University of Virginia Library

Some Practical Advice

In the realm of more practical advice, we
offer you the following, based largely on our
own experiences as first-year students.

The Contract Cafeteria - If you or your
parents feel you must enroll in a regular meal
plan, we recommend buying a meal ticket for
only one semester from Mr. Fontana and his
crew. The Newcomb Hall Cafeteria offers hot,
solid food, and plenty of it, but you may find
yourself at the end of the semester wishing to
eat at a fraternity or eager for a little more
culinary variety. A one semester ticket,
though, can't be beat for economy and
convenience. Students have until September
18 to exchange or turn in their tickets
without incurring the late penalty fee of $50.

Fraternities - You won't be coming into
contact with the red-brick, white columned
houses that line Rugby Road and Mad Lane
for a while, but when you do you may think
they are too good to be true. And they are.
Fraternity rush is designed to entice you into
joining. It doesn't give you much time or even
the opportunity to look critically at the
houses. So be on your guard. More about this
later.

Academics - Many of you will receive one
of the biggest shocks of your lives when your
first English paper is returned with a D- on it,
or when you flunk that Geology exam you
spent all night studying for. You had better
accept the fact as early as possible that the
work which got you A's and B's in high
school won't suffice in this competitive atmosphere.
Too many students realize this
fact too late in their first year and spend the
rest of their academic lives in the Mekong
Delta or trying to make up lost quality points.
You will quickly find that it is impossible to
get much studying done in the dormitories.
One hour of studying in Alderman Library
must be worth at least three hours of attempted
study in the dormitories.

Dormitory Life - The Housing Office
thinks in terms of rules, not people. If you
can remember that much of the inanity of
dormitory life will be explained. You'll have
the chance to seek plusher quarters next year,
but for the present try to make the best of
your neo-penal housing. You may have a
roommate who insists upon keeping the windows
open in the middle of January, or who
likes to listen to the Grand Funk Railroad at
2 a.m., but learning to get along with him
might be one of the most valuable lessons
you'll learn at college.

You will find a counsellor in your hall or
suite who was very carefully chosen for his
interest in helping you make your first year a
success. Get to know him, because he is there
to listen to your problems and give you
advice, not to enforce the rules. You'll find
that the latter duty is your own responsibility.

Girls - The 450 of you young ladies who
are entering the various undergraduate schools
this year will quickly find that this institution
was designed by and for men. This will
present you with all kinds of minor and some
major difficulties which will, in all probability,
drive you to membership in our local
Women's Liberation Group. There are advantages
however, mostly social, to being in this
minority group.

Most of you entering first-year men will
find that there are simply not enough girls in
Charlottesville and will seek a young lady at
one of the schools hidden in the hills anywhere
from 30 to 150 miles away. For the
sake of your mental health we urge you to
make contact with the opposite sex as soon as
possible.

Homesickness - You'd be surprised to
find out how many in your class have never
been away from home before, for any length
of time. Homesickness, then, is a quite common
malady. The best cure is not to stay in
your room moping but to take off to explore
the myriad possibilities a University this size
can offer. Not even the most conscientious
student will find his studies take all his time.
Fill the gap by making new friends, going out
for a sport (don't overlook intramurals), join
an organization or two (like The Cavalier
Daily, for example). At the same time don't
join so many groups that you jeopardize your
grades or split up your time into too many
unprofitable pieces.

Deeper Problems - For all the happy and
exciting moments of your first year at the
University, there will be times when you
experience - for any number of reasons -
despair or frustration or what seem insurmountable
problems. Rather than brood over
them yourself, seek the help of your counselor,
your resident adviser, your dean, your
teachers, or a psychologist at Student Health.
An often ignored source of help is the area's
clergy, many of whom work solely with
students and who are trained counselors.