Sunday, May 25, 1958
THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE
D--- I!:.,-
Sunday- - - Page Five
Would Help To Promote Greater Spirit
(Continued from Pa e 4) gate, begun when both were small,'
Instance, has established a feud still persists. In addition, the area
has a lack of large schools, forcing
with Washington State, ust across Syracuse to come in contact with
the state line. This competition little, high-spirited colleges. Their
has nine to mean as much to spirit rubs off on Syracuse.
State students as battles with
Washington. Oklahoma has builtI.,
up a vendetta against Texas; Cola- 1T MAT ALSO SE said, with ex-
upa vnsttakganstmea. ;C ceptions, that a relationship ex-
rado against Oklahoma. ists between alcohol consumption
In the Midwest, many rivalries and school spirit. Schools in New
exist. For many years this state York, with its 18-year-old drink-
has had only one really major ing law, have spirit to beat the
power, the arch-rival was Ohio band. In small towns, which have
State. The distance from Ann Ar- no other "things to do" besides
bor to Columbus is formidable for movies and taverns, spirit flows in
car-less students, and therefore the streets on weekends.
frequent acts of violence have been Virginia, which is often consid-
the exception rather than the rule. ered the "drinkingest" school in
The rise of Michigan State pre- the country, has had its spirit
sents a possibility which has yet written up in national magazines.
to be exploited. Virginia is almost unique, how-
Simple football rivalries alone do ever, in that it combines the East-
not make school spirit, but they ern nearness to other schools with
do help. There are other factors, a special "gentlemanly drinking"
equally important, without which tradition of the Old South. It
school spirit withers on the vine, has the best of two worlds-and
tremendous spirit.
G ENERALLY, the smaller a Dartmouth, too, has been able to
school, the greater the spirit. maintain spirit, in the face of
There develops in a small school a near-isolation in the wilds of New
camaraderie and a feeling of soli- Hampshire, with the aid of a lib-
darity which comes quickly to the eral amount of student drinking.
surface on any possible occasion. In the Big Ten, Wisconsin, despite
Thus Wabash and De Pauw, in the twin handicaps of large size
Indiana, have a rivalry that out- and distance from rivals, has de-
does anything in the Big Ten in veloped a notable spirit by means
intensity. And Carleton and St. of the state law permitting beer
Olaf, located in the same small to be sold to 18-year-olds. If it
Minnesota town, go at it hammer has to, spirit can thrive on beer.
and tongs whenever the chance
arises. A freshman class which per- 'WEALTHIER schools also seem
mits its bonfire to be lit before to have more spirit. In the
The Game is hooted for the next East, the major schools are pri-
four years. vate, with correspondingly higher
This "smallness" need only be tuition. It takes more money to
relative. Northwestern is easily the enter these schools and a feeling of
shrimp of the Big Ten conference, aristocracy-or at least timocracy
though large by Eastern standards. -can develop. This by itself does
As a result, the student body is not create school spirit, but it can
more active in displaying spirit reinforce it,
than any other conference school. Northwestern, being the only
Michigan students can testify to private school in the Big Ten, has
this after last fall's football game, this advantage over its rivals, as
when Northwesterners rode the does Stanford on the Pacific
streets in convertibles and cheered Coast, Vanderbilt in the South and
themselves hoarse during the Rice in the Southwest.
game. State universities are thus at a
School spirit often persists in further, though slight, disadvan-
spite of size. Syracuse furnishes tage. In addition, the presence of
a good example of this. It would large out-of-state minorities at
not be out of place sizewise in the most state universities deprives the
Big Ten, but the rivalry with Col- student body of the feeling that it
consists of and :epresents the peo- much easier to wax enthusiastic it. Once it is started, it can snow.
ple of the state-a possible source with a chorus of "Lord Jeffrey Am- ball by itself even if these faa-
of school spirit. herst was a soldier of great fame" tors fade out or disappear. Without
The original founders can con- than to praise the Michigan state them, school spirit has tough sled-
tribute in another way to school legislature in similar fashion. ding-and the University is with-
spirit. John Purdue, Ezra Cornell All these factors, sometimes to- out all of them, to a great degree.
and Cornelius Vanderbilt are cele- gether and sometimes singly, grad- As a result, though the flesh may
brated in song and story. It is ually tend to develop a school spir- be willing, the spirit is weak.
RUNNING RIOTS:
How It's Done in Eastern Schools
(Continued from Page 4) astric cases gathers at midnight "Nearer My God To Thee." Ten
thing had been thought out in the bellfry of Burton tower to men rush in and stamp "CON-
months in advance. plan action. Perhaps twenty men DEMNED, BOARD OF HEALTH"
m v form the nucleus of the action, on everything in sight. Forty men
with more to follow, dash in with stretchers, wearing
R Sfail here simply because Next day, at noon, the cafeteria red 'cross arm bands, and hustle
ey are never planned, and is the peaceful scene it always is everyone out. The last man out
left mostly up to the mindless mob at this time; just a roomful of throws a gas bomb.
for execution. people slowly and cautiously eat- This is a successful. riot, if done
There are three requisites for a ing. in this way, and could really bring
successful riot. Then, bedlam. Twenty men results. Contrast this outline with
1) The riot must have a reason simultaneously throw their trays the usual procedure, and see why
for being. There is a French phrase to the floor, shouting: "Whoever riots here can only fail, and will
for this, so it must be apt. One eats this, help." A brass band rises continue to fail until something is
cannot riot for nothing. One must from a few booths and plays done.
protest something, whether it be _- _ __------
Union food, dorm food, ugly wom- ~
en, or Richard Nixon. It is hope-
less to attempt to get up a really
good riot-like spirit if you are On the Spot?
only going to let it die for lack ofn h
a cause.69
2) The riot must be planned.
The fuses must be tapped and the
wires hidden. The water mains
must be located and trustworthy
men placed at the spigots. The
charges must be carefully set. Pass
keys must be obtained. Watchmen
bribed. Potential informers put
out of the way (painlessly, of Use our condensed
course).
3) The riot must be well run.
There must be no needless damage
to inflame public opinion against
the rioters.
With these goals in mind, let
us consider a potential but hypo-
thetical riot, and how one might
bring it about. ALL SUBJECTS
FL'OR THE sixty-fifth consecutive
night, a certain student-sup- U rich s Books"ore
ported, red-brick eatery on State
Street has served raw sewage in
the student special. A group of __
I,
N
\a
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