Student Activism: The Larger Sphere
University of Saskatchewan students
were not immune from the wider sphere of world events, and have never
hesitated to make their opinions known.
Votes for Women
Saskatchewan women won the right to
vote on 14 March 1916 – the second province in Canada to extend
the franchise.
“This writer has felt strongly
for many years that women cannot achieve economic independence until they
shall have secured political freedom, and in this respect the West has
been far in advance of the rest of Canada.” - The Sheaf, December
1916
Looking Across the City |
|
Posing in front of the College Building |
|
Women Graduates, 1917 |
|
|
[tune: “Marching Through Georgia”]
Leap year once again has come to give the girls a show
Custom grants the privilege to each to choose a beau
Or to gain a silken gown if the swain says “no”
Let’s use the right that’s been granted.
Chorus: Hurrah! Hurrah for the suffragettes we cheer
Hurrah! Hurrah for women’s wider sphere
So we’ll sing our anthem singing louder every year,
Till women’s rights have been granted.
Leap year’s but a foretaste of the power we then
shall own
When we wrest from grasping man the vote he wields alone
When we take our rightful place as the power behind the throne
When women’s rights have been granted.
Chorus
Equal suffrage is our cry our platform lasting peace
Strife shall vanish from the earth and cruel war shall cease
Plenty shall adorn the land, prosperity increase
When women’s rights have been granted.
Chorus
- Ladies Night at the “Lit,” 25 February 1916
Sound file: MP3 (1.19MB) or WAV (12.9 MB)
|
1918 Flu Epidemic
Despite being uniquely self-sufficient,
the quarantined campus could not completely insulate itself against the
world-wide influenza epidemic of 1918. Students tried to make light of
the situation, but it was grave: by the end of the epidemic three students
and four employees had died.
Funeral Procession for Student William Hamilton |
|
Prize Parody, November 26
to the tune of “Way Down Upon the Swanee River”
Way up upon the Varsity campus
Nine days we’ve been:
We’re trying hard to keep the “flu” out,
But it keeps us in.
Chorus: All the “U” is sad and dreary;
Fields are bare and brown.
Say, Kids! We find it mighty weary,
But wait till we get down town!
Nine days without a moving picture
Or eats at Golfs:
We never see a living creature
But ourselves and profs.
Chorus
- The Sheaf, 1918
The Great Depression
No End in Sight |
|
The On-to-Ottawa Trek and the Regina Riots |
|
"Take Another Ride, Buddy" |
|
Previous - [Close to Home, Part Two]
| Next - [The Larger Sphere, Part Two]
© 2003, University of Saskatchewan
Archives
|