VOL. XLIV—NO. 4

ARDMORE and BRYN MAWR, PA., WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1958

© Trustees of Bryn Mawr College, 1958

PRICE 20 CENTS

 

Convocation Celebrates Opening Of Biology Building;
Dr.’s W. Fenn, J. E. Smadel Main Speakers At Ceremony

Sriiadel- Bees Inspiration
Of Youth Vital Task

“The most important contribu-
tion to the advancement of sciences
is the inspiration and development
of young people toward careers in
science,” declared Dr. Joseph E.
Smadel in his address, “Medical
Research—1958”, at the Convoca-
tion opening the new Biology
Building last Saturday afternoon.
Dr. Smadel is an Associate Direct-
or of the National Institutes of
Health, Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare,

Dr. Smadel said that it was nec-
essary to consider the motivations
of the contributors to such a new
building. The motive of the Quak-
er founders of Bryn Mawr was to
give an equal] opportunity to wom-
en to gain knowledge and to add
to the world store of knowledge,
Dr. Smadel noted. ‘The new type
of contributor, on the other hand,
is, according to Dr. Smadel, mo-
tivated by a desire for good health.

A well educated person today
needs a “familiarity with the sci-
ences,” Dr. Smadel stressed, so
that he can “understand daily de-
velopments.”

While a new building makes the
job of the teacher somewhat easier,
it is not, according to Dr, Smadel,
a guarantee that more young peo-
ple will become interested in the
subject. It is his belief that, in
the final analysis, the burden rests
upon the teacher to, influence the
student to follow in his footsteps.
‘Dr. Smadel said that this process
is somewhat haphazard since all
teachers are not necessarily dy-
namic,

Since in the past Bryn Mawr
College has contributed many biol-
ogists to the world, Dr. Smadel
concluded, in the future, “we look
confidently to Bryn Mawr.”

Colonial Historian
Talks On Franklin,
Political Journals

Under the auspices of the De-
partment of History, Dr. Verner
W. Crane will speak on Benjamin
Franklin and the Political Journal-
ism of the Eighteenth Century, on
‘Monday, October 27. Dr. Crane,
presently Professor Emeritus of
History at the University of
Michigan, will be speaking on the
Mallory Whiting Webster Lecture
Fund, the history department’:
endowed lectureship.

The foremost scholar on Frank-
lin today, Dr. Crane, who took his
Ph.D. at the University: of Penn-
sylvania, has written three books
on American Colonial History:
The Southern Frontier 1670-1732,
Benjamin Franklin — Englishman
and American, and Benjamin
Franklin and a Rising People. He
has also edited Benjamin Frank-
lin’s Letters to the Press, 1758-75.
From 1916 until 1958 he has béen
a professor of history at Michi-
gan, and is well known by Bryn
Mawr faculty members as he once

“worked with Mr. Dudden who now

teaches American history here,
and was a colleague of Miss Rob-

bins when. she was at Michigan|

last term.
The escent be io held in ore

 

ne Building.

Alumnae, Friends Give
Laboratories,Classrooms

In New Biology Building|

The total amount of $1,029,763.00
which has gone into the Biology
Building to date represents con-
tributions from a number of
sources. These include alumnae
and friends of the college ($525,-.
656.00), the National Institutes of
Health ($314,157.00), business and
industry ($5,850.00), and. founda-
tions, including corporate foun-
dations ($184,100.00). Still to be
raised is $163,740.00.

Many friends and _ supporters
are commemorated with tablets
and named laboratories and class-

tc

rrooms in the Biology Building.

Among them are a tablet in the
entrance hall “In apprecation of
the generous contributions made
by Charles J. Rhoads, Mr. and
Mrs. John D. Gordan, Jr., the
James Foundation, the Kresge
Foundation, and the National In-
Continued on reuse 6, Col. 4

Molotov Mis Missed,
R. Rupen Puzzled

“Former Soviet Prime Miinister-
Vyacheslav Molotov, banished to
Outer Mongolia over a year ago,
has vanished from sight and is ap-
parently no longer in Mongolia.

“That was the news brought back
to the United States by a political
science faculty member, Dr. Robert
A. Rupen, who just returned from
a six-week visit to Russia and Mon-
golia.”

This report of the recent activi-
ties and discoveries of Dr¢ Rupen,
Assistant Professor of Political
Séience at Bryn Mawr until this
year, is from the Greensboro, North
Carolina Daily News.

“Mongolian newsreels of five
months ago show Molotov attending
to his duties as ambassador to
Ulan Bator, the capital city of
Mongolia. He attended Mongolian
national. holiday ceremonies July
11, but he has not been seen since
that time.”

The Daily News quoted Dr.
Rupen as saying, “It is quite clear
he is not in Mongolia now, and
the people don’t seem to know

Continued on Page 6, Col. 1

‘today, Dr.

 

Biology’s Future Hopes
Stressed by Dr. W. Fenn

“The future was never so bright
for biology .*. in the past it has
lagged behind, but biology will
not be content with a back seat.”
This pronouncement was made by
Dr. Wallace O. Fenn in his speech
at the Biology Convocation last
Saturday afternoon; his topic was
“Prospectives in the Biological
Sciences.” Dr. Fenn is a Profes-
sor at the School of Medicine and
Dentistry of the University of
Rochester and also president of
the American Institute of Biolog-
ical Sciences.

Biology’s Future Bright

Dr. Fenn stressed the fact that
the AIBS has done much to bright-
en the prospects for the future of
biology. This organization, accord-
ing to Dr. Fenn, is publicizing bi-
ology for what it really is—he
pointed out that some people still
see a biologist as a “butterfly
chaser”.

One of the major problems of
the modern biologist is to discover
facts about man; as Dr. Fenn
maintained, ““the real secret of
the universe is man himself.” He
continued, ‘Man must know about
man in particular and matter in
general.”

Salaries Are Problem

A. major problem of the biologist
Fenn revealed, is the
salarjes which the experienced
biologist with even a Ph.D., can
earn. As a result of this situation,
Dr. Fenn said, many students are

attracted to more lucrative fields

such as medicine.

Dr. Fenn pointed out that in
Russia being a student is a well
paid profession and, that while we
are probably ahead of the Russians
in biology, “we cannot maintain
our supremacy” unless we re-eval-
uate our system. He added, “I
doubt that education is better in
Russia “than in the United States,”
but, “in Russia there is more de-
mand.” .

Dr, Fenn concluded that modern
biology offers many challenges
and the new Biology Building is
“Bryn Mawr’s answer to the
spirited challenge.”

 

Beatniks, 1960, Have Word
Swing Beyond Limited Plot

by Miriam Beames
and Debby Ham 59

Jeopardizing the lives of peripa-
tetic observers, a roaring motor
cycle jarred the Goodhart audi-
ence into recognition of Beatnik
land. And Beatnik land of ’60,
fortunately, proved to. be a. far. cry
from North Beach, where the.Beat
ARE Beat, where they have given
upon life, and life, we gather, has
given up on them. Inside Out was
alive.

The Juniors dared to do what
no previous class has done; they
adopted’ two entirely divergent
themes (those of the Nirvana
Laundry and the Lower Depths
Cafe) and took full advantage of
each one’s peculiar possibilities.

Calendar

Wednesday, October 22:

8:00 — Marriage and Hygiene

res.
Thursday, October 23:

7:30— Common Room, Current
Events. Mr. Felix Gilbert of
the history department will
speak on the Papacy.

Friday, October 24:

Lantern Night in the Library
Cloisters at 7:45. Followed by
step-singing—in case of rain
the ceremony will be held on
Saturday.

Sunday, October 25:

7:30 — Music Room Goodhart,
speaker, Rev. Philip Zabriskie
of National Council of Protes-
tant Episcopal -Churches,
chorus.

Monday, October 27:

8:30 — Lecture Room, Biology
Building. Dr. Verner W. Crane
will give the Mallory Whiting
Webster Lecture on Benjamin
Franklin and. the Political
Journalism of the Eighteenth
Century.

NOTICE:

Jose Maria Ferrater Mora, pro-
fessor of philosophy, is to repeat
a series of four lectures, given this
summer at Princeton, entitled
“What Happens in Philosophy”.-

These lectures, which enjoyed a
great success at Princeton, are to
be given November 4, 11, 18 and
25 at 8:30 in the Common Room,
under the auspices of the Philo-
sophy Club.

 

 

Students Show New Preferences For Language Study;
Bryn Mawr, Big Seven Note Increase In Enrollment

Last fall two occurrences
focused attention on foreign lan-
guages°and language education in
American schools. The first of
these was Sputnik I; thé second
was the incident of the unfortunate
newly appointed ambassador to
Burma, who, far from knowing
the native tongue of that country,
could not. even remember the name
of the Prime Minister.

Effects of Furor Noted

Now, a year later, the effects of
this furor on the study of foreign
languages~at--various. colleges, and
particularly at Bryn Mawr, may
be seen.

Perhaps the most spectacular
development in this field is the
imcreased enrollment. in Russian

i Alison Baker ’62

year than last. The saenatioal in-
crease is from 9 to 41.

Big Seven’s ‘Enrollment Up

Among other Big Seven Col-
leges, Smith’s Russian courses are
attended by 488% more ‘students
than. last ‘year ~ (from 17-100);
Wellesley’s by 475% (8-46); Vas-
sar’s by '275% (16-60); Barnard’s
by 200% (9-29); and Mt: Hol-

 

~* . “NOTICE
The News is happy to an-
nounce the election of its new

Editorial Staff members:

Yvonne Chan ’62

Marion Coen ’62

Linda Davis ’62

E. Anne Eberle ’61
Sandi Goldberg 62

yoke’s classes are larger by 188%
(15-35).
More Language Interest

Here at Bryn Mawr other lan-
guage courses show a slight in-
crease. German is up more than
the rest, 91 compared (to last
year’s 70. The number of fresh-

men in courses other than Russian | -

has remained about the same. The
large number taking Russian I
this year, however, is in addition
to the totals of other years; there-
fore, more freshmen jare tkaing
language courses this/ year than
normally.

Noticeable among / colleges in
general has. been a h
terest in unusual language. Of the
Big Seven, Barnard /has the wid-

est variety of these courses, in-

Grading: Armenian, Arabic( Chin-

7 >

 

 

 

y |courses... Bryn Mawr has 355%.

 

~~ Judy Stuart 62 ~

 

 

 

 

Sanskrit.

ightened in-

 

In effegt, the class of ’60 had two
excellent shows and one good one.
' The Juniors put themselves in
the anomalous.-position -of plant-
ing an. essentially non-musical
theme into a class show that is
bound by taste as well as tradi-
tion to be sprightly, with the con-
sequence that “Let’s Get Organ-
ized” and the “Wig Song’ seem-
ed superfluous, It is interesting
that the lead was a non-singing
part. Having chosen to present
the Beat Generation with its unique
dialogue potential, they were left
with the problem of avoiding Beat-
nik monotony. This they did by
the startling and delightful intro-
duction of a Mikadoesque laundry,
and with it, the justification for a
chorus song—incidentally, the best
song in the show. But though we
hesitate to be stodgy about what we
freely enjoyed, we must say that
the diverting Chinese motif set
up a competition with the Beat
theme; from Act II on, the show
lacked the original verve of either
mood. Furthermore, the gomplica-
tion of both plots forced the latter
part of the play into abundant ex-
planation. But we say the above
in retrospect; there were many,
many splendid scenes in the sec-
ond half of the play, and we gladly
relegate unity back to Aristotle.

The characters outdid the show.
There were no dull, insipid, or in-
definite personalities among the
lot. The singularity of each role
gave “Inside Out” some of the
attributes of a better variety
show. Six nations (if Texas be
one) and seven accents were boldly
presented; a rasping rock ’n’ roll
singer, a lyric tenor (from Yale),
a guitarist, a lumbagitic drunk,
and a would-be ballerina displayed
their several talents. At every
turn a new and deverting element
amused the audience.

After Act I, the Beat Generation
atmosphere, which had united the
various characters, dissolved; each
one. pursued-his-unyielding course
oblivious to the others or what
might have been the show’s direc-
tion. Although there was a pleth-
ora of characters, and excellent
ones, the plot of the show could
not quite sustain them; on the
other hand, the characters sus-
tained the show.

And, among a cast of many out-
standing characters, there is no
doubt that John Eustace Kallikak,
Daddy-O, the Beautiful Beatnik,
carried the show. If Euny had
been alone on the stage for the en-
tire time, we would have been de-
lighted with a three-hour solilo-

‘quy. As it was, we came away

muttering, “With you I could sub-
limate,” and “Man, you’ve got the
beat”. Her characterization, while
perhaps no stronger than many
others in the cast, had complete
ease—she was spontaneous, not
stereotyped.

Maisie Smithers, the little girl
from Midland, Texas, who came
to the big city and wandered down
the primrosé path to Beatnik land,
was lived down to every “Raw,
quivering nerve-ending” by Lou
McCrea. “Maisie’s (strenuous)
Rock and Roll”, midway through
the show, proved that she had the
talent the “group” had been dis-
paraging; the show would have
benefited from another of Maisie’s
songs, especially when she could

have had the ) opportunity. in Act I

 

Continued on Pigs 5, Col. 4