Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Report of Wm. Preston Johnston, Chief Executive Officer to Board of Administrators, on Plan of Organization of Tulane University: June 4th, 1883
It is due to you and due to myself to say that, though my experience as a practical educator hasgbeen long and varied, and I have given close personal attention to matters of uni versity organization, my Opportunities for observation have been somewhat circumscribed. Indeed. I may say that there is no absolutely thorough preparation for such a place as that to which you have called me until after the appointment is made. Previous preparation would be merely dilettante in such case, and evince unfitness, rather than fitness, for its actual work. In such a problem as that before us, the changing exigencies of the situation may require some modification of the views advanced, but I must claim for them that, within the horizon permitted to me, they have been deliberately reached after a very mature and careful consideration.
The first point to be considered is the scope of your work. The intentions of Mr. Tulane constitute the chart of your action. Fully and faithfully to carry out his wishes and imten tions, I know to be the purpose of this Board. What they are will be found defined in his letter of donation. His property is thereln given for the promotion and encouragement of intel lectual, moral and industrial education among the white young persons in the City of New Orleans, State of Louisiana, and for the advancement of learning and letters, the arts and sciences therein. He says: By the term education, I mean to foster such a course of intellectual development as shall be useful and of solid worth, and not be merely ornamental and superficial. I mean you should adopt the course which, as wise and good men, would commend itself to you as being conducive to imme diate practical benefit, rather than theoretical possible advantage. I wish you to establish or foster institutions of a higher grade of learning Where the young persons to be benefited shall, upon due examination, be found competent and qualified for admission, both by age and previous training, to receive the benefits of a more advanced degree of educational culture.
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