Duke University - Chanticleer Yearbook (Durham, NC)

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quickly . . . transcripts, recommenda- tions, and applications sent to grad school, Med school, and Law school. These are the symptoms of perhaps the most vital part of college life. Throughout the days of classes, study, and activities, the years seem to repeat themselves. Fall brings the brilliant change ot the North Carolina forests, the occasional cloudless sky for an afternoon of football — more often a Durham downpour or smells of tobacco across the heavy campus air. With the beginning of the academic year new plans are laid out, for individual, group, and University. Fall merges into a winter cold, with term papers and exams following closely on the heels of Christmas tinsel and carols by candle light. A semester break is filled with partying, skiing in the mountains, or battles in the usually late, but heavy snow. Then the whisper of spring brings the ap- pearance of wisteria in the Duke Gardens, and suntans are mixed with booking it in legal places and other- wise. Frantic plans are made for summer r r . «♦ j mgfk- , 22

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As the student seeks his role with- in the University and his relationship to a larger society, programs such as the annual Symposium widen his perspective to the problems ot the age which con- front the old and young alike. It is against the background of such timely and timeless questions that the college student ultimately spends his tour years of thought, activity, and effort. Though he spends countless hours organizing, planning, entertaining, and being entertained, when these hours are sifted apart, there remains the valuable core of study, lectures, discus- sion, and research. Long hours spent on a term paper . . . labs done, redone, and finally completed ... a heated after-class discussion . . . blue books filled by the score . . . postcards re- turned all too slowly or none too 21

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jobs and rrips, a spring: vacation spent in Nassau, on Florida beaches, or in the old home town. 1 hen final exams come all too soon, and another year has vanished. This is the cycle tor four years — the freshman arrives with cre- dentials in hand, the senior leaves with man ' more and modified ones. And the classes in between move a step ahead in the college years. I hesc are perhaps the usual thoughts, whether one looks back over a single ear or four. The place and events seem to merge, w ith flashes of remembered emotions and reactions. Yet look more closely ... It is more than a cycle. Duke is not what it used to be: new- buildings have spread beyond the Chap- el, and old ones given an interior face lifting; plans for an expanded library and new medical complex are soon to be realized. Free buses have been provided with the proviso of a car registration tee. Drinking in West dormitories is permitted, where there was none allowed even at registered parties just a few years ago. Judicial rules have been made increasingly lenient, and class attendance has be- come voluntary. With these changes, new seminar courses, taught by dis- tinguished professors, have been intro- duced; student government structures have been revised; and a Student Philosophy has been compiled evaluating a multitude of phases in Universit ' life. In all of these changes, the individual has contributed to a growing institution. And the relationship is perhaps recipro- cal. As Duke moves into new spheres of change and action, the student who has worked toward his own goals in college is no longer the same. He has moved from freshman enthusiasm to the traditional sophomore slump, from organization head as junior to the senior who is eager to pass his otfiec down. Yet there is a more constant change than the yearly shift from class to class. Fach day may bring the beginning, or the close of some chapter. Each individu- al attempt to change or maintain the status quo or to find a new direction, has its final meaning in the tangible issues, events, and people of day-to-day living. When one evaluates the college life in these terms, the years at Duke come to mind as something more than those 23