Valparaiso University - Beacon / Record Yearbook (Valparaiso, IN)

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RECORD 9 bwu BENJAMIN F. WILLIAMS, A. M., Dean of the College of Liberal ATtS

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COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS . e HE aim of a College of Liberal Arts, as opposed to that of the i ' various professional schools usually found in a university, is to impart a liberal education. Its purpose is not to lit for a partic- ular profession, but to give an adequate foundation for any profession, and more especially to develop the varied human faculties and to enrich life itself. The word llculture may be used to sum up its primary objective, and culture implies at least these elements: the power to think clearly, freely, sanely; the capacity to feel with quick sympathy the common human joys and sorrows; an alert sensitiveness to whatever is beau- tiful in nature or art; the moral qualities of justice, courage, honor; a refined graciousness in speech and manner. To this end of culture, the College tries to bring attractively before the student body the best products of the intellectual, spiritual and artistic achieve- ments of the race. These are to be found particularly in history, in philos- ophy, in mathematics, in the natural and social sciences, in the languages, in literature and the other fine arts. Obviously the range is too broad for any student to cover in a four years, college course, but an intelligent selection may be made which will be suited to individual inclinations. The thought of the College is, that by living thus in the atmosphere of ilthe best that has been known and thought in the world, one is enabled in some measure to join the iione great society alone on earth: The noble Living and the noble Dead. This humanistic ideal of education is admittedly traditional and has held sway for several hundred years. Recently, however, it has been sub- jected to ruthless and contemptuous criticism, and is generally thought to be on the defensive. And yet if it be true that education can mould a nation,s ideals, that it can shape the destiny of a world, one wonders if the new edu- cation, materialistic and efficient as it is, has been such a success after all. The twentieth century, legitimate heir of all the ages, has grasped with eager hand the rich stores of material blessings bequeathed it by the past, but has seemed all too ready to cast into the dust-heap the accumulated mental and spiritual wisdom of its forebears. And we look out upon a soul-sick world, a world that knows no peace; a world whose proudest nation, the most efficiently and practically educated of all, has fallen into the greatest depths of moral depravity; a world whose youngest and sturdiest nation is reeling like a drunken man in an orgy of extravagance and selfishness; a world unsettled, unhappy, almost hopeless. For such a condition culture does not claim to be a cure-all. But for those who can acquire it, it offers a respite from the sordidness of the pres Twenty-three W