St Edwards University - Tower Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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“Tennis can be fun,” says girls’ tennis team members Nora Sheridan, Paula Valis, Paulette Valis, Coach Daniel and others. Youth is the most precious gift that was given to man. It is a training period for the future leaders of our town, state and country. Through various opportunities students at St. Edwards are encouraged to find their most outstanding qualities and to develop them. All students are inspired to put forth work and effort to create a good image through higher positions of leadership. The students become a reflection of an image that creates in those who follow a desire for a profit- able and good life. DRAMATIC DISAPPOINT MENT Watching listening touching we are learning about our world. “Let us not look forward in fear, nor back in anger, but around in AWARENESS.” James Thurber 205

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WILL THE REAL VACUUM PLEASE STAND UP?! When the world was somewhat younger, and I somewhat sillier, the meaning of things seemed worth discovering. A friend watched with amusement my efforts at personal philosophy. Eventually he agreed to help, and his S.E.U. philosophy background (the Fr. Brady school of misconceptions) afforded him ready answers. He could have parroted that old standby: ““‘being’ is an analogous concept, realized in actuality and potentiality.” But he preferred the simpler truths... non-being is not real; reality is a drag. Perhaps this seems a bit obvious; so be it, I shall make no apologies for the truth as I see it. My friend was also a poet... School is for the fool, who wants to learn a rule; but doesn’t want to use it as a tool to make his life cool. Such cynicism is necessary to prepare the reader for what my friend believed was the meaning of things ... YOU MUST CALMLY FACE THE CRAP AND WASTE AND MADDENING MEDIOCRITY OF LIFE AND SEARCH FOR THE GOOD THAT IS OBSCURED. NOT EVERYONE IS A VACUUM, NOT EVERYONE IS A FOOL. IN FACT MY FRIEND THOUGHT THE NUMBER OF SUCH PEOPLE WAS VERY SMALL, THE TRICK IS TO BE ABLE TO SPOT THEM IN THE CROWD. WOULDN’T IT BE WONDERFUL IF WE COULD GET THEM TO STAND UP AND FREELY ACKNOWL- EDGE THEMSELVES. Pressing onward, I would like to apologize to the women athletes of S.E.U. for not covering all their activities in this edition of TOWER. I was solely responsible for the layout of all sports. Yet new women’s teams kept springing up with every layout revision. Time grew short and I conceded defeat. So to women’s varsity basketball, women’s tennis and whatever else, I acknowledge your efforts and faithfully promise adequate coverage next year. To those who see in this annual reason for complaint, I would 204 like to offer a standing invitation to come and help. If anyone disliked the heavy reliance on photographs of lovely young ladies, they must understand that this is the bulk of what the photog- raphers provided ...and I loved it!!! Perhaps things would have been different if all three girl staff members hadn’t quit . . . women’s liberation 1975. THE HILLTOPPER, TOWER’s sister in sin, has been revitalized this year under the direction of editor Pete Thaddeus. There is the promise of a weekly paper next year, an ambitious project that Pete is certainly capable of handling. Special mention is made of those who made Pete a success... Minerva Anaya and Vilma Fuentes. Honorable mention goes to Fr. Thomas Windberg for maintaining a vigorous though loyal opposition. In case you haven’t heard, the “in” thing around campus is to live in dormitories again. DO YOU HEAR THAT EVERYBODY, COME ON BACK. THEY PROMISE 1 to keep rectors out of the rooms 2 to clean the bathrooms 3 to sweep the halls 4 to keep down the noise 5 to cut down on those “really relevant” dorm meetings AND THE FOOD IS GOING TO BE GOOD AND EVERYTHING. OF COURSE, once you sign that housing contract there is no way out. That contract used to have an escape clause, until “yours truly” tried to escape. They agreed to honor the clause only after we arranged to have a lawyer look into the matter. So I am free, and there is no more escape clause. BUT WHAT THE HELL, WE’RE JUST ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY AND WE TRUST EACH OTHER AND ANYWAY THEY’RE GOING TO CLEAN THE BATHROOMS THISSTIM Ese For what it’s worth St. Ed’s., even though I hate your guts, Pll always love your body. Jonathan A. Bailey

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ah OE There are so many varied subjects one could talk about, I might as well start shooting away. Right from the beginning I should have guessed I was in for an experience when I had to drive over 13 or more speed bumps to get from South Congress to Premont Hall. I expected my educational process to tend with ups and downs, but speed bumps? What a cultural shock it was to go through days without hearing English! I began to get a complex for not knowing Chinese, Arabic and Spanish, Es Verdad? Attending this Mini-U.N. was going to become a “true Happening.” Registration was and has always been a new adventure. I panicked immediately when everyone else had an advisor freshman year except me. Brother Stephen took me by the hand and led me to Sr. Aggie Lou. From then on it’s been fun times between the two of us. (I hope you are reading this, Dear Sister) Being here eight semesters later I have undergone registration eight different ways. You would think the school had found the perfect method, but you know how St. Ed’s is...like the Ford Motor Company—They always have a better idea. The Cafeteria has undergone drastic changes in the past 4 years. As a freshman we had Mr. Forbes who produced some pretty good meals. His ticket stamper was Ms. Dixie, a fiftiesh hotsy-totsy from way back. Then we went to John Watkins who wore the one inch neckties. Under his management we went through the food coupon program. Poor John couldn’t understand why on steak night he had to order over 700 steaks for only 300 on-campus people. Something definitely was not Kosher! I don’t see how he couldn’t see that St. Ed’s was feeding every Tom, Dick, Harry and Mary in Austin. I know of some off-campus students who never had to cook in their apartments all year. When asked why the procedure was not stopped, Mr. Chuck Hulick, the dead ringer of Tim Conway from McHale’s Navy, replied, “We thought the students wouldn’t like it if we ended the setup.” Next in line as head cheese of the “cafe” was Mrs. Chiang, a pleasant lady who figured that our bodies should be programmed like computers for food intake. You should only have 4 oz. of this and 2 oz. of that; no more; so sorry! I should have bought stock in 206 “Parting Shote McDonald’s that time, probably would have been rubbing elbows with Jackie and Ari at Club 21. Now we have Mr. Mancuso who looks like he enjoys his job. My congratulations to him for getting everyone regular again. He seems to be making the cafe a respectable eating establishment. I couldn’t end without addressing the health center predica- ment. I had told friends previously (before the present set-up) that if I should ever be hurt on campus not to take me to the Health Center. I was to be shot at once and let die in peace. For damn sure, any nurse who gave enemas for a cut finger would never touch me while I was conscious. All is not bad, my friends, at St. Eddie’s. I sti ll haven’t talked - about some of the people here, namely my roommates. One is the reject from the Smith Brothers Coughdrop box, Jim Nerad. I’ll never forget meeting Jim for the first time. I hated him! Any person who had that much hair on his face for being so young was not my kind of person. Geez, it took me two months to get a few hairs under my nose! The other roomie is Mike Ruttle, the other member of the Lewis and Clark expedition! Mike is the kind of person who can give you a nervous breakdown after talking to him for two minutes. Mike and I go back to freshman year. We used to get drunk every Friday night on a bottle of Boone’s Farm Apple Wine and miss the midnight Humphrey Bogart movie. By sophomore year we expanded our drunken stupor to Friday and Saturday nights. By that time the Bogart movies were taken off the air, but it didn’t matter, we never made it to midnight, remember? My two roomies, Jim (the Bearded Wonder) and Mike (the Mountain Climbing, Judo Chopping, Bad Boy) made my stay at St. Ed’s the most pleasurable time in my life. All St. Ed’s students are like that. They make this university the crazy, hilarious, and great place it is. This school provides an academic education plus a social education. You’ve got to have both to make it in this world, and thanks to St. Edward’s I feel I have gotten the best of the two worlds. If you haven’t, you’ve missed the boat and the last parting shot is at you. V. J. Tramonte, Esq.