Paper University

The University of the State of New York has no campus, faculty or student body. It consists merely of a Board of Regents who appoint a Commissioner of Education and administer the State's public educational system. Though the University, established in 1784, is the oldest continuous educational agency in the U. S., it did not receive its present broad powers until 1904. Before then it looked after higher education alone, having been founded primarily to rehabilitate King's College (now Columbia University) which had been suspended during the Revolution. New York State's University sometimes forgets its humdrum job and dons academic garb. It did so last week to celebrate, a bit ahead of time, its 150th birthday. Meeting in Chancellors' Hall in Albany in their 69th convocation, the Regents elected Vice Chancellor James Byrne, Manhattan lawyer, to succeed the late Chancellor Chester Sanders ("Boss") Lord, longtime managing editor of the New York Sun. They gave a Litt. D. degree to Dr. Herbert Seeley Weet, Rochester Superintendent of Schools, and an LL. D to Alfred Emanuel Smith. Said Dr. Smith: "Education writes a good large insurance policy against the foolish notions of the Socialists, Communists, Naziists and all the others who are arrayed against constitutional government. . . . It's all right to have economy . . . but don't let false economy fall on our public schools. ... It wouldn't do the State a bit of harm if we didn't build another mile of road for the next three years. . . . But one single year that education is neglected can never be brought back."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.