Skipping Greek Class

I will never forget the special times that happened on the Mission House College campus during the month of May. The May Day weekend was always eventful and got our energies flowing. Who would be King? Who would be Queen? Who are you taking to the dance? Lots of great memories! Prominent in my mind is the cutting Greek class incident. It was a May Day weekend memory which will never be forgotten.

It was Thursday evening before May Day weekend. All semester we had been going to Greek class every Tuesday through Friday. We were all tired of studying Greek and going to Greek classes. So someone in the class--I do not remember whom--suggested that we all cut Greek class on Friday.

So, that Friday, all 10-12 of us met during class time in the Zeta Chi Fraternity room on the 4th floor of Jubilee Hall. After about a half-hour, I got bored and decided to do some work on the Mission House Mirror, the student-run paper of which I was editor at the time. So stupid me--I decided to go over to the Mirror room in Main Hall. Big mistake! After getting no more than two steps out of the dorm, the Greek class window opened and our instructor (Dr. Beckman) hollered out, “Carroll, where is everybody?" Intensely frightened, I immediately retreated into the dorm and shared my misfortune with the rest of the guys who were still in the frat room.

Next, stupid mistake number two! I was so nervous over the incident that I decided to go to my room. As I came down the stairs to the second floor, Dr. Beckman confronted me straight on--with what seemed like fire in his eyes and smoke blowing out of his nostrils. He said, "Where is everyone?" I simply replied, "Everyone is in the fraternity room; we all decided to cut Greek today." “WELL!" he said, "WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT!" And I watched him "steaming" his way to the President's office.

Everyone had a joyous Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Then, on Monday morning at breakfast, Dean Ley announced that we were to meet with President Grosshuesch at the President's home immediately after breakfast. We huddled to decide on strategy. Ernie Lauer suggested that we all say nothing. President Grosshuesch had us sitting in a circle in his living room. He gave us a kindly lecture on what was appropriate action for college students. After he was finished, he asked us what we had to say about the incident. No one said a word. The President then said, “Mr. Lauer, what do you have to say?" Ernie said, "Nothing!" Dr. Grosshuesch turned to me, "Mr. Olm, do you have anything to say?" My reply? "No!" He continued, "My, you are a quiet bunch for a group with such a reputation for lots of action! I guess we all have to acknowledge that what you did was wrong. Therefore, you are all to go to Dr. Beckman and apologize."

After leaving the President's home, we formed a two-by-two column and marched to Profville. Enroute, it was decided that Nelson Hauptman--who had an excellent rapport with the professor--would be our spokesman. We sat in the living room chatting about different things until Dr. Beckman said, "Well, I'm sure you boys didn't come here for a social chat." Nelson in his kindly manner said, “We know what we did was wrong and we apologize."

As retribution, our distinguished professor announced that, on Tuesday, we would have an examination on declensions; on Wednesday, an examination on conjugations; on Thursday an examination on vocabulary exercises 1-10; and on Friday an examination on vocabulary exercises 11-23. We never cut another class.