Duke University - Chanticleer Yearbook (Durham, NC)

Page 14 text:

Arc the college years suspended ones, sheltered, removed, apart from the outside world? As a Durham street cuts across a corner of East campus and the myth of the twelve-foot wall is lifted, so too the myth ot the world- apart can perhaps be disproved, though the tradition will hnger and still contain some truth in its existence. As a student one perhaps sees Duke in its solidity of Gothic gray and Georgian brick, or as a vast machine feeding on reams of IBM cards, or the every-othcr-fricnd in a mass of ac- quaintances and strangers. At times each of these impressions can come to mind. Yet perhaps the impression is most often a more immediate one: an idea caught, an appointment missed, the fatigue of an all-nighter, the jubilation of a semester of success in ones own terms. This is the stuff that life is made of. But it is not iust by extension that these impressions of college life have meaning in terms of the world outside the walls. The flow of growth and change in the complex one calls a university is all too evident in just a year ' s time at Duke. As the individual comes to college he makes a commitment to remain for awhile, to think, to act, and hnalK ' to leave. Collectively, this constant flux he is at once confined to an intangible, but certain sphere of life even within the demarcation of the college world. Trinity College, senior, fraternity man, histor) ' major — by number and letter he is departmentalized into his own world apart. Even in the annual the labels seem instinctively to remain: administrator, beauty, basketball star, Greek, Phi Beta Kappa. Yet despite these labels, which are perhaps all too indicative of an in- escapable situation within or without the walls, the lines are crossed: people act, meet, react, and at the same time they are both actively and passively aware of the world w ithout. The individual comes in search of direction — seeking the repeated what, why, how, and w here of himself and others. It is the direction of information, advice, and judgment. It is the direction of rebelling against other militant, the direction of goading the passive into action. Most of all it is the direction of change and expansion, the contradic- tion and agreement of a growing and reaching within and without. Fine, high-flown words, one will say, per- haps meaningless in the abstract. But where, and in what, can these nuances of direction be found? In the beginning of the year an all- needs direct communication to run smoothly. Ae have had the problem that students did not know the ad- ministration ' s mind. — Yes. Dr. Knight is reflected in the inner dynamism of University convocation marked the mentioned that he would be traveling the University. The place, the people, and their actions interact upon one another. It might seem at first that the aca- demic is so mechanically labeled that way toward a liaison, however tenuous, between the various entities of the University and the plans and expecta- tions of its new administrative heads. Dean Ball was quoted, An institution over the nation for the University a great deal of the time, and he has been. Yet he has kept one Friday afternoon appointment almost without fail: as a professor he has sustained an informal, 10

Page 13 text:

•iJC - V

Page 15 text:

ycr virall ' alive thrcL ' -hour discussion with a sL-minar ot hfc ' students, a class in whicii the problems ot other men and other places are seen as ulti- mateh ' one ' s own. Worlds literally far a a - and long ago are brought to bear on a dirterent time, a totally difiercnt place. And this is but one example of the renewed attempt to cross the bridge between administrator and stu- dent, one example of the integration of the University w ithin itself and be- yond itself. The establishment of the Forum continued this thrust in a renewed di- rection of stepping across the lines of university classification and the walls encircling the college world. The Board of Governors ot the Forum was comprised of members of the faculty, Trinity College, the Woman ' s College, the Engineering, Medical, and Law Schools. Interests and debate topics ranged university- and world- ' ide: the President ' s new house, the National Student Association, questions of South iet Nam and the recognition ot Red C hina. Even a visiting British debating team was asked to participate, bringing the struggle between Labor and Con- servative parties to first-hand light for those congregated on the West quad. On East, the outside world seeped in through the program of the visiting scholar in residence, initiated by Dean Ball. Dr. Julia Henderson, Director ot the United Nations Bureau ot Social Affairs, was first to undergo the har- ried rush from morning coffee, to luncheon, to afternoon coffee, to din- ner, to evening lecture. The pattern w as a familiar one in the college day, but the dialogue and meeting of the minds formed a new contact with a person intimately involved with the international scene. The problems of underdeveloped countries and the pos- sibilities of United Nations work for graduates were both explored by Dr. Henderson with the individual and the many groups on campus who met her. The casual coffee and dinner con- versation provided another nucleus dur- ing the year, this time for the new Faculty Associate programs in East dormitories. Again the lines were crossed between professor and student in another attempt to bridge the gap of real communication within the Uni- versity. As students took on the responsibility for initiating these new programs, they also found themselves given greater responsibilities in the realm of aca- demics. As the suspension-penalty tor cuttint; classes before and after vaca- 11