J.L. Bailey is an unclassified graduate student. He can be contacted at [email protected].Last week, while walking out of Lee Hall toward the Union that is not yet a Union, I gazed upward and saw the upper level of the east side of Scott Field towering over everything in sight.
I have traveled down these same stairs many times. However, this scene evoked chills, stirred memories and provided a few moments of pause.
At the same time I looked to my left and viewed Mitchell Memorial Library, slightly obscured by tall trees yet containing multi-levels without skyboxes.
Which of these two structures commands one’s attention while walking along our nicely landscaped and manicured campus? Which one beckons a person to climb its stairs, enter its portals and find a seat with the best view?
Hint: it’s the mammoth structure with the towering spiraling staircase that holds 55,082 screaming pigskin fans five or six times each fall.
Football games, tailgating, running into old friends and screaming and yelling for the Maroon and White provide loads of fun.
But what’s wrong with this picture?
What building should be the tallest, the most attractive, the most beckoning and the most popular on a college campus?
Does anyone vote for library? Good choice.
Libraries hold a special place for me, just like independently owned bookstores. I’ve been to a lot of them, and they never cease to amaze, inspire and energize me.
With all of this in mind one must ponder the purpose of our university. Is it a place where learning is central and celebrated? Is it a place where the best facilities, best professors and best opportunities for success are provided in abundance?
I recall many years ago a reading assignment in an English literature class. It was an essay by John Henry Cardinal Newman, “The Idea of a University.” I read this thought-provoking essay as a college sophomore when little reflection had been given to my own ideas about learning and the true purpose of my enrollment at this small private college in Jackson.
Cardinal Newman wrote: “But education is a higher word; it implies an action upon our mental nature, and the formation of a character; it is something individual and permanent, and is commonly spoken of in connection with religion and virtue.”
Newman continues in Part VII of his “Discourse”: “The process of training, by which the intellect, instead of being formed or sacrificed to some particular or accidental purpose, some specific trade or profession, or study or science, is disciplined for its own sake, for the perception of its own proper object, and for its own highest culture … and to set forth the right standard, and to train according to it, and to help forward all students toward it according to their various capacities, this I conceive to be business of a University.”
Lofty goals are they? Are any of the good Cardinal’s ideas of a university present at our institution?
Last spring, while speaking with my professor about an upcoming research paper, I mentioned checking out several resource books at the MUW library in Columbus.
He stood and shook his head. This gentleman knew the topic of my paper well. He had written a book or two on this particular author. He then mentioned library budgets and inability to purchase new books in many areas of scholarship.
This university has insufficient funds to purchase library books, journals, periodicals, etc.? Why?
The library staff at Mitchell consists of very bright and hard-working individuals. On numerous occasions, they have provided invaluable assistance with my projects.
We need to rally around the library and take positive measures to ensure that our valuable resource can function at full potential. Nothing less should be acceptable.
Universities in the state of Mississippi are budgeted only so many thousands of dollars. It spreads pretty thin.
However, certain programs maintain their own fundraising arm. Athletics raises millions of dollars for indoor practice facilities, supplemental coaches’ salaries, field and stadium upgrades and the latest equipment money can buy.
Why are there not endowments of hundreds of millions of dollars to provide Mitchell Memorial Library – a campus treasure – with everything it needs?
Perhaps on Homecoming Day Oct. 6, we can pass a bucket up and down the rows of Davis Wade Stadium to take a collection for the purchase of library books. Or we could place tables in strategic locations at the entrances and in the tailgating areas asking for a buck or two (or checks for hundreds of dollars) to be used for buying materials that the library cannot now afford.
And by the way, the professor about whom I spoke earlier left last summer after securing a position at a private university in another state.
I doubt his new school lacks funds for library books. Bet he won’t have to lend books from his personal library to students working on research papers.