The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1943-05-06
Will the Chapel Bell Ring Again?

state universities nellIS 50 Sldl leu
In one State, Iowa, there are five
Methodist colleges. The Congrega
tionalists and the Presbyterians have
distinguished chains of colleges, mark
ing the westward movement Of our
people, and ending, appropriately, I'M
Southern California with the estab-E
lishment of Pomona and Occidental as
fourishing institutions. The number
of Roman Catholic colleges is enor-
nous. the system coming to head
in the Roman Catholic University in
Washington, d. c.
When we contemplate the multitude
Of colleges and universities, we real
ize that higher education has been
one of our chief national industries
The amount of loyalty thus aroused
and kept is phenomenal. Men and
women will give to dear old Alma
Mater year after year, especially if
there seems to be some chance that
she is in real danger Of being forced
to close her doors. There has been a
terrific struggle for academic sur
vival, a struggle in which same have
lost, but mostly they do not lose
Five Methodist colleges may, accord
ing to reason, be too many, even for
the State of Iowa, which leads the
nation in literacy as well as in corn
and hogs. But which one will go?
Each one naturally has strong sup
porters, not only because of local civic
pride, but also because of the gradu
ates scattered all over the world.
Many of these have been successful
in their careers, and joyfully admit
a debt of gratitude to the old college
in the little town.
1t is interesting to note what peo-
pie remember about their college days.
OF course they remember the day
when Siwash beat Mohawk in that
never-to- be-fOrgotten last-mlnute
touchdown, just as the whole game
seemed lost. They have not forgotten
Boyle's Law and they could not tell
which Latin verbs habitually take the
dative, but they remember what old
Brown said one morning after the
sleepy students had sung the hun
dredth Psalm and listened while the
devout president prayed "for this and
all other places Of learning"
Valuable as all this was it slowly
fell into decay, so that hardly col
lege now has required chapel in the
old sense.
Interesting evidence that we have
departed from the ancient pattern
may be seen, not only in our newer
institutions, but in some Of the oldest,
such as Harvard and Yale. When the
new housing plan was adopted at
both institutions, with the hope of re-
storing the intimate sharing of life
which the small college made posi-
BILE, the new housing units were mod
eled quite consciously on the colleges
of Oxford and Cambridge. There are
similar enclosed quadrangles, similar
common rooms, similar dining rooms,
similar libraries. But there are no
chapels, whereas the English colleges
do have separate chapels, many OF
them world famous.
The change in temper may be for
the better and it may be for the
worse, but there is no use in denying
the fact that the change has occurred.
Continuity Of tradition, even in de-
nominatonal colleges, is the eXcep-
ton One of the few successful eXper-
| iments in a required religious obser-
vance is that of Haverford College in
Pennsylvania, where, every Thursday
morning, all the students are required
to attend a half-hour meeting in the
Friends Meeting House, which is held,
as Quakers say, on the basis OF
silence This has gone on as long as
the college has been in existence, con-
siderably more than a century, and,
though there is some objection to it
on the part of few, it is largely ac
copied with gratitude. The gratitude
is most obvious as men look back in
later years.
My conclusion, based on visits to
number of colleges both large and
! small, is that the great majority Of
students do not attend chapel and
never think of the chapel as touching
their lives. In the Sunday services
there is a fairly large attendance,
but in most instances a considerable
part of the congregation is made up
of faculty families and interested
visitors, drawn often by reputation
of the speaker for the day.
Of course there are colleges which
are doing a good job in their pro
grams of spiritual guidance. One in
teresting adaptation of the older Am
| ercan pattern is a new situation as
seen at Rollins College, Florida, where
a modern and progressive college has
erected a chapel as it's grandest build
ing, and one of the chief monuments
to the architectural vision of the late
Ralph Adams Cram. Not only is this
the college place Of worship; it also
gives wall space to the finest paint
ings which the college owns or has on
narnoanent loan The church does not