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Show i in - It's virtually a modern cliche to say that modern man is lone V and alienated from society and from himself. The terrible irony is that more and more people, packed closer and closer together seem to know one another less and less. The University of 70 or 80 years ago-even 40- was as large as high schools are today, possess.ng an almost clubby atmosphere. That feeling was long ago covered over in the asphalt of our parking lots and the lines in the cafeteria. The feeling of anonymity has its advantages, of course-we have fewer social pressures to conform, to participate in certain activities, to go out with the "right people." But the fact remains that many people at this University can and do go through four years without making a single new close friend. A good deal of the dating routine for instance, merely continues from high school, growing and changing but little. Many more do not in any way regard the University as a home, as a harbor; it's just a place to spend the morning in classes. Here we are, in our University, finding it is slowly becoming a "depersonalized" multiversity. While perhaps there is no cure for "apathy" and disinterest (after all, 80 percent of the studentbody does commute to school) it seems that the administration and ASUU ought to spend less time bemoaning the fact of apathy and more time pondering the whole situation of loneliness and alienation on campus reflecting the same problems in society-at-large. And not just pondering, either. How can dull jobs, stifling relationships, unstimulating social contacts, routine classwork be transformed into a meaningful existence? How can an education at this University become really worthwhile for the whole personality? We're not talking merely about an academic preparation for a "good job," but about the difference between a University and a factory-like correspondence school. |