Annual Report of the President Author:Cornell University Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: operation of the women students themselves, more particularly by means of the extension of the self-government association which has greatly facilitated the admi... more »nistration of the affairs of Sage College and Cottage. The Warden of Sage has a difficult office to fill ; and, now that its functions have been enlarged, Miss Loomis will need the hearty support of students, alumnae, and indeed of the entire University community. Her ideal of being a "counselor-and friend" to the young women is the way to success, and, the larger the number who can feel that personal influence, the more marked her success will be. LIBERAL EDUCATION It is a trite saying that we live in an age of specialization. Our colleges and universities have not escaped this influence, but the notion of liberal education, though its meaning has been rendered somewhat uncertain and indefinite, still survives. The organ of liberal education is the college of arts and sciences, and more particularly the arts division of that college, the division which embraces language, literature, philosophy, history, economics, and politics. Without excluding pure science it is generally held that these humanistic subjects constitute the materials of a liberal education. They are, therefore, of primary and fundamental importance in every university. At Cornell they received last year a quickening impetus from two different sources. In the first place the housing of all these departments in the Goldwin Smith Hall has had the effect of bringing teachers and students as well as teachers and teachers into closer and more frequent personal relations. And, as all education is essentially personal, the result is of cardinal importance in an age when mechanism, even in the highest regions of life, tends to invade the precincts of manhood...« less