UIHistories Project: A History of the University of Illinois by Kalev Leetaru
N A V I G A T I O N D I G I T A L L I B R A R Y
Bookmark and Share



Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - History of the University (Nevins) [PAGE 375]

Caption: Book - History of the University (Nevins)
This is a reduced-resolution page image for fast online browsing.


Jump to Page:
< Previous Page [Displaying Page 375 of 399] Next Page >
[VIEW ALL PAGE THUMBNAILS]




EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:



BOUNDING THE UNIVEBSITJ

353

tional cultural development, but must keep itself in the forefront of the State's advancing economic and social life, with which the State's culture, in the broadest sense, must always be bound up. President James's reference to the charge that the State University in general, and Illinois in particular, is wanting in intellectual enthusiasms and cultural ideals, addressed to the new-made alumni, embodied a questioning appeal. " A gentleman told me not long ago that he would not send his son to a State University because while he believed it was efficient in its own way, it emphasized the wrong things. It aims to fit men to make a living, instead of to live. It begets all those undesirable qualities which are bound to grow up in such an environment. . . . My friends, you know more about some aspects of this than I do, or than the members of the faculty. You know whether low ideals . . | ) | prevail among members of the student body. You know whether you or your fellows are willing to descend to improper means to accomplish their ends. You know what attitude the average student has towards the institution and the State. . . . You know whether there is any real truth in any of these charges. Now all I can ask is, if they are true, then . . . help us, so far as the weight of your influence as alumni goes, to get rid of them." But that the charge has been greatly exaggerated neither he nor anyone else has felt a moment's doubt. The University is better developed on its technical and industrial sides than on its cultural; its Students are in general brought from homes with less leisure and with more practical aims than those of older parts of the country, and they are less interested in pure learning than the homogenous undergraduates of some colleges of the liberal arts. But the one-sidednese