The Habit

Across the U.S., college students faced exams or major papers before the spring-vacation break. And, as one Harvard man pointed out, "the more work a guy has, the harder he finds it to keep his hands off the dial." It puts a strain on the hard-core television watchers, the guys with "the habit," because t uninitiates are surging in for a tension break and the seats in front of private and public, are at more i premium. .,

It was that way at Stanford. Hullabaloo was coming on, and a hush spread momentarily over the jampacked tub room in the Delta Upsilon house Then the rock-'n'-roll show started blasting out the top pop tunes while the TV screen filled up with frenzied Hullabalooers twisting and shouting. ' There she is," shouted a D.U., spotting a favorite blonde dancer. "Go, beast, go! Most of the comments were in the same vein: sexual fascinations mingled with snobbish derision. For students never watch in silence; half the fun is Jetting go: "Get her name--she's terrible," " God, my eyes are crossing."

Lonqest Logger. During most of the year, the boob tube is left to what Princeton calls "the viz squad. At the University of North Carolina they are "tubeholics," at Ohio State "TV majors " But the pros by any other nam are still the pros, and they log daily hours in front of TV that would make a union man scream for overtime pay; The leading contender for academe s top tubeman is the University of Texas Saleh Abdulrahman Athel, a studei from Saudi Arabia who started watching to learn English, then just stayed and stayed and stayed. Now, on his Magnavox portable he soaks up eleven hours a day. "Everything's fine with TV" he beams, "except the blasted commercials." He's not exactly sure of the time he spends studying Its regulated by the day's TV schedule, offhands. Allowing about ten hours a day for sleep and classes, it cant be much, but it is enough. Despite TV, Saleh ranks as the university's top mechanical engineering student.

Big on Bugs. He is not the only addict with unaddled grey matter. Near Georgia Tech, a drive-in-eatery caled The Varsity draws the most viewers with its four tube rooms equipped with desk-armed chairs to encourage eating. And the type The Varsity mostly draws? "It's the fat boy who's a real brain; he's there all the time," says one senior. Of course, as a University of Minnesotan sniffs, TV is also "for the 'C-C-ers' and down. The rest are too busy with the books to be socked down before the one-eyed god." Actually, TV is for any grade level.

They tune in to watch The Man from U.N.C.L.E. ("such good evil," says a North Carolina viewer), The Rogues ("the best flick on the eye"), The Fugitive ("Fuge" to friends), Shindig or Hullabaloo ("the horny hours"), and horror shows (called "ghoul spools" at Harvard to distinguish them from wild parties). One Rad-Cliffie is the head of a Bullwinkle the Moose fan club, and at Stanford, "Bugs Bunny really causes a lot of comment--there's a lot to say about Bugs Bunny."

Girls tend to watch less than their boy friends. "Even on the night we became engaged," moans a Texas coed, "my fiance wouldn't come over for our date until Combat was over." But when they do watch (in curlers and bathrobes that neatly match the underwear and sweatshirts being worn across the way in the frats), they watch Dr. Kildare and that "cute" David Janssen on Fuge. Vassar hard-core viewers categorically refuse to bring outsiders up to date on Peyton Place. And at most women's colleges, a few devotees check every lunch hour for the soap operas, no doubt preparing for life as a housewife.

Scoping It In. In coed climes there is some mixed viewing, but "most of the comments preclude having a date," says a Stanford Sigma Chi. Watching "all those fine young bods sway" just seems more comfortable stag. And of course the boys like to "scope in the sports real deep," a time when any self-respecting female would prefer doing almost anything else.

As for public-affairs programming, Huntley-Brinkley or Walter Cronkite both get a slight nod. Lyndon Johnson fares worse. At Princeton last week, they stayed after U.N.C.L.E. to watch his civil rights address but spent most of the time groaning in pseudo-sophistication at his "pseudo-folksiness." At the University of Chicago, they didn't even wait. No sooner was the presidential seal on screen than the seats started emptying.

For the most part, tube watchers are uneasy and evasive when asked why they stay hooked. "I just wanted to punt," some will admit. More often it's "Why shouldn't I? Besides, it hurts my eyes to read Kant." And among addicts there is a lot of self-hate. When the final "thought for today" has been fired off, the Star Spangled Banner has yet waved, and only fuzz fills the screen, there is little jubilation. It is usually more like it was at Harvard the other night. "Well, another day shot to shingles."

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