Feature Section L flitt n A v Feature Section VOL. XXV. No. 42 i ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1924 EIGHT PAC STUDENT LIFE AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY _____________________44 Rhodes Scholar Discusses the Difference Between American and English Universities from Educational an Viewpoints An Outline of Activities and Athletics in the English Institution ' The Relationship Between Student and Instructor d Social a _A_ 9I*p Emp(________ r A BUMPING RACE (above) shows the method of shell racing at Oxford where the stream is not wide enough to permit parallel racing. the two boats change places. When one boat "bumps" the boat ahead, "DIGS" (at left) is a typical senior room at Oxford. As standing in the university is based upon examinations at the end of the senior year, seniors rent rooms like this one away from the college where they can "dig" their way through. RUGBY-FOOT BA LL FIFTEEN (at right) shows the players of one team in the combination of American and English sports. Note the absence of padding and shoulder guards. By Whitney HI . Shepardson1 A great deal has been written about Oxford dur- ing the thousand years of its existence. Novels have been build around it; poets have loved it well; es- sayists have drawn from its inexhaustible quarry: and historians have told its story overs and over again. But American students have discovered it for themselves only during the present generation, and, like any other interesting discovery, it deserves to be passed on to someone else. We know alto- gether too little about the "Mother of Colleges"- our alma-grandmater. When onSce you have been a part of the life at Oxford, Oxford is part of your own life-one of these memories that become fresh, and vivid upon the slightest provocation. All this is dangerous; for the first memories that come to our minds are of the most illusive sort-the gardens of the New College and the well-groomed lawns of Worcester; Old Tom ringing out its hundred and one strokes from Christ Church tower through the midnight rain; old men and young men assembling in their gowns and bright-colored hoods for the formal functions of the University. There is a danger, too, of being diverted into the "curiosities" of Oxford life, its pic- turesque institutions which seem to link this genera- tion of undergraduates to those generations which have gone before; the "Scout" on the staircase who cares for your room, brings gigantic breakfasts for the half-dozen guests who are huddled round your feeble fire on a cold damp morning; students tear- ing through the streets on bicycles, rushing from one lecture to another with their short black gowns bellying out behind like a full jib; the round tin bath tub-"Your bath, sir!" and a cold ,one at that -which shivering Oxford men accept defiantly as a challenge to the progress of science in material comforts. "Remove not the ancient landmarks which thy fathers have set." Close Relationship of Student and Professor But after a few months, these details lose the flavor of novelty, and other things begin to emerge as more important differences between Oxford and our own colleges. First of all, an intimate relation between teacher and student is the rule in Oxford as it is the exception here I have been given help- ful hints in rowing by a distinguished college head; I have played doubles on the college tennis team paired with an authority in Greek philosophy; I've been swimming in the' Isis after the forbidden hour of midnight by the grace of an unscrupulous college chaplain who gave me his key to the back gate; and I've spent weeks of vacation in North Devon with a tutor in history, for no other reason than that we seemed to like each other's company. There is, in English life, a closer relationship than we enjoy between older and younger men; but what makes this valuable intimacy possible in Ox- *A.( mt - ,o in tome) is the fnct that your final ex- The Author Mr. Whitney H. She pardson, who has written the first article of the series on student life in foreign universities gradu- ated from Colgate in 1910. As a Rhodes Scholar he was a member of Balliol College, Oxford, for three years, 1911 to 1913. He then studied law at Harvard Law School. During the war Mr. Shepardson was a member of the legal sta.' of the Ship- ping Board and later served in the artil- lery. After the Armistice he went to Paris to the Peace Conference during which he served as Secretary League of Nations Commission. of the study, and constitute the only basis of your ranking. An uninterrupted week of papers, four hours in the morning and four hours in the afternoon, with every- thing at stake on them! Whether this is a better or a worse system than our own, the pedagogues can decide. It is certain it is a different one. Distinction Between University and Colleges The distinction between Oxford University and the Colleges which compose it is not easy to grasp at first. The best analogy I know is that of the United States itself, and the "states" which go to make it up. The University, under its own name, and with all its formality and picturesque ceremony, greets you when you enter Oxford, and blesses you when you depart. And perhaps once, in the course of your residence, an official of the tUniversity catches you in the act of breaking one of its regu- lations.I But apart from these occasions, the undergrad- uate's life.is spent in his College; one, two, or three hundred men gathered within its four walls, living there, taking part in the College sports, taking the direction of their work from its tutors, belonging to its clubs, and meeting as a community at least once a day for dinner in the College Hall. Each College has its cliques, its gossip, its in- ternal rows, its particular antipathies among other Colleges, its traditions, its legends, and its special- ties-whether they be strawberries-in-season, an- chovy toast, or a potent brew of ale. And when you go out from the University into life, you are for- ever known as a Trinity man, a Magdaen man, a Balliol man as the case may be. Individuality Developed The various Colleges tend, perhaps, to produce men of a certain type; but far greater scope is given to the development of individuality in Oxford than obtains in the United States. You have more chance of growing in Oxford,- and you have more chance of disintegrating. In other words, the system (if an opportunity for edu- cation may properly be called a system) is admir- ably suited to the man who knows where he is going but the man with little purpose and no sense of responsibility is apt to suffer from being left severely alone. Nobody bothers you if you fail to show up at College meetings; nobody makes you go to lectures; nobody thinks you are especially queer if you prefer the writings of some obscure Hungarian poet to those of Arnold Bennett. "Fools are suffered gladly" in the belief that they will work out their own sal- vation in time, and on the chance that the "fool" may prove, after all, to be right; and that Andreas Ady may be a greater figure in literature than the author of "The Pretty Lady." To go to Oxford may be a dangerous intellectual adventure, but one has all the freedom of a buccaneer while it lasts. Inter-College Sports Informal There are inter-College snorts throughout the Beginning with this issue A New Series articles are included in the series as planned, covering universities in nineteen different countries. It is the purpose of the series to acquaint American university students with the life and activities of students in will publish from time to time a series of articles on foreign universities, written by students in 'those universities. Twenty other lands. Originally planned by the Yale News, the series has been copy- righted under the syndicate name: "Stu- dent Life in Foreign Countries." The Daily next afternoon, and the rearranged procession be- gins its second day of rowing. So it continues for a week until, perhaps, eight or ten years from now, your own college boat goes "head of the river." On this occasion,-if I may point out a striking differ- ence between the practice here and at Oxford-the president of the college will buy champagne all around! Social Elements Applied by the Colleges The social side of Oxford is a thing by itself. There is practically no bridge betweei the Colleges and tha town; and the few stray souls who visit the elderly ladies of North Oxford at tea-time on Sunday afternoon, generally do so under the com- pulsion of duty. There are no fraternities-perhaps the Colleges provide on a large scale that intimacy which fraternities and clubs provide in the United States. But there are innumerable clubs with some purpose-Liberal, Conservative, Dramatic, Sporting, Literary, Scientific,-with a membership drawn from the whole University and with small club rooms of their own. And above them all, though, it has no social pre- tensions, stands the Oxford Union. Generations of Oxford men have belonged to it, many of the leading statesmen of the British Empire have fought po- litical battles, and gained their first parliamentary experience on its floor. I doubt whether the House of Commons itself has been a scene of more bitter skirmishes than have taken place in the Oxford Union. Xo "Cramming" Possible Just because examinations are conducted by such a neutral body, it is necessary for the student to have a fairly broad grasp of his subject. He must, be prepared to answer reasonable questions cover- ing his whole course of study. If he is taking the Modern History School, he prepares himself (with the aid of tutors, lectures, and reading) in political science, one of the, several subjects that goes to make up the school. Ask your tutor for a "textbook" on political sci- ence and you'll get nothing but.a blank stare! He'll advise .you generally with regard to a course of lectures on this subject, or a course ofreading; but, in the same breath he'll warn you against imagining that you can "cram" one book or two books and be sure of passing. Your examination, will be on po- litical science and not upon Joe Doe's textbook on political science. University Stand Based on Final Examination So you proceed through three years of it-or four-attending many lectures or few as your tutor suggests, reading much or little as your taste and conscience prescribe, taking "tests" from time to tma which a est by vn u ntn merelyt n disenver sportsmanship-if love of the game for its own sake be the criterion. Above all, these College games give new men' the chance to prove their mettle, and word quickly reaches the ears of the varsity officials that "So-and-So is playing well for Queens." Then one fine day, he is asked to play for the varsity in a trial match. That day he does not 'scratch his name off any list. He plays for his life-for the chance of winning a "blue" is in his hands. Rowing a "Serious Sport" Rowing, throughout, is treated as a "serious sport." Either you row or you don't row; and though theoretically you have the same question- able privilege of striking your name off the list for practice, the "rowing push"-the rowing officials of the College-will stand for little or none of this half-hearted business. You are trained for weeks in a "tub" or pair-oar, you row for a winter on fixed seats. Then perhaps in the spring, when the hearts of coaches grow imperceptibly mellower, you are given a chance at a sliding seat It's little enough reward for the long weeks you have rowed through the winter, with the rain freezing on your hand, It is so preeminently bound up in the history of the University and in the long tale of British poli- tics that all of us who were in Oxford in 1912 were proud beyond measure that an American was elected for the first time to be its president. Certainly the United States never sent a more worthy representa- tive abroad than Bill Bland of Kenyon and of Lin- coln College, Oxford. He gave up his life in France War Wound Still Unhealed I knew Oxford immediately before thet war, anc I went back again in 1919. Outwardly little was changed. The immemorial buildings stood ther still, the streets gave much the same appearance as before. Here a new tradesman had come to tak the place of a favorite tobacco shop; there one migh see a relic of the days when Oxford made soldiers instead of scholars. But the lawns were clipped and green, the river flowed as softly as before, and the rain was falling as relentlessly as if it had no' stopped once during the intervening years. A new generation of men were in residence- somewhat more serious in their purpose, somewha more restless against the old traditions, somewha more revolutionary in their insistence that the cur riculum should be brought "up to date." The older men who had been at Oxford in other years wen again about their work; but as they went the: