Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / May 2, 1907, edition 1 / Page 3
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The Tar Heel A SIGNIFICANT RELIGIOUS FORCE IN SOUTHERN COLLEGES-THE STUDENT SECRETARY. BY RALPH M. HARPER. THE Student Secretary is not sent to a college by the alumni to atone for their sins of old, neither is he secured by the faculty to police the campus, nor is he selected by the. student body to serve as col lege pastor. The college pastor, like the college policeman, has failed to make good. Perhaps the tide against the college pastor began to turn when Phil lips Brooks refused the offer of college pastor at Harvard in 1881. The tendency today is to strengthen the local church and to secure clergymen from elsewhere to preach the college or university sermon each month or on special occasions. At our leading institutions today there is a Stu dent Secretary, who "lives in a house by the side of the road," where he can be a friend of college men. He is selected by a joint committee of students, faculty, and alumni, through the recommendation of some travelling secretary who knows the man personally. Today there are twenty-two Student Secretaries in the Southern Colleges. This number will be increased by three or four next year. The secretary's salary is secured from the students, faculty, alumni, and the trustees. The trus tees at Clemson College, S. C, last year appropriated $500 for the Asso ciation work in that institution. Most of our Southern institutions, both state and denominational, having Student Secretaries, are helping to support the Association in amounts ranging from $200 at Vanderbilt University to $400 or $500 at the University of Arkansas or the A. & M. of North Carolina. The trustees of the University of Alabama are planning to appropriate $400 next year to help secure a Student Secretary at this institution which has such a splendid future on account of $800, 000 being added to its endowment during the last two months. It is interesting to note that practically all,' of the Student Secretaries of the South are college graduates. In addition to this two have taken an A. M., two half their Seminary Courses, three part of their Medical Courses, one is a graduate of a Theological Seminary, and two are Ph. D. men. What does the Student Secretary stand for and what is the significance of his work? What I shall now say about the Student Secretary applies to any stu dent Association leader who is up and doing. The same qualities of leadership and actual achievement, which the. Student Secretary shows, were shown while he was taking his academic work. In fact, here is where he won his spurs. What applies therefore to those Associations having Student Secretaries applies to all those Associations which are delivering the goods. I use the Student Secretary because he, with his entire time, is apt to deliver more goods, and with his past experience is apt to deliver goods of a better quality. I. Social Service in the College Community The first significant thing for which the Student Secretary should, and in most cases does stand, is social service in the college community. Ask any thoughtful fraternity man or non-fraternity man what the social status of his institution is, and he will frankly tell you it is far from what it ought to be. Many fraternity men are arrogant enough to think that all the social life of college is wrapped up in the Greek letter fraternity. Many non-fraternity men are narrow enough to wonder if any good thing can come from an expression of the social impulses of one's nature. The result of this arrogance on the one hand and this distrust on the other has created a chasm in the college community. Many presidents and professors have eyes which see not. Ask them and they will tell you as a South Carolina professor told me, " My boys are pretty good, much better than in the average institution." Every institution, however has a few faculty members who are keenly alive to the momentous social life of the average student, even though it may not make for marks. A stu dent at Trinity College, N. C, happily said to me recently, "It makes me tremble when I think how much Dr. Mims knows about me and the smallest happenings around the campus." The Student Secretary living on the college campus, affiliated with no one student faction, and refusing any high seat in the faculty synagogue is enabled to know college men as they are and to use his influence and leadership in such a way that college life is brought closer together. The fellows thus know each other better Oh this is the secret of a genuine college spirit, a good faith in all factions of college life and a great good will of every college man toward his fellows and toward the faculty. To create this closer bond of friendship many Associations are furnish ing several rooms which shall serve as a central home for college life. Five College Associations in the South today own Association Buildings, costing from $5,000 to $80,000. This college home, whether it is in one room as at Kentucky State college, costing $400, or in a magnifi cent building as at the University of Virginia, costing $80,000, is used for the Association meetings, for friendly intercourse between students and professors, for numerous stag socials, and for a homelike reception room for one's friends during commencement. The Student Secretary by thus being in this center of college life exerts an influence on the entire college. As Mr. A. C. Harte, of Mobile, has made his Associ ation Building the central home for Mobile how refreshed and restful one feels as he enters a real home so the Student Secretary must make the rooms or building a central home for college life. In the midst of this home the Secretry is a friend of men, and, after all, is not this what college men long for? As a friend of mine, Edmund McDonald, recently expressed it in "Association Men," "The more I see of men the less faith I have in handshaking. What men want is friendship." II. Religious Education The second significant thing for which the Student Secretary stands is religious education. In the past men studied the Bible because it was inspired. The teacher -used the thus-saith-the-Lord method, often identifying his own inter pretation with the heavenly message itself. Under such a system there was no place for thoughtful discussion or high thinking. (This type of teaching is not yet extinct. ) For our modern lifetimes have changed. Men no longer study the Bible because it was inspired. They study the Bible because it is inspiring. The secret of the tremendous interest which college men are showing today in the study of the English Bible lies partly in the group method. Eight or ten students with a student leader not lecturer meet informally each week to gather up and dis cuss the systematic study which they have been doing separately each day. The group leaders in turn are coached by some Biblical scholar, usually a professor or minister. The personality of the leader is another secret of this tremendous interest in Bible study. How Christlike is this group system of religious education. Ten or twelve men walking with the Master over the Judean hills or over the plains of Galilee. Each morn ing they ascend to the mountain peak for the Transfiguration vision. What a power comes into their life as they descend to the plains below and conquer the sin which before this had knocked them down and out. During the college year 1905-'06 there were 33,000 college men en gaged in this daily, systematic study of the Bible. The number will probably reach 40,000 this year. Already plans are being made by which 50,000 college men of this North American continent will be engaged in Bible study during the college year of 1907-'08. Group classes are also being utilized for the study of social problems at home and for an intelligent study of the modern missionary enterprises in every clime. The study of missions has reached such a development that a consistent member of a group class knows more about the wonder ful progress of the kingdom of God than the most orthodox deacon or member of the Missionary Circle in the home church who used to look wise about everything which never was on sea nor land. The Student Secretary is director of religious education. The follow ing is a partial report of the Bible study at Clemson College. This sig nificant work alone is enough to demand a Secretary's entire time. "From February to June, 1906, 18 classes were holding weekly meet ings. Enrollment during this time was 164, and the average attendance was 105. During the first ten days of school last fall about 200 students were enrolled in Bible study. This number has been steadily increasing, and now nearly half of the students in college are in Bible study. Thirty eight classes have been holding weekly meetings, with an average at tendance of 191. From Feb 1905 to Feb. 1906, there were 767 different class meetings, with a total attendance of 4,556." ? ( i ft t I) r E. G. Howe W. W. Crutchfield J. H. Cowles T. S. Sharp A, C Hull B. K. W. Stout J. S. Moore W. E. Willis C. C. McNeill Ray H. Legate H. M. Mcllhany R. M. Harper , W. D. Weatherford F. B. Rankin J.W.Abel " H. B. VanValkenburgh, Jr. J. A. Brown A. F. Jackson E.R.Walton T- h. Neill A. S. Tohnstone III. Religious WorR Director The third significant thing for which the Student Secretary stands is for the general direction of religious work. The following is a partial summary of a typical Secretary's work: It is an outlined report of the work of the Young Men's Christian As sociation of the University of North Carolina from Sept. 1, 1906 to May 1, 1907. WORK FOR NEW STUDENTS. 400 letters written to prospective new students. All trains met during opening days. $250.00 worth of books exchanged without cost to students. 2 information bureau. 295 students assisted in registering. BIBLE STUDY. 2 Rallies. 208 men enrolled in 18 classes. MISSION STUDY. 2 Missionary Rallies. 2 normal classes. 90 men in 8 classes. SOCIAL work. 350 students at College Night. 28 Student leaders, Ministers and Fac ulty attend Readers Banquet. 1 Cabinet spread. 2 Stag-socials. Ap ples, lemonade, toasts, stunts. Attendance 250 each. ,. BESIDES .. 29 men to N. C. Conference . at Trinity College. 2 men at Wilming ton. 6 Sunday Schools assisted. 2 meetings each week Tuesday and Thursdays. 750 souvenir Calendars. 5 entertainments with Lyceum At tractions. 2 Volunteers for Foreign Mission work. 2 Decisions for Min istry as life work. Permanent Conference Fund being established. An attractive Association Building costing $15,000 complete, and with the exception of, the chapel, elegantly furnished. ' , lllCUCUCllllJi,C! paiL ill 1.1119 splendid work fsvell express-, ed in a recenteditorial of "The Clemson Tfeer:" "To Mr. Ray Legate, the secretary, the power of theY. M. C. is due. He is a college man who knows college men. His farsightedness and expe rience, his energy and enthu siasm, have had much to do with the making of the Y. M. C. A. what it is. In this connection should be mention ed also the band of willing workers who have co-operated with Mr. Legate so faith fully in carrying out the work of the Y. M. C. A." In giving the significance of the Student Secretary's work I have said little about his personal influence. This personal element of Christ- THE SWIMMING POOL like character is what keeps the Association machinery from be- fore is not a mere "go between" coming a sounding brass or a clan- between the different factions, of ging cymbol. The Secretary there- college life, nor is he merely a wooden bridge to span the impass able gulf between the students and faculty. He is not merely super intendent of education nor a man of great executive ability only. A thinking man, a man filled with life's enthusiasms, a man with a good faith in life and a great good will toward men the Student Secretary stands as a splendid challenge for college men to live the largest life with the spirit and in the name of the man Christ Jesus. . ., ' . . '..'v:'" . . : -,y , , ( . . . DR. H. M. McIUIANY, ' 'These Associations are promot ers of industry, sobriety and trust worthiness, and are therefore in close alliance with the best material interests of the country." Hon. YALE i 2 2 2UMVERSIT 2 Summer Schot 2 2 THIRD SESSION, JULY) 2 TO AUGUST 16, 19C I I I 2 2 2 2 2 2 I 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 For circulars containing full information address I YALE SUMMER SCHOO 2 135 Elm St. : Mew Haven, Com 1 rsrsirsi v cvjcvj cvJ Courses in Biolog Chemistry, Commerci Geography, Drawin! T7 1 tTf i . ..J ii.aucaT.ion, nisiorj Theory and Methods English (Literature an Rhetoric), French, Geo, ogy, German, Greel History, (American ar? European), Latin, Matlj ematics, Physical Educr tion, Physics, Psychology School Administration.!' These courses are de signed for teachers ar students. Some are at 4 vanced courses, otnej are introductory. About o!ne hundre r J suites or rooms in th dormitories are availab for students. GRADUATE SCHOOLS OK HARVARD UNIVERSITY The following professional schools in Harvard University are open to hol ders of a bachelor's degree: Law School j A three years' course leads to the de-) gree of H,.B. Residence for three years is required, but residence at another three years' school may be accepted as ) a substitute for one of the years of res- idence at this school. Three annual examinations are required. Inquiries may be addressed to H. A. Fischer, 20 Austin Hall, Cambridge, Mast. Medical School . '( A four years' course leads to the M D. degree. The school offers graduate courses open to the holders of the M. I V. degree, and in its new laboratories ! ; offers greatly extended facilities for research. l;or catalogues, for grad- 1 uate and summer courses, for research ' and special courses, address Charles M. Green. M. D.. 194 Administration 5 Building, Harvard Medical School. Boston, Mass. Divinity School This is an undenominational school of theology offering instruction lead ing to the degree of Bachelor of Divin- ( ity. Inquiries may be addressed to R. S. Morifon, 5 Divinity Library, '' Cambridge. Mail. Graduate School o Arts and Sciences Instruction is offered leading to the master's and the doctor's degrees in -the following fields: Philology (An- I cient and Modern languages and Lit eratures). History, Political Science, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Music, Mathematics, Phys : ics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology, and Anthropology. Inquiries may be ad dressed to W. C. Sabine. 1 1 Univer sity Hall, Cambridge, Mass. Graduate School o Applied Science Instruction leading to professional degrees is offered in the following subjects: Civil, Mechanical, nnd Elec trical Engineering, Mining, Metallur gy, Architecture, landscape, Archi tecture, Forestry, Applied Physics Applied Chemistry, Applied Zoology' and Applied Geoloey, Inquiries may be addressed to W. C. Sabine, lr University Hall, Cambridge. Mass
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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May 2, 1907, edition 1
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