Collection

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January 20 , 1925
It s ives me great pleasure to announce a gift of v25 ,OOO from hlrs ,
J. Bertram Lippinoott for a r esearoh fund in the Department of wa thematios
and stronomy. This is the first time that a g ift of this size has been
givsn to the College sole _y for this purpose . There is a kind of tradition
in the United States that sIDall oolleges are not elqJ80ted to do much in
research. avarthmore however has fals ified this idea a little bit , has
contradi cted it, by the large amount of rese arch that has been oarried on in
atheUlatios and AstronolllY and indeed in the several other departments .
But there has not ye t been ~ a provisi on f.l!lde for researoh as one of this
kind, and let us hopo that this 'is just the beginning of such funds for
re searoh i n 1 • .atheu,ati os and Astro nomy . as well as t he beginning for the
establi&hwent of research funds in other departwents .
I want to say a word or two about the signific!!nce of that fund and
the movement in this country which it represents .
I don ' t knew what undergraduates of this day think about re searoh, but
I CWl keenly remember ':rolD my own undergraduate day s that we t hought that
after al l research was rather dry and use l ess, and it was so,nething that would
appeal t o tile person who has rather abnormal tastes and is not satisfied with
tne ordinary satisfactions of life, suoh as money , motor oars and things that
,"Ost people cons ide r are the ends to be worked for . ~he re is nothing more
•
false thE</l that notion. There is no career which seems to me to be more likely
to appeal to a red-blooded person than a career in research.