Occidental College - La Encina Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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the city to another, to settle down in Eagle Rock and hatch buildings at irregular intervals. Now settled, the college can congratulate itself on its yearly more beautiful surroundings and its illustrious line of presidents and friends. When periodically, Rolls Royces gather on the campus, the Cccidentalite senses that the half-mythical Board of Directors is meeting somewhere on the premises. Except thus indirectly he rarely comes in contact with the Board and so fails as a rule to recognize the hard-headed practical work of these usually invis- ible personages. Another cluster of individuals, lumped under the colossal classihcation of ad- ministrative heads, directly concerns the undergraduate. At the top of this group is President Remsen Bird, who should be commended for his ability to have wonderful visions and to make them real. The student' shuns contact with deans, periodically with the Comptroller, but he commends their patient work as he does that of indefatigable Miss Brady, confessing their duties to be as involved and time-consuming as Mrs. Pipal declares hers to be.These active souls guard the students' morals, moneys, and credits. The faculty is Hrst inspiringly seen en masse in its solemn rows on the stage in chapel. Not until he is in danger of becoming a junior, however-, is the student quite aware of the existence of departments and department heads. It is then as the problem of departmental afliliation next confronts him that he watches keenly the antics of the inmates of each cell-like oflice for a clue to his choice. In Iohnson he will End the English department assertedly predominant and unques- tionably popular, under the terrifying eye of Dr. Stelter-who hates yearbooks and so will not have the pleasure of reading this. If his interests are more gross, the pupil, who has been devouring the lectures and articles ofDr. Young and his col- leagues on the depression, will gravitate towards a lively economics division, hoping to learn the possibilities of personal currency inflation. Or he may possess that probing eagerness for things past, and, doubly lured by Dr. I-Iardy's ponder- ous brow and classroom capers, will plunge into the field of history and writhe under the sharp eyes and tongues of its professors. In moments of leisure the spine-quivering voice of Chandu hypnotized some underclassmen, and they rejoice in being called Speech majors under Dr. Linds- ley, who has a tendency to inflict some of his best students on the air channels to the satisfaction of proud parents and a thus publicized Alma Mater. Down on the third floor, Dr. Lowther is versatile enough to head classical and modern lan- 4

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P RT I 1 coLLEoE g T would-seem that Occidental is becoming slyly self- conscious of her waxing beauty and prestige, and it is a chapel-talk commonplace that actually contains some degree of truth. The student recognizes this when he gazes complacently at the well-groomed campus, because in the four or even two years of his college career he has reverently witnessed many developments and changes. To the average student, the history of his college usually begins in 191 4 when the institution moved, after a perhaps merciful Ere, from Highland Park closer to the hills now definitely a part of its personality. The catalogue, by way of a paragraph annually reprinted, points out to the occasional reader additional historical facts. It was in the year 1888, in the now sniffed-at Boyle Heights dis- trict that the college first Hung open its doors. Handicapped from the start by its name, Occidental University of Los Angeles, the baby institution was nearly ex- terminated by a local depression in 1907. Despite odds, however, the school in- creased in size and importance until it was ready, after hopping from one Part of 3

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guages, both subjects guaranteeing unfailing daily lessons and tortuous compre- hensives. Two departments there are to which certain students are drawn by a sort of destiny, Those with a religious bent congregate in Dr. Ballard's class- rooms and store up ammunition for anticipated assaults upon the heathen. And the education division is a magnet of inescapable power for an appalling propor- tion of each year's class. The student looks beseechingly at the field of possible professions, resigns himself to fate, and works to grasp the credential and promise of a future job which Dr. Sinclair dangles before his eyes. The department at- tracts extremes in type, ranging from the zealous already enmeshed in practice teaching, to malcontents still hoping for escape or a millionaire, and to indolents, principally physical education fanatics. Across the quad, Fowler grinds marshall themselves under Dr, Smiley for biol- ogy and Zoology, Dr. Chandler for chemistry, Mr. Richardson for physics, and Dr. Allen for mathematics, The more aesthetic departments are isolated in the music building and upper floor of the library: art under Mi,ss Cunningham, and music from Mr. Hartley. The student sees Miss Hodgson and Mr. Kei nholz be- moaning the indifference to corpore sano on the part of some of Qxy's men and women, and observes with apprehension the departmental drive against the flat foot and chest. Whateveif the student chooses among this array, he Hnds himself carried for- ward with a body of like-creatures called his Class. He participates in voting for its officers -- preferably for ones as capable as Donovan Maiim, VVilhelmina Thomas, Muriel Goodheart, and Victor Lytle-and consciously or uncon- sciously helps form its history. He goes to the Senior-Iunior Prom, he watches the tree committee plant its little oakg he listens to the chimes and thinks that his class can do better than thatg he puts on the uncomfortable cap and gown, feels a bit silly, sits for a solemn hour or two hearing that he is on the threshold of life, then, bingo, here is the diploma converting him in an instant into an alumnus. Sadly, he has read the annual and noticed that the other classes have been carrying on much as usual: the frosh have stuck out their tongues at the sophs and the sophs have spanked them for it. The juniors have managed to find something to do, if only to elect oflicers. Things will go on without him, he concludes. His only refuge is the Alumni Association. He will attend the lecture series-some- thing he may have neglected as an undergraduate. He wonders if he will be asked to pay dues. 5