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The University journal
YOL. l.
WASHINGTON, D. C., APRIL l5 , 1904.
No. 9.
The Inauguration of President Gordon
Address of Dean F . W. Fair-field of the College
of Arts and Sciences.
(IN PART.)
I have the honor to represent the four Academic
facilities, —the College of Arts and Sciences,- the Teach
ers’ College, the Commercial Department, and the Pre
paratory Department. It is obviously impossible forme,
in the time alloted, to give a history of the origin and
growth of the several departments. I prefer to deal
with present conditions. The College of Arts and Sci
ences, having recently adopted the so called “ Group
system,” offers four years of thorough training, with or
without the Classic languages, leading to the degree of 1
Bachelor of Arts. The Teachers’ College has courses
of two years and four years, respectively, affording with
its Practice School, ample preparation for teaching in
grade and secondary' schools. The four years course
leads to the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy.
The
Commercial Department, recently organized, proposes
to fit its students, graduates from secondary schools, by
a three years course of study, for the successful pur
suit of business and the practical affairs of life. The
Preparatory Department, the secondary school of the
University, lias courses of four years, which fit for the
higher departments.
Graduates have gone from it to
some of the best Colleges in the country. . The Univer
sity is prepared to take a boy into the Practice School at
five years of age, and give him, in its Academic de
partments, fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen y'ears of instruc
tion. If professional courses be added, he can spend
eighteen, nineteen, .or twenty years under its fostering
. care.
|
Oil this auspicious occasion, u;hen the honored gen
tleman is being formally inducted into the office, the
duties which he has performed so ably and successful-1
ly for many mouths, among the many things on which |
the Academic faculties felicitate themselves, two stand
out conspicuously.
The one is of very great impor-
tauce,]tlie other of transcendent importance. We con
gratulate the board of trustees, because they have call-!
cd to the presidency a mail of experience not alone in'
affairs, not merely in the pastoral office, but a man of
academic experience and training; a man to whom educa-
j
tional propositions can be presented, with the confident
expectation that he will receive them appreciatively,
and decide upon them with wisdom. It goes without
saying that this is an extremely valuable attribute of a
University president; but boards of trustees have not a l
ways had the Wisdom to make such a selection..
But more important
still.tous is the firm belief that
Pres. Gordon sympathizes most heartily with that for
which Howard University has stood in the past, stands
to-day, and, God grant it! shall always stand—
Educa
tional. opportunity
. We have no quarrel with, industrial
education— not every boy or girl, of any class or condi
tion, shall seek a college training—but we
have
a quarrel,
and shall always have a quarrel, with those who would
limit
educational opportunity to industrial training. The
constituency to which the open doors of Howard Univer
sity have appealed most strongly, in the past, and to
which they will probably appeal most Strongly in the fu
ture, needs leaders; not one great leader alone, nor half
a dozen, but leaders in every stale, in every city, in
every hamlet. Shall these be “ blind leaders of the
blind ?” Or shall the leadership be sane and conserva
tive ? I know of nothing which will secure such leader
ship save education of mind and heart. And this educa
tion must be offered alike to all who are prepared to
receive it. In behalf of the Academic faculties, allow
me to repeat their congratulations 011 the accession of
Pres. Gordon.
The Henry A . Brown Prize Debate.
The seventh annual Henry A. Brown Prize Debate
under the auspices of the Alpha Phi Literary Society
was held 011 March 25U1.
There was a large and appreciative audience. Ev
ery seat in the Andrew Rankin Chapel was taken. Each
speaker was supported by a large contingent from his
class. As a result of this much class rivalry was shown.-
In this respect the speaker from the theological depart
ment came in for more than his share. As there was
but a single representative from that department, the en
tire department came out and rooted for him. That
their man did not win is not due to any lack of in
terest on their part, for they did what they could to im
press upon the judges the points put forth by their repre
sentative. Perhaps it is just to sny here and doubtless
what many of them did say .after the debate, the medal
last year went to that department.
The subject, Resolved: That the United States has