Valedictory Address

“Valedictory” University Monthly XIII, 8 (May 1894): 97-102. (UA Case 68, Box 2)

Mr. President and Members of the Senate, Ladies and Gentlemen:
On this momentous occasion, and amid so much assembled learning, it would be strange if I should not experience in a large measure the diffidence which is generally felt by one in my position. It is needless to tell you that a valedictorian's task is one of considerable difficulty. Year by year, as each succeeding valedictorian repeats the oft-told story it becomes more and more difficult to prevent it from becoming monotonous, and to avoid expressions which have become hackneyed. As I cannot hope to improve upon the methods of my predecessors, I shall discuss my subject in the same manner in which it has been presented to you on so many previous occasions, asking your indulgence for my lack of originality.

When the class of '94 entered the University, in October, 1890, it comprised sixteen students, taking the full arts course, together with four or five partial students. The class at that time contained only three ladies taking the B. A. course. We were rein-forced by senior matriculants, and atone time or another no less than 28 or 30 persons have reckoned themselves as belonging to '94. Our ranks have been sadly thinned. From various causes ten men, most of them students of fine ability, have dropped out, and but seven of us, with an equal number of ladies, are left to gain the coveted parchment. It is with feelings of sorrow that we think of the class mates who might have been with us now. We wish them well; may they prosper in whatever station Providence has placed them.

By good fortune the class of '94 found its way to the University at the very time that she was receiving an in-fusion of fresh energy and was being quickened into new life. Just a year before our entrance, the department of civil engineering had been equipped; our first year at college was also the first of Professor Duff's service as professor of physics, and the year after saw the establishment of the alumni professorship of philosophy and political economy. Through these years we have listened to the lectures of men of wide culture and ripe scholarship, not mere dilettantes or dabblers; the many optional courses have given us opportunity of doing special work in our favorite subjects, and we have only our selves to blame if we do not leave the U. Ν. Β. better fitted for active, struggling life by the years spent with-in these dear old walls. It is not the mere mass of facts which we have accumulated, probably soon to forget, that will mould our after-life, but the 'all-round development of our mental faculties, which has been progressing slowly but surely through these years. A college course tends to expand the mind without warping it, and trains it to correct habits of thought. Who will say that it is of no avail that we have tasted a little of that learning which, to use the language of Cicero, makes us acquainted with the boundless extent of nature and the universe, and which, even while we remain in this world, discovers to us both heaven, earth and sea.”

Since first entering college the class of '94 has borne a wonderful reputation for combativeness. Unruly as freshmen, tyrannical as sophomores, we became the terror of the faculty; and that body will be the last to declare that our old spirit has deserted us in our senior year. This afternoon is not the time to reopen old sores, which are not yet fully healed by any reference to past disagreements. We must let by-gones be by-gones, and leave the university with the flag of truce waving between the hitherto contending parties.

I must ask the pardon of my hearers for referring to a timeworn topic, to one that has been rendered threadbare by the touches of many former valedictorians. It may be a relief to many to know that I am going to turn the fabric and invite your attention to the side which so long has escaped observation. I refer to the subject of residency, about which so much is said and so little really known. Residency, as it was in the good old times, is an object of fond desire to a numerous class of students, who fancy that a return to the old custom is all that is needed to make college life unspeakably happy. It is safe to say that very few of these have the faintest conception of what residency in the University of New Brunswick was like. I cannot do better than quote from an article forwarded to the Monthly in 1890 by one of the most prominent members of the class of 1888. As the fair-minded editors of that day declined to publish it, it is only just that the students of the present should obtain the benefit of a few extracts. Having experienced both residency and non-residency, he is well qualified to judge of their comparative merit. He says:

“The students at present attending the university never having known what college residency really is, and relying for their arguments in favor of its reestablishment either on their own ideas of what they would like it to be, or on the entertaining stories of college which have reached them, are manifestly not qualified to discuss the questions fully as its importance merits. They are too apt to look only on one side of the question, the bright side, the side to which is attached the ideal of jovial good-fellowship and good-natured fen, and to overlook the other aspect of which they have heard little or nothing, the aspect of exacting antagonism to rational and necessary rules, the aspect of rebellion and wrong, subversive of and destructive to any real progress by either faculty, students or the university generally.”

Continuing, he says that a great many advocates of residency

“would reserve to the residents the right to exercise their own judgment, to govern their own actions, to develop their own characters. This is precisely what was allowed then under the old system, and it was the miserable result of such license that-led more than anything else to the abolition of residency. Left to develop their own characters, too many of the residents developed anything but the best characteristics of their natures, and characteristics which would probably never have appeared had it not been for the hurtful tendencies of college life.”

The writer describes to what fearful proportions the vice of jumbling had grown, demoralizing the students and unfitting them for their duties. I know that many arguments can be adduced in favor of residency, but taking all things into consideration, we should be thankful that there is no likelihood of its being re-established in the very near future. It is a very significant fact that during the last year or two of its existence residency had fallen into such disrepute that at the time of its abolition in 1887, out of sixty-three students only seven were residents. No one can doubt that, if residency were re-established on the same basis as before, its evil influences and its final end would be the same. To make it anything like a success would entail a rigid maintenance of discipline, distasteful alike to those who exercised it and those who came under its control. It is needless for me to tell you that the advancement of the university during the last few years has been rapid, and it is also unnecessary to inform those who are conversant with her affairs that there must be a freer expenditure of the almighty dollar before she can enter upon an area of true prosperity. A machine without oil runs stiffly and cannot well perform its appointed task; and a university hampered by the rust of poverty must of necessity be handicapped in the race. What the University of New Brunswick needs most is something to act as a lubricant, something to make the wheels of progress move a little faster, and this something is money. The Alumni Society has done well for the University, but she has a right to expect more assistance from private sources. She is patiently waiting for aid from some of her already famous graduates. At present the most urgent needs are increased re-numeration for instructors and more attraction for students in the way of scholarships. The University has already lost several professors through inability to pay as large salaries as other colleges; even since our entrance we have seen no less than four professors depart to fill more lucrative positions elsewhere. Hitherto excellent men have been obtained to take their places, but no one can tell how long this good luck may continue. Still the University has no cause to be despondent. The in increase of students, though not rapid, is steady, and the number now in attendance is greater than at any time since our matriculation. The success which has attended university extention work during the past year, and the interest aroused by the monthly lectures given in the library, are not by any means evidences of retrogression. The University has done noble work in the past; we have faith in her for the future. Men have left her walls to become prominent as legislators, lawyers and scholars. They will do so again, and with the increased advantages of to day there is no reason why U. Ν. Β. men should not acquire a still mores splendid reputation in the world of politics, of science and of letters. White it is idle to say that the university makes the man, and that a person of mean ability can be transformed in to an intellectual giant simply by attending a certain college, yet we do claim that here in the University of New Brunswick are laid down courses of study that are calculated to arouse a man and draw out his faculties, if he has any intelligence worth mentioning. He has the first two years to discover what particular branch of study he has an aptitude for, and during the last two years he can omit certain subjects of the pass work to take an extensive curse in his favorite study; so that to a person wishing to pursue some special branch of learning the University of New Brunswick holds out advantages in the way of preparatory work which but few universities in Canada can offer.

This brings me to mention some grievances connected with the newly constituted honor courses. Beginning with 1892, the year when the honor courses were established on their present basis, a new method of ranking the graduating class has been in vogue, which has caused much dissatisfaction. Indeed, so widespread is the feeling of discontent in regard to the matter that it cannot well be passed by unnoticed. In the graduating lists for the years 1892 and 1893 those graduating with honors are, as you know, placed at the head of the class, with nothing to show where the honor students end and those graduating in the ordinary course begin. This arrangement is objected to by many, who suggest that an honor student's ordinary papers and his rank in the class be determined without regard to his taking a special course. The chief objection raised to the present system—and it is a reasonable one—is that a person by virtue of taking honors, and it may be obtaining only second class honors, is placed above a pass student of perhaps far greater ability. In the case of a class of fourteen, for instance, where eight graduate with honors, persons looking at the list in the calendar would be very apt to conjecture that the person occupying ninth or tenth place was a student of very inferior ability. It is not difficult to see that the person occupying this position might be a clever student who preferred to continue the ordinary course. The above mentioned suggestion does not commend itself, to me at least, as a satisfactory remedy for the evil. In the first place, if this were carried into effect the list would not show who were honor graduates any more than under the present arrangement. A person who takes honors as they are now constituted wants some acknowledgement of the fact. In the next place, there being so many different honor courses, students graduate in entirely different subjects, and it is obviously unfair to place one person above another because he has made a slightly higher average on different sets of papers. Seventy percent, in one paper may mean more than seventy percent in another, and it may be, and usually is, more difficult to make seventy percent, in an honor paper than the same mark in a pass paper. It seems to me that the fairer plan is to place the graduates for any year in two separate lists, honor graduates and pass graduates. In that case the order or precedence of honors would need to be arbitrary, as at present, since, for the reason just stated, it is very difficult to tell which honor is really entitled to first place. Indeed, all first class honors are supposed to be equal, and since all cannot be put at the head there must be some definite order of precedence.

The attempt to supplement this anomalous system of ranking by employing alphabetical arrangement to a certain extent also causes considerable dissatisfaction. For instance, three persons graduate with first class honors in the same subject. The one who passes the best examination is placed below the other two because he is unfortunate enough to possess a name beginning with a letter very near the end of the alphabet. The same method is adopted when two or more pass students find themselves in the same division. When a person whose name begins with A, B, or C relies upon that fact to save him from ignominiously bringing up the rear, it is high time that some complaint was made. I mention these few facts, hoping that the proper authorities will soon see their way clear to adopt some expedient better than the one employed at the present.

Since last year the University has sustained a severe loss by the resignation of Prof. Duff. But the senate would have no cause for alarm if it could always be sure of filling vacancies as satisfactorily as it has this. His successor, Prof. Geo. M. Downing, has won the respect and good will of all the students by his personal qualities no less than by his talents. Inside the lecture room and out, both as a thorough, painstaking teacher and as a gentleman he has won golden opinions from all. He has made a specialty of electricity, and is well acquainted with the most recent developments and discoveries in this domain of science; and the course of electrical engineering lately established bids fair, in his hands, to take a very prominent place in the college curriculum.

With new ideas and new aspirations we leave our alma mater. Let us not in the pursuit of the new forget the old love, nor, as too many of her graduates do, utterly neglect the institution which started them on life's journey, “scorning the base degrees by which they did ascend.” Whatever our individual lot, may we ever be united in affection to our alma mater. We should not be human if after four years spent at the University we do not, at this parting moment, feel some pangs of regret. For years we have looked forward to the day of our graduation; but, now that it has come, and we are faced by the fact that the University has no longer any place for us, our fond anticipations vanish before the stern reality. Our joy at work accomplished and degrees obtained is saddened by the reflection that we must separate, perhaps never all to meet again. College life has become second nature to us; the old familiar scenes and faces have become part of the fibre of our being, and the separation is like the severing of heart-strings. To our worthy Chancellor and to the members of the faculty, we return our most heartfelt thanks. Not till this farewell moment have we fully realized the magnitude of their labors in our behalf, and their sincere interest in our welfare. Lenient, perhaps too lenient, toward our many sins of omission and commission, ever ready to guide and assist, they have been our helpers through all these years; there is not one of us but has experienced individual aid and counsel. Leaving, we bid adieu to a body of as perfect gentlemen as it will ever be our lot to meet. We cannot hope to make any adequate return to them, or to the university, for all they have done for us, and to make amends for our own short comings would be equally impossible. As a slight token, however, of the interest they feel in the dear old U. N.B., the male members of the class of 1894 have decided to offer a scholarship of thirty-five dollars to be awarded next year on conditions to be made known through the chancellor. It is our present intention to continue this scholarship, the conditions of its bestowal to be changed from year to year. We hope that this is but an indication of what we may do in the future, when fortune has smiled kindly upon us and endowed us with a larger share of this world's goods. It is with feelings of sorrow that we bid farewell to beautiful Fredericton. We are loth to leave the place where we have received such generous hospitality. Sadly we bid adieu to the social delights which have beguiled our stay in the Celestial City.

Students of the University, now fellow-students no more, we transmit to your keeping the time-honored institutions and customs, confident that they will be safe in your hands. I know that the class of '95 contains men who will conduct honorably whatever is given them to do. They have always been foremost in every good work, and there is no reason to suppose they will go back on their former record. Counsel is needless; under your control I feel assured that the Debating society and the University Monthly will prosper. Both of these institutions are very important factors in your college life, and must not be neglected. W shall read the Monthly and note improvements with pleasure, proud of our alma mater, and proud of the men who throng her halls.

I feel confident that so long at least as the present students remain in the University her reputation in athletics will be sustained. The last sports' day was a memorable one in the history of athletics in the U. Ν. Β., and her students now hold records of which they may well be proud. It rests with you who remain to break them if possible. We shall rejoice at your success on the campus as well as your triumphs in the fields of learning; and we hope that you will by your attainments in both directions add one more round to the already lofty position which the U. N. Β. holds upon the ladder of renown.

My task is done. To all farewell. How we hesitate to pronounce the in-
evitable word.

Farewell! For in that word—that fatal word—howe’er we promise—hope—believe,—there breathes despair.

The class of '94 takes its exit; and as the cannon's roar announces our departure, its echoes are answered by the chime of wedding bells, and to our nostrils is wafted the fragrance of orange blossoms.