Tag Archives: Dramatics

p. 320 – The Case Administration, 1942-1962

Posted on June 21, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 320 – The Case Administration, 1942-1962
Veteran's Housing, A1000-69, Folder 6, p320    Veteran's Housing, A1000-69, Folder 5, p320

 

January, 1943, was appointed Assistant Dean for the civilian group, and later succeeded by Dr. Paul S. Jacobsen, ’27, of the Political Science Department. Civilian and military students together published the Maroon and Banter. The latter temporarily lost its character as a humor magazine to take on some of the features of a yearbook in lieu of the Salmagundi which did not appear. Members of both groups under Dr. Daniels’ direction staged some noteworthy dramatic productions.

With the release of men from the service at the war’s end the University faced the problem of accommodating a greatly expanded student body in excess of 1,300, a large proportion of them veterans. Dr. George H. Estabrooks of the Psychology Department became Director of Veterans’ Affairs and Dr. James A. Storing of Political Science, Director of Studies for Veterans. George Werntz, Jr., returned from the Navy to resume his duties as Director of Admissions. Many of the faculty members who had been on leave in the armed services or in government positions were back in the classroom and additional staff had to be recruited. An office to assist veterans in obtaining employment was opened in New York City under the supervision of Dr. Clifford E. (Woody) Gates, ’15, Professor of German.

Administrative innovations of the Case period included making

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p. 305 – The Cutten Period, 1922-1942

Posted on June 21, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 305 – The Cutten Period, 1922-1942

freshman caps, attendance at cheer and song practice, and in general maintaining campus traditions, was taken over by the Sophomore Vigilance Committee in 1930. Paddling was a common punishment for violating the rules to be found in the Frosh Bible. By 1939 the senior honorary society, Konosioni, had assumed the duties of the sophomore committee.

Undergraduate support of the honor system had so declined by 1922 that on recommendation of the Students’ Association the faculty abolished it. Many undergraduates had come to believe that the crime was not so much cheating as being caught. Later college generations sought unsuccessfully to create sufficient public sentiment to revive the no-proctoring arrangements.

Interclass rivalry was a marked feature of student life in the ’20’s, especially between the Freshmen and sophomores, as had been true in the past. From time to time it was channeled into supervised events such as athletic competitions, the salt rush, and the pushball contest but the most violent encounters were likely to come when the classes held their banquets, usually off-campus, and before Moving Up Day in the spring. In 1923 they pelted each other in the center of the village with decayed eggs and the next year repeated the performance on two successive nights, on the second of which nearly the whole student body seems to have joined them. Irate businessmen with befouled storefronts and innocent bystanders who had been in “line of fire” demanded an end to such misbehavior and town and gown efforts averted it thereafter. The normal relations between students and merchants were very cordial and the latter were among the staunchest supporters of many campus activities, including athletics.

The undergraduate publications of the preceding years continued in the Cutten period. The Maroon editors by the middle ’20’s gave more space to non-athletic news items than formerly and in the spring of 1924 introduced “The Weeping Willow,” a column of comment and gossip which lasted until the fall of 1940 and at times gave considerable spice to the paper. The Salmagundi changed from a Junior to a Senior yearbook in 1934. Banter, the humor magazine, enjoyed the distinction of being suspended by the faculty in 1928 for publishing “objectionable” jokes. The literary magazine, The Willow Path, expired in 1931 for lack of support.

Dramatics made a strong bid for student attention. Russell F. Speirs, a Syracuse graduate in 1923, joined the faculty that year as a member

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p. 257 – The Merrill Presidency, 1899-1908

Posted on June 14, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 257 – The Merrill Presidency, 1899-1908

Academy student, demonstrated his ability at illustration and caricature which were later to win him wide acclaim.

Colgate achieved notice and commendation as a “singing college” in the 1900’s. Among a freshman’s first obligations was to learn the growing number of Colgate songs. Village merchants, the Madisonensis, and the student bookstore distributed song sheets, especially during the football season when classrooms often rang with singing before the business of the day started. Several students tried their hand at producing new songs. None was as successful as Lindol E. French, ’02, who had in mind the music of the popular ballad “Juanita” as he wrote the words “When through thy valley…” in 1904. He knew nothing of their enthusiastic acceptance until he discovered at a football game some time later the students were singing them as the “Alma Mater”and as such they have remained.Conversation, Lindol E. French, ’04, and H.D.W., June 12, 1937.

The YMCA program attracted considerable support. It included: publishing the Student’s Handbook, i.e. Frosh Bible; the annual reception for freshmen in September; prayer meetings; and Bible study classes. Attendance at chapel was required but Sunday church services in the village had long since become voluntary. In the spring of 1908 student religious interest was quickened by a series of meetings held in the Baptist Church by a traveling evangelist.

Public speaking contests inspired a great deal of enthusiasm. Inter-class debates were encouraged, particularly as training grounds for intercollegiate rivalry. The first intercollegiate debate seems to have been with Cornell in 1904. Colgate, represented by members of its first debating club, won the decision. The Lewis, Rowland and Grout oratorical prizes were eagerly sought after. The chief public speaking contests received as detailed and enthusiastic reporting in the Madisonensis as the major games on the gridiron, diamond, or court.

For about a decade after the middle 90’s student efforts at play production seem to have been nonexistent. Whether their interests were diverted in other directions or whether James B. Colgate’s hostility to the stage thwarted them is not known. In 1905, about a year after his death, they produced a comedy and a few months later organized a dramatic club which gave new life to this activity.

Several of the theologues organized the Jonathan Wade Union about

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p. 236 – Colgate in the 1890’s

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1895 Editorial Board
Picture of Editoraial Board

band was organized; it consisted of 16 members and was directed by John W. Finch, ’97. Dramatics, too, captured enough student interest to warrant establishing in 1890 under Professor Thomas’s sponsorship the first Dramatics Club. Though it seems to have disappeared about six years later it had among the productions to its credit The Rivals and The School for Scandal, with students taking the women’s roles.

Academic garb was not yet accepted as a matter of course. Occasiona1ly a senior class would adapt cap and gown to be worn in the spring or fall and the Class of 1897 requested the faculty to appear similarly attired at commencement but that innovation had to wait until President Merrill’s administration. The Quartette and choir as shown in the Salmagundi of 1893 had mortarboards and wore gowns over evening clothes.

Outstanding in this generation of students was Harry Emerson Fosdick,.’00, who was destined to a great career as New York City

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