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EXTRA
PRICE FIVE CENTS ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, MONDAY, MAY 21, 1951
SIX PAGES
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Ruthven Era
Distinguished
By Expansion
1
To End 22 Years:
Retires June 30
By PAUL -BRETLINGER
Daily City Editor
President Alexander G. Ruth-
ven will retire from his duties on
June 30 this year, after a 22 year
period of leadership during a ser-
ies of world crises.
His administration has been
marked by tremendous physical
expansion of the University, ac-
companied by important adminis-
trative reforms. All this was
brought about amid the trials of
depression, war and cold war.
PERHAPS THE most noticeable
of President Ruthven'snaccom-
plishments has been the mammoth
construction program which has
completely changed the face of
the campus since 1929.
Imagine if you can a campus
without the West and East Quads;
without Stockwell, and Mosher-
Jordan Halls; without the Rack-
Sham Building, Burton Tower, the
Health Service, the Administra-
tion Building and the business ad-
ministration school building. None
of these buildings were around
when President Ruthven was in-
stalled on Oct. 4~ 1929.
Other buildings which have
been built since then include:
Kellogg Institute, the Maternity
Hospital, the additions to the
f Chemistry and the East Engi-
neering buildings, Victor Vaughn
House, Alice Lloyd Hall, the
Food Service, a huge addition to
the Union and the School of
Public Health.
Even the Student Publications
building is part of the Ruthven
r building program, as is the Law
School's Hutchins Hall, the Law
Library and the John P. Cook dor-
mitory in the Law Quadrangle.
The Veterans' Readjustment Cen-
ter and the University Terrace
apartments are also among the
recently completed additions to
the University's physical plant.
'The athletic plant has seen the
construction of an addition to the
stadium, new baseball stands, an
addition to the coliseum and a
new golf clubhouse since 1929.
Board Picks OSU Vee
As Eighth 'U'President
Harlan Henthorne Hatcher, vice-president of Ohio State University,
was named the eighth president of the University at 11 a.m. today.
Hatcher, a 52-year-old author and civic leader, will succeed Alexander
G. Ruthven, who will begin his year-long retirement furlough on July 1.
. . . .Hatcher will take up his duties
as president of the University on
Regents Reach Decision Sept. 1
The long-awaited announces
ment, culminating an intensive 18-
A'emonth search by the University
Board of Regents, came suddenly
early this morning.
More than a year of painstaking deliberation by the Board of The Regents actually reached
Regents lies behind the selection of Harlan H. Hatcher as the Uni- their decision Saturday morning
versity's new president. but adjourned in order to offer
No special committee made the selection-because of its impor- the position to Dr. Hatcher. Ob-
tance the entire Board took part in the choice, acting as a committee gents reconvened this morning to
of the whole under the chairmanship of Regent J. Joseph Herbert formalize the appointment and an
of Manistique. nounce their decision.
More than 100 names were considered. These came from promi-
nent alumni, educators, and other interested persons who knew of.
-Courtesy Ann Arbor News 4
RETIRING PRESIDENT ALEXANDER G. RUTHVEN NEW PRESIDENT HARLAN H. HATCHER
Educator Extraordinaire Leaves Mark
By DAVE THOMAS
Daily Feature Editor
SOMETIME after 5 p.m. on the
last day of June, a squarely-
built Scotchman will rise from his
desk on the second floor of the
Administration Building, bid his
secretary good evening and stride
from the prestige and responsibili-
ty which pervades the office of a
university president into the more
leisurely life of a well-deserved re-
tirement.
His escape will not be unob-
served. A crowd of facultymen, ad-
ministrators and other friends will
be on hand to see him off. There
will be photographers and a row
of newspapermen and perhaps a
tardy business caller who will want
n
around his neck to the breast poc-
ket of his summer suit.
There will be warm handshakes
and good-natured words of appre-
ciation with old friends in the
modern surroundings of the recep-
tion room.
Then, Alexander Grant Ruth-
ven, for 22 years president of
one of the largest educational in-
stitutions in the world, will po-
litely but firmly break away
and head homeward, there to
begin with Mrs. Ruthven the im-
mense task of sorting and pack-
ing the accumulated gifts and
acquisitions of their stay in the
white stucco house on South
University where all but one of
the University's seven presidents
have made their homes.
As he walks along the shrub-
lined walks, through the lengthen-
ing shadows of trees and buildings,
Alexander G. Ruthven may well'
allow himself a broad smile of
satisfaction. He will have just
completed a period of service as
president which is longer than any
other man now in top office in a
state university.
The University whose control he
will have just relinquished has re-
search and extension branches
scattered from South Africa to
northern Michigan and boasts
some of the. finest undergraduate
and graduate schools in the coun-
try.
A faculty of 1,300, includ-
ing many of national and inter-
national fame, is engaged in
public service, research and the
instruction of more than 20,000
students, utilizing a plant,invest-
ment which tops $90,000,000.
These figures are twice what
they were in 1929.
Endowment funds now total
more than $25,000,000, six time's
what they were a generation ago.
Where hundreds of students
formerly lived in frequently-inade-
quate lodgings, thousands now en-
joy a vast dormitory system.
A university which was torn
with dissention and rivalry when
he assumed office, now functions
smoothly with a minimum of
friction.
A progressive education program
which forced the resignation of his
predecessor has been established
and even extended.
The University, through its
alumni organization and research
prestige, has captured the imagi-
nations of citizens across the na-
tion and passed the half-way mark
in a drive to raise $6,500,000 for a
research project into the problems
of living in the atomic age.
The University enjoys an annual
appropriation rfrom the State
Legislature more than four times
as large as in 1929.
* * *
ALEXANDER G. Ruthven would
be the first to protest that
others in addition to himself had
a hand in this unprecedented rec-
ord of development. The two dec-
ades of his administration were
turbulent and often discouraging,
but in the end they were decades
of great progress for U.S. educa-
See RUTHVEN, Page 5
President Ruthven's forthcoming<
retirement.
Starting with this huge list of
names, the Regents traveled
from coast to coast to investi-
gate the qualifications of the
various candidates. This invest-
igation was carried on largely
by contact with persons well
acquainted with the work of
those being considered.
In addition, the Regents at-
tempted to get first hand interviews
with all the candidates, without
letting them know they were be-
ing considered for the University
presidency.
LITTLE BY LITTLE, the field
was narrowed. Some candidates
weren't available. Others did not
meet the Regents' standards for
the post.
When only two or three can-
didates remained, the Regents
paused and "began searching
our own souls," according to
Regent Herbert. They did this
to be sure that they had applied
the proper yardsticks to this
most difficult decision.
At a meeting Saturday, the
committee of the whole recom-
mended that the Board of Re-
gents appoint Hatcher to the
presidency. Yesterday, Regents
Herbert, Otto E. Eckert, Roscoe
0. Bonisteel and Murray D. Van
Wagoner, acting on behalf of
the committee of the whole, met
with Hatcher in Toledo and ten-
dered him the post.
Hatcher having accepted the of-
fer, the Regents met at 10:50 a.m.
today, and announced his appoint-
ment after a 10-minute meeting.
ITPresident ,
Turnover
RateHigh
By NANCY BYLAN
Daily Associate Editor
Although the University hasn't
had one for 22 years, new college
presidents are as common as blue
books in April.
On the average they are appoint-
ed in droves of more than six and
a half per month-or at least they
have been since January, 1950. Be-
tween that time and April of this
year, a total of 93 colleges and
universities acquired new chief ex-
ecutives.
IF APPOINTMENTS have
moved at this rate for the past two
decades, then an estimated 1,700
new college presidents have ap-
peared on the academic scene since
this University last named one.
Most of the last year's 99 va-
cancies, which called these new
presidents into being, were the re-
sults of resignations for greener
fields. Of 59 such presidential exits,
the majority were made by men
who accepted new appointments in,
the field of education.
A sizable number, however,
were whisked away from their
ivory towers by President Tru-
man to fill newly created mobili-
See AMERICAN, Page 2
* * *
THE, ANNOUNCEMENT itself
was made at 11:01 a.m. by Regent
J. Joseph Herbert at a dr'na-
packed press conference attended
by newspapermen from all over
the sta'te.
Regent Herbert, chairman of
the Board's Committee of the
Whole, described President-
elect Hatcher as "a leader who
meets the test of Michigan's
great traditions."
At his home in Columbus, Ohio,
Hatcher said, "I look forward with
great interest to the privilege of
serving the University of Michigan
in this period of responsibility and
opportunity."
HATCHER, a native of Ironton,
Ohio, prepared for college at More-
head Normal School in Kentucky.
He received his A.B. at Ohio State
in 1922, an A.M. degree in 1923 and
his Ph.D. in 1927.
In addition, he did postA
doctoral work at the University
of Chicago and spent a year in
Italy, France and England stud-
ying the Renaissance.
Hatcher became an instructor
of English at Ohio State in 1922
and was appointed a full professor
of English in 1932. Serving as dean
from 1944-48, he became vice-
president in charge of faculties
and curriculum in September, 1948.
** *
NOTED AS one of Ohio's most
outstanding citizens, Hatcher was
given the Ohio Governor's Award
for Advancement of Ohio's Prestige
in 1949. A year later he received
the Ohioana Grand Medal for his
books on Ohio and the'Northwest
Territory. The citation character-
ized Hatcher as an "Inspiring'
teacher, judicious educator, dis-
tinguished man of letters, historian
of Ohio."
Hatcher was married to the
former Ann Gregory Vance, of
New Haven, Conn., in 1942. The
Hatchers have two children,
Robert Leslie, age 7, and Anne
Linda, age 5.
Ranked as one of the nation's
top scholars, because of his at-
tainments in English and his his-
torical writings, Hatcher has long
been regarded as one of the "great
educational- leaders in the coun-
try."
His students have labelled him
"an inspiring teacher" and his col-
leagues have cited him as "a
teacher and administrator with
vision, a man who gets things done
+1,'nlar,,- nnara.nn an d ,A ffati
ALL THIS expansion of facili- to know what all the fuss is about.
ties came as a result of a rapidly * * *
growing student body. Fewer than THE DIGNIFIED 69-year-old
10,000 students were in residence educator will be in the best of
here when President Ruthven took humors. He will comply with the
office, requests of photographers, stand-
Enrollment reached a post- ing erect one hand in a coat pocket,
war peak of about 22,000 in the ribbon of his pince-nez flowing
1948, and is now down to slight- with a scholarly assertion from
ly under 20,000.
Dollarwise, the value of' the
University's plant has more than SEVEN PRESIDE
doubled. As of last June 30, this
amounted to $90,756,605, not
counting the value of buildings in
process of construction.
In 1929, the building assetsE
amounted to only $35,221,708.
ONE OF THE most striking in-
novations of the Ruthven adminis- By JANET WATTS
tration was the launching of the Daily Associate Editor
Michigan House Plan-the., resi- WHEN THE University's eighth
deuce hall program. WHENitse nh
m president takes office, he
This was done "to bring students probably will be free from the
together-to give them a well- cries of religious sectarianism,
balanced diet and more comfort- pressures of medical theory fa-
able living quarters," according to naticism and squabbles with the
President Ruthven. Before the State Legislature which plagued
plan went into effect, most stu- many of his predecessors.
dents lived in widely scattered Charges of secularism and athe-
rooming houses or fraternities and ism made against many of the
sororities. University's early presidents can
World War 11 proved to be a be traced to the philosophy on
'
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NTS IN 144 YEARS:
U' Chiefs Faced Vehement Criticism
* * * * * * , * *
,
f ,
t
dy Dutch stubbornness which of-
fended many of the rugged indi-
vidualists he worked with in the
West.
ANY of the Ann Arbor towns-
people thought Tappan was
pompous and unfriendly. And
even his wife reported that he had
thought of his task as president
made him a kind of educational
missionary to the uncultured
aWest..
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