Word: successfully
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Dates: during 1950-1950
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...attract the most callous student. Yet most students do not heel their way up the extra-curricular ladder for the sale goal of "going Bones," or at least they say they don't. The six tombs are more important as the extreme result of the Yale credo of success, and as an exaggerated example of it. For the spooks' philosophy is that the world can best be run by themselves, the outstanding men of Yale. In brutal wrestling matches and communal criticism, they prepare each other for success in life. Bonesmen Henry Luce, Robert A. Taft, Archibald MacLeish, and McGeorge...
...less radical form, this success credo is the credo of Yale. So is the narrow definition of success. Because success comes only to the highest men in the extra-curricular strats and in athletics, both draw a heavy crowd of participants at Yale. Just as life at Princeton centers on the social clubs, existence at Yale revolves around extra-curricular activ- ities. Almost everyone has a loyalty to at least one, and most students spend over an hour a day on it. The desire to belong, and that way get some measure of prestige, leads to such activities...
Yale's definition of success excludes the man who too ardently seeks to get ahead. Elis frown on the "pusher." A heeler is thus in the disconcerting position of working night and day on an activity, and at the same time exuding the impression that he really isn't interested. As a result, Yalies often look apathetic and uninspired in performing their extra-curricular functions...
...almost all Yalies hit the middle road. The same comparison holds in politics; there are no "Communist-front" clubs in New Haven. The ideal of all Eli students is a single mythical "Yale Man," the target of almost everyone's aspirations. The Yale Man must be a success and he must be all-round: athletes are not admired unless they are good in other lines. There is much more pride behind the words "I am a Yale man" than behind "I am a Harvard man," and much of Yale's spirit comes from this attitude...
Despite the cohesiveness that Yale-manism brings the administration is against it. "Emphasis tends to be put in extra-curricular activities more or less apart from personal worth or intellectual achievement," says a housemaster. "Success for the sake of success is blowing up an artificial coin. Harvard is a good step above Yale and Princeton in university maturity." President A. Whitney Griswold, who once turned down a Skull and Bones bid to become Wolf's Head, agrees. "We could learn much from Harvard's independence," he says. "But the administration is like a cork floating in a whirlpool...