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Capping and you

Of over three and a half thousand students at this University about three thousand won't be capped this year. Why the negative statement? Because it is to that three thousand I would like to address myself, not to the graduate. To the graduand, Capping is a culmination and a beginning but it has a definite meaning and a definite form into which each graduand will fit. What does Capping signifiy to the three thousand?

To some it signifies nothing but the end of term.

To some it signifies the season of stunts.

To some it signifies Capping Ball and wild parties.

To some it signifies Extrav.

To some it signifies Cappicade.

To a very few it signifies weeks of hard work making all these things possible.

Most of the three thousand come within the first category. The least come into the last. It is not in the first or last that we want so many more enthusiasts though. It is in all the others. Every year, it seems to me that the Capping Controller has a good look around him, then mounts the old wailing wall of student apathy. Just as I have been doing. The trouble with student apathy though is that it is like the weather everyone talks about it but no one does anything.

And what am I going to do? you may ask. Nothing. I do not see that I should have to harangue, cajol. coax and persuade people to enjoy themselves. The real trouble is that it is like the first swim of summer. Its not that you don't believe that the waters warm—it's just that you don't like to make that initial plunge.

Personally, I don't see that anything I say will change your attitude; but I think it is a pity that too many of the people who read this, and almost everyone of the many who don't really care a damn about this University except as a school. When this great hard core suddenly realises that Vic. should not be a high school but a way of life, then we will have the rank and file we need to make capping week celebrations a success. Here endeth the first lesson.

We have made one or two endeavours to brighten up Capping this year. The ceremony itself is of course a University function so all those suggestions we receive unfortunately can only be passed on.

Procesh will be the same route again as last year but at twelve midday which will give more time to build floats and a better crowd to see them.

Extrav. this year had better be brilliant or else.

Capping these days is more than a mere graduation. Once upon a time Procesh was just an occasion for a bit of satire, and Extrav was just an occasion for a bit of satire, and stunts were just an occasion for a bit of satire. It was the time of year when students had something else than work on their minds and could come down and show the town their perspective. Nowadays everything is governed by Public Relations and whether you like it or not this is the spirit of te age. Even so the basic ingredient for success is plenty of enthusiasts. It would only take one really bright Prosesh for the whole idea to catch on. Why not this year.

Here endeth the second lesson.

Paul Spender,

Capping Controller.