SUNDAY FEATURE SECTION lENT I FEA iC A i3uri 1 Fitjl SECTION TWO IE LITERARY VOL. XXXI. No. 82. ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, SUNDAY, JANUARY 23, 1921 PRICE FIVE CENT CHARGE STATE CAMPUS WITH BEING IN OF COMA: URGE THOUGH f , t Student ACtion Throttled, Claim de By Writer MISGUIDED AUTHORITY BLAMED; COMMUNICATIONS IN ANSWER TO "MIUCHIGAN ASLEEP CHARGE" POINT OUT WEAKNESSES OF PRESENT UNIVERSITY LIFE "I believe that all student self-expression and spontaneous activity is being throttled by misguided authority," declares ode of the most radical of the responses received by The Daily in answer to tho query, "Is Michigan Asleepl" And with this striking indictment for a lead, the author of the story continues to prove his point in a manner which leaves for him, at least, little doubt but that the campus is in all reality, asleep, and that the root of all evil is to be found in an authority which perhaps means well, but which is, at best, "misguided." The query has excited considerable comment upon the campus. Almost daily communications have been received, protesting either that Michigan is fully awake and alive to hex possibilities and duties, or that the Univer- sity is quietly and peacefully, sleeping. It was the original hope that these communications might be published in their entirety that nothing might be lost by too severe editing. But as they continued to accumulate, the possi- bility of this has become out of the question. The concensus of the opinion seems to be that the campus is asleep. Here and there a protesting voice has been raised in loud acclaim that the University could not possibly be more wide awake today, but in the main, Wake Up Michigan WHENsAN ENTIRE PAGE of The Daily is not sufficient to allow the students on tihe campus of the University of Michigan to express . theyr opinions on the charge, "Is Michigan Asleep?" there must be enough wrong with the general system at this institution in both academic and private life to warrant further inquiry. , THE MICHIGAN DAILY has here presented as much of the opinions forwarded to it in answer to the anonymous charge, as space would permit. The opportunity for further discussion, however, will' not be overlooked. NOT ONLY HAS THE FIRST PAGE been used in an effort to pre- sent to the campus all opinion possible, but also the inside pages of this issue contain a few comments, including some from the faculty. Prof. William Herbert Hobbs, of the geology department, especially, has in this issue, some rather important comments to make about what he thinks of one of the University institutions. BUT THIS WILL NOT BE ALL. The Michigan Daily, with this number, invites the campus, both faculty members and students, to submit articles for publication. From now on the Sunday Feature Sec. tion of The Daily will try to feature student comment on all matters of importance. Short articles are preferred. None should exceed 500 words in length. Address them to the Sunday Editor. They should be typewritten. Study, AthleticS, CodJunior flop A rouse a MICHIGAN MAN CHARGES EPIDEMIC OF "HE-FLAPPERS" THREA7 SCHOOL; ANOTHER BEWAILS LACK OF FAMOUS OLD DISCUSSION GROUPS Student the campus seems to believe that a state of coma has descended upon the student body in general, sapping its intellectual activity, and making it un- worthy to be the successor of student bodies of "the old days." The writer of the above quoted story has much to say on the subject of stu- dent activity being stunted by the actions of a too officious authority. "Athletic contests are arranged for the satisfaction of a Board in Control," he says. "By a policy of limiting ath- letic competition to Conference circles, the individuality of Michigan is being submerged to the level of nine other Conference universities-all more or less provincial. The influences that could be gained by contact and thought with far western and eastern universities are deliberately closed to Michigan men." Must Have Understanding Another writer, continuing the theme of placing at least a part of the diffi- culty with those in authority, tells of a faculty discussion which he over- heard in which one instructor 'ex- pressed his keen gratificaftin that there were no athletes in any of his classes. "Michigan cannot be at her best unless there is a broad under- standing and sympathy among all factions," he concludes. "If one person sees something that he be- lieve wrong s he should make his grievance known." It is for such things that The Daily is making its aampaign. And there is a great deal in this last statement. Too much talking is done, followed by too little action. Unless the very life of a tradition of Michigan is threatened, there is much talk and no action. Wrongs, sometimes realty sometimes actual, are cited, groaned over, and then finally with an angry muttering, allowed to pass. One of the few times when the campus has really found it- self resulted in a sincerely live discus- sion in the fall of 1919 when there was talk of abandoning the block "M." One communication urges that the, cause of the whole trouble with the Uniyersity today is to be found in the descent of an "era of mental stagna- tion upon the campus in general and the student body in particular. * * * Cite, for example," continues the au- thor of this communication, "the aver- ---E age day of the average student---get up with three minutes to spare for an 8 o'clock (if the Powers That Be have been lucky enough to wish one off on the unsuspecting student); breakfast goes into the discard in the mad rush to class while the student mentally prays-possibly the only mental ac- tivity of the day-for bolts galore throughout the daily grind. Classes over, the afternoon is spent with hands in pockets in front of the Arcade until an unrelenting force drives without resistance into Calk's for a coke and from there to the alleys or the green topped tables." Wants Old Discussions This communication goes on to de- plore the absence of the old-time "dis- cussion groups that added so much to university life in remodeling the world with a slight alteration of heaven on the side," and concludes by saying that too few of the students of the Univer- sity reallyhave any aim in their at- tempt to secure a degree. "Stop the average upper or under classman of today and ask hin? for what he is training, and the answer will usually be to the effect that he doesn't know or doesn't care so long as the sun shines, the check from home comes, and a "D" is passing." Of course, the co-ed comes into the limelight here and there in the discus- sions as to whether or not there is anything generally or particularly the matter with Michigan today, and in a communication of very evidently sin- cere and honest thought: "The dizzy, giggly, green-eyed co-ed, target of the Telescope, butt of the Gargoyle's jokes, and general object of mirth-provoking humor in the University," is held up as a "regular honest-to-gosh person, full of spirit and loyalty to Michigan." With the great amount of sometimes friendly, occasionally caustic, joshing which is accorded the "co" division of bo-education at Michigan, it seems no more than eight that this writer should be allowed to have his say in regard to the women of Michigan. "Michigan is badly in need of morel real democracy between its men and women," he says. "The present antag- onism is noticeable everywhere; in the classroom, on the streets, in restau- rants, theatres, and wherever students congregate.:Remove this bigoted preju- dice and our school will move forward. Our instructors make a mistake in seating men and women on different sides of the room, like cats and dogs, getting ready for battle. Why not seat all in alphabetical order, allowing the women to take their places among the men? Let the men be as willing to associate with the women as they are with each other. They need not pass around Lucky Strikes or spring risque jokes;'neither is the dansant 'Oh, you kiddo' kind of talk necessary. Finds Women Intelligent "In my contact with women on the campus, I have found them as intelli- gent as the males, and whether the subject be the shimmie, psychology, sex problems, or politics. A truly masculine man and a truly feminine woman can talk together on common ground without either losing his (or her) individuality." And that, as far as communications go, is what the campus thinks of its women. Strangely enough, not a single voice is raised holding up the co-ed as the root of all evil. But if the co-ed is eulogized, the "he-flapper" does not escape sincere criticism, and one com- municant evidently believes that of late years, the University has become over-socialized. "An epidemic of effieminacy has invaded the campus and manifests itself in what has been termed the 'lie-Flapper,'" he says. "The species derives its name from the feminine variety which it is not altogether unlike. The he-flapper to all appearances, is in school to get a co-education and is a victim to all that the word implies. The aims and ambitions of the he-flap- per are essentially the same as those of the she-flapper. With all of its ominous implications this fact would not be worthy of note were it not for the added fact that the flapper epidemic is actually becoming popular." One writer admits us to be sleepin but smugly satisfies himself with th assertion that even if we are, "so a the students of most American univer sities." He lays the blame upon tl students, but claims that the caus goes back further than the entranc into the university. There is a hig school course left behindwhere th student indulged himself in no seriou thought upon any subject, and con tinning this same train of thought, ha come to college with nothing parti ular in mind which he desires to d and no very great force propelling hi in the direction of the courses whic he needs to give him a sound found tion in culture. AS A GRADUATE SEES ITI (By a Grad) So frequently of late has the spirit of "The old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be," popped into campus opinion about our University that even an archaic and ante bellum post- graduate is forced to stop occasionally in his, course down the diagonal to wonder what the song is all about. And having stopped to look around, he sometimes has ideas,-ideas that are perhaps a hybrid of reminiscences and present observation, but anyhow, are ideas. "Is the campus asleep?" even The Daily asks him. More than likely he will say, "No, but it's pretty well stunned-Stunned by having so many weights pressed upon it that it's just naturally lying down in self-defense." Plenty of Time how in the "good old days," this grad had time to go to classes in be- tween society meetings, time to report for a campus publication without thinking the universe revolved around that fact, time to formulate an occa- sional opinion even if it was on co- education, time to get one hand out of his pocket before another "drive" pushed the other one in; and he didn't have to debate every night between a text book, a lecture, concert, band- bounce, committee meeting, athletic contest, or the Maj. He even had time to read occasion- ally, and to play occasionally, and to indulge in a few other incidentals that went rather far in making his Uni- versity life a series of normal, vital sensations rather than a series of artificial, crowding stimuli that re- sulted in over-appetite and mental in- digestion. But the student of today, he would at once pity and envy. What he had in more or less restricted doses, they have hurled at them three-fold in all sorts of complicated and over-stimu- lating forms. There are new organiza- tions springing up from every nook on the campus, (to take in all the same people who have "made" the others), there are increased opportunities for hearing lectures and enjoying music, and the bewilderment of trying to get them all in frequently leaves them all out; there are doubled advantages for purely social entertainment, with the result that a normal limit frequently becomes a skip-stop; there are more frequent and possibly more just, finan- cial drives,*but a very surfeit of clever publicity tends to stifle a normal re- action. Tries Them All In short, the opportunities and ad- vantages and responsibilities of the University today total such bulk that the circulation of the average, undis- criminating student, attempting to swallow them all, simply runs numb under the load. Which is no criticism of the University, but rather a con- gratulation. For as a mirror of the outside world for which its function is to train inhabitants, the campus is far more adequate than it was ten or even five years ago. What the student must learn, if he is not to submerge his personality and contribute toward the "campus asleep" is the one simple rule that he will be forced to practice after his sheep-skin is packed,-or framed! He must learn the secret of sane discrimination, cheerful competition, and whole-hearted attention to those particular things for which he is by nature best endowed to enrich the channel of his whole life,-rather than dabbling in "expansion" so much that his personality flows over the dams into a mud-puddle of mediocrity. Speaking in "shoulds," there ought to be fewer organizations and keener competition in campus functions; some point system ought to be devised whereby service and quality should begin to puncture the modern, blase, deadening ideal that makes of serious thinking and decisive acting a social ban. They need not wholly "wake up," they need only take the blinders off their eyes to see that all of life is relative anyhow, and the harder one works; the more vital will be his play; the deeper one's thoughts on "think- ing" occasions, the keener one's wit when humor is at goal; that substance, as well as flavor, goes into the recipe of a strong personality. Reflects Individual Campus atmosphere is at most a re- flection of its individual members, and the sooner Michigan students upset their present reputation as either "Studes, flappers, or 'B. M. O. C.'s'," (quoted) the sooner will vitalizing ideals, clean-cut competition, and honest co-operation waken the campus from its present tendency toward muddled, and overweighted drowsi- ness. The student of today has to be a bigger individual,-has to have keener discrimination, greater capacity for hard work, and a better balance in ideals of work and play, than did any of his predecessors. The University has come down to him far richer and more complex in opportunity for wide- awake self-expression, but it is also making a bigger demand on personal character and moderation than ever before, and in order to maintain the "aliveness" of the Michigan of the past, every single student of today will have to be alive to that fact. Would Revise Course "Every freshman who sets foot npc this campus," decrees this studer "should be required to take at lea 45 hours of sociology, literature, art philosophy, and political science. may be objected that we have had cu tural courses in high school. Yc but there we learned and njemorize here we need to think." There is a great deal in that last statement - "here we need to think." Possibly in it thte solution of the whole problem, if problem it be, may be found: the University at large has lost the power to think. Students go forward mas. tering sometimes, more often let. ting slide, their lessons, but in any event, failing to think seriously upon any of the topics which have come up for their consideraon Their classes are simply so many items in the daily routine of col, lege life. Dismissed, they need not trouble themselves with them unti the next meeting is called. One student finds that the camp has descended to a state of lethar because of over-organization. "N campus organizations are being forn continually and nothing is done clear out the dead and dying organi tions. * * * The student is not able do any real scholastic work or acco plish anything for the campus if evi evening of his week is taken up w a meeting." "The character of these gatherli is well known," continues the cc munications. "The first half of f evening is spent in waiting for son body to come, the last in electing n members, or arranging a date for 1 Michiganensian picture or setting time for the next meeting." As remedy for this condition of affai the communication suggests Vl either no more societies be formed that members of the old societ which can no longer have any logi function on the campus retire quie and give new organizations with a r life a chance to exist. "Resting On Honors" Another writer issues the indictm that Michigan men are "resting their honors." "No one of us," he sa "would be willing to admit that have not as good a student body (Continued on Page Four) GRAHAM'S At Both Ends of the Diagonal Walk GRAHAM'S TWO STORES TWO STORES