GETTING ADJUSTED TO THE CAMPUS

DEAN KATE W. JAMESON

Oregon State Agricultural College

I. FRESHMAN EXPECTATIONS

We expect things in general, but are given things in particular. The more important the event, the more sanguine and large are our expectations. To the average American girl the two most important events in life are her matriculation in college and her matriculation in wedlock. Different in detail as these two matriculations are, they mark two great periods of her progress toward complete womanhood. When she enters college she leaves the narrow circle of her home life and her friends and enters the broader circle of a university community. To this circle she brings expectations and demands which must be changed and modified in the new life she is about to lead.

Of education in general, she thinks that it is a process of having something done to her. Her entire life thus far justifies this expectation. She has been awakened in the morning; she has been dressed by her parents; she has been fed and sent to school; she has been protected from forming friendships that might bring unhappiness; she has occupied a social rank provided by her family's position in the community; in school her teachers have administered education in much the same way that nurses 8

in a hospital administer anæsthetics. She has been told to take a certain position, to do a certain thing; and she has taken the position and done the thing with more or less good grace. The faith of her parents and teachers was that when she should awaken she would find herself educated. This expectation that a college will do things to a girl is a remnant of the ideology of the finishing school, where proper deportment at a pink tea — a thing important enough in itself was substituted for stern knowledge.

The Freshman girl who comes to college with this expectation will be disappointed. Here there are few who will concern themselves whether or not she arise in time to meet her classes; whether or not she be properly clothed; whether or not she absorb the lessons of her masters. Education is a process of doing. A university is not a factory. A university produces nothing. It is the students in a university who produce for themselves their culture, their refinement, their vulgarity. A university will fertilize the mind of a Freshman girl, but it cannot do this if there is no mind to begin with. A university will stimulate her intelligence; it will not create intelligence. Cultivation in its broad and good sense is not a training from without; it is the result of training from within. Friends and teachers, though willing and eager to help the Freshman girl, are powerless. They can give her an example - she herself must follow it; they can present her with a precept but she herself by her own force of character must apply it.

Many Freshman girls think that college years are years of play. And, in a sense, this is true, for the essence of

play is physical or mental activity. It is a challenge to victory. Mathematics, chemistry, and economics offer daily challenges. They are puzzles that must be solved. The campus life and the intellectual competition are in a sense a game which is pleasant or unpleasant as the girl's intellectual and social attitudes are healthy or diseased. I realize that this is not the kind of play most girls look forward to in college. Too many girls believe that the essence of college is its social life, its parties, its dances, and its athletic sports. No one will deny that these are important, but they should only supplement the real activities. Social life may well be called an adjunct to a college education; when we make it more, we are prostituting our heritage.

In addition to these two general expectations, first, that college is a place where education is applied to you, and second, that it is play time, there is a third expectation most worthy and dignified, but none the less erroneous. Many a girl hopes that college will give purpose and direction to her life. She comes to college a bundle of vague aspirations tied by the yarn of goodwill, kindliness, and generosity. College, it is believed by parents and students, will clarify these aspirations and direct the other virtues into channels which will lead her to happiness and success. To these people college is a kind of Utopia where all wrong is made right. Here on this green campus, in the midst of these quiet buildings, radiating the light of wisdom, should live the spirit of Peace and Quiet. To this court should come Honest Emulation without his attendant, Envy; Worthy Pride without his attendant, Arrogance; Desire for Growth without his

attendant, Cupidity. In this expectation there is some justice. The atmosphere of a college campus as compared with that of the outside world, I mean that world controlled by men and women who have finally come to the strength of maturity, is a place of quiet and peace; but as compared to the home circle it may appear to be a place of great excitement. I hold it, therefore, a mistake to separate college too far from the outer world, to believe that college will give point or purpose to a life which is purposeless. In a very short time the men and women of the classroom will be the men and women of the marketplace; and their vices are too often more evident in college than they will be later. The young woman on the campus has not learned to conceal her weaknesses as she will learn to conceal them later, and although the spirit of the college campus may seem calm, it is to the participants a spirit of great unrest. The Freshman girl with vague aspirations may find that she is forced by the very bitterness of the competition to weld for herself a personality and character that will be both directed and of great force. But this is incidental. A college cannot supply you with a vocation or a trade. While at college you may find your vocation, but this, like many other good things, may be found by the way.

Does it not all amount to this in the end that college life is lived by human beings and that, therefore, it is human life? From this life a girl may carry away whatever she is strong enough to bear, much or little, good or bad. In adjusting herself to this life she must make many sacrifices in order to gain advantages, but whatever is done she must do.

II. PHYSICAL ADJUSTMENT TO THE CAampus

The Freshman girl usually comes to college from a fairly comfortable home. Be it large or small, she has felt that this home is hers and that she may spend her time in any one of the several rooms she prefers. Soon after she reaches college she finds herself sharing with another girl one of many small rooms in a very large building. She wonders how two can possibly live here. At home all rooms — library, living-room, kitchen, and den were hers to share with her family, which meant to use as she pleased. Here she finds that she must spend the greater part of her time in one room where she is expected to dress, to prepare her lessons, to meet her girl friends. Drawing-rooms and reception-rooms are provided, but they must be shared with hundreds of other girls. Adapting herself to these living conditions presents a very real problem, a problem which usually arises the second month of her life on the campus. During the first month dormitory life is something of a lark, and she experiences a sense of exhilaration in getting acquainted with her room, the buildings, and the campus. Soon the room is too small and the buildings too old; and with the first attack of homesickness she is willing to give up all the joys of college life and all the hopes for an education to be able once more to present herself at the familiar board.

But physical adjustment involves more than adjustment to one room. It involves adjustment to a roommate and other members of the residential hall. The Freshman girl has been living with her family. Their