The University of Michigan Part 18

This great body of alumni is in itself a powerful a.s.set for the University; but the active interest and spirit of co-operation of the individual alumnus ordinarily needs a certain stimulus. This is supplied through the organization of the graduates into a general Alumni a.s.sociation, as well as into local a.s.sociations in most of the larger cities, and also through the organization of the various cla.s.ses. This general scheme is followed in almost every American university, and forms one of the most significant of present-day developments. For the most part it is a comparatively recent evolution. Though the graduates of the earlier American colleges had a certain influence on the policies and growth of their inst.i.tutions, it is only within the last twenty-five years that these a.s.sociations have become a factor of recognized importance in every university. In fact this development is so recent that its significance is not sufficiently realized, least of all perhaps by the alumni themselves; though the college president is apt to be very alive to the importance of the alumni in university affairs.

The desire to perpetuate college friendships and to revive memories of college days was undoubtedly the underlying motive which first brought the former students together in these organizations; and not a few a.s.sociations have progressed no farther in their activities. This is as true among Michigan alumni clubs as elsewhere. But as university officers came to recognize other possibilities in these a.s.sociations, efforts were made to secure their co-operation in many matters and especially financial a.s.sistance, in the establishment of funds for various purposes, the erection of new buildings and providing for certain types of equipment which might not properly come from the ordinary channels of college and university income. The Michigan Union, Hill Auditorium, the women's dormitories, and the Clements Library of Americana perhaps best ill.u.s.trate this type of alumni support.

While in most cases the impetus toward this active co-operation and support on the part of the alumni came from the inst.i.tution, in recent years the alumni have tended more and more to organize, not as an adjunct of the university administration, but as a body designed to formulate independent alumni opinion, and to make intelligent graduate sentiment really effective for the good of the inst.i.tution. With this new phase of alumni activity came new elements--particularly the alumni secretary, maintained by the graduate body, the alumni journal, and the alumni council.

This organization of college graduates is distinctly an American inst.i.tution. There is little to correspond in Continental universities, where they do not even have a real equivalent to our word "alumni." In Great Britain, the graduates of the larger inst.i.tutions have some voice in the policies of their universities and, in the case of the Scottish universities, they elect representatives on the governing body, as well as the chancellor and a representative in Parliament. But the lists of alumni are kept up only for what are practically political purposes, and such developments as local alumni clubs, or cla.s.s reunions, are unknown; while there is ordinarily small effort made to secure financial support.

Alumni co-operation has progressed so rapidly within the last quarter-century,--the period covering the life of the a.s.sociation at Michigan under its present form,--that we are apt to forget how recent is this movement in American universities. To glance through the average college or university history one would imagine these a.s.sociations sprang full-armed, with no preliminary throes of organization. Suddenly we find the alumni a.s.serting their desires in some important matter and thenceforth their voice has a recognized place in university councils.

It is quite obvious that the significance of this movement among college graduates was not recognized for a long time. Everywhere the graduates were slow in finding themselves; and it is safe to say that an efficient alumni sentiment was almost unknown until within the last fifty years.

But the seeds had been sown. Though Yale began her remarkable organization by cla.s.ses as far back as 1792, and others may have followed her example, records of any further efforts in this direction are difficult to find until many years later.

The first attempt at a general alumni organization seems to have been a meeting of the alumni at Williams College at Commencement time, in 1821, to organize a Society of Alumni. The purpose of the proposed a.s.sociation was set forth in the following words:

The meeting is notified at the request of a number of gentlemen, educated at this inst.i.tution, who are desirous that the true state of the college be known to the alumni, and that the influence and patronage of those it has educated may be united for its support, protection, and improvement.

This does not seem an unsatisfactory definition of the fundamental object of an alumni body of the present day. Seventeen years later a Society of Alumni was organized at the University of Virginia, where, with perhaps a characteristic Southern emphasis on the social side of human relationships, the committee was instructed,--

to invite the alumni to form a permanent society, to offer to graduates an inducement to revisit the seat of their youthful studies and to give new life to disinterested friendships found in student days.

Other universities soon followed with similar organizations. Harvard's Alumni a.s.sociation was established in 1840; Bowdoin and Amhert came at about the same time, while the first alumni a.s.sociation at Columbia was founded in 1854. In the West an alumni a.s.sociation was started at Miami as early as 1832. The first years of these organizations were apparently a period of struggle, but the spirit that they represented grew, and eventually they made alumni influence everywhere effective to a greater or less degree, with the end not yet.

At Michigan, alumni organization has had a history similar to that in many other inst.i.tutions. The University published a list of the first four cla.s.ses as far back as 1848, but the alumni did not become a united body until 1860, fifteen years after the first cla.s.s was graduated. This first a.s.sociation was characterized as "somewhat informal in its nature," but the usual statement of the object was forthcoming. According to the preamble of the const.i.tution these were,--

the improvement of its members, the perpetuation of pleasant a.s.sociations, the promotion of the interests of the University, and through that of the interests of higher education in general.

This a.s.sociation was superseded in June, 1875, by an incorporated organization, the "Society of the Alumni of the University of Michigan,"

in which, notwithstanding its general name, membership was restricted to graduates of the collegiate department. A similar a.s.sociation of the Law School was formed in 1871 and before many years all the departments had similar bodies. But the interest taken was more or less perfunctory, and in 1897 a consolidation of all the departmental organizations was effected, resulting in the present Alumni a.s.sociation of the University of Michigan, with ex-Regent Levi L. Barbour, '63, '65_l_, as its first President.

He was succeeded in June, 1899, by William E. Quinby, '58, of Detroit, who was followed in turn the next year by Regent W.J. c.o.c.ker, '69. Judge Victor H. Lane, '74_e_, '78_l_, Fletcher Professor of Law, was elected President in 1901, and so effectively has he served the interests of the alumni that he has been continued in that office for the past twenty years.

Two important steps were taken by the new a.s.sociation immediately upon its consolidation in 1897. The first was the appointment of a General Secretary to devote his whole time to furthering the interests of the alumni organization. Ralph H. McAllister, a former member of the law cla.s.s of '89, was first elected to this position, but was succeeded in January, 1898, by James H. Prentiss, '96, who was followed three years later by Shirley W. Smith, '97, at present Secretary of the University.

The present Alumni Secretary, Wilfred B. Shaw, '04, was appointed in October, 1904. The purchase of the graduate journal, _The Michigan Alumnus_, established in 1894 by Alvick A. Pearson, '94, was another significant step. The _Alumnus_ is one of the oldest graduate publications in the country, with the _Yale Alumni Weekly_, established in 1891, and the _Harvard Graduates' Magazine_, a quarterly, which appeared a year later, its only predecessors. Both of these journals are published by private corporations, as was the _Alumnus_ at first. In thus creating an officer whose sole responsibility was to the alumni body and in maintaining an official alumni publication, Michigan became a pioneer among Western universities, and was only preceded in the East by Pennsylvania, whose alumni organization had established her _Alumni Register_ and appointed an alumni secretary in 1895.

The plan of organization of the Alumni a.s.sociation at Michigan is very simple. The entire responsibility for the affairs of the a.s.sociation rests with a board of seven directors (originally but five), who elect the officers of the a.s.sociation from among their own number. Two directors are ordinarily elected every year at the annual alumni meeting, held during the Commencement season, at which any alumnus is ent.i.tled to a vote. The income of the a.s.sociation, except for a grant of $600 a year from the University for advertising, arises entirely from the _Alumnus_, which at present has a list of over 7,000 subscribers, who are considered as const.i.tuting the official membership of the a.s.sociation. This membership is in two forms, annual members and some 1,500 life members, whose thirty-five dollar fees have resulted in an endowment fund at present amounting to over $38,000, the income from which is used for current expenses.

Since its establishment the _Alumnus_ has grown steadily in influence, and may now be regarded, in some measure at least, as the official University publication. Limited as it is by the necessity of pleasing a const.i.tuency widely varied in age and interests, it nevertheless makes it possible for a large proportion of Michigan's graduates to maintain an effective and intelligent interest in the University.

But the work of the a.s.sociation and its officers has not stopped with the _Alumnus_. The local alumni bodies and the cla.s.s organizations form important links between the graduate and his alma mater, and the sentimental ties, as well as the altruistic spirit engendered by these a.s.sociations have a vital significance for the individual graduate and for the University. Practically every cla.s.s that leaves the University is organized for the purpose of perpetuating its college a.s.sociations and many of the cla.s.ses, particularly the earlier ones, have published extensive cla.s.s-books and directories. Every effort is made to return to the University for reunions at stated periods, especially on the twenty-five and fifty year anniversaries. For some years also many cla.s.ses have followed a plan which brings four cla.s.ses that were in college together back for a reunion at the same time. The value of these annual home-comings has always been emphasized by the Alumni a.s.sociation, and so successful has it been in making the reunion season interesting and stimulating that the graduates return in great numbers, sometimes in a carnival spirit, and sometimes, as during the recent war years, with a sense of consecration and devotion. Thus it was easy to pa.s.s from the gay fun of a burlesque commencement in Hill Auditorium, which was the feature of one reunion season, to the commemoration of Dr.

Angell's life and services in 1916, and the great patriotic meetings of 1918 and 1919, which struck the deepest chords of alumni sentiment.

No less effective in their own field are the many local alumni clubs in all the large cities throughout the country. This movement toward forming local bodies began in Detroit in 1869, and quickly spread, so that by 1876 the Michigan graduates as far west as San Francisco were organized. While the primary reason for the existence of these clubs is the maintenance of the social and sentimental ties inspired by the common love of their members for the University, stimulated usually by an annual dinner and, in many cities, by weekly or monthly luncheons, they have begun to discover means more positive and useful to justify their existence. From a vague, if none the less real, feeling of loyalty to the University it is an easy step to more aggressive measures. Thus we find the local bodies interesting themselves actively in the University's affairs, organizing subscription campaigns for the Union, raising funds for fellowships, and sending picked students to the University, interesting themselves in the ever-present athletic problems, and welcoming the President and other representatives from the Faculties who come to tell them what their alma mater is accomplishing.

More than this, some a.s.sociations are perceiving broader implications in their organization as representative college men and women,--for the alumnae, too, have very active clubs,--and are seeking opportunities for civic and social service in their communities. At present Michigan has nearly one hundred of these local organizations of alumni which may be considered active, while there are many more who only need to have some task set before them to bring them into an active and aggressive existence.

It is only natural that, with this increasing partic.i.p.ation of the alumni in university affairs, there should be an effort to provide some means for the effectual expression of their collective opinion. Perhaps the earliest and most striking example of this movement was the provision in 1865 for the election of Harvard's Board of Overseers "by such persons as have received the degree of B.A. or M.A., or any honorary degree," from Harvard College. This effort, which came only after a long struggle, was duplicated in Princeton, Dartmouth, later Cornell, and many other inst.i.tutions. Even some of the state universities, whose regents are either elected by the people, as at Michigan, or appointed by the governor, as in other states, have made provision for direct alumni representation on their governing boards.

Though this is not true at Michigan it is significant that of the eight members of the Board of Regents, six, Walter H. Sawyer, '84_h_, Hillsdale; Victor M. Gore, '82_l_, Benton Harbor; Junius E. Beal, '82, Ann Arbor; Frank B. Leland, '82, '84_l_, Detroit; William L. Clements, '82, Bay City, and James O. Murfin, '95, 96_l_, Detroit, hold degrees from the University and this proportion has held true for many years.

The other two members of the present Board are Benjamin S. Hanchett, Grand Rapids, and L.L. Hubbard, Harvard, '72, Houghton. Shirley W.

Smith, '97, also is Secretary of the University.

Lacking the stimulus of direct representation in the governing body, the alumni of the state universities have directed their efforts toward strengthening the general alumni organization as the best available means of expressing the sentiment of an increasingly important portion of the university body. To further this desire alumni councils and other bodies with advisory powers have been established, though usually their status has been uncertain and their powers negligible, except as they voice a body of opinion which the university cannot afford to overlook.

Thus the Michigan Alumni Advisory Council, established some years ago, composed of representatives from the local alumni bodies, has been for various reasons far from an effective body, though it contains the germ of a force which may become active whenever a proper occasion may arise.

More competent, because less unwieldy, is the Executive Committee composed of five members of the Council and two chosen at large. This body, though it has only met semi-occasionally, has initiated several movements which have had a real influence on the relations between the University and the graduates. This has been particularly true in matters relating to alumni support for the Union, and the problems arising in connection with its administration.

In its earlier years the Alumni a.s.sociation also undertook to keep up the alumni catalogue and maintained for some time a card index of the alumni. This task, however, eventually outgrew the resources of the a.s.sociation, and in 1910 the alumni catalogue was transferred to addressograph plates by a special appropriation, and its maintenance was made a part of the regular administrative work of the University, with a separate officer, closely a.s.sociated with the Alumni a.s.sociation, appointed to maintain the lists and edit the catalogues. The labor involved in keeping this list of over 40,000 names even approximately up to date may be judged from the fact that the catalogue office now includes four a.s.sistants as well as the Director, Mr. H.L. Sensemann, '11, of the Department of Rhetoric.

For some years the practice was continued of including in the annual calendar an "Alumnorum catalogus," which began in 1848 with the names of the fifty-six graduates of the first four cla.s.ses. The list eventually became too long, however, and in 1864 the first General Catalogue was issued as a forty-page pamphlet which included 999 names. Four subsequent editions have appeared, in 1871, 1891, 1901 and 1911, in addition to a privately published volume issued in 1880. The slender pamphlet of 1864 became, in 1911, a volume of 1,096 pages which recorded 43,666 names, while the catalogue of 1921 will be even more impressive.

Though the interest and enthusiasm of the graduates is expressed in many less spectacular ways, the amount of alumni gifts is the most available standard by which the effectiveness of this support can be shown. Judged by this rough and ready approximation for a force which is in reality intangible and based on something finer and more spiritual than material gifts, particularly since it represents obviously only the sentiment of the few rather than that of the thousands who would do likewise if they were able, it shows nevertheless how responsively the University's alumni regard her call for their support. They have given their alma mater funds and property whose estimated value may be conservatively placed at from $4,000,000 to $5,000,000. This includes many gifts of small sums for loan funds, fellowships, and investigations in special fields, as well as the income from these funds up to the present time.

Some of these gifts, too, are of such a character that no definite value can be placed upon them.

The total amount of such special funds in the hands of the University Treasurer, largely arising from alumni gifts, is $843,815.40. It should also be borne in mind that this does not include the many gifts which do not come from graduates of the University, such as the Newberry Hall of Residence, the late Charles L. Freer's numerous gifts, including a fund of $50,000 for the study of Oriental art, the Lewis Art collection, the Stearns Musical Collections, Waterman Gymnasium and Ferry Field, or such buildings as Newberry Hall, now used by the Y.W.C.A., and Lane Hall, for the University Y.M.C.A.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CONCOURSE OR GENERAL LOBBY IN THE MICHIGAN UNION]

Two of the larger gifts to the University have come through collective effort on the part of the alumni. The Michigan Union, made possible through the $1,200,000 raised by students and alumni, has been mentioned in another chapter. Alumni Memorial Hall, which stands just across the street, is also largely the result of comparatively small gifts from hundreds of graduates. It is an imposing building of cla.s.sical outlines, designed as a memorial of the men who served in the Civil and Spanish-American Wars. It is intended to be at once an art gallery and the headquarters of the Alumni a.s.sociation, which has a s.p.a.cious reception room on the first floor and commodious offices in the bas.e.m.e.nt, where the University Club also has a large and well-furnished room. The building was completed in 1910 at a cost of $195,000, of which $145,000 was contributed by the alumni, and was formally opened with an exhibition of Oriental art and the work of modern American painters under the charge of the late Charles M. Freer of Detroit, who loaned many of the pictures shown.

Other gifts arising from general alumni effort are the Williams Professorship fund and the Alumnae Hall of Residence for women, given to the University by the alumnae; while Faculty, alumni, and student efforts have been responsible for several paintings, notably the Chase portrait of Dr. Angell, the portrait of Dr. V.C. Vaughan by Gari Melchers, and Ralph Clarkson's recent picture of President Hutchins, which is to hang with Dr. Angell's portrait in the Union.

The greater portion of alumni gifts, however, have come from individual graduates. These include such monumental benefactions as the Hill Auditorium, for which a bequest of $200,000 was left by the late Regent Arthur Hill, '65_e_, of Saginaw; the Martha Cook Building which was completed at a cost of about $500,000 by the Cook family of Hillsdale, the Betsy Barbour Dormitory, costing some $100,000 given by ex-Regent Levi L. Barbour, '63, '65_l_, of Detroit, and the great library of American history, with its special building, given by Regent William L.

Clements, '82_e_, of Bay City. This library, which is reported to have cost $400,000, and has been judged by experts to be worth much more than that now, and the $200,000 building to come, represent a princely gift.

Ex-Regent Barbour also gave, in 1917, a fund of $100,000 to be used for providing scholarships for Oriental women in the University. To this he added two years later property in Detroit from which the income alone, during the term of the ninety-nine years' lease now in effect upon it, will amount to nearly $2,500,000. The sum of $100,000 was also left by the late Professor Richard Hudson, '71, to establish a professorship in history, at present held by Professor Arthur Lyon Cross, Harvard, '95.

Professor Hudson also left his library to the University, which has benefited by many similar gifts from alumni, notably the historical books given by Clarence M. Burton, '73, the library of Thomas S. Jerome, '84, of Capri, Italy, and the musical library presented by Frederick and Frederick K. Stearns, '73-'76, as well as the libraries of several members of the Faculties given the University upon their death. These include the library in Romance Literature of Professor Edward L. Walter, '68, the philosophical library of Professor George S. Morris, '81 (hon.), the Germanic Library of Professor George A. Hench, the geological library of Professor Israel C. Russell, and the cla.s.sical library of Professor Elisha Jones, '59.

Too numerous to mention in detail are the many special gifts for research, such as the continual funds for the work of the University Museum supplied by Bryant Walker, '76, of Detroit, or the large telescope and other gifts to the Department of Astronomy by Robert P.

Lamont, '91_e_, of Chicago, or for fellowships, the purchase of books, educational material, and scientific apparatus, as well as the numerous funds left for various designated purposes and administered by the University.

The various memorials left by the graduating cla.s.ses should not be forgotten in this connection, though some of them, owing to poor judgment, have been ill-adapted to the purposes they were intended to serve and have more or less mysteriously disappeared. Perhaps the best known example was the ill-fated statue of Ben Franklin, long a Campus landmark, left by the cla.s.s of '70. Early in his academic course he became the victim of the paint-buckets of successive cla.s.ses, and eventually his outlines became so blurred that he was perforce retired.

Aside from the tree-planting efforts of '58, the first cla.s.s memorial was the reproduction of the Laoc.o.o.n group, now in Alumni Memorial Hall, presented by '59. Reproductions of painting and sculpture were for many years the favored forms of cla.s.s memorials, of which the most unique and valuable was the complete set of casts from the arch of Trajan at Beneventum, presented by '96. In recent years many cla.s.ses have left portraits of members of the various Faculties, while others have left loan funds which have been of inestimable service to many worthy but impecunious students.

The University chimes, a peal of five bells, presented by James J.

Hagerman, '61, Edward C. Hegeler, and Andrew D. White, must not be forgotten. They are now in the tower of the Engineering Shops, whence they were removed when the old Library was torn down.

Perhaps the most far-reaching in its effects was the fund left by 1916.

This was accompanied by a recommendation to the General Alumni a.s.sociation that an alumni fund be created of which their contribution was to be the nucleus. The a.s.sociation took measures to act upon this suggestion, but owing to the war and the preoccupation of the alumni in the Union, its establishment was delayed for several years. The plan for this fund, as finally approved in 1920, provides for an incorporated board of nine directors, the first members of which were appointed by the Board of Directors of the Alumni a.s.sociation. This project, while still in its formative stage, has great possibilities for the future of the University, judged by the success of similar funds in other inst.i.tutions. This is particularly true at Yale, where the alumni fund amounts to nearly $2,000,000 in addition to some $1,500,000 given for various purposes.

There are obvious advantages in thus organizing the stream of alumni gifts now beginning to flow so strongly toward the University. It not only provides a trustworthy and conservative body to which any gift may be entrusted, whether in the form of a cla.s.s fund, individual contribution, or bequest, but it also ensures that all such gifts which are unrestricted, shall be utilized wherever, in the judgment of the Directors, the University's need is greatest. The existence of such a fluid source of income properly administered can be made of incalculable benefit, particularly in the numerous critical occasions, when the regular income is entirely unequal to the emergency, though it is not proposed to relieve the State from providing for the normal needs of the University, but to meet the special demands which are continually arising in such an inst.i.tution. Finally, the existence and administration of such a fund will tend to tie the alumni to the University as could no other agency, particularly if, as elsewhere, a good part of the income arises from small annual subscriptions, collected by a cla.s.s officer, who remits the total as a cla.s.s contribution.

Thus, though the alumni of the University have no direct voice in the administration, as have the graduates in many other inst.i.tutions, they have established several agencies through which their natural desire to have a recognized share in University affairs may be expressed. These include first of all the General Alumni a.s.sociation, with its many subsidiary cla.s.s and local organizations, which maintains the _Alumnus_ as its official organ, and with at least the outlines of an advisory body in the Alumni Council with its Executive Committee. The alumni also have further means of a.s.sociating themselves with the affairs of the University through the power of appointment of a majority of the members of the Board of Governors of the Michigan Union and the Directors of the Alumni Fund, which rests with the Directors of the Alumni a.s.sociation; while the four alumni members of the Board of Directors of the Union are likewise elected by the alumni at large at the annual meeting in June.

With so large and widely distributed a body of graduates it is to be expected that many have become prominent in the life of the country, and in their professions. An a.n.a.lysis of the names of Michigan men and women in "Who's Who" for 1912-13 showed that, exclusive of the holders of honorary degrees and Summer School students, the names of 604 former students appeared, of whom 498 were graduates and 106 were non-graduates. This is approximately 3.2 percent of the total names given in that edition, and was 6 percent of the college graduates listed. There is no reason to suppose that the same percentages at least would not apply in a similar survey of the latest edition.

While it is, for obvious reasons, impossible to give the names of all graduates who have achieved a certain measure of distinction, a few who have attained special prominence in their special fields may be mentioned.

It is most natural that Michigan alumni should figure prominently in the educational world. Thus, among college presidents, in addition to President Hutchins, '71, Michigan can claim Charles Kendall Adams, '61, President of Cornell University from 1885 to 1892, and later, 1892 to 1901, of Wisconsin; Mark Harrington, '68, University of Washington; Austin Scott, A.M., '70, Rutgers; Alice Freeman Palmer, '76, Wellesley, 1881-87; Henry Wade Rogers, '74, formerly President of Northwestern, and later Dean of the Yale Law School; Elmer Ellsworth Brown, '89, New York University; and Stratton D. Brooks, '96, Oklahoma.

Aside from the many distinguished graduates on her own Faculty rolls, Michigan has also for many years been well represented in the faculties of all the leading American universities. At Harvard these include Edwin L. Mark, '71, Professor of Anatomy; Paul Ha.n.u.s, '78, Head of the Department of Education; and Edwin F. Gay, '90, until recently Dean of the School of Business Administration; at Yale, John E. Clark, '56, for many years Professor of Mathematics, and the late Professor Willard T.

Barbour, '05, of the Law School; at Columbia, the late Calvin Thomas, '74, Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures; Henry R. Seager, '90, Professor of Economics; at Dartmouth, Gabriel Campbell, '65, long Professor of Philosophy; and Frank H. Dixon, '92, Professor of Economics, later occupying the same chair at Princeton; where are also Duane Reed Stuart, '96, Professor of Greek, Christian Gauss, '98, Professor of Romance Languages, and Edward S. Corwin, '00, who now holds the chair of Political Science, formerly occupied by President Wilson.

At Tufts, Amos Dolbear, '67_e_, was for many years Professor of Physics.

The Johns Hopkins faculty roll shows the names of Henry M. Hurd, '63, '66_m_, Professor of Psychiatry; John H. Abel, '83_m_, Professor of Pharmacology; Franklin P. Mall, '83_m_, Professor of Anatomy, and Herbert S. Jennings, '93, Professor of Biology. At Cornell, Jeremiah W.