Today we might better understanda college campus in terms of the avuncular rather than the paternal
IN LOCO AVUNCULI By Joseph C. Robert
In these days of change in higher education, it is imperative that we keep our wits about us; there just may be some values in the old ways which at first glance might not be seen in their full glory . Or to put the matter more rudely, we must to careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water. As university students you belong to a fellowship with magnificent dimensions in terms of both geography and time . I have heard noisy students at the University of Ath_ens duplicating the yells at a pre-football rally at our own Greek Theatre ( though really they were putting the pressure on their business manager to reduce tuition). The houses of the so-called nations at the University at Uppsala, Sweden , are similar to our own fraternity lodges, and serve the same purposes . Student caps in Rome put one in mind of freshman headgear all over the United States . In ordinary seasons you have much in common with students in the western world. Not only in mannerisms but in spirit. Always acknowledging our intellectual debt to ancient times, we must realize that the college and university idea as we know it came to the English-speaking colonies from Europe by way of England , later in more direct 4
fashion . Some of those seminal medieval universities were established by professors , some by students. Among the latter is Bologna, today a fascinating place with its miles of arcades and its busy industries. How did the university originate? In plain terms some young people wanted training not then available, and they employed teachers. In the face-to-face encounter between these professors and students we have the genesis of the university, as the term is usually understood in our times. The students militantly organized to protect themselves against the keepers of shops and taverns, who, according to the young people, habitually exploited them. And they, the students, made strict requirements of their professors, who were specifically forbidden to cut classes, and to postpone indefinitely troublesome points in their lectures through the device of protesting that these themes would be considered on the morrow! In those days before collect telephone calls were invented, students used to write home . Let us peek over the shoulders of a lad who is earnestly scratching away. This is 500 years ago. According to Haskins he writes about as follows . To "his venerable master" he sends "greetings. " This is to inform / Continued on page 42
