University of Wisconsin Madison - Badger Yearbook (Madison, WI)

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Credit and Crescendo Monday and Wednesday at Nine O ' clock in Music Hall; Econ. la Under Kiekhofer. ' ' ITH the present national adminis- tration simmering in a mess ot alpha- bet soup tended by brain-trusting econ- omists it is only natural that the intellec- tual curiosity (such as it is) ot our univer- sity should flow in the direction ot the economist. The brunt ot the wave strikes, in no small part, on the shoulders of Professor William H. Kiekhoter, whose course in Introductory Economics is better known as £co7i a. Three times a week, during the tall semester, a horde ot seven hundred odd souls tile into the auditorium ot Music Hall to hear the silver-tongued Kiekhofer expound on the intricacies of our economic institutions. As arpeggios and arias are gently wafted from other parts ot the Prof. Kiekhofer building, the principles ot supply and de- mand compete tor the attention of the assembly — a sad state —necessitated by the fact that no other hall on the campus can cope with the numbers of the tuture Tugwells and Townsends. It would be a gross injustice, no doubt, to intimate that it took a depression to make £co?i la popular. For many year ' s Kiekhoter ' s oratory has been practically as traditional on the campus as the hand- writing on Kiekhofer ' s Wall . . . which, as he takes great pains to explain each fall, bears no connection to him. Ecoii Jdhas the reputation ot being a tough course to get a grade out of. The tavored tew in this respect are usually journalists or political science majors. The basis for such discrimination seems to rest mainly on the ability to write much ado about nothing. Their papers, being heavier by the virtue ot the additional ink placed thereon, sail farther when thrown down the stairs at the time when the grades are determined. Engineers who trequently wander into this course tind their slide rules ot no avail and atter one semester ot chastisement are glad to go back to their pipes in the plumbing school. It was once rumored that there was a student who did all of the assigned reading although no one has ever been detinitely able to verity the fact. The majority ot the inmates spend most ot their time studying from Kiekhofer ' s Outlines ot Econom- ics — a really good little book which the author constantly revises, much to the disgruntlement ot the local book stores. There is no more cosmopolitan meeting place on the entire campus than Econ la lecture. The forgotten third sits be- side the social register, the grind rubs elbows with the playboy, the star half- hack smiles on his hero worshiper. — The home-ec, the agric, the engineer, the geol- ogist, and the accountant, in tact, toute la monde gathers to pay homage to that spellbinding economist in his melting pot of the campus — ECON la. Page 2 I

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Music Appreciation Elect It As A Pipe Course, But If You Don ' t Watch Out You ' ll Learn Something. JSIC 65, more familiarly known as Music Apprech, suffers the op- probrium of being known as a notorious pipe course. ' But the strange thing about the course is that it was intended to be a pipe by its founders. The course was introduced in its pres- ent form in 1918 by Dr. C. H. Mills, after a discussion with the late President Van Hise. Though courses in music apprecia- tion had been given before this time, this was the first time that a popularized version had been offered. The two men agreed that in the hurrying days of stu- dent life, crammed to the last minute with required subjects in various literary and professional courses, there should be some cultural course which might be elected for credit by the busiest undergraduate, re- quiring no outside reading or extra work, but which might provide a much needed balance to some of the very one-sided intellectual diets. The course became popular at once . . . especially with athletes and such students as walked in tear of the dread specter eligibjht i . . . and has continued to hold its own with enrolments ot between two and three hundred regularly. The course has changed somewhat since its inception and though students are still not required to do any outside reading, examinations are given at regular periods, which show surprising results. Time and again experience has shown students who openly admitted that they took the course for an easy credit com- pleted the course with quite an astonish- ing knowledge of music as an art. When cases like this are noted. Dr. Mills feels gratified that the mission of the course has been fulfilled. Dr. Mills does for the campus what Walter Damrosch has been doing for an Dr. Mills air-minded public, selecting from his wide knowledge the high spots of every side of music, throwing in an organ recital oc- casionally, and sugaring the doses of his- tory and theory which he feels necessary for their good, to the end that they leave the course well equipped to listen intel- ligently and to enjoy the wealth of music which comes into every home by way of radio in this enlightened age. And speaking of radio, music apprech steps out from the campus into hundreds of homes through the medium of the Uni- versity Station WHA, and if we are to judge by fan mail, it is becoming as popular there as it is on the campus. All of which brings us to the ever per- plexing problem, What does the catcher say when he walks up to the pitcher. ' ' What do the football p ' ayers say in the huddle. ' Who knows but what they might be discussing the fugues they heard a few days before in Music 65- ' Page 20

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On Man and Nature From Seclusion I The Distant Past This Man Brings Fig- ures Which Lite Again w™ Prof. Otto was voic new student asks an old what course he should take, the re- ply invariably includes Philosophy 25. A cute young thing who was having her hair frizzed in the beauty parlor asked the oper- ator this ques- tion. She re- plied with the customary Man and Na- ture, and the young thing complacently answered, ' ' Yes, I think ril take that. Those are the two things I ' m most interested in. Perhaps the young lady ing the opinion of many other students. At any rate, enrollment is limited to ;oo. Although he has offered the course for years, Professor Max Otto has a way of making the students feel that the subject is as fresh to him as it is to them. With a poignancy peculiarly all his own. Professor Otto takes figures out of the dusty archives of the past and recreates Fries them into living creatures, in fact so real that one can almost see their mobile forms instead of the abbreviated stature of the lecturer on the platform. His keen compre- hension of human nature enhances his capac- ity to fascinate even the most indifferent audiences with his colorful and vivid character portrayals of such personalities as Socrates, Jesus, Saint Augustine, and others touched upon by the course. Indeed, even the reading list is an in- ducement to take Man and Nature. Books by Breasted, Papini, Plato, Hayden, and Prof. Otto are only a tew that offer personal enrichment to the student finding time to consider them. But no mere enumeration of lectures and titles can give the essence of this course so highly prized by the students. The arresting personality of Mr. Otto himself permeates every angle of the course. His life is the vital expression of the philosophy he teaches. A humanist, groping for a realization of the good life, Professor Otto believes that man- kind yet may take its own destiny con- sciously and intelligently in hand. Instructional Staff Otto Vivas BOEGHOLT Ely Page 22