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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1928-05-31, Page 9Suplement Page. ZURICH HERALD Thursday, May 31st, 1928 HO THI UNITE "'SITT S 2VES T ' PE t . PLE OF ES TERN ONTARIO 5 • EMAN ,Si ; FOR EDUCK I LES THE ENR DIE T Activities of "Western" Have Wide Influence Apart From Training of Students—All of the People Reap Increas- ing Benefit From Wolk of Institution. NOT ALONE through their teaching of numbers of students who go to them each year for intensive training along par- ticular lines, but through their ever widening influence, as well, upon the trend of public welfare and activities generally, universities today are indispensable in every phase of human existence and endeavor the civilized world over. . A nation owes the productive wealth of its mineral and timber resources, the development of its agricultural riches, the efficiency of its industrial exploitation, its prestige and attain- ments in the fields of science, and the good health of its people in both mind and body, in great measure to its universities. They have been and continue to be the discoverers, the pioneers, the leaders and the co-workers in the whole unending process of advancement. It is a significant fact, one of which the people and the universities of Canada inay be justly proud, that the people of the Dominion as a witble stand at the head of the line of all the peoples of the world as the most practically intelligent.. The primary and secondary schools of the country have had a large share in the attainment of that position, but to its universities goes the palm of principal achievement. For it is from them that have come the teach- ers, from them the men and women, and from them the ideas and meth- ods—and the application of those ideas and methods, that have given so largely to Canadian education, Canadian agriculture, Canadian science, Canadian industry, Can- adian public life and Canadian good health the hallmark of collective, comparative supremacy. In the Province of Ontario, with its large. centralization of population, the situation in this respect is the more striking, while in Western On- tario—"the garden of Canada"—the position finds still greater emphasis. Here, in the agriculturally -richest and second industrially -greatest sec- tion of Canada, are ono hundred sec- ondary schbols, or one-third of the total number of such schools in the entire province. In these schools is more than one-third 'of the total sec- ondary school population Of the pro- vince. And in the heart of this populous district of agricultural and indus- trial greatness con«tanily hecomiag greater, is The "University of Western Ontario. A Great University Like nearly all other seats of higher learning establis'.: d on this: continent during the last century, The University• of Western Ontario had its beginning in an institution for the development of young men for the Ministry; Huron College still lives to continue its service in the cause. of the Christian Chi rch, but out of it hes issued a great iinde- nominational university, with its denominational affiliated colleges, but with its ewn identity, function, wad influence dedicated to the sir - vice of all cf the people throughout its constituency irrespective of their creeds. The fourteen counties of Western Ontario-13rant, Bruce,. Elgin, Essex, Gray, Huron, Kent, Lainbton, Mid- dlesex, Norfolk, On^ford, Perth, 'W..t- orloo and Wellington—aro by law the pro ecribed. constituency of the University. Thi, Board of Governors of the university is representative of the who of Western Ontario. Every one c; the fourt-•en counties within Its „r:1lijt:::n i reereeentct in the Senate of the Uelversity. '!'he Uni- v rrii t_ til e:ter:i Ontario is under complete public control. It is a University of and fez the people. From the fourteen Western On- tario counties every year go increas- ing numhers of young men and young women to their. nearby' Uni- versity, and 'through its portals to wider opportunities; some to fame id rerienne. Student Enrolment Doubled So _'seat, in fact, hbs been the re- cent demand for university educa- tion particularly in this progressive section of the Dominion, that the E.' u t ._..^ii'nent et The TT+nivercity of -Teets-lee "'`, i eeio has (.: !lined eimtr inn the la;;;. re :".;i,.:`t,; a ;;row•,li o; demand for university service phen- omenally in e,_eess of anything ever ' ^Fare experienced by any Canadian university. And what is significant to a re- ntar kable degree is the fact that the ntajc- 'er of those students go to the Univer, ity not from the urban com- munities, but from the rural dis- tricts. More than Half of the total m.unmber of students new attending Tho University of Western Ontario, are from homes in the thirteen`eoun- ties of Western Ontario outside the university county of Middlesex. This is pointed indication of two Above, the School of lMMedicine; the College of Arts, with its County of Middlesex war memorial tower; the Natural Sef.._mces bui ding, Below, the Eknstitet s of Public Health. and, left to ri°ht, Arthur T. Little, chairman of the Board of Gov- ernors of the 4 oive"sty; Arthur W. White, aerie aan. oi: the Golden Jubilee Endowment Fund Committee, which seeks to raise a necessary pc rr irnent foundation fund of ^'21,000,000 for the 'University half of it in the IA counties of Western Ontario; Dr. W. Sherwood Fox, president and vice-chancellor of the University. things. First, of. tee ie ligation thee is ,fixing itself. e' : ure1y and. perman- ently in the ren?', c? centralized communities everywhere, that a uni- versity eduoatien is a snail factor for the greatera` es end happiness of the tndivi..' «l, man or i-, onaar, no matter v.hr.t his 0_' lie: p '. ent na- tion may b.:, and i t' . r in what field of endeavor his , her future Nee; tied the day when the uni=•er- sity or college was a place apart, re- served for tine training inin; of deetors, lawyers, ereacli:" a and teachers, long sirce has pasFeel. Whether it be in a^rienitnre or in business, the man or weieen genie out int:en the world today, or remaining at Lome, who has not the background of lino vie en Or the command of 1 rim out -da, methods and nice'ianisins. cannot holi:, to compete with those who posse;-. that background. and and that trai„iu^. The nation's lead^rs in i,he turmoil of human af- fairs today are the best authorities for that observation. Minimum of Expense Second, it is indication that the people of Western Ontario rapidly have come to recognize in The Uni- versity of Western Ontario the logi- cal outlet for tip eir own demand for higher edueLtion. Nor could this recognition be at all possible 'but for two all important considerations, namely., thee (1) the etandeene ,r teaching at The Univeroity of West- ern Ontario oris of the highest: proven the equal of t:l.o best and su- perior to some, particularly in re- spect of ability to adhere to that invaluable policy of intimate, in- t'Idulentructise of tate stinient, ,r.3 ("'• tent eet,n"my o'_ t:titi:rn, transportation and living costs makes passible the minimum of expense. As the Icon. John S. Martin, pro- vincial minister of agriculture, re- cently declared before an audience representative of the rural t istriets of . ern On; , ,, "but for tl e e ietcuce of The University of West- ern Ontario in the very heart of the community, a university education would be impossible for many who ere now able to benefit by it. Higher living costs alone, in Toronfm for in- stance, would add from one hundred to two hundred dollars a year to the cost of sending a son or daughter to 1 the university there. Moreover, in London, students are within a short distance ot their homes, a fact of much importance to parents, and as Lordon is not a large city in the ordinate' eonse, it is free from the many dietractious of a great metro- polis." I ut, as it was stated in the begin- nin, it is not alone through its teaching cx numbers of students who go to it for training along apecifmc lisie.s, bit through its influence upon th© trend of public ai'airs generally that the university today is indis- pensable. The University Influence The ;work and influence of The University of Western Ontario tl• 0 h it -the fourteen counties of its cOnr i tucncy is to be seen on eery heed. +. The Faculty and Insti- tute of Pablo Health diene serves upwvard o' ler) :seperate cottununities h co-oparat on with public health officials, physicians. nurses and others interested or engaged in the all-important busineee of preserva- tion of health and prevention of dis- ease. . The influence of the work of the Faculty of Medicine, officially recog- nized as in the first class among institutions of the kind on. this con- tinent, is felt throughout the West- ern Ontario district and beyond. Its eine,:ei'ititions to inedietdl and surgical k:ioesnedge and practice, thorough i - sen••^'i end study are internationally not,ae te, and i e accumulation of the best and latest in understanding and methods from the great medical and sum,, cal centres of the world gives .to aha to the pecpie of Weet- n"n Cm va' i '.bat is beyond estimate. To both the urban and rural coin- eiunities of Western Ontario, the work of the Department of Exten- sion and Adult Education and of the Sumner School and Extra Mural De - pertinent is of far-reaching import- ance. These departments de not wait for the student to come to them.; they carry the elements of university training and study into the homes of these who are prevented by circum- stances from attending the regular courses, or who desire to take up one or other forma of special study. Hun- dreds of individuals in all walks of life are benefiting by this service every year, and annually the scoped of the work is being extended.. In Agriculture And of particular importance to' the rural citizens is the University's work in agricultural research. Al- ready this work has obtained. wide • recognition and is about to be ex- . tended in keeping with present-day 1 indications of what lies ahead, for it has been forecast on the basis of definite evidence in that direction that Western Ontario in the near fu- ture is to experience an intensive de- velopment of its agricultural re- sources on a scale hitherto not dreamed of. For fifty years The University of western Ontario has been serving\ the people of Western Ontario with increasing generosity and productive 1 efficiency. During that half -century -j it has been confronted by and has overe.ome many obstacles; some of 1 which have at times threatened its very life. But it has never before sought the help of those whom it ? has served beyond the circle of its immediate situation. Today, however, The University of Western Ontario is faced. by a j genuine crisis in. its affairs brought about by the larger demands placed upon it by the people of its whole ' constituency. The one solution of its problem is that all of those whom it serves must unite to assume their share of the responsibility for main- taining its service. The Government ,:f the Province is generously provid- ing partially toward that solution. The City of London is bearing a fair share of that responsibility, and the '. people of London are assuming their share. as individuals and as a com- munity. The share of each of the fourteen counties of Western On- tario has been soundly established, i and the government, the Ieaders in the religions, educational, agricul- ; tural, industrial and social life of ' the whole district of- Western On- tario have eap1 ess e d themselves s a s confident that the citizens of West- ern Ontario counties will see incum- bent upon theiiiselves the moral re- sponsibility and the material neces- sity for making certain that the tTniversity that is theirs shall not falter for want of their Understand- ing and action,