University of Mississippi - Ole Miss Yearbook (Oxford, MS)

Page 14 text:

The library ' s file of newspapers provides the students wi th a source of current news and commentary on it. As more students get TV sets in their rooms and as more dorms get sets for the lounges, the news events are brought to the campus live from where they happen, and the students can see the news in the ing.

Page 13 text:

give a damn if she wins the election or not; I just want to get some sleep before class. The afternoon drags slowly by as a biology student prepares other set of slides for his microscope. STUDYING STRETCHED ON ENDLESSLY serve books were assigned. And there were classes and more classes. Mid-term grades intensified efforts. Finals came, bringing all night cramming and vague ru- mors of stolen examinations. Exam days made teachers and students who had become relatively friendly eye each other warily again. Grades were posted, averages calculated, cele- brations held for one reason or another, and the semester was over. The silence of the foyer of the library is broken by the clatter of high heels as a coed Winds her way to the Commerce room for a study date.

Page 15 text:

THE CAMPUS FELT WORLD TENSIONS Ole Miss in 1959-60 was a part of a world in which violent change was a feature of each day that came and went, as a divided world met in battle on a thousand different fronts. There were the stunning triumphs of Russia ' s drive into space, the first contact with the moon ' s surface by an earth vehicle, and the first pictures of the moon ' s hidden side. The world shook while Red China threw her masses to the re- building of an ancient nation. There was the interminable steel strike at home, the visit of Nikita Khrushchev, the sight of Fidel Castro opening the way for communism at America ' s doorstep, the scandals of payola and of Charles Van Doren, the revelations of the big labor scandals, the growing political fever, the unforgettable world crusade of President Eisenhower, the equally unforgettable trip of Vice-President Nixon to Russia, and the endless strife over Algeria. Ole Miss students saw none of these things as they hap. pened nor felt any direct part of the physical force of these events. But in the realm of minds and ideas, students were inescapably involved. Newspapers, radios, and television provided a link with the wo rld. To the campus came dis- tinguished men who had seen or been a part of many great events. In classes and meetings, professors who were con. scions of the world ' s happenings drove home their signifi. cance. At the center of it all, perhaps, was the awareness of an unprecedented challenge to America and the free world. The possible shape of the future made the present even more meaningful. Each day of preparation at Ole Miss took on a new meaning. Students sensed that they could no longer be preparing simply for themselves. There now and here- after would have to be preparation for the nation, the world, and the survival of free civilization. The campus radio station does not limit itself to disc jockeys and foolishness, but it provides an accurate and up-to-date news age. Even in the grill a student can keep abreast of the changing affairs of the world as the blare of the juke box fades into the background while the cold war becomes foremost in the readers mind. That will affect his future much more than what is number one on the I lit Parade this week.