Show I STUDENT LIFE AT HARVARD I By PROF FRED REYNOLDS Any talk of student life at Harvard Harvard Harvard Har Har- vard which does not consider a characteristic fact of Harvard's ex- ex k PROF PROP RED TRED REYNOLDS her her diversified activity and growth is growth is pretty sure to include misstatement and nd wrong conclusion A few years ago I had the great pleasure of accompanying President Kingsbury to a Yale Harvard-Yale football football football foot foot- ball game in Cambridge In round numbers persons persons' saw the game Four walls of people formed a living amphitheatre about the field After a hush of expectancy the Yale team pushed through a afar afar afar far corner into view their eleven players leading behind a score of substitutes wrapped in long blue blankets With a roar the Yale side rose to welcome their men Before Before Before Be Be- fore they were fairly back in their seats the appearance of the Harvard Harvard Harvard Har Har- vard team brought the Harvard side up in a tumultuous outburst of cheers In a breath almost the game had begun In another breath with tackles back Harvard had gained through Yale's line Sur Surrounding Surrounding Sur- Sur ur- ur rounding the players players- thenceforward was a madly excited multitude not looking common-looking people but college graduates and undergraduates whiskered gray-whiskered men splendid splendid- splendid look ook- ook J ing women Across the field before before before be be- fore tier upon tier of wildly moving blue flags stood a long line of Yale cheer leaders bending far to the right and left and right as their followers followers followers fol fol- lowers shouted Yale Yale Yale Yale at the end of their snappy frog chorus From one side echoed the mighty time three-time-three nine and three on the end slow even even powerful powerful- or orthe orthe orthe the stirring words of a song song for for example that to the tune of the Marseillaise bringing the whole side and ends to their feet heads r 0 Do 0 i o 0 bare s aloft to urge the team I K to to vict victory q to or the r fl three If fire lre 11 t three liniC t 1 lre with the name on tle l f. f y r who h had d tackled or gained or done S something ome tl e else Is er e. e r On Yale's side and on ours the Pf J cheering w went nt on without a up let-up 1 till the referees referee's whistle closed the game and the players trotted from the field It From such superb cheering cheering- a fair infer inference nce would be that drill in cheering forms a regular part of of Harvard's preparation for a game 5 X a For that p particular year the inference inference inference infer infer- ence would be correct During the dinner hour even at Memorial l and b L Randall the two great Harvard dining dining din din- 0 ing halls the students practiced songs and yells At Memorial l for foi example the cheer leaders mounted r r a platform at one end of the hall haIl Through a megaphone they gave directions Nine hundred men in inthe inthe the Marseillaise l song instead of ofA A waving red red flags rose and shook t white napkins Two hours later two thousand men stood shoulder td fi to to- shoulder in the great living r room om of the Union Harvard's great democratic democratic dem dem- r. r club house to go again through their songs and cheers 1 I cant can't express my feelings exactly exactly ex ex- f wrote one of my Freshmen at the time when those two thousand thousand thou thou- t sand voices made the house ring ring- But Butas w as as the negro puts it in the Sou Sough h f after being persuaded to join church o at the the annual camp meeting meeting- Iser Ise Tse r got religion so will I say Ive I've p got t the Harvard spirit that feeling which makes a man forget his p personal personal per per- r- r ambition in a desire to do something for his college and his is fellow v classmen The purpose of this ch cheering was vas was tp to support the team not to make ake the opposing team play poorly Though th the custom at H Harvard rv r 1 as elset elsert else- else t rt 4 Ii i i c 7 y 0 1 e is to cheer less loudly when h it its tJ n side has the ball I have nev ne a Harvard yell undertaken undertaken undertaken under under- taken for the purpose of confusing the signals of an opposing quarter quarter- back I have never heard a Harvard Harvard Harvard Har Har- vard cheer aimed in baseball at be- be rattling the opposing pitcher I have never heard perso personal lal epithets in Harvard cheering I have never neverseen never neverseen seen on the Harvard side at a contest contest contest con con- test a horn a cow bell or a tin can The brass band which Harvard hason has hason on the field is under the direction of th the head cheer leader it if may play selections selection or acc accompany in moderate tone the singing If a cornet cornet cornet cor cor- net player or a drummer in ex ex- ex exuberance x of feeling feeling- tries to help out outa a cheer with his instrument he lie is squelched almost before he lie begins I have never heard a Harvard cheer cheerleader cheerleader cheerleader leader call for a cheer after an error or a poor play of the opposing side even though the error or poor play meant a score for Harvard Harvard Harvard Harvard Har Har- vard cheering as I have seen it has served to show the team that the college college college col col- lege believed they would play playas as aswell aswell well as they could it has left the outcome of the contest to the abili ability y of the players However though Harvard is credited with keeping keeping- her cheering pretty free from taint there has lias grown up of late a strong feeling against che cheering ring ring- especially against organized cheering Harvard well well- wishers have feared that it might the opposing side coming to e exist merely for its own pe become ome a a mania ceasing ceasing- to have its ifs illegitimate use even that of discon- discon sake The steps against ag it have been most decided From the the facts therefore of any recent game in Cambridge the spectator would be forced to an inference far different from that of three years ago Yet i 1 to the Harvard man mal and especially to the team the applause which now breaks forth spontaneously after a good play means as much as the spectacular exhibition of the past In other corners of Harvard life one may find evidence that the oldest oldest old old- ld- ld est cst college in America is by no means the most slavishly traditional Within the memory of man Harvard's Harvard's Harvard's Har Har- vard's clubs summed up Harvard's social life Harvard now has outgrown outgrown outgrown out out- grown her clubs Though it is still desirable to be called out for the Institute or the Pudding or orthe orthe orthe the Pi Eta it is not essential There is no everlasting fraternity talk in Cambridge to make a man not a club man feel as if he lie had no right there In all corners of Harvard Harvard Harvard Har Har- vard life there is constant change During During- the thirty-six thirty years Mr Eliot Eliof has been president Harvard students have increased from about 1000 to nearly Harvard's instructors from about 60 to nearly boo Harvard's library from b books and pamphlets to books and pamphlets Harvard's invested funds from two and a quarter millions to nearly sixteen sixteen sixteen six six- teen millions There are traditions of course to which Harvard clings Amateur coaching for example In rowing to take an instance Harvard sends to New London every year a crew trained by a grad graduate ate and therefore not expertly trained to lo row against a Yale Yale crew trained by a professional and therefore expertly trained The re result result result re- re sult is an almost almot unbroken series of victories for Yale For her defeats Harvard tries to get consolation from her belief in inthe inthe inthe the integrity of the men who make makeup up her teams A successful player is much in the public eye in CamI Cams Cam Cam- s J t tt I t bridge It behooves him to bea be a gentleman Though the chance to tomake tomake tomake make a team is open to everybody there is an atmosphere in athletic circles which keeps away men who lack gentlemanly instincts even though in prowess they would be desirable I do not mean that wealth or family are marks of favor On the Harvard crew last year the m man man n who rowed No 2 works his way through college the man who rowed No 7 was a brakeman before before before be be- fore he came to college How cosmopolitan cosmopolitan cosmopolitan cos cos- Harvard is you may judge from the fact that last years year's stroke on the crew this years year's captain captain captain cap cap- tain is a Frenchman judge further further further fur fur- ther from the fact that the shortstop shortstop shortstop short short- stop on the baseball team for the past two or three years has been a negro Though Harvard men hope that in inthe inthe inthe the case of rowing there will be a change in the coaching system which will make the annual race with Yale more fair to the Harvard oarsmen there is no one one who hopes that any change will occur to make candidacy for a team less free to good men or less rigid in its demands demands demands de de- mands upon the good that thatis is in men In the way the year goes forward in Cambridge there is a good deal deal- of the traditional element There 1 is the exultation of being in Harvard Harvard Harvard Har Har- vard one of my Freshmen told me last year that at the news of his passing his admission examinations he rushed dressed as he was over the wharf into the ocean There is the Yale game in the what fall fall what his first Harvard man ever forgot Yale Harvard game There are the th theatres and the operas in Boston Boston Boston Bos Bos- ton and the symphony concerts and the club theatricals in Cambridge the are the and the final There are are- mid y year mid ar examinations In the spring the spring the spring comes with a rush in Cambridge Cam CaPi- bridge no one is homesick in the spring there spring there are the baseball and the tennis games and the rowing on the river In these traditional ways Harvard men year after year experience experience ex pe Harvard And year after year if they are Freshmen they f write down their experience for English A which they must all take r requires quires a theme from them every everyday everyday everyday day but Sunday If they are upper upperclassmen upperclassmen upperclassmen classmen it has become traditional with them to live Harvard not to talk it Of the sixty or eighty nie men which an instructor has in their Freshmen year he is likely to have a half dozen or so in other classes in later years They have grown almost out of his knowledge Their interests interests interests inter- inter ests ests are of all sorts and of all degrees degrees de de- 0 grees of intensity In some part of Harvard they have found a place where they can live without self self- c consciousness In living Harvard they have become philosophical It is no longer longer longer lon lon- ger a calamity for Harvard to lose losea a a game as it was during their Freshmen n year vear They have become critical If things about the university university university sity do not go as they think they 1 ought they say so so frankly It is this upper classman who has found fault with the tendency in cheering But in his philosophy and criticism he is well He can urge his views without taking offense or giving giving ing inz offense In his criticism of the college he heis heis t is is is' more than well In uttering tittering the warning that cheering may become become become be be- come a mania he lie is anxious for the good of his college His criticism as a good friend of mine once ref re- re f f mark marked d is like t that t of a lover for his sweetheart who finds fault with I I her not because because she is full of faults but because she is so nearly perfect To this upper classman cheering is is- ir important for it jt expresses college spirit Toward college spirit his attitude is the same as his attitude toward vard other cherished emotions Like other cherished emotions his emotions his love for his mother his loyalty to his home town town college college spirit demands demands demands de de- mands anxiety as to proper methods of expression Smashing everything everything everything every every- thing in the china closet would be a. a poor way to show his affection 1 for his mother Making life intolerable intolerable intolerable erable for his fellow citizens would be a poor way to show his loyalty for his town So he has come to wonder if a continual uproar at a j game is the best way to show his love for his college Whatever turn his critical propensities propensities propensities pro pro- may take Harvard college college college col col- lege under tinder all circumstances has his actions Though he may not shout it he is like my Freshman perfectly willing to o surrender all personal ambition to his desire to do something for his college and his fellow classmen So he lie leaves college college college col col- lege ready to rush back at every chance to meet fellow classmen at Commencement to cheer at some sonic game spontaneously or by arrangement arrangement arrangement arrange arrange- ment to contribute with fellow classmen to build a stadium stadium stadium sta sta- to erect buildings to found scholarships and lectureships to do what he can to show he lie believes in Harvard Harvar l and nd loves her and though away still ch cherishes her ideals ideal |