r: even five years ago. The ingenuousness of that period still exists, but it is taking the form of openmindedness and candor rather than naivete; and openmindedness is the sure fore- runner of progress and scholarship. So on every hand there is cause for hope and great expectations. Our freshmen are uniformly better prepared than formerly and they are beginning to regard an E ' mark as a badge of dishonor. Our seniors are uniformly more serious in their class-room work and in their leadership they assume an attitude that commands respect and confidence. Our graduate student group has grown from a neg- ligible factor to one of much potency and influence. The men and women of this group