od Page Two THE COLLEGE NEWS | “THE COLLEGE NEWS (Founded in 1914) ae Published weekly dun. the College Year (except during Thanksgiving, Christmas-and Easter holidays, and during examination weeks) in the interest of Bryn Mawr College at the Ardmore Printing Company, Ardmore, Pa., and Bryn Mawr College. The College News is fully protected by copyright. Nething that appears in it may be reprinted either wholly or in part without permission’ of the a ' Kditorial Board ©. | ALISON MERRILL, 45, Editor-in-Chie} ‘Mary VincrntA.More, ’45, Copy PATRICIA Pratt, 45, News APRIL OuRSLER, °46 SUSAN OULAHAN, 46, News oe Editorial Stam Naney MoiizHouse, "47 Patricia BEHRENS, "46 Marcaret Rupp, ’47 LANIER DUNN, °47 | THELMA BALDASSARR2, "47 Darst Hyatt, '47 Marcia Demsow,’’47" MonnieE BELLow, °47 CEciLIa ‘ROSENBLUM, °47 Rosina BATESON, '47 ExrzasetH Day, ’47 Emity Evarts, ’47 Mary Lee Biakety, ’47 Laura Dimonp, 747 Harriet Warp, *48 Joan ZIMMERMAN, 748 Betrina KLuEPFEL, ’48 _ ANNE Nystrom, ’48 Sports Cartoons Caro. BALLARD, *45 CYNTHIA Haynes, *48 Photographer ‘HaNNAH KAUFMANN, 8 - Business Boar : Y Mita ASHOopIAN, °46, ss Manager BaRBARA WiLLiaMs, °46, Advertising Manager ConsuELO Kunn, *48 ANNE KincsBury, *47 ANN WERNER, 47 Subscription Board MarcareT Loup, '46, Manager CHARLOTTE BINGER, '45 EuisE Krart, *46 Lovina BRENDLINGER, "46 ELIZABETH MANNING, °46 IRBARA COTINS, °47 Nancy STRICKLER, °47 HgeLeNn GILBERT, *46 BARBARA YOUNG, 747 > Entered as second class matter at the Ardmore, Pa., Post Office Under Act of Congress August 24, 1912 ai as Re-scheduling It-is-regrettable, in looking back over the’ semester, to note the failure of the majority of undergraduates to fulfill their pledges to the U. Vv. A. P. It is also regrettable that there was little or no response to the Player’s Club plea for stage hands and that there have been complaints about the failure to attend nurse’s aid classes. Such a situation would ordinarily be attributed to an apathetic student body. But there has been increasing discussion on campus that the fail- ure to participate in extra-curricular activities, has not been due to unwillingness or inertia, but to an overwhelming amount of work that is aggravated by its unequal distribu- tion. e Christmas Vacation Most of us are looking forward to Christmas vacation as a period in which to write from one to four papers. More- over, it will provide a reading period to make up assignments left behind during mid-semesters and the inevitable rush/be- fore Christmas. In short, it promises to be anything but a holiday for a great many students who are desperately in need of a rest. The increasing migrations to the infirmary and the failure of many to take the week-end of the dance in their stride, will attest to this need. -It-may be argued with some justification that the aver- age, Bryn Mawr undergraduate spends too much time in the smoking room or that she does not plan her time. However, under the existing system, even the most conscientious time- saver finds herself swamped at mid-semesters, and unable to regain her prospective as she struggles with daily assign- ments and papers in the short time that is left. Various pro- posals for re-scheduling were offered last year that would provide for a more equitable distribution of work and less strain on the student. We regret that they seem to have been disregarded when there seems, to be such an apparent necessity for some sort of a change. Proposals The first proposal offered by the News last year, was for a long fall term that would end examinations before Christ- mas. It was criticized because of the added strain that would be imposed on students. The nd plan was for the semes- ter to begin two weeks cudiae ake usual. After vacation there should be a ten-day reading period without classes, in which all studentsecould write their papers and prepare for ® ‘examinations. The seniors’ traditional reading period would take place as usual. Since papers are not usually due as close to examinations inthe spring, and. since the examination period is longer, no corresponding reading period would be necessary then. A third plan has now been proposed which ‘could be put into effect within the existing system. It is sug- gested that heavier reading lists be assigned earlier in the year with a decided lessening at the. end of pag semester _ when papers are due. With these suggestions, we hope that the isdhesions on “scheduling will be reontand and that campus — bina si mati Rr INCIDENTALLY The Christmas;dance may have ‘given Bryn Mawr a_ temporarily frivolous aspect as gay young things with hearts fluttered around with things called men,’ but even in such a scene Bryn Mawr could not forget its intel- lectual standard. One couple moon, momentarily covered ‘with what the man called a_ rainbow. The girl, a.science major, was ov- erheard to say, . “Nonsense, it’s just an ordinary spectrum”... Other Science majors, however, showed efinitely non-scholastic approgech to their studies of Chemistry last Monday when a hall tea threatened to conflict: with a four hour lab, In true scientific fashion they went directly to the heart of the problem, and invited the whole of the Chem department to the tea. But the professors fooled them. They came in shifts —gleefully exclaiming: that. this was so nice because they could ‘have their cake and eat it too, and wasn’t it too bad that the poor people in lab couldn’t have been there ... Required courses have long pre- sented a problem to the. student body at large, but an entirely new viewpoint was expressed by one Sophomore on the News. A wing- ed object soared around the Com- mon Room recently vacated by Mr. Herben and his Current’ Events. “A bird!” we screamed, beginning the usual Superman formula. Slowly, the Sophomore walked up to us, completely unfazed by the proximity of the beast to her hair. “It’s a bat,” she informed us. “You took Biology as your re- ‘quired science and you don’t even ane a mammal when you_ see one. I’m going to take Geology!” WITS \EINC O chp ie but: once a year and sometimes even that is too.much! ‘Would that I could tie my Philosophy paper in gay red ribbon and send it to Inferno to play with Dante. But the ultimate reality of Xmas is thus indisput- ably disputed by those who resent having to stampede in the dark moaning “Go Rest You Merry Gen- tlemen” when any dope knows that there is no rest forythe weary, and that trying to find a hiding place down here in which to get Yule spirit without getting acute per- itonitis of the conscience is like eating popcorn through a strain- er. : Let us sing “Silent Night’ as we whirl around the maypole, and pack all our bad ideas but leave our clothes to feed the moths dur- ing the lean season. Let us walk, not run, to the nearest train when the glad hour knells, lest cumula- tive exhaustion leave us as an ad- dition to the asphalt as time pass- es us by. But this under all, which is the bottom; when I yell “Noel” it will be in the tonsilless tone of a toiler whose mental and physical condition is processed ham. In vain do I plead that I shall never see a paper lovely as a tree, but would joyfully sacrifice both, and even devour them if it could indispose me sufficiently to produce a_ Six- day coma. braved the cold to look at the: We've been going over our Fresh- man notes, but we still haven’t found any index for the identifica- |: tion of the animals Mr. Herben leaves behind him... Fresiman parents are endemi- cally in a state of anxiety over their offspring, but the height of maternal confusion was’ reported to us today, by a Freshman whose mother, though properly pleased] js by the fact that her daughter is writing letters home, does not quite understand how one | letter was written sitting on bells, and another baby-sitting. She also warned her daughter that it was not healthy to sit all day, and re- minded her to get some exercise. The problem of headlines in col- lege newspapers is always a com- plicated one, but Barnard has pro- vided us with one which will con- sole us over ours for ages to come. A lead story, on the front pagé, is, headed by -the.. words “Cha to Hear Coffin. Speak’. The opening sentence, “‘Not unto us, O Lord, Not unto us.”’”... And _incidéntally, the News board, exploring hungrily in the Goodhart tea pantry for the re- mains of Monday’s tea, found a large hoard of left-over food. One small detail was however, upset- ting. In the sugar can was a large orange tin of Saraka, the perfect laxative. Tea in Goodhart always used to be so nice... Red Esau Requests Packin g Center Aides Volunteers for weekly work are needed by Philadelphia Red Cross Packing Center. For the past two years workers in four Cen- ters in the United States have been assembling boxes to send to allied prisoners of war held in German prison camps. The eleven- pound packages, containing food, cigarettes, and soap, arrive in Ger- many on the average of once a week. The first Packing Center was established in Philadelphia in January, 1948. Other centers are in New York, St. Louis, and Brooklyn. The U. S. government supplies the contents-of each pack- age comprising condensed milk, dried prunes, cheese, canned meat, sugar, salt, pepper, coffee extract, caned tuna fish, jam, oleomargar- ine, Army ration biscuit, candy, chocolate, soap, vitamins, and liver paste. The current American cigarette shortage is partly due to the fact that cigarettes have an important place in each package. The Red Cross pays the factory overhead and the transportation costs on ships such as the Grips- holm in which the boxes are sent. The Philadelphia Packing Cen- ter turns out over 14,000 packages a day at the rate of 45 per min- ute. About 75 women volunteers work on tike assembly lines while both volunteer and hired men sup- ply the bins from which the arti- cles are taken. The plant, situated at 2300 Chestnut street, welcomes visitors and is anxious to have more part or whole time workers. The hours are 9:45-12:45, 1:15-400 five days a- week, with a men" shift twice a week. - ——- Siscstnd -C venll Common Room, December 4. “Although our situation in France is favorable at present, things will be worse before they are better”, said Dr, Herben in his discussion of military strategy in the French campaign since D-Day., | 4 Dr. Herben described the nature of the war before noting actual events and their significance. “the final-argument of a king” where in order to impose the vic- tors’ will on the vanquished, ‘either armies must be destroyed in’ the field, or political leaders, must change their, views. ~ Before the actual landing” ‘was made in France, no~ authority would have predicted it. The ‘coun- try has almost insurmountable defenses, both-natural arid ‘mater- ial, all of which were in the hands. of the Nazis. The United Nations. had, however, built up unbeliev- able reserves of’ both men and supplies in England. Experi- ments in landing, although unsuc-— cessful, did not deter Eisenhower and Montgomery. Armed with several new gadgets, courage and determination, the Americans, English and Canadians made four landings, three of which. were suc- cessful. Our drive south in July to open up the peninsula was unsuccessful until our air force was finally able to smash a hole in enemy . lines. Then concern turned to the south where an immense German army in Italy threatened. An American force, however, landed in the south and. drove parallel to the River up to meet the driving forces The greatest problem now fac- ing us is that of transport. In our present position on the Rhine we are far from our source of sup- plies. The coming of winter, stif- fened resistance, lack of any over- land transport system, ‘fact that we. are six to months ahead of schedule, add to our disadvantage. But the situation is more than a deadlock. We have decreased the submarine and robot menace considerably and are on the road to a break through the Siegfried Line. _ : Rae eRe ore Nuts and Bolts At the University of Toronto an editorial debate rages over public versus private control of universi- ties. The advocates of public con- trol cited the numerous abuses of irresponsible private ownership. They felt state control would abol- eastward ish racial and religious discrimina- in admission requirements, ane would not interfere with intellec- — tion tual speculation and academic free- dom, and would make the individ- ual good also the common good by - keeping students in close contact with their government. Their op- ponents, while admitting the de- fects of private control, feared standardization of education, de- spite the avowal that the state would not “censor” académic con- tent or ‘individual initiative. s ¢ It is interesting to see that Bar- earnestly_believe, that if some changes were made in the col- urge the eurriculum committee to consider the problem. We lege calendar or. in the distribution of work within the pres- ent system, the strain now imposed on students would be greatly relieved. Perhaps then, much of the energy that is now being wasted on worry ‘and cramming, could be diverted into different channels and theré would be a new stimulus in. extra-curricular activities and amore venuine effort to fulfill the U. Vv. ‘AF. pledges. | eos nard recently held a celebration of ° the anniversary of the publication of Milton’s Areopagitica. That’s our idea of a Cultural Community. * * * Barnard also has formed an Inf® terfaith group where students of all creeds meet to hear lectures by ministers, priests, and rabbis, and to read material about every faith. i * * * Another type of cooperative movement is in evidence at. Tor- onto, where. a, campus cooperative residence for students of, every race ,creed and nation is entering its eighth year of successful _ it. Rhone , and ‘the ¢ eight: ~~