University of Western Ontario - Occidentalia Yearbook (London, Ontario Canada)

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ADMINISTRATICDN

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fx E 4 H-LL too many students are going out from the universities into the world, if not with the despairing words of Hamlet on their lips, at least with Hamlet's sentiments in their hearts. The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right. Though impelled by the high purpose of doing their bit to help set things right, they are overwhelmed by a sense of futility- by the thought of their own relative smallness. Perhaps they expect too muchg but if so, solely because of their limited ex- perience. Bewildered by the terrific magnitude of the full task before them, they overlook what is really in their power to accomplish. Doubtless one of the great causes-if not the very greatest-of recent social and economic dislocations, is abuse of our precious democratic heritage of individual opportunity. The usual form of this abuse is the general endeavor of all classes of citizens to gain personal advantage at the cost of the common good. As serious students of history university graduates know the reality and malignancy of this evil. It is, therefore, their especial duty to denounce and reject with conspicuous positive- ness the practice of placing the motive of self-interest first. I believe this: if all the graduates of all our universities-even the classes of '36 alone-were to take a common stand in this respect, their spectacular example would soon point society to at least one way of beginning to set right these disjointed times. Even to start something like this is a worthwhile service. rg 61,41-Tl President and Vice-Chancellor page 25