NYU Washington Square College - Album Yearbook (New York, NY)

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patient indifference to a vivid awareness of the hourly scume. This aware- ness, however, was tempered, not with the irritated protest of a freshman, but rather with the reflective amusement of a senior. Nevertheless, very little time was devoted to observing the landmarks of our University education after the mail started bringing greetings from the Government along with replies from graduate schools. Once again, cir- cumstance compelled us to alter our plans,-our carefully deliberated plans,-our unfulfilled goals. Occupational considerations and prospects for graduate study assumed an aspect of secondary importance and were temporarily laid aside, pending further developments in the Korean situa-

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wide variety of extra-curricular activities,-as the site of countless hours of industrious bustling, new friendships, literary and political debates, com- mittee conferences, and lively Christmas parties. All of this was clirnaxed by the ,lunior Prom,-the proud symbol of three years of undergraduate study and the dress rehearsal preview of that rapidly approaching Senior Prom of Proms, The interim, however, held innumerable hopes, fears, uncertainties, and changes -for the Seniors of 1951. We realized with startling abruptness that we were confronted with our last opportunity to fulfill the specifications of our previously designed collegiate blue-prints. Renewing our efforts with heightened fervor, we sent applications to graduate schools, professional schools, and vocational possibilities in various parts of the country. During the tense months of waiting for replies, Seniors paused now and then in lingering, nostalgic retrospect. Our college days, with their implica- tions of glamour, excitement, routine, and cramming, were drawing to a close. The familiar halls, classrooms, Village streets, and park assumed an aspect of precious novelty as we walked through them for the last few times, gazing more intently at each commonplace detail than we had done in nearly four years. Although the days of our freshman year had developed in us a conditioned resignation to the periodic pushing, jostling, crowding, and crushing of overpopulated elevators, we suddenly awoke from our as -'A

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tion. Resumjng our remaining days of study at Washington Square with a strange new seriousness, responsibility, and maturity, we worked-and waited. It is an uncertain, confused, high-tension world into which we graduate. An impending shadow of aggression hangs low over the Class of 1951. For us, the University diploma holds more than its traditional symbolization of advanced academic achievement,-our diploma is our pride in past accomplishment, our present source of strength,-our promise, our weapon, and our hope for the future . . ..T.G.