University of Chicago - Cap and Gown Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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Alf! pminous sign was football practice in Stagg Fieldhhut in this instance. it was only practwe kickmg iOr the touc-h-inu'a-mural contests. but an examination of the Autumn elections--a1most the only instance where the student body en bloc expressed its desireshshows the elements of the changing campus. Never had the left-wing political party been dealt such defeat. S.E.P. took only three seats ftwo hy defaultt. Once again they had raised the 01d issues-primarily LT.S.-Soviet student exchangehbut this time failed to catch fire. The campus wastft interested in remaking the world, they were interested in what Student Government could do for them here and now. 5.3.13. was about seven years too latehthe student body voted its approval of I.S.Lf5 tHatine-age hook exchange. More significant was the fact that S.E.P. candidates did not reHect the new campus. The same sordid left-wing Bohemian types were trotted-out, went down this time to defeat while a clean-cut slate of 1.5.1... candidates eased to victory. Fer the first Th0 apparrt was changing 100; Bermuda short; began to appear on malt as. well ag female,

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One outstanding cxent wholly new to the campus was the Festival of the Arts. a week-end bonanza which found bizarre. stuv dents puahing the BeaumArts Ball, the largest dance at the season. the most ttrah-rah of students were worried that they had pushed too far. After watching a week which saw at least a half-dozen wilder-than-normal parties every night, some began to wonder whether the cam- pus had skipped that Ivy League spirit they desired, plunged rather into the raucous oomph Of the Big Ten. Their fears were not founded, hewever. As soon as the students, new and old, were once again caught- up in the maze of studies, classes, books, extra-eur- 12 ricular activities resumed their normal picture. But the normal picture in 1955 was different. If the stu- dents lacked the time to remake the campus, they at least gave support to those who were pushing it their way. The Student Government elections in October showed tperhaps onee-andwfor-aln that S.E.P. had failed to grasp the essential feelings of students on the campus. One observer has remarked that u'1 here is a permanent majority for 1.8L. on this campus,,,

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time a fraternity man was chosen S.Cy. president. The social picture changed too. Never, according to old-limers, was so much attention paid by the cam; pus to the activities of the fraternities and clubs. LF. Ball, I. C. Ball. rushing were the focal points of many weeks, discussion, and while expectations were not al- ways reached1 19551-55 marked the hrst year of the return of fraternities and clubs to the lifeblood of the campus. Their aloofness was gone, the Greeks plunged into campus activity with a vengeance. No longer scorned, overlooked, forgotten, alert, competent leader- ship in the fraternities and clubs grabbed-off their share of the activities pie. The organizations them- selves were no longer willing to cast out a competent leader merely because he was a member of a frater- nity. Some attractions were holdovers from a campus segment that seemed t ' ' to be dying. Even the Folklore Society had their concert in the Fiji One tmportant orgattlzatmn on campus was forced House- to undergo drastic: re-orientation to meet this changing The many, varied. competing events still held an attrattion for the newer type of student as the bulletin boards displayed the notices 01 a differ- ent party, movie, meeting 14