University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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THE UNIVERSITY AND THE STATE compkx governmental system. e have the nece-Miry framework of government in our A. S. I . C.. with agencies more or less adap- ted tu register the steady current of. public opinion. And we have the forces which make public opinion in our Daily Calif ornian. Senior Singing, honor societies and various other or- ganization-. Thus there is the formal side of student g- ' vernment. calculated to assure, through cen- tralizati ii in an executive committee and a ( iraduate Manager, efficient settlement of questions which are largely administrative or financial. The executive committee is vested with sufficient power to regulate the course of all so-called student activities. In addition there is the less clearly defined, but more essential, part of our student gov- ernment. ith such questions as the Honor Spirit in examinations, and the other issues to which the Student Affairs and Welfare committees can be no development along arbitrary or fixed HARVARD THE YARD VALE PHELPS HALL have addressed themselves, there lines. It is here that the attitude of mind on the part of the individual is the determining factor. This application of the standards which have been growing steadily in the student body is largely the result of what we know as Senior Control. At best this is an intangible thing; but it is none the less impor- tant, because it is difficult to apply. The building up of the spirit which has been fos- tered through this agency is a true application of the con- sent of the governed. It re- 25

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THE UNIVERSITY AND THE STATE Student Citizenship ITH the growth of colleges has come an increased meaning of student life. The period at a university, according to the old con- ception, was regarded not as a part of real life, but merely as a preparation for it. We still use the name Commencement Day, but the general idea which gave it currency has been lost. For it seems to be the belief, on the part of students of this day at any rate, that the four college years are just as truly a part of life as any years that are to follow. Our college citizenship is real and genuine. And it should be regarded, not merely as a means of preparation for something which is to follow, but as a period of experi- ence which has a value and importance in itself. The expression that the University is a miniature world, employed so frequently as to be well nigh outworn, has for us taken on a new meaning, for we have come to realize that we are in truth our own community, that our problems are in a sense just as real, and our relations just as vital as those of the outside world. The main difference is that here they are more limited and, by the nature of things, are only temporary. Here, as in other relations of life, there are two sorts of activity, the working for oneself and the working for the community. The one is individual, the other social. It is with the latter, with the principles of association, upon which the under- graduate life of the University has been organized, that this article is concerned. The purpose here is to set forth the civic import of Student Self-government. At California, by the grace of University authority, we have developed our peculiar form of student government. To a wide extent we have been entrusted with the conduct of our extra-academic affairs. Our equally wide acceptance of such responsibilities has surrounded us with something akin to a 24

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THE UNIVERSITY AND THE STATE WISCONSIN UNIVERSITY HALL suits from the growth of a campus-wide attitude of service to the University, of a wholesome public-spiritedness. And the effectiveness of upper class adminis- tration lies in the fact that it comprises guidance rather than iron-bound rule : that it is government by example and experience rather than by attempted coercion. Happily, the fact has been realized that Senior Moderation and Senior Example are integral parts of the system of Senior Control. The conclusion to be drawn, then, is that the benefit of student govern- ment, and whatever real significance it possesses as an experience in citizenship, we find in the development of a sort of civic sympathy. Surely it is such an underlying spirit which is the essential thing in any government without which the most ideal constitution is mere paper, and the most perfectly devised institutions will prove cumbersome. The actuating ideal, not only of co-opera- tion and of mutual confidence, but of civic interest which is not self-interest, this mental attitude is the main thing we gain from our student life, and in particular from our student government. It is this which will be of benefit to us and to the State. NEWTON BISHOP DRURV. 26