The Archives of The University of Notre Dame 607 Hesburgh Library Notre Dame, IN 46556 574-631-6448 [email protected] Notre Dame Archives: Alumnus ALUMNUS r!?S ^' -' '^ '^!iPi'^'^hf^ The 26th Annual UNIVERSAL NOTRE DAME NIGHT is Monday APRIL 25 IVhat is your Club doing f Join with thousands of other Notre Dame men in scores of Notre Dame clubs in observing this traditional Notre Dame Night. Mark your calendar NOW! This Year Commencement and Alumni Reunion are on Separate Week-ends ALUMNI REUNION Friday, Saturday and Sunday June 10, II and 12 (on the Campus of course) Special reunions of the five-year classes: 1899, 1904, 1909, 1914, 1919, 1924, 1929, 1934,, 1939 and 1944. Residence accommodations in the halls. Expanded reunion program. Class secretaries and Reunion Committees are working on details. Watch for further announcements, but mark the dates now — June 10, II and 12 ••.^ iV^.;' t'jrTl^, ^?V^;^?r •*• mnnnj^ ii#i ;?s- k:E,wj~;~^f*^ '^'^•iiSi**'^^^™' »^2%\^^ TS "... ,~ *0 .(• i-iS - - ?*• SS^SSSS prttm T- ^f»i ^-4_-J' :i* PflSSIM -^:5«--i^ms@ 4.-:?i«as y^l The Notre Dame ALUMNUS Heredity or Environment Vol. 27. No. 2 Morch-April, 1949 It could be due to heredity. After all. Professor Stritch's Journalism Department, Main Building, First Floor, North, does now occupy the quarters wherein the ALUMNUS for so James E. Armstrong. '25. Editor many years was slapped, spoonfed and coaxed into life, William H. Dooley. '26. Managing Editor and circulation. This magazine is published bi-monlhly by the University of But, more likely, the reason is environment. When the Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind. Entered as second class matter Alumni Office, long crushed into too-little space, packed Oct. 1, 1939, at the Postoffice, Notre Dame, Ind., under, the act oi Aug. 24, 1912. up its card files and addressograph plates in 1947 and started away, the journey was short — just around the comer to the onetime throne-room—Carroll Hall, Main Building, First Floor, West. TABLE OF CONTENTS And thus it happens that Professor Stritch and the Managing Editor of the ALUMNUS are neighbors. (The NOTRE DAME:—THE POST-WAR OUTLOOK environment factor enters.) And as good neighbors will, by Bob Azar 5 they do often have conversation. "WHITHER AMERICAN EDUCATION?" The Student Section of this ALUMNUS is one of the by Thomas Brady .. 6 fruits—pleasant and healthful we hope—of such neighbor- liness and conversation. THE HUMANITIES by Jim King and Louis This is the way we talked one day: Rukavina _ 7 Notre Dame student life today is changed—changed THE SCIENCES by John Carrol _ 9 quite obviously from what it was in the halcyon days before World War 1, changed, but not so obviously, from the fast- \VINTER CHRONICLE by Richard McCarthy. 11 growing 1920s'—the days of the original "cardboard pal­ ace". Freshman Hall, and its mate. Sophomore Hall, and STUDENT FAMILY by John Sullivan 13 the era of O. A. Clark's campus cafeteria. Student life to­ day is even changed, in ways sometimes hardly perceptible FRESHMAN—1949 by Frederick George 17 to the non-resident, from the depression-bound 1930s'. MIDYEAR COMMENCEMENT 20 And Notre Dame, the school, is different too. It's matured. True, there has been growth, almost phenom­ WALLACE ALUMNI PRESIDENT 21 enal growth, in the numbers of students, in faculty, in ASSOCIATION LOOKS AHEAD 25 plant and facilities. But it's not the mere growth that we want to point up: it's the new life on the campus. (Plus the regular news and features) In short, what Professor Stritch and I hoped to do was interpret a littie the Notre Dame campus of 1949 for the thousands who hadn't seen it of late, or who, seeing it, haven't realized the changes. They Get The Credit And who, we thought, could mirror this change, paint this new, larger canvas more effectively, than the students Rabert Azar is a 21-year-old senior from Encino, Calif. who are today, now, living the newer Notre Dame life? He hopes to enter either radio or newspaper work after his graduation in June. Thomas Brady, 23, from Oak Park, Tom Brady, who supervised the student work. Bob 111., a senior, is undecided about his after-graduation plans. Azar, Jim King, Louis Rukavina, John Carol, Richard Senior Jack Carrol, 23, hails from Lansing, Mich., started McCarthy, John Sullivan and Frederick George—these are out in Engineering, switched to Journalism, and is un­ the Journalism students who did it all. Under the dircc-' decided about his future work. Frederick George, a 23- tion of Professor Stritch, but in no wse "under his thumb", year-old junior from Jackson, O., hopes to write for maga­ they pubfished tiie entire Student Section of this ALUMNUS zines and newspapers after he graduates June, 1950. —from ideas to the final reading of page proofs. They chased down pictures and photographers, sought out pro­ James King, whose home is in New York Cit>', is a 23- fessors and students, laid out their seventeen pages, dealt year-old senior. Jim plans to enter the public relations with the engravers and printers. field, or advertising, after graduation in June. Richard And so this Student Section tiiat follows is theirs, and McCarthy is a 28-year-old senior from Joliet, 111. His plans we think that you'll like it that way. AVhat they say isn't call for a future in the newspaper or magazine fields. necessarily what the editors of the ALUMNUS would say in Louis Rukavina, 23-year-old senior, graduates in Janu- the same kind of stories. That doesn't matter. We wanted ar>', 1950. Lou, who is from West Allis, Wis., is married. you to know a littie more what Notre Dame is like today, He plans to do graduate work at Northwestern, in prepara­ and we wanted you to see it through the eyes of some tion for foreign correspondence work. John Sullivan, who splendidly representative students of today. lives in Lj-nn, Mass., is 25 years old and a senior. John We're grateful to them and we hope tiiat you \rill Kke will enter the newspaper business after graduation. what they've done.—^W.R.D. l^^i m 4 '*^^^^ O '^^ NOTRE DAME: THE POST-WAR OUTLOOK b/BobAzar Four thousand seven hundred and fifty-six students to­ The typical student of prewar days lived in a single day make up the largest student body in Notre Dame room. The student of today lives doubled-up. Where one historj'. Many alumni are wondering what effect this tre­ was, two or three now are. Residence halls, dining halls, mendous increase has had, what changes have been made, chapels feel the pinch of over-capacity. and what kind of life the post-war student is finding here. A significant change is the preponderance of men in They're wondering if mass education has twisted the per­ science and engineering; liberal arts, formerly double all sonal tradition of Notre Dame education into an assembly other, is now only third in total enrollment. The faculty has line process. -,. added over two hundred new professors, creating new Fortunately for the students of today, Notre Dame is courses, new sections of courses. Some really large classes, not an educational factory. It tries not to place its ma­ convene in the Engineering Auditorium, the only place terials in a mold and shape identical products. It tries not big enough to handle them. Science and engineering lec­ to lead its students into doing, thinking and acting the tures. Dr. Gurian's popular politics class, and the Journal­ same as everyone else. It does not know them by a number ism-cultural-historical-film series are held there. With a. alone. Many modern universities do have such stereotyping. rostrum on stage, and a projector for audio-visual aid, the For Notre Dame, post-war education means handling more room lends itself effectively to teaching a large group. people than are normally handled, more than the physical Though Notre Dame has spilled over in South Bend plant can comfortably handle—not a change in way of life, more than at any time since the late twenties, it still re­ teaching methods or teaching quality. The greatest change mains a campus school, a separate city, apart, dedicated. has come in living conditions. The major need is new It is still an organic community, though Father John Cava- physical equipment to give students and teachers a chance naugh probably knows the names of fewer students than his to live and work under the best conditions possible. namesake of 1920. CROWDED LINES COVER THE DRILL HALL AS RECORD NUMBER OF STUDENTS REGISTER " Whither American Education?" by Thomas Brady What is modem American education? It is many things. fraternities in a school where no one wants a fraternity. It is classrooms overflowing wth students. It is a thousand Many educatoh are aware of the dangers of mass edu­ courses in a thousand subjects. It is IBM machines spewing cation, and try to prevent miiversities from turning into be­ out unchangeable class schedules and student rolls. It's hemoths like the Universities of California or Illinois, but long lines, crowded dormitories, jammed buses, and a two- are often powerless to stop the pix)cess, or at least check it •wreek's wait for laundry. It is courses run by the syllabus, to in its most dangerous aspects. If a school has room for •which both professor and student bow in helpless self de­ one hundred students, and finds itself with one hundred- fense.