University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1910-01-07
CHANCELLOR AVERY ON
LOYALTY TO UNIVERSITY

! University" delivered at the opening
of the fall term of the University OF
Nebraska, Chancellor Samuel Avery so
strongly emphasized the salient points
connected with university life that it
would be we'll if his lecture could be
heard at every university and every
college. In speaking of loyalty, Mr..
Avery says:
Il feel compelled to admit that the
finest practical loyalty has in general
been shown by the students of those
institutions which are on private foun-
dations. Ordinarily speaking the very
existence of such institutions depends
upon the loyalty of the students and
of the alumni. The entering freshman
quickly catches the spirit. In his va
cation he becomes an unpaid but a
most effective agent for the canvass
ing of new students.
"In a state institution like ours the
problem of student loyalty is differ
ent one. Though we appreciate your
efforts when you bring new students
to the university, every new student
is demand on the resources of the
university that cannot always be met
with the limited funds at our disposal
State institutions are not dependent
upon donations. We want the STU
dents influential friends and relatives
to think well of us, but we are not in
the habit of trying to entice any money
out of their pockets. The state uni
versity to receive permanent adequate
support must be so conducted as to
command the confidence of a large
majority of the people of the state.
The enthusiastic support of minority
is not sufficient.
THE people of the state are, in the
long run, very much disposed to pass
judgment upon the university on other
grounds than the reputed eminence of
its faculty in the world of letters or
science, or the practical discoveries
that they make for the good of hui
ranity, or for the special benefit of
the people of the state. All of these
things are weighed by the average
citizen OF the state, but they are
weighed somewhat lightly. His judg-
ment will be determined by the prod
uct of the university and especially
by the samples of the university's
product that he sees and knows. The
young men and young women who go
from his locality and who return after
having received university training
are the specimens by which he judges
the university's excellence.
The attitude CT the people of the
state toward the student body is not
responsible for the management of the
university to sleep well at night.
Nevertheless the attitude is just ole,
and those who are in a measure re-
sponsible for the conduct of the stu
dent body have assumed their duties
with full appreciation of what is ex-
pected of them.
1.-THE American student is intensely
loyal, but he does not show his loyal
feelings in way that appeals to the
state A favorite way of expressing
loyalty is in noise, roofing, cheering
victors in athletics or in debate, Show
ing loyal support so far as to laugh
at the jokes of professors. Yet, to
be frank, it does not of itself go very
far with the average taxpayer. Help
full loyalty must also be shown in other
ways.
There is no point on which the peo-
pie of the state who support the uni
versity are more sOlicitous than in re-
gard to the moral well-being of the
student, and there are two things that
the student should resolutely avoid
one is the kind of Phariseeism that
causes him to constantly criticise his
fellows, that leads him to assume that
his own conduct is spotless while that
OF his colleagues is reprehensible.
That sort of Phariseeism is odious to
the state and has no place in a broad,
liberal institution. On the other hand,
sometimes in disgust at this sort of
Phariseeism, students frequently as
sumo what a recent brilliant writer
has called Phariseeism inside out-the
kind Of pretense that makes a very de-
cent student want to be thought tough.
bogus, counterfeit toughness on pa
rade desire to shock staid people.
In those things which l have men
toned as being demanded by the peo-
pie of the state, the people of the
state and the faculty of the university
are practically unit and they are abb
solutely right, but there are some
things in which the students of the
university can educate the people.
There should be, both inside and out
side of the university, a greater loy
atty to the idea of the unitv of the