Living to Learn in College

...An interested audience is the rarest discovery in the world, and although the audience's powder may sprinkle over her fresh supply of handkerchiefs, and her gloves mysteriously take a leave of absence, the relief of not having to face four bare walls overshadows such trifling annoyances...

...As you live, so shall you learn...

...Music, talks by members of the faculty and various forms of entertainment make the custom most popular...

...I'll initiate you into a life animated by the spirit of the university," reads the label on dormitory...

...For the student, in New York or any other large city, who has experienced community life in college and is desirous of setting up her own schedule, there is the possibility of taking a room in an apartment...

...The girls are allowed to invite their friends to this gathering in the reception room where hospitality is so cordially extended...

...Here the spirit of the college constantly stalks her step twenty-four hours of the day in order to educate her heart as well as her mind...

...There is a large reception room on the ground floor of the hall where the student may entertain guests until a certain hour of the evening...

...There is hot and cold running water, and steam heat and cross ventilation supply warmth and air...

...One of the main residence halls of a well-known university will serve as a type of such domiciles...

...Free from the admonitions of her elders, she must rely on common sense to avoid pitfalls, for a feeling of obligation and a constant flame of ambition can be her only incentives to accomplish work...

...Towels and bed linen are distributed according to demand, and laundry is taken care of by the housekeeper...

...There are also necessary regulations about staying out late at night and leaving the dormitory for week-ends...

...The occupant of the room is free to hang her own pictures and draperies, or to use any appointments that she chooses...

...Her board covers the expense of three meals that are taken in the sunny and spacious dining-room...

...What joy to exchange the latest news of respective home towns over the breakfast coffee and toast, to compare the different merits of professors, or to discuss the peculiarities of classmates...

...Almost always, every effort is made to offer proper surroundings and helpful influences for the students, as only regular living results in valuable learning...

...It is up to her to produce, from regular living, valuable learning...

...Let the confused candidate be influenced by the amount of self-reliance and responsibility which she possesses, the liberal-mindedness of her parents or guardians, and the row of figures in her check-book...

...It resembles an exclusive and expensive apartment house with its lofty brick walls and glass entrance doors...

...Current magazines are scattered on the centre tables and a grand piano is ensconced in a corner...

...Quiet rules are enforced every evening from eight o'clock until ten, so victrolas, radios and pianos must be silent...

...With the first of the month comes the reckoning in the shape of appalling bills for light, gas and telephone...

...I'll give you a latch-key and the use of your own free will," tempts the label on apartment...

...Personalities stand out more against this home-like background and are brought frequently into closer contact with one another...

...It is better to condemn the watery lettuce of the table d'hote dinner in chorus than to sip its tepid soup in solitary misery...

...Each girl has her own room, furnished simply with a bed, bureau, desk, and several chairs...

...I'll promise you a friendly, intimate association with the best type of girl," reads the label on club...

...If she is able to find another girl of similar likes and dislikes to share the bed and the closet shelves, the pangs of loneliness will not consider her such a dainty morsel...

...The family faces on the wall, the assortment of silver-backed brushes and perfume bottles on the dressing-table, and the pile of unanswered mail on the desk, are familiar and silent company...

...This freedom" has proved a strain on purse and patience...

...What fascination can the stilted sentences of bygone historians offer against the enjoyment of wearing down her threeinch heels to the melody of a Victor-recording orchestra...

...Yet let the students who crave such an existence be warned that their abode will probably become the Mecca of those thirsty and hungry parasites who are always seeking any oasis of generosity...

...This particular hall is famous for its "coffee hour," which always follows Sunday dinner...

...The diningroom director, experienced in the relative merits of food, chooses the most nourishing diet, while a resident trained nurse is always ready to advise about treatment for illness...

...Whatever home she selects will give its own peculiar training, and she must undergo education of the character as well as of the mind in the process...

...If the tenants have acquired any brain-power by that time, they will break the victrola records, settle up for damages and fly to the quiet solitude of the dormitory for recuperation...

...Courtesy requires that the student fill out a blank slip, stating her destination and the date on which she expects to return...

...The purr of the city swells to the shrill volume of a cat-call, and sometimes, in desperation, she will respond eagerly to its invitation...

...It is in reality a miniature dormitory which devotes individual interest to each girl and reduces its social activities to a smaller scale...

...A well-balanced diet, the proper amount of sleep and exercise, and heated, well-ventilated rooms, tend to the development of the sound body for the sound mind...

...Comfortable lounges invite low-voiced conversation...

...The formulation of regulations for the household's social life is entrusted to a student committee made up of the club residents, as the directors wisely realize that the placing of such a responsibility in the hands of the girls will encourage cooperation and good will...

...From this new vantage point, they can survey the wreckage of their incomes and draw "ip long pages of resolutions never again to be guilty of such foolishness...

...Devoted friends" develop the habit of raiding the ice-box, burning cigarette holes into the rented furniture and making out-of-town telephone calls...

...There are no set hours for meals or bedtime, for study or for play, and the necessity of making her own decisions may overburden the student's sense of responsibility...

...Care is paid to the physical welfare of the students...

...In this way, the individual may express her personal tastes...

...She signs her name and leaves the slip at the office so that the directress may know where to locate her in case of emergency...

...The club for girls at this same institution offers the chaperonage of the dormitory with identical rules concerning meals, late returns and week-ends...

...It takes an iron-bound, copper-riveted will to refuse graciously a bid to dine in a candle-lit rendezvous when an Underwood stands ready and waiting to tap out a 10,000 word essay on child management...

...The club directors have charge of the list of residents and will admit only the type of girl whom they consider helpful in maintaining the existing standard of excellence...

...Moreover, this yearning for personal independence, which has brought war to nations, frequently brings to the apartment-dweller loneliness...

...Living as the member of a community, under the same roof with her classmates, gives her the opportunity to join in their recreation, to broaden her viewpoint, rid herself of worthless values and reorganize her pattern of life...

...Its attractive interior of marble floors and light paint sounds the knell of the nineteenth-century idea that boarding-school must depress the faltering pupil and impress the trusting parent with its linoleum and dark woodwork...

...Cousins, sisters and brothers of the friends welcome the apartment as a convenient place to "drop in" at any hour of the day or night, while "dyed-in-wool" week-end addicts decorate the lounge in the living-room from Friday to Monday with their persons and possessions...