VICTORIA COLLEGE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2416, 23 March 1915, Page 6

VICTORIA COLLEGE

ADDRESS TO NEW STUDENTS PRIVILEGES CARRY RESPONSIBILITY The session at Victoria College opened yesterday, and, following the usual custom, the chairman of the Professorial Board (Professor J. D. Adamson) addressed tho students assembled in thg gymnasium. After a few words of welcome and good counsel to the now students, Professor Adamson made a few general observations on the functions of a University. 'You have this advantage," he said, addressing the now students, "that you are qualified by examination to take advantage of a University education, and it is necessary, because you are so privileged, that yon should feel that there rests upon you a oertain responsibility. 1 would point out to you that you should bear that in mind. There may be some less fortunate people who have not been able from one cause or another to gam that privilege, and I wish you to remember that- the State looks always to the Universities for its great public service—l do not mean the Civil Service, but the service of the country for the welfare of its citizens. . . .

"1 have no doubt that you appreciate the fact that you are here to attend to your lectures,' and to do your class work. Attendance at classes is an important part of University life, but 1 sometimes doubt whether it iB the most important part. We all strive to get a University degree, but there is one thing you must all remember— that besides mere learning, besides the assistance you get, from your professors and your books, there is also another kind of assistance, and probably as great an assistance, that you mil get from intercourse with your fellow-stu-dents. The be-all and the end-all of a University is not simple attendance at lectures; it is the ripe fruit of years of intercourse with minds like your own. 1 therefore impress upon you that you should all take part in the intellectual work of the college. ...

"I cannot omit to' refer to those former students of Victoria College, some of whom have returned to-day from military service abroad. One thing that the Victoria College staff and students are proud of is the gallant answer our men made to the summons when it came. (Applause.) If Victoria College has done nothing beyond stimulating that fine spirit which showed itself in all those young men who volunteered their services for their country, I think she has deserved well of the community in which she is _ located. I don't know whether the time may come when some more of the younger men whom I see here may be called upon to offer their services also, but I doubt not that when the call comes they shall also willingly respond." (Applause.)