VMI Cadet. May 23, 1955

              Lj B HA
VOLUME XLV VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE, LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA, May 23, 1955 NUMBER 28
Trackmen Sweep Area's Rig Three Meets By 1 orrid Vlargins
COLUMN ONE
by
Jfere Real
What is the cause for the anti-academic
attitude that exists at V.
M.I.? I have had a number of peo-ple
stop me and ask me this ques-tion.
It is one that only the Corps
of Cadets and the faculty can
answer.
Negative Outlook
V.M.I, ranks comparatively high
in the listings of American col-leges
and universities. Yet it is a
rather shocking fact to accept that
the greater part of the people at
VMI maintain a negative attitude
toward the education they are sup-posedly
here to receive.
During the recent destruction
centered about the "Rats" getting
out of the Ratline, there was no
regard for the academic hours in-volved
ip accumulating notes,
books, and other items of a
scholastic nature. Books were
thrown out of windows and torn
up, notes that will probably be
needed during the forthcoming ex-amination
period were destroyed
either through the flooding of
rooms or the ripping apart of them
by the extremely wanton action of
an upperclassman, and nothing
was done either by the Corps of
Cadets or the officials of the In-stitute
to stop the destruction.
Class Attitudes
There exists also a class room at-titude
that is worthy of mention in
this regard. The conduct in certain
section rooms is, needless to say,
far below that of any civilian col-lege.
The blame for this is also
two-fold. It is the fault of the ca-dets
as well as the instructor. The
cadets are paying, or their parents
are paying, a considerable sum of
money to attend college. The fact
remains that certain groups destroy
all semblance of order in the class-room.
The cadets are the guilty
party in this case. However, the
manner in which an instructor
meets the situation can have a lot
to do with how the section will re-act
from that time forward. If a
statement of policy is made and
adhered to, then a section knows
what to expect and will react ac-cordingly
as to the discipline of
the section. The frequency with
which instructors threaten to bone
their section, their section march-ers,
on students in the section, only
contributes to the animosity for the
academic. Scholasticism in a mod-ern
school cannot be enforced with
demerit system, penalty tours, or
confinement. Many faculty mem-bers
fail to realize the penalties in-volved
when they write up certain
bones. The two-sided philosophy of
some of our instructors is certainly
as appalling as the indifference
displayed by some of the cadets to-ward
the academic.
Privileges
The withholding of certain pri-vileges
that might tend to foster a
scholarly interest among the ca-dets
is a problem that much has
been done to correct; however,
there is still a great deal of pro-grees
to be made in the line of
more time for academic activity,
more lenient policies toward per-mits
for educational events, and a
more liberal attitude toward the
academic pursuits outside the regu-lar
course of study.
Accompanying this negative ap-proach
to the subject of learning is
an attitude of the average cadet.
This cadet has some strange notion
that is just isn't right for a person
to be interested in academics out-side
of the regularly scheduled
classes with their respective assign-ments.
This is one opinion that is
particular to VMI more than any
other college this writer has observ-ed.
Our True Posltioii
This anti-academic spirit that
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Southern Conference^ Big Six^
And AAV Meets Are Captured
By Fleet Cormack-Coached Men
The VMI thinclads finished another very successful season
as they captured all three of the track crowns available in this
part of the country. Running on William and Mary's rain soak-ed
Carey Field, the Keydets came from behind to score 57
points and retain the Southern Conference Championship.
Two days later on May 16, the team, running on the same
track, won the Big Six track and field title. The season ended
last Saturday with the team adding the Virginia AAU crown to
its already long string of laurels.
In the first meet the Keydets de-
Riots Rule Stoops
On Turnabout Day
"When the cat's away, the mice
will play" was certainly borne out
last Friday the 13th, when the Rats
took over the administration of the
Rat Line with approximately 650
victims to choose from. Even so, in
its shortness, the victims of the
rodential warth did absorb a little
feated a field composed of runners
from Davidson, Tech, W. Va., the
Citadel, Richmond, and W&L. Fur-man
and G. W. were not entered.
The runners up were VPI and dark-horse
D a v i d s o n , both witti 44
points. The Indians who were sup-posed
to be a threat came in a poor
fourth scoring 30 points.
VMI recaptured the title by
heavy point-getting in the shot put,
broad jump and discus events. Troy
Carter, the defending champ, tos-of
the character building for which sed the shot 49 feet, 3 5/8 inches;
VMI is so well known. The fury of Dale Vaughn broad jumped 23
a nuclear reaction has oft been feet, 9Vi inches; and Charlie Byrd
compared to the "enthusiasm" with retained his title by throwing the
which the Rats, the Class of '58- to-1 discus 143 feet, inches,
be, went after the meek, derided | The VMI runners failed to finish
upperclassmen who hit the Rat first in a single event, but depth
Line for the day. They were indeed . came through again to make up the
ones to be pitied. i difference.
Naturally there was an after-1 The Big Six track tilt was held
Next fall's Corps Trip will be to ^ ihv/imimus, x aiauc uiuunu. ; math. Sore, creakiiig muscles, ach- the following Monday with Virginia
Williamsburg for the VMI-Williaffl, ^ 2:00 PM Meeting of Executive Committee, General Alumni; ing joints, et al, were to present a! not participating. The Keydets'
^ ^ Association, Nichols Engineering Hall. i gf'^at problem to the upperclass-' margin of victory was greater this
2:30 PM Annual Meetmg, Membership of the V.M.I. Founda-' Tu*"! k? T ; r ^ ^ l ^ M ^ ri ,. , ... , . A ,, 1 reveille on that black mornmg. The Virgmia Tech 59, W&M 50, Rich -
tion, Inc., Nichols Engmeering Hall. pitter-patter of boondockers on the mond 27, and W&L 5.
2:30 PM Review f o r p r e s e n t a t i o n of prizes and awards. Pa-: stoop, the screams of remorse and i Outstanding performances were
Track coach Walt Cormack looks on as Ben Angle and Willie Green, team co-captains, receive
coveted trophy, just one of several the team has garnered this season.
T
Corps Elects
Trip to W&M
and Mary game, October 29. The
first three classes met in J-M Hall
last week to vote for the destina-tion
and chose Williamsburg by a
majority.
Vote Taken
Colonel Kerlin presented the possi-ble
selections, and Tom Massie,
president of the Class of '56, con-ducted
the voting. The choice was
made from the away schedule of:
The Citadel, Charleston S. C.; West
Virginia University, Bluefield, W.
Va.; Lehigh, Bethlehem, Pa.; Uni-versity
of Virginia, Charlottesville;
and Williamsburg. Second in the
voting was Bethlehem, Pa.
The Schedule
A tentative outline of the trip
shows the Corps leaving the In-stitute
Friday afternoon, October,
28. Friday night will be spent in
Richmond. Saturday the Corps will
move on to Williamsburg in time
for the pregame march into the
stadium. Buses will probably be
available after the game for com-ing
back to barracks or going to
'Richmond. Men desiring to will be
able to stay in Williamsburg. Sun-day
the return to Lexington will
be made.
The Corps Trip has become tra-ditional.
Last year's tour was to
Washington for the George Wash-ington
game.
Finals Schedule
Saturday, June 4,1955
Corps of Cadets Day
2:00 PM Guard Mounting* Parade Ground.
Alumni Present
Portrait of A twill
A portrait of Samuel F. Atwill,
one of the 10 Virginia Military In-stitute
cadets who lost their lives
in the Civil War battle of New Mar-ket,
has been presented to the VMI
Alumni Association and its Founda-tion.
The picture was given by three
of Atwill's great-nephews, J. B. At-,
will, of Richmond, and W, J. At-will
and S. F. Atwill, Jr., of Reeds-viUe.
During a brief ceremony at VMI,
Benjamin Huger, Sr., of Lexington,
made presentation of the picture,
while bis son, Benjamin Huger, Jr.,
also of Lexington, accepted it on be-half
of the VMI aluihni. The young-er
Huger is the grandson of Gen-eral
Scott Shipp, who was comman-dant
of VMI cadets and command-ed
the corps during the Battle of
New Market. He was wounded in
(Continued On Page 8)
rade Ground.
9:00 PM Final German, William H. Cocke ('94) Hall.
Sunday, June 5, 1955
Alumni Day
9:30 AM Sunday Morning Inspection of Barracks; Alumni
and Parents invited.
11:00 AM Baccalaureate Sermon, Jackson Memorial Hall,
Right Reverend William H. Marmion, Episcopal
Bishop of Southwestern Virginia.
12:00 AM Unveiling of Tablets in Memorial Garden.
12:30 PM Review for Alumni, Parade Ground.
1:15 PM Alumni Luncheon, Crozet Hall.
2:00 PM Guard Mounting, Parade Ground.
2:30 PM Annual Meeting of General Alumni Association,
Jackson Memorial Hall, with meeting of Executive
Committee immediately following.
4:30 PM Class of 1955 Parents' Reception.
Tuesday, June 7,1955
Graduation Day
11:00 AM Commencement Exercises, William H. Coke ('94)
Hall.
1. Invocation, The Reverend Doctor J. James Murray.
2. Valedictory Address by Cadet Norman Stuart Harris of toes, baked haddock, peanut butter
and bread au gratin. Seperately
they sound farily edible, but to-pain,
and the huffing and puffing turned in by Ben Angle and Troy
of big fat pots highlighted the pro- j Carter, who established new re-gram
of entertainment. Baldheaded j cords. Ben, recovering from a pull-men,
hairy men, and even some, ed leg muscle, which hampered his
zebra-striped men were subjected | running in the Conference meet,
to the various and sundry tortures | burned up the track in the 880 yard
of the famed Rat Line once again. i run to better the old record which
Actually, the change occurred at j has stood since 1936. His time was
assembly for BRC. Only the warped 1:52.7—bettering the old record by
mind of an engineer could envision ,
the turmoil and confusion that fol- \
lowed.
Class privileges did prevail in'
the mess hall, to the extent that the
newly created "firsts" had the sove-;
reign right to reprimand. Break-;
31/2 seconds.
Carter's toss of 49 feet 3 and a
half inches out distanced the old
mark by 8% inches. He has still
to reach the coveted 50 ft. mark in
a meet.
The VMI teams piled up points
fast was a farce; dinner developed ! in the distances as they took the
into a baseball game; and supper firct four places in the 2 mile rv.n;
was indescrible. The new Rats got, tliree places in the javelin.
more to eat than their masters, but
oddly enought there was very little
to eat. The fare was quite varied—
from pheasant under glass to boiled
shoestrings—but most of all it was
homogeneous. Who could ever try
to eat pickle relish, creamed pota-
Lynchburg.
3. Announcement of Honors and Awards.
William & Mary's sprint ace led
the meets scoring by collecting
thiee first places. He won the 100-
yd. dash, the 220 yd. dash, and the
220-yd low hurdles setting a new
Gary Field record of 23.6 seconds.
The old record, held by Johnny
Mapp, was 23.8 seconds set in 1952.
After trying for two years Walt
Cormack's thinclads defeated the
gether they were a meal fit only Q^ uaintico Marines to win the State
4. Address to the Graduates, Mr. Clement D. Johnston, for a true gourmet. To top it all off, AAU track and field championship.
President, Chamber of Commerce of t h e United States, these, delicacies, respectfully nam-1 The Marines, failing to show their
5. Conferring of Degrees.
6. Presentation of Commissions,
7. Benediction, The Reverend Doctor J. James Murray.
Final Formation on the Hill.
ed Crozet au Crotchetori,
(continued on page 8)
usual strength were able to do no
(continued on page 5)
Glee Club Climaxes Successful Season
With Two Concerts In Tidewater Area
The Glee Club left Lexington
for its Newport News-Norfolk con-cert
tour on Friday morning. May
13. The date had no ill effect on
the fortunes of the club as both
concerts turned out to be tremen-dous
successes.
Four o'clock that same afternoon
found the members of the club
assembled at George Wythe High
School in Newport News for re-hearsal.
After rehearsal the cadets
were taken to the homes of alumni
and friends for dinner.
Bad weather did not seem to
hinder the attendance of the cit-izens
of Newport News and sur-rounding
areas at the concert. Nor
did the rain dampen their spirits.
The program sung by the club on
this tour was similar to that pre-sented
on the Fredericksburg-Lees-burg
trip with the addition of a
peppy Italian song, "Tutti Veneti,"
by Gastoldi and ''Of the Father's
Love," Begotten the earliest known
plainsong hymn.
Following the concert the sing-ers
returned to the homes of their
hosts, some remaining in Newport
News and others crossing to Nor-folk
and Virginia Beach.
The concert in Norfolk on Sat-urday
night was probably the best
of the season. Particularly fine
was the singing of Allegri's
"Miserere, Mei Deus."
(continued on page 8)
LEADING THE PACK—Ben Angle, graduating star of the
Keydet's champion track team, captures another first in the
880 yd. dash during recent track barnstorming trip.