Southern Illinois University - Obelisk Yearbook (Carbondale, IL)

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SYSTEMI BA ED BIGNESS ' Xltw ' li ,1 , 4 'T . I ill .ff . f 4 f ,uh 'S ' - xi ' 4' '. -A '.- .. - ' - - ' ' f. .4 ' W ' J, , q y 43, A .t .Q .surf sr V gl , . ...Q sy uifln., . . - ' W. X - - - Q rr W V, 4 -av' H . s, ' '- '1...t..4-'- '4--- 1n.Q.,,,. ' Q I , -4, 6 - . .. ' ...............-Q., g -----f ,. A K - Ag' fpu N: V g I 'yiwai w 'Q r' X -f W W. .' as 5 . i . , M... - N The gleaming, super-efficient new library opened for business this year-il. too, is going lo grow still more. There were 54 students in the first session of Southern Illinois Normal University in 18744. The faculty numbered nine. Southern's come a long way since then. By the '30s it had grown to around l,500. Some said it had reached its peak. Building ceased-after all, the campus had been formed. Came the calamitous '40s and war drop- ped enrollment to less than a thousand. Came war's end and Southern began to feel its sides. An influx of veterans swelled enrollment to more than 3,000 in 1949. And it was during this per- iod that Southern dropped Normal from its name and became a University in fact. Space to grow in! Army barracks, a tavern, frame houses by the dozen, a chicken hatchery. All were pressed into service. Frantic building began. University School, Woody Hall, Life-Science. a 1HS2,500.000 library, an agriculture building longer than a foot- ball fieldl The new dormitory complex on Thompson point is larger than the completed campus, of the 30s. More than 6.000 students in l956l lt's getting big. lt's going to get mighty big. 19

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i hn ,M ...Q , Mm, 1 '7'1',' If ls Bull sessions are college l'7'lSfl.fllfl.0HS. Sontetirnes conversation centers on politics or the international scene. More frequently, ifs about that girl in Barretis Dorm or the nine o'clocl.' prof. T1 The overwhelming thing-in the way things look-about people at Southern is that they have nothing worth rioting about. They , read, at least some of thcm do, in the news- papers about students rioting for political or economic reasons in the Middle East or in ' Tokyo. They know that the times are con- i sidered perilousg many are acquainted with , the brink of wat , philosophyg most know t l what the cold war is all aboutg virtually all know that 1956 is a presidential election year. But they are inclined to be very quiet in their opinions. More often than they question, they listen and acceptg rarely ' reject. They know that campus furore has been raised over Student Council representa- tion. But that is for the Council to worry l about. It doesn't pay to get too excited. l lt is not easy-and especially not respectable I -to believe in something 'atoow much. And respectability is one of their few gods. l The future, personal and global, is not very far away from the people at Southern. lf they feel it at all, they feel it in a some- how phantom way that discourages any- thing more than their studied indifference. There will be, of course. those who think that the world can be reformed. and they will try. These are the idealists and they are extremely rare at Southern. There are ' those who think the world is not worth reforming: and they will not try. And then there are those who do not think for fear of coming to a conclusion about them- selves, or worse, about their times. This is, perhaps, the simplest way to look at it. 21, .l