Campus Papers Prod Pep and Stimulate Spirit

. . . If ever there were a time when UH's full support was needed, that time is now. The entire university community--the students, administration, and alumni--should rally around the team and give them full backing.

How Tommy and the boys will do on the mainland is yet to be seen. But whatever the outcome of their three scheduled games, they should be assured that the entire university is behind them--now as never before.

The Michigan Daily has often printed similar sentiments.

. . . This morning . . . University students are being asked to give the Welverines a rousing sendoff as they leave for New York to meet the Black Knights of Army tomorrow afternoon . . . sure, the team will be "Up" for tomorrow's game anyway, but let's be up with them this morning.

The third major category of pep articles deals with class spirit. Beneath the unified front of school spirit there must be a class rivalry which, in its tension, sharpens and intensifies the all-over pep. This rivalry is often set up as a war between freshmen and sophomores, climaxed by a fight, or "rush." The rushes usually break into papers for two reasons: they are either too destructive, or not destructive enough.

At Princeton, the former is usually the case. Princeton freshmen are required to wear little black dinks, (the fields of hazing and spirit are hopelessly enmeshed). At the end of September, a flood of dinkless frosh swept into Princeton's Commons, in direct violation of an old Nassan tradition. Sophomores rallied round the supper table, linked arms, and shouted "No Dinks, No Dinner!" One freshman hit his head against a Gothic wall, but the fight reeled its way onto the steps of Nassau Hall, where the sophomores overwhelmed the freshmen. The Daily Princetonian listed six freshmen who were subsequently treated for injuries. Other class spirit activities described by the Princetonian this fall included the shaving of the heads of five freshmen, a series of thefts involving a hired airplane and the clapper to the Nassau hall bell, and the annual Cane Spree, which promptly initiated another riot.

Williams has been having the opposite kind of trouble. There, freshman and sophomore have been secure in an unbecoming truce. The Williams Record was nagged by the question of which class was stronger.

With Soph-Fresh tension high due to the inconclusive results of the annual greased-pole battle in the Freshman Quad, some sort of organized struggle between the two lower classes is definite- by needed. Although members of the Sophomore class succeeded in rawing down the pole erected by the freshmen, they did so at dinner time when the class of 1953 was not present in force. The freshmen in turn ridded various Sophomores, but never was opposed by the Class of 1953 in a pitched battle.

The question of which class is the stronger has not been decided, but it can be if both classes turn-out in strength for the pushball contest . . .

M.I.T. has a similar organized test of class strength on its field day. The Tech this fall has urged that the riots be of "satisfying intensity and still do no damage," noting that:

. . . We have had riotry among the upperclassmen in many different forms over the years. It has always been healthfully vigozous, but sometimes not quite harmless, as when one student died from injuries in the cane rush a great many years ago.

The University of Pennsylvania has no organized riot, but still worries about the spirit of the freshman class (see editorial on page 5). So does the Ka Leo O Hawaii, which lashed out at a sophomore planning committee for cancelling the annual frosh field day. The cancellation was a "serious blow," said the Ka Leo. "The sophomore committee has unmistakably fumbled the most important stepping stone of the freshmen in their quest of a well-rounded college education.