The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1912-11-15
UNIVERSITY WEEKS.
Second Series Of Tours in View
Praised by Government Ed
ucationaI Bureau.

annual series of university weeks"
in the form of tours by University
of Minnesota professors are being
made by various departments to be
represented in the project. Eighteen
towns were visited last June and the
tour became widely known as "Presi
dent Vincent's Educational Circus"
the scheme of carrying the most char
acteristic activities of the university
to sections of the state having been
originated by President George E.
Vincent All the eighteen towns Wis.,
| tied have asked that the university
repeat the visit next year and it is
probable that the tour next June will
include more than 100 towns of the
state.
Desiring that other state universe
ties should take up the plan and car
ry the most practical features to the
people, the national bureau of educa-
tion at Washington has issued the fol-
lowing bulletin on the work of the
Minnesota institution last year:
University Transported Bodily.
"The plan is something more than
merely university extension. To all
intents and purposes representative
portion of the university-faculty,
students and equipments temper
arily detached and transferred to 9th
er parts of the state, thus actually eX-
| tending the benefits of the states
costliest educational plant to a wider
| field than ever before. The plan is
considered by the United States bu-
reau of education an excellent device
for bringing together for mutual prof
it a state university and the people
who support it.
| What university week really is,
may be seen from a typical program.
Each day of the six is devoted to
some special topic, with lectures and
demonstrations during the day time
and htgh-class entertainments at
night. Thus: Monday is business
mems day. There are lectures on all
kinds of topics interesting to business
men, from marketing problems to
| fighting forest fires, as well as few
talks of more general nature. In the
evening there is concert by the Uni
versity Glee club. Tuesday is art and
| literature day, with lectures on Ii
braries, children's books, women's
clubs, civic betterment, the drama, and
similar subjects. There is a reading
hour in the afternoon, in charge of a
trained elocutionist, and an industrial
art exhibit; in the evening an illus
trated lecture, Art in Common
Things Wednesday is home welfare
day. In the day sessions such prob
lens as The Human Beings of High
School Age Why Babies Die ration
al living, kindergartens and industrial
education are considered, while at
night prominent educator gives an
| illustrated lecture on How Minneso-
ia Educates Her Children Thursday
is public health day, with appropriate
lectures and exhibits. In the evening
there is dramatic recital of a mod
ern play.
! Farm Questions Discussed.
Friday is farmers day, and live
questions of farm policy are discussed
! ny CApClto III - hClC 10
also an address on The Social Pos
sibilities of Rural Communities by an
! educator who has made special stud
! les in this field. In the evening pro-
! fessors from the university give sci
entific demonstration of the gyro-
scope and liquid air. Saturday is
town and country day, with Social
1 I ~.
leading topic In the evening the
| University Dramatic club appears in
Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.
! Genuine interest is aroused in the
towns visited. In most instances the
people take the visit of the university
as the business of the week, and de-
vote all their attention to it. Not
! only the townspeople, but farmers
! from outlying districts as well, attend
| the session. Boys farming camps are
organized in connection with the uni
versity week and always prove a pop
ular feature. The university authori-
ties and those who cooperate with
] them-state health boards and other
! agencies-are particularly careful to
provide speakers who not only know
their subject WELL but are able to talk
Interestingly to non-university aud
fence. The expense of obtaining such
men would be prohibitive but for an
ingenious arrangement of circuits,
whereby the travelling university
week is able to play six communities
in the same neighborhood by inter
changing days.
1T is estimated that there are sew
eral ways in which this novel plan of
extending the influence o: state uni
versity will have a direct effect: In
the first place, it will make the work
of the university well and favorably
known where it has before been
known only vaguely or even mistak-
emily; it will break down the already
weakening barrier of educational ex-
clusiveness; and more important still,
it~is one more link in the chain of rur-
al betterment. 1t emphasizes an es-
sential point in the present-day con-
ception of rural life-that town and