University of Oregon - Oregana Yearbook (Eugene, OR)

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COOPERATION BETWEEN FACULTY AND STUDENTS ' NE of the finest of Oregonis many traditions is the ease and infor- malityethe human and humane spiritethat characterizes the contact between student and faculty member. Everyone has no- ticed how frequently it happens that a professor who has left Oregon for some larger institution is found within a few months trying to come back. There are many reasons; one is that to his students here he is neither god nor devil: merely an erring human being of like clay with them- selves, entitled to be regarded as a perfect equal. The impression the local campus life seemed to make on a distin- guished professor from a big Eastern University who passed an evening at a faculty iireside not long ago is indicative of the spirit here. The conversation drifted into yarns told by the Oregon men about various students of the current and past years. The Visitor was amazed at the intimate knowledge displayed of the students history; his family, early life, difficulties and struggles, disposition and character, and, of gradu- ates, of their career since leaving the academic halls. His own students were to him Virtually strangers. He had never before dreamed of a life where the four years might result in personal, lifelong friendship be- tween instructor and student. Sometimes a Visitor is offended at first when he notices that the freshman addresses the oldest and most dignified scholars in the institu- tion with an inconsequent tlHelloXl He does not see how it is compatible with due respect. The fact is that there is a double respect shown on the Oregon campus. The student almost never oversteps the bounds of good manners and kindly feeling in his relation with the faculty, while on the other hand a genuine and hearty respect by the older man for the well- behaved undergraduate is not only felt but frankly shown. The Oregon spirit on all this matter was exemplified recently by the student who went over to the office of his major professor on Commence- ment day just after he had received his sheepskin. Being graduated, he naturally and without comment began calling the professor by his first name, and has done so ever since. Seventeen

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ighteen Reflections