Columbia University - Columbian Yearbook (New York, NY)

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'T' HE MAPES GATE-on the western bank of the Green, leading to Broadway, Barnard, and long walks up Riverside Drive in early Spring. It is the last vision of the har- 9 monious conjunction of Nature and man cherished by students before entering the Gym for examinations twice a year. It is also the avenue through which Columbia keeps in ' touch with the younger generation via nurserymaids and their charges, amorous policemen and Horace Mann children. Now hemmed in between the Chemistry Annex and the Physics Building, its symbolic significance has, for some, been narrowed to the scope of a serviceable exit, without changing in any particular.

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tioned, has a suite of connecting offices. These all open on an inner hallway which leads into a large undivided room. This is the managers' room and the manager of each team has a flat-top desk for his own use. There is also a small room partitioned off from the rest in which are located a battery of steel iiling cabinets. Philolexian has the third largest quarters on the floor. It represents the home that the society has been looking for for over a hundred years, It is something that it can call its own and know that it can be free to meet there unmolested by worried janitors and anxious directors. The members have undertaken to decorate it in the general style of the period of the year 1802 when the society was founded. The Alumni of the society have contributed sums to aid them inthis work and, while far from suificients amounts have been donated at present, the energy and ingenuity of the active members have suce ceeded in converting four blank, unpainted walls into a cozy, tastefully fur- nished meeting room and library. The effects of John Jay on the student body have already begun to man- ifest themselves. There is a new spirit of general camaraderieg a better ac- quaintance, more congenial and wide spreadg a more apparent college spiritg a better and more effective throwing together of men of diverse characteristics and interests to their mutual benefit. There has also been a decided increase in cultural activities such as orchestral and band concerts, lectures on topics' of interest to college men and debates and forums on current problems. Such events have all been well attended and enthusiastically received. The Class of l927 feels a proprietory interest in John Jay Hall. It is the only class to be in College, both when the plans were announced and when the building was -completed. Members of this Class were the first editors and managers to occupy the activities oflices there. And it was in its Soph Show that Alan Max repeated Royal Cooney's immortal line: A HAPPY DREAM HAS TURNED INTO A REALITY. 52023

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MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS fl C3reat Cfultural Cfenter ?'mI'f 3ifi URING the last four or five years there has been such a feverish cam- paign of building going on in the city that the signincance of a :Q similar movement on Morningside is not appreciated by very many people. The sight of iron girders being swung into place by cranes gm 'ALA high up in the air is no longer a novel one. It is almost as ordinary as an expressman loading packages on a truck. It no longer draws a great deal of attention. But noticed or not noticed, appreciated or not, the fact remains that Morningside is rapidly approaching the dream of the men who selected it as the permanent site of the University. It is becoming one of the world's great cultural centers within a great cultural center, Columbia University in the City of New York. It is quite amazing when one stops to consider, the number of buildings that have been erected on the campus proper and on its immediate outskirts. It is also startling to think of the millions and millions of dollars that have been expended to construct and equip these buildings. In five years the following buildings have appeared on the campus: Business, Johnson, Physics, Chemistry Extention, Hewitt and John Jay. Uptown, at l68th Street on the top of the next hill, the new Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital Medical Center is rapidly nearing completion and will house the Greater College of Physicians and Sur- geons. . Each of these buildings is as modern as it possibly can be. The School of Business Hall contains, besides classrooms, Accounting, Banking, Advertising and many other laboratories and also some of the most complete libraries and reference collections in the country. It also contains the McMillin Academic Theater which is under the control of the Institute of Arts and Science. This Institute, which is part of the Extention Department, is itself a powerful force in advancing interest in cultural subjects. Through its efforts distinguished speakers, lecturers, artists and authorities are brought to the campus every year. The theater is a facility that the campus long lacked and it fills, along with the meeting rooms in John Jay, a decided need. The Physics Department had long since outgrown its cramped quarters in Payerweather Hall and the situation checked its research work. The Psy- chology Department, sandwiched into a few small rooms in the Geology De- partment's domain in Schermerhorn, also faced the same situation while the facilities for Astronomical observation offered by the old Wilde Observatory were absolutely inadequate. Therefore the University decided to erect a new home for these departments. The only possible place left was the Green. The plans of the fifteen story building looked forward to the future when the growth of the University will necessitate larger quarters than imperative at present. The work of the Chemistry Department was also hampered by inadequate space and the situation was remedied by the erection of a large ten story ad- dition to I-Iavemeyer. The laboratories in this building are arranged and equipped for the utmost convenience. Modern apparatus such as steam tables, 52041