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university. The 1968 concept apparently has been successful only in cases where the practical work has involved the students' own fields of study, such as work in medical clinics, laboratories, research centers, and similar institutions. Elsewhere, however, the concept has met circumstances and abuse in practice on the part of the students, as well as by mixed feelings on the part of farm and factory managers resentful of paying wages to inexperienced and frequently malingering students. Similarly, Marxist-Leninist studies, though remaining a compulsory subject, are being vitiated by the poor quality of instruction (they are frequently given by nonprofessional party hacks) as well as by circumvention and the use of the idea of "flexibility of some content" by professional, nonparty instructors.
4. Extracurricular activities
Because of the normally heavy demands of the formal curriculum at institutions of higher learning, extracurricular activities in the general Western sense are extremely limited. Moreover, except for the very affluent, the students cannot financially afford those activities requiring special clothing or equipment. Organized sports and school teams that so actively engage the imagination and energies of many American college students normally do not exist in Poland. Most students, therefore, tend to spend such free time as they have in apolitical recreational activity and in part-time jobs to supplement their stipends.
Most extracurricular activity, whether purely recreational or more directly related to academic or practical experience, is conducted within the framework of one or another of the government-sponsored mass youth organizations. Often, such activities tend to parallel or are combined with the requirement since 1968 of practical, physical labor during summer vacations. In general, the price paid by the students for the organizations' sponsorship or underwriting of simple recreational activities is a certain amount of "socialist" activity or ideological proselytization, which varies according to organization. Most students find membership in mass organizations—and later in the party—useful if not indispensable for future career advancement, but they have generally ignored the ideological content of the activities offered by these organizations. Immediately after the disorders of 1968, the party once again made strong efforts to increase the impact of these organizations on student activities and outlook, primarily under the guise of expanding the activities of student government bodies. The regime also purged the leadership of these organizations and installed the few Communist zealots available. This was particularly true of the Polish Students Association (ZSP), a university-level organization whose activities were the most ideologically barren of all and generally confined to catering to the student's material and recreational needs. Most Polish students belonged to this organization in preference to the wider-based Union of Socialist Youth and the small Union of Rural Youth.
In early 1973 the regime took steps, in the face of some student opposition, to merge the student membership of all the existing youth organizations into the Socialist Union of Polish Students (SZSP), an organization designed to improve party control and pursue a more energetic and uniform ideological indoctrination program. The ultimate structure and effectiveness of the new organization remains to be seen, but it is expected that some of the more popular activities (Figure 42) will be continued in order to attract student support.
FIGURE 42. Weekend camping trips in areas near Warsaw proved popular with students when sponsored by the new defunct Polish Students' Association (U/OU) (picture)
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