1919-20 Volume 40 No

Volume 40 OCTOBER 1919 Number 1 THE SHIELD OF PHI KAPPA PSI The official magazine of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. Published under the authority and direction of the Executive Council ESTABLISHED 1879 Entered as second-class matter October 15,1912, at the post office at Albany, New York, under the act of March 3,1879 LLOYD L. CHENEY, EDITOR ALBAI*Y, NEW YORK THE SHIELD CONTENTS FOR OCTOBER 1919 How TO KEEP THE FRESHMAN IN COLLEGE 1 ALUMNI INDEBITNESS 4 A WAR AT HOME 7 PEERLESS PITTSBURGERS' PICNIC 11 NEW YORK GAMMA'S NEW CHAPTER HOUSE 14 D. S. C. FOR LIEUTENANT ANDERSON IS WAR CROSS FOR WILBUR 16 THEODORE P. SHOUTS DEAD 16 EDITORIAL 17 PHI KAPPA PSI NOTES 19 ALUMNI CORRESPONDENCE 25 CHAPTER CORRESPONDENCE 27 OBITUARY 34 Illustrations: Three distinguished Phi Psis in Conference, frontis piece ; HERBERT S. DUFFY; ANDREW G. TRUXAL, DAN M. HOYT; ALBON W. HOLDEN; LEO J. COHRT, GENERAL HAIG Pinning the Cross of the Order of St. George on COL. JOHN A. HULL, Iowa Alpha '90. THE SHIELD is the official organ of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity, and is published under the authority and direction of the Executive Council as follows: October, December, February, April, June and August. Chapter letters and other matter, to insure publication, must be in the hands of the editor by the fifteenth of the month before date of publication. The subscription price of THE SHIELD is $1.50 a year, payable in advance; single copies, 25 cents. Advertising rates may be had on application. Undergraduates, alumni, and friends of the Fraternity are requested to forward items of interest to the editor. LLOYD L. CHENEY, Editor, Albany, N. Y. THREE DISTINGUISHED PHI PSIS IN CONFERENCE Governor Sproul, Attorney General Palmer and President Wilson IZ>i^PMI KAPPA PSIC Vol. 40 OCTOBER 1919 No. 1 How to Keep the Freshmen in College EARL T. CORYELL, NEB. ALPHA '18, Contributor iEN studies interfere vi^ith your college education, let studies go hang! " This is the motto which W adorns the vv^alls of many a college freshman's room and is perhaps responsible for more freshmen leaving college at the end of the first year than any other cause. The sentiment expressed in this motto is the freshman's idea that it is " college life " which counts most. This idea is inbred in most freshmen from the time they first begin to think of college. Very seldom do the papers print any but stories of students' escapades, of thrilling athletic contests and of fraternity life. The academic side of a college education receives very little attention. All through high school he is impressed by the stories he reads of " college life " and then after he enters college emphasis is laid upon the disgrace of being a " grind " and the vital importance of being a " good fellow." Even the alumni re turn to the chapter house and delight in telling the freshmen the tales of days when the students were not mollycoddles, beer flowed freely and the faculty did not try to run things. Then, too, there is so much preachment that it is not the things that you learn in books, but the " college life " that counts in your life after graduation. This atmosphere has even become a part of the correspondence school. It is said that a father in Hood River, Oregon, found his son standing on his head in the crotch of an apple tree, waving his legs in the air and giving a college yell. 2 The Shield of Phi Kappa Psi " Come down, boy," he cried. "Are you crazy ? " "No, father; leave me alone," said he. "I have just started my correspondence school course, and the sopho mores have written me to go haze myself." It seems that the inevitable result of such a standard for a college education is the large number of freshmen who " flunk out" at the end of the first year, and the question arises as how to prevent this. In the first place, the general atmosphere which surrounds a college should be changed and such teachings as the fresh man motto holds should be avoided. Fun must not be elim inated, but studies should be given precedence over this " college life." The Greek-letter fraternity is the unit on which the burden of this obligation rests. There are several ways in which the upperclassmen may exert their influence to better these conditions and help keep the freshmen in college. There is one type of freshman who has no comprehension of a college curriculum and is unable to decide just what studies he should register for. Every now and then a boy says to his teacher: " I want to study English composition. I have been told that I have unusual talent as a writer. I must not waste time. I am already eighteen years old. I can not afford to take courses in history and philosophy and science. My specialty is writing." It is sometimes difficult for such a boy to comprehend fully what a great convenience it is, for one who wishes to write, to have something to say. He defeats his own purpose, whereas with a little guidance from the upperclassmen he could be made to understand the importance of a broad education and a proper basis for his work. He will soon begin to understand where he was on the wrong track and will take a deeper interest than ever because of his work which is coming in the junior and senior years. The scholarship committee, most important committee of the whole chapter, whose duty it is to get grades from the professors and then to remind those who are failing that they must make greater effort in their work, does much toward the furthering of high standards of scholarship, and How to Keep the Freshmen in College 3 incidentally lessening the number of " flunks " and a conse quent number of freshmen never coming back to college. The average college freshman, however, appears to be not exactly a boy, certainly not a man, an interesting species, a kind of an " Exhibit X," permitted because he is customary — and possessed by the devil. For him, every day is an unconditional holiday, life just one long, huge joke. Right there the upperclassmen of the chapter have another oppor tunity to help the freshmen. Get that student interested in college activities and the sooner the better, yet not at the sacrifice of his studies or we are back in the same old rut. If he can be slipped in on the university daily publication, even if it is only chasing down the weather report, he will feel that he amounts to something around the campus, and with the possibility of being editor some day his interest in everything about college picks up and he even studies a little for he does not want bad work holding him back. The freshman who does not return for his sophomore year is not the one who was worked too hard; it is the fellow who just sits and thinks, and sometimes just sits in the chapter house. That is the place the upperclassmen must watch for that distraction from all college work, whether activity or study. The substitution of indifference and laziness will put a freshman out of college every time. If he does not stop, the delinquency committee will put him out. Still another way in which the freshman may be made to take interest is by appointing him on different chapter com mittees. This causes him to feel some responsibility about the house and that it is something more than a place in which to sit. The freshmen will then begin to realize that some day they will be the pilots of the chapter and they look forward to that day with a great deal of pride. Alumni Indebtedness GANG R. BAKER, JR., COL. ALPHA '17, Contributor IERE is no doubt in the mind of any man who has been initiated into our Fraternity, that he has re Tceived a great honor. We do not initiate a man because of his success, but because of the possibihties that we see in making him a loyal brother and worker for Phi Kappa Psi. The initiate has contracted a debt that can only be paid back by putting into the Fraternity more than he has received from it, if that is ever possible. It is in this way that we must make our Fraternity larger and greater, not necessarily in numbers, but in the type of man we send out from our chapters. In a recent talk made by an alumnus of our Fraternity the following brief story was told: " In the American front line trenches in which a group of doughboys were gathered, a German hand grenade fell in their midst; one man im mediately crushed the grenade into the soft mud, knowing that it meant his own life, but the others in the group were saved." This, the speaker pointed out, should be the atti tude of every Phi Psi; a spirit of sacrifice should character ize our relations to the Fraternity. I disagree with the speaker on one point; I believe that the spirit should not be called sacrifice but willingness. If a man knows that an emergency is coming, he can pre pare for it. This applies to the attitude of an alumnus to the Fraternity. If an alumnus is informed of a meeting or banquet of his local alumni association, ahead of time, he should arrange to be there. The same applies to notices of initiations, banquets and invitations sent out by chapters to alumni in their near vicinity.

Load more