Temple University - Templar Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

Page 10 text:

Many of the students' complaints arc well-founded. The school is very big, with a current enrollment of 31,700. The subways are unsafe and the buses slow. There is not enough legal parking space. Tuition has more than doubled since the senior entered. There are lines for everything, from registering to eating to paying deferred final fees. University bureaucrats don't seem to care about the student and his opinions are too often ignored when decisions are made. The requirements of basic studies and departmental programs strive to realize the program designers' vision of the well-rounded person. The large lecture halls are over-crowded. Many of the instructors dislike teaching, and do so only because it is required to do their research. And so the majority of Temple students try to make their long, unpleasant Temple experience as short as possible, reducing it to a subway or carpool ride, two or three consecutive classes, followed immediately by a return trip home. They complain to each other about the intellectual and social void, the absence of a campus, and the lack of any interesting activities at this, the commuter school. By limiting his associations to those who want to fulfill their pessimistic view of Temple, the student ignores the offerings of the school he does not want to see.

Page 12 text:

But there are some who see more than Temple's faults. Whether they are students from out of the city or state who came to Temple by choice, dorm students who. because they are on campus so much, become involved, or commuters who want more than most and are willing to look or work for it, they see opportunities for good at Temple. They are aware of good classes and professors. The small seminars. The chance to do undergraduate scientific research not found at a big university where grad students take all of the instructors’ time, or at a smaller, poorer institution. The ivy, flowers and wild mushrooms that grow in the cracks in the concrete and bricks. The quiet comers in Speakman and the library, and the empty stretch of grass between Beury and the Life Sciences Building where one can be alone. The schools of education and business, and the departments of RTF and biology that rank with any in the country. They take advantage of the variety of campus events that occur outside the classroom. The football and basketball games, and the championship fencing team meets. The Friday night popular movies, and afternoon concerts SUB sponsors. The orchestral and vocal concerts the College of Music presents even’ week. The sports events between different fraternities, dorms, and campus groups. The more than 100 political, social, sen’ice, and interest groups. The many art exhibits displayed in the library, Mitten Hall, and the Student Activities Center. The lectures sponsored by the departments and offices of the University, ranging from quantum mechanics to women’s lib to the history of the Beatles. s