Adelphi University - Oracle Yearbook (Garden City, NY)

Page 14 text:

THE SPIRIT OF THE UNDERGRADUATE Amid the clicking of computer relays, the rumble of bulldozers, and the quoting of construction costs in the million-dollar bracket, the under- graduate still exists. He is often confused, lonely, and lost, feeling alone in a world that is not of his making. He may not be neglected, but he often feels that way. He finds himself in a lecture course with a hundred other students. He is thrown in with a group of strange people from all over the world whom he does not know and who do not know him. His instructors, pressed for time, often find it con- venient to brush off his questions with a sugges- tion that the student work on his own and find out the answer for himself. His classmates begin to form dormitory cliques, to join fraternities and sororities, and to become active in student organizations. He looks about himself for some- thing that will provide an aim or goal to his life, for something that will give him a purpose. This something may be a table in the Snack Bar, a girl, or a desk on the publications floor, but, hopefully, he finds it. If he does not, he soon learns that Adelphi is no place for anyone who has a trace of apron strings around his waist. Although the undergraduate is the lowest man on the academic totem pole, although he is often neglected, he is still the vital force which brings the University to life and this is his book. This book represents the spirit that pervades the life of the Adelphi undergraduate. This is his story, seen through his eyes, and told in his words. 8