Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1915-05-13
PRES. BLA|SDELL
RESIGNS TUESDAY
Accepts Liberal Arts Dean
ship in Pennsylvania
State College.
SUCCESSFUL 3 YEARS HERE
Board of Trustees Accepts Resigna-
tion, Which Will Take Effect
The 18th of August.

At the close of the chapel services
Tuesday morning DR.. Thomas c. Blais-
dell announced his resignation as
President of the Alma College to take
effect between the thirtieth of June
and the thirtieth of August, at the dis
cretion Of the Board of Trustees which
was TO meet in the afternoon i'm order
that he might accept a position as
dean of the department of Liberal
Arts at the Penn State College of
Pennsylvania. At one thirty o'clock
the board met and accepted the resign
alton, at the same time requesting DR..
Blaisdell to remain as the Colleges
executive until the fifteenth of August
In the same meeting the chairman of
the Board was instructed to appoint
committee to consider the matter of a
successor to DR.. Blaisdel.
The announcement of his resignation
came like bolt out of clear sky for
to the public no inkling Of his possible
resignation had come The offer it
self to become one of the deans in the
Pennsylvania school came as unexpect-
edly as did the latter announcement.
About the first of April after repre-
sentatives of the State College had
visited Alma and had inquired of Dr.
Blaisdell's work here the deanship was
offered to him.
Penn State College is the only state
supported school in Pennsylvania and
has about thirty-fve hundred students
There are FIVE departments, the Liberal
Arts Of which Dr. Blaisdell is to be
Dean Mining, Science, Engineering
and Agriculture. The faculty over
which he is to be Dean consists of
sixty professors and instructors. Ev-
cry student who attends the college
takes a course in the Liberal Arts
department at some time during his
stay. 1t corresponds exactly to the
Literary course in the state universi-
ties.
Penn State is located in the very
center of the state in a most beautiful
valley. The town in which it is sit
uated has a population of sixteen
hundred people while the nearest large
town to the college, BelleFonte, is
twelve miles away. The college was
founded in 1890 and is one of the old
est schools in the country.
There is a strong religious atmos-
phere pervading the school not often
found about college of its size. A
year ago there were seven hundred
conversions during the school year and
the year before there were over one
thousand. The Y. NJ. C. A. has a
strong organization and does a great
amount of good. A unique plan of
religious training is carried out there.
There is compulsory chapel and church
attendance for the students. There is
big Protestant church which the
students of that belief attend. There
is also Jewish rabbi who ministers to
two hundred Jewish students, while a
Catholic priest has a parish of three
hundred fifty students.
DR.. Blaisdell came to Alma from the
Michigan Agricultural College where
he was head of the English department
and has been here three years. Under
his administration the college has in
creased in numbers by leaps and
bounds He has followed a policy of
wise and persistent advertising. Alma
College is known about the state and
United States as it never was before.
DR.. Blaisdell has been in big demand
as a speaker and has filed many
speaking engagements, making fine.
reputation for himself wherever he
went.
A plan which he has cherished very
much has been the beautifying of the
college campus. Following out a
plan designed by Mr.. Yeomans, the
eminent Chicago landscape artist, he
mas neiped 10 make Anna s one OF the
most beautiful campus in Michigan.
He has been one of the chief factors in.
moulding & defnit, ed rcvcrful col
lege spirit, which is yearly inculcated
in the students and which has been .
determining force in their student en-
terprises. He has aided and assisted
all student organizations which would
make Alma a bigger and better college.
Many names have been suggested by
current gossip for the college presi-
dency of the college but no definite
action has yet been taken except that
previously mentioned.