University of Virginia - Corks and Curls Yearbook (Charlottesville, VA)

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M 6 CORKS AND CURLS VOL.XVIII M; and from the. schoolroom he was promoted in 1885 to the superintendentis office and put in charge of the cityis schools. In this position he became fully co.n- Versant with the problems of the city school. It was this information derived nrst 3 from his own experience but enlarged by the knowledge he is always drawing from i the experience of others that makes him so pointed and practical a speaker to i municipal audiences. His next promotion, in 1889, was again a significant step in his own education, With his warm personal friend, Charles D. McIver, he was made State Institute Instructor. T hose two instructors, elected by the State Board, Of Education and directed by the State Superintendent, began an educational crusade. Their mis- sion took them to every part of the Old North State and their devotion to- the work set aHanie the Commonwealth. It was in this daily contact with the people, in this - persistent study of the peoples problems that he was fixed in his catholic sym- pathies and in his desire to have some larger part in their struggles and successes. The value of this experience to a man soon to. become a college president was inestimable for no institution can be guilty of the folly of aloofness when its president has trod with true sympathy the pressed paths of the common people. In was but another step, and that logical, when he was summoned in 1892, from these irregular and sporadic class-meetings 0f the teachers to the daily round of the professoris career. But his pupils were still teachers or teachers to be. This position, however, of Professor of History and English in the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College, Of which his friend Dr. McIver is now president, he was permitted to hold but one session. His Alma Mater following with pride his career of large service and scholastic enthusiasm bade him to her circle in 1893 as a member of the Faculty. He was now Professor of Pedagogy, but he took no narrow view of this art of teaching. His theme was rather the history of human civilization as it revealed itself in the solution of educational problems. The course became very popular and his hearers caught some of his enthusiasm for the honored art of teaching. In 1896, there was a vacancy in the presidency of his own University. Per- haps the curators reached with hesitancy the conclusion that the young professor, but thirty-five years old and with but three years of professional experience was best suited for the position they had to iill. Over against their inherent timidity and reluctance was his successful career as teacher, superintendent, instructor, and professor in the order of climax. This gave promise and well nigh afforded the guarantee that the new duties would be performed with conscientious devotion and regnant common sense. It seems to have been characteristic of Dr. Alderman that he has filled every position with such abundant fullness as to break over its bounds into some larger and better place. It was in keeping with this history of -. Wwwwf;sktwuws V ,.---.1 ' '

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1905 . CORKS AND CURLS 5 his arduous task, we feel inclined to ask whether he has already justified the ample expectation of those who rated him highest. Assuming that the student-body would with hearty accord answer with a reverberant yes, I beg leave to trace for the information and encouragement of determined youth the steps by which Dr. Alderman has mounted to this proud eminence. Born in Wilmington, North Carolina, in the spring of 1861, when the South- land was hopefully engaged in a dauntless struggle, he is too much the product of the. 01d regime to recall it without profoundest sympathy, but too, much iden- tihed with life since that strenuous day to live in the past with sighs 0f disap- pointment. His origin was in the Old South with its memories and its pathos, but his life ripened into manhood in the New South of hopeful effort and trium- phant energy. His education was begun in the best schools of his native city and continued with uniform progress until he was sent to Virginia for his academic preparation. He entered Bethel Academy, near Warrenton, Virginia, and became for a time the adopted son of the State to which he has now returned with expectations of permanent abode. At Bethel too he became in a double sense a grandson of the University Of Virginia, for Bethel Academy was tributary to this institution and her principal, W. W. Smith, now Chancellor of the Randolph-Macon System, was then fresh from her halls. But the young student, prepared to enter upon his university career, did not accompany his schoolmates t0 the University of Virginia, but returned to his Own home and in the fall of 1878 entered the University of North Carolina. His career there was eminently successful. He was a careful student, but not disinclined to the legitimate recreations and diversions of this isolated life. Athletics then played very small part in the college world, but social life was perhaps for that very reason of far more signihcance than now. No doubt the gracious courtesy of his present bearing is in part due to his cultivation of his social nature. In 1882, he graduated from the University of North Carolina with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. His intention then was to enter upon the study Of the law, but he gladly accepted for the following year a position in the-new graded school in Greensboro, the first of its kind in his State. His success was pro- nounced, and for the next session his salary was increased and his services re- tained. His enthusiasm in his new-found art was contagious, and his successful zeal was unconsciously determining for him his vocation. In this school is rooted Dr. Alderinanis interest in public school work. He is no recent and reluctant con- vert to an inevitable system, but an ardent advocate of the public schools because he saw for himself, in the time Of his opening manhood, the potency and possibility of this plan for training all the people. His executive talents were soon recognized, i- ;. NA .r.-4sr-ur'

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M 1905 CORKS AND CURLS 7 mm his life that he was called from the presidency of the University of N orth Car- olina to that Of Tulane. N 0 disparagement Of our nearest sister University is intended, when this is spoken of as a promotion. Counting it by emolument it was, but this is not the strongest attraction for a president. North Carolina University is one of the most successful and powerful of our Southern State universities, but it is a State uni- versity. Its patronage is overwhelmingly from one State, and its revenues as well as its services are largely due this State. Tulane is a municipal university by location, a private institution by endowment, and an aspirant for the patronage of a large section of our far Southern country. Over this institution Dr. Alderman presided from 1900 to 1904, adding to- its endowment, increasing its hold upon the cityis affections, and widening its sphere of influence. But his own influence was still wider. His close personal contact with the Southern Educational Board gave him the opportunity to. pay practical attention to the problems of the whole South. From this section his written reports were read with great conhdence and his advice in the councils of this Board was counted of immense import. Thus he had risen step by step from the schoolroom of a small town to! the council-room in which large matters for a large section were broadly considered. In each room he was a dominant figure. In 1904, he was elected to. the Presidency of the University of Virginia. The honor was enhanced by the fact that he was the first occupant of this newly created office. It was a promotion too, though not in honorarium. The Uni- versity of Virginia is a State university but unlike that Of North Carolina, its student-body is, by nearly one-half, from outside of the State. It is commonly re- ferred to as the leading Southern institution, and is thus identihed with that large area over which Dr. Alderman, as president of Tulane, exerted so strong an in- fluence. North Carolina University owes all to the State, Tulane all to private endowment, the University Of Virginia while aided annually by the State has re- ceived in all nearly two million from private sources. In this sense it partakes 0f the nature of both of the other institutions. But there is still a larger View. North Carolina University belongs to the State, Tulane to a section, the University of Virginia to the whole country. This is partly true in fact for its student-body in- cludes students from nearly every State in the Union. It is true too in the sense that our large donations have been from the N orth, though the South has given much. But it is more true in ideal. Nineteen hundred and seven will emphasize that the origin of our nationality was in Virginia, and that institutions that are Southern may still be national. By that good anniversary year our new President may Clemonstrate that the University of Virginia, in which University work in Amerlca had its origin, has her large and forceful place in the nation. Congress, . .Agxua um salvz'w i, 12.7w n;w 3V V