Western Kentucky University - Talisman Yearbook (Bowling Green, KY)

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Dormitory life was also a big change fac- ing the first-time college students. Those who had been accustomed to their own room had to get used to sharing one, and also to co-existing with a community of people. With the mandatory housing rule all fresh- men had to master the art of resident hall life unless they were exempt for some reason. Nancy Perros, a data processing major from Danville, complained about the situation in Bemis Lawrence. “Nobody is quiet during quiet hours, and stereos are always playing loud because doors are left open,” she said. “People are nosey, too. They just drop in to see what you're doing even if they don't know you.” Laurie Sutherland, a Central Hall resident from Russellville, said the worst thing for her to get used to was “‘all the noise.” She said, “| go to bed early every night because | have 8:00 classes. The noise bothers me.” Another Central Hall resident, Pippa Pinckley, was placed in a situation not un- common to the first week of school. The Tompkinsville native’s first roommate stayed in their third floor room one night before she moved to her original choice a room on the second floor. Miss Pinckley said she got another roommate a couple of weeks later, who stayed for one week until she, too, moved to the second floor. Miss Pinckley said she finally got a permanent roommate about the fifth week of school. “Too much studying can get on your nerves after awhile...” —Barbara Camp Also from Central Hall, Jan Robbin from Vincennes, Ind., said she thought residents should be able to improve the rooms. “‘I’d like to paint the walls,” she said. Robin Vincent from Louisville also said her room in Rodes-Harlin needed a paint job when she moved in. “It looked like a bunch of hogs lived there before we did,” she said. Kim King, a resident of South Hall from Burkesville, said she really enjoyed dormitory life. ‘We have a ball every time the phone rings,’ she said. ‘‘We all shoot out our doors like cannons to see whose phone is ringing.” A resident of the newly renovated Potter Hall for women, Gini Dunn from Nashville, Tenn., commented on living in a dormitory that also doubles as the housing office and the office of student affairs. “Sometimes | feel out of place in the lobby watching television because men are walking through all the time going to their offices,’ she said. Moving to the 21st floor of Pearce-Ford Tower was an experience in itself. Leon Chappell, a history major from Elizabeth- town, said the elevator was the biggest gripe. “It took so long to get an elevator and then guys had to get off on almost every floor,” he said. “If | left something in the room, it took fifteen minutes to go back and get it.” Brad Simpson said he was satisfied living in Barnes Campbeli. ‘‘Our resident assistant is ‘cool’ but it’s hard to study,” he said. “The shower conditions are also lousy.” Most of the freshmen elected to attend the back-to-back mini-concerts, “Gove” and “Alex Harvey” on one night and “Bottom and Company” the next. Both were held at the amphitheatre. Watching the football team practice under the lights in preparation for the season opener with Dayton provided another form of relief. Others said they went to Center Theatre where ‘Young Franken- “1 used three-fourths of a tank of gas one night trying to find a parking space...” —Kenny Smith stein’ was showing, played tennis or used other recreational facilities on campus. Some took advantage of the countless ‘‘keg” parties. Some freshmen, however, had trouble ad- justing to a college schedule and one such person was Barbara Camp, a Rodes-Harlin resident from Fort Campbell. Budgeting time would ideally include a good balance be- tween free time, classes and studying. Miss Camp said, ‘At first | didn’t go to any parties or anything because | had too much studying to do. A little later | made a deal with myself that | would start going out on Friday and Saturday night, no matter what | had to do. Too much studying can get on your nerves after awhile,” she added. Freshmen had mixed emotions about buy- ing books for the first time. Of 20 students interviewed at random, 10 said their books cost around $50. Complaints of having to buy all new books were pretty common, while at the other extreme, some bragged about beating the long lines by going to the bookstore extremely early or late. Nancy Perros, however, said she had a negative experience in the bookstore. ‘Most of the people in the bookstore were snobs,” she said. ‘However, one woman was real nice and helped me find a book.” She said her books cost $82.05 altogether. Comparing book prices to those of another school, Connie Trent of Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) said she didn't think books were really expensive. ‘My boyfriend goes to the University of Alberta and he spent $120 on books,” she said. “That’s why! thought mine were reasonable.” Attending college classes for the first time was a totally different matter for those freshmen who were overconfident from beating the bookstore racket. “| felt about an inch high and | thought everybody was smarter than me,’ said Ginger Beeler from Spring Lick. “I had plenty of second thoughts about going to college that first week of school.” Robert Curtis from Portland, Tenn., said he was surprised by the amount of notes he had to take. “I didn’t have to take that many in high school,” Curtis said. A resident of McCormack Hall shared the feelings of Cur tis. ‘The homework scared me at first and it still does,” said Luanne Knight from Leitchfield. “| didn’t have to study in high school and now | have to crack down on homework. It never gets done,” she said. Miss Knight also commented on trying to find classrooms for the first time. “| was familiar with things around campus because I'd been here with high school groups,” she said. “It wasn’t as if I’d never been here.” “Review” was the word premed major Pippa Pinckley tagged to the first week of - school. “One thing that sort of surprised me was the size of my biology class,” she said. “It has about 70-75 people.” “Everybody said English 101 would really be hard, but | love it,” said Gini Dunn. | dropped a political science course, however, because | couldn't understand the teacher.” Benna Pryor said she was afraid to ask questions in her classes. “You just have to listen the first time and if you get it you get it, and if you dont, you don't,” she said. Some students mentioned they had been given the impression that when they came to college they would lose their identity. “| expected my professors to be cold and not care, but they were exactly the opposite,” said Richard Crumbie from Paris. Barbara Camp added to this, “! was always told the classes would be large, but it wasn’t true. The teachers will help, too, if you ask them.” The puzzle of trying to find a place to park a car or find a ride with a friend who wanted to move his car became one of the big challenges. Kenny Smith of Louis- ville said, “| used three-fourths of a tank of gas one night trying to find a parking space. It took me two and one-half hours.” Smith said he had never in his life driven around that long at two miles an hour. “Finally | learned to park in a no parking zone, turn on my emergency flashers and wait until somebody came out of the dorm and moved his car,” he said. Brad Simpson had a similar problem. He said he received eight parking tickets the first week. Simpson got two tickets in the D lot across University Blvd. for not having a sticker, one when he moved his car to the parking structure, and the remainder in the lot by Barnes Campbell for various violations. “| paid for all the tickets except the one | got in the structure,” Simpson said. “| paid them all within 24 hours, too, so | got the dollar discount. It cost me $7 altogether.” Whatever the problems were for the fresh- “The hills are fun if you area mountain goat...” —Leon Chappell men, it was clear they all shared the same type of experiences that promised to brand them with the mark of “green.” At times, it was even the freshman who was the first to label himself in this way. Maybe it was Leon Chappell, who brought up the problem that haunted the most people. “If you can get used to the hills and rain down here you've got it made,” he said. ‘The hills are fun — if you are a mountain goat.” @) 19 First Week

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18 For freshmen encountering a new experience, the first week of school fostered plenty of... The first week of college for the freshman blended into a garbled mixture of finding the best buy on books for the semester, learning gourmet ways of preparing grilled cheese and peas in the dormitory and finding out the hard way not to mix the colored clothes with the white ones at the laundry. Freshmen, ones who were both familiar and unfamiliar with the city of Bowling Green before enrolling, came to campus and had experiences the first week of school, Aug. 23-30, they will not be able to forget. Ever. According to studies taken through the office of Dr. Ronnie Sutton, dean of scholas- tic development, 4,000 freshmen enrolled in the fall semester, approximately half men and half women. The figures showed the average student came from a home within 100 miles of Bowling Green, was 18 years old and had a high school grade point average of 3.0, or “B.” To top it off, the freshmen all shared primarily the same problems when they came the first week. For instance, freshmen had the new ex- perience of foraging for their own meals, and the recently remodeled dormitory kitchens proved to be useful in this. area. The general procedure for most freshmen the first week appeared to be fixing meals at the dormitory as much as possible. Benna Pryor, a resident of South Hall from Leitchfield, said she and her roommate got groceries right away and split the cost down the middle. ‘We fixed our food, so buying groceries ended up saving us money,” Miss Pryor said. Three freshmen males, Dave Gregory, Richard Crumbie and Brad Simpson, pur- chased meal tickets to eat in Garrett cafe- teria. Gregory described the food as ‘‘typical, fair lunchroom food.’’ Crumbie said he did not like walking all the way up the hill from the men’s dormitories, and Simpson said, “The food is okay, but those employees aren't really out to satisfy you.” Activities on campus were varied for students coming for the first week of school. Roommates Donnie Thomas and Teddy Burfict went on one of their bi- weekly shopping trips to a chain grocery to compen- sate for what they failed to bring from home. The two said they shared the cost. Students gathered after the first day of classes to watch the football team practice under the night lights to avoid the heat. Coach “Butch” Gilbert said the team returned on Aug. 13 and began practicing after two days of briefing and instruction. Leslye Wallace wrote the first of her weekly letters home to her parents as she waited for her boyfriend to accompany her to the laundry. Miss Wallace said she does her laundry about once a week and it costs her approximately two dollars each time. First Week [nch-high feelings and second thoughts

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For students attending summer school, a lot of hard work and little outside activity created an atmosphere for... rose Lavy Vays QI Summer White many college students were sus- pended in a state of limbo during the summer months — confined in their home- towns, working at boring jobs or taking advantage of family vacations — 4,321 Westerners opted for the eight-week session of summer school. Reasons for attending the summer session varied. Most students said they wanted to finish school early. Others were not able to find summer jobs and many more just wanted to get away from home. But for those students who expected two months of “living it up” on the Western campus while attending classes four days a week, a disappointing summer was in store for them. Summer term is entirely different from. the regular semesters. Most of the complaints students had about the eight-week period concerned the lack of social activities. ‘When all the services on campus close down so early, what do you expect?” said E. Clay Buchanan, a sophomore from Hartford. “Even dorm life is different,” he added. ‘There's no partying — everybody studies.” Howard Sypher, a graduate student from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., added to the complaints about social life. “It seems that with the increased enrollment every summer, the university would try to do something about entertainment.” Jim Pickens, director of the university centers, said the Downing Center was al- most empty after dinner on the week nights. “The Center was usually empty by 7 p.m. each night,” he said. It was open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Pickens also said one weekly movie was shown Tuesday through Friday with an average attendance of 85. ‘The movies were not profitable moneywise but were a good service to students,” he said. The Garrett Center was open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily, but food services were open in the Downing Center until 7 p.m. Pickens said he foresees no increase in hours of operation next summer because there is ‘‘no need.” “| think the main reason for campus inactivity is that students come to summer school mainly for academic purposes, and not to party,” said Steve Poyser, a graduate student from Louisville. Poyser also voiced a complaint shared by fellow graduate students about the short library hours. ‘Graduates spend the majority of their time working in the library,” Poyser said, ‘‘and it’s awfully hard to get anything done when it closes so early. You might as well forget about doing any work on the weekends,” he added, “because the library doesn’t stay open hardly at all then.” A spokesman for the library staff reported that summer school hours were 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday, 7:45 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday. A more favorable aspect of the summer session was having every Wednesday free. “It's like having two weekends every week,” said Debbie Harvey, a freshman from Glasgow. Gary Louden, of Owensboro added, “It helps break up the monotony.” Louden was one of the many seniors who attended summer school in order to graduate in August. ‘I really enjoy summer school,” he said. “The people are special, classes are a lot smaller and you get to know your classmates and teachers really well.” Western faculty members also showed a favorable attitude toward their smaller classes. “The classes are much more in- formal, and although the pace is faster in the summer, | think the students enjoy their classes,” said Dr. James Calloway, a history professor. Jim Highland, a mass communications teacher, said he enjoyed summer school be- cause there is a more relaxed atmosphere. “A more serious type of student can be found,” he said. Music teacher Ohm Pauli called summer school a ““morning-oriented” program. “Stu- dents and faculty tend to work hard in the morning and coast along in the afternoon,” he said. Pauli also said he enjoyed the relax- ed atmosphere of the classes. Sometimes the pace could be overwhelm- ing and many students admitted having dif- ficulty keeping up with their assig nments, especially those who worked part-time at Western. According to officials in the financial aid office, 700 students were employed either part-time or full-time with the university during the summer. For Miss Harvey, com- bining work with nine hours of classes was difficult at times, especially with courses such as chemistry, geography and English literature. Elizabeth Riggle, a senior from Payneville, said she enjoyed working in the computer center since it allowed her to gain experience in her major field or work. Taking only one class, Miss Riggle said she had no trouble combining work and classes. Whatever the reasons for attending su m- mer school — working on a master’s, earning a few more academic hours, avoiding an uneventful summer at home or working part-time for some extra cash — students could be assured of a lethargic atmosphere enveloping the campus. Some call it those lazy days of summer. @ y aa AU) Summer School