New York University (1952)

[Music] Sandy cran has started a new life and even after a month of going to college in New York she still feels every morning it is all a wonderful Adventure different from everything she's ever done before because Sandy is just beginning she is especially aware of the people around her especially conscious of the enormity of the world ahead of [Music] Sandy now at 18 feel she is one of many very many because she will continue for the rest of her life to be one of many because she wants to live with people and work with people she has chosen to start right in the middle of things she has chosen to try to learn what people are what they want to be how they organize the complexities of their lives what their goals are and how they strive to reach them and so Sandy decided to go to college in the very midst of the world for which college will prepare her for here at the very heart of the bustle the clang the rumbling the liveliness the confusion that seems to accompany progress in our time there is a quieter Place dedicated as a bridge between the old and the new there is a university now over years old where young men and women are being prepared for tomorrow within its academic walls New York University is like other universities like freshmen in colleges all over the country Sandy must attend an orientation class for that college education which you seek you have come to us to New York University you will be with us for a period of years and in that time we shall Endeavor to give you a knowledge of the theories and techniques which you will put into practice in later life in your chosen Fields will make an effort also to acquaint you with the elements of those Arts and Sciences which constitute American culture and in addition we shall teach you understanding of and respect for the Democratic traditions and the moral and spiritual values of American life such values are hard to see at first what a challenge to a university to help young people perceive order in this chaos to help them understand how the parts relate if we are newcomers or if we are young it is hard to see beneath the mask of expediency the city at work is a colorful pageant that tends to disguise the basic quest of many men and many women to earn a livelihood with the knowledge the skills the abilities at their disposal the human values are often veiled by the physical superstructures that contain them imposing the student thinks but where do I fit into all [Music] this the university has many techniques for helping him find a path into the world that beckons it provides individual advice and counseling it even helps find undergraduate jobs that may later turn into careers but it helps most by developing comprehension that goes beneath the surface Insight that can penetrate The Masks by its regular courses of study it reveals the reason for things the relations of form to content the rhythm of New York University life isn't syncopated to match the tempo over the city but somehow the reality of the surroundings enters into the atmosphere of the classrooms from the Shaded lower half so we see that Unity is a fundamental property of living things lights please there are those who say there is an analogy between these insects unitedly performing the task laid down by their structure and the cells of a living body toiling for the greatest good of the whole why aren't human beings like that it seems to me that ants and bees have better sense than we have well many people have thought that if Unity is so important they say why not model Human Society on the Beehive because it wouldn't be any fun all they do is work yes but on the whole theirs is a very peaceful Society sense of unity in bees and ants is quite a contrast to the very rugged individualism of the tiger or the chickenhawk doesn't nature provide another alternative as a matter of fact it does there's the penguin the emperor penguin appear appears instinctively to combine respect for the individual with a high degree of social Unity but we should remember that lower organisms especially the bees the ants have little capacity for changing their living conditions man in contrast has great flexibility for development of his environment this gives him unlimited potentialities for improving his living conditions are there any questions what the students at the University have is their first task the business of improving themselves they come from all parts of the state and from most other states of the Union indeed from most of the countries of the world each bringing something of his own to add to the richness and variety of the student body Metropolitan and therefore Cosmopolitan the social atmosphere of the University tends to break down the barriers that often exist between races Creeds or economic classes NYU students working together often eating Together Fall naturally into habits of spending leisure time together or into taking part in the interfraternity interclass and intramural athletic programs one of the University's most important roles is to help the students learn sound habits of relaxation and Recreation and so it provides the facilities which young people need for trying their skills and learning to perfect them that is why the sports program of NYU accents informal competition that is why the playing fields at University Heights are usually filled with students for whom Athletics are a part of college life rather than a reason for it some of them make the varsity squads of course and represent their school and Intercollegiate competition but the famous Violet teams are only publicized aspects of of an athletic program available to every student in all of the schools of the university the buildings of NYU in many parts of the city are as varied as the purposes for which they are used some of them are libraries but a big part of education is training and finding things out for oneself in other words is learning to learn but the young student is not trained to memorize facts but rather to know where to find them and how to interpret them and use them when he does find them some students who want to be near the city prefer the atmosphere of the spacious NYU campus that occupies the Ridge High over the Harlem River here they find the sense of leisure and quiet that is usually the mark of a college town and although this college town has a population of 12 million it has room in it for individual growth it has time in it for the gradual development of each students personal capacities it has time for those most precious moments in a student's day the moments when he seems to be doing nothing at all the moments when he's thinking through digesting what he's learned when he suddenly catches a meaning that has been hidden from him that's not as funny as it sounds when people are disease ridden and starving they can be forgiven for devoting what energy they have to the struggle to survive that's why the World Health Organization and food and agriculture organization have been set up by the United Nations but even if people are wellfed and healthy that doesn't necessarily mean they're interested in democracy look at Hitler Germany something else then is necessary freedom freedom freedom to think that's right I think another thing that's needed is education people need ideas I would agree with that what sort of ideas well ideas about whatever would tend to make their lives happier and more satisfying good what is basic then is a decent standard of living combined with a freely available education the kind of education that enables people to make choices and know what they're doing to make laws that reflect the basic sense of right and Justice of the community without these a people loses hope and once Al is aware of the importance of such hope he can recognize it in the life around him even when it is hidden by the traditional banter with which American undergraduates disguise their serious thoughts Tom is an engineering student Al cannot understand Tom's technical drawings but he can appreciate Tom's ambition so different from his own I'm impressed you ought to be I've been knocking my brains out over this for weeks what's this oh it's nothing I just want to see how the plane would look in Flight you're an artist fellow can draw a picture like that doesn't have to mess around with a t square and a triangle mess around he says creating beauty is more important I still say a play in the skies were too on the wall listen Tom I'm do down at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this afternoon how about joining me me at an art museum well listen come along with me and we'll go for some spaghetti afterwards okay you win I guess I can look at the da Vines he was a good designer too Tom I'll granted Bridges ax handles and airplanes are both beautiful and useful but art is more than that art expresses ideas and emotions hopes fears and Visions Peter brel painted this picture well because he loved people and loved life and he wanted to convey his feelings to others well I guess you're right Al but the guy invent the harvesting machine did a lot more for the farmers in my opinion fortunately perhaps Al and Tom will continue to disagree their very difference is a bond between them and adds a new dimension to each that is why the university feels so rich in the diversity of her sons and daughters the founders dreamed well over a century ago of a private university for all the people they meant all Creeds and all classes they meant all gifts and all talents they meant all the diverse Arts by which man lives and adorns life the university they had in mind like the city it was to serve would give youth a chance to develop its own strengths rather than be pressed into tight and arbitrary molds and so Al the undergraduate majoring in political science becomes Al the Law School freshman the move from one faculty to another being no more abrupt than the physical move from one building to another Tom the engineering undergraduate is similarly transformed into Tom The Graduate engineering student in his case he has not even changed buildings for several of his senior elective courses had been held in the famous Guggenheim aeronautical laboratory now he's going on to more advanced work to problems of theory and design to the subjects for which he has had a special flare graduate work is already a start of what will probably become his life's work and this is just as true for the student stud of Dentistry or the students in the school of medicine they have come from colleges all over the country but they are soon at home at NYU and in the city where there are facilities and opportunities for research that would be impossible in almost any other community in the [Music] world many of the students in nyu's graduate schools are already Professionals in their chosen Fields but want to go on improving themselves by taking courses under well-known experts in fact this is almost the rule for the thousands of students who use the University at night these men are Bankers during the day but they come back to class at The Graduate School of Business near Wall Street two nights a week to listen to leaders in the world of management and finance to learn the principles that underly their daily [Music] activities but Washington Square is still in a sense the center of university life the Washington Square of Mark Twain of Henry James of O Henry it is like a campus nowadays re-echoing to talk of cosign and of alexandrian verse what was once the center of the country's cultural life is still the center of a smaller more concentrated intellectual pattern Washington Square has changed with the times as the society Edith Wharton once wrote about declined new people came to live in the Greenwich Village that surrounds the square and the university has become part of the new community life as it was part of the old Sandy is a senior now in the school of education she practices the theory she is learning in a settlement house near the school building this is a labor atory too and the specimens are very much alive Sandy is both a student and a teacher as she plays an active part in Community Affairs but the play Workshop is over by 4 and Sandy has the rest of the spring afternoon to spend with a friend there's always something new to discover to think about to talk about the ordinary activities of daily life become part of a Fiesta in the Vivid atmosphere of the village here is the color the charm the unexpected that we seek out and enjoy in in Rome or Paris or New Orleans this is the culture not found in a classroom but it must be kept vital by the people who live it day after day in such an atmosphere the Arts flourish and learning is respected paintings and books are natural elements of the scene so you don't pass a counter without instinctively going over the titles often you are rewarded Beyond expectation just look at this fits right into what Bob was talking about in the advertising course this morning that covers the devices for attention in the layout very well you're dismissed ladies and [Music] gentlemen Dr sper could I talk to you for a moment of course Bob what's on your mind this I picked it up at a secondhand Bookshop yesterday ENC lawn April 1898 say this is a real curiosity so you plan to quit New York for Paris in the spring no it isn't that I just like what they've done with the ads oh I see well not bad sentimental Beardsley without the decadence Dr Sperry I think they tried to do something pretty important but having the ads designed by the same artists who did the illustrations they gave the whole magazine a unified Style I wonder if it really is Unity it seems to me the unity is superficial it may be that the uh fashion of the costumes and the drawings just gives the effect of unity I think it's a terrific idea a modern Magazine with really modern designs and illustrations that achieved Unity would be a sensation well why don't you do something about it why don't you make a project out of it a project yes do some research get some real answers to some real questions what sort of questions well for instance you can make a poll of a cross-section of the public find out what they'd think of the idea you mean walk up to people on the street no go and see a couple of advertisers and see what their reaction is get some costs why did I ever go near that bookstore and when you get your layout finished I'll send you up to see Mr Cole's look magazine I'm pretty sure he'll give you an honest opinion of what he thinks of it thanks Dr Sperry thanks a million fine bye Bob let me know how it works out Bob's project is in the nature of an experiment and like Sandy he has the city as a laboratory in which to carry it out it is hard to say what makes going to college in a big city so stimulating an experience what gives the students the feeling of being in touch with the world rather than just learning about it from a distance for one thing since their campus has almost no physical limits they live for four years in an endless series of changing environments each complete each different but more than that there is the day-to-day proximity to the people of the city the people who are all peoples the people who are intelligent and dull rich and poor selfish and kindly serious and gay it is because of the variety of its people that the city helps us to develop new tastes tempts us to try new experiences enables us to enjoy ourselves in new ways the city often called an education in itself is even a more satisfactory educational experience when it is tied to the disciplines of formal learning when it is the workshop where we see the ideas and theories applied to life economics is not dry when it has to do with real things that people want buy or sell sociology is Meaningful when populations become people culture comes alive when it is expressed in the dramatic terms of the theater this is fun but it is also language Communications philosophy anthropology when we laugh or cry or are intrigued we are also learning the city can be be a great Arena where we comprehend the social forces that are analyzed in the lecture hall Bob was at the familiar meeting place a few days later but in a different mood hi hello what are you doing here waiting for you what's the matter why so glum I got turned down they think the idea smells about the unified ads yeah I went to two magazines they didn't laugh at me or anything but they gave me plenty of reasons why the idea was no good oh that's a shame Bob I really thought I had something worst of it is I have a date with Sperry this afternoon to tell him all about my glorious Triumph say will you come along and back me up sure I will not that you need it oh don't I so they turned it down hey Bob they were nice enough about it though they certainly should have been it's a nice layout they said so too but they told me I was kind of neglecting to see that advertisers are anxious to make people like their product not the magazine well you can't blame them for that can you no but I don't see why they can't think of both they do Bob the magazine has to sell or the advertising won't reach enough people they both the magazine and the advertisers have a common purpose mean to try to get to as many people as possible that's right then why not go all the way and use Bob's idea because that would Rob the advertisers of their individuality uniformity alone is d all and monotonous I think I'm beginning to get it Bob remember that lecture we had in BIO last year the one when we talked about bees and tigers and Penguins the idea was that the Penguins kept their individuality but worked together for their common good well I had a half-baked idea and it flopped not at all Bob not at all a failure like yours is pretty close to a Triumph there's nothing wrong with failure through failure you learn what's first right after all that's one of the reasons we go to college of course so you can make mistakes where someone will help you correct them but more than that so that you can learn what's best and learn the best ways of achieving it that's what the university is for it's a giant memory it enables us to build on the successes of our ancestors and sometimes Bob on their failures that is how all men have learned the hard lessons throughout the course of history the Hall of Fame at new York University is full of men to whom success came after repeated failure men like Walt Witman who spent a lifetime revising his first book of poems or Abraham Lincoln who won the presidency by losing a campaign for the Senate there are men too like General gorgus a distinguished graduate of the university and men like Samuel FB Morse a brilliant member of the University's faculty their place of honor above the city is a fitting one for the centers of all great civilizations have been great cities and through its University the strength and the Vitality of a city are constantly renewed only through the development of the minds and talents of many many individuals can the American dream come true generation after generation Hal [Music] [Applause]