Campus - Student Life

During the last weeks of the semester as students are occupied with research papers and final exams, the Clark Library offers extras study hours to ease student stress.

The Christie Hall basement was home to the University Library from the mid-1930s until 1958.   The MAIN ENTRANCE view was this door at the base of the stairs in the BASEMENT with library hours posted:  Open M-F 8:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M. ; evenings M-Th 7:00 P.M. – 9:30 P.M. Sat 8:00 A.M to noon.

Brother David Martin, C.S.C., library director from 1927-1966, recalled the library space as a:

“large room [approximately 6000 square feet], lined with shelves on two sides.  There were about six or eight round tables covered with cloth and rather mangy looking, because they had been ink-stained.  Certainly not attractive.  There was a twelve-drawer card file and approximately 10,000 books.  Of those 10,000 volumes there were probably a couple of thousand that were either texts or other useless library materials.  There were no periodicals taken at the time ….  To complete the rather dreary look of the library, the floor was cement – bare cement.  No covering of any kind.  This however was to provide a kind of blessing in a way, because of the tremendous number of leaks which occurred over the years.  The water could be mopped up without any great trouble …. ” (A Point of Pride, pg. 75).

In 1958, Brother David’s dream of a library with ample space for study and services was finally realized.  November 30, 1958 marks the dedication of The Library.  Expanded in 1979, the library received major renovation in 2012-2013.  Today, the newly remodeled Clark Library boasts private study rooms, expansive windows, open space on all three floors, light streaming through work and study spaces, and, most importantly, user-friendly hours. (Particularly during finals week.)

For more pictures and history of the library, visit the Clark Library’s Digital Buildings Collection displaying images of photographs and objects of the library held by the University Archives and Museum (with descriptions from the Archives and Museum).

                                 “UP dietician debunks freshman 15 myth” The Beacon, 23 September 2010

“Freshmen 15: Part of the meal plan?” The Beacon, 15 September 2011

                                     “Bon Appetit adapts for students with gluten allergies” The Beacon, 4 October 2012

“Freshmen 15 myth flops” The Beacon, 19 September 2013

There are certain perennial themes and stereotypes that govern the headlines of the opening weeks of school, predictably returning each year along with the student population: homesickness, study habits, the dreaded freshmen fifteen.

In UP history, the freshmen-15 was once a literal, external, and potentially lethal phenomenon – well, lethal insofar as a small boulder close to hand might, as a blunt instrument, be turned spontaneously against an inconsiderate roommate.  (Roommate-relations another oft recycled back-to-school theme.)

Part of the ritual of rushing Upsilon Omega Pi fraternity was the reception of a 15 pound pledge rock; nicknames were also bestowed.  Pledges harvested their own rock from scree at the base of the Bluff.  Upsilon Omega Pi (see related entry, under keyword hearse) was a campus service organization, chartered as the Pep Club in 1950; they were the core organizers for the beach party, toga dance, bonfire, and week-long homecoming festivities; the fraternity also served as the caretakers and animators of Wally Pilot.

According to the 1984 Reference Manual, “Over the past 35 years it has been tradition for pledges to carry a symbolic Upsilon Rock.  This Rock builds strength, not just physical strength but also mental strength.”  The rocks were not only symbolic, and so woe betide the pledge who was found without his assigned rock in his possession during the five-week pledge period.  The surviving specimen on display in the University Museum weighs at least 15 pounds and is painted with the pledge’s nickname and the Greek letters U-o-P: Upsilon Omega Pi.

This year marks the University of Portland’s first fifty years in Salzburg, Austria.  On August 30, 1964 the University sent its pioneer group of 30 students and director, Fr. Ambrose Wheeler, C.S.C., to enter a two-semester European adventure.  Beginning the University’s oldest and most popular overseas study program.

Since that beginning, between 30-40 undergraduate students pursue their Portland degree each year through classroom study, cultural excursions, and individual travel in Europe.  According to student and alumni reports, there is no down-side.

At the all-alumni reunion in June 2014, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the University’s 50 years in Salzburg, friends in Salzburg presented this gift of a statue of St. Ambrose, a pillar of Western learning and patron of our founding director, to reside at the home campus in the Clark Library.   With summer sessions also hosted in the Merianstrasse site since the 1990s, nearly 2000 University of Portland alumni can claim the City of Mozart as part of their college curriculum.

For more Salzburg study abroad photos from the University Archives and Museum, click on this link:
https://sites.up.edu/museum/salzburg-trips/

The Spirit of Portland U 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wally Pilot came to life in 1948, when Nolan Drurey ’49, lured by a grand prize of five boxes of Chesterfield cigarettes, entered a Beacon mascot-design contest and first drew the bewhiskered river pilot.  . . .  Records are foggy about SPU’s animation, but the 1953 Log reported that the University fraternity Upsilon Omega Pi “spent 70 hours building a paper-mache head.”

from, Christine Fundak Rohan, I Was Wally Pilot,
Portland Magazine, Winter 1998

From the 1950s to 1993, the members of Upsilon Omega Pi fraternity were Wally’s caretakers and wore the Wally Pilot head and rain gear at sports and other University events.  In his early years, Wally Pilot was known as the Spirit of Portland U or SPU.  As he integrated into campus life, SPU was most often a willing participant in Homecoming displays created by student organizations in the 1950s and 60s.  Wally Pilot also graced the cover of campus directories and Pilot student guides for a period of years.   Through the decades, Wally’s face underwent several makeovers with the latest in the 1980’s.  In 1978 University president, Rev. Paul Waldschmidt, C.S.C., declared February 13-17 as Wally Pilot week with his 30th birthday celebration on February 16.  When fraternities and sororities disbanded on campus in the early 1990s, Wally’s head, rain gear, and boots were given to the University Museum where they are on display today.  In 1993, a more friendly, healthy, and modern Wally Pilot was unveiled but to mixed reviews by students and alumni.  Wally Pilot took a few years off and underwent a complete renovation and emerged in 2009 as a taller and more physically fit Wally (with six-pack abs), entertaining spectators at athletic venues and through his own Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/WallyPilot?fref=ts.

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