EXTRAORDINARY METHODS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 17 January 1925, Page 7

EXTRAORDINARY METHODS

IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES >.

Perhaps what most strikes visitors from an English University to one in the American Middle West is a certain docility of the undergraduate mind there (says a writer in the Manchester Guardian). Ido not mean that the students are less noisy or more inclined to obey rules. “Suggestibility” was the first word that occurred to me; but probably English boys are just as susceptible* to the influence of their environment so long as ’’ that influence is silent; they are apt to pride themselves cm their independence of the “group spirit,” and the man who would intuit nec them is unconsciously subtle enough to avoid' alarming their selfcousJiousncss. American undergraduates seem to expect and to demand that t-dcir enthusiasms shall be drilled in a way that would produce in us an ennui on Tv to be relieved by ribaldry. They arc extraordinarily amenable to organisation of the emotions. No doubt the- stranger whose own pal riot-isms are pledged elsewhere is apt to look with ah unfairly cool Cye upon unfamiliar demonstrations. He can only report his impressions and leave lus detachment to be discounted. At the beginning of term .freshmen are expected to attend the"*“Traditions Dav Exercises,” when senior undergraduates and professors address them on the importance of “preserving the sacred traditions of their Alma Mater to the letter.” Here they are introduced to one of the most characteristic institutions of the place, the clieer-lead-ers or “rooters,” who have been picked by a selecting committee from among many ambitious competitors for their success in eliciting, by frantic gestures and contortions, the loudest volume of “yell” or cheering. The ultimate apotheosis of these heroes is in the ten minutes’ interval at half-time of a great football match. Then five of them, in fancy costumes, form a quincunx on tlie vacant lield, and by swaying, pirouetting, doubling about with bent backs and pounding lists, stimulate a crowd of perhaps 50,000 adherents to synchronised uproar. At the “Traditions Exercise” they practise their art, and the audience complaisantjly practise their enthusiasm. A still more remarkable institution is the “pep meeting” cm the eve of a great- match. Here pepper is treated not as a condiment but as the piece dp resistance. Some four or five thousand of both sexes are es-, sembled. On the platform are the student band, a number of youpg, and middle-aged men in shirt-sleeves, and four rooters in flannels. The chief -of these cheer-leaders skips to the front with the conventional agility of a funny man coming on for a music-hall turn, hitches up Iris flannels, and “introduces the audience to several new yells, which will be used To-morrow.” Each yclh has a name bestowed on it, Then due of the shirt-sleeved, who turns out.Tp be a football coach, argues convincingly that the spectators ought to give' the players the moral support of Tlveir applause alike in victory and defeat. More organised cheers. Next a -middle-aged professor conceals his shirt-sleeves in a colours-blazer and addresse#' the , audience on such topics as loyalty to ideals, the value of enthusiasm, service to tlie community. When he has finished the response to tlie next rooter’s stimulus is not noticeably fatigued. The captain, of the team then explains how the cheering will be arranged) and that cent, support will have an important psychological effect upon the play of his men.” One is reminded of the inscription in huge stone letters on a* new university building to the effect that since public morals and political efficiency depend upon intelligence, education should ever be encouraged. The chief rooter leads a patriotic college song whose words.are flashed upon a sprerin t\u oiri Blue' then gets up arid tells a number of funny Scotch stories a boutbawbees and buryings. He asks the audience to practise effective cheering by repeating witjln him the words “Julius Caesar” ten times, first in a whisper and finally, after a gradual crescendo, into a roar. The effect is pleasantly diversified by Iris,, doing a stage sneeze instead of the first Caesar and pretending to wipe his nose on his shirt-sleeve.