New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-06-29
A COMMENCEMENT SUGGESTION

LIE iNPoi'o VI WIZ COH
mencement exercises in the leading colleges
and institutions of learning have been of a
character to afford much encouragement to
the promoters and patrons of sound learning.
From all quarters we hear of considerable
progress made. new fields opened, spheres en-
larged and standards advanced In the past
ten years the course Of academic and collie
giate education has received a fresh impetus !;
learning has found new patrons, and the accu-
mutations of wealth have been directed to
these new channels of larger usefulness. BY
the endowments of professorships, the gifts
of money, buildings, and real estate, the
building up of professional schools, and the
constant extension of their scope and influ-
ence by the freshly awakened and widespread
interest in all that pertains to education and
educational systems, the cause has been
greatly assisted and advanced. The season
is passing in which, in all parts of
the country, the men whose lives are
given to teaching meet together with
old pupils and Boards of Trustees, alumni. and
the interested public to report the progress OF
the year, suggest new projects, modify old
methods and systems, and take up the work
of the year ahead with the satisfaction OF
something already gained and garnered, and
the determination and plans for larger adj
vance and more rapid progress for the next
twelve months.
} With hearty congratuatiOn to the educa-
tors and teachers, whose conscientious labOrs
have merited public appreciation in SO large a
measure, we take leave to say word which
the occasion and its uses seem to have sug-
l.. Al. III maid rad
remarks of President Porter of Yale, at the
Alumni dinner on Thursday, he set forth as
his ideal for the College a University which
should be able to hold its advantages out to
the reach of all classes so that it should be
felt that in tae pursuit of knowledge, at least
in the republic of letters, there should be no
distinctions, but that here, high and low, rich
and poor, should feel that they are on
the same level. If we were to suggest
an addition to the Presidents remarks upon
that point it would be that the Commence
ment festivities, the annual reunions of the
Alumni, should also contain as little as pOssi-
BILE to remind the participants in them of the
distinction between rich and poor. The dispo-
sition which for a few years past has become
lust little prominent to make the Alumni
meetings chiefly the occasion for soliciting
funds and contributions is not entirely in ac-
cordance with the generally accepted notion
of the object of those pleasant reunions The
flavor of the contribution box rarely adds to
the pleasure Of festive gathering even when
it is modcstly ventured on; the persistent
pushing of it between the courses is liable to
dull the edge of appetite and check the flow
of animal spirits so essential to good cheer.
The wealthy graduate does not care to be so
approached with reminders Of the response
bility he incurs by being rich, and the poor
wrestler with fate and fortune certainly is not
much enlvened by reminders of his inability
to do for his Alma Mater what he would be
only too glad to if he had the means.
There are other and better opportunities for
presenting the claims and the wants of the
university or school than when the graduates
have assembled to exchange greetings with
each other and with their old teachers. An
instance of a better way to raise endOwments
was given at the Alumni meeting referred to-
Prof Wayland, Dean of the Faculty of the
Yale Law School, to whom the school is very
largely indebted for its present prosperous
condition, has obtained large subscriptions to
JIlc IuHu5 VI Jnc SCuOOl ny Vuict, eIIOrt
and personal application to gentlemen of
means, who were glad to listen to his state
ments as to the condition of the school. and
no less glad to aid literally in carrying for
ward his well-cOnceiyed plans for the promo
ton of its objects. His quiet method had been
so successful that, when the Hon. Edwards
PierrepOnt responded to sentiment on behalf
of that department of the University he was
able to say that it was in excellent condition
and with fair prospects, and had nothing to
ask for. That seems a better way of managing
so delicate q matter than by making the sub-
ject the prominent topic for discussion at
social gatherings of such a character as the
annual reunions of graduates.
The corps of instructors in our universities
and schools have reason to congratulate them
selves and the cause they represent upon the
liberality and readiness with which the de-
mands of the age and the country for a
higher education have been responded to by
those who have the means to do so. There
is no danger that the interest in education
and educational systems will cease, or the con-
tributons fall off. The sentiment is one that
grows by what it feeds on. But we submit
that there is a possibility of materially weaken
ing the interest which all graduates have in
the festivities of Commencement week, by
subordnatng the social features of the sew
eral gatherings TO tho more material cousid-