University of Pittsburgh - Owl Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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QCHOOL spirit, or Pitt spirit, is a rather dubious thing to write about if only for the reason that here at Pitt the quality is a rather dubious thing itself. The subject, too, is worn thin; it has been much mulled over and talked about; it has been alternately praised for its presence at the la St football game or decried for its absence, till Students are likely to resent even the mention of the phrase “school spirit and to be utterly unaware of its broad and general relationship to the University as a whole. As a matter of fact, a “spirit of any sort is an ambiguous and elusive thing, and even such a seemingly unghoStlike” one as a school spirit is no exception. Pitt spirit, whatever it is, cum be hedged in by no definitions. The only definite statement that can be made about it is that it either exists or it doesn't. And as far as most Students are concerned, it doesn't, and for them the matter ends there. Perhaps this isn't fair. People are aware that a sort of Pitt spirit, mild and somewhat weary, does exist. One goes to a pep” meeting, is exhorted at, accepts all exhortations meekly, resolves to show some spirit, yells, a bit sheepishly, and leaves the meeting wondering what it was all about, yet feeling virtuous and self-righteous beciuse one's duty has been done. Or, perhaps one Struggles out of a football game, battered and hoarse, but proud to be battered and more than proud to be hoarse, for these conditions are the outward and concrete signs of the elusive spirit. Inwardly, if the proper side has come out victorious, there is a glow, a desire to slap the no less battered shoulder of one's neighbor, and to exchange colorful, if somewhat hoarse, greetings. In fact, it is a fine thing to do one’s duty, since after all one is more comfortable for having done it; and it is a most interesting thing to be hoarse, but being hoarse for the glory of the football team is not only interesting but also noble. Thus, in a small way, one cm assume an heroic attitude and say, “I did my bit to win the game,” and feel entirely happy. These remarks are not intended to disparage football games, or the feeling that pervades during them. No amount of talking or writing about school spirit will make people who attend the games stop their shouting. They enjoy shouting too much. But too often, Pitt spirit is measured by the amount of noise a body of Students can make at a given athletic event. If the noise is a big one, the school has a satisfactory spirit; if the noise is but a mere echo, then the school spirit, in the words of the public, “leaves much to be desired. All this is true enough, but it is only part of the whole truth. Real Pitt spirit ought to be inclusive. And right here, the proper question is “What ought it to include?” This is not so easy to answer; at least after the Statement made above that a spirit of any sort is an elusive thing, one would be wiser, perhaps, not to attempt an answer. A constructive bit of criticism on Pitt spirit might, among other things, say that, with a good school spirit, such a thing as [26!

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achievements, that a young man dreamsare going to behis.dwindle suddenly even before school days are over. The ambitions that are spurious reveal themselves as self-pride and selfconfi-dence as a boy learns day by day in classes how much human effort has already gone before him, how huge the problems of civilization are, and how humble must be the spirit of the person who would, in the face of a splendid past, do great things in the dim future. This seems like a melancholy gain, but it is a gain, and college gives it. To see your own powers and abilities and worth in proper perspetfive with the rest of the world must be progress. Specialized training cannot help the scientist in those moments when he is not a scientist and is, instead, a perplexed human being Struggling with defeat, or lack of faith, or fear of his task, or lack of friends. University education, that sees its task as the delicate adjust-ment of a person to the world he must inhabit, that can help give courage and understanding to people who need it, and cm give the ability to enjoy life, is genuine educition. Pittsburgh has been praised as the workshop of the world, but it is not certain that it has always been a happy workshop. Industry, thoughtless of people, is a terrible mechanism that breeds poverty and discontent and bad living. There has always been inhuman concern with merchandise for its own sake, and the progress of such industry has always been towards ruin, the whole world over. To give to Pittsburgh industry men and women who are not wholly lost to the meaning of life beyond the fatfory is a great work - Pitt's to accomplish. That task is a gift, to which the Githedral of Learning dedicates itself with every line of its reaching beauty. The fogs and smoke of Pittsburgh will take the newGithedral and make it theirown; they will soften its sharp lines and fuse it with the ground of this city as no builder can. The new building will take the eyes of Pittsburgh from ugliness to beauty, from flat commonplaces to valuable achievement. The town will give to the school; the school will give to the town. That is the true “give and take that ought to occur when a university is erected. In a like manner, in things of the spirit, the Githedral of Learning will tike into its rooms native strength and honesty and ambition and will give out those good things broadened by years of sincere study, widened into a more understanding sympathy for the people who live here, and will give Pittsburgh the ability to realize its own ideals.

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cribbing would be unheard of; it might say that Students would show a proper regard for property and not cut their initials on the arms of chairs, that they would show a proper consideration for others and walk and talk quietly in the halls; it might even designate Students as “searchers after truth, who, above all things, desired — vaguely, yes, but beautifully and earnestly—desired to learn and propagate the best that is in everything. Perhaps a paper on Pitt spirit ought to say these things and much more, for all this is talk and leads nowhere. But, as has been intimated before, there is a certain vagueness in the quality as it manifests itself at the University which dc' fies exactness of definition. Besides, most people, even if they cannot phrase the thing for themselves, recognize the quality when it does exist, and in this case, when it does not exist to any great extent, most Students arc conscious of its lack of presence. Very often people are heard to say that here at Pitt there can be no real school spirit because there is no real canv pus life, that the buildings are too scattered, but that when the Cathedral of Learning is built and there is a campus minus Steps and hills, with dormitories on it, then a mysterious something or other shall emerge from somewhere or other and enfold us all; and where before there was no school spirit at all, there suddenly shall be school spirit, and everybody will be most happy forever after. This, of course, is a matter of con' jeCture and remains to be seen. But do these people mean that the Cathedral of Learning—in the baldest terms, a mere Structure of stone and mortar—shall have the power to make Students yell more lustily at football games, and that this sudden and concrete development of the spirit shall Stop the increasing dis-satisfaction Students are experiencing with the rather artificial school life? And do they mean that this building shall develop in people qualities that never existed before, make poets from clods, and high priests from ordinary laymen? The building itself, of course, means much, but it is rather the people who will give life to the Stones—for all that the Stones shall be very beau-tiful to begin with—who will create whatever spirit there is in them to create, nothing more, nothing less. And there is at this University now a rare opportunity to create the inclusive spirit it now lacks, and opportunity to do things. “It is not our fear that we may do something wrong, but that we may do nothing —a wise motto, but the fear of doing something wrong, it seems, remains a fear, and nothing is done. Students are in an attitude of “watchful waiting —waiting for something to happen, something that is sure to happen, if they wait long enough and watch hard enough. And all the waiting these days seems to center about the new building they shall one day have, which shall suddenly revolutionize learning, and viewpoints, and many other things. In the meantime, the opportunity slips by. It is indeed a fine spirit that would conceive and build a Cathedral of Learning, but it isamuch finer spirit that would be worthy of animating the mere pile of Stone and mortar into the living symbol of the spirit which in turn created it. I 27 I