Irby J Good Farewell to Indiana Central College

The following summary was published in the Indiana Central College Bulletin, series 37, No 2

June 1, 1944.

THIRTY-NINE YEARS AT INDIANA CENTRAL COLLEGE

By I. J. Good

The College's earliest Years

There was nothing particularly unusual about the fact that the White River Annual Conference was meeting at the First United Brethren Church at Marion, Indiana, in 1902. Nor was it unusual that a certain high school junior of that church attended as many of its sessions as he could, but it was an unusual and an exceptional occurrence that a real estate man should be on hand to make a speech offering to build a college for the church if the United Brethren of two or three conferences would help him sell 447 lots adjacent to the proposed college site. And it was unusual for conferences to accept such propositions as was done that day for William L. Elder, and that the chief advocate of the acceptance of the proposition should be called to become that college's first president, as was the case of Dr. J. T. Roberts. Nor would there be one chance in millions that the high school junior who listened to the discussion that day would be called upon within a comparatively few years to have a large part in making the enterprise a success after it had become hopelessly involved.

It was rather unusual, too, that the annual conference should meet in that same church two years 1ater and that Bishop E. B. Kephart should be led to send for this high school boy and spend an hour or two persuading him to go to Otterbein College the next day looking toward entering the new college at Indianapolis a year later. After a great year at Otterbein, Bishop Kephart's protege was the first student to appear on the grounds of the new college in the new addition of lots platted as University Heights.

The new college - Indiana Central University - opened on September 27, 1905. Its president, Dr. J. T. Roberts, and his family moved into the southeast corner rooms on the first floor, while other faculty members and students were quartered in other rooms in the college building. There were eight faculty members and about twice that many students. Most of the students came to take academy (high school) courses. There were only two houses within half a mile of the new college except two new ones on Hanna Avenue which the President was having built at the time the college opened.

The teachers and students had to do the best they could, with a few folding chairs and a few tables in the class rooms until other equipment was procured. They a1so went to work on the ground, which had been left uneven about the college building. Wheelbarrows, shovels, hoes, hand rakes served to get the ground ready for grass seed. Then some walks were constructed and the following spring, teachers and students bought and planted maple trees for the space in front of the college. Later they cleaned out the thicket of underbrush back of the college building where the gymnasium, Men's Hall, and Noblitt Observatory now stand. They also dug ditches and laid tile to drain the college basement and put a concrete floor in the basement, The Marion boy was the most advanced student in the college at the time, so it was his fortune to secure almost private instruction, especially under Dr. John A. Cummins. This student not only helped with all the physical improvements, but proceeded to lead in the work of organizing and promoting the YMCA literary societies, and teaching Bible classes and mission study groups. In his senior year he taught several academy classes and became the college's first Student Volunteer for foreign missions. During these three years as a student, constant contact with the President and with Dr. Cummins. who was acting treasurer, kept him thoroughly informed about the terrific struggles involved in trying to secure finances through gifts and loans and to keep teachers. He and Reverend C. P. Martin in 1908 became the first two graduates of the college and then he was urged to stay to teach, which he did.

After these first three years of heroic effort and struggles against tremendous odds, Dr. Roberts gave up the presidency and the college went through the year 1908-1909 without a president and with glimmering hope. Then hopes revived with the coming of Dr. L. D. Bonebrake as president in the summer of 1909, He had been at the head of the school system of Ohio and envisioned larger things for Indiana Central, but the actual problems involved in organizing, financing, and managing this new college with its accumulating debt was too much for him. His robust health gave way, his courage failed and the college soon came to the place where it could not borrow any more money either on mortgage or endorsed notes. It was a crisis.

Changing Leadership

Meanwhile, this new teacher had acquired a wife and two children and increasing anxieties concerning the condition of the college about which he was kept thoroughly informed through Dr. Cummins and President Bonebrake. He was made chairman of a Strategy Committee in 1911 and drew up proposed plans and recommendations for financing the college. The next year he was elected to a vacancy on the Executive Committee and on January 28, 1914, the Executive Committee in desperation made him Financial Manager and Treasurer. He gave up his classes at once. There was no time to be lost. Large notes with personal endorsements were overdue and suits for payment were being filed. There were only about sixty students, mostly in the Academy, and the income from fees and from pledges was negligible. The small faculty salaries were far in arrears and the teachers could not continue under the circumstances, It looked hopeless.

The new Financial Manager started out to procure gifts to pay off the notes at banks which were pressing, and to pay other unfunded debts and to make payments again on the mortgage and to pay more on current teachers' salaries and to bring about a larger interest on the part of the church and conference leaders and to secure the membership of church leaders on the Board of Trustees and on the Executive Committee. Real progress was made along all these lines and when President Bonebrake's ill health made it impossible for him to continue, the Manager was made Acting President in June, 1915, while Bishop Fout and a committee were to secure a new president, The committee contacted every man whom they thought to be available for the presidency of the college, but they received no encouragement whatever. Then on September 9, 1915, at a special meeting of the Board of Trustees held at Kokomo, Indiana, Bishop Fout reported the unsuccessful efforts of the committee to secure a satisfactory candidate for the presidency. Although it was quite evident that the Acting President was entirely too young and too inexperienced, besides, he lacked the prestige, academic training, and experience as a public speaker to qualify him as a promising candidate for college president, the Bishop pointed out that there seemed to be no alternative action to take, so he made the motion that the Acting President, I. J. Good, be made President of the college.

Here was a task that looked so impossible that no qualified person would undertake it, yet it was thrust upon a young man barely thirty years of age who was not trained for the task, nor did he have prestige or experience, nor was there assurance that he would grasp the magnitude of the undertaking. Fortunately, no one could foresee the tremendous difficulties that were ahead for the new President. He began during the First World War and continued through a decade of unbridled cynicism and declining moral standards, followed by a long and devastating depression which ran on into the Second World War with its threat of destruction for the college. To make an impossible task during a time of impossible conditions even more impossible for the young, inexperienced, and unprepared President, on whom the task had been thrust, there were differences of opinion as to how to proceed. The new president believed that it was not only advisable, but necessary, to weld the church forces together in a strong and common purpose to maintain the college on a good basis, but also to put its finances in satisfactory condition before successful appeals could be made to large contributors outside the church. There were others who held that it was not only possible but desirable to secure large gifts from outside contributors without large financial efforts in the church for the college. This fundamental difference of opinion in procedures made college financing exceedingly difficult and it made it impossible to have a successful campaign for funds in the decade between the First World War and the depression when other conditions for a financial campaign in the church constituency were quite favorable, and it almost prevented the Victory Campaign later.

Problems, Toil, Progress

In spite of the terrible handicaps and difficulties, the new President believed desperately that the college ought to succeed and that "whatever ought to be done can be done." Believing this, he gave himself to the undertaking with unreserved zeal and abandon. He continued his solicitation of funds and in the management, endeavored to make every dollar do duty for two or three dollars. He pled the cause of higher Christian education and of Indiana Central College in the local churches, in district meetings, in youth rallies, in annual conferences, in the General Board of Christian Education, in the General Board of Administration, in the State Department of Education, and in all of the General Conferences after 1913. College bulletins, posters for the churches, the Reflector, and articles in the church periodicals brought the college to the attention of the United Brethren people in every nook and corner of our Area. Fortunately for the college, he was elected to membership in all the General Conferences from 1912 on, and to the General Board of Administration continuously after it was first organized in 1917, and to the Board of Education in 1917. He also served as a member of the Executive Committees of these Boards almost constantly after 1917. The first long decisive step forward for the college came with the campaign for $250,000 in 1918, which the President organized and directed. The campaign was completely successful and inspired confidence throughout the Area and the whole church and led to other advances. Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota joined the three conferences in Indiana in the support of Indiana Central, bringing the college church constituency to over 100,000 members.

In order to increase student attendance, it was necessary to erect dormitories (Roberts Hall and Cummins Hall had already been purchased), but it was first necessary to develop a plan for a campus with an adequate layout of buildings, but to do this it was necessary to purchase additional acreage and in order to do this it was necessary to purchase the whole Hanna estate of 110 acres north of Hanna Avenue. The college was not in position to do this, so the College Improvement Association was organized as a stock company and the land was purchased, making it possible for the college to secure the desired fifty acres for expansion and the development of the plan for the Greater Indiana Central College.

Then in 1921, the first new dormitory, Residence Hall, and the gymnasium were planned and built, resulting immediately in doubling the student attendance. The next year Dailey Hall was erected and the heating plant was greatly expanded, and again there was a large increase in student attendance. Then within the next four years, Men's Hall and New Hall were built and still further expansion of the heating plant and enlargement of the gymnasium took place. A few years later Professor Loren S. Noblitt and his brother, Quinton G. Noblitt, planned and gave to the college the Noblitt Observatory with its six-inch telescope. All during this time, laboratories and the library were developed and the Campus was beautified.

This program of development and construction was made possible largely by the success of the 1918 campaign for $250,000 and it resulted in multiplying the student attendance by about ten, in building up a comparatively strong faculty, in securing recognition from the State Department of Education as a standard college and in really producing enough income from students to make it possible to operate through the depression in the 1930's, when income from pledges practically ceased.

It had been planned to carry on another campaign for funds while this expansion program was on, but it was impossible to secure the necessary cooperation; consequently, the depression period which struck in 1929 proved almost fatal to the college. People could not make their pledge payments. Students could pay only a part of their fees. Severe faculty reductions and salary adjustments had to be made. Principal and interest payments on college debts could not he made, A suit for receivership by an impatient creditor made it necessary to work out a plan of debt reduction which required the approval of all the creditors of the college. It was necessary to do a lot of explaining, but in view of the calamity that was befalling banks and innumerable mercantile and industrial concerns, the creditors were most sympathetic since they could not see how a college could live at all under the depression conditions. In nearly every case they were also most complimentary of the splendid work the college was doing and expressed themselves as interested in its continuance. Mr. Q. G. Noblitt again gave invaluable aid in this crisis and the college survived the storm.

Fortunately for the college and for hundreds of students who could not pay their full expenses in college during the depression, the college arranged to let students pay a part of their expenses after graduation. By this procedure, there were many students that received their college training and are paying for it now who could not have been in college then if they could not have had extended credit. Comparatively few former students are proving unworthy of the trust that was imposed in them and the college is now far stronger financially because of those payments made by former students. The amount of these payments for last year alone was $28,086.00.

It was thought that a campaign could be launched in 1937, but the General Conference arranged to launch the Ministerial Pension Campaign in that year. It was arranged, however, that a joint campaign might be conducted in this Area but some of the church leaders in this Area were sure that a joint campaign could not be successful and would not approve it, so the college had to wait another four years before a campaign could be undertaken. It was exceedingly fortunate that through the years the General Conference had yielded to the President's plea and made increasing provision for the college current expenses out of the benevolence budget receipts. This amount grew to approximately $28,000 per year and is a vital factor in the success of the college till other funds are provided. If it had not been for this current income from the church treasuries, the college could not have operated.

At the General Conference in 1941, it was only after the most urgent appeals that permission was given to undertake to finish the Ministerial Pension Fund in a joint campaign with the college in this Area, Even after the General Conference had approved the joint campaign, the college Finance Committee would not approve it until the President had convinced the members of the Executive Committee, all of whom were opposed, that the campaign could be made a success. The recommendation of the Executive Committee was then taken to the Board of Trustees, which approved the launching of the campaign for pledges for both the college and Ministerial Pension. The responsibility for organizing the plans and the forces as well as securing and training solicitors and leading them in the actual solicitation fell to the President. The Bishop, conference superintendent and pastors joined in this effort and rapid progress was made. By the end of the first year in 1942, there was already almost $100,000 pledged and almost $400,000 by Commencement in 1943.

The Victory Campaign was proving an unprecedented success. It was bringing encouragement to the whole church and was a stimulus to the completion of the Pension Fund everywhere and it was proving to be a great stimulus in the hopes and interests of the college, while it was also proving a great inspiration to the hundreds of people who were making the pledges. Many of them were entering into the spirit of larger giving more than ever before and were coming to think more of the church and its enterprises. By Commencement time 1944, all the conferences in the college constituency had their Pension quotas paid and almost $90,000 had been added to the college assets through the Victory Fund, while the total pledged was approximately $435,000.

During the summer of 1942, the college served the army by housing and feeding two hundred trainees while they were quartered on our campus, being given instructions in the construction and operation of the Allison motor. They were withdrawn in the fall and quartered in barracks nearer the flying field. Soon afterward the army made arrangements to send us four hundred Aircrew trainees for us to instruct, house and feed. Three hundred came before March 1, 1943, and another hundred were added by April 1. The faculty was reorganized, students were shifted, and an immense amount of work was done to meet the requirements. A considerable amount of improvement was made. There was a high degree of satisfaction on the part of the trainees and on the part of the faculty, but the commanding officer objected to certain restrictions placed on the use of our college buildings by the Board of Trustees and he caused the withdrawal of the trainees by August 1, 1943.

Already nearly all the male students had left the college for army service and the occupancy of three of the four dormitories during the spring and summer of 1943 by army trainees with the expectation that they would remain through the winter prevented the usual enlistment of new students for the fall. This, together with the fact that large numbers of girls were going into industry for war production, resulted in a large reduction in student attendance in the fall of 1943.

The Gains Since January, 1914

Although the college situation looked hopeless thirty years ago and the conditions during these thirty years have not been favorable for the solving of such difficult problems in college promotion and although the leadership that was available for the task was too young, untrained, inexperienced, and entirely experimental to start with, there have been tremendous gains made during this time.

There was then only one poorly equipped building on eight acres with a little handful of students, mostly in the Academy. There was almost no recognition of the college and its work. The college was completely submerged in debt and the constituency knew but little about the college and felt almost no responsibility for its success. There were only 14 graduates up to January, 1914, and there were slight facilities available to house students at the college.

There are now almost sixty acres of campus with nine buildings, including the original college building, a gymnasium, four dormitories, two large residences and the Noblitt Observatory. Athletic fields and extensive plantings of trees and shrubs have been developed. Drainage has been provided. An extensive heating plant has been developed. A good library and laboratories have been built up. The student body grew to an enrollment of 535 at one time and the student body has effective organizations for intellectual, social, moral, and physical development. Such discipline and general standards of conduct have been maintained as to make the college attractive to the best type of students. Teachers have been carefully chosen for their interest in spiritual and moral values as well as for academic training. The curriculum has been broadened as much as the finances would permit. The faculty responsibilities for enrollment, counseling. discipline, and sponsoring of organizations were definitely distributed and met. The collecting of fees, ordering of materials and provisions, and maintenance problems are being handled efficiently by the Treasurer.

Provision has been made for the payment of the last part of the college debt through the receipts from the Victory Fund. Under normal conditions, the income from student fees, the dormitories, the benevolence budget and from endowment as now provided is sufficient to operate on a standard college basis and to secure membership in the North Central Association. (The Association is accepting no members until after the war.) Thrift and economy have' been practiced in the operation of the college, making expansion possible and further retrenchments unnecessary.

The alumni and former student group, which was too small and too young before the depression and too poor and frustrated during the depression to be of real help, is now, for the first time a great potential force in the promotion of the college.

With the other gains through the years and the provision for the final debt payment through the Victory Campaign and the favorable position as to the North Central Association, there is now for the first time a splendid opportunity to appeal to men of larger means, both inside and outside of the church, for larger gifts. Other conditions also make such an appeal especially opportune at this time.

The church constituency has shown such interest and ability in the Victory Campaign as to prove that it is able and willing to meet the needs of the college if the college is true to the purposes of the church and if the needs of the college are adequately presented.

The General Conference has now provided that the special emphasis of the whole church during the next several years shall be to make adequate provisions for the colleges. Therefore, this is now an unprecedented opportunity in the church in this Area to advance the interests of Indiana Central College. This opportunity will probably not be duplicated in many years.

Encouraged by the advances that have been made in the past and especially in the Victory Campaign, the church leaders in this Area have definitely shown I a willingness in .recent months to assume a much larger responsibility than ever before for the direction and management of the college. This Interest and willingness to help promote the interests of the college is exceedingly important and valuable in the promotion of the college when all these forces are properly coordinated and cooperative.

It is no small thing to have increased the financial standing of a college, including good pledges, from practically nothing to over a million dollars and to have made proportionate gains in every other respect while at the same time the college rendered a great service to the church. This is what has been done at Indiana Central College during the past thirty years.

Conclusion

It is not difficult to understand that anyone who has lived with and for a cause for thirty-nine consecutive years and for over thirty years has borne the chief responsibility for its success and promotion, must have reluctance and regret at being relieved of his responsibilities. Especially is this true when the release comes just at the time toward which his plans and efforts have long been directed, when the greatest advancement is being made and the progress is most encouraging and even more so when the immediate plans provide for the reaching of cherished goals and everything is favorable for the reaching of those goals.

Any captain starting out on a long voyage with a poorly equipped and unseaworthy ship, certainly would like to have the privilege and the honor of bringing his ship into his home port, especially if he had succeeded in greatly improving his ship in every port at which he had stopped. To give up his commission just at the time when he is in the midst of his greatest and final program of putting his ship in first-class condition before going into home port with his cargo, would bring disappointment to any captain.

However, any captain who really loves his ship, as any true captain does, will still love it and be anxious for its success, even if the company owning the ship retires him in the final stage of his voyage, thinking that a new captain will do better with it. In his heart he will still cherish it as HIS ship and he will be anxious that the new captain be able to do more with it than he himself was ever able to do.

On the recommendation of the church leaders in this Area, arrangements have been made for President Good's retirement from the presidency as of July 1, 1944. The action was taken on the presumption that the college would be more successful with a new leader. Since the President has served the college for thirty-six years, the Board of Trustees has voted to make adequate provisions for his retirement.

Now that the action has been taken and a new president is being secured, it is urgently important that there be the utmost unity of purpose in the church among the pastors and laymen and among the alumni and in the faculty and student body to reach the immediate goals of the college during this time of greatest opportunity. The possibilities for the advancement of the college now are tremendous. The leadership of a new and better prepared president who can start with a new vigor and have the prime of his life to give to the college calls for and requires full confidence and cooperation.

Let it be remembered that there is no cause that is more important than the training of an effective Christian leadership, that this cannot be accomplished without colleges that are vitally Christian and that there is no task more important and more difficult than that of the presidency of a college like Indiana Central. If the president is to succeed in his leadership, he must have the prayers and cooperation of those who are interested in the success of the college.

The new president and the college will have the sympathetic and fu11 cooperation of the retiring President. Nothing can bring more joy to the heart of the retiring President than to see the rapid advancement of the calling for which he has labored and lived for so many years. His sincere prayer is that God will give wisdom and guidance to those who carry responsibility for the promotion and success of the college and that He will bless every effort that is put forth in making it as successful as possible in accomplishing the purposes for which it was founded.

The retiring President has a deep appreciation and gratitude for all the church leaders, ministers, laymen, teachers, students, and especially the field men who cooperated so loyally and shared in the successes of the college.

Something More

Even while the above paragraphs Were being written, urgent requests came from leaders of York College and of the Southwest Area and of the Board of Education that President Good attend the Board of Trustees' meeting at York, Nebraska, to help plan "The Greater York College Campaign." He accepted the invitation to attend the board meeting at York and under the influence of the compelling purpose of higher Christian education and the gracious but insistent persuasion of the leaders who are so courageously promoting York College, he is now to give such time and effort as he can as the "Director of The Greater York College Campaign."

York College never undertook a campaign for $350,000 before, but it urgently needs this amount to start on a larger future, "Whatever ought to be done can he done," so President Good starts on July 1 to help York College prepare to render a larger service in that great empire of United Brethren west of the Mississippi. Indiana Central College and York College are two vital factors in determining the expansion and service of the church West of Ohio. They should move forward together in mighty strides during these days of tremendous opportunity.

Money invested in these colleges will yield a thousandfold in returns in Christian leadership and in making the world a better place in which to live.

Come on, brethren, let us not lose any time nor waste an opportunity. These are days of destiny- Let us move forward with greater courage, clearer vision, and more sacrificial devotion than ever before. None of us should be entirely "retired" in a time like this. Our best days are just ahead. Let no one halt or falter now.