The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1921-10-20

DESCRIBES LIFE in
CLARK UNIVERSITY
Since the last part of September
Mr.. J. E. SWitzer has been at Clark
University, Worcester Mass, where
he is doing graduate study in geog-
raphy. New students may like to
know that he is the head Of the De-
partment of Science and that a leave
of absence has been granted him for
the current year. Parts of his letter
to the editor are here printed.
You may picture me in nice large
room facing southwest, with two large
windows in the front and one in the
northwest side, sitting at large ma
hogany writing desk. A single white
iron bed, stand, dresser, two rockers,
a nice rug, a straight chair, and my
trunk make up the rest of my sur
roundings. l am located three blocks
from the University and the Dining
Hall" where We all board. Prices are
quite reasonable too.
/ Worcester is a city of nearly 200,-
900 people located in the typical roll
ing, glaciated New England topog
raphy. Here and there the bed rock
, outcrops on the surface showing that
the mantle rock covering is not very
deep. Even in the city now and then
you run across fences made of the
boulders picked off of the soil. AS you
| ride along on the train you may see
many fields in succession all fenced
with the boulders. hope to get some
| really good pictures of some of them.
I SAID my room faced southwest.
| The people who laid out this city seem
, to have an antipathy towards the
points of the compass. have gone
| over with some care detailed map of
the city and have found that there is
only one street that follows the car
dinal points of the compass, and that
goes in an east-west direction for
just two blocks. To keep your direc-
lions is next to impossible. Being a
student of geography, l practice map
study and never start off in an unex-
plored part of the city without my
pocket map, along.
Clark University is rather unique in
several ways. One is, the absence OF
general formalities. To enroll, went
to the Bursar's office and filled out a
little blue card giving my name, home
address, Worcester address and a
statement of my previous training.
Then all the rest had to do was to see
my instructors and join the classes l
WANTED to take. There is the utmost
informality and cordiality on the part
of the faculty Of any place ! have ever
seen. -
| The institution is really made up Of
three units, i. e.. Clark University, the
school for those who have at least
their A. B. degree; and the Graduate
School of Geography. The latter is
| Just getting started this year and of
course is in it's infancy. 1t is being
planned carefully and will,-l believe,
become an institution of some consid.
cradle note. The enrolment is small
as compared with even the University
of North Dakota, but they have a
number of men on the faculty of con-
siderable reputation. Mr.. Blakesley
for instance, is absent now, as one OF
three advisers to this government in
the disarmament conference. Nearly
every man at the head of a depart
ment ranks very high in educational
circles in this part of the country. DR.
Atwood made the statement in the op-
ening assembly that this school has
the largest faculty in proportion to
| the number Of students of any college
B in the United States. There are scarce
lly any classes Of over fifteen or TWEEN
ty, and in the University proper they
are practically all under fifteen. The
whole spirit Of the faculty seems tc
be that they want to give as much per.
sonal attention to each student as pos.
sible. It is mighty fine" I'll tell you
The library contains about 100000
!, volumes and is the third largest en-.
bowed library in the country. They
are adding about 1000 volumes a veal
, to it and are not able to spend all tho
money they have available. The Grad
. uate School of Geography has one
: room for geography books alone, ane
|; in addition has a large room 1OOx6(
. #. for work and study room with al
abundance Of shelves to house the ad
ditions to it's library. In this part
another man and I have been assign
ed to the space in an alcove about q
feet square with nice large oak ia
Bile apiece. That is where ! will be do
] ing most of my work. We have key:
to the room and come and go as VIZ
like.
NV schedule Of hours in class is mo-
large. but my schedule OF hours o.