Stanford University - Quad Yearbook (Palo Alto, CA)

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y gg - .QCfa' N ' -ff' . Q fa' 1 vi ' e ...YH .IQLQ By Felicity Barringer So it goes. -from Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Day is following uneventful day, task following unmomentous task. Stanford is deep into its quarter of rest. Something built into Autumn Quarter is driving people away from the campus or within themselves. The reality of day following uneventful day, of blissful or stifling calm, of time alone now rules the campus. Gone is the urgency of Spring. Gone, for the moment at least, the omnipresent demands for political consciousness. Football commands whatever energy this quarter has seen, people can forgo politics for a while. The Rose Bowl is closer than the Revolution. Escapism is hovering in the air. Weekends see a mass exodus-to Yosemite, to the beach, to the south-away. The air is changing, brisk, a few leaves are falling. Stanford is too big for those looking within themselves, too small for those looking out at the world. The rain came early this year. lt waited around long enough to let people know that it was coming-then it fell, drab and methodical. So itgoes. Wander up near the knoll. There's organ music flowing from the Music building. The same notes, over and over. Wander down by the lake. They've started dumping the l V 1 x ,,. ,.f:1vr -',4f'..e' - - f l . v ., ..g. 1- V Q , i i' DL .. 53' LH - nw. - i - Mural' ln' 1 7, frail.. HW'

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Universities, must become true communities whose members share a sense of respect, tolerance, and responsibility for one another. One of the most valid criticisms of many universities is that their faculties have become so involved inioutside research that their commitment to teaching seems compromised. We urge universities and faculty members to reduce their outside service commitments. We recognize that alternative sources of university funding will have to be developed to take the place of the money attached to these outside commitments. Realistically, this will mean more unrestricted government aid to higher education. Large universities should take steps to decentralize or reorganize to make possible a more human scale. Students must accept the responsibility of presenting their ideas in a reasonable and persuasive manner. They must recognize that they are citizens of a nation which was founded on tolerance and diversity, and they must become more understanding of those with whom they differ. Students must face the fact that giving moral support to those who are planning violent action is morally despicable. 'W 'uf +-Yu Academic institutions must be free-from outside interference and free from internal intimidation. Far too many people who should know better-both within university communities and outside them-have forgotten this first principle of academic freedom. The pursuit of knowledge cannot continue without the free exchange of ideas. This commission is only too aware of Americas shortcomings. Yet we are almost a nation of enduring strength. Millions of Americans-generations past and present-have given their vision, their energy, and their patient labor to make us a more just nation and a more human people. We who seek to change America today build on their accomplishments and enjoy the freedoms they won for us. lt is a considerable inheritance, we must not squander or destroy it.

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crates and the poles that will eventually be the fuel for the Big Game bonfire. Now kids are using it as a fort. There are burrs all over the bottom of Lake Lag. They catch on your socks when you go walking down there. Leafletters are still prowling White Plaza, telling you to work for Riles, or Tunney, or to vote for their Student Senate candidate. But there are no noon rallies any more. There are problem sets to do. Books to read. Thoughts to think. So it goes. Freshmen are well into their new gran'falIoons. Freshman dorms, Western Civ lthat isn't really Western Civl, Freshman seminars, all the faces that will keep reappearing for the next three years. And there are more gran'falloons to come-overseas groups, labs-more faces, more acquaintances. Older students are passing those faces on Quad, smiling with vague recognition, and trying to remember which gran'fallon that face belonged to. Last year there was the lVloratorium. This year there are the elections. Last year hundreds turned out to choose between the black and the white, and say no, we do not agree. This year there is the greyness of reality, of men who are sort of good and sort of bad, the greyness of having no absolutes. Well, even if there are no absolutes, there still are problem sets to do, there still are books to read, there still are assignments to finish. So it goes. l wandered into the dining room the other day, insipid, uninspired, to see a familiar bearded figure bent over his books. I asked what he'd like to be doing, what would turn him on at that point in time. He looked up, thought a few seconds, and said, Getting on my bicycle, riding it up to the foothills, turning around and looking back at campus. Then riding down to the beach. Running naked along the beach for ten miles or so. Diving into the surf, and then having scuba gear on, and going looking for things. I was caught up'in his flight of fancy, and followed him over the foothills. I murmured some response. Yeah, he said. Back to differential equations. The campus is back to differential equations. There's football on the lawns behind Wilbur, basketball behind Roble, pot parties in Stern, booking everywhere. Stillness, too. Everywhere. So it goes. 95 'n N v .' .1 . xs- Q-'- I . 'i:,, 1 L I. wt