——~ itemayt

THE COLLEGE NEWS

Wednesday, December 12, 1956

 

THE COLLEGE NEWS
FOUNDED IN 1914
Published weekly during the College Year (except during
Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter holidays, and during exanr
ination weeks) in the interest of Bryn Mawr College at the Ard-
more Printing Company, Ardmore; Pa., and--Bryn-Mawr College.

The College News is fully protected by copyright: Nothing that appears
in it may be reprinted either wholly or in part without permission of the Editor-

in-Chief.

 

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief ‘57

ips RANGE APEC Pee ST Te RRR ET EE T. Ruth Rasch,
Cai BAO connec cee ces ceer veces cccaweteeses Anna Kisselgoff, ‘58 .
Managing Editer Sg bMAARED EARL CEA CELE ED Hehe beee Debby Ham, ‘59
Make-up Editor .........s-seeceeeeeeeceeeseereeeeees Patty Page, ‘58
Member-at-Large .......--:sseeeeeree er ereeenreeere Eleanor Winsor, ‘59~

ay * ' EDITORIAL STAFF ‘ s
Ann) Barthelmes, ‘58; Miriam Beames, ‘59; Lynn Deming, ‘59; Betsy Gott, ;
Sue Harris, %60; “Gretchen Jessup, ‘58; Elizabeth mantels, ‘59; Rita Rubin-
stein, ‘59; Sue Schapiro, ‘60 (music reporter); Dodie Stimpson, ‘58; Jana

Varlejs, ‘60; Helene Valabregue, ‘58; Lucy Wales, ‘59 (A.A. reporter).

BUSINESS STAFF :
Elizabeth Cox, ‘60; Judy Davis, ‘59; Ruth Levin, ‘59; Emily Meyer, 60.

COPY STAFF ©
Margaret Hall, ‘59

rrr a a at ae he oe OE Gk, Mh li ede dee a

Holly Miller, ‘59
Ann Morris, ‘57
Jane Lewis, 59
Jane Levy, ‘59

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‘Subscription Board: Judith Beck, ‘59; Pat Cain, ‘59; Barbara Christy, ‘59; Kate
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Interdepartmental Majors

Early in the development of Bryn Mawr there existed a
program called the double major which allowed students to
divide their major ¢oncentration between two fields. When
this plan was abolished, 6n grounds that it did not bring the
student far enough ‘in any one subject, it was replaced by a
major-minor policy which often allows seniors to substitute
one‘comprehensive in an allied subject for one comprehen-
sive inthe major. In the departments of the humanities and

Pearl

By

The following is a selection of
Christmas carols to be sung at ap-
propriate times in the next week:

Six days before vacation:
O come all ye faithful, hopeful, op-
timistic,
O come ye, O come ye to the Li-
brary.
‘Come and start reading for your
long term papers.
You still have one more week
In which to get them written,
You still have one more week— °
Be of good cheer!
Several days later:

Bring the book, Jeanette Isabella,
Bring the book, to the Library run.
I am finishing up the reading

And tomorrow I'll start to write it.
Hush! Hush! Please don’t start

 

§ Before - - -

Patty Page

 

talking now! XN
Hush! Hush! Go ’way and let
work!
The night before it’s due:
It came upon a midnight clear,
As I was typing fast,
That I had 20 more pages to go
Before I reached the last.
I thought: why did I wait so long
Before I did begin?
’Cause now I shall be fortunate
If I can get it in!
On its completion:
Joy to the world! my paper’s done!
And I am done in too!
I wish that this one were the only
one; §
But I e three more due,
Yes, I’ve three more to do,
After Christmas, alas! I’ve three
more due!

me

 

 

J. Harris Is ‘A Stubborn, Faithful Joan,’

In Anouilh’s Historical Play, ‘The Lafk’

By Catharine Stimpson
Y

The Lark, the Lillian Hellman
adaptation of Jean Anouilh’s play
about Joan of Are which recently
appeared at the Forrest Theater,
was a play both of time and of
humanity. It dealt with history
and a historical figure, but it was
yet the portrayal of a human being

 

the major subject. :
-. In departments of the sciences and social sciences, how-
ever, rigid lists of requirements and allied requirements hin
_der..any-student-who-hopes.to_relate_particular. aspects of a
problem which cuts across departmental lines. Modern trends
in business and education focus on the integration of related
fields such as psychology - sociology, economics - political
science, bio-chemistry and bio-physics; yet our curriculum
does not admit the union of any two of these studies to be of
sufficient importance for major concentration. 2
-.. For example a student interested in the sociological as-
pects of sociology must choose between a major in psychol-
ogy. or sociology both of which include requirements which
do not necessarily contribute to her particular interest. The
experimental psychology course and the ethnology course in
sociology are important branches for a major limited to the
department, but a major-minor is too occupied’ with filling
such requirements in one field to take all the courses she
might need in any other field.
A survey of the catalogues of other women’s colleges
reveals that Barnard, Mt. Holyoke, Smith and Radcliffe offer
workable interdepartmental majors in addition to the type
of interdepartmental courses which are offered at Bryn
Mawr. Smith, Barnard and Pembroke have programs in
American Civilization based on American history courses
but including art, literature, economics, religion and political
science for an integral picture of the development of Amer-
- dean thought. .
: \ (Barnard also lists three interdepartmental combinations
(with political science: economics, history or sociology. All
of these require certain basic courses in each field but remove
from the compulsory list courses which are only ramifica-
tions of the strict major. ”
he policy of Mt. Holyoke is stated thus in the college
catalogue:
- . “The interdepartmental major allows a properly quali-
fied student whose major area of interest crosses department-
al lines to plan a closely integrated major program incorpor-
ating work done in two or more departments . . . There must
be a definite plan and reason for the combination made.”
The adaptation of a liberal interdepartmental program
to the system of comprehensive enks involved would be a

 
  

matter of least concern to the students inyolved; either four
examinations divided between the two-fields or three with
the third to be an integrating study would surely be well re-
ceived in view of the greater opportunities thus opened. But
in a college whose policy calls for concentrated specialization,
where “both breadth and depth of knowledge and under-

    

imacine ions arid in the reali-
ties of men.

A fragment of the Middle Ages,
Joan cannot be visualized apart

from her time, but unlike Shaw

in his St. Joan, Missy Hellman seem-|"

ingly chose to slight the historical
and intellectual forces which surg-
ed about Joan. She instead concen-
trated upon Joan’s humanity, upon
the creation of “a simple girl in-
spiring simple people to die for
simple ideals.” Instead‘‘of human-
ity being seen in relationship to
time, it almost became the time,
and thus the play perhaps lost sub-
stance and universality. °

The Lark became a play of emo-
tion —both acts were carved or
moving emotion — but it was not
tragic. Lacking the dimensions of
tragedy, its central figure herself
was not tragic. For Joan soared
with one’s imagination in her
transcendent intensity; a lark
whose martyrdom turned her into
a “giant bird,” she sang “a wild
and crazy song of joy” as she rode
into battle. She personified what
man could be, not the tragic flaw
which prevents man from being
what he might. If there was‘trag-
edy, it existed in that Joan and her
opponents, later including the Dau-
phin, could all be right within their
own terms, and yet Joan could be
destroyed.

Sometimes poetic, the work of a
master craftsman, I thought that
The Lark unfortunately contained
too much of the theatrical to be
great. Deprived of the devices of
the theater and of its star, it would
undergo an almost irreparable loss.

The minor characters in the
Philadelphia production were nev-
er memorable, although James
O’Rear created a humorous, some-
times Shavian, Dauphin. The play
was marred by the often disgrace-
ful performances of Joan’s family

 

 

 

     

standing” are emphasized, should there not be the opportun-.
ity to gain th and depth by the concentrated anal-
ysis of — which arise from the joining of two points
of view? — | ae

f
sah Only Five More Days—

 » With the weather just recently turned frosty, and even
the | of vacation a full week away, Christmas seems
-# very distant prospect indeed. But with only five more class
‘days till‘Christmas (and only five.more midsemester days
and five more paper days) we would like to be among the first
-! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! ie
«We also have three specific recommendations to make—
leave your books at school, you won’t read them; forget

‘about that paper, you won’t write it; and most of all have a

a

Two elements gave The Lark its
stature and excitement—the crea-
tion of Joan by Julie Harris- and
the staging, which was an unusual

‘example of the molding of the

physical contours of a stage to the
emotional contours of a play.
Although her performance was
rather shrill at the beginning, Miss
Harris burned with all of Joan’s
stubbornness, independence, good

|sense, and faith. She was peasant,

exalted warrior, and unspeakably
weary girl. “In her portrayal was
the proof of Joan’s belief that man
was a_miracle in himself, ‘and

Joan “was all alone at the end”

 

--—~tunguages, the program seems quite flexible and satisfactory, — achieved a mortal divinity in|
especially in cases where only Gras auarita are required 1n-

‘and of the Dauphin’s mistress.

because she was a saint, Miss Har-
ris was alone because she was
Joan.

The play lacked an‘ indefinable
central core of power. But through
its use of the tools of the stage,.
through the humanity of Julie Har-
ris as Joan, it was a dramatic
achievement of value.

Students Ponder .
Security Problem -

by Barbara Coleman
(Barnard College)

Students from 64 colleges and
universities (with Jane White and
Charlotte Graves representing Bryn
Mawr) worked out foreign policy
formulation for this country dur-
ing the recent Student Conference
on United States Affairs, sponsor-
ed by West Point.

The participants at the Military
Academy’s eighth conference of

this nature studied the national se-
curity policy of the U.S. through
twenty-member panels, each re-
sponsible for examining specific
areas of the world and the United
States’ relationship towards them.

The idea which might be said to
have dominated the conference and
which was suggested by such
speakers as Mr. Henry A. Kissin-
ger, Rockefeller Brothers Fund,
and Dr. John C. Campbell, Council
on Foreign~ Relations, was that
there was no simple, quick and
easy solutions to the problems the
United Statse faces in foreign pol-
icy.

The student reports reflected this
idea through their practical rath-
er than utopian approach to world
situations. They recommended
working throug organizations
such as the United Nations and
the North Atlantic Treaty Organ-
ization rather than looking to the
development of more controversial
systems such‘as a European Union.

The role of the U. S. as the lead-
er of the free world was particu-
larly stressed by the panels. The
consensus of the final réports was
that there was a definite need for

nited States in world
affairs. One of the two Atlantic
Community panels particularly
took a side swing at the lack of
coordination they believed to exist
in the State Department with its
resultant lack of “consistency and
continuity in American expression
of foreign policy.” =~ ae
While the conference delegates
agreed that the U. S. must exert
its power as the directing force of
the free world, they also stressed
the right of each nation to unilater-
al action if necessary “to defend
her own national interests and the
Cwase gf international peace.” In
Continued on Page 5, Col. 2.

   

 

more positive leadership _on__the,

Letter To The Editor

Athenian College
Asks For Our Aid

To the President’ of the Student
Council:

We request your courtesy in
publishing this letter in, your Stu-
denl Council ee because
we think that our _fellow-students
in America ‘should be acquainted
with the facts in an international
problem which we consider of vital
importance not only to Greece but
to” every freedom-loving” people—
the Cyprus question.

The fact that Cyprus was, has
been, and still is a purely Greek

island, with a population that, de-
spite subjugation to other states,
is still four-fifths Greek, is an un-
deniable historical fact. We believe
that it is equally evident that the

human rights of life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness are pre-
rogatives- of all peoples, and that
America, a country that herself
has bitterly fought for her liberty
and independence, will regard every
rightful struggle of a people for
freedom and for the right to de-
cide about its future as natural
and noble.

The people of Cyprus, who. for
years have been vainly trying. by
peaceful means to make their voice
heard, are now engaged in a strug-
gle for their inalienable right to
determine their own future. Their
foreign rulers are trying to sup-
press their voice by cruel force and
ruthless violence. .We understand,
while strongly disapproving, their
concern to keep under their control
a people whom they “acquired” in
1878, in a bargain with another
country. But what we,cannot un-
derstand is why the American peo-
ple are turning a deaf ear to the
desperate pleas of this tormented
island, and how your democratic
country can view in apathy such
flagrant violations of the human
rights as the abduction and exile,
without. charge or trial, of Arch-
bishop Makarios, the religious and
national head of the people of the
island; the infliction of wholesale
punishment on the _ population,
without discrimination between the
guilty and the innocent; the medie-
val punishments, such as the flog-
ging of young children; the execu-
tion of young men whose only
crime has been their love for lib-
erty and independence.

We Appeal...

We appeal to you because we
believe firmly that your own val-
liant fight for independence has
not been in vain; that the princi-
ples established by the French Rev-
olution, and those promulgated by
the Charter of Human Rights, and
ideals of enlightened people should
not and cannot be overruled by
political intrigue and material in-
terests.

“ We ask for your support in this
matter as the Cyprus question
comes up for discussion before the
General Assembly of the United
Nations. If you believe that all
men are born equal and free to
choose thier own way of life, if
you value liberty and the enjoy-
ment of human rights on the part
of individuals and nations, we ask

your own circle to make the facts
of the case known and to impress _
your friends with the responsibil-
ity resting upon all democratic
nations to seek to restore justiee.
We ‘ask you to remember that your
own country has had to go through
a similar period of struggle for its
independence, and that ‘we, the
young people of Greece, like those
of every country, are ardently de-
voted to the high ideals of justice
and liberty.

. Sincerely yours,
The Student Council
‘ of Athens College:
' Athens, Greece ~
me