Queens College - Silhouette Yearbook (Queens, NY)

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South America. And this entailed also a realization that we, as students in a democracy, had a responsibility which, although not as yet clearly formulated, was nevertheless reflected more and more in every day college life. So with the end of year two we cut another notch in our record cards, took a deep breath, and looked out beyond Kissena Boule- vard for further developments. After bearing up nobly for four years in the face of extravagant goings-on, the library ceiling completely collapsed and for weeks we tripped over brushes, paint pots, painters, and the Afllerbach twins in an effort to get one of the seven new books the library had acquired over the summer. This deranged scholarship. Hardly anyone was passing a course at the six weeks reporting period. But as a concession to the intellectuals, the music listening room was opened, and a sort of Beethoven Hot Club flourished. In fact, that was the year certain faculty members, who shall be nameless, managed somehow to tie four students in a radio musical quiz program where everybody snared wristwatches as prizes. Nice going, Doc. The Lower Juniors, that's us, ran riot on the Student Council, Larry Smirlock got to be president, and still was, last time anybody heard. Lil Lari was elected secretary, and Bob Rand, treasurer. The Council's first act was to approve the olhcial college seal, sans nudity, that the Board of Higher Education had accepted after some three years mature deliberation on the subject. So much for aesthetics. Our animal natures found expression in a razzle-dazzle frosh sophomore riot - which culmi- nated in that moment immortalized by Crown photography, when some poor de- pants-ed freshman, or was it a soph, climbed the lamp post in front of A building like a hunted thing to es- cape his savage pur- 54

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-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,

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suers. You should remember the pic- ture. We've been looking at it ever since. Everybody felt this exhibition could not be topped, so the oflicial rush was called off. Besides, having just won the first athletic trophy of its existence, in ping-pong of all things, the campus bruisers felt that they could ignore mere muscle for the nonce. The Crown, in sympathetic mood, denounced autumn emphasis on football and such, demanded more attention to amatory exercises. So we exercised and exercised. The first of a gripping series of an- nouncements was made about the mark- ing of the C.C. and Lit. comprehensives. 304 Lower Juniors were sure they'd Hunked anyway. And while the boys, l the big ones, were tearing out their eyelashes waiting for the results of the nation's first peace time draft, another anti-war rally took place on campus. It was just about then too that the long suffering Crown editors hazarded a timid suggestion that they be given an oflice and a couple of desks if nobody minded. They were sternly reproved for lack of pioneering spirit, and told that National Defense was holding up production. Pity the fourth estate, - but what estate? By November 29, nominations for Student Council via the petition system began, and no one could hope for a signature, even a forged one, without giving three in return. Little chalk drawings insisting that St. Joan was no angel appeared in class rooms, and Gertie Gring and Rosemary Hartman had roles in what was probably Queens College's first extravaganza-mail costumes from U. S. Steel and all. At long last the literature and arts comprehensives were published, the marks, that is. But hardly anyone, except of course the passers with distinction, noticed, in the midst of big doings which included the Winter Wonderland Formal, when Miss New York or Evelyn Pieper, according to how well you got to know her, put in an appearance. And then there was always Christmas, taxes, and final exams. The Crown received its eagerly-awaited desks, and, happy as larks, wrote a beaming little editorial entitled, Please Have a Merry Christmas. 55