Learning versus Fun in College
R ECENTLY we have increased our efforts at the University of Minnesota to modify the climate of opinion prevailing among students participating in the extracurricular activities with respect to the fundamental purpose of education-the full intellectual, social, and personal development of students. For some time the campus has been deeply divided between the classroom and extra-curricular activities; many students seemingly believe in the segregation of learning and its confinement to the classroom, but we believe that such a segregation is both undesirable and unnecessary. Learning of importance can take place in the extra-curriculum without destroying the "fun" character of activities. And in the University, many programs have been organized on the guiding principle that the campus can be integrated, at least in certain instances, in a total learning experience. I shall argue my case in three parts: the facts regarding the divided campus, the identified causes, and the remedies suggested for bridging the divided campus and thus unifying students' efforts to learn. Howard Mumford Jones recently etched the following picture of student life in America today: . . . The more I study American undergraduate life, the more I find a common national philosophy running through it. All these student activities engage the attention of your members, getting into the right fraternity, competing for a place in the college paper, the Greek groups, the student council, the varsity squad, student dances, dormitories, and love affairs. What is all this but a miniature of life outside the campus? . . . The American campus is an echo, not a criticism of American society.'