Between the art museum and Susan Campbell hall is an old, green, dilapidated bench. Tradition reserves that bench for only those students who have attained the rank of senior. It is their privilege, and theirs alone, to make use of the bench which has seated seniors since 1910.
It was in that year that the graduating class decided its gift to the University should be something just especially for all graduating classes — a bench reserved for their use. At one time it was placed under the “nicotine” tree. Later it was removed to a shady spot in front of the old library, now Fenton hall. As far as we are concerned the bench’s journeys were completed when it was moved to the present site back of the art museum.
Now to some it may seem to be just an ordinary old bench not worth all this fuss made when a couple of underclassmen were caught enjoying a siesta on it. But to the seniors that bench is a symbol of having reached that last mile — the last stretch before graduation. It belongs to them. And next year it will remain in the same role for the class of ’46.
Misuse of the senior bench, we think, sums up the whole question of loss of tradition on this campus. We are hoping such a violation doesn’t happen again because in future years some of our best memories of the Oregon campus will be the long standing traditions that governed our way of life.
Do not dismiss that sacred bench with a mere flip of the hand for it represents four years of hard, unceasing work. Many have been the seniors who have made use of its spacious, although hard, seat. Let’s keep it just for them.