University of Massachusetts Amherst - Index Yearbook (Amherst, MA)

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and before the Languages and Literature Club brought forth a large and appreciative audience. Throughout the year, Social Union and Fine Arts brought excellent entertainment to campus. Most enjoyable of all — the Chekhov players ' Twelfth Night — started Social Union in full swing. Other popular Social Union per- formances were those of violinist Dushkin, the American Ballad Singers, and the three Roister Doister one-act plays. This year the Fine Arts series consisted of informal talks about poetry, painting, and music led by campus men who encouraged student discussion. The Most Social of Animals With fall came the hunting season and M. S. C. went after Big Game: they set their traps, lured their quarries, and, when they had them cornered, sicked their hounds upon them. Thegame, unsuspecting freshmen; the hunters, smooth sorority sisters and friendly fraternity men. Beginning on Student Leader Day in the spring with, Say, Jack, old boy ! Why don ' t you come down to the house! and continuing in the summer through the media of those lovely letters from upperclassmen, rushing extended its exact season. Fall is the time for all good houses to jam closets full of trash, to hide bottles under beds, and to serve steak and chicken to freshmen with caf -starved stomachs. The two-week period of concentrated rushing for the men this fall netted only 47% of the class. For the coeds, however, rushing did not officially begin until a Round-Robin tea on October fifteenth; rushing was kept open with open house on the following Thursday and continued until November fifteenth. Even during rushing season campus activi- ties managed to survive; and the weekend of November seventh found hordes of people, a transformed cage, men holding meters (that ticked off over seventeen thousand people), girls with gardenias, yum-yum apples, pottery piggy banks, and flowers everywhere. This all meant Hort Show, big f all event. As usual the Hort Show reflected the interest of the students even while it carried out a Victorian theme, and placed its emphasis on patriotism with a giant shield of red, white, and blue flowers, and fruits. Supposed to represent the [11] Batting the breete. . . ' Cams the huiUing leaeon. . .

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CoUegtan makes efort. More than ready to take up. Give » 2. of }four bdirk. C, birvA tr s Tribe of creative artiett. vocation that officially opened college. This year they made an all out effort to cover all the college news Meanwhile Editor-in-chief Lois Doubleday, having spent most of the summer struggling over the 1942 INDEX dummy, brought her brain-child back to a staff that, although depleted in numbers, was still more than ready to continue where they had left off the previous May. Priorities claimed some of the materials and shortened semesters worked havoc on the printing and engraving deadlines. Nevertheless, the first of May the 1942 INDEX appeared on campus. Members of the long-haired tribe of creative artists unsatisfied even with the high level of journalism as maintained in the Collegian and INDEX found in the Collegian Quarterly the vehicle for their creative work whether poetry, drama, fiction, or essay. Meanwhile other campus activities were getting started. Doric Alviani began pumping pep and spirit into his summer-jaded musical outfits, and rehearsals started in full swing. This year their enlarged off-campus program brought the musical clubs to near-by towns, to Springfield and Boston, and to the air waves. Highlights of their campus programs were the Social Union concert and the operetta. Their good work culminated in that long-awaited, richly-deserved New York trip in the spring. The M. S. C. Outing Club, combining with other O. C. ' s started fall off with a mountain climbing jaunt and spent an active year of tripping, trailing, and twirling. Matching point for point with their opponents and digging up even more convincing arguments in rebuttal the M. S. C. debating team batted the breeze with Amherst, Mount Holyoke, A. I. C, and B. U. New this year for the club was a freshman debating team and the attendance of the team at the Model Congress of Colleges in New England. Director Reverend Easton, new on campus, carried on regular Sunday Vespers, coordinated the various religious organizations, and insti- gated the United Religious Conference in March. Evidence of M. S. C. ' s interest in religion was the large attendance afforded Dr. Gilkey, the intense interest shown in Rabbi Cahn ' s course, and the hearty welcome extended to Father Walsh. Father Walsh ' s lectures at convocation ;io]

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Chicken for ' caj ' -slarvcd frosk. Hordes of people found. . Politics never guite forgotten. zealous patriotism of the Victorian era, the shield truly expressed the spirit of November, 1941. Fall brought scholarship convocation. Newly elected seniors to Phi Kappa Phi, seniors doing honors work, and profs all took over the stage — these and the Dean ' s List are a quiet reminder to the unambitious students. But scholarship was soon in the background in the excitement over fall elections, Campus politics, never completely forgotten, emerged in full view, as elections for class officers roiled up the muddy water of politics. Election day, Decem- ber fourth, saw every house on campus turned out en masse to vote. Then War and What Now? December 7, 1941! Attack on Pearl Harbor! With the entry of the United States into the war, a period of doubt and uncertainty ended; but actual fear cropped up in its stead. What now? For a few short days a wave of war hysteria almost submerged campus. Books were thrown aside for serious bull sessions. News broadcasts were fairly eaten up. The situation necessitated a special war convoca- tion for men alone. As they sang the Alma Mater and When Twilight Shadows Deepen, the men of Massachusetts State exhibited a vein of seriousness rarely before witnessed by convo walls. They were asked to remain in college until they were called to service, and suitable credit was promised those having to leave. Familiar khaki uniforms with crossed sa- bers were magnified in importance on campus to others as well as uniform-susceptible feminine hearts. R. O. T. C. was now a direct step to more real action. The military unit this year saw excellence in markmanship, the formation of the Sabers and Spurs Society, and promotion in rank for the commanding officers. Though this may be a war of tanks and jeeps, cavalry troops still have an important place and the usual training was continued. Ranking with R. O. T. C. was the C. A. A. group of student pilots, who, after a strict training, became available to the army. Four short days after declaration of war found campus uniforms tripping the light fantastic toe in Drill Hall. New war economy? No, the big fall formal — Military Ball. [12]