Tech Student Can Pull Pranks Or Study Hard With Equanimity

Most Harvard students think of an M.I.T. undergraduate as one of two extremes--a laboratory slave or the immature perpetrator of some highly publicized pranks. Although the two conceptions seem mutually exclusive, Tech men in surprising numbers manage to conform to both.

The Institute's technical training is undeniably rigorous, and to obtain his education the M.I.T. student must put in a good deal more time and effort than his Harvard counterpart. But the atmosphere of hard work which pervades the Institute periodically causes a reactionary movement. Then the high-jinks of the M.I.T. undergraduates once more make the Boston papers.

Heavy emphasis on the academic aspects of education not only results in pranks, but also leads the Tech student to form an entirely different set of loyalties and faculty contacts than his Harvard counterpart. In addition, it can tend to make him somewhat one-sided by depriving him of free time for non-academic pursuits.

Few Labs, Much Homework

Instead of 12 hours in class and an equivalent amount on outside work, the Tech student spends about 25 hours on each. Although labs are less frequent than one might suspect (most have about two three-hour labs every three weeks), it takes about 5 hours according to one B-plus student to "write up the voluminous reports they expect from you."

As another hard-working student expresses it, "I just don't have much time to do anything but my work." The social chairman of the Demolay agrees with him. He complains of the difficulty of scheduling social events during the week. "People always have quizzes coming up," he says, "and they just won't come on a weekday night." Especially significant is the case of one student who considered himself an extra-curricular demon and took pride in the fact that he could "always arrange to have two free nights a week."

Weekend Social Life

It would be humanly impossible, however, for the Tech student's life to be all work and no play. Perhaps this partly explains why there are more social events and dances on the M.I.T. campus than at Harvard. There are usually one or two dances on campus every Saturday, and the dormitories hold dances on the average every third week. In addition, the frats give weekly open-house parties. Since most of these events are open to the entire M.I.T. student body, Tech men get a chance to escape their books one night a week.

But occasionally the pressures of his academic load lead the Tech student to release himself in a more spectacular manner. Last May, for example, a water fight broke out between two fraternities and broke out between two fraternities and ended up in a riot. A District Judge, almost hit by a water bomb, called the police, and before the excitement was over 47 M.I.T. men had been arrested.

Usually, however, M.I.T. pranks have a more scientific twist. A few years ago when Massachusetts Ave. was being re-paved, one of the workmen left his steam-roller parked overnight along the curb. As a precaution, he dismantled certain key parts of the motor and piled them up on the seat. But he underestimated the M.I.T. man's ingenuity. The steamroller was soon restored to running condition and was found next morning at Harvard in President Conant's front yard.

'We're Really Human'

While not daily occurences, such pranks seem to recur more often than at Harvard. When asked why, some students say that academic pressures build up to the point where they "just have to go out and throw a water bomb." An interesting thesis advanced by another is that pranks are merely "an attempt to show the rest of the world that we're really human beings."

Academic pressure, coupled with the fact that M.I.T. has dorms rather than the House system, have led to an entirely different type of loyalty in the student body. Although the students have many friends in the dorms, their main connections seem to be with their courses, or field of concentration.

This loyalty to a course sometimes tends to make it as much of a home to the student as his dorm. The Planning Department, for example, has painted full-sized figures on the walls to brighten up its drawing room, and the Architecture Department even kept a pet man-eating fish until the S.P.C.A. removed it. Occasionally one finds groceries or a radio on the desks indicating that the classroom is more than a place of study.

In some respects the course takes over the functions of a Harvard tutorial, with annual banquets and frequent coffee get-togethers in which members of the Faculty meet informally with interested students.

But outside of his field, the average M.I.T. student has little contact with members of the faculty. There are only four faculty residents in all the dormitories. Although these do give occasional parties, few students have much additional contact with them.

Each student does have an adviser, however. As at Harvard, he has one for the Freshman year and then gets another when he chooses a field of concentration. Although every student must meet with his adviser at the beginning of each semester to map out his course of study, few see him more than this once. While Harvard and M.I.T. both put the initiative for establishing faculty-student relations on the student, M.I.T. seems to make the student go further out of his way.

Such polarization around the academic side of college life has led M.I.T. men to form rather interesting views of their Harvard contemporaries. While the most conservative regard the Harvard man as a "different kind of animal pursuing an entirely different goal," others brand him as an "egghead," "esthete," or "queer." Some see him as more versed in the social graces, since he has more free time in which to practice them. As one student puts it, "I think of Harvard men as wearing clothes rather than holes with clothes around them as we do here." He explained that no one wears a coat or tie at M.I.T. because there are few girls to impress and they would only get ruined in lab. Besides, they are not required.

'Spiritual Well-Being'

Despite the M.I.T. student's little informal contact with the Faculty, the administration has manifested a growing concern for his "spiritual well-being." To combat problems caused by work pressures, the Institute has placed increasing emphasis on its advisorial program. Few of the students have much contact with their advisers, but the avenue of approach remains open whenever they feel the need of advice.

Religion, too, has received a boost by the construction of a new chapel. As the peculiar structure of the building indicates, the Institute takes no sides on religion, but offers the chapel to each religious group for its own purposes.

Without required attendance at morning8Although M.I.T.'s "educate the whole man" policy has many facets, three of these are depicted above. To the left, the Institute's AFROTC cadets develop the military sides of their natures at Monday afternoon drill in the armory on Mass. Ave. A ROTC course is required for the first two years at M.I.T. In the center, however, a Tech student seems to be concentrating on the girls rather than on building a strong body to please the Administration. To the right, M.I.T. students find time to relax and "learn from each other" after a Meal in one of the dining halls.