Queens College - Silhouette Yearbook (Queens, NY)

Page 56 text:

those famous compre- hensives were made. In the face of immi- nent student revolt Dr. Harry Rivlin ex- plained, YVe should like to measure the studentys ability to use information and skills he has ac- quired. Naive, wasn't he? 1 Besides the social science lab, the col- lege acquired that chiefest ornament of the Dead End Boys, galaxy, Dr. Arthur Gayer, replete with English accent and French panty waists, and Dr. Gaudens Megaro, given to annihilating this wor1d's follies by the mere shrug of his tongue. Other popular entertainments included the Playshop's production of the Night of January l6th with Helen Steinreich very effective in the lead. Everybody had a wild time decid- ing guilty and not guilty on the successive nights, just about then the music department inaugurated its series of strictly S.R.O. musicals with joe fBalladej Machlis laying them in the aisles. The Winter Wonderland Dance, with all the sloppy jacket men very fetching indeed in immaculate tux, and the sweater and skirt gals glamorous beyond recognition in evening gowns, heralded the term's end in festive spirit, as did the exciting council elections, the basketball victories, and the announcement of a 347,000 appropriation for a parking field. It seemed a little gaudy for the cosmic brand of Ford's mistakes that we rode around in, but never look a gift horse in the mouth, we always say. 1 1,734 which somebody said was the official enrollment figure for January, 1940, suddenly seemed 1700 too many for our weary halls. Chair space at the cafeteria became a major problem in the life of one o'clock lunchers, and lounge-lizarding, as a profession, was distinctly overcrowded. Little pools of people began to form around the library desk, and Miss Gram, knowing her demand-supply theory of prices cold, promptly raised tuna fish sandwiches two cents. 7 Maybe it was this awareness of the Cost-of-Living that provided a stimulus to investigate the world outside. But by spring we were in the thick of it. Those were the days of the Bertrand Russell question

Page 55 text:

fof faculty baby picturesj and a marriage booth before which Dean Kiely warned a blushing Mr. Garvey that this was his last chance. We could see the Trylon and the parachute jump growing out of the Flushing swamps that term and we invited the King and Queen of England to visit us on their way to Washington. Nothing happened on either count. The Playshop presented its first major production, Candida, and Chris Quinby in the title role struggled valiently with the booming fireworks from the Fair for the attention of the audience all through the third act. Vaguely surprised, we were taking exams. With a year to our credit we think we were saner, College, Queens College, wasn't saddle shoes and Junior Proms and convertibles and tres gay, College, Queens College, was subways, wind, Paul Klapper, a cigarette - good. SUPHUMUHES September, '39 - for us the beginnings of a second college year. For the world the beginnings of a second world war. The campus got socially significant, Father Coughlin was a fighting word, and inter- national policies were weighed and found wanting over cokes in the cafeteria. But active war on the home front confined itself to guerrilla tactics of sophs-versus-frosh. We were big stuff now, and out, liter- ally, for somebody's pants. In October that perennial orphan child-the SAO-was inaugurated with chairman Tom Dent's vocal banners flying. It was probably an awfully good idea, but nobody cared much one way or the other. A building became Walt Whitman Hall, with gilt letters to prove it, and everyone still called it A building. Similarly, the administration building became Jefferson Hall, and, appropriately enough, a bust of jefferson by Piccirilli was installed in the lobby. A few stray bicycle racks and park benches, plus some anemic looking trees along the ramp were new milestones on our way to the science-building-athletic stadium-library pipe dreams of our inmates. And the Crown actually ran pictures of the Queens College of the Future, all imposing glass brick and streamlined as anything. It was during this semester too that the announcements presaging 51

Page 57 text:

-ten days that shook our world. The whole furor centered in the stand Student Council would take on a petition protesting Russell's removal from the C.C.N.Y. faculty. The Council preferred to ignore the whole matter on the theory that who was to get the Upper Lounge for the next dance was the full scope of their concern. But front page Crown editorials, plus a bevy of sinister-looking, black-bearded, bomb-toting ANARCHISTS changed that in a hurry. The following week, in a turn about, it voted for the circulation of the petitions and the week after that reversed itself again in a I3-I2 vote against circulation. The Council bore more than a passing resemblance to a top, and in the days of righteous even gleeful indignation that followed, it was decided to refer the whole matter to President Klapper. But the aftermath was felt in the nearest the college has ever come to a rootin' tootin' political battle over Council elections. lt mattered hardly at all that johnny had once lent you his C. C. 3 notes, or that Mary had the nicest smile on the CZISL side of the campus. Anybody who hoped to become the ward heeler of Spanish 2C or its equivalent, had to take a granite-like stand of the Affaire Russell, the R.O.T.C., the war, and the care and feeding of owls in the attic. XVe had dis- covered popular sovereignty, and we ate it up. Mildred Cleary, Lil Lari, Dave Sinowitz, Bob Rand, and Larry Smirlock got themselves elected. There were other indications of the trend. Like the penny raising campaign to send telegrams protesting Roosevelt's armament bill which 48 classes sent. And the second turnout on the April 26th peace rally where Roger Baldwin told of his sojourn in jail during the last war to an enthusiastic audience. The second page of the Crown became an ideological battle ground where bloody but unbowed students sounded off and were sounded off on their opinions of the outside currents that whirled around our green acres. There was an increas- ing realization that Queens College was somehow involved in wha t happened in lfVashington, London, Berlin, M un ich,