Eckerd College - Logos Yearbook (St Petersburg, FL)

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12 formulated, or begun. In an end-of-the-term furor, the Trident proposed, and the Col- lege Community decisely rejected, a plan for Freshman Initiaton. Help Week was to take Its place. All the major foundations of student life were laid. We had reason to congratulate ourselves and the mentors who had pushed, coaxed, kicked, and smiled us through the year and its many triumphs . . . and troubles. Especially dear to our hearts was Western Civilization: SUDDENLY, LAST SEPTEMBER ... It all started (but really it may not hove be- cause I can ' t be sure of my position In the time continuum) v ith the need to es- tablish a frame of r eference for my Existential search for meaning In the macroform of the culturally relative reality which I, in my alienation, perceived to exist. The crying need to maintain and enhance my phenomenal self on the proper levels of relative morality acceptable to my culture led me to contemplate the symbol in the vain hope that I could achieve Nirvana. But some Sebastian at the Spring Formal kept urging me to gouge ' em, and be real and study the microform. I Next slide, please.) Anyhow, one day I quit picking my boils long enough to ask the elastic universe whether or not it was relevant to ask where I was at. From ten heterophonic voices shouting in ostinoto motif come back: Frankly, we don ' t know!, which. Doc, is why I ' m here. Now, if you ' ll just shut your window. . . ' The summer of 1961 was notable in three ways. We had our first language summer school. With Ford Foundation backing, we tried and partially succeeded in recruiting more students than in 1960. There was only twelve more to be exact, but in the process of getting that class 162, our field workers brought our college to the attention of a wide section of the nation. Of less note, but equal importance, was the slow but sure work of the ground breaking committee. We were honored by the Danforth Curriculum Conference in the form of an invitation to Dr. Bevan and three of our professors to attend a curriculum workshop in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We were the talk of the conference. Pre-college conferences were notable for Dr. West ' s cooking of steaks, upperclassmen ' s doing too good a job of telling freshmen how tough the academic load was, and trips to the new campus. Most of our mentors got well earned and much needed vocations. The Year of Disillusion 1 96 1 -62 Our second year began with the usual rush of testing, orientation, and registration. Help Week was not as successful as had been hoped. Distance and conflicting pressures pre- vented thorough planning and execution. One hundred Founding Freshmen came back to greet with great joy and relief the new Class of 1965. We spent a lot of time those first few weeks just getting acquainted. We spent even more studying. Those of us who hod made it through the first year had a seriousness of purpose and a much better un- derstanding of what college was all about.

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full year on our new campus. It seemed awfully far away. For the Sunshine Festival of States Parade, we spent the day as ushers, finally ending up sitting on curbs to eat one of the cafeteria ' s box lunches (ham and cheese sandwiches, apple, and cake with more icing on the paper than on the cake). A day of no classes and the prospect of earning money for the class made up for the tired feet and sunburns we got. Beneath the humor (like that famous caption: Head Fruit Picker Contemplates his Navel Orange) and much of the sincere mutual interest between ourselves and our mentors, there ran less pleasant currents. Dr. Kadel asked the students to show a more positive attitude. Look back on our short history and see what had been done, he said. Then look to the future with confidence and faith. We hove established a goal for ourselves and we will achieve it. Headline: ANSWER NEVER DEVELOPS IN FORM OF NEGATIVISM. It was easy to pick at little things. We wanted so badly for OUR college to be perfect. In our idealism we denied our own humanity and t ried to deprive our mentors of theirs. It was later said that those tree are brave indeed who allow others to think, speak, and act freely, bounded only by man ' s responsibilty to man.® Our mentors are such brave men. They have taught us to think and speak freely. They have given us maximum opportunities to act freely. The conflicts we have had over the years with them are due to our differing understandings of the limits of man ' s responsi- bility to man. Easter vacation sent our choir on a week-long race through Florida. Wild Bill, Twitchy-hips Carrol, our bus driver, and Mrs. A. W. Rideout, Bunny ' s mother, served to moderate the disputes between the prima-donnas, looked after the little details, and kept us all going. It was a good tour. We made many friends. Most of the rest of us spent the holidays at home, sleeping late and relaxing. Some few went to Lauderdale, some stayed on campus. The second half of the semester opened with the christening of the Triton Den (Snack Bar) by Mrs. Kadel. In another of our shows of esprit (and to help with morale) we had decided to redecorate. A mural, fish net, and zany new menu gave us a real social center. We elected our first officers under the new Student Government Association Constitu- tion. We had plays. Sandpiper concerts, beach parties, intramural softball, Friday night movies, a Lightening class sailboat, and a lot of new ideas to keep us hopping. A special treat was Miss Blumenthal and Mr. Hall ' s candlelight buffet in late April. Spring formal, sea-gull feeding, our first annual Athletic Banquet, the Cabaret Ole, (the Spanish Club ' s Fiesta), the Social Science Forum, Artist-Lecturer Series, and the announcement of ground breaking ceremonies for September closed out the year, except for exams. It was a good year. The S tudent Government, Honor Court and Code, Student Christian Association, school colors, nickname. Men ' s and Women ' s Dormitory Councils, Publica- tions Board, intercollegiate sports, basic rules and standards, all had been created. ?«

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The big event was ground breaking on September 24, 1961. One hundred eighty-six shovels had been collected by the committee from various colleges and universities across our land. After a speech by Vance Packard, music by the Concert Choir, and lots of so- lar radiation, we, the college community— students, faculty, administration, and trustees —gathered by twos and threes on the pad for the Dendy-McNair Auditorium and jointly turned our shovels and spades of earth. One year later, almost to the day, the men moved into nearby, but not quite completed, dormitories. Meanwhile, the latest news of construction was of constant interest. Our biggest hassle that semester was the dispute over the court system. The Honor Court justices had spent the summer re-thinking our needs and the means we hod for meeting them. They proposed three levels of courts instead of the existing two. For weeks we argued the issue. At one point it looked as though the majority of students favored the two-court system. Then, strangely, the cry was all in favor of the three-court system. Then, the cries faded and nothing was done. Life is full of paradoxes, and one is evident among the students of FPC: Wher- ever you may go during the hustle, to class, meals, and other activities, you hear murmurs of discontent, though they often rise above a murmur. If you have time to drop everything and join in to ofFer your opinion, you probably could offer quite a few complaints and suggestions yourself. Why? Because it is the same old tune, with a !arge chorus, in notes of discord, the words being: Where is social life at FPC? Until the other night, many people would probably have an- swered: There is none! However, on October 20, in the snack bar, a group of students held an informal get-together, with some guitars, songs and enthusiastic singers. Not only did people hear news of it, they came, enjoyed it, and stayed! There was a chain reaction from this spontaneous activity and the enthusiasm spread like sparks. There are several reasons that social life is just two words to be cut t o ribbons here, yet there are no reasons for the lock of initiative among the students to do some- thing to give those two words meaning at FPC. It takes a few ideas, a lot of enthusi- asm, and a great deal of initiative and leadership. How about it? When you claim that social life is lacking, ask yourself what you are contributing. Did you fill out one of the suggestion blanks of the Social Club [Social Committee]? Have you taken interest in the clubs, student assemblies, and other offered activi- ties? ' ° The word apathy was not yet part of our vocabulary, but the phenomenon was. Con- nected with it was a slow decline of our morale. It was at its usual low before Thanks- giving and Easter. All was not black that semester. Far from it. Despite staff troubles, the Trident published two issues. The Drama Club began to practice for Henrik Ibsen ' s Hedda Gabler, the choir went touring. The Men of N (wing, that is) held Soiree d Tara as the Fall For- mal. We began to enjoy the second Artist-Lecturer Series. The Science department got a three-year $30,000 grant from the Research Corporation of New York. We chose our cheerleaders and watched the basketball team prepare for a new season. We were hosts to the Southern Judo Championship in our lecture-hall-dance-hall-chapel-