THE LIFE AND DEATH. OF MYSKANIA
Alfred D. Basch '31
SUNYA Alumni Association
July, 1984
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MYSKANIA
This is the story of MYSKANIA, membership in which was the
highest honor attainable in college. Each year a dozen juniors,
more or less, who had demonstrated outstanding capacity and dedication,
were chosen to lead and govern the student body in their senior year.
For decades this system worked admirably. Then, under pressures
associated with the changing times, there was erosion in MYSKANIA's
responsibilities and powers, and, eventually, its prestige. It died
-in 1979. Purple and Gold, the University's service organization,
has inherited part of MYSKANIA's tradition.
This report is based mainly on news stories in State College
News and its successor, Albany Student Press. These sources have
been supplemented with material from Pedagogue and Torch, the
memorabilia files at Alumni House, and oral réports by Some MYSKANIA
alumni. There are gaps in the story - internal conflicts, unpublicized
actions, anecdotes, the temper of pivotal times - which could be filled
in by letters to The Carillon from alumni with first-hand knowledge.
Before
1906 - a three-year normal school on Willet Street burned down.
From 1906 to 1909, new buildings went up - Hawley, Draper and Husted,
now half of the downtown campus. In 1910, New York State College for
Teachers was chartered, granting bachelors and masters degrees. In
1914, the senior class organized the first Moving-Up Day. On February
1, 1915, Dr. Abram R. Brubacher became president. Within days, a
petition was presented to him, with hundreds of signatures, asking that
student government be organized. On Moving-Up Day, 1916, the sophomore
class stunt was an allegory on the need for a college newspaper; Dr.
Brubacher gave the class authority to start it. (The Echo, a literary
magazine, and The Pedagogue, a yearbook, existed already. The first
issue of State College News appeared in October 1916. The students
were moving toward the independence consummate with the college's new
status.
Birth and Infancy
On February 15, two weeks after Dr. Brubacher took office, he
referred the petition for student government to a faculty committee.
On the letter setting up the committee are pencilled in the names of
students of that time - Agnes Futterer, 1916; Clarence Hidley, 1915;
Blanche Avery, 1916; Kolin Hager, 1917 - apparently under consideration
at the faculty committee meetings, and very familiar to students of
the next several decades.
In April 1917, more than two years after its organization, the
committee announced the results of its deliberations in student
assembly. A student council, all seniors, would take charge of student
The Life and Death of MYSKANIA
Page two
concerns. This group, which would function for the brief remainder
of the college year, was appointed by the faculty committee. A week
later the council adopted MYSKANIA as its name, the meaning of which
has been a well-kept secret. During its brief tenure, it decreed
rules for college dances and, more important, it set up its duties
and privileges and a system of succession. In the first available
statement of these duties, there was considerable deference to the
faculty: '"....only such power as may be delegated by the faculty."
‘The method it adopted for selecting a new MYSKANIA was appointment
by the faculty of five juniors, selection of five, six or seven
juniors by the outgoing MYSKANIA, and inclusion of the senior class
president if he had not already been selected.
The first MYSKANIA to serve for a full year was tapped on
Moving-Up Day in May of 1917, and included ten members. To the music
of a piano, the junior class walked across the stage on which the out-
going group stood, and those chosen were pulled out of line as they
passed. According to the 1918 Pedagogue, the new MYSKANIA gave itself
a more independent set of duties and privileges: to sit on the
platform at the weekly student assembly, govern all college elections,
administer the college traditions, control fraternity and sorority
activities and make recommendations to the student body.
This 1918 MYSKANIA presided at the weekly student assembly,
compulsory for all students. (An interesting footnote - there were
two absentees from MYSKANIA because they had volunteered for military
service, Jesse Jones and W. Irving Goewey. Not on MYSKANIA, but also
absent from assembly, was Edward E. Potter, 1918, the first student to
die in the war. Potter Club was named for him when it was formed in
1931.) This MYSKANIA established events for interclass rivalry, set
up and approved a News Board to run the already existing State College
News, and created an extended day of activities for Moving-Up Day.
The May 29, 1918 issue of State College News said, "Moving-Up
Day this year was by far the best in the history of the college,
and great thanks are due MYSKANIA which managed the affair... The
most important and most exciting event of the day was when the dignified
members of MYSKANIA, one at a time, descended from their seats of honor
on the platform, and marching to the place where the selected junior sat,
announced the name, pinned purple and gold ribbons upon him or her, and
then both proceeded back up on the platform.again. The chairs of the
men in service were covered with flags." Activities for that Moving-Up
Day included singing "Where, Oh Where" as the freshmen, sophomores and
juniors moved up to the seating section for their next year and the
seniors moved "out, out, to the wide, wide world." The seniors were in
cap and gown, the girls in all the other classes wore white dresses,
the freshman girls had their hair hanging down their backs and tied
with red ribbon, the freshmen boys wore red neckties. After the
activities in the auditorium, there was a procession onto the campus
where each class formed its class numerals and then sang their class
songs written for the occasion. The seniors "planted the ivy" (a
The Life and Death of MYSKANIA
Page three
tradition which continued for decades), after which each class presented
a stunt on the college steps - a minstrel show by the seniors, patriotic
tableaus by the juniors and sophomores. The day before there had been
a "banner rush"; the freshmen had stolen the sophomores' class banner,
and MYSKANIA organized the first rush, with thirty sophomore boys
trying to retrieve their banner from a like number of freshmen. Inci-
dentally, they succeeded, smeared with mud and paint - that's right,
paint. In the afternoon of that Moving Up Day there was an interclass
track meet and baseball game, and in the evening there was community
‘Singing, step-singing by the various classes, and then two hours of
dancing on the campus.
Adolescence and Maturity
MYSKANIA continued to establish and adjust the patterns for
college life. The 1919 body wrote a constitution for State College
News, and later granted amendments to it. It established a Student
Finance Board. It launched a contest for a new Alma Mater, won by
our well-known "College of the Empire State," and established the
Dramatics and Art Council.
The 1920 MYSKANIA established class officerships, and made
changes in the selection process for the 1921 MYSKANIA: the faculty
was to name four instead of five, outgoing MYSKANIA add four, five,
or six (one less than before), the student body elect two (later
changed to three) from the entire enrolled junior class, and the
president of the senior class be a member ex-officio. The faculty
bowed out of the selection process that year, recommending that
certain important campus officers be ex-officio members. This latter
suggestion was not followed, leaving only the senior class president
a member of MYSKANIA by virtue of his office.
The 1922 MYSKANIA, all but three selected by the outgoing
MYSKANIA, was the body that proposed to the student assembly the
formation of a Student Association, and conducted elections. In
December of 1921, MYSKANIA installed the first set of officers and
wrote a Student Association constitution, which was adopted in May,
1922. This gave the Student Association management of all matters
of student interest other than academic, and recognized a number of
boards, one of which was MYSKANIA. Student Association controlled
the executive, financial and legislative functions, MYSKANIA the
judicial and the guardianship of. tradition. Thus MYSKANIA voluntarily
declared itself subordinate to the student body. In fact, the
executive board of the Student Association was to act as a court of
appeals from MYSKANIA's judicial rulings when necessary. The president
of Student Association replaced the president of the senior class as
the only ex-officio member of MYSKANIA. Three members were to be
elected by the student body, a practice which continued until 1931, when
MYSKANIA chose all of its own successors.
The Life and Death of MYSKANIA
Page four
The transfer of direct government to the Student Association
did not leave MYSKANIA with nothing to do. Besides supervising
rivalry events, it continued its elder statesman role. For instance,
the 1923 MYSKANIA appointed an interclass committee to draw up a new
body of rules for class rivalry. Campus Day, in the fall, was es-
tablished, with election of a campus queen, athletics in the after-
noon and skits by each class in the evening, followed by a dance. An
annual "Get Wise" party, hosted by the sophomores for the freshmen,
told the latter what traditional rules were required by MYSKANIA, -and
what other traditional rules the sophomores would try to enforce.
‘In this connection, in the spring of 1927, MYSKANIA punished three
freshmen for breaking tradition (not wearing their freshman caps,
using the front doors of the college buildings or wearing high school
insignia) by removing from freshman office Louis Wolner, the class
president, Fred Crumb, the class treasurer, and Tom Herney, vice-
president. Wolner's punishment was revoked as a result of a-protest
petition, but that of the other two stood. When Tom's father died,
in his sophomore year, he left college for work so his older brother,
Joe, could stay here and get his degree. Tom eventually went to
law school. As for the other two malefactors, Lou became the super-
intendent of schools at Homer, New York, and Fred became president of
the college, later the State University at Potsdam, New York.
In 1930, when Lou Wolner and Fred Crumb were both members of
MYSKANIA, and Lou was editor of State College News, MYSKANIA adjudicated
a bitter conflict. The Finance Board, wit arren Cochrane as chairman,
wanted the News to print the names of students who had not paid student
tax, which Wolner refused to do because it was coercive and libelous.
The conflict went to MYSKANIA, who decided against the News, whereupon
the News Board resigned. MYSKANIA members took over the board positions
for the remainder of the year, appointed a board for 1930/31, and
eventually 28 names of tax delinquents were printed.
The 1934 MYSKANIA had a difficult case to decide. In that
depression year a temporary junior college had been established
affiliated with New York State College for Teachers. Its students
wanted to participate in State's varsity athletic program, but were
denied permission to do so by MYSKANIA.
As is evident from these examples, MYSKANIA was a stable,
respected, useful body. It had voluntarily relinquished day-to-day
management of student self-government, but it was accepted as a
parent, granting permission for or initiating new activities, and
refereeing their performance.
Beginnings of Rebellion
The first instance of a function taken away from MYSKANIA,
not given away, was in the 1934-35 school year. Student Council
decided that management of inter-class rivalry was an executive
function, not judicial. Even then, the Council only took over the
The Life and Death of MYSKANIA
Page five
responsibility for making the rules, but left the actual supervision
of events to MYSKANIA,.
Much more serious changes began in 1945-46, when there were
rapid increases in enrollment, and when veterans returned from
World War II, resentful of the officer class, scornful of the
innocent and naive old college ways and suspicious of decisions
reached behind closed doors. A letter-writing campaign by two
insurgents appeared in three successive issues of State College News,
objecting to MYSKANIA's secrecy, particularly in its self-perpetuating
selection of new members. The News, with MYSKANIA, polled the student
body with a series of questions to determine the degree of satisfaction
with MYSKANIA - its secret constitution and meetings, its powers and
performance, its selection method. The results indicated satisfaction
with performance, duties and powers, but opposition to the secrecy
of choosing a new MYSKANIA and a split opinion on the secrecy of
MYSKANIA's constitution, the only constitution not subject to approval
by the Student Association.
In response to the poll, MYSKANIA moved for an amended selection
procedure, perhaps hoping the motion would be rejected by the vote
of the student body. The proposed method was for MYSKANIA to recommend
ten names to be voted on as yes/no, to suggest a number of other
qualified persons, and to accept additional nominations made by
students outside MYSKANIA. The Student Association accepted this
procedure.
In the State College News for March 19, 1946, the following box
appeared:
"MYSKANIA announces
WHEREAS a new plan for the election of MYSKANIA has been passed
by the Student Association, and
WHEREAS this means the withdrawal of recognition from this
organization by Student Association, MYSKANIA announces the dissolution
of MYSKANIA as of this day of March 25, 1946."
MYSKANIA burned its constitution, its records, its history.
However, the Student Association was unwilling to accept its demise,
and asked for a volunteer group to serve as a temporary "Judicial
Council" for the purpose of making nominations and electing new
members for the next year of the Judicial Council, a name which didn't
stick,
The volunteer group was to consist of any members of the resigned
MYSKANIA willing to serve, plus those senior members of the 1945/46
Student Council, Board of Finance, Campus Commission and Election
Commission who would accept the responsibility. Twelve seniors did
take on the job, including six of the twelve resigned MYSKANIA. As
The Life and, Death of MYSKANIA
Page six
a result of their efforts, MYSKANIA rose again from the ashes.
Membership continued to be the highest non-academic honor in the
college, but the group was more vulnerable than in the first 30
years of its existence.
The kind of criticism that preceded the drastic change in the
selection procedure had already led MYSKANIA, in 1945, to stop
wearing robes in assembly. The first MYSKANIA to use the new
selection method recommended nine juniors for the 1947/48 MYSKANIA
(the student body approved only seven of these), and suggested nine
others, of which six were voted in. None of the 13 additional
nominees were elected. Quite evidently, there was no longer blind
acceptance of MYSKANIA's judgment in this year, nor in subsequent
years,
In 1947/48 another potential diminution of MYSKANIA's functions
was launched, but did not succeed. A constitutional committee
recommended a new constitution for the Student Association among
the provisions of which was placement of judicial power in a five-
member judiciary, not MYSKANIA. The new constitution, presented as
a take-it-or-leave-it complete package, was rejected.
Change Again
Once again, in 1957/58, a complete revision of the Student
Association constitution was presented to the student body but this
time section by section. Some of the changes that were accepted
excluded the president of Student Association from MYSKANIA; created
a senate, and assigned MYSKANIA as the judicial branch of government.
Its duties were to interpret the Student Association. constitution,
try all impeachment cases, act as a court of appeal, consider unusual
cases referred to it by any student group, be guardian of the freshman
class and uphold traditions. In 1958/59, the Student Senate returned
to MYSKANIA the responsibility for organizing the freshman class.
In 1959/60, MYSKANIA recommended up to ten. of the nominees, but all
the others (25 that year) were self-nominated, i.e., applicants for
the honor.
New York State College for Teachers was renamed State University
of New York at Albany in 1960/61, but the move to the new campus did
not begin for another four years. It was in 1962/63 that MYSKANIA
was called on to judge a cause celebre. Some of our students, while
attending a basketball tournament at Cortland, behaved outrageously.
According to the State University News of March 8, 1963, "For these
men (?) a tournament weekend cannot just consist of basketball games,
cheering, a few drinks, and a little camaraderie and conviviality.
No, for these people 'mooning,' 'c.c.o.'s,' and thymns,' are more in
the vogue." The administration referred the matter to MYSKANIA for
consideration. MYSKANIA met three to four hours daily, for two and
and a half weeks, obtaining student-submitted briefs and calling in
students who had attended the Cortland weekend for informal hearings.
The Life and Death of MYSKANIA
Page seven
They issued summons for formal hearings to those that had been most
seriously implicated, and finally reported that "there had béen a
serious misrepresentation of the University," and recommended that
action be taken against several individuals - expulsion for one,
suspension for another, social probation or reprimands for others.
This was the last vigorous action of MYSKANIA.
The 1960's were not a good time for preservation of traditions.
‘Nationwide, Vietnam war protests, resentment of authority, scorn
for the "over thirty" generations, civil rights conflicts, sexual
freedom, were all evidence of a ferment in the young. Our campus was
not exempt, especially in the late 1960's.
A New Era
In 1963/64, freshman-sophomore rivalry was abolished, the end
of a tradition of more than 40 years. The earlier year-long series of
rivalry events, culminating in the spring on Moving-Up Day, had
already been condensed to a six-week period at the beginning of the
college year, and ending on Campus Day. In 1963, an apparently
apathetic sophomore class failed to field a push-ball team on time,
and the contest was awarded to the freshmen by default. This con-
troversial decision sparked debate on the value of rivalry. An
editorial in the State University News of October 12, 1963, said
"Rivalry (is) under attack as childish, silly, outdated, unworthy
of a great university." In defense of rivalry, the editorial went
on, "Rivalry, if it is done properly, can be important in building
a freshman class into a real class." Before the next freshman class
appeared in September, 1964, the source of so many memories for
alumni of earlier years was put to rest, and MYSKANIA had still less
to do.
The next year students began to occupy the first completed
dormitory in the uptown campus. Also in that year drastic amendments,
effective in May 1965 were made to the Student Association constitution.
Under the new rules, MYSKANIA's judicial duties were eliminated and
vested in a separate Supreme Court, appointed by Central Council from
candidates screened by MYSKANIA. . The Albany Student Press said,
"Each year, under the old system, the members of MYSKANIA are taken
from their respective spheres of influence and placed in a judicial
position. This limits, by separation of powers, the potential con-
tributions of members of MYSKANIA to the Student Association and
community." The Student Association constitution did not allow
simultaneous service on MYSKANIA and any other major office, such as
Central Council or Senate.
The principal functions of MYSKANIA under the revised constitution
were to guard traditions, act as guardians of the freshman class and
act as screening agent for appointments to Supreme Court.
The Life and Death of MYSKANIA
Page eight
The Supreme Court was an idea that was hard to implement. It
was supposed to consist of four seniors, three juniors and two
sophomores, but there were too few applicants (because the separation-
of-powers concept also applied to members of the Court), and the 1965/
66 MYSKANIA found only seven students to nominate to Central Council,
who could therefore make no choices among candidates. In the following
year, again, only seven candidates were submitted for. the nine positions.
Besides the scarcity of applicants, the court was unable to function
.in many years because the constitution did not provide for filling
vacancies, leaving the court without a quorum. A backlog of: cases
piled up.
The lack of final powers in MYSKANIA's duties, as set-up in
the constitution, created a void. A 1967 editorial in Albany Student
Press asked "Where's MYSKANIA?" It discussed the lack of Functions
for the group and said that next year's seniors would be the last to
remember its former glory.
MYSKANIA did make sporadic efforts to create a more effective
role for itself. In March 1967 it said it planned.to involve itself
in intercollegiate functions on this campus, evaluate the school's
grading system, revive school spirit and help solve group problems
on campus. In October 1967 it proposed reassuming the judicial
function by amending the constitution, but backed off again the
following month, proposing instead the vague goal of "being a student
sounding board...in contemplation of future needs of the student
ody."
A March 1968 editorial called the 1968 MYSKANIA a do-nothing
and said if the 1969 MYSKANIA "remains only as an honorary, then
it is worthless to the student body and should be defunct." The 1969
MYSKANIA tried to organize a Student Association conference for an
overview of student government, but no apparent changes resulted.
It did recommend an end to chaperones at student affairs (accepted
by Central Council) and an end to freshman curfews.
The 1970 MYSKANIA, in screening the nominees for the next year's
MYSKANIA, followed the criteria for selection to the letter, and came
up with only 14 nominees from the 38 juniors who had applied. All
14 were tapped by MYSKANIA in blatant disregard of the SA Constitution
which required exactly 13. An ultimatum had been delivered by the 14
candidates saying that either all 14 would be tapped or no tapped
person would take the MYSKANIA oath. Tapping was before an audience
of 150, not the full student body as in Moving-Up Days on the old
campus.
Central Council voted to prosecute MYSKANIA for attempting to
seat all 14, blasting MYSKANIA 1971 for "blackmailing" the outgoing
MYSKANIA. The new group replied that omitting one of the 14 as a
result of a popularity vote would be cruel, a point more important
that constitutionality. The subsequent issues of Albany Student Press
had no word of the resolution of this conflict. Could that have been
because the Supreme Court could not assemble a quorum?
The Life and Death of Myskania
Page nine
Once again, a new Student Association constitution was passed
in March 1971. This one said that MYSKANIA was to be composed of
"several" members "nominated and selected from the junior class by
a screening committee." Exceptions to the qualifications for nominees
or to the procedures was left to the determination of Central Council.
The constitution said, "Duties and Functions - MYSKANIA shall perform
selected ceremonial functions of the University." Period!
In May 1971 thirteen members were elected to MYSKANIA, but the
results were withheld "pending the possible referral to Supreme Court
of certain Central Council actions." Neither the "certain actions"
nor news of the results of Supreme Court adjudication appeared in
print. In 1972 and 1973 nominations and elections took place without
conflict. In May 1973 when the Albany Student Press announced the
names of MYSKANIA for 1974, it included a story about MYSKANIA's
hopes to bring back some of the traditions of the past; to work at
regaining its standing in the eyes of the University, and to create
greater student awareness of the high honor MYSKANIA deserves.
The description of MYSKANIA members' functions at this time,
which appeared with a March 1974 announcement that nominations were
being accepted, said they were freshman class guardians, tour guides
on Community-University Days and participants in Alumni Day functions
and in ceremonial functions at Freshman Convocation in September and
Commencement in May.
The May 1974 instructions for election to MYSKANIA said
"graduating seniors only vote for MYSKANIA." This was the only
mention of such a limitation, and may have been mistaken. In May
1976 there was an irregularity in counting ballots for MYSKANIA,
Because the count was taking too.long (not enough of MYSKANIA '76
showed up to help), the MYSKANIA members present took a sample
counting every seventh ballot instead of a full count. It was
decided that re-elections would be held in the fall, but when the
fall semester started, as the Albany Student Press headline put it,
"Lack of interest snuffs out MYSKANIA re-elections." And the news
story went on, "MYSKANIA will continue to exist in its present form
and membership unless Supreme Court action is taken." Apparently
there was no such action, and the results stood.
The last MYSKANIA was from the class of 1979. When this
MYSKANIA appeared before Central Countil to justify its budget
request, it could not define an adequate set of functions, and was
not included in the budget. It did not call for nominations for 1980;
there was no election; there was no MYSKANIA.
The Life and Death of Myskania
Page ten
MYSKANIA had served, and served well for its time, but the
times changed. Student Association, the child it had created and
nurtured, finally squeezed it out. The once young and lusty
MYSKANIA, grown old and impotent, died - except in memory.
Aifred Basch
MYSKANIA 1931
July, 1984
