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NEW HAVEN, Oct, 6--A. Whitney Griswold officially became the sixteenth president of Yale at a simple ceremony yesterday.
In his inaugural address, former history professor Griswold dwelt mostly on his favorite theme--that society owes to each individual the fullest amount of education he is capable of absorbing. The aim of such education is not just intellection competence but rather the preparation of people as responsible citizens.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be," Griswold said, quoting his favorite hero of history, Thomas Jefferson.
The induction ceremony in Woolsey Hall was brief and small. The Reverend Arthur How Bradford, a senior fellow of Yale, turned over the University's founding charter, seal, and keys to the new president.
Total War
Commenting further on the crucial value of education, Griswold said, "If scholars should wait of total war to produce total peace, I doubt that our successors will be assembled here to mark Yale's three hundredth anniversary." Yale was founded in 1701.
During the course of his address, Griswold Wold digressed briefly to condemn the California loyalty oath for university and college teachers.
On previous occasions, Griswold has emphasized his feeling that the integrity of higher education cannot be maintained unless self appointed investigators and censors of academic activity develop a strict hands off policy towards the country's educational institutions, both public and private.
Griswold has been much more vehement about the fight for academic predecessors, Charles Seymour, also a freedom than was his immediate professor of history.
Griswold spent part of the summer in Europe studying the financial methods of universities there, as well as their academic methods.
Yale's primary role in expanding educational opportunities should be in maintaining standards, Griswold said.
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