Mills College - Mills Crest Yearbook (Oakland, CA)

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We Americans, and particularly, I think, those of us who are privileged to live even for a few years on the Mills campus, are today the most fortunate of the oFfspring of Adam. The devastation which covers much of Europe and Asia has not reached our shores. Although we have our internal disputes, the threat of civil war which hangs over most of the peoples of the globe seems remote from us. We are the happiest and luckiest of mankind. But our minds love to play pleasant and comforting tricks on themselves. We are tempted to confuse luck with virtue. It would be better if we made luck a spur to virtue. The Admis- sions Office of Mills College screens its applicants, but only its applicants. lt has been shown that even in the United States, where higher education is more available than anywhere else, only one in four of those intellectually capable of advanced study ever gets to college, and only half of the upper ten per cent of high school graduates go on to further educa- tion. The students of Mills are able, but they are even more lucky than able. Our luck puts upon us the obligation to use our abilities to see to it that others become lucky. For most of us, the biggest piece of luck was to be born into a family where the things of the mind and the spirit were held in sufficient respect so that higher education seemed important. In such a family the conversation is good. Even the gossip, which is a normal part of life, is not a tearing down of character but an analysis of its foibles and the peculiar motivations of human action. Politics, ranging from the local water district to international affairs, is a constant subiect of debate, and failure to vote is considered a moral lapse. Regional history and antiquities, the plants and animals and rocks of the surrounding country, are understood and loved. Religion is practiced as well as discussed. Cookery and flower arrangements are thought of as arts, no less than music and literature. And all of these things are so taken for granted that no one ever thinks of them, which is probably as it should be if they are to enter into the marrow. The vast maiority of Mills graduates marry and devote themselves to fostering their fam- ilies. This is the greatest of responsibilities and therefore the greatest of privileges, for the family is the seedbed of personality. Our students bring to this campus the tradition of their childhood families. Here it is enriched, and then they go forth to rear their own families. ln this way you who are lucky can best make others lucky. In our earthern vessels we have treasure with which to pay our debt to destiny. Lynn White, ir., President.