North Dakota: A Guide to the Northern Prairie StateFederal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of North Dakota
History
North Dakota: A Guide to the Northern Prairie State
Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of North Dakota
North Dakota; North Dakota -- Guidebooks
During the first six years of university history there were only two
buildings on the campus. The main building, later known as Merrifield
Hall, contained classrooms, book store, post office, and men's
dormitory. The other building, later named Davis Hall for Hannah E.
Davis, one of its early matrons, housed the girls' dormitory, and, in
the basement, the university dining hall. Alumni of those days relate
that the dining hall was a very popular place. When meals were ready
to be served a napkin was hung out the basement window, and the first
student in the main building who spied the sign, regardless of whether
he happened to be in a class or not, yelled, "Rag's out!" The shout
was taken up and a stampede to the dining room followed. This custom
prevailed for several years. One day President Merrifield was showing
some of his Eastern friends through the institution when suddenly
"Rag's out" reverberated through the halls. The visitors wondered if
there was a riot, and the mortified president realized for the first
time how the dinner call sounded to outsiders. He suppressed it with
difficulty, after many student debates on the sacredness of college
traditions.
With the advent of football teams, "Odz, odz, dzi," an imitation of
a Sioux war cry, became the college yell, and has continued to the
present.
When a delegation from the first North Dakota legislature visited
the campus on a tour of inspection in 1889, residents of the girls'
dormitory held a tea in their honor. In order to improve upon the
barrenness of the sparsely furnished parlor, pieces were borrowed from
the girls' rooms and from friends. The expedient was more successful
than the girls had anticipated, for the legislators considered the
furnishings more than adequate and thereupon decreased the amount
allowed in the budget for dormitory equipment.
Although the University of North Dakota has been in existence only 55
years (1938), it has had its share of distinguished alumni, among whom
is Maxwell Anderson (class of 1911), playwright, author of _What Price
Glory_, _Mary of Scotland_, _Winterset_, and other dramas. In 1933 his
play _Both Your Houses_ was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
Vilhjalmur Stefansson, explorer, attended the university from 1899 to
1902, and left at the request of the faculty. His escapades, though
doubtless improved upon with the years, are quite typical of him. It is
said he attended classes as seldom as possible, yet always received the
highest grades. The story goes that he went to his calculus class only
on the first day of the term, then returned for the final examination,
which the professor allowed him to write, with gloomy prophecies of his
ruin. Stefansson's mark was 98. The professor could not help remarking
that he had done well considering that he had attended only one class.
"And," retorted Stefansson, "if I hadn't come here the first day I'd
have got one hundred."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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