University of Kansas - Jayhawker Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

Page 28 text:

I to the THOSE I- ' IIIST DAYS MAY Hi: II t I I M ONES BUT THE NEW BOYS .llll.s LEAHN A LOT ABOUT K.I . Chief Freshman Counsellor Mac Wynne answers a last minute question (above). ... At top of page A new pledge moves in. ... A typical picture: Ex- high-school-seniors, just in town, look for a place to stay. . . . Sister helps brother enroll and like every other freshman does he need it! ... At bottom New students rack their brains over psychological exams. . . . Y.M.C.A. puts some punch into the pro- ceedings as they welcome new men. (That bowl wai an ever-present adjunct to early receptions) .... Frc-hrnan guests of the University munch hotdogs and baked beans at the Jayhawk Nibble . . . and listen, excitedly or listlessly, to an evening convocation.

Page 27 text:

OCTOBER 1939 25 Dear Freshman: AS A K.U. FRESHMAN, in 1886 I was imbedded in the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century. K.U. had three buildings, then, Eraser Hall, a Chemistry building which is now the Journalism Building, and Snow Hall, since torn down which was formally dedicated in the early part of my Freshman year. The Law School was just moving out of the old North College building a quarter of a mile north of Eraser Hall. We had less than 500 students. I knew every man Jack of them and most of the Jills. I have my Freshman picture now, a long-necked, pimply-faced boy with browning red hair, milk eyes and a tremulous chin. In order to brace myself up, I wore a white hat and as a tiepin a rather large gold bull ' s head with chip diamond eyes, and the flashiest clothes I could buy in the home-town clothing store. It took me six months to worm my way into a fraternity by making love to the blackballs. But I had not been on the campus two weeks until I broke into the Weekly Courier- there was no daily with a protesting communication which I signed Herr Most, the name of a famous contemporary anarchist. The com- mujiication put the arrow over me as I walked my humble Freshman way. After I got into the Phi Delt Fraternity, I began to go extra-curricular pretty heavily. Like a fool I broke with my home-town girl and was stepping out. I picked the Pi Phi ' s as the most likely lot of ladies and walked in. By the next year I was saturated with campus politics and before the year was out had been elected to various trustee jobs in campus organizations. I seemed to be born for backstairs politics. Inci- dentally before I quit school, I had been business manager of the Lilerary Review and editor-in-chief of the Annual. I merely mention these things as a horrible example. I was so everlastingly extra curricular that I could not graduate and quit in my Senior year to avoid the embar- rassment of failure. I often wish I had had the benefit of a college education instead of four jears of outside acti vity and a desultory course of reading which made me familiar with most of the books in the little old University Library. How I read ! I cut classes to read. And now after fifty years of the hor- rible example, my message to Freshmen is this: Go to school for your education. Have your fun later. The girls are a delight! Football is a wow! The Fraternity is swell! Massachusetts Street is a pageant of joy! Kansas City is sumpin! But don ' t forget that you are there to learn all you can that ' s in the books. I, who took the other road, greet you as a horrible example. I know how you feel, you poor long-necked, pimply-faced, freckled, milk-eyed, gangly-legged shadows of the boy that was in that Fall of 1886!

Page 29 text:

Some not-exactly-timid souls might well have been scared out of the whole idea of attending college when they received a little yellow folder last August called Program for Freshmen and New Students. The whol e thing must have seemed pretty confusing almost terrifying when viewed in prospect. But in retrospect, the poor freshman can prob- ably say he ' s a better man for it. That first week of school is an education in itself. The Uni- versity planned it that way. After all, any Great Adventure requires some kind of adjustment beforehand. And we dare any senior to deny that college is one of the biggest adventures of all. Freshman Week is supposed to aid in that ad- justment. The Freshman Counsellor system, for instance, was the chance for groups of younger men to meet an older one and ask him questions. And this contact didn ' t stop after Friday, Septem- ber 15 the counsellor still stands ready to help and advise. The women met in a large group in the ball- room the same day. Then, that evening, everyone gathered in the auditorium to hear Chancellor Malott ' s first address to University students. Next day the dizziest part of the round began, with psychological exams to wrestle with in the morning, registration immediately after and con- tinuing through the day (and on and on), physi- cal exams that might come any time during the day, and a sort of tense relaxation at the free Jayhawk Nibble in the evening. Sunday brought Y.W.C.A. and Y.M.C.A. recep- tions and more or less of a day of rest. Monday morning brought meetings of freshmen by schools, with the College meeting in Fraser; Mon-