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President Hibben's Alumni Day address was animated by that spirit of progress and energy which alone makes a university an asset. Too often a university impresses the world as being so absorbed in the past that it is unable to keep abreast of the present. It would indeed be a sorry sight to see an age bearing along the university instead of the university leading the age on to nobler ends. Such a sight Princeton will never permit if her president's program is adopted. The modification of admission requirements will open her doors to many more students, while the regional scholarships will interest men from all parts of the United States in the advantages of her colleges.
The attention of the westerner to eastern colleges is of the utmost importance. It gathers men together from all parts of the country at an age when friendships are made and habits formed which last throughout life. There is no denying that sectionalism exists today, even though it is not the belligerent type of '61. This bringing together of college men who will afterwards lead their communities will do away with prejudices and establish instead a feeling of appreciation and understanding.
Harvard has the facilities and the courses which make her a particularly desirable university for this national need. One thing she lacks: advertisement. It is the fault of Harvard graduates that their confidence in the Alma Mater's superiority never permits them to explain her advantages. But because her advantages are so well understood by them is no assurance that others understand. Harvard needs the southerner and westerner. Unless she is to dwindle into a local university she must recruit more of her sons from the great regions beyond New England. They bring a new point of view which stimulates her own. Perhaps to an even greater degree, the West and South need Harvard. To encourage this intercourse, no new machinery is necessary. All that is needed is energy on the part of the Harvard Clubs. These clubs should not be mere self-sustaining friendship circles. They should be advance agents for a house that has the finest line of goods to be offered in this country. When this is realized, the University will have taken the first great step toward fulfilling the national need of college education.
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