Marquette University - Hilltop Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

Page 33 text:

After the war in the 1940's a tremendous in- flux of veterans infiltrated Marquette when the GI Bill took effect. nWe were just more mature than the other kids. I remember when the vet- erans would have to repri- mand the other kids when they would get on the teachers' nerves, one graduate said. And the campus itself was still far from the way it is today. There was no u- nion building, but the up- stairs portion of Carpenter Hall was used as the union. Earlier in the era, though, there was no union at all, and a building called Drexel Lodge was used as a type of gathering place . . . for women only. Talk about discrimination! 29

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The next twenty years were the years of speakeasies, depression, and the rise of the fascist powers. But the news wasn't that bad at Marquette. Some students were affected by the depression, most of those being students who had to work to put themselves through school. As one graduate said, uWe just didn't have much money to spend. A good example is that I had to walk miles from a prom because we just ceuldn't afford trans- portation. Another alumnus said that even though the tuition was only $100 per semester, some students had difficulty staying in school. That $100 was very tough to come by, he commented. Despite the difficul- ties, and the influence of the Jesuits at Marquette, many students became more daring in their activ- ities than their predeces- sors. A journalism graduate can recall a few pranks of the students. uThere were so many times when we had to hide the girls behind a statue of Fr. Marquette in front of Johnston Hall in order to get them into the building, because they weren't allowed in after 9 o'clock. But the thing that I remember most vividly is when we used to go to the SDX annual picnic. It seemed that every year we would always get a differ- ent cabin because the damage we had done to the one we had before.

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As the passage of time brought Mar- quette into the contemporary era, things began to look almost, but not quite, like to- day at Marquette. The sixties brought with it a number of events which many would like to forget. A President was assassinated, and an arms race developed between the world's two most powerful nations. But the big event that sent shockwaves across the nation's college campuses, including Marquette, was the war in southeast Asia. One Marquette alumnus recalls the days of anti-war protests, and near-riots. The protesting had its good points. We didn't have to take any finals second semester, because nobody went to class. As a matter of fact, I can remember having to break through lines of students so I could get to class. But they really didn't bother those of us who wanted to go to class; we just had to put up with some heckling and cat calls, she said. One good thing that did happen dur- ing the past ten years was the arrival of A1 McGuire on the Marquette scene. The Marquette basketball team had played before meager crowds with sub-par talent before McGuire's arrival. In the time he has been here, he has transformed the Marquette basketball program into per- haps one of the nation's best today. Finally, important physical changes in the Marquette campus area have oc- curred. The malls that have been con- structed, and the magnificent buildings like the recreation center and the theatre have enabled Marquette to go the Whole route, from a small one-building academy, to the developed, beautiful campus it is to- day. 30