University of Wisconsin River Falls - Meletean Yearbook (River Falls, WI)

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PRESIDENT J. H. AMES 20

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REGENT J. H. GRIMM BOARD OF REGENTS OFFICERS Edward J. Dempsey.................. Edgar G. Doudna.................... Robert K. Henry.................... PERSONNEL Jerome Baker....................... John Callahan...................... Edward Dempsey..................... Robert Curran...................... William Atwell.................. . J. H. Grimm........................ Mrs. Charles H. Crownhart .... Joseph A. Padway . . Archie V. Hurst.................... A. W. Zeratsky..................... Mrs. Anna B. Cunningham .... President Secretary Treasurer Whitewater Madison Oshkosh Superior Stevens Point River Falls Madison Milwaukee Eau Claire La Crosse Platteville 19

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CERTAIN psychologist offers this generalization on college students: “A college, peopled by perplexed and anxious adolescents, has an opportunity, and, what is more, a responsibility to help these students resolve their insistent and portentious dilemmas.” This fireside philosophy represents the confused state of mind of many of our leaders and educators. The perplexed and anxious are not the adolescents referred to above, but rather those who have set themselves up as the guides and teachers of youth. College students in this as well as in other generations are boldly confident. They do not doubt their ultimate destiny; they are not afraid of the future; they still have faith. It is only when they come under the influences of the perplexed and confused adult mind that they halt, hesitate and waver. It is not the so-called intellectuals” who have given us sane leadership either in politics, religion or education. Many is the youth who when he passed from the advice of a hard-headed practical parent to that of the professional counsellor in college or elsewhere, departed from a region of well defined landmarks into a strange and confused environment. It is not enough for a college to say “Satisfaction guaranteed or the boy returned.” The boy cannot be returned. He will have passed beyond boyhood into manhood before the college is through with him. What sort of a man or woman will the college turn back to society? If he shall be the type of citizen essential to the well-being of our country, then many of our college teachers and administrators must free their minds from the perplexities which now appear to confuse them. Let me repeat: It is not the college student who is adrift. The pressure for a new creed (or no creed), for a new ethical code, for a new political dogma does not come from the wayward impulse of youth, but rather under the stimulation of a new learning and a new social and intellectual environment. It is not the business of college instruction to indoctrinate but rather to foster the spirit of inquiry. It is not the business of the college to promote social practices at variance with the established American ideals of industry, thrift and sobriety. The college must recognize a responsibility for providing a wholesome and sane social and intellectual environment for its students. It must recognize its opportunity for guidance during that period in which the behavior patterns for life are being drawn. 21