University of Wisconsin River Falls - Meletean Yearbook (River Falls, WI)

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— .r w Wi mi mm W I I 1 I bI I I editor, orlin olbrecht associate editors, patti lind, sue Christenson photographers, richard doetkott, roger poff, orlin olbrecht editorial assistants, fronk holub, horriet kettelkomp, morlene skogen sportswriter, jim loue advisor, woyne wolfe The intent of this foreword is o departure from the usual design of such o work, It hos os its purpose not so much on introduction to the 58 Mclctcan, but to the year itself os witnessed by the students with whom this onnuol is concerned, Hope is held by the stoff thot those pages which follow will portray 1958 os it progressed on campus. With this in mind we would like to turn the discussion to hoppenings which ore unfortunotely impossible to portray in o college yeorbook.

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E.J. PRUCHA Registr Ml £ A very cheerful mon sot down for o chat with a student one day end said, The only way to help someone with a problem is to put yourself in his ploce. Even at my oge, he continued, I can still remember the problems I hod as a student. The difficulty with too many of us is that we forget too much. We forget that those things which now seem awfully small to us may meon the whole world to someone else. It's easy to blome a person for his failures. But the only thing that con really help is a little encourogement. And os the student listened, the thought come to him that he was hearing this man's philosophy of life. The imoge became more dear to him os he recalled from personol experience the many times this philosophy hod been helpful and influential. 07 1 liill Every day for the past years, students hove felt the effects of this man's philosophy. Words like, He sure is a grand guy, con almost invariably be heard whenever students walk down the steps from Mr. Prucho's office. All these things came into the student's mind as he listened and watched this jovial, yet dignified, mon puff on a pipe thot never really seemed to stay lit. As the bell rang, signalling time for other things, he was a little reluctant to leave. Because he, like most persons, wanted to talk longer with this mon who has done so many things so well.

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Students this yeor sow two major events toko their ploce in history. They saw the genesis of a new oge and for the Western World, particularly tha United States, the arrival of a now era. The coming of the space ago was an initial fulfillment of a dream that is almost as old at man. Significantly, and wo hope symbolically, the coming of this age, in contrast to the last, was heralded not by destruction, but by creation the creation of o tiny moon. Ironically, the launching of this first satellite was not greeted everywhere by shouts of |ey, nor even admiration. For in the Western World, feeling began to grow that the circling globe, small as It was, signified the beginning of a new era, a new balance of power. Immediately, there began a vest scurrying. Some of it was sincere Investigation. But much of It was little more than scapegoat-finding and me-flrsting. The offshoot of it oil was the some, howevar. Almost everyone wonted to know why the U.S. hadn't been first. This was a now experience for many Americans. They had been so long accustomed to being leaders that the second-place position was e bit unwieldy, a bit discouraging, and possibly even a bit frightening. Their mental image of Russians had to be revised. No longer could they be thought of as being slew-thinking end heavy-handed. It became obvious that their efficiency wet not totally reflected in consumer goods production- the yardstick long used to measure American progress. Some even had tha courage to wonder if cars weren't getting a trifle too large and security measures, such at tha censorship of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimcr, a little too secure. In tha end, though, tha position was never really considered seriously. Government newt releases had a tendency to label tha Russian's sputnik more of a propaganda victory than a scientific achievement. But regardless of tha light in which tha foot was considered, a national foaling still persisted that Pandora's box had been opened ell over ogoin. Trouble indeed lay ahead far the West. Public opinion clouds hung especially low on education's horixon. The humanities were crucified and the sciences blessed in an effort so spasmodic that It was rather humorous to many persons in the field. Things quieted down considerably when the Army managed to get a satellite aloft. Still, however, there wos little doubt that the U.S. had lost a lot of prestige. Sporadic attempts were being made at East-West talks on everything from Arctic inspection routes to information exchanges. But nothing really come of them. The whole situation wos reminiscent of two children arguing over a fence about who would coma play in whose backyard. The defense budgets were fat and gaining all tha time, and the order wos still standing not to fire until the whites of their ICBM trail could be seen. So, RFSC students left the campus for another yeor having witnessed the odvent of a new age and the beginning al a new era. but without having seen the world Powers come to o solution of their problems. Same of these some individuals, along with countless others, left shaking their heads. For they hod goined on insight to the true significance of this situation. They had long since realised that the difficulty lay not in finding a solution to the problem, but merely in accepting one. This realisation had come about by pursuing the world's current path to its logical conclusion: do unto others before they can do unto you. They saw that if each country continued down its nationalistic road with armies continually becoming more efficient at killing and men constantly becoming more intense at hating, the world could only wind up as one huge defense mechanism. If war were to begin somewhere along the woy life would be nothing. And if it didn't human existence would still be but a mockery. With these thoughts, a few students leaving campus in the spring of 1958 turned to finding a way whereby people would work with rather than against each other. Their insight hod shown them that only this solution could continue mon's basic purpose of exisitlng end improving.