University of Minnesota - Gopher Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

Page 30 text:

Ilii h lights and shaiUm-s along the River Road It is the atmosphere of a place that rests in the memory. Of all the lasting impressions of four years at the Universi- ty, those subconscious associations that are generally termed atmosphere are universally more perpetual than any others. The knoll, the shady oaks, Folwell Hall, and the Old Armory are meaningless functions to the under- graduate when he views Miwiesota for the first time. But as he ages with the institution he somehow acquires the spirit of the place, the feel of the campus. There is a certain vague ideal- ism about it all which beautifies and makes more delicate the memories of his college days. SPIRIT OF MINNESOTA ' I ' Hl ' .RK is nniu ' , they tell us. They look upon the great 1 hriik l)uil(iiiigs, constructed with scientific anci im- personal perfection, the zig-zag pattern of campus walks where thousands daily come and go, passing in haste from hour to hour, dri ' en like silly mechanical toys throughout a destined space of time. They look upon this, and they sigh and they say that there is no spirit behind it all, that the cold brick walls tell only a barren tale of proud and greedy wealth, a story whose theme is speed and efficiencN , and whose hero is the dollar — a story without a soul. The - (k ' ljlore the age in which commercialism is supreme — an age in which lousiness men and not school men determine the policies and set the standards of our colleges and uni- versities. But who are they that speak thus? They are the c ' nics, the men who are ignorant of the beautiful histor ' of Minnesota ' s struggle and growth, and the men who lack ihat precious inner sight which permits of fine perceptions and sentiments. For school spirit is not alone a feeling in- spired by ivied walls and vesper chimes and storied ritual. 1 1 is that deeper, inner, intangible somethin« which perx ades a whole university and gives to an institution that is large and broadly impersonal, both by nature and by necessity, a soul. It has its beginning and its end in men — the men who once conceived the idea of a great school w here the youth from the whole country might come and partake of the wisdom of the ages, ancient and modern, and build up a race inbued with all the arts and all the philosophies and all the sciences that are the dear heritage of ci ' ilized man. It comes from those men who gave their minds, their en- ergies, their hearts to the long, hard task of making what was a dream of the unsettled eighties a reality and a splen- did growing thing, from those men who will, through the years, carry the work upward and onward beyond even the fondest imaginings of its founders, and, most of all, from the men who know it now as the place where the - are shaping their li es in an age of wonder. And Minnesota has such a spirit. It is the essence of our union. It is the cause and the justification of our pride in glorious achie ements and glorious men. Like a taint n kM . 41 ' . ■ V wKSps i L : ; •-, i?i« if - •V -- JF ,.- ' i - -J?- ■ ifv - i ' ' ' 4 ' - ' ' LKK ir.fP ' «, itr KJXji ' i f • ■ --: ■» ' ■ iS i Hp M HB v ' y B BPBBjI U «2jg l 1 1 . ■ 1 memmmm The natural l eautv of the knoll and Pillsburv monument in the fall Page 24