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

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-10 zz., qwewzm, emi of 1944.- As an unremitting search alter truth is the prime characteristic oi a good college land who is there to say that Western is not one?l, so are its graduates marked by a burning desire to hold to the things that are fine and true in the culture that is the product ot centuries of progressive civilization. Your exit from the academic quiet ot these cloistered halls is made at a time when one oi the great tasks ot enlightened mankind is to maintain the permanence of that culture for which'so much is now being sacrificed on the battle-fields by your own generation. lt must be your high purpose to assume that responsibility and to bring truth into the service oi humanity. Never has there been a time when Western's heraldic ideal has been a more appropriate guide for her alumni. Veritas et utilitas. Congratulations on your success so tarp and Godspeed. ior the future. DOROTHY TURVILLE, Dean oi Women.

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70 flue ew of 7944 Soldiers should be proud ot the unit in which they serve cmd should by every meons in their power ovoid bringing discredit to the motto emblozoned on its stondotrd. Veritos et utilitos, truth cmd service, cholllenges dll ot our student body, post ond present, to honest thoughts ond noble deeds. But whott is truth? Pilote hosn't been the only morn in history who hos been betuddled by thot simple question. But otter two thousond yeotrs oi cgretul thought devoted by profound minds to the onswer, we should be gble to opprecicrte os he never could the inner significotnce oi the cliche thot he thot is true to himself connot then be tolse to ony mdn - the iinol ornd olbsolute test ot truth. lt our educotion hos been ot ony procticol volue we should hove leorned ot service thot the one thing it does not mecrn is self-service. All thot we elders, who ore generous no end with otdvice thot is never token seriously by youth, con hope for the Closs of l944, is thot it will dlwctys cleove to the two ideols to which its dlmcr moter is by its motto dedicoted. K. P. H. NEVILLE, Deon, University College.

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, s. ra-M 70 Zfze 01644 of '-44: Veritas et utilitas s it is fitting in the circumstances of to-day that these words from the University crest should be chosen as Occidentalia's theme. The principles they represent deserve constant emphasis. ln placing Truth on its crest, Western followed a precedent in education. The word is found in fitting quotations over the doorway of one historic sister University, and in the corner-stone of another. Education is envisioned as a search for truth and Uni- versities as dedicated to that search. Truth must be defined, however, as it is an ambiguous term. lt may designate merely veracity as opposed to falsehood, and as such, it, at times, reveals little more than good intentions. Qn the other hand Truth may imply reality in contradistinction to illusion, and it is in this sense that it appears as a supreme good. The Truth shall make you free , proclaimed the great Teacher, and human experience has shown that it is in the search for reality that man has been gradually emancipated from the bonds of fear and the consequences of wrong think- ing and living. lllusion and half truths are the seed plot of disaster. The life of the present student generation has been tragically disrupted because of the failure of men to seek Truth in its fundamental sense. Strange ideologies and political philosophies have been instilled iito the minds of untold millions. Fanciful racial theories and conceptions of the state led men astray and humanity and civiliza- tion are paying a ghastly priceg for after all, ideas, both good and bad, may become dynamic when they are motivated. An unworthy kind of education called propaqanda gave life to these wrong ideas and Truth was swept from its high estate. The present generation and many succeeding ones will inevitably reap the consequences of this wrong thinking, this disregard of reality. To re-establish Truth will be a prerequisite to that better world of which many dream. Members of this year's graduating class will, as have others, look back to three or four years in which information and skills were acquired. Some of these may be applied and some may not but the ability and urge to seek Truth and recognize it when it is found is a prize of inestimable worth. The president of an American university holds that it is impossible in the present unpredictable times, to train students specifi- cally for an unpredictable future. He believes, however, that they can be trained to think so that no matter in what circumstances they find themselves in after life, they can face new problems quietly, cooly, and think them through to the end. To develop an enquiring and an independent mind, a disciplined and a furnished mind is an achieve- ment of the highest order. lt is a major step in the search for Truth. lt is a strong