University of Oregon - Oregana Yearbook (Eugene, OR)

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ighteen Reflections

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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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' tha- AWN mmHgsmngi aflgm wwvmgmsw 422:: .L' g ; WM, 2 a ,2 :2 2W -Mw: l: H 2 ' 3 i 3,; L f i it ii fl; , 3 . .2 , g 22 a . 2 ' 2222 ADVANTAGES OF A SMALL COLLEGE S the University strides onward in the march of progress, ever, after a backward glance, she gathers more tightly around her the gar- ments of the past, and clings to those blessings that survive from the beginning, counting the good works of today of far more value than the good works of the far future. Among those precious garments, woven in the past and still worn proudly, are the privileges of a small University. 2 Students from past years love Oregon as a home, where they knew all their classmates, loved every one of their professors, and helped in building the institution from the foundation. They knew each other- that was the prime blessing of the very small college. It was in this at- mosphere that the Oregon Spirit grew to maturity. At the University this year, with the sixteen hundred students, we have enjoyed, perhaps for the last time, the same traditions and the same privileges. We have known every professor on the campus by name and department, by Virtue and failing. We know our students, and when we have to leave it is leaving home to go into strange places where faces are unfamiliar and characters unknown. Our students do not lose themselves in the crowd. They do not re- main insignificant because of overcrowding. Every man has a chance to become known on the campus, and every woman can meet every other woman until she knows her intimately. When our student body presi- dent becomes ill, or a delegation goes to Des Moines, it means more than a name or names. We miss a familiar presence on the campus, and we know without being told that the delegation has returned, for we know the students in person. In our student body elections, we vote by knowledge, and' not by hearsay; we choose for character and not for reputation. We know the candidates as they will never be known in later life. The spirit of democracy that Oregon began life with will not dis- appear from the campus, although her forty years have brought her to the point 0f becoming a large University. It is not that trite thing that politicians harp on, but the Oregon Spirit now, that smiling, genial, good sportsmanlike and loyal spirit that Visitors recognize so quickly, and that we all know and try to keep alive. 2 These then, are the garments of the University on her march along the Victory Way, and with her on the road travels the Oregon'Spirit, born in our weakness, but undaunted by strength and numbers, growing stronger withthe years. Nineteen v. ,. V 2 . y 2 l rang- y :2 f. ' , . '3 uhixixmae Nu: Xv - r