Oberlin College - Hi-O-Hi Yearbook (Oberlin, OH)

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PREFACE xxxx -- WW f!ZMfQwL l 1947 HI O HI we, the editors, asked ourselves. What is the purpose and scope of a yearbook? The answer was less easy to find than one might expect it to be. At the begin- ning we realized that a book should be written to satisfy the needs and desires of the audience for which it is intended. You, the students of Oberlin today, are the audience we intended to serve. ! S a first step in the preparation of the Our next step was to decide just what material would fulfill your wishes in a yearbook. Then we had to choose the manner in which the material could best be presented. Our first decision was that the annual should contain a pictorial and written account of your year, 1946-47, in Oberlin. Starting, then, with the proposition that the yearbook would review the events of the year with special attention given to

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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ising far o'er the haste and press of life We, the editors of the 1947 Hi-O-Hi, dedicate this book to the spirit of unity in men, and to its expression at Oberlin College. We iind its most immediate manifestation here in the spirit that calls us to weekly Vespers and chapel services, to a brief pause in the Learning and Labor, to a restful moment in which we can reorient ourselves to the world in which we must find our place. At Vespers, when we can forget our daily cares and feel an identity outside our own lives, we gain a sense of the greatness of the framework within which we live. We feel the constant presence of that framework, and we try to lind our place with- in it, knowing that othermen are doing the same and feeling their oneness with us., At Chapel Service we feel the importance of our college days in bringing the best that is in us to the life which has been given us. We feel the privilege of education uniting us with the people around usg we feel the common purposes we share, we know that our lives are richer and fuller be- cause of our college experience. To us, Vespers is a symbol of the attitude we hold towards life, and towards that part of life which is Oberlin. We derive from this community of devotion a thankfulness for all that has been given us and an inspiration to make each daily task an expression of good will through which the spirit of unity will be established in men for all time.

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those who made the events and to those who en- joyed participation in them, we looked for an appropriate form in which to present them. We felt that the traditional sections into which Ober- lin yearbooks have been divided would serve our purpose best. We would gather pictures and in- formation to be arranged into the sections of the book devoted to classification, housing, athletics, and organizations and activities. Within these groupings we believed we could present our material with the continuity we deemed necessary in any book. With continuity as our goal, we found it advisable to depart from some of the methods followed by editors of other year- books. We further divided our sections, or books, into two parts, placing written accounts of the year at the beginning on book style paper, and following this text with related pictures on conventional year- book paper. Through this alternation of written and pictorial records, we wove our story of the year, attempting to relate the activities of all groups and individuals to each other to show the spirit of unity which we believe underlies the diversified undertakings of members of the Ober- lin College community. Another significant departure from traditional procedure took place in the House section. In place of individual stories of each house, we de- cided to substitute one long article which would trace briefly the history of the Oberlin residential plan, showing how the present housing system was developed. Thus, we believe, we have pre- sented a more complete picture of the plan today, together with indications of proposed changes for the future. Our writing style we have modified also in an effort to emphasize the importance of facts and of names. At first blush, much of the written mate- rial may appear to be little more than descriptions of occurrences already familiar to students this year. This style was adopted, however, with a view to the future when, we believe, readers will appreciate accounts of incidents long forgotten. Unfortunately, there is necessarily an unbal- anced stress upon activities of the iirst semester, while many second semester functions have been dealt with brieiiy or have been left out altogether. Early deadlines brought about this sit- uation. As an example, no details could be included concerning the Forum Board labor - management conference, since def- inite plans had not been made when the Forum article was submitted to the printers. 'I'he result we have tried to achieve might be termed a history based not on scholarly re- search into the causes and details of events, but rather on a selection of the most exciting, the most stimulating, and the most memorable happenings from the written and verbal reports of those for whom the book has been prepared. In addition, we have supplied an interpretation of those same happenings in the light of what we believed to be the spirit behind all of them. For the interpretation of events we have had to fall back on our own judgment in our attempt to see in today's activities a continuation of the history and traditions of Oberlin College. X YXXXSX, K,