Utah State University - Buzzer Yearbook (Logan, UT)

Page 15 text:

trend f education was away from agriculture and mechanic arts. I set out to correct the mistaken idea of young men and women who tailed to appreciate the true meaning of the school. In my efforts to persuade them to change their course of studies, 1 discovered that these young people were directed chiefly by the educational sentiments of their parents. In some instances the parents wrote letters protesting strongly against the changes I recommended. I soon found that my efforts were needed more outside of the school than they were inside, and I therefore began a sort of missionary propaganda looking to the conversion of the people at large from the old to the modern needs of education. The school. I clearly saw, could not accomplish its mission until some radical changes were brought about in the educational ideals of the homes. An increased attendance might be secured, but an increase in the number of students would not accomplish what the college was founded to do unless the students were in harmony with its mission. During my administration of the College. I aimed to visit all the leading communities of I tali and southern Idaho at least once every year. The object of my visit was to enlighten the people at large upon the meaning and mission of that education for which an agricultural college stands. It was hoped that in the homes of the people the young men and the young women of the State would feel the inspiration of that new industrial life that was dawning upon the people of the W est. It was not so easy to reach the agricultural side of college life and bring home to the people the importance and improvement of the farm. It was easier for them to comprehend mechanic arts and their place in our new industrial life. My efforts to advance mechanical education found a more responsive sentiment in the minds of the people and I felt that somehow or other an education in mechanics in the Agricul-i ra! College would soon 13 PRES. J. M. TANNER

Page 14 text:

student body, not one oi w h o m ever maliciously gave me trouble. They joined zealously in the e ff o r t to increase the rapidly growing number that enrolled as students. Very cordially yours, J. W. SAX’BORN. We were unable to secure a history of the school during the two years that President Paul was at the head of the institution. Let it suffice to say that the College pursued the same general policy as during the administration of its first President and grew steadily in popularity, gradually making its purpose clear to the taxpayers of the State. President Tanner wrote as follows: PRES. J. H. PAUL The Agricultural College in its growth represents those changes which have come over the industrial life of Utah within the past two decades. The young men of that institution today can hardly realize the attitude which the people at large had toward the College, and the attitude they maintained for some years after it was founded, on questions of education. The College has responded to the growing needs of the people, and in turn has. perhaps, been the most potent factor in awakening the people of the State to the growing importance of an agricultural and an industrial training. The early history of the College represents a sort of missionary work which the presidents of the institution felt it incumbent upon them to undertake. It is only within the last few years that the people have come to appreciate the real functions of such an institution. An agricultural and industrial education was thought by most people to be impractical. There was a strong undercurrent of thought that education was something separate and apart from the industrial life of the people. An educated man in overalls was something inconceivable. When I entered the institution as its third President. I made the acquaintance of its students, learned something of their ideals from the course of studies which they selected. I discovered that the 12

Page 16 text:

PRES. W. J. KERR lead to a more general appreciation of the agricultural education of that institution. 1 was sometimes accused of partiality for the mechanic arts. At that time it was not so much a question of a preference for any one training which the institution gave as it was a question of bringing students directly and the parents indirectly within the sphere of that institution’s influence. W hether those early efforts to create the proper educational appreciation in the home were really successful must be left to the judgment of perhaps a new generation. It is gratifying, however, to witness the increasing growth of sentiment in favor of the training which the Agricultural College affords. Very respectfully, J. M. TANXER. 14