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

Page 14 text:

To the Class of 1946: IT is A PLEASURE to respond to the request for a valedictory message. Vlfhen it is recalled that only a relatively small number of our young people are attending the universities and colleges of Canada, it seems that there should be a better method of selection of students for the high privilege of this special training. The following qualifications for candidates in their order of priority should be required: CID characterg C25 promise of good citizenship: C35 age-many matriculants are too youngg C45 academic standing and C51 health. This type of selection, if handled with discretion, would yield a greater proportion of gifted students, hll the institutions of higher education with young people of special quality and at the same time reduce the numbers of those applying for training. If qualihcations of these standards were adopted by the universities and the Provincial Educational authorities, it would follow as a matter of course that more emphasis should be given to the system of secondary education with a greatly extended curriculum that it may serve more ade- quately the needs of the majority of the people. In Canada, under present conditions, all higher education should have for its objective the training of each selected youth according to his personal needs on the following basis: first, as a worker, so he may render the best service of which he is capable in commerce, industry or in professional life, secondly, as a citizen, so he may contribute his full share to the welfare of the community in which he lives, and thirdly, as a student of languages, philosophy, literature, history and science, so he may enrich his own life and add something perhaps to the intellectual achievement of mankind. Sir Richard Livingstone, in his challenging book entitled, Education for a VVorld Adrift says: If we were looking for a catchword to describe our age, various phrases would occur to the mind: we might call it the Age of Science, or the Age of Social Revolution, or the Age without Standards . He argues for the last phrase as de- scribing the present generation most accurately. In my opinion the university graduate should establish his own standards. If he has made good use of his time at the university, his character, conduct, manners, type of living, integrity in business, professional morality, efficiency in all that he under- takes and his strong sense of responsible citizenship will establish the standards that are needed to restore our faltering civilization to sanity and peace. WALTER JAMES BROWN. 10

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To the Graduating Class of 1946: FOR SIX YEARS THE graduating classes of this university have been going out to a world at war. You are the first class since 1939 to enter a world of peace. Some of your number interrupted their university work to serve their country and now have returned and completed their studies. Their share in the struggle will be for them a matter of satisfaction and pride during all their lives. Those of you who were not called to service will remember, nevertheless, that the war brought to you certain responsibilities and duties, though you were happily spared the danger and risks which others faced. But now you all go out together, ambitious, I trust, to do your part, whatever that may be, in making a better world and guarding against those tendencies which might again lead us into such horrors as those through which we have passed. The years ahead belong to you, each individual will be responsible for his or her contribu- tion to the future. The area of men's interests has been enormously widened in the years during which you have been members of the undergraduate body. We have all become in more or less degree world-minded. In this there lies the danger, however, that we may so spread our interests that those most vital to us may become overshadowed. I say, therefore, let Canada be your first interest because this is your country and most of you will spend your lives within its borders. Strive that in Canada we may build up a people, sound in spirit, wholesome in their living, and governing themselves by those eternal principles of righteousness which alone make nations strong. ARTHUR T. LITTLE. Chairman, Board of Governors. 9

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To the Graduating Class of 19446: THE MARCH OF EVENTS has kept the pace set within recent years. Uncertainties, doubts and problems are still the order of the day. May you have acquired at VVestern a sense of fundamental values and of direction to guide you in the interesting years which lie ahead. Best wishes, R. B. VVILLIS. Comptroller. ll