The following article ran in the April 6, 1922 issue of the M.C.M. Lode. 

If you have been to any school or college

And possibly have got a sheepskin too;

If you absorbed a fair amount of knowledge, 

Or knowing not can look as though you do;

If you can run a survey like a “civil”

And analyze an ore by wet or dry; 

If you can build with neither square nor level

And lay out towns with just the naked eye.

If you can wear your dress suit, sack, or jumper

And look at ease in each one just the same;

If you can take the job of “Supe” or pumper

Or any other man who quits the game;

If you can set a bone and tie up sinews,

Or later preach a sermon for the dead;

If you can talk like Webster, Clay, or Depew

And turn a dinner table on its head; 

If you can go to some dead far-off land-end

And see its glorious future from the start;

If you can stick through troubles till the grand end

And never lose your patience nor your heart;

If you can run a buck-saw or a kingdom,

Or turn a petty monarch inside out;

If you are there to see the final thing done,

That justifies the blows you dealt about;

If you can hold a board of cross directors

In happiness against their gaudy schemes;

If you can dodge the wrath of the electors

Till dividends will flow as in their dreams;

If you can make a mine pay from the grass roots

No matter what the time or place or year;

We’ll add the title “MINING” when

Then on my soul until the final blast we call you “ENGINEER.”

Ask the Dean is a weekly column by MTU’s Dean of Students, Dr. Wallace Southerland III, where students can submit questions for him to answer. To submit a question, email lodesubmit@mtu.edu or fill out our Google Form.

Question: What advice do you have for students about to graduate?

Dear Submitter,

First, I offer my heartfelt congratulations to the graduates. I wish them well and hope they are confident that Michigan Tech has prepared them for what’s to come. I want them to go out into the world and create positive social change wherever they are. I want them to be the most exceptional and confident employees. I want them to be responsible citizens and kind to others. I pray that the graduates will be great and grateful, resilient and resourceful, competent and compassionate, ethical and just, and formidable.

My advice:

•       Don’t be so serious. Laugh. Have fun.
•       Trust yourself and take a leap of faith sometimes.
•       Enter and exit your new workplace or graduate school with grace and humility.
•       Learn to listen more than you talk. We have two ears and one mouth for a reason.
•       Solve conflict by “seeking first to understand then to be understood.”
•       Take responsibility for your actions.
•       Don’t be afraid of accountability.
•       Don’t rely on others to motivate you. You must be self-motivated to achieve your goals.
•       Be responsible for your own morale.
•       Husky UP – get it done!

Your Dean of Huskies,

Dr. S.

The following article ran in the April 6, 1922 issue of the M.C.M. Lode. 

The students of the Michigan College of Mines have been following the development of the high school swimming pool discussion with close interest. For the past year or so, and perhaps even before that, there has been a gentle movement in the college to arouse interest towards the installation of a pool in our own gymnasium. Up to this time, opinion has been more or less inarticulate, but since embodiment of a pool in the new high school building has been controverted, the murmurs of the college pool protagonists have become distinctly audible.

No one will deny the benefits of swimming as a source of health and pleasure; it has few equals. And inasmuch as a pool is a necessary adjunct to swimming, it would be most illogical to deny the benefits of a pool. A swimming pool properly built, efficiently and hygienically managed, and capably supervised, is a decided asset to any school or community.

Such a pool would be an addition of incalculable value to the College of Mines. Its desirability is unquestioned. And yet we seriously doubt the wisdom of equipping the gym with a swimming pool at the present time, or at any future time for that matter, until we can be assured that our pool will be adequately and hygienically maintained. 

We have seen many swimming pools. A few were properly run. But in a woefully large majority of cases, the name is only a euphemism for community bath tub. In only too many instances does a beautifully tessellated marble tank hold the stagnant water of a frog pond. 

A pool sixty feet long, thirty feet wide, and a depth ramped from two and one half feet to six and one half feet holds 8100 cubic feet of water. Calculate the cost of the water alone to fill this tank two or three times a week. Figure the cost of heating this water as it comes from the main to a temperature of sixty-five degrees. Computing the cost of keeping this huge volume of water at the desired temperature when the thermometer outdoors registers zero or lower. Add to this the salary of an attendant or lifeguard. Add it all up then get another piece of paper; you have only started to reckon the cost of maintaining a pool.

To be sure, a pool can be run for less. Lots are. The economy is accomplished by dosing the water with chlorine, by skimming the surface when it gets too thick for navigation, and by eliminating the guard with the fervent hope that the doctrine of the survival of the fittest is apocryphal and that fools will know enough to stay in shallow water. M. C. M. doesn’t care for the latter type of pool. And we doubt the attainment of the former sort.

Forget the pool. Try something more feasible. Some new furnaces and machinery for the metallurgy and mechanical buildings could be used to much better advantage and wouldn’t burn up nearly so much coal. You can get them. All you have to do is ask — everybody — all the time. 

The following article ran in the March 16, 1922 issue of the M.C.M. Lode. 

The U. S. Bureau of Mines Safety Service Car No. 10 has just finished training in the Wisconsin Quarries. During the past two months about 200 men received training in first aid to the injured. The car is going to the Mesabi range to remain there until the ninth of June.

The car will be at M. C. M. from June 12th to 24th during which time they will give first aid instruction to the Q-1, and mine rescue training to the members of the summer metallurgy classes, similar to the arrangements made last year.

The value and necessity of first aid and mine rescue training, and the appreciation in which it is held by the mining public at large, is well exemplified by the new mining and quarrying codes adopted by the Wisconsin Industrial Commission. Both of the codes state very explicitly that at least five per cent of all men working underground in any mine must have had first aid training and be proficient in their work, and also that no matter how small the quarry or gravel pit the company must train and maintain a first aid corps of not less than two men. 

While the training to be given here this summer is primarily for freshmen and seniors, still all sophomores who can arrange their schedules to take either of these courses will be allowed to do so.

The following article ran in the March 2, 1922 issue of the M.C.M. Lode. 

Spring approaches. In another month it will be an actuality. Each morning the sun greets us a little earlier; each noon approaches a little more closely the zenith; each evening tarries more belatedly as if reluctant to pause for a moment in preparing the world for Spring.

The jacket of snow that covers the stark and sere nakedness of the winter landscape will soon lose its pristine and unsullied whiteness; already it is flecked here and there with the ugly debris that lies exposed in the threadbare fabric. Soon Mother Earth will cast aside her soiled winter garment to reveal herself in her spring finery.

The New Year really begins with Spring. The conventional New Years Day of January is but the arbitrary distinction of musty minded astronomers who live only in the dark nights, probing the icy profundities of the blue cavern of darkness. 

Spring is the time of genesis; it is the occasion of youth — the period of rejuvenation.

Awake! Throw aside the stodgy cover of lethargy that has confined you during the winter. Forget the bleak futility of the past. Prepare for the New Year. Let it be a NEW Year — untrammelled by the mistakes of the past — free to develop in its utmost fulsomeness.

The following article ran in the March 2, 1922 issue of the M.C.M. Lode. 

The winters of the Copper Country are somewhat elaborately described by the answer to a question asked by a freshman of a soph, “How long are the winters here Bill?” The answer given by Bill was: “I don’t know, I’ve only been here eighteen months.”

The summers are ideal and though the winters are long, cold and with plenty of snow, they are unexcelled for winter sports. The majority of the students, coming as they do from places where this condition does not exist, take full advantage of it while here.

There is nothing like a gold old-fashioned sleigh-ride, where, in company with an amiably disposed damsel, you take a ride out to one of the neighboring towns, enjoy yourself at a party dance with hot coffee and eats and journey back, trying to find harmony in the song of long ago. Snowshoeing parties are another means of bracing one up for the next day’s work. There have been many parties and sleigh-rides lately which were enjoyed by many of the students, being doubly appreciated by the presence of the ideal weather, which followed the storm of last week. 

Many of the fellows wish for something a little more adventurous. This is to be found in skiing and tobogganing which vie with R1 in obtaining exercise and excels in giving one the chance to wear a bandage.

Before the winter is over, we will all at least know what skis are. The Copper Country is filled with fine hills for skiing and tobogganing and they are certainly used for such. Seeing two little girls of five years of age perform on skates at the Ice Carnival last week brings home to us the fact that we are not alone in enjoying winter.

The following article ran in the March 2, 1922 issue of the M.C.M. Lode. 

The winters of the Copper Country are somewhat elaborately described by the answer to a question asked by a freshman of a soph, “How long are the winters here Bill?” The answer given by Bill was: “I don’t know, I’ve only been here eighteen months.”

The summers are ideal and though the winters are long, cold and with plenty of snow, they are unexcelled for winter sports. The majority of the students, coming as they do from places where this condition does not exist, take full advantage of it while here.

There is nothing like a gold old-fashioned sleigh-ride, where, in company with an amiably disposed damsel, you take a ride out to one of the neighboring towns, enjoy yourself at a party dance with hot coffee and eats and journey back, trying to find harmony in the song of long ago. Snowshoeing parties are another means of bracing one up for the next day’s work. There have been many parties and sleigh-rides lately which were enjoyed by many of the students, being doubly appreciated by the presence of the ideal weather, which followed the storm of last week. 

Many of the fellows wish for something a little more adventurous. This is to be found in skiing and tobogganing which vie with R1 in obtaining exercise and excels in giving one the chance to wear a bandage.

Before the winter is over, we will all at least know what skis are. The Copper Country is filled with fine hills for skiing and tobogganing and they are certainly used for such. Seeing two little girls of five years of age perform on skates at the Ice Carnival last week brings home to us the fact that we are not alone in enjoying winter.

The following article ran in the Feb. 16, 1922 issue of the M.C.M. Lode. 

Donald B. Gillies, President of the Alumni Association of the Michigan College of Mines, met some fifty Copper Country alumni at two informal meetings on Feb. 7, the occasion for the former being a luncheon at Calumet, at which there were about fifteen present, and for the latter, a dinner at the Houghton Club. This is the third gathering of this sort over which Mr. Gillies has presided. They represent the realization of the hope that Mr. Gillies expressed just after he came into office, that he would be able during his term to visit and consolidate into purposeful organizations the scattered groups of sons of M. C. M. in various mining districts of the country.

Mr. Gillies believes that by keeping organized and keeping in touch there are a number of things the alumni association may do for the best interests of the College. He is now engaged in sounding alumni opinion to determine which of the things should be done first. There will doubtless be plans to announce when they are determined upon.

One thing Mr. Gillies very definitely hopes to do, to raise the remainder of the $10,000 George Koenig endowment fund, which was brought to a total of a little over $3,000 and allowed to rest there because of the war.

A resolution was passed by this meeting to be sent to the Governor of Michigan, thanking him for his consideration in reappointing Hon. William Kelly to the Board of Control of the College.

The College has a larger representation from the Lower Peninsula among its students this year than ever before. The suggestion was made that these students can do much toward making the College known for what it is in their native districts.

Those present at the dinner at the Houghton Club were: Messrs. Shubert, Sheldon, Engstrom, Mullin, Reynolds, McKee, Weed, Hodgson, A. E. Seaman, W. E. Seaman, REeder, Seeber, Woodale, Schacht, Gillies, Andrew, Spern, Calverley, Dengler, Matson, Wohlrab, Fesing, Mercer, Mason, McNair, Van Orden, Walker, Cunningham, Fisher, Henderson, Moon, Uren, Hallingby. 

The following article ran in the Feb. 16, 1922 issue of the M.C.M. Lode. 

With only a week to go before the Faculty and Senior hockey teams clash at the Amphidrome, members of the two aggregations are practicing and training strenuously in preparation for the classic ice event, and interest in the outcome of the contest is running high. The Faculty, being such a small and select group, is having little difficulty in arranging a strong lineup, and iti is understood that their personnel is practically fixed. The Senior officials, however, state that there are almost as many candidates for the team as there are men in the senior class, to say nothing of several dozen lower classmen who on one pretext or another attempt to make themselves eligible for a place on the Senior lineup.

“Sam” Bibb, of the Department of Mathematics, who for many years played center ice for the Chattanooga Wanderers, will probably occupy the same position on the Faculty team, and unless all the advance “dope” is wrong, he will show the youngsters a trick or two in the art of stick-handling. Coach Westphal has been named as a probable member of the team, but a rumor is in circulation that he has been caught breaking training. Whether he had been reinstated could not be learned up to a late hour last night, but if he is permitted to play, he is sure to put up a stiff fight. The Faculty officials have declined to announce their lineup, and it is suspected that they are holding a number of “dark horses” in reserve. It is believed, however, that Professor Fisher, who was frequently seen on local ice up to a few years ago, will once again unlimber his skating irons and come to the rescue of his less experienced colleagues. Other men prominently mentioned for berth on the team are Professor Cunningham, “Phil” Sisson, “Nick” Manderfield, “Andy” Sweet, Wyllys Seaman, Bob Matson, and Guy Ingersoll.

In the Senior lineup “Phoebe” Snow and “Fat” Sheldon are counted upon to do most of the scoring. Both are well known in Eastern hockey circles. A wire received last night from the manager of the Boston Arena states that Snow, who played right wing on the Maiden Martyrs, was always greeted with tremendous applause whenever he made an appearance on Boston ice, not only because of his consummate skill, but also on account of his wonderful playing form and his unruffled temper. Sheldon, though he ihsa been out of the game for several years, has shown excellent form in practice. His great speed, together with his skillful dodging and accurate shooting, should make him an invincible wing. “Mike” Fay, who is well known on Louisville ice, will probably play center for the Seniors. His skill is unquestioned, and it is popularly believed that he will be a match for the great Bibb. The Senior defense has not been announced, but it is understood that a strong and husky defense will be on hand to break up the powerful Faculty rushes. Glenn Merritt, Bob Van Pelt, and Tom Bradfield are understood to be likely candidates.

This game is scheduled for Friday, February 24, a day before the close of the Ice Carnival. While this will be a leading feature of the evening’s entertainment, it will by no means close the program. Rudolph Smith and Joe Green of the Atlas Powder Company have challenged the college to a tennis match on skates. A number of tennis men are in the field for this match, among them Van Pelt, Kranenberg, and N.S. Jackson. The game is exceedingly fast on ice, and develops some wonderful volleying. The ice gives the ball a long, fast bound which makes ground-strokes very difficult, and makes it necessary to play either close to the net or twenty or thirty feet behind the base-line.

It is also understood that “Kid” Knaebel, the Saginaw whirlwind, and “Bull” MacArthur, the Muskegon wonder, will initiate the spectators to the charms of boxing on skates. It is not known whether the contestants will be harnessed to the Warren girders overhead to prevent falling too hard on the ice, or whether they will consent to wear sofa-pillows on the back of the head.

The various “stunts” should be over by nine o’clock, after which the evening will be devoted to skating and dancing. The music will be furnished by the Houghton Band and MacNord’s Orchestra. The entire program is being timed to give it plenty of pep and variety, and plans are being made to accommodate a big crowd. The part of the gate receipts that goes to the college will be placed in the M. C. M. hockey fund. 

The following article ran in the Feb. 2, 1922 issue of the M.C.M. Lode. 

At a meeting of the Students’ Organization held in the Gymnasium Thursday, Jan. 26, it was decided to fix the par value of the student athletic tickets at thirty-five cents for the hockey games. This means that each holder of a student ticket must pay the per capita tax of fifteen cents required by the Amphidrome management in order to secure a general admission ticket, or the per capita tax plus forty cents for a reserved seat. This applies only to tickets secured in exchange for athletic tickets. This step was recommended by Acting Assistant Hockey Manager Aspoas, after Prof. Fisher had reported a deficit of at least one hundred and seventy-seven dollars on the three games recently played with the University of Michigan. Announcement was then made that seats reserved for the students would consist of a block on the north side of the ice. This arrangement enables the fans of Houghton to occupy the seats which a time-honored custom reserves for them. Acting Assistant Manager Aspoas was then unanimously elected Assistant Hockey Manager.

President McNair then addressed the students on the responsibility which each and every student carries in his actions and remarks about the college. He impressed upon those present the necessity of weighing carefully any criticism or remarks which they may have to make in regard to any other student, the faculty, or the administration. No person should form an opinion or voice a criticism based on mere hearsay, but should be governed in that respect by his own personal dealings with the person criticised. 

The last few minutes of the hour were spent in a “pep” meeting in which Assistant Yell-master Falomir succeeded in instilling a little more of the much needed “pep” into those who were fortunate enough to be present for the treatment.