A Chapter Ends at Amherst

There was a sound of revelry by day and night. Amherst's chivalry had gathered for commencement. Alumni had come back for a season, parents had turned up two by two, interested girls by ones and dozens. The professors were really relieved and relatively merry. Then, out of an unclouded sky, broke the storm which had for a long time been threatening. President Meiklejohu resigned his post and the trustees accepted his resignation, having first asked for it. The news, more or less expected, went across the continent; reporters dashed to the scene for more details; the story adorned the first pages of metropolitan dailies. Enthusiastic rumours went out to the effect that the graduating class would refuse to graduate, and that the members of the faculty in favour of President Meiklejohn would resign in a body. Nothing quite so impressive happened. Mr. Meiklejohn told the devoted boys that 'this is my fight, not yours.' At commencement thirteen students left the hall without their diplomas, to the accompaniment of cheers from the spectators. Half a dozen teachers have resigned and others will, or will be forced to do so.

"This is the outward end of a chapter. Eleven years ago the trustees, in calling Mr, .Meiklejohn to the presidency of Amherst, understood that they were bound for something of an adventure. He made it clear then, as he has made it clear regularly since, that he believed in experiment in education, and that he was at many points out of sympathy with certain older traditions of Amherst and of other American colleges. He has worked ceaselessly to bring it about that the students of Amherst might learn something about the changes which are going on in the world instead of being held to the intellectual goose-step which the old guard everywhere prefers. He has attracted to Amherst some of the most promising young teachers in the country. He has worked with his advisers to bring the curriculum into touch with the thoughtful life of our times, He has been a conspicuous element in making Amherst deserve to be called Out liberal college. And now, after a decade of the experiment, his trustees have lost courage and have stub-bornly turned back to safe ground."—"The Nation."