Newman - University of Melbourne

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NEWMAN
ENIOR students returned to Newman
0 on the night of March 7, to find a
College strangely quiet and subdued.
Perhaps, recalling sights and sounds of
history, they were puzzled. It could not
be that there were no students, for the tale
had spread that the number of residents
for the year would be near the record mark,
and most of them would now have
returned. Then came full remembrance.
No longer from somewhere along the
Common Room Wing did "a mad medley
of echoes" ring out. The cloisters were
abandoned. Silent, dark, and empty was the
swimming pool. The freshmen walked
their way in peace, for "first-night initiation"
had been abandoned.
The subject of initiation yearly provides
a topic for discussion in these pages, and
at the general meetings of the Students'
Club. Many methods of administration
have been tried, but none has yet been
evolved which has satisfied the two extremes
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VOL. XIX
Day by Day
NOVEMBER, 1 9 37
of viewpoint on the subject. The last few
years have seen the development of a trend
towards ameliorating the lot of the freshman,
and, in pursuance of this policy, it
was decided by the Club at the end of last
year to abandon "first-night initiation," and
to reduce the number of "Common Room"
nights. This policy was carried out at the
beginning of the year, and, in addition, the
Initiation Committee saw fit to dispense with
the Freshers' Examination and the Freshers'
Concert. The general opinion of the Club
that the efficiency of initiation was somewhat
impaired by such wholesale departures
from precedent, expressed itself at a
resolution passed at the Third Term
General Meeting in September, in favour
of the restoration of "first-night initiation."
Commencement passed almost unnoticed
in the College this year, and the gap which
the abolition of the Block Parade and the
Gala Night opened up between the Colleges
and the rest of the University in regard to