Mail to the Illinois State magazine editor for November 2015:
To the Editor,
Just a note of thanks to the entire staff of Illinois State. I graduated in 1954 and plunged into a busy life, much of which was taken up with my profession, for which I got such a spectacular send-off from my ISNU education. I used to often toss the magazine aside because my life was so full and quite a bit of the magazine seemed irrelevant to my life at the time.
Now I read from cover to cover with eagerness! The articles are great, the news and features and First Word give me welcome information, and I always check what everyone is doing and the obits.
Thank you, thank you to everybody for keeping me in touch with ISU by such an outstanding vehicle!
JimAnn Oliver ’54
To the Editor,
Sometimes one finds humor in the oddest places, today being the emailed alumni newsletter. I haven’t laughed so long and hard in quite some time. What instigated my laughter? The story on the campus now being tobacco and smoke free (August 2015).
When I attended ISNU/ISU, smoking was permitted. I knew several who attended only a few years before when Dean Schroeder, for whom Schroeder Hall is named, ran the University. Stories of Schroeder indicated that he was rather straight-laced, tobacco being one activity he banned from campus. This led to “The Dike,” a linear pile of cigarette butts across the streets surrounding the campus. When I attended, a grand and glorious liberation from these repressive strictures had taken place: smoking was pervasive throughout the campus.
Now the campus is advancing into our enlightened future: tobacco is banned. Dean Schroeder must be dancing a jig in his grave—if he dances. I don’t remember hearing if he banned dancing too.
William Sweet ’67
