University of Pittsburgh - Owl Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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The feeling of quiet and rest always overhanging the University campus is disturbed by never-ending clashes and activities. Students move along sidewalks, up steps, chattering, quickly stepping. We feel the gothic spirituality of the Cathedral of Learning, though we feel, too, threats of collapse, groundless but inherent in a building whose long unbroken verticals explode into web-like stone work at the very top. The static Grecian tranquility and omnipotent assurance of Alumni Hall overlooks Gothic spirituality and clashes with it. But differences may be discounted before uses. Are the buildings part of an educational process which concerns itself with the challenge of a monotonous present? Does it concern itself only with oncc-vital thoughts of the past and with scientifically precise and unemotional inquiries into things? Look at the weeping-willow before Thaw Hall. The freshness and vigor of trees is endlessly real. The weeping-willow asks a question; it docs not answer it. It asks whether its vitality can find a counterpart in the spirit of the University.

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In a place set apart for helping men and women to find their way intellectually and socially the seniors have now lived four years. Much has gone into their living of those years. Books and lectures, journalism and creative writing, sports and fraternities, friendships, time to think. A wealth of food for thought there has been. All the college life of the seniors has been lived within a period of great social and economic unrest. For some years they have seen men torn loose from employment; they have seen their own families' incomes shrink; they have been forced into contact with the stimuli for serious thinking which institutions out-of-order provide for the people they govern. Not only that, they have come to college at a time when the questioning of the basic concepts of our society has forced every person to define his position toward intellectual movements. For the seniors the University has been no cloister withdrawn from the grim suffering of city streets and the colossal greed of men and nations. But there have been, besides, days of satisfying surrender to learning, hours of stimulating companionship, and moments of delight in the spring green of hillside lawns and the upward reaches of the Cathedral. Enthusiasms in sports and social occasions have had their place. All these factors that determine the pattern of college life are important. In them is rooted a strength and inspiration that, coupled with a determination to relate education to actuality, are the best gifts a university can give to its men and women.