Lehigh University - Epitome Yearbook (Bethlehem, PA)

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A narrow isthmus Hwixt two boundless seas, The past, the future, two eternities. THOMAS MOORE

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REGISTRATION at LeKigK is a strange thing tKat brings us together, shuffles us, ana deals us around for another play at the hooks. For all its madness and con- fusion, the days of a Lehigh regis- tration period are times of action and excitement. It is the beginning of a new semester, and there is something about the uncertain days to follow that adds tenseness to all the hap- penings. Registration hgures showed that the majority of us were veterans- veterans who had a definite idea of why we were at Lehigh. Those of us who had seen no war service had passed a thorough screening and represented the cream of the current secondary school crop. Perchance, a scant few of us had been attracted to South Mountain in quest of col- lege life for its own sake, but for the most part, whether we admitted it or not, we all had a sincere desire for book learning. Regardless of our mo- tives for being here, we all were thankful that we were in college and not awaiting admission like so many or our friends. The 1947 registrations were dif- ferent from those the old timers ex- perienced. Where once it was pos- sible to talk ourselves out of eight o ' clocks on our schedules, a malad- justed I.B.M. class scheduler dictated all kinds of weird class hours, and there was no back talk. Gripes were prevalent and numerous as we all speculated about the semester s courses. Some insisted that snap courses were passing out of existence, that all courses were rougher than before, that it would be impossible to last the semester. However, there was always that great boost in our morale when we each found some- one with a lower average than that we had made the previous semester. The strangest sights of all to be- hold were the green frosh who certainly did not know what to ex- pect next. An advanced guard of the Class of 1Q51 that entered in March, 1947, gave the Class of June, 1950, veterans of one whole semester, its first chance to look important and to scowl on someone. The remainder of the Class of 51 that entered in September, 1947, was received with ten days of Freshman Orientation, the first such extended orientation that had been given since the w ar. The wide-eyed newcomers were wooed and coddled by the adminis- tration and fraternities, so that the end of Frosh Week brought wel- comed relief from these unusual at- tentions. A shiny new frosh lost in the be- wildering strangeness of his new South Mountain surroundings would be joined by many an old alumnus who also would be amazed at how the campus had been changed by post-war improvements. The old grads told us that Lehigh just ain t what it used to be, and right they were. With all the building that has been accomplished and planned, it