Logan Inaugurated As UT President
JOE L. SCOTT
and GRIFF SINGER
October 30, 1953
A soft-spoken gray haired University graduate formally became fifteenth president of the University Thursday.
Dr. Logan Wilson was officially installed as head administrator by Tom Sealy, chairman of the Board of Regents, in morning ceremonies on the terrace of the Main Building. More than 2000 people witnessed the ceremony.
In his inaugural address, Dr. Wilson said only public support and confidence can help boost the University from its present position among the fifteen or twenty leading American educational institutions to a place among the first ten.
"It is doubly important that the very capstone of our whole system of public education, The University of Texas, should become - as was intended more than a century ago - truly a university of the first class," he said.
With the desire for a greater university, the people of this state must give substance to their intention by providing necessary material means, he said.
"The University, along with Texas A&M, has the good fortune to benefit from the income of its Permanent Fund, or so-called 'oil money,'" the administrator continued.
The income from the fund is the sole source of money for building; but in recent years, had to be used to balance the budget for current operations.
Dr. Wilson emphasized that state appropriations should be maintained at a level sufficient to meet all ordinary needs, rather than draw upon the fund to meet everyday operating expenses.
"Just as economic enterprise must be governed by law and ethical codes, so must academic freedom be coupled with full responsibility and accountability," President Wilson declared.
"We Texans are rightfully proud of Texas, its people, and its institutions. But for altogether too long, we have been content with something less than the best education, the most important of our collective endeavors.