DigitalNC: North Carolina's Digital Heritage

Durham Morning Herald Durham, N.C., TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1924 DUKE’S OFFER ACCEPTED BY TRINITY TRUSTEES Erection Of University Here Assured By Action Of Trustees On Monday Resolution Accepting Duke’s Gift Adopted at Meeting CHARTER SAME Practically no Change Will Be Made in Charter of Trinity College PART OF BIG PLAN Trinity College Will Not Lose Its Name But Will Be Known in Future as Trinity College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Medical School, Engineering School, Law College, School for Training Teachers, Co-ordinate College for Women and a School of Business Administration Included in Plan for Duke University; Action of Trustees Meets General Approval Of Public - Monday, December 29, 1924, will go down in the annals of history as the most momentous day in the life of Durham and of the state and its effect will be felt throughout the nation. From the event which transpired on that day will arise one of the greatest educational institutions in the south, and the nation at large, and Durham will be its home. Throughout the future generations Duke University will stand towering above many of the institutions of higher learning in the nation and equal with the others and through its influences and work thousands of young men and women will be trained to take their places in the drama of life. With every member of the board of trustees of Trinity college present in person or by proxy, with the exception of James B. Duke, at the meeting of the board held Monday morning at 11 o’clock here, resolutions were unanimously adopted accepting the condition attached to the magnanimous offer as laid down by Mr. Duke and through their action Trinity college has been absorbed as an integral part of a greater institution. Around it will be built up the various schools which go to make a really great university but Trinity will never lose its name nor identity for it will be known as Trinity college of liberal arts and sciences of Duke University. STATEMENT OF THE TRUSTEES We have had before us full official information concerning James B. Duke’s great gift for charitable and educational purposes. We have found that the fund carries provision for Duke university to be established in North Carolina and holds the generous offer that this university may be built at Trinity college with Trinity as its college of liberal arts. We have found that the university is to be developed according to plans that are perfectly in line with our hopes for the expansion of this historic college, and almost exactly in line with plans submitted by President Few to this board at its meeting in October, 1924, and approved by the board on the one condition that sufficient funds could be made available for carrying out these plans. We have therefore gratefully accepted the opportunity made possible by Mr. Duke, not only for a greater college but also for increased service to the state and the national through graduate and professional schools that will he built up around the college. And we have taken every necessary step to change the corporate name of the institution to Duke university and to give the corporation perpetual existence. We have not found it necessary or even desirable to make any other change in the charter. With this exception the expanded institution will be operated under the same charter Trinity college has been operating under, with the same board of trustees, and the same provision for the election of their successors. The control of Duke university and all its relations to its constituency will remain identical with the control and relations to constituency that Trinity college has had. There are four Trinity colleges and already one Trinity university in the United States. A great educational foundation such as Mr. Duke is setting up deserves to have a distinctive name of its own rather than to be one of five with the same name, however honored and noble that name may be. Since, then, a new corporate name is necessary, we are happy to give the university the name of a family that has long been known for its service to education. The late Washington Duke was the first man to contribute largely to the financial support of Trinity, and his son, Benjamin N. Duke, for thirty years has been a tower of strength in support of all the causes of the college. Duke university will be, as James B. Duke wishes it to be, a fitting memorial, to his father and family. It will also be an enduring monument to himself. The indenture which creates Duke university provides also for hospitals, for orphans, for rural churches and their support, for worn-out preachers, as well as for the higher education of white and colored youth; and it is a peculiar satisfaction to us to have this institution associated in this way with these undertakings for the promotion of the physical, intellectual, and moral well-being of men. There is much satisfaction to us also in the circumstances that the income of the university will be derived in large part from the Duke Power company, a hydro-electric development which has meant so much to the material progress of the state and which is itself a great piece of far-sighted philanthropy. At the heart of every American university is a four-year college of arts and sciences. Trinity has been a separate college of this sort. It remains as it has always been,—both the name and the thing,—except that henceforth it will be a college around which is built up a complete university organization. In addition to this college of arts and sciences, the university will include a co-ordinate college for women, a law school, a school of religious training, a school for training teachers, a school of business administration, a graduate school of arts and sciences, and, as sufficient funds are available, a medical school and an engineering school. The university in all its departments will be concerned about excellence rather than size; it will aim at quality rather than numbers,— quality of those who teach and quality of those who learn. It will inevitably strive to provide leadership in advancing the bounds of human knowledge. But it will also have care to serve conditions as they actually exist. And it will be for the use of all the people of the state and section without regard to creed, class, or party, and for those else where who may seek to avail themselves of the opportunities it has to offer. The institution has already had three distinct stages in its development. It began, in 1838, as Union institute; in 1851 it became Normal college; and since 1859 it has been Trinity college. It has not always occupied its present site; it had existed for more than fifty years before its removal to Durham. But through all this outward change it has kept one soul; it has been guided by the same controlling faiths. Now it changes again to meet new responsibilities and to rise to new opportunities. In the new investiture as in the old, we doubt not, it will be dedicated to sound ideas and disciplined in the hard services of humanity.