Haverford College - Record Yearbook (Haverford, PA)

Page 11 text:

Customs and Honor This Customs Committee is o wonderful thing. It changes completely from year to year, yet always with the purpose of breaking down indi- viduality to build uniqueness. I never have under- stood how this is possible, yet with the assumption of the cap and beanie, with the sacrifice of entity to community spirit, we ore at once together and unique. This has led to a lot of the Haverford student ' s problems, thinking that he must be unique when in fact he is merely normal. The secondary purpose of this committee is to get rid of Freshman apathy, and if there is none, to build it up in order to destroy it later. The head of the Customs Committee this past year has been Bill Newmeyer. This was his third year as a member of this organization as well as his third year as a public servant, for Bill suc- cumbed to campus politics and has been very successful, serving three years on the council. His curly hair and eyelashes, coupled with his love for medicine, have somehow contributed to his love of Rhinie culture. For three years he has been the greatest nursemaid to these larva, who begrudg- ingly but sincerely give him their thanks. Perhaps no one in the Senior Class could give such a good first impression of the school and this is why his leadership has been so successful. Moving from the sublime to the ridiculous, we come to the Honor System Committee, and its leader, if not exponent, Joel Levin. This committee is the most important one, ideally, to the entering Freshmen, since it introduces them to Haverford ' s unique system of honor. The cute little fellow at its head, bristling with new and original ideas, has made the Committee and the principle for which it stands much more of a living thing than in the past. Joel is a scientist with a libido. Though his friends have repeatedly told him to be an English major or else stop taking English courses, he has persistently tried to bridge the gap between Art and Physics. This campus Rabelais prefers to do his teaching from the trees. As such, he is symbolic of the whole Haverford process of inte- gration, save that in his efforts he has achieved a certain unity in himself which the college hos failed to find for itself. 1 Seven

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THE ORIENTATION PROGRAM Neglected in the past has been a discussion of the orientation program which in a way can shape a boy ' s whole impression of Hoverford. In planning to deal with it more extensively, we asked a Fresh- man if he would tell the first part of our story. Because of the naive enthusiasm with which he treats the subject, editorial parenthesizing seems mandatory, but it is kept at a minimum so that the reader will never lose sight of the fact that it is a Freshman speaking. Anonymity is by request. One week before school opened in the fall, I, with hundred or so others, became the best Freshman Class ever, We seemed to be a rather heterogeneous group, ( unique is the word Hover- ford uses), but I was comforted by my observation that all the parents seemed to look the same. As Haverford ' s embrace replaced my mother ' s, we were whisked away to the nature walk and library garden, and then to the cramped quarters in which we were to exist. This association of oneself to nature is an important factor at Hoverford. It helped me, I know, to remove myself even further from reality. Association with nature brings out the animal passions, and so we were led to the dining hall, where I sot down to my first meal. Since they told me not to be degrading but mildly humorous, I leave the thoughts of that meal to those who have shared the similar experience. After the meal we met with the Customs Com- mittee They told us that we soon would be ac- quainted with our big brothers, another innova- tion in the Customs program, designed to integrate the Freshman just that much faster into the college. My big brother tried to get me drunk the only time he bothered with me.

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More Orientation An integral part of each year ' s Freshman pro- gram is the invasion of Bryn Mowr. Though it has been long thought that mixers were more for the members of the Customs Committee than for the Rhinies, there always seem to be those who hove good time. As is shown in the picture above, it is often only the boys who find the evening enjoyable. For some men it is their last look at Bryn Mowr, much to an equal number of girls ' relief. 1 myself had a fine time until ten o ' clock when they let the upperclassmen in. While I was enjoying the Octet, not knowing that I would hear the same pieces every time I went to a dance, my date disappeared. That was fine with me ' cause we went bock and threw the Sopho- more, who had taken her from me, in the pond, and then had a watertight. Some fun. I was immersed in orientation. Eight