The history of Colby College, Part 44

Author: Colby College
Publication date: 1963
Publisher: Waterville, Colby College Press
Number of Pages: 716

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The journey to Europe seemed to have done the President much good, but it soon became apparent that he was not a well man. Already he had lost the close companionship of several of the trustees whose advice and support he valued highly. In the fall of 1920 both Col. Richard C. Shannon and the Board's secretary, Wilford G. Chapman, had died. In 1922 Emery B. Gibbs and Judge William Penn Whitehouse passed away. Scarcely had he picked up the reins again when Roberts was hard hit by the death of the Board's Chairman and his very close friend, Judge Leslie C. Cornish, who died just a few days after the

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HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

1925 commencement. The following March saw the passing of his presidential predecessor, Albion Woodbury Small, and of the first woman graduate, Mary Low Carver. A month later died a trustee on whom Roberts had placed unusual dependency, Dana W. Hall. Within a few days of each other, in September 1926, died Frank Edmunds and Roberts' close Waterville friend, Dr. Frederick Thayer. Then, within six months passed away two members of the faculty, Benjamin C. Carter and Anton Marquardt; and in March, 1927, Colby lost another of her former presidents, Nathaniel Butler.

Asking Professor Taylor to preside at the 1927 Commencement, President Roberts went to Morristown, New Jersey, for treatment. There he died on Octo- ber 11, 1927. It was to Professor Herbert Libby that Mrs. Roberts turned in her extremity. When it seemed that the President was sinking rapidly, she sum- moned Libby to Morristown, where he remained in constant attendance, and ac- companied the President's body back to Waterville. Professor Libby has de- scribed the returning scene.

No one present will ever forget that scene at the Waterville station. When we alighted from the car, a very small group of sorrowing friends came forward to extend sympathy to Mrs. Roberts. But a little later, when we had gone to the College Avenue home to await the arrival of the body, the tramp of many feet was heard. Upon opening the door, we were amazed to find that a double line had been formed, ex- tending from the threshold of the home, up the street all the way to the station. In that line were all members of the faculty and the entire student body. Ten selected undergraduates carried the body of their President into the house. It was a wonderful tribute to a beloved leader.3

There were two funeral services, one at the College Chapel, the other at the Baptist Church. After prayers at the home, conducted by Dr. Edwin Whittemore, Roberts' pastor and close friend for many years, members of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity carried the casket to the Chapel. Professor Taylor presided at appro- priate services, highlighted by a touching eulogy by Dr. Woodman Bradbury, 1887. A long procession then marched to the church. The streets of the city were lined with flags at half mast. All places of business, as well as the public schools, were closed. Assembled at the church was such a mass of mourning citi- zens as had never been seen before. Official representatives alone of more than forty organizations and institutions filled the body of the auditorium. With Dr. Whittemore presiding, the scripture was read by Rev. I. B. Mower; Rev. Frank W. Padelford, 1894, offered prayer; and the eulogy was delivered by Rev. Everett C. Herrick, 1898.

Permanent recognition of the life-long work of Arthur Roberts, begun in his lifetime with the naming of Roberts Hall on the old campus, continued after his death. The square near the railroad station, at the junction of College Ave- nue and Chaplin Street, was officially designated as Roberts Square. Later, one of the streets in the new Mayflower Hill section was named Roberts Avenue. When the alumni of the College decided to erect on the new campus a Men's Union, as focal center for male students, including central dining facilities, only one name seemed appropriate-Roberts Union. In 1928, Professor Carl J. Weber edited a volume of Roberts' writings under the title Footprints. The Trustees named in his honor the Roberts Professorship of English Literature. Dr. and Mrs. I. B.

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Mower placed in the Chapel a tablet inscribed with one of Roberts' famous prayers :

We pray that at the center of the life of this college may stand the altar of service to others. May its fire purge us of selfish aims and purposes, so that all of us, here and everywhere, now and always, may with joy and gladness devote our lives to the promotion of the common good. We ask it in the name of Him who gave Himself for us. Amen.

Nowhere else is the personality of Arthur Roberts so well revealed as in notes taken day by day, at the chapel exercises during 1923-24, by a Colby freshman, Robert Waugh of the Class of 1927. Here are a few of President Roberts' memorable statements as that freshman took them down.

Our college spirit varies. When the waters are troubled, college does more for most students. The greatest enrichment comes in giving one- self for others. The hardworking life of a mother for her children is the abundant life.

You can be argued out of a faith that you have been argued into, but not out of an experience.

Most generalizations about college students are bosh. There is no type called a college student. There is no particular set of theological be- liefs for college men. What you need is a satisfying religious faith, satisfying to you as an individual.

We should be thankful for the courage to keep on. A man may be down, but he is never out until he admits it.

No theory of evolution can account for the soul. We are more closely related to God than to the dumb creatures below us. Religion is not merely a matter of head and heart; it is also a matter of hands and feet.

The man who seeks perishable things is already dying.

Life is not measured by its length. Perhaps Theodore Roosevelt lived more life than did Methuselah.

God repeatedly forgives us because we need unlimited teaching.

What I hate about college discipline is that you have to punish fathers and mothers. All the evil seed a boy sows here is reaped by father and mother at home.

The most pathetic word in English is "almost"-almost passed the course, almost beat out the hit, almost got to class, almost a Christian.

That was the man who changed Colby College from a struggling institution with a few score students to a respected New England college with sound finances and a student body in excess of six hundred. When death removed him from the scene at the age of sixty, he would have been the first to say that much work remained to be done. But his own great task for Colby had been splendidly completed. It was now a college worthy of the attention of a Johnson and a Bixler.

CHAPTER XXXIII

Interregnum

W. HEN President Roberts finally submitted to the advice of his physicians and went to Morristown, New Jersey, shortly before college opened in the fall of 1927, he expected confidently to be back at his desk before Christmas. Adopt- ing the administrative device which had worked so well during his European trip, he appointed a faculty committee to administer the college during his ab- sence. He chose Professor Taylor as chairman, and as the other members Pro- fessors Parmenter, Libby, Ashcraft, Marriner and Weber.

On President Roberts' death, the committee was uncertain about its con- tinuance because it had been appointed by Roberts and was responsible directly to him. Soon after Roberts' funeral, chairman Wadsworth ascertained that it was the unanimous opinion of the Trustees that the committee be empowered to ad- minister the internal affairs of the College until the fall meeting of the Board in November, and Mr. Wadsworth informed Professor Taylor, "This action is in- tended to cover any and every matter of administration that may arise prior to the November meeting of the Board."

Professor Taylor attended the November meeting and reported on what the committee had done. The work had been divided among the several members so as to place no excessive burden on any one of them. Professor Parmenter, in cooperation with the Dean of Women, directed student social activities. Pro- fessor Ashcraft had charge of chapel. Professor Libby attended to the engage- ment and entertainment of visiting lecturers and performed numerous other duties. Professor Marriner was adviser to freshman men, and Professor Weber had charge of the men's dormitories. As chairman, Professor Taylor presided at faculty meetings, at public functions including commencement, and had charge of general administration. The Board was delighted to learn that Taylor had paid personal visits to many classrooms. Expressing appreciation of the committee's work, the Trustees confirmed the appointments and authorized the committee to admin- ister the College until a new president should assume the duties of office.

In June, 1928, Dr. Taylor felt that his age and health would not permit him longer to carry the burden of the chairmanship. He agreed to remain a member of the committee, but insisted that the Board relieve him of the chair- man's position. Reluctantly the Trustees agreed, and appointed Professor Mar- riner as chairman. The personnel of the committee was unchanged except for the addition of a very important member. After several years of absence, Miss Ninetta Runnals was induced to return as Dean of Women. Both Trustees and faculty already knew her sterling qualities, and she was at once appointed to the Executive Committee.

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HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

It was at once seen that enrollment might be a problem. Young people do not like to attend a college that has no head, however efficient a committee may be. Many a young person had chosen Colby because the dynamic Arthur J. Roberts was its president. When the Class of 1931 was recruited in the spring and summer of 1927, President Roberts was still living, but his health had not permitted him to keep up his usual practice of visiting the schools. Except for some visiting done by the librarian and other members of the faculty, the new class had been enrolled largely by Registrar Malcolm Mower. In 1926, Roberts had agreed that the college records could no longer be kept adequately by the part-time assignment of a faculty member, and he had selected the son of a prominent Baptist trustee, Rev. I. B. Mower, as Colby's first full-time registrar.

The fall of 1926 had seen 121 men and 78 women enter in the freshman class. In 1927 that total of 199 had dropped to 178. Although Mower had enrolled 115 men, the number of freshman women was only 63, a loss which could in no small measure be attributed to the absence of Dean Runnals. Be- cause of high retaining power in the upper classes, however, the total enrollment for both 1926-27 and 1927-28 was exactly the same, 676.

When a new class entered in the autumn of 1928 the College felt keenly its lack of a president. The total college enrollment fell to 630. It was clear that restoration of public confidence in Colby depended upon the speedy elec- tion of a president.

It is only in retrospect that one can see clearly that Colby was then losing its appeal to prospective students. At the time everyone made light of the situa- tion, and even saw in the numerical liability an academic asset. The Echo said:

While the number is fewer than last year, the administration feels no alarm. The College is equipped to care well for 600 students. To ac- commodate more we need increased physical equipment that is very costly. Additional instructors can be engaged from increase in current funds, but those funds will not provide new classrooms, new labora- tories, nor adequate library facilities. This year the Trustees limited the number of women, but every male applicant who could present full entrance credentials has been admitted.

For some time the faculty had been complaining that student numbers were sadly outgrowing the facilities. There was some rejoicing, therefore, in the teach- ing ranks when enrollment dropped nearer to what many regarded as the appro- priate figure of six hundred. This led to an interesting controversy over the ques- tion whether admission should be restricted in the interests of quality. Hitherto any boy who could meet the minimum requirements for entrance was accepted, often with one or two of the necessary fifteen admission units to be worked off by examination after his actual enrollment. Professor Carl J. Weber, always an aggressive advocate of high academic standards, felt the time had come to adopt a restrictive policy.

In an article published in the Alumnus, he wrote:

Our present student body has been more carefully selected than ever before. As we have approached and at times passed the limits of our ability to take proper care of those who have applied for admission, we have been able to pick and choose. Entrance examination standards have been raised. The numerical limit set by the Trustees on the women, and the limit set by our classroom and laboratory facilities on

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INTERREGNUM

the men, have made it possible to insist year by year on more vigorous intellectual standards. The welcome product of this care in selection is an extremely low mortality rate. Our senior class this year is the largest in the history of the College. The sophomores outnumber the juniors by only two. It isn't a huge freshman class that indicates the intellectual life of a college, but how large a proportion of the class last through to senior year. The close approach to equal numbers in the four classes is an excellent condition.1

The Editor of the Alumnus, Professor Libby, took sharp issue with the Eng- lish professor.

The Alumnus takes exception to the statement that our present student body has been more carefully selected than ever before and the inference that limits have been set on the number of entering students. When it is said that we are selecting more carefully today, it is rather im- portant to know in just what respect. There are no more important bases of selection than seriousness of purpose and giving a poor boy a fighting chance. The boy with honest purpose and fair ability and ambitious soul can get into Colby as easily now as he could 25 years ago. It is true that accommodations limit the number of girls from outside the city, but there is no limit on women commuters. When- ever there has been appreciable increase of students, more classrooms and laboratories have been provided. This whole idea of limiting num- bers is nothing but a wail of despair. The prestige that comes from ad- vertising a limited enrollment to a gullible world, then fails to live up to the advertising, is of doubtful benefit. Old Colby has never resorted to that method of advertising, and it is devoutly hoped that the day is far off when it ever will.2

Thirty years after that clash, in which both contestants had strong supporters, it is interesting to note what actually happened-not the opinions, but the facts. Colby continued, like almost every other small college in the land, to relate its admission practice carefully to its financial budget. This writer once asked the dean of one of New England's prestige colleges of liberal arts, "How many fresh- men are you going to have next fall?" The prompt and frank answer was, "As many as we need to balance the budget." As soon as a college was sure that it could get the needed number of freshmen by taking only a part of its qualified applicants, it proceeded to restrict admission to the better of those applicants. Any college that had to dip low into the academic barrel of its applicants, in order to get enough freshmen, could be less restrictive.

At Colby the gap in ability and performance in favor of the women widened through the years because the needed number of women, year after year, could be obtained from a more restricted group than was possible among the men. Only in recent years have men who could fully meet minimum requirements been refused admission. By 1960 the time had come when admission into Colby was truly restrictive for both sexes.

Even after the passage of thirty years, the controversy still goes on, but is no longer a controversy between academic quality and the "good but dumb" boy. It is exactly as it always was in reality, the pressure for numbers against the pressure for excellence. Whatever may be its result in an individual college, there need be no such battle on the broad educational scene. No boy need be denied opportunity for post-high school education suitable to his ability and his desire. Colby has made the fortunate decision that it means to remain a high

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HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

grade college of liberal arts and has no intention of being all things to all men. Restrictive admission, generally acceptable all over the nation in 1960, became Colby's natural right and duty.

Despite lower enrollment, the two years of executive committee rule were not without accomplishment. Led by Professor Libby, a successful campaign was conducted to secure substantial increase in faculty salaries. President Roberts had himself started the movement, with the generous help of the General Educa- tion Board. He had done all he could when fatal illness attacked him, but cer- tainly not all he would have done if his life had been spared. Professor Libby picked up the salary issue where Roberts had unwillingly left it.

Near the close of the Roberts administration two members of the faculty were one day journeying together to a neighboring town to conduct extension courses. One asked the other, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if top salaries could be increased to $4000?" "Yes," replied his companion, "that would be mighty close to Heaven." Yet, thanks to the strenuous efforts of the Executive Com- mittee under Dr. Taylor, spurred by Professor Libby's impressive marshaling of the arguments, only one year after President Roberts' death the Trustees did establish that heavenly goal of $4000.

The recommendation of the committee, consisting of Carroll N. Perkins, Frank B. Hubbard, and Irving B. Mower was adopted on April 6, 1928, to be- come effective with the beginning of the ensuing college year. It called for full professors to be paid $3400 to $4000, associate professors $3000 to $3300, as- sistant professors $2400 to $2900, and instructors $1800 to $2300. The plan also called for annual increments of $100 in each grade.

The editor of the Alumnus blamed lack of concerted effort by the faculty for failure to secure a higher scale. He wrote:

The special committee of the Trustees has made its report to the Board, and the Board has finally approved the schedule of salaries as made. The report is exhaustive and merits only words of commendation. While many hoped that the maximum salary would be set at $5000, that greater incentive might be offered for duties well performed, still the increase is satisfactory. Had the faculty members met as a body on the matter and presented their findings to the Trustees in a dignified way, a higher schedule might have been reported. As it was, indi- vidual members submitted their budgets, and some of those who had been most wrought up over low salaries fixed as a maximum the $4000 figure. Now that the schedule is determined upon, all discussion of the whole salary question should cease. Its agitation is apt to become chronic, and there is no worse malady.3

The new scale was immediately implemented in 1928-29 by fixing the salaries of the six professors who had seen longest service at $4000, and within a few years all who had held the top rank in 1928 were receiving that maximum.

As a part of his persistent and successful campaign, Professor Libby had patiently collected information about salaries from many other colleges. He published comparative figures for ten New England institutions: Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Brown, Colby, Dartmouth, Middlebury, Tufts, Wesleyan, and Williams. In 1919 the maximum paid a full professor ranged from $2000 at Colby to $4500 at Dartmouth. Bates then paid a maximum $400 higher than Colby's. In 1924 Colby was still at the bottom of the list, with a maximum of $2800, and in 1926, when the figure reached $3400, each of the other nine colleges had a higher maximum. Only in 1928, with a maximum of $4000, did Colby share the cellar

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INTERREGNUM

with Bates and Middlebury, while Dartmouth still led the list with $7000. In fact the Hanover college paid assistant professors $500 more than Colby's top full professors.‘

Odious as were the comparisons, the salary increases were indeed gratifying. That they could be made when the college was without a president and when enrollment showed some decline, speaks volumes for the understanding and the determination of the Colby Trustees. They showed the same courage and the same progressive attitude when they raised the tuition fee to $200 a year, ef- fective in September, 1928.

In its second year of operation, the Executive Committee instituted a change that was indeed radical. For more than a hundred years chapel had been held daily for all students of the college. Attendance had been required, but the al- lowance of "cuts" was liberal and for long periods attendance was not taken at all. For more than twenty years the daily chapel for men had been held at ten o'clock and that for women at noon. It was partly in justice to the women and partly to secure better attendance for men, as well as more meaningful services, that in 1928 it was decided to hold the chapel service for each sex three times a week, the men meeting at ten o'clock on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the women at the same hour on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sat- urday. A rigid check was made on attendance, and a committee headed by Pro- fessor Ashcraft, and composed of both teachers and students, presented a series of attractive programs. Still the situation was not satisfactory, and chapel re- mained a problem long after the coming of a new president.

In 1927 Colby saw the election of its first Rhodes Scholar in twenty years, and only the second in Colby history. Abbott Smith of the Class of 1928, son of William Abbott Smith, 1891, and grandson of Samuel K. Smith, 1845, Colby's long remembered professor of rhetoric, was chosen among the young Americans to attend Oxford under the Rhodes trust. Interest in the Rhodes scholarships had been revived by Professor Carl Weber, who had himself been a Rhodes scholar. Within a few years young Smith was followed at Oxford by two other Colby men, John Rideout, 1936, and William Carter, 1938. It is worthy of note that all three of these Rhodes scholars were sons of Colby graduates. Rideout's father was Walter Rideout, 1912, and his mother was Ruth Brickett, 1915. Car- ter's mother was Mary Caswell, 1904, and his father was Professor Benjamin Carter of the Colby department of mathematics.

The Executive Committee instituted a reform concerning the award of scholar- ship aid. Formerly it had been the custom for applicants to apply in person to the President. Awards for students already in college were made for the second semester only. The custom was for an applicant to don his oldest clothes, and with doleful countenance present himself at the President's office. A president like Roberts was shrewd enough to see through such tricks, but his naturally kind heart made even Roberts sometimes a gullible mark. At any rate, no member of the committee considered himself as able as Roberts had been to detect the shamming and reward the deserving. Beginning in 1928, applicants for scholar- ships were required to fill out forms, and both they and their parents had to supply pertinent financial data. The plan worked so well that it has been con- tinued ever since, although now Colby is a member of the Cooperative Scholar- ship Service, to which scholarship applications for all member colleges are sub- mitted, processed, and then sent to the individual colleges concerned.

During the early years of the Roberts administration, optimists thought haz- ing at Colby had been effectively stopped. It is easy for college officers to over-

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look the fact that every four years sees a completely new student body. The time came when no one remembered the noble stand taken by one sophomore class, and the old custom of humiliating freshmen, demanding adherence to fan- tastic rules, and a certain amount of paddling had returned. Freshmen again had cause to dread Bloody Monday Night, the first Monday of each college year. Time and again freshmen painted their numerals on the gymnasium roof, and each time the upperclassmen insisted that the offending marks be removed.

The reforming enthusiasts who had tried to abolish hazing had not realized the weight of a certain basic view-the concept that modest and obedient conduct is expected of first year college men. As the Echo put it:

Many freshmen do not seem to realize that there is a certain place in college life reserved for freshmen, and they must keep that place. A great many freshmen this year have been altogether too fresh. They do not seem to understand that it has been a long and cherished cus- tom for freshmen to give their services to the College when they are needed. The affair at the gym was partly caused by natural irritation at the poor spirit shown by this freshman class.

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The history of Colby College, Part 44

Author: Colby College Publication date: 1963 Publisher: Waterville, Colby College Press Number of Pages: 716

Author: Colby College
Publication date: 1963
Publisher: Waterville, Colby College Press
Number of Pages: 716