AN IMPERSONAL POINT OF VIEW. To the Editor of the PREP, LANCU:— MAY one standing in the position of spectator be permitted a word on the subject of last month's editorial on the atti- tude of certain Alumni towards the College ? Three factors enter into the success of a college: a wise adminis tration, an able, earnest and self-devoted teaching corps, and an enthusiastic and loyal student body and Alumni. It is principally through the latter that the College becomes known; and, as the attention drawn to it by undergraduates is naturally evanescent, and not always favorable, the responsibility for placing it before the public rests upon the men who go out, credentials in hand, to take their places in the world, and, in competition with the gradu ates of other institutions, to prove the value of their training. It is for the Alumni to advertise the College and, advisedly or not, they are doing so, even though (as in the case of your correspond ent) individual estimates may fall very far shoat of a just ap preciation of her work; a fact which seems to confirm the belief that the value of a possession is the 'price we are willing to pay for it, and which has provoked the question in not a few minds, " May not free tuition after all be a mistaken benefaction ?" It is said that a western man who has given three millions of dollars to educational institutions throughout the country has never given a dollar to a rich or powerful university, on the ground that the strong men of the country have, as a rule, been trained in the smaller colleges. Whether this be true or not we have not taken time to prove; but the truth is that The Pennsylvania State College is prepared to give thorough training, of a kind in gen eral demand, and if the Alumni made systematic efforts to bring this fact to notice, many more persons would be benefitted by its privileges, and the Alumni would not suffer by the result. Foolish is the man who 'depends upon the name of a great or wealthy institution, rather than upon his consciousness of thorough'equip ment for his work; but the prestige of a name is not to be despised, and very short-sighted, indeed, is the policy that prompts an
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