OCR Text |
Show TRANSFER OF WEBER'S CONTROL The continuation of Weber as a college was at last made certain on July 1,1933 when the school became an independent, state-owned and controlled institution. During the last few years the future of Weber College has been in the hands of the Utah State Legislature. The friends of our school have sought to establish the institution independently, but powerful enemies have tried to influence the legislature to abandon it entirely, and the issue has long remained in doubt. Our school was founded on its present site in 188 9 as the Weber Stake Academy, and since then has been operated under the direction of the L. D. S. Church. Its yearly enrollment has grown since 1889 from less than one hundred to approximately seven hundred. Six year ago, when the church first requested that the state of Utah officially adopt Weber College as a part of its educational system, a measure known as the Ho 1 1 ingswor th bill, to-establish Weber as a branch of the University of Utah, under the direction of the University board, was presented in the legislature. President Tracy and other Ogden supporters held out for an independent school, and the bill was defeated. Again four years ago, a similar measure met a like defeat.. The legislature of 1929 defeated also two other bills, one to make Weber a locally-supported institution, the other to establish it as an independentstate-supported school. In the meantime, Weber's destiny hung in the balance, and the. church continued to operate the school, pending final settlement. In 1931, the state legislature settled the question, passing H. B. 101, which established Weber College as an independent school under state control, the cost to be shared equally by the state and the counties which Weber serves, the transfer to be made effective on July 1, 1933. However, the counties were unwilling to share the cost, and so in the last legislature Senators J. Francis Fowles and Ira Huggins, with the aid of advocates of Snow, Dixie, and B. A. C. , secured the passage of a substitute bill, H. B. 120, which provides:. "There shall be at Ogden a school to be known as Weber College . . . limited to the first two years of college work . . . for the shool year beginning July 1, 1933 . . . provided that the Board of Education of Weber College provides suitable campus, buildinds equipment, without cost to the state." The legislators, in the face of an economy drive, also secured an appropriation of $73,000 for the first biennium. In fulfillment of these conditions, the L. D. S. Church gave to the state of Utah, without payment or obligation of any kind, the Weber Gymnasium, valued at $266,756. 93, and the Moench Building, valued at $252,381. The other buildings on the campus prior to the transfer were owned by the college itself through the Alumni Association. Certain advantages are to be ained by Weber College through state supervision. The skepticism and prejudice with which many people view denominational education is removed. Onr financial resources, however, are no greater. Those who profit by the larger faculty arid broader scope of study should not give the credit to the change in management. This improvement was but a natural consequence of Weber's rapid growth, and awaited only the assurance that the school would be continued. Greater economy and efficiency of operation of the gymnasium are possible through making it a college subsidiary. Its present status permits the elimination of dual management and the employment of student janitors. Incidentally, the gymnasium operated from July 1 to September 1 , 1933 at a net profit of $1 ,000, the first profit recorded since its- opening in 1923. Though the advantages to be gained from state management are as yet fully undetermined, one benefit Is certain. The final settlement, through legislation, of Weber's fut ure, and the consequent removal of the uncertainty, leaves our college at last free to develop with out being sudject to the whims anb ' vagaries of pol i ti c i ans. Carma Allen writes in her first literary effort for English I that revelation is a source of subject material. It's mighty fine that some one can find out something from somewhere about this English. ....0--.- Do you observe how many of the Freshmen are smiling lately? The first two themes are in. But the worst is yet to come--three more. Such is life. Ah me! Ah me! Alas, poor Yorichl I knew him well. ....O---- Who was it that wanted to know if Monson was illustrating a new type of autogyro when he made such a violent attempt to become a faclty cheermas ter ? - O - Hint to Cafeteria: The taste of an onion can be improved by adding a pound of steak to it. O---- |