Page 50 - TheGoldBug1972-73

'pAGE 10 THE GOLD BUG DECEMBER ,£ 1972 Tradition ...a nice musty word by John Makosky. Dean of Faculty chemistry, and English had excellent men 'directors have searched in vain for a suitable For comic relief, I might describe some of the in charge - each one badly overworked. Indeed, logogram or picture-symbol to represent the practices of the under-graduate education in vogue overworking the faculty was a "tradition" of the College (a recent suggestion was a picture of a_ when I came to WM as an undergraduate student in institution. Take Professor Schaeffer, for instance, hearing-aid). The reason for this void is that we 1922. father of the present treasurer; he was chairman tear down our old buildings, abandon our old The most obvious changes have been from the and sole instructor in Physics, chairman and chief customs, reject our old vocabulary. We social life on the campus. Dating was then called instructor in Mathematics, manager of the have successfully tried to become as much like "parlor", and was permitted from the termination bookstore, and chief worker in the treasurer's of- the generalized idea of an American liberal of supper to 7:00, when a bell tolled separating the fice. arts college as possible. We have left very sexes. Sunday was unusually sinful, as parlor I've probably said enough to indicate that the little that is individually our own. The three-letter lasted from the termination of dinner to 3:00. On folkways of Western Maryland in the early '20's monogram on the front of the catalogue was on the Wednesday, no parlor was permitted because the followed patterns entirely strange to the present cornerstone of one of our old buildings now officers of the institution felt sure that students student. What "(he present student can scarcely demolished. The cut on Main Miscellany is the top would prefer to attend YMCA or YWCA meetings, realize is that they were almost equally strange to of the tower of Old Main - now rubble. The College which of course were segregated. Couples passionately interested in each other were called "strikes." Parlor was confined to the two social parlors of Old Main, the large hallway between them, the lower steps in the hall, and the porch along the front of Old Main. In mild weather the visible campus was in bounds. The areas of legitimate activity were patrolled by the Dean of Women and her assistant. At 7:00 on the dot the girls were shooed back into the dormitories (segments of Old Main and the newly opened McDaniel Hall) and the doors doubly bolted. On special .occasions (Saturday shopping, Sunday church, etc.) underclass girls could go downtown; this was in columns of twos with a teacher in front and one in the rear. Senior girls were trusted in groups of four in daylight hours unchaperoned; many girls suddenly became more attractive as seniors Married girls were not. permitted in the dor- mitories. It was thought that they had secret evil knowledge which, if imparted even with the delicacy of a western Maryland coed, would corrupt the younger females. The "facts of life" were imparted by an organization known as JGC, composed of all senior girls. In the spring of each year JGC "initiated" half the current crop of junior girls, and the following fall the inductees in- troduced their remaining female classmates into the mysteries of the order. The initiation process went on for several days and was quite as pointless and humiliating as any contemporary fraternity process; it featured horrible costumes, comic public performances, etc., and culminated in an all- night secret session in the loft of Old Main where, amid endless caterwauling, the secrets of life were transmitted. Campus life was quite monastic. For instance lights were extinguished at 10:30 in the dormitories. It was considered that the encouragement of "early the academic patterns of the '20's, the result of the seal shows a torch stretched down toward an open to bed" was worth the heavy fire hazard created by tenure of a strong-willed president who had served Bible; using the seal for a symbol (unless the candles and oil lamps (confiscated by room in- since the early 1880's and had retarded the in- purpose of the torch were incendiary) is a sure way spectors, if found). Converse between the sexes was stitution in a late Victorian way of life. to lose government and state subsidies. To compete discouraged except during parlor, penance being Whatever the College of the '20's lacked as an in the current swim, we have submerged all the old inflicted (on the girls only, of course) when this educational and social institution, one thing can be individuality of the College. . r" convention was fractured. I recall once sitting in said for it. It had individuality. Its language and The Western Maryland I attended in the '20's was' the library (present Art building) next to a girl in folkways were· its own; despite occasional 1 a very individual place. I was on numerous other my class; I reached out with a pen and drew a line bickering and griping, its students were violently, campuses before, during, and soon after my on her forearm designed to represent the profile of furiously loyal ·to it. Perhaps students were of a residence here; I would have had no difficulty her current boy-friend. She was "campused" for different sort then (I don't believe it), but perhaps it at all in describing our differences - some two weeks; this meant living in her room except for takes something individual and distinctive, bad, some good - from other institutions. Now classes and meals, supposedly praying forgiveness something with personality, to strike the spark of it isn't easy. In the ensuing near-fifty years for her sins. Chapel services were held every loyalty. most other colleges have gone through the morning at 7:45