Life Goes to a College

It's beginning to look as if someone ought to make up Henry Luce's mind. After a series of articles on the contributions of America's colleges to the war effort, LIFE's feature in last week's issue on what goes on in Indiana University is enough to whet the propaganda pencil of any Axis spokesman. If LIFE's editors are to be listened to, students in our colleges are having a riot of a time making pick-ups in libraries, wearing zoot suits, and playing havoc with the sanity of their professors.

Of course, LIFE has an explanation for all this. It's the end of an era, the editors point out; this is the last chance we'll have to see goings-on with football herocs and smooth co-eds, the last time we'll be able to play around before going off to attend to the serious business of making war.

If Mr. Luce's cohorts are right, then the Axis has nothing to fear from America's younger generation. If it takes a uniform and a top sergeant and a U.S.O. dance to make a college student aware of the responsibilities he faces; if he can fool around without a serious thought in his head until his draft notice catches up with him--then Hitler's war aganst the unity of this country is already won.

But LIFE might well have looked over its back issues before feeding fuel to Goebbels and his gang. It might have recounted the enormous list of contributions to the war effort pointed out in its article on Yale, contributions which are being matched time and time again in universities throughout the nation. It might have shown how accelerated educational programs are turning out young doctors, engineers, research experts, administrators, linguists. It might have shown how American colleges are sacrificing their teachers, their grounds and equipment, their dances and their athletic events in the interests of the fight in which we're involved.

If Mr. Luce thinks that pre-Army days are carefree ones for college students, then he hasn't been on a university campus recently. If he thinks that the planning and the preparation are all being done by those past military age, then he hasn't a clear concept of what the War means to America's universities. And if he thinks that undergraduates are as uninterested in their country's struggle as his article indicates, then his faith in our future is based on a pretty slim thread.

Maybe LIFE slipped for a moment in its role of trying to paint an accurate picture of the American scene. After all, there's no sex in a Chem lab; and you can't very well show sweater girls studying quantum mechanics.

The real picture would have been far less picturesque. It would have been dull, and purposeful, and earnest. What's more important, it would have been the picture that students have helped to make, and the one they're proud of--whether it's photogenic or not.