University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

Page 10 text:

DEFINING The foreign student, intense and naive about his new surroundings, seeks almost desper- ately for a certain degree of americanization. If this degree is kept at bare minimum it is because the campus accepts his presence only passively. He is left to seek companion- ship among his fellows. The fraternity lad subjects himself to various indignities, pro- gressing in events from initiation to Michigras ' pie-throwing. His suffering is campusly translated as heroic honoraries will use similar methods. The idea suggests conformity and loyalty to a cause; no effort is too great for a Michibuck. L

Page 9 text:

THE DIVIDING LINES Michigan rarely generalizes itself into a mass; it exists in parts. The student learns early that he cannot work on all the levels that the university offers. He must choose and every choice imposes its own limitations, even its own stereotypes. He lives his college career tagged with defining phrases and these set in capitals- Independent, Young Democrat, maybe Phi Beta Kappa the leading ques- tions are similar. Where to house? How much to study? Who to date? Individual answers to these set up the boundaries of the Michigan group.

Page 11 text:

The professional (he ' s bending over an architectural drawing-board) takes his studies seriously and his draughtsmanship meticulously. It is part of the em- phasis his education lays on him. He learns efficiency and the painful cliche of business before pleasure. His reward is a college career concrete enough to impress the outside world, and this is his aim in life. The married student with child watches a campus dis- play of spirit with the interest of an outsider. Although his apartment may be used for parties, although he may dress baby in a small-sized M shirt, he is em- phatically not rah-rah. He makes the most intensive of students, for his family is there to remind him that it is counting on his education. The B.M.O.C. here takes his least political and perhaps- most sincere form. He has specialized his interest and worked to the top, and the Student Publications build- ing has become the center of his campus life. He studies, parties and pores over editorial copy here and invar- iably returns home (an apartment) in the early A.M. The honoraries have taken notice. The lower classman, the female in minority, is faced with the bewildering problem of adding her individuality to the eighteen thousand or so populace of Michigan. Sororities want to rush her, activities to capitalize her and the Time Schedule offers a glittering array of courses. She lives in a dorm, dines cafeteria style everything is over- sized and too big to handle.