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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 1976)
THE BATTALION Page 5 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5. 1976 Convocation marks end of schoofs first century :ation THINS 1 MOTHER (Continued from Page 1) fcvii tould give our team, inspirational or v Itherwise,” Freeman said. The crowd vhooped loudly in response. ^ ; freeman also introduced Sen. Bill - Mpore, then turned the platform over to olm Koldus, vice president for student [vices. .oldus said that since its inception A&M ia| seen many fine young men and women snter its halls, but that among them Fred B;Clure, current student body president, v is pne of the finest. EN POUNdI McClure, a senior agricultural econom- )UT U I [c^ major from San Augustine, said that A&M has grown from a small college stres sing agriculture and the mechanical arts to a national leader in agriculture, engineer ing and many other disciplines. McClure added that much of A&M’s success could be attributed to the support of its graduates. One A&M graduate, U.S. Rep. Olin Tiger Teague, said that our nation’s lead ers have a special something that sets them apart. “Fred McClure has got it, and I cannot conclude that all of it came from San Augus tine, Teague said. “I think that some of it came from Texas A&M.” “When the Aggie jokes started,” Teague said slowly as he scanned the audience, they made me just flat mad as hell.” But Teague said that he soon realized the jokes were prompted by envy, jealousy and even a little respect for Texas A&M. Lee H. Smith, president of Southwest Texas State University, said that Texas A&M is not just a university, it is the per sonification of the American Way. “I know of no single Aggie who has not at some time stood on Aggie soil and thought, T shall never hear the spirit whithout hav ing chills go up and down my spine.’ A&M is not just a university — A&M exudes heart,” Smith said. The heart of Texas A&M can be traced back to its beginning in 1876, when it opened with six faculty members and six students. Dr. Betty Unterberger, a history professor speaking for the A&M faculty, said that Texas A&M was founded in days when Indians harrassed settlers and wolves prowled the brush. In those days of sudden justice and six- shooters, Unterberger said, the wild and wooley cattle center of Bryan was 15 miles away from the newly founded University. Unterberger said that A&M was founded by rugged individualists who dreamed of educating their sons to build a great state upon the land which they had pioneered. Although the A&M campus was opened in poverty and distinguished by inadequate quarters and one lone native tree, its founding was the first earnest, practical step toward affording a working class of people a college education, Unterberger said. The president of the Association of Former Students, Mayo J. Thompson, compared A&M’s centennial to the nation’s Bicenetennial and said that A&M and America share a common dream. He said that the spirit of Aggieland prods Aggies on to greater acheivements, and that the na;- tion can count on Aggies to aid its progress * - Texas Secretary of State Mark White' brought A&M greetings from the state, and; Harry Provence, chairman of the Texas; College and University System Coordina-L tion Board, presented greetings from that • group. After Connally’s address and the Cen-C tennial Affirmation by Freeman, the voices-; of the centennial celebrants joined to-; gether in one final chorus of “The Spirit of; Aggieland, ” the final song of Texas A&M’i- first 100 years. New trends require policy adjustments at By GAIL JOHNSON I Universities must adjust their policies to Iccept the situations predicted by trends in higher education. Dr. Archie R. Dykes, Biancellor of the University of Kansas, said y( sterday in Rudder Theater. B Dykes, speaking at a Texas A&M Uni versity centennial seminar, said universi- , Jes will have to broaden their teaching ie urn an( j recruiting areas, winningspoke to students, faculty, and "T ° "Bsitors about the prospects and problems e a ^, er ' that universities will have to deal with in the future. < r or Ana Dykes said that since zero population ataspenja^dj has been achieved, enrollment in " iun colleges and universities will eventually ire now c<#K ve l off and drop. “Part of our interest now Hiust be to plan for this eventuality,” he an > . mor * said. Jr . us ’, Dykes said that the drop in enrollment a read) Jjg counteracted by opening the uni- P J versity to the elderly and those who could take time out from their careers to study. B “I believe that the greatest difference between our campuses in 1976 and in 2000 H'iH be the age of our students. ” ■ The universities must be prepared to counteract the drop in enrollment or they may face the loss of state and federal funds. Dykes said. ft “All of these developing trends will cause problems for us only if we are unpre- HfflHHared for them,’ he added. Dykes also expressed concern for the ■mount of government intervention in volved in higher education. He said that (file government should not be directly in- r volved in the academic affairs. ch have I mpact onii is sharplu on througlij icing deplffl ions/’Crula VY Ider 502, 16 L&M,8:| tion SocielJ •ks Club, I 150, 7:30 pa 206, 7:30 pi >n, Willow un, SoutM iclogy Socif 50 p.m. 1930 Film, ■n. (Admissii) Dr. Archie R. Dykes Dykes added that some federal programs were desirable, but many were too expen sive to implement. He said that universities should expand their programs to offer more courses and explained that universities must incorpo rate programs for those wishing to continue their education. Universities and educators must make a full scale effort to bring those people not normally involved in higher education into it. Dykes said. “Higher education must train people to think. Dykes said that if the universities meet their challenges in the future, the idea of public education could reach its full poten tial. War Hymn is special tribute Marine Band concert climaxes centennial day activities The United States Marine Band concert in Rudder Center Au ditorium yesterday evening was a superb climax for the Texas A&M Centennial Day activities. The red-coated Marine Band, di rected by Lt. Col. Jack Kline, played the "Aggie War Hymn,” which was not annouced on the printed pro gram, to a packed house as a special centennial tribute. Currently on an annual nation wide tour, the 45-ihember band per formed 17 numbers including fa mous marches, instrumental and vocal solos, master works by great composers and two Bicentennial works by the band’s own chief ar ranger, Thomas Knox. Highlights included a solo by euphonium player Luke Spiros, who performed a difficult arrangement of Herbert Clarke’s "Carnival of Ven ice,” and an encore, Wagner’s “Hymn to the Evening Star.” Michael Ryan, concert moderator, sang an Italian aria from Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” and sang the traditional spiritual “Old Man River’ as an encore. Music by Knox included “Celeb rations,” a fast-paced Bicentennial melody featuring variations on "Yankee Doodle,” “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” "The Bonnie Blue Flag,” “Over There,” and the “Marine Corps Hymn.” The band also performed Knox’s “Four-Score and Seven,” a chronicle of Broadway musical hit songs from the past 87 years composed by Ger shwin, Cole Porter and others. Employing an innovation of the band’s most famous director, John Phillip Sousa, about a dozen brasses played from the edge of the stage a moving fanfare on Sousa’s “El Capi- tan” march. Other marches included "The Stars and Stripes Forever” and “Washington Post” by Sousa, and “The Chimes of Freedo Liberty” by Edwin Goldman. The band also played Finnish Pat riot Jean Sibelius’s tone poem “Fin landia,” and Wagner’s "Tannhauser” overture. “Tannhauser” posed an especially difficult test for the woodwinds. Its features and its numerous key and tempo changes are a challenge to any musical organization yet the Marine Band received a standing ovation for this and several other pieces. Other music included “Festive Overture, Opus 96” by Dimitri Shostakovich, the "Prairie Legend” suite by Elie Siegmeister and "Cake Walk” from "Suite of Old American Dances” by Robert Russell Bennett. —Steven Knowles Universities face society’s conflicts By JIM NORTHCUTT American universities are still facing several of society’s obstacles, a California professor said Monday at Texas A&M Uni versity. The Centennial speaker, Daniel G. Al drich, Jr., Chancellor of the University of California at Irving, said that American so ciety is presently in conflict over giving new new information to the public. “The American society is in conflict to day, not over matters of basic ideas, not over the kind of society we want, but rather over the strategy, the means and the de vices we should employ to meet the chang ing conditions,” Aldrich said. One obstacle faced is the difference be tween the problems of industrial society and the nature of available solutions to work with, he said. “The problems become more and more general, but the solutions become more and more specific. There are now agencies with special tasks which are organized to relate to consequences rather than causes,” Aldrich said. One reason for the obstacles is the exam ple of the hardened university head who becomes the crew chief and manager of knowledge, he said. This management in cludes not only the production and storage of knowledge, but also the experimentation with new techniques, he said. “Another obstacle refers to the frequent imbalance between technical and social in hibitions, or the continuing disagreement over word definitions and phrases. “A third obstacle emerges from the elaborate fashion by which urban industrial Daniel G. Aldrich societies are organized,” the tall, graj* haired man said. I Many problems, such as congestion, pot lution, disorganization and delinquency are due to inefficiency in the use of knowl edge and can be solved by education, plan ning and actions, he said. But although the problems are present, it is more crucial for the universities to supply society with generations of edm cated people than it is to attack specific problems on special groups, Aldrich said'. “Research to provide understanding of man himself and the world in which he lives is the most valuable research the uni versities can pursue in a society. The university should always maintain an even balance between research oppor tunities and the maintenance of fine academic standards,” Aldrich said. Bryan resident watched A&M grow 98-year-old woman part of University’s history )AY Rudder ting)- Rudder 'il 1 | nin S)’ ,.i Rudder SMI mental Ser-j m. Oriental By PATTIE WESTMAN Mrs. Dona Coulter Carnes, of 502 E. !6th St. in Bryan, missed celebrating her :entennial along with Texas A&M Univer sity s by only two years. She turned 98 on Sept. 15. Carnes, who Bias lived in Bryan all of her life, has patched A&M grow from a small military Ichool to the prominent institution it is today. Carnes was born the youngest of four jchildren in a little house which still stands jbehind her present home, where she has •divedfor 73 years. It is a beautiful old build- iing, with brick fireplaces, elaborately carved mantlepieces, old-fashioned win- dowseats and stained glass windows. Carnes has been, and still is a popular and active figure in town. She said she helped start every organization in Bryan, and said she still attends all the meetings. Carnes said she never had children that she could send to A&M, but her two brothers, Hiram and Walter Coulter, were both members of the class of 1895. She said that they entered A&M in 1892 “when they didn’t know if it would grow or not.” Her brothers were involved with the first football team that was organized in 1893. “They didn’t know a darn thing in the world about football,” Carnes explained. “Every paper and every magazine that came out was studied by them, and they tried to figure out rules and regulations about the whole thing. And in 1896 they had the first competition contest that they now have every Thanksgiving Day.” Carnes helped organize the class re unions held for her brothers’ class. She said that one day she noticed her brothers mop ing around. “I said, ‘What’s the matter with you? You act like you’re just going to die or some thing.’ They said, ‘Well, Dona, we’ve just been talking, and the more we talk the more we want to cry because we’ll never be together again. Never!’ I asked why, and they said be graduating soon and would scatter everywhere. And I said, ‘Well, you’re coming back here, every year, because I’m going to see that you get here.’ And my brother and I sent out the cards and wrote those boys, and they corre sponded with one another just like brothers. ..Every year they’d come back to A&M to have their reunion. Carnes possesses the first annual ever published by the Corps of Cadets. The yearbook, called “The Olio,” came out in 1895, when Lawrence S. Ross was the pres ident of A&M . It contained poems, draw ings and editorials along with the usual pic tures and lists of organizations. Carnes remarked on how drastically life at Texas A&M has changed. “In early days you had no way to get to A&M except by a horse to pull you,” she reminisced. “And they didn’t have enough girls to go around for the boys, either. Of course, we girls had more sweethearts than anybody. Some times the boys would sneak off and go to dances that the community would have. But they’d always get back, somehow or another, before time to be reported. And if they didn’t, they’d fix the beds to look like there was somebody sleeping in them. They didn’t get caught often.” Carnes said that she wasn’t very happy about girls being allowed to attend A&M and sometimes feels strange walking around the campus. “I knew a time back that it would gradually become the kind of school that they have got now. You’ve got to progress with the times. But I just can’t get used to it. I feel lost when I get out there,” Carnes said. Carnes did add, however, that the Aggie spirit was one thing that hasn’t changed, and she doesn’t think it will ever be killed. “Oh, A&M’s a wonderful school,” she said. “Just a wonderful school!” Rudder I i Hur,”H O Council, 1 n, Joe, Fra» e White Ci Y ■The I i. e? Willi** ditorium, mk ninguez w iniega I Price , - A&M beginnings part of event-filled year By JOHN ADAMS Its official. Texas A&M has amassed an amazing one hundred years of existence. (There were times when students, parents, administrators, and alumni wondered if the Jledgling college would survive to cele brate even a Silver Anniversary! Texas A&M opened its doors during an exciting year in the history of our state and j nation. U. S. Grant was in his last year as president. His term had been marred with scandal and upheaval. His secretary of war was impeached for bribery. In a unique speech to the Congress, Grant apologized or the shortcomings of his adminstration based on inexperience ”. He had been in office more than seven years! On February 15, 1876 the Texas con stitution was ratified to guarantee the es- ablishment of an A&M College in “due ’me . The little-known sport of baseball was ahit during the spring of 1876. General mster had an eventful encounter with the | a * t ^ le Little Big Horn on June 23, On July 4th the nation celebrated it’s cntennial and in the later part of the sum- or a novice inventor named Alex Bell Pa ented the telephone. Richard Coke, a °se personal friend of L. S. Ross and avid opporter of public higher education in ex as Was reelected governor. By early Oc- er 1876 had been 18 reported Indian ra 'ds in East Texas. During the first two days of October, six r a ,l?~ e ^ ed T exans arrived at the college ' ea ° 1° enroll for classes which were to ex art Monday, October 2, 1876. Texas’ first „P erience >n public higher education was Lerway. On Wednesday, October 4, the u j t Vernor > local Bryan residents, and fac- * fx ’ nau S ura ted what was known then as A&M College of Texas. eriodically over the past 100 years rat 6010 -! 1 * 68 ^* ave been held to commemo- eStones * n T exa s A&M’s history, p . f TOth birthday of the college in 1916, Ratfi' ei j t ®* zze b spoke to those call Rf at t ^ le J une commencement and anr] 6 • an ex P an sion of college facilities (k an ’ntrease in enrollment to 2,500 by War 1926. Imagine, 2,500 students. 3 mT a . CCO ?pP an y Ibis growth, he proposed °f ^L S '\ e building program the magnitude thp Ic " A&M has again reached during Past six years. When the 50th Anniversary rolled around in 1926, quite a few of Bizzell’s ambitions had come true. There weren’t quite 2,500 Aggies in attendance, but no less than 17 major buildings had sprung up on the A&M campus. As a prelude to the 50th Anniversary celebration, Dr. Bizzell resigned to be come president of the University of Okla homa and Thomas O. Walton was ap pointed to fill the vacancy on September 1, 1925. He was formally inaugurated the fol lowing spring. The 1926 celebration was a three day affair prior to commencement in June. There were speeches, luncheons, memo rial services and a lot of good will. Institu tions of higher learning from all over the world, 103 to be exact, sent words of con gratulation and best wishes for the future. But of course the farmers weren’t satis fied to rest on their laurels, and after the hoopla died down, they were off and run ning to get the school in shape for its 75th birthday. When President Frank.C. Bolton’s term office came to an end in mid-1950, there might have been some history-minded Ag gies who marked the day as the unofficial beginning of the 75th anniversary. Marion T. Harrington filled the post vacated by President Bolton, but before he was offi cially inaugurated, the 75th birthday party drew the full attention of 14,000 well- wishers. On hand to help the Aggies celebrate were Governor Alan Shivers, and past A&M Presidents Gibb Gilchrist, chancel lor of the A&M System, and Frank Bolton. The Diamond Celebration festivities in cluded a barbecue and soda pop picnic on the lawn outside the stadium. 1950 was a landmark year for A&M in several ways, not the least of which was the completion of the 18-hole college golf course. Also, the Memorial Student Cen ter was completed and began operation that year. It might be interesting to note that both the “C” and the golf course underwent face-lifts before the Centennial y ear - i Also in 1950 the University Archives was established. They are the folks who furnish all the photos and much of the information found in this column. I might take the time and space to express my profound thanks for all the help they have been in filling this column from time to time. On November 9, 1950, Harrington was installed as the head Aggie. The main speaker for the inauguration was Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, then president of Columbia University. A couple of years later he resigned that job to take up resi dence in the White House. Also in the stage party was the president of the Board of Directors of the A&M System, G. Rollie White of Brady, Texas. That brings us to 1976. Some think it kind of sneaked up on us without advance warning. However, most of us suspected something was up when all these buildings started going up everywhere and the crowds around the bookstore at the first of the semester got bigger. One sad note in an otherwise happy story. One man whose achievements and contributions to the A&M Centennial are beyond measure by his contemporaries could not be present to join in the celebra tion. James Earl Rudder was the driving force behind much of the expansion that is now beginning to blossom into the dynamic institution that is Texas A&M University. Perhaps he’s watching the progress of the school he loved from another vantage point. Able hands during President William’s administration have turned dreams into a distinct reality. And so the big celebration is on. Here’s to another 100 years of good old Aggie Spirit. University Archives The Commencement Procession (top) proceeds down Military Walk to Guion Hall during Texas A&M’s 50th anniversary in June, 1926. Gen. Eisenhower and Chancellor Gilchrist (above) sit and talk at the inaugra- tion ceremony of President Harrington. Nov. 9, 1950. During the 75th anniversary celebration, a barbeque picnic, similar to the one yesterday on the drill field, was held next to Kyle Field. University Archives