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CHAPTER 8 A DEMOCRATIC UNIVERSITY 1907-1927 The University for many years past has been theplaything of politics. WALTER CLARK, FEBRUARY24, 1914 Andrew Armstrong Kincannon was installed as the university's seventh chancellor on September 19, 1907, in an elaborate ceremony attended by collegiate officials, faculty, students, alumni, and public officials. John W. T. Falkner, a local banker, a member of the board of trustees, and the grandfather of William Faulkner, presented Kincannon to the audience. In his inaugural address, Chancellor Kincannon gave his solemn pledge to transform the old aristocratic university into a new democratic institution. "Aristocratic or Democratic, which rule shall we have here at the University.... I, for one," he said, "shall ever be the supporter of the latter. I am for popularizing the University ." Chancellor Kincannon closed his brief address by asking the university 's alumni and friends to join him in "the movement for a Greater University." The phrase "Greater University of Mississippi" became a slogan during the early years of Kincannon s administration. The student newspaper included on its masthead the words "For The Greater University of Mississippi." The campus magazine conceded in February 1908 that a "Greater University" was only a dream now, but predicted it would be "a reality in the future." Chancellor Kincannon s first initiative to democratize the university was the creation of a student labor fund and a self-help bureau similar to those at Mississippi A & M and the Industrial Institute and College for Women at Columbus. To dispel the myth that the University of Mississippi was a school for rich boys, Kincannon established a student employment system that enabled students from poor families to work their way through school by waiting on tables in the dining hall and working in various campus offices, including the chancellor's office. Chancellor Kincannon was soon boasting that the self-help bureau employed 184 • A D E M O C R A T I C U N I V E R S I T Y many of the university's 480 students. Supporters of a democratic university also applauded the work-study program. The Jackson Mississippian regaled: "It might be astonishing news to the knockers of the University who are of the opinion that this is a 'rich mans school' that nearly one-fourth of the whole student body, including co-eds,... are earning some part of their expenses while at the University." The student magazine was jubilant about the apparent lack of social distinction among the student body. The new Ole Miss spirit was especially evident, according to the magazine, in the men's dining hall, where "Ole Miss men gather for meals" and where "the rich man's son... sings along with the poor man's son." Governor James K. Vardaman so appreciated the wonders wrought by Chancellor Kincannon that he sent his own two sons to Ole Miss. There was one student, however, who was not so convinced that all Ole Miss men were equal, and he did not test the issue. Chester Andrew McLarty, a poor man's son from rural Lafayette County who enrolled at the university in 1907, rode his mule from the Tula community to the Oxford square, tied it to a hitching post, and walked the remaining mile to the campus. Just in case some of the rich boys might be looking, he did not want them to see him riding a mule. Another of Chancellor Kincannon's early initiatives to democratize the university was the establishment of a student honor council. Following several years of animosity between Greeks and non-Greeks, the yearbook cited the honor council as a major step "toward molding order out of chaos," and the student editor praised the chancellor for placing "the government of the student body on a democratic basis." Each class in the college of liberal arts and the professional schools elected a member to the honor council, which had judicial authority over a wide range of disciplinary problems. The honor council was the forerunner of the Associated Student Body, established in 1917. Chancellor Kincannon hoped the honor council would restore "the lost confidence of the people of the state in the morality of the students," and he expected "magnificent results" from it. With the moral situation at the university in a general state of improvement , at least for the present, Chancellor Kincannon turned his attention to its physical condition. In a classic understatement, Kincannon noted in his first annual report that the "legislature has not lavished...

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