Montana State University - Sentinel Yearbook (Missoula, MT)

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f H , , Xu ..--.., ,,.--'Ns ...U . --- -X jf- 7'-f ,, , S X z N M-q,'QttL' 't i A 'Tl-IE: SE l ' i hi .1 r ..f .i :gr W . ' L, ' is-ttlttgeittit usually recognizes as spirit. The common or garden variety of college spirit has its chief satisfactions in the marginal, the accidental and the too often transient features of the daily life of an educational institution. llecausc it is playful it adds a little vagrant joy to the students existence. We need to conserve, to develop, and to direct a proper college spirit. College spirit as we now have it is founded on play. 'lfhe loyalty l have in lllllltl is based upon work. It means a comprehension by every student of the underlying ideal for which the University exists: the ideal that prompted the lylontana pio- neers to build the University into the permanent foundations o-f the state. lt means the development of sound and distinctive traditions of student conduct, and of high standards of various acctmmplishments. To be loyal, a student body must give evidence that the University has impressed its intellectual, social, and academic individuality upon the personality of every one of its members. NVe need in Montana today the development of a student attitude of mind that will cause each young man and woman admitted to the University to become possessed of a sense of personal responsibility: that he is in the University, not alone to be benefited, but to confer benehts as well: that the institution will be better and stronger for his having been a student: that he must help to raise the standard of the serious work of the University. That student whose feeling of regard for the University is measured in terms of athletic prowess or of personal enjoyment is wholly lacking in that thing we call genuine loyalty. Above all the University needs today a body of graduates who carry loyalty outside of the institution. llefore we may possess a strong, vigorous alumni organization, the members of which look back with affection and reverence for the institution that gave them intellectual life, professional skill and moral responsi- bilities, we must have a strong, loyal body of students: loyal not for themselves, but for the future of the institution which holds so much in store for this state. We of Montana are rich in the treasure of youth. That youth is the priceless capital fr-om which will be returned men and women whose loyalty to the ideals of college will be transformed into service for the ideal of the commonwealth. N 4 w hm I 5 Xi Nt 9' 5 440- Q Q 363 .aim Rip izo Gsiyev 4 in f ww 'gli El W' 'li' ia' E ef ef r 1 l':lg'c 'lllllI'll'l'lI

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, .,...-, ,.,,.,,- , ,-., D ,,,. - , ,,.'-' 'x,K , , Q X , XX t. if ',II'l,.lE SE ' fx ' , . g.,t,,.,, ,Q ,K 1 Mm N E A -mm ,, Umym , , ,, ., Y ......,,-......x...,...,...... ......-,..........---7 1 P R E S S I O N S We 'ln the fulfillment of my promise for these few para- graphs, it seems appropriate to make this brief record of certain of my impressions groxviiig out of the observa- tions and experiences of the first months in Montana. Foremost of these impres- sions is that of the enthusi- asm, the good fellowship, and the energy of the students in the University. Close to this is that of the spirit of conse- cration on the part of the teaching' staff to the work and welfare of the institution, All the more marked are , these characteristics of students and faculty when one takes careful account of the many pressing' material lacks of the 'Uni- versity d e p a 1' t in e u t and schools. More adequate sal- aries with which to retain and secure superior teachers are indispensable. XX d d i t i on al buildings to contain properly equipped laboratories, li- ,.,,,M,,,, pl ,,:,A,4,,,,,-T braries and other facilities for educational work are demand- ed. 'DOl'lllitUl'lCS for men, as well as for women, must be erected in order to give proper living' accommodations to the rapidly increasing' number of students. For all of these needs, so self-evident to those who know the situation, more monev must be provided in the immediate future in order that the University may fulfil. even reasonable expectations and be fully deserving' of educational respect within the state and without the state. livery day l' have spent at the University has caused me to wonder how so much could have been done with so little, and in the face of so many obstacles. The outlook, though, is now most encouraging: Among the many needs of the 'University there appears to be yet another and more essential one: all the more important because it cannot be met directly by the expenditure of money. lfor the want of a better and more precise Word, 'I' shall call the thing' needed loyalty. The loyalty T have in mind is not to be identified or confused with the bubbling. evanescent, noisy, pleasant, and withal, valuable activities that the college world I'ag'e Twelve

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'....! '- V,-.--xxx V jf g f-a.,.,,,..,, V ff,--... ,,a..,. I l,..- '- X fp..-.1'vr-...-f-5 ' A xg. ,X XUFHESEI .,X, Lx! I' .gil X, .f 1 I ft H -- li. - 'f,,s,V -,'f'jw X! ' 1 ' ' - ' I V - I- 4 . is plea. i:cr:..f...::ga-. f-.-..::' -. ,- -. .Z .. ' ' r, , , . ',...:':a'. ' W- '-Y-M' 1 PERMANENT CLASS ORGANIZATIONS AND CLASS REUNIONS .HIC Iiditor of the Sentinel, as he tells me, desires to bring about some form of permanent organization of the graduating classes of the State 'University which will result in the gathering of a larger body of the alumni at the annual Commencement and in -1 their having a better time. At present, he tells me, he finds that the alumni, stringing back, one or two from a g'iven class Iq ILL at a given Commencement, and lacking the companionship of I 'KY the college mates of their own day, are likely to find Com- mencement only a melancholy reminiscence of old times. Ile feels, no doubt, that if they could meet a group of the students of their own day and exchange views of the flight of time with the men and women they used to know, they would enjoy the occasion more, have their University loyalty stimulated, and return to another Commencement more gladly. The reason why .I. was asked to contribute on this subject was that your editor overheard two of us graduates of many years ago from a prominent Middle VVest- ern college discussing the class reunions there. Grinnell College is, of course, not the only one in which the problem of alumni loyalty has been solved, but it is a college in which the problem which now exists at the University existed at the time when I graduated and has since been solved in a very notable way. Ifor many years after my graduation from college I was so situated as to be able to go back for the annual Commencement almost every year. Year by year the number of my classmates to return for the Commencement dwindled. The students whom I had known in the lower classes of my day graduated and Went their way, and I gradually found myself among a body of strangers, the older members of the faculty being, at length, my only acquaintances. The eighth year after my graduation I enjoyed Commencement so little that I definitely made up my mind to make no further effort to return at the Commencement season, and did not return for twelve years. Meanwhile there had grown up a system of five-year reunions. That is. it was definitely planned for every class to return to the college Commencement on the 5th, loth, 15th, 20th, 25th, 30th and 35th anniversary of its graduation, without making any special effort to gather for the intervening years. This concentration upon fixed reunion periods greatly increased the number of the alumni returning for Cfmmmencement, and certainly made the occasion much more enjoyable for them. At the twentieth anniversary of my own graduation a majority of the living members of the class were present, and the pleasure of the meeting, if I may judge others' experience by my own, was very great. The movement for permanent class organizations, which have aided in making the five-year reunions a success, started in the college office and has been greatly aided by the college itself. lior the older classes the college authorities have taken the responsibility of asking two persons in each class to act in the positions of class secretary and class president: the later classes elect such officers at the time when I'a1.51--I oill'fa-1-ll