Washington and Lee University - Calyx Yearbook (Lexington, VA)

Page 15 text:

graduate instruction, leading to the Ph. D. degree, should not be encouraged. The post-graduate university of the future undoubtedly belongs to the large city. There are only a few cities in the South, or indeed in the nation, that offer an adequate opportunity for the development of such an institution. On the other hand, we have an ideal location for a great college, surrounded by a groop of professional schools, giving the best training in law, in engineering, and in commerce. While the city is the natural and logical location of a great university, it is not the best place for a great college. It lacks the proper physical setting. It lacks the kind of moral and spiritual stimulus essential to the growth of a healthy undergraduate life and sound undergraduate ideals. Here, at Washington and Lee, we unquestionably possess all the essential requirements of a great college. We have a superb physical setting. We have an unexcelled body of traditions. We have an inspiring history. We have the greatest of American names on the roll of our immortals. We have a splendid undergraduate spirit and a moral tone which in itself is sufficient to constitute a rich asset for any institution of learning. We have a high and exacting standard of work. There is, all around us, an atmosphere of sound learning and of gracious conduct. These things constitute a priceless inher- itance won through years of discipline and of conquest and of devotion to a great ideal. President William L. Wilson, after a long and wide experience of insti- tutions and of men and of systems, at the close of a singularly useful and distinguished career, when he knew that the curtain of life was already ringing down for him, with its inevitable issue, said that, of all the institutions he had known, this institution deserved the precedence for the two things that lie at the basis of all really worthy educational aspiration and achievement: (I) thoroughness as a rule of work, and (2) moral accountability as a standard of action. These two things we cherish and defend and uphold. Upon them rest the just fame and the wide reputation of Washington and Lee. Upon this foundation we propose to build a great and powerful college, free from all inefficiency and littleness, that shall serve the nation and worthily illustrate its best traditions. It may take time. I believe that it will take time. But our day of strength and rejoicing will come. Meantime, we have the courage of our convictions, and our faith is sufficient to steady us. We WM