University of Nebraska Kearney - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Kearney, NE)

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College—-just a learning center? As recently as ten years ago, college might have been described as an institution of higher learn- ing where the country’s youth learned how to push the Ameri- can way of life off onto the rest of the world. Students learned: the advan- tages and opportunities of democ- racy such as the right to vote, ex- ercised no place more than in the Deep South; the wonders of ge- ography, and all of the American- dominated protectorates around the world; and the simplicity and beauty of the English language which everyone should learn. The colleges today are still centers of higher learning, but now, semantics is involved. Things have started to change on the campuses. People arc begin- ning to realize that capitalism, racism and apple pie aren't the answers to everyone’s hangups and that ecology and people’s wel- fare arc more important than fringe benefits, GTO’s, and John Barleycorn. Relevance is stressed in college today, and courses are conducted accordingly. Students and teachers are reflecting the concern found in today’s colleges. The concern is being passed onto the public. 9

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‘How can we become involved, do our own thing?’ Become Involved! Do Your Own Thing. Apathy! These cries are heard and seen daily wherever we go or wherever we look. And yet we wonder, how do they apply to us? We are urged to join this club and that organization—to con- form to a group and take an active part in their projects. It seems that we must all be involved and caught up in the rush of the world. Then we are told not to con- form but to be an individualist. We should seek our own goals and do what interests us. But if we aren’t concerned about something and don’t take an inter- est and become involved in it, we are labeled apathetic. These statements seem contra- dictory and society seems to expect the impossible. We are criticized if we conform too much but rejected if we do only our own thing. It seems that we must compro- mise and reach a happy medium of these ideals. We must learn to have a broad general interest in many areas but we must find one special area—one special interest —that we devote most of our ef- forts to. 10