The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-14
A BUSINESS UNIVERSITY.
What Returned Student Saw and Heard at
GreencaStle-Past and Present Faculties.

Correspondence of the Indianape V Journal.
GREENcAsTLE, Feb. 13.-When closing my
first letter I intimated a purpose to do" the
faculty of De Paw University in this. but my
venerable friend, hearing of this, said: BETTER
not That is a very delicate piece of work in
any hands 1t would be doubly in yours.
from an entire want of personal knowledge of
the men. You would be wholly dependent On
gossip, which, in nothing is less reliable than in
matters appertaining to preachers and teachers
Some disgruntled member of church some
refractory student sets to work to be revenged
for some real or imagined wrong, and at once
begins to say: They say that SO and so is thus
and so, and incaculable mischief follows; the
preacher or the professor is bounded down, and
lasting injustice is done to the church or college.
Some Of the greatest wrongs that have known
in these thirty years acquaintance with our uni
versity-not all the while living here consecu-
lively, as you have supposed, for / have been
on and off-has grown out of this. Some of the
best men we have ever had were literally driven
out by this process DR.. Mutt was not brilliant
enough to please some fast young men, ard his
place was made too uncomfortable to be desira
ble and he resigned. could name other and
later instances of great injustice to the men and
to the institution resulting in called 'resigna
TONS Ard, let me say in passing, that frater
nityism is at the bottom of much of this If it
were proper I could give names and dates and
if you were to attempt your pen portraits you
could hardly avoid weaving in some of the gossip
abroad regarding some of the very best men
now in the University, most of which
is entirely without foundation, except as
y,ar I'D facts in fba. hon nf
give color to complaints. The late rule of the
board-and by the way an excellent one-to
elect professors only year at time, so that
they may drop any one or more at the end OF any
year, gives great unrest all the faculty, for
one can know just what agency is at work to
force him to resign. He NAV have been
a quarter of century in the institution, but if
the fraternity influence or personal jealousles,
or any other cause is brought to bear, he is SIM
ply not reelected, and his resignation is an
nounced. While, of course, one thinks that
an incompetent man should be retained, we all
think that incompetence should be discovered at
least within four or five years, and that with
fair success, the who has devoted the
strength of his life to the institu
ton should have at least a supernumerary
relation to the college, if he deserves it,
with only such pay as his work will demand. If
you say anything relating to the personnel of
the present faculty you had better say that,
taking it all in ALL the institution has never been
there may be Simpson, Berry, nor
Thomas Bowman among them. Perhaps there
are as few family jars or jealousies as is posi-
BILE in so large family, with such diverse duties
and interests, and not unnatural aspirations; so
that, whatever you may have heard or
whatever impressions may have been made on
your mind as to this one or that, it would be a
very delicate matter to either praise criticise
You could hardly point out the next probable
victim of the lightning with any propriety, for
the victims themselves are as unsuspectlng as
were those who, only few years ago, awoke to
find themselves resigned The men evidently
expect to stay, for they mostly buying and
building permanent homes"
In Difference, therefore, to this advice, l shall /
omit any personal allusion to any member of the
faculty; for, truth to say, have not made the
acquaintance of any, though have attended all
of the public performances of the university
since came here. Perhaps in this l am at
fault, but have no claim upon anyone for any
recognition. Besides, for some reason. there
is not now, and never has been, any system
of tying even the alumni to the institution,
much less an undergraduate Of twenty years
ago, more. why is this2' said l to my old
friend, one evening He answered: 'It is easier
to tell why not than why. There is probably no
institution in America, of its age and reputa-
ton, whose alumni takes as little interest in it's
welfare. There is a society of alumni, but after
the first three or four years only the resident
alumni and not all of them, attend the meet
ings, with here and there an older one who hap
pens to be preacher and is on the board as
trustee or visitor The exercises become very
monotonous They consist in the selection of
an orator and poet for the next year, and then
banquet at fearful COST considering the quail
ity of the repast, after an grafton, and
poem-and that is all. There is no
business that amounts to anything. A few years
ago effort made to provide that this So
ciety shall choose from their number part of
the trustees, but the project was incontinenty
sat down upon. 1t is significant fact that with
representatives in all the courts of the State
and in every Legislature and Congress for many
years; Governor Lieutena Mt governor and Cabi- |
net officers; bankers, lawyers, doctors, mer-
chants and EN- inent soldiers, less than a half
dozen of the alumni have ever been on the
the board and not one of these was ever
chosen to represent the alumni as
SUCH Other institutions have their
alumni we'll in hand Two years ago the alumni
of the State University met as such, in Indian
apolis, and procured large endowment for their
alma mater. No such a meeting for our alumni is |
possible. Let me dsabuse your mind. The
fault Is not with the faculty, individually or col
lectively. Their personal attentions to an alum
nus are always cordial, as far as their time and
means will allow. But, as you see, these are ali
new men. There is connecting to-day
with your day. Possibly the uncertain tenure by
which each feels that he holds his position may
have something to do with it. A professor who
came only year, or FIVE years ago may not
care to devote much extra time b the cultivation
of ties that may be severed at the next meeting
of the board to crafty some within of some fra
ternity or other iconoclastic agency Somehow
or other, every member OF the faculty comes to
regard himself as bird of passage, sort of pro
TEN. convenience. and not as u FIXTURE to be
found ten or twenty years hence in the harness,
breathing a benedcton upon his younger
brethren. though himself on the retired liss-
an emeritus, as the colleges call them; a super
numerary or superannuate as the church calls
her old ministers We old men do not like TO be
dismissed, though we must retire from the fore
front Of the battle"
went one morning last week to the chapel
exercises of the preparatory department, held in
the remodeled old edifce. / thought l would
feel more at home there than in the new build
ing But all is changed. and our old chapel that
used to resound with the eloquence of Bowman
and Locke, is an armory, and filled with cannon
and other instruments of death. And then here
are the girls. Nothing of that kind encouraged
1Is ItnrenSn twenty odd her NUer