VOL. XLII, NO. 23

ARDMORE and BRYN MAWR, PA, WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1957
<7

© Trustees of Bryn Mawr

College, 1957 PRICE 20 CENTS

 

McElroy Cites Problems Facing
Institutions Of Higher Education

The principal speaker for the
Parents’ Day weekend’s events
was Neil H. McElroy. .President
of the Proctor and Gamble Com-
pany and Chairman of the White
House Conference on Education.

Mr. McElroy, Bitsy McElroy’s
father, spoke on the topic “The
Decade Ahead for Higher Educa-
tion”. He stated the many prob-
lems facing the country today re-
sulting from the tremendous in-
crease in population and the con-
sequent need for bigger and better
schools. “In the year 1957 enough
people will be added to the popu-
lation of this country to equal the
total present population of the
state of Maryland, or to add an-
yther city the size of . ‘Los An-
geles.”

And along with this need there
will be the necessity of obtaining
and keeping the high quality teach-
ers of today, that will be needed
in even larger numbers in the
years to come.

Mr. McElroy noted that elemen-
tary schools are not the only ones
feeling this population increase.
High schools, too, face problems
of overcrowded conditions,

Mr. McElroy spent a few min-
utes discussing the value of the
great development in the past gen-
eration in the growing importance
of women in our way of life. Their
leadership and _ participation in
business has proved invaluable in
the progress of the country. “But
even more important in the long
run is the role of the educated
woman in the home.
tual activity of the family depends
in great measure on her.”

In the way of advice along this
line, Mr. McElroy stated, “The
ability to think clearly, to bring
vision and imagination to the solu-
tion of problems, to help others

Orals Now “Out!”
Languages Remain

The Senior Song stipulates that

they “will come back when the
orals are out.” If such is the case,
then this year’s Seniors may return
to the campus in greater numbers
than their predecessors, for the
“orals” are now out. The Faculty
Curriculum Committee Question-
naire in their decision proposed a
revision of the language tests to
the Faculty. The Faculty has voted
to replace the “orals” with another
means of testing for the language
requirement.
_ The “requirement still consists of
a knowledge of two languages, but
the requirement may now be ful-
filled-in-several-ways. The student
may receive credit for one langu-1
age by achieving a certain relative-
ly high seore on her college board
achievement test. Or a student may
receive credit to fulfill the  re-
quirement by passing with a 70 or
above, a language course’ above the
elementary level. In addition, there
is to be devised an examination, by
each of the language departments,
which a girl may take, and if she
passes she will receive a credit
towards her requirement.

Because the language departments
have not yet made up these exam-
inations, it is uncertain as to when
this new plan will go into effect.
- It may go into effect with next

year’s Freshman class, or cad
the following =

 

The intellec-.

reach a. view which is sound and
yet vigorous—it’s greatly needed in
our world ...It is easy to see that
it is far more difficult for an in-
stitution to give this kind of edu-
cation than simply to transmit
facts or knowledge about facts.”
He concluded by re-emphasizing

the importance of colleges and uni-| ¥
versities in this country being able, | jg

“avail-
to provide

through additional money—
able in our economy”—
this type of education.

Pres. McBride
Talks On Year

The _emphasis..at..Bryn..Mawr is}:
on “learning rather than on being | '
‘taught,” President McBride stated

Saturday afternoon at a lecture for
students and parents;
“brief account of the year at Bryn
Mawr,” as well as some of its
future aims.

Miss McBride started her lecture
with an explanation about“exams,
especially senior “comps.” “Wis-
dom as well as knowledge” is re-
quired for these exams, and the
students judgment and maturity
are essential to the information she
has learned.

Each student plans her courses
according to individual needs and in-
terests, and even within a single
course there is much freedom for
each student to explore what in-
terests her most through her own
choice of paper topics, research
projects and lab experiments.
“Papers are very frequent at
Bryn Mawr,” Miss McBride said,
(for the sake of the parents we
assume).

Miss McBride then went on to
talk about the heavier burden on
the faculty since there has been a
steady increase of students and
no proportionate increase in facul-
ty. There has, however, been an
increase in salary for ’57-’58, and
another is proposed for ’58-’59.

Students Advised
About Transcripts

Transcripts

Students who have had trans-
cripts of their academic records
sent out, and wish their Semester II
grades sent to the same address to
complete the record, should send
the request in writing to the Record-
er’s Office. No final records will be
released without the student’s spe-
cific request. (There is no fee for
completing a transcript previously
issued.),

Semester II Grades

Students are reminded that only

the - miembers~-of—the__ graduating

class will receive their Semester
II grades by campus mail. All other
grades will be sent to home ad-
dresses, about the middle of June.
Students wishing their grades sent
to some other address than that] B
in the Finding List should send the |B
request in writing to the Recorder’s
Office. No grades will be given out
at the office or over the telephone.
Commencement

Seniors are reminded that in
December, in signing the diploma
list, they gave place of residence
to be used in the various Com-
mencement listiigs; Changes may
be made until May 20th in the Re-
corder’s Office. The December en-

 

 

tries will otherwise be followed.

giving a}

 

Bryn Mawr - Haverford’s “She soaps to Conquer”

 

by Martha Bridge and
Joan Parker

This article is based on the 82
questionnaires on The Nation’s
series which were returned, and
in the light of this must not be
regarded as a sweeping generaliza-
tion about Bryn Mawr College stu-
dents. The answers we did receive
however, were interesting, showed
time and thought, and were deserv-
ing, we felt, of some sort of report.

The student questionnaires indi-
cated a respectable, if not over-
whelming, amount of outside read-
ing. This in itself is not conclusive,
for one is led to speculate on the
possibility of a correlation between
returned questionnaires and the
habit of extra-curricular reading.
But despite the overwhelming
“NO” witt( ‘which the 15 -faculty
members we heard from greeted
the question, “Do you get the im-
pression that your students read
widely outside of class?” the stu-
dents seemed to find time for some
reading of approved modern writ-
ers such as T. S. Eliot, Camus, Or-
well, D. "H rence, Faulkner,
Joyce, Sartre, T. Williams, V.
Woolf, and T. Wolfe.

In addition the students said they
found time to read magazines, “The
New Yorker,” “Time,” and “Life”
were most frequently mentioned,
though we noticed a greater diver-
sity of reading habits among the
seniors than among the freshmen.
A majority of the students felt no
perceptive influence by a contem-
porary writer.

The reaction of most students
to the. first question concerning
“eulture gods and heroes” can be
divided into’a number of categor-
‘jes:-those_who did not understand
the question, those “who déferided:
their generation saying that we

Budg et Discussed
oe cBride

P ‘a day after-
noon at 5:00 in the Common Room,
President McBride discussed the
need for raising the tuition of the
College. The raise would be from
$200-$300 and would be effective
"58-59.

When questioned about the pos-
sibility of cooperative housing,
Miss: McBride answered that she
felt the advantages would be out-
weighed by the disadvantages. _

 

 

 

Questionnaire Based on “Nation” Article
Gets A Vivid Faculty-Student Response

had improved upon our elders in
not wanting “culture gods,” and
those few who agreed with the
idea that we had not fought for
our own heroes but had merely
“borrowed them from our instruct-
ors.”

Of those issues which concerned
the students, ethical, political, and
social were most often marked for
primary importance, while “scienti-
fic” placed consistently last, al-
though of the 14 science majors
who responded, 4 placed scientific
first.

Among the most admired govern-
mental figures, Churchill came out
way ahead with 47 votes. He was
closely followed by F. D. Roosevelt
with 29, Woodrow Wilson and
Dwight Eisenhower with 25 each,
and Ghandi with 12. (Needless to
say many people put down more
than one figure.)

The answers to the question of
preference for creative or critical
writing can be interestingly divided
also. The overwhelming majority
of the students felt that creative
writing ‘was more important, but
for a variety of reasons. Most of
the answers could be paraphrased,
‘I admire creative writing more
because I cannot do it.” Many also
felt that creative writing was more
original, and dlso more construct-
ive, while critical writing tended
to pull things apart in a destruct-
ive sort of way. Some people felt
that great criticism was akin to
great creative writing, and there
were just a few who said that
both forms were essentially critical,
creative writing being merely cre-
ative criticism.

Among the books read in class
and felt to be influential, the var-
ious works of Plato-were-most-fre-
quently mentioned. Books read in
Freshman Comp seemed important
to the freshmen and sophomores,
while the two upper classes were
naturally more recently influenced
by books read in their major sub-
jects. Most of the reading inthe
Greek Literature course appeared
often, as did The Bible, and Reis-
‘man’s The Lonely Crowd.

The break-down of the 82 return-
ed questionnaires into classes runs:
17 seniors, 25 juniors, 13 sopho-
mores, and 27 freshmen, “of which
16 were English majors, 12 history,
8 Chemistry, 6 History of Art, 6

Continued on Page 2, Column 2

“She Stoops ,To Conquer” Characterized By
Gooil Acting, But Lacked A Consistent Style

by Sue Opstad

Our joint drama clubs’ choice of
Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer
for its final production of this
Bryn Mawr-Haverford season is
certainly to be commended. A
comedy of manners offers young
actors and actresses excellent op-
portunities to demonstrate stylis-
tic versatility and skillful charac-
terization; it also provides a kind
of humor that is well appreciated
by a Bryn Mawr-Haverford audi-
ence. Saturday night’s production
Was very enjoyable. The acting
was on the whole very good; the
cast caught the spirit of the com-
edy and projected it with an en-

over its audience.

There was, unfortunately, one
outstanding flaw in the perform-
ance, The most important consid-
eration involved in the acting of a
comedy of manners is its style. The
comedy of manners style must be
clearly defined, and it must be con-
sistent to .successfully render its
particular kind of farce. This style
involves a stock set of elaborate at-
titudes, gestures, and voice inflec-
tions within which the individual
characterizations must. be formed.

Only one member of, the She
Stoops to Conquer cast—Bill Moss
—was able to project a true sense
of the play’s style. Several others
approached his achievement but
did not sustain it. As a result,
many of Goldsmith’s really superb
lines were either semi-effective or
were lost completely,

.Moss’ Performance Good

Bill Moss, as young Marlow, was
excellent. His sense of style was
true and sustained, with the ex-
ception of a few moments in his
early scenes. His facial expres-
sions, elaborate foppery, and gen-
eral bearing were well-conceived
and skillfully projected. On the
whole, he gave one of the most pol-
ished performances I have seen on
the Bryn Mawr-Haverford stage.
Pamela Wylie was very good as
Miss Hardcastle, although her lack
of a consistent style detracted
from her performance. Pamela
was extremely effective in some
scenes where she made good use of
her eyes, her voice, and a haugh-
tily ,;coy manner. The scenes be-
tween Miss Hardcastle and young
Marlow were some of the best of
the performance,

Anne Schaefer was very funny
as Mrs. Hardcastle. She achieved
a fine sense of style in her dia-
logues with Hastings where she
portrayed, from behind a large fan,
the ridiculous coyness of a middle-
aged mamma. Anne, who is a -
good comedienne, made up in spirit
for what she lacked in style dur-
ing the rest of her peformance.

tle, was quite eved. His voice and
manner were somewhat forced, but
his hearty characterization was
well stylized and consistent. Dave
Edsall gave a competent perform-
ance as Sir Charles. His charac-

that of Mr. Hardcastle.

Laurie Lutherer’s portrayal ot
Tony Lumpkin was excellent. His
characterization of the exuberant
up-country brat was consistent
throughout the performance, and
balanced well with that of the Lon-
don fops. Laurie’s bold cockney
accent, used instead of a north of

 

Continued on Page 5, Column 8

A

thusiasm which completely won. |

|_Keith Bradley, as Mr. Hardcas-—-

-terization~was” well contrasted to