Oregonstate University Bulletin 1979-80 General Catalog People
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OregonState University Bulletin 1979-80 General Catalog people. opportunity. welcome to 0gon State University,, Running ...reading...writing... bicycling .. they do has meaning, even if the rest of the world falters. teaching... typing ...searching...researching. As one senior put it, "People are really proud to be here. Oregon StateUniversityisaction.All over campus, you The students here are glad that they're here... that can see things happening. they've had the opportunity to come to college, and to Differentiation... titration ... computerization ... come to OregonState." reforestation...calibration...irrigation ... Another thing many OSU people have in common is communication ... education. Oregon State is people a liking for one another. "Everybody is friendly," who love making these things happen. You can meet said one freshman. "I thought everybody would be in some of them here. their own little shells, but it's the opposite-everybody is A freshman in liberal studies who practices violin and trying to get to know one another." prepares to practice law. The attitudegoesbeyond introductory handshakes. A graduate student inoceanography from Mexico who It's most evident in the solid support you get for the work sails the seasoff Africa. you conichere to do.As one successfulalumnus put it: A sophomore in business who wantstostart his own "You get the feeling people wantyou to makeit at OSU. business. They're there to help, and they let you know it." A senior in engineering who's building a windmill. One student said it was this support that got her over A junior in home economics who wants to help kids in the inevitable rough spots. "It's notonlyme that's Atlanta. encountering the pressure," she explained, "but other Oregon State people are very busy. And if you're new students. So we get together-andlike I say,the classes hereyou might wellask what all these people doing all are hard-and we work together." thesethings couldpossibly base in common. If you've One senior felt this support isthe closestyou can beenhere awhile youknow the answer depends on whom cometo identifying an OSU tradition.Asyou live with you ask. it, you become part of the "supportsystem"and pass that "What holds this place together," said one respected support along. As she said, "therewere a lotof people scientist,"is that there isit. very definite need for the kind there when I was in `that spot' whoreally gave...I try of thingit does." If youlook around the state of Oregon, now to do thesame thing for otherpeople.There is a lot yo1111 seeOSU graduatesworking in agriculture, of caring, there is a lot of giving. Peopledocare for each fisheries and wildlife, plearmacv, forest products, and other here." many of the businesses and industriesuponwhich our For each person who comes to OSU, a special chain society depends. You could also bump into an OSU alum of people and events creates an individual experience. in China, Latin America, the Middle East . or New Many students say it's an exciting experience, sometimes Jersey. in waystheydo expect,To those who arc just beginning, OregonState's senseof purpose has its rootsin more however, one faculty member offereda wordof caution: than 100 years of tradition. A cultural geographer on the "The possibility anybody ought to consider when they faculty said, "It's definitely the heritage of the land grant come to theUniversityis thatthey may not end up being college...practical orientations to certain types of what they thought they were going to be when they came problems ... a style that is different from certain other here.One ofthe possibilitiesis just to be exposed to a lot kinds of colleges." of differentways ofspendingthe rest of your life. And That sense of purpose gives people at OSU unique followit where itleads." confidence in what they're doing. It's a notion that what Welcometo Oregon State. We came along the Oregon Trail, and we actually camped at the places that the people camped in the 1840s when they came by wagon train.... Itreally was a symbolic journey because we weren't just traveling, we were actually moving to Oregon the same way they had been well over 100 years before: with a family in a covered Volkswagen and a dog and a cat. When you make that big a move, that far from your families, you think of it as a new frontier. Mary Lee Nolan, assistant professor of geography, is a specialist on Latin America, a photographer, and author of an article and filmstrip on the Oregon Trail experience. lasses are at the heart of the were anything she'd like to warn CUniversity experience. The new students about, laughed and friendships, the activities, the said, "The classes! They really make exciting new discoveries about people you work." and life take place against the steady No matter how good a student's rhythm of chemistry ... or high school preparation, many find literature ... or numerical analysis it's not good enough. "I'm still kind ... or French. of adjusting," said one second-term This is what it's all about. freshman, "because there are some Most students who enter OSU for problems that I have. It's not with the first time-especially those who what I learned in high school, but in enter from high school-find high school I found it too easy and so academic work here challenging. I never did homework. Here you've One student, when asked if there got to do homework." Most students are harder on themselves in college because they feel they're studying for life. They've made career decisions and they're working to fulfill them. Often they compare themselves with other students, some brighter, and start to feel the competition. "The pressures can get a lot more heavy in college," said one freshman, "and that's the number one thing I've had to learn to deal with-how to work under pressure and still not go crazy. It's easy to get wrapped up in the game and just become an idiot during finals week ... And then again, it's easy to not care at all and drop out of classes. The most interesting thing I've learned so far is how to kind of mix the two attitudes-still acknowledge the pressure, and yet realize also that it is not all that important." Most students recommend you learn to budget your time for fun and sleep as well as work. And a sophomore in premedicine recommends: "You just tell yourself you're going to make it through. You have to have a lot of confidence in yourself." I really enjoy being with my friends, and I think the atmosphere at OSU gives you an opportunity to get really close. It makes you realize there are a lot of nice people around, because like the first time for me away from home, Iwas under pressure.... I didn't know how well I would get along. Butas soon as I got here, there were people that I could relate to, and they were willing to be friends. Mary Lou Constante, sophomore in premedicine, is the 1978-79 winner of the OSU Mother's Club scholarship. that's larger than their old home town. But often they're surprised and pleased to find that personal attention continues in the classroom as well. One freshman said: "In high school, I always wondered if maybe when you are a freshman in college they kind of sweep you under the carpet, but it's just not like that at all. They pay as much attention to you if you talk to them with individual questions as they would to a colleague or a professor from Chicago. It's just great." Most students agree that the size of a class is not a factor. They feel "a good teacher will excite a person as well in a big class as in a small class," as one freshman put it. And you can always supplement a large lecture with personal contact with the professor. "Most of the profs, I would say, are very concerned," said one senior. "As a freshman, I had some problems in a class of physics with 200 in the lecture hall, and I would go up to his office and say, `I don't understand this, would you please explain this.' He'd go step by step through the whole thing and would spend time It also helps to remember you don't of thing... and then I didn't go in with me and show me the way, and have to go in alone. You can get by and see him again until almost the that was really reassuring." with a little help from your friends. middle of spring term. And I knocked To get this kind of attention, one And you can find some of them on on the door and walked in and he faculty member cautioned "there has the faculty. For many students, help said, `Hi, Jan. How've you been? to be a little bit of initiative on the begins with the faculty adviser.... Where have you been all this time?' part of the student." She explained "When I came down here fall term It was just so amazing. Here I was, that a faculty member teaching a my freshman year," one senior after all that time ... he remembered large lecture course and several recalls, "they gave me his name, `This me." smaller courses may have several is your adviser.' So I went over and Especially for undergraduates, the hundred students a term. "And said, "Dr. Stormshak? I'm your personal attention of the faculty obviously, you cannot go out and advisee.