What is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it to one that asketh, I know not.It was 1907 when fraternities and sororities were just getting started on college and university campuses across the United States, and in a big way at the University of Illinois, that the Cosmopolitan Club was founded as an undergraduate fraternity here. Flaming torches, the Latin motto, Corda Fratres, and especially the guiding motto, "Above all nations is humanity," distinguished the Cosmopolitan Club brothers then.
- St. Augustine
National and racial barriers central to the make-up of other fraternities were not only noticeably absent at Cosmo, the idea of seeking companionship and support only from those of similar background to one's own was completely antithetical to Cosmo's reason for existence. Living together under one roof, these young men from Illinois, from across the country and around the world, experienced the richness of diversity, the expansiveness of relating to peers from a variety of backgrounds, and the support of a hospitable environment in a not-so-hospitable town and university setting.
Recounting his experiences as a Mexican immigrant and transfer student from Augustana College in 1936, U of I Cosmo alumnus John Cervantes whose recent correspondence with Alumni Chair Mary Hussey is cited elsewhere in this newsletter, wrote of Urbana- Champaign in his autobiography, My Moline:
It haunted me again and again when I heard and noticed that Jews had their own separate fraternities, that there was at least one Catholic sorority, and that there were no Negroes in ANY of the athletic programs at Illinois. (p. 116)This year, La Casa Cultural Latina, a building with staff funded by the University in response to the demands of the late 60s and a presence on the campus since the Fall of 1974, has moved from Chalmers Street in Champaign to a larger house on Nevada Street in Urbana. The African American Cultural Program (1969) occupies a house diagonally across the street at the corner of Mathews. The perhaps now 10-year plea of the Asian-American undergraduates is for equal treatment by the University to help them in their "quest for cultural identity." The separateness that haunted John Cervantes a half century ago still haunts this campus. The difference is that there is now perhaps reluctant, but nonetheless sustained, university support for that separateness (a reverse reminder of the exclusion of black students from university sports teams).
Again, what is time?
Virginia Sharp, known to hundreds, perhaps thousands of international students at UIUC, has just been re-elected to the Cosmo board after a hiatus of almost 20 years. Her own thumbnail sketch of her life indicates that she headed the Host-Family Program for the International Hospitality Committee for 35 years; served as a Host Family for 40 years; and traveled in 70 countries, staying in homes in 40 countries.
With a "mere" 80-year interval between the time her father attended the U of I and the penning of Virginia's board application form, father and daughter are together in their vision spanning both ends of the twentieth century.
The Cosmopolitan Club in its frame house at 307 E. John St., Champaign, with Andrea Shields, our highly competent, ever- enthusiastic, and extremely supportive "half-time" coordinator, is still THE campus international student center, sustained only by income from the rent of the dozen house residents (from Austria, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Peru, Russia, and the U.S.), the annual fees of approximately 150 members, and the gifts of friends. From this modest yet stable and enduring base, we want to say again that what brings Cosmopolitan Club members of all generations together is not only essential on an individual basis, but crucial for institutional and global survival.
Einstein told us that time and space cannot be viewed as absolute entities. What better evidence than our "Cosmo Spirit" spanning Planet Earth from California to Hawaii to Japan, India, Egypt, Italy, Germany, Iceland, Virginia, to name a few "places" with the "time" 1907 to 1996, blended in!