February, 1955

Benjamin W est House

B U L L E T I N BOARD
FEBRUARY, 1955
The Bulletin, of which this publication is
Volume LII, No. 5 is published monthly,
except July and August, by Swarthmore
College, Swarthmore, Pa.
Entered at the post office at Swarthmore,
Pa., as second-class matter, in accordance
with provisions of the A ct of Congress of
August 24, 1912.
EDITORS

Joseph B. Shane ’25, vice-president;
Kathryn Bassett ’35, director of alumni
and fund offices; W . Park W oodrow ’52,
director of publicity.

N E W S OF SW A R T H M O R E CLU BS A N D
SPEC IA L EVENTS
Philadelphia Swarthmore Alumnae Club Spring Luncheon Meeting

Saturday, March 5, 1 :00 p.m. Coffee Shop of Wanamakers Tea Room.
Price will be $2.25 (including tip). Mr. and Mrs. Richard Bond will
be honored guests and there is a possibility of an informal modeling of
spring clothes. Send in your reservations at once, with your check, to
Mrs. D. Mace Gowing 635 Parrish Road, Swarthmore, Pa. Annual
dues of $1.00 for 1954-55 are now due, payable also to Mrs. Gowing.
This is the only notice of this meeting so make your reservations Now.
New York

ALUMNI ADVISERS

Robert H. Wilson ’31 and Isabel Logan
Lyon ’42.
ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OFFICERS

Morris L. Hicks ’32, president; Thomas S.
Nicely ’30, vice-president for men; Nancy
Deane Passmore ’30, vice-president for
women; Florence Lyons Gowing ’36, secre­
tary.
ALUMNI MANAGERS

Anne Philips Blake ’28, Catharine Wright
Donnelly T8, Virginia Brown Greer ’26,
Charles P. Larkin, Jr. ’21, William F. Lee
’33, Caroline Biddle Malin ’28, Jack B.
Thompson ’27, Norman H. Winde ’27.

G. E. Sponsors Unique Plan

The General Electric Co. has an­
nounced a new plan of contributions
to colleges and universities. They will
match any gift up to $1,000 contrib­
uted by a G. E. employee to his alma
mater. The Company is to be con­
gratulated for its interest in Educa­
tion and for this very practical way of
making contributions to those schools
represented among its employees.
Other businesses and industries
who have made contributions to
Swarthmore College for various pur­
poses, some of which were unre­
stricted, include: American Cyanamid Co., American Viscose Co.,
Creth & Sullivan, the duPont Com­
pany, The Evening Bulletin, Lectronic Research Laboratory, Merrill
Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Beane,
Miller-Flounders Dairy, Inc., Radio
Corporation of America, Scott Paper
Co., Standard Oil Co. of N. J., United
States Steel Corp., and Westinghouse
Electric Co.

February 14 Luncheon, 12:30 p.m. Zeta Psi House, 31 East 39th
March 14
February 18— Dinner, 6:30 p.m. Friends Seminary Dining Room,
15th St. & Rutherford Place, Speaker— Detlev W . Bronk ’20,
Head of Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.
Central New Jersey

February 6— Midwinter meeting, 3 :30 p.m., Miss Fine’s School,
Stockton St. & Bayard Lane, Princeton, N. J.
Speaker— Paul Ylvisaker, Associate Professor of Political
Science at Swarthmore College at present on leave to serve
as Executive Assistant to Mayor Clark of Philadelphia.
Philadelphia

February 26— Annual Banquet, 6:30 p.m. College Dining Room.
Speaker— H. Thomas Hallowed, Jr. ’29, President, Standard
Pressed Steel.
Dinner for wives, 6 :30 p.m. Bond Memorial.
March 22— Luncheon, Wanamakers, 9th floor, 12:30 p.m.
Alumni Council

Extended Visit— February 24-26.
Barnard Forum

February 26—Luncheon, 12 :45 p.m. Waldorf-Astoria
Parents' Day

April 23— Parents of all students invited to visit college. Program
will include presentation of Gilbert & Sullivan Operetta—
“ Mikado”
Somerville Day

April 30— Luncheon, 1:15 p.m. College Dining Room. Program—
How, Why, and What W e are Teaching.
Members of Psychology Department.
Extended visit for Alumnae, April 28-30.
Folk Festival

April 15, 16, 17.
Alumni Day

June 4.

ALUMNI APPROVE CHANGES
I would like to take this opportunity to express the appreciation
of the Alumni Council for the response to the ballot which was mailed
with the October issue of the magazine. O f all those voting, 9 7 % voted
in favor of the changes in the Reunion Plan and 9 4 % in favor of the
changes in the Constitution. The Alumni Council will now feel that they
have the complete support of the Alumni Association in proceeding to
implement these changes. A s was pointed out in the previous issue,
nominations will now be secured from members of the Association for
the Alumni members of the Board of M anagers and the final selection

determined by written ballot of the members of the Alumni Council.
The new reunion plan will go into effect in 1956. Copies of the reunion
schedule as printed in the October issue are available if anyone has
lost the m agazine and would like to keep a copy on hand.

NEW COURSE IN ANTHROPOLOGY
Cooper Series to Supplement
President C o u rtn e y Sm ith an­
nounced recently that the College will
offer a course in Cultural Anthropol­
ogy next semester. This course will
be taught by Dr. Ward D. Goodenough, Associate Professor of An­
thropology at the University of Penn­
sylvania.

The course will be offered by the
Division of Social Sciences and is ex­
pected to tie in closely with work in
psychology, economics, political sci­
ence and history.

Dr. Goodenough was graduated
from Cornell University in 1940 and
received his Ph.D. from Yale Uni­
versity in 1949, after a year as In­
structor at the University of Wiscon­
sin. He has done considerable field
work in the South Pacific. He spent
six months on the Island of Truk, in
the Carolines, in 1947; the summer of
1951 in the Gilbert Island, and the
following autumn in the territory of
Papua and New Guinea.

As a supplement to the new course
in Anthropology to be offered in the
spring semester the Cooper Found­
ation is sponsoring a series of lec­
tures beginning February 27th. Dr.
Robert Redfield, who occupies the
Robert Hutchins Distinguished Serv­
ice Chair of Anthropology at the Uni­
versity of Chicago, will present this
series and is expected to spend a
month or more at the College. In
addition to the lectures for the Cooper
Foundation, Dr. Redfield will cooper­
ate with Professors Asch and Brandt
in conducting a new seminar in the
Theory of Values.

Last spring, Dr. Goodenough re­
turned to the New Guinea area to
spend several months in the Island of
New Britain. He is now teaching a
course in Peoples of the Pacific, in
addition to course in Primitive So­
ciety and European Pre-history, at
the University of Pennsylvania.
The major part of Mr. Goodeilough’s work has been in the field
of cultural, rather than physical, an­
thropology. The course at Swarthr
more, “ An Introduction to Cultural
Anthropology,” will deal with the
question of “ what we mean by a so­
ciety’s culture” and how that culture
is related to various types of human
needs.

February, 1955

M O R R IS L. H IC K S , President

A L U M N I FU N D
The “ Little Quaker” continued his
search for additional contributions to
the Alumni Fund as this year’s an­
nual giving program got under way.

B

E fl
COOPER F O U N D A T IO N

The lectures on Anthropology will
be presented on the following dates:
February 27
March 3
. March 13
March 20
All of these lectures will be given
in the Friends Meeting House and
those living in the area are invited to
attend.

i

B

The pamphlet “ W e’re Out Ahead,
but . . .” explains the needs of the
college and our hopes for obtaining
those needs in the near future. T o­
day’s needs by 1957 and tomorrow’s
goal by 1964.
As of January 15th this effort had
resulted in contributions of approxi­
mately fifty thousand dollars to the
Fund. This is a very encouraging
sign that we may be able to take a
big step toward that 1957 goal this
year. W e hope that anyone who has
not read the new brochure will do
so at once and then take out his check
book.

1

GARDENS BENEATH THE EARTH
Dr. Neal Weber's Research in Zoology
As a Harvard graduate student on
a traveling fellowship to Cuba in

1933, Dr. Neal Weber became inter­
ested in the fungus-growing activi­
ties o f certain ant species. Before
leaving Cuba he dug up one of these
colonies complete with fungus gar­
den and after packing it in a cloth
bag included it in his cabin luggage
for the trip home. During the trip the
ants cut through the bag and proceed­
ed to explore the cabin in great num­
bers. Fortunately Dr. Weber was the
first to discover their escape and im­
mediately disposed of evidence o f his
implication through the porthole. The
ants themselves were another prob­
lem that soon came to the notice of
his cabin mate. Dr. Weber joined in
the general condemnation of the
steamship line and its sanitation prac­
tices and was never discovered as the
culprit responsible for the presence of
the ants. From this rather inauspici­
ous beginning Dr. Weber’s interest in
ants and their habits has grown to
where he is one o f the leading au­
thorities in the field today. Expedi­
tions have taken him to Africa, Asia,
South and Central America, and
many parts of the United States in an
effort to discover the secrets o f the
colonial life o f this important social
animal. The experimentation discus­
sed in this article began in September
o f 1953 and includes a trip to Pan­
ama and Florida in the Summer of
1954 and a return trip to Florida last
December. The December trip was
specifically made to learn the methods
used by the ants and their fungi to
survive the American winter since
most of these species are o f a tropical
extraction.
The experimentation under dis­
cussion is important for several rea­
sons ; first, because of the production
o f unknown antibiotic substances
which may be useful in the field of
medicine, second, the economic fac­
tors involved in the control o f the
leaf cutting ants in the tropical and

2

sub-tropical regions of the Americas,
and thirdly, the intricate problems in­
volved in this symbiotic relation are
of general interest.
In addition to several articles in
scientific journals, Dr. Weber has re­
cently presented papers before the
American Society of Zoologists at
their national meeting at Chapel Hill,
N. C. in December and at the National
meeting of the Entomological Society
o f America in New York City last
November. W e quote here from some
of the less technical portions of these
papers to give the reader an idea of

heterogeneous origin that they bring
into the nest. The ants are never
found in nature without their fungus
gardens and the fungus has not been
recognized outside of the ant nests.
The association is therefore an excel­
lent example of symbiosis. There are
about a dozen Attine genera and sev­
eral hundred species. The large ants
belonging to the genus Atta are well
known to all residents of Latin Amer­
ica and are capable of stripping every
leaf from a tree overnight. Their long
files of workers marching back to the
nest, each carrying a section of leaf
or bright flower, have caused them to
be known as “ parasol” or “ umbrella”
ants. Small species are seldom noticed
and these ants often bring in pieces
of decayed leaves and twigs or insect
feces for substrate.
“ The present studies were under­
taken in an attempt to account for the

Dr. Neal Weber (right) gives instructions to student assistants Edward Gelardin (left)
and Dieter Gump.

the research involved.
“ The fungus-growing ants belong
to one tribe, the Attini, which is ex­
clusively American and primarily tro­
pical. These ants subsist on fungi
which they cultivate on a substrate of

purity of the fungus gardens. Only
one form of fungus is present in an
ant nest despite the continual bring­
ing in of contaminants by the for­
aging ants. When the ants are re­
moved the garden is quickly over-

Alumni Issue

grown by alien fungi and bacteria
and this is as true in the experimen­
tal situation as in nature.
“ The conventional explanation dates
from 1893 when the German botanist,
Alfred Moeller, reported that the
smallest ants in a nest have the func­
tion of weeding the garden. On the
basis o f a large number of compara­
tive studies I long ago concluded that
this explanation was completely in­
adequate. Alien hyphae (the thread­
like parts of the vegetative portion of
the fungi) do not form in normal
nests so that no weeding in the usual
sense occurs. No weeding of bacteria
or yeast would seem to be possible
either. Instead, after noting the uni­
versality of the habit of the ants of
depositing their liquid feces on the

The Queen ant makes a meal of the fungus
as the workers continue never ending clean­
ing process.

garden, I surmised that these feces
played a key role. I believed that they
created a chemical environment favor­
ing the particular ant fungus.
“ During the present studies, per­
formed this past year at Swarthmore
and in Panama and Florida, the habit
of constantly manuring the garden
was verified. A search is being made
for techniques for analyzing the min­
ute quantity of an ant fecal droplet.
The feces, however, are not alone in
producing an environment favoring
the ant fungus. The constant groom­
ing of one another and the brood is
also believed to be significant. The
ants spend a large proportion of their

February, 1955

the current year and if further ex­
perimentation is fouhd advisable will
doubtless be performed “ practically
in the laps of the students” as Presi­
dent Smith has stated in his recent
annual report. It is opportunities like
this that makes learning at Swarth­
more the exciting adventure that it
has proved to be.

A fungus garden with ant cultivators at
work.

time in cleaning themselves and one
another. Under the binocular micro­
scope the details may easily be seen.
By this constant licking, contaminants
could be removed or inactivated and
it is also possible that the saliva may
have a nutritive function for the fun­
gus. This may account for the com­
monly observed situation with respect
to the brood. In flourishing gardens
the eggs, larvae and pupae are often
heavily coated with the mycelium. At
other times their integument will be
glistening and smooth. At times tufts
o f mycelium will appear as though
planted by the ants.
“ Another aspect of this experimen­
tation has been the development of
pure cultures of the fungi in test tubes
in the laboratory. These cultures have
been fed back to the ants and accept­
ed as food and cultivated by them.
There is therefore no doubt but that
the artificial cultures are true ant
fungi and their identification is great­
ly desired.
“ In summary I believe that rather
novel forms of antibiotic substances
are produced and that the saliva of
the ants will probably be shown to
play a significant role. The liquid ant
feces doubtless also helps to create a
favorable environment for the ant
■fungi.”
This research will continue during

This is the first of a series of ar­
ticles that is being presented in re­
sponse to a request on the part of
various alumni to know “ what is hap­
pening on the campus” . In future
articles we will attempt to include re­
ports on teaching and research in
other departments. It is not thought
that any one article will be of interest
to all alumni, but it is hoped that af­
ter two or three reports each person
will have found something that was
of particular concern to him. If you
have a desire to read of a certain
phase of the academic program we
will be glad to hear of your interest
and will attempt to include that de­
partment in the near future.
T h e E ditors

BA R BA RA L A N G E TO
D IR E C T T E L E V IS IO N
SERIES

The University of the Air which is
presented each Monday morning from
11:15 until 12 noon by station W F IL
T V (Channel 6) is presenting an
eight week series by Swarthmore
College which began on January 31st.
The program is divided into two
parts— the first from 11:15 to 11:35
will be offered by Jefferson College
and will be primarily concerned with
childhood diseases. The Swarthmore
portion will be under the direction of
Barbara Lange ’31 and will be based
on the production of Hamlet. This
part runs from 11:35 until 12 noon.
Included in the series will be three
acts of the play using the original
cast of the Little Theater Club.
All Swarthmoreans in the Phila.
area are encouraged to watch this
program if possible.

3

HAMLET REVIEWED
Critic praises L.T.C. production
Some of us are still naive enough to
believe that effective communication
between artist and audience is a prin­
ciple basic to any art. The recent
production of Hamlet by the Swarthmore College Little Theater Club gave
its audience the most lucid and easily
comprehensible presentation of Shakes­
peare’s great story that this graying
critic has ever seen. Barbara Pearson
Lange, an accomplished actress in her
own right, gave the audience an intelli­
gent, clear, and forceful actors’ pro­
duction. Directorial techniques were
properly concealed. And yet the play
hung together admirably, and the team­
work o f the players was a delight too
seldom seen and heard on college
stages.

For the rnise en scene, and its stu­
dents designers, a profound bow. The
scenery fittingly provided an adequate
background, and tastefully so. Plat­
forms, ramps, steps, an arch, and sus­
pended banners were used in deco­
rative and meaningful combination.
Shifts were swift and silent. Lighting
was well planned, but the electrician’s
palette was on the pale side, and sun­
burn grease paint faded sadly under it.
Light changes, on the other hand, were
timed to the appropriate second, and
helped “ act” the play to no small de­
gree.

Most theatrical productions usually
leave something to be desired. There
is always something to learn about
the machinery of theatrical illusion.
Dramatics at Swarthmore have (or
has, if you prefer) come a long way.
Hamlet was an accomplishment of
which you should be proud. Hearty
congratulations for courageous effort
and a job exceptionally well done.
R obert G. D aw es ’29

HELP W A N T E D

Positions listed with the Alumni
Placement office in recent months. As­
sistant Professor of Accounting— Upsala College, East Orange, N. J. Spring
semester 1955. Advanced degree, sopie
college experience, and preferably, a
CPA certificate.

I should be suspect if I did not indi­
Assistant Sales Manager— College
cate less than complete approval with
every phase of this production. If it education. Experience in industry.
were not for the fact that the over-all Good general familiarity with light and
show was so superior, I should not medium industrial hard goods. 30-35
A play does not exist save in pro­
carp at the costumes and makeup. Both years. National Metal Edge Box Com­
duction, and the internal evidence is so
departments had evidently done their pany, Phila. Pa.
rich in Shakespeare’s genius that inter­
dedicated best, and their efforts were
Chief Engineer— BS or MS in
pretations o f mood and character are
certainly passable. They failed at times, Mech. or Elect. Engineering. Responsi­
legion. There is no Right way to play
however, to use color of flesh or ma­ bility for the development and design
Hamlet. Psychological and psychiatric
terials to indicate age, condition, or of all products of the Company and
evaluations have served well to confuse
state of servitude. The psychological supervision of a small design, drafting,
understanding and the layman’s pleas­
use o f color could have helped relate and modelmaking shop. 35-50 years.
ure. Mrs. Lange avoided the more
the relationship of the actors. A vivid
erotic approaches to the problem, and healthy Hamlet should not have worn Experience in the electro-mechanical
made her Hamlet a comprehensible and the traditional black of the gloomy field in such devises as time recording
machines, industrial control systems,
virile young man relatively free of ob­
Dane so inextricably associated with etc. Actual production design experi­
vious fixations and inhibiting com­
every stock Hamlet for almost a cen­
plexes. Hamlet, ably assisted by the tury. If Mr. Cooper was to wear red ence is very desirable. Some personnel
training also desirable. Location— low­
mentality and physique of Charles
it should have been before his troubles er New England.
Cooper, was a very nice guy who
overcame him. Perhaps it was expense
wrestled with emotional problems and
Physicists, E. Eng., Mech. Eng. or
which prevented the use of color
philosophic growing pains in a manner change in costumes to accompany plot Mathematicians— Lincoln Laboratory
not very different from some students
development. If so, ’twere understand­ of Massachusetts Inst, of Tech. Prin­
I knew at Swarthmore too many years
able, 'and forgiveable. But Ophelia’s ciple task is the development of a sys­
ago.
mob-cap suggested the red-terror rather tem of defense against air attack on
than Elsinore, and the plethora of black continental N. A. The work is classi­
Hamlet is usually accepted as a ve­ tights against black curtains was a bit fied. Persons with Bachelor’s, Master’s
hicle for a star performer, but the monotonous. The makeup crew should or Doctor’s degrees, regardless of ex­
Swarthmore production had more than practice their art under lights compara­ perience, are encouraged to apply.
one star. Ophelia gave a restrained and ble to those used in performance, and
Insurance Agent— salary plus bonus
a very convincing characterization o f a should eschew the black lining pencil in
— life insurance— Philadelphia area.
very difficult part. Horatio, the King, practically every facial paint job. Pale
Some experience necessary.
Laertes and Polonius, in careful alpha­ youthful hands are somewhat incon­
betical order, did artistic and consistent gruous with lined and sallow faces.
For information concerning any or
jobs. Supporting players showed evi­ Uncolored bare legs appear almost lep­ all of these positions, please write
dence o f directorial care in casting and rous under steel-blue and surprise-pink to Vocational Counsellor for Men,
characterization.
filters.
Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pa.

4

Alumni Issue

NEW BOARD
M EM BER
Dr. Alfred H. Williams, new mem­
ber of the Board o f Managers, is Presi­
dent of the Federal Reserve Bank of
Phila. He has been elected to take the
place of Mrs. Leonard C. Ashton who
has become an Emeritus member after
serving faithfully for twenty years.

’28, of Newtown Square, Pa.
The following persons were elected
as officers of the Corporation at the
December meeting of the Board: Presi­
dent, Claude C. Smith; Vice-President,
Philip T. Sharpies; Secretary, Mrs.
William A. Clarke; Assistant Secre­
tary, Mrs. Edward H. W orth; and
Treasurer, E. Lawrence Worstall.
As previously announced, Catharine
Wright Donnelly and William F. Lee
were elected as Alumni Managers.

B E N JA M IN W EST
SO C IE T Y PLANS
CHANGE

Albert H. Williams

Dr. Williams is the former Profes­
sor of Industry and Dean of the Whar­
ton School of Finance and Commerce
of the University of Pennsylvania. He
is a trustee of the University o f Penn­
sylvania and the Cheyney State Teach­
ers College, serves with President
Smith as a trustee of the Eisenhower
Exchange Fellowship, Inc., is a direc­
tor of the American Academy o f Po­
litical and Social Science, the Pennsyl­
vania State Planning Board, the Urban
Traffic and Transportation Board, the
Walter E. Hering Foundation, and the
Institute of Local and State Govern­
ment. Dr. Williams is a member of the
Swarthmore Methodist Church and
makes his home in Wallingford, Penn­
sylvania.
Claude C. Smith, Chairman of the
Board, also announced the re-election
for four year terms of Mrs. Newlin T.
Booth T6 of New Castle, Delaware,
Mr. Richard C. Bond ’31, of Haverford, Pa., and Mr. Theodore Widing

February, 1955

Back in 1905, Dr. Henry Jackson,
then Minister of the Swarthmore
Presbyterian Church, initiated the or­
ganization that we now know as the
Benjamin West Society. This organi­
zation received added impetus in 1921
when Frederic Newlin Price ’05 pre­
sented the College with 100 modern
paintings which had been purchased
abroad. Fred Price has continued his
vital interest in the Society and has
been primarily responsible for the
growth and expanded activities of the
group.
In 1929 the Society was formally
organized to further stimulate inter­
est in Art at Swarthmore and to per­
petuate the name of Benjamin West,
who was born on what is now the col­
lege campus, and who later became
President of the Royal Academy in
England and a sort of father to
America’s great colonial painters.
Now it has been suggested that
the activities of the Society take a
new direction and that the collection
of dues and distribution of an annual
art print be discontinued. Instead, an
annual lecture, to be called the Ben­
jamin West Lecture would be pre­
sented. This lecture would be devoted
from time to time to any of the major
fields of Art and it is hoped that the
lecturer would spend two or three
days on the campus to meet with
groups of students and faculty inter­
ested in his field. To launch this new
project Fred Price has made a sub­
stantial contribution to a fund the in­
come from which is to be used to pro­

vide an honorarium and expenses for
such a lecture.
►
The officers of the former Society
do not feel that any formal drive for
additional contributions should be held
but that those who have been interest­
ed in maintaining the Benjamin West
Society may wish to contribute from
time to time to this fund for the an­
nual lecture.

RHODES SC H O L A R
SELECTED
Frank Sieverts, an economics-poli­
tical science major in Honors, has been
selected as a Rhodes Scholar in this
year’s competition. Four Swarthmore
Students were nominated by the col­
lege and each was chosen by his state
committee to enter the District compe­
tition. Each District is composed of six
states. Frank was chosen from the
Middle Atlantic District which includes
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland-District of Col­
umbia, and West Virginia.
Frank came to Swarthmore as a
Baker Scholar after graduating at the
head of his class from Shorewood
High School, in Shorewood, Wiscon­
sin. He was President of his Freshman
class, vice-president and later president
of the Student Council and co-editor
of the Phoenix. Last year he was re­
gional Chairman of the National Stu­
dents Association, an organization that
has been high on his list of interests
for a number of years. He served as
proctor for two years and has been a
member of the Swarthmore College
Orchestra although he claims to be one
of the worst cello players in the world.
He has been a letter winner on the
Wrestling squad for several seasons
but does not plan to continue this acti­
vity at Oxford.
Despite the many extra-curricular
activities and the requirements of the
Honors program, Frank has always
found time to hold a part-time job at
the College. Summer vacations have al­
so been used as opportunities for earn­
ing additional funds. Last summer
visitors to one of the national parks
( Continued on page 6)

5

( Continued from page 5)
had the pleasure of being- driven on
sight-seeing tours by this future
Rhodes Scholar.

Frank A. Sieverts

Frank’s future plans are not com­
plete at the present time but will prob­
ably include academic interests and per­
haps some work for the government.
He will enter the College of Eco­
nomics, Philosophy and Political Sci­
ence (Modern Greats) at O xford and
should receive his B.A. degree in 1957.
He was born in Germany but came to
this country at an early- age and is
looking forward to an opportunity to
travel both in England and on the con­
tinent.

A G L IM P S E OF O XFO RD
BY D O N S U T H E R L A N D '53
After a year’s study and living at
Oxford, the strangeness which first
strikes American students has worn
off, making it possible for us, perhaps,
to form some more accurate impres­
sions of what the university is like.
At the beginning this strangeness is
enough almost to break confidence in
the great common English tradition
which we are supposed to have on
both sides of the ocean. It comes fast
-—‘terms’ instead of semesters; ‘un­
dergraduates’, not students; ‘dons’, not
professors or teachers; a ‘ faculty’
means a department; ‘schools’ are not
schools, but exams; and for the hun­
dredth time the Swarthmore gradu­
ate explains to fellow-Oxonians how
it is that he has a degree without ever
having attended a ‘university’. All

6

these become part of the background,
adaptation to the vocabulary is easy,
though we may take more or less care
to preserve the primeval virtue of our
American accents. So it is too with
more practical differences. Academic
gowns turn out not to be like the
flowing and suffocating robes we
graduated in at Swarthmore, but only
light pieces of black cloth, so the need
for wearing them an hour or two
every day wasn’t at all oppressive, and
could finally be seen as rather charm­
ing. Twelve o’clock curfew for all
students may never cease to feel like
an insult; but O xford like every other
English town rolls up its streets at
about eleven-thirty, and the motive
for later hours rarely occurs.
The university’s setting in an in­
dustrial town, as Oxford has become,
makes a first impression which lasts—
grinding of motors, Carfax’s perpe­
tual traffic jam, and crowded side­
walks too narrow for the new city.
Since the university is decentralized
and not on its own campus, all this
is both a setting and a permeating in­
fluence. The banks of the Cherwell
here must have been once like the
banks of the Crum. Now they’re still
green and wooded, with the stream
still travelled by punts whose purpose
is slow motion. This stands in a sheer
contrast with the city around which
we must finally come to think of as
the real world. Memories of Magill
walk, Crum meadow, and the village
take on epic proportions in retro­
spect.
Probably no corresponding Amer­
ican degree can match O xford’s B.A.
as a sign of learning and accomplish­
ment. Certainly no American college
or university can show a concen­
tration of names and talent such as is
found in O xford’s faculty, particu­
larly in history, which forms at the
moment the largest department, stu­
dent-wise. For all that, the pace of
learning is much less here than at
Swarthmore, the atmosphere is more
relaxed, and the student’s schedule is
much less loaded with deadlines. It
operates, quite frankly, as a continu­
ing disappointment to an eager young
Swarthmorean who has geared him­
self up on arrival to anticipate another
‘crash program’ of study like those to
which he has been more or less accus­
tomed. The university is getting on
now toward its 800th birthday, and
we might have expected to find, after

all those years, a more accurate adap­
tation of effort to goals. Instead, we
may come to understand what had
been a mystery to us, the source of
that persistent tradition about the
quiet leisure of the scholarly life. Tea
parties, sherry parties, and sports
claim hours on end for the majority
of students, and do no discernible
damage to the academic program.
It all provides plenty of occasion
for annoyance, some temporary and
some permanent. Criticisms are easy
to formulate, but much harder to de­
fend. The tea parties are, after all,
likely to be the setting for philosoph­
ical discussions, sherry parties, per­
haps, for talk more of a literary sort;
and the ubiquitous sports program is
a cognate not of the football scholar­
ship, but of the playing fields of Eton.
This is, perhaps, the old English
boast, accomplishment without ap­
parent effort, and O xford will appar­
ently continue to accomplish in a way
to challenge imitation.

FU N D BRO CHURE
A V A IL A B L E
Additional copies o f the new fund
brochure “ W e’re Out Ahead, bu t. . . ”
are available upon request from the
Publicity Office of the College.
If there are individuals to whom
you would like to have copies sent,
we will be glad to mail them if you
provide the addresses.

Notices of deaths received by Alum­
ni Office since October 1, 1954:
Class
1878
1891
1900
1904
1905
1906
1906
1907
1909
1912
1913
1918
1919
1920
1922
1932
Prep
Prep

Name
Date
Samuel Jackson Seaman
Frederick Edward Stone
Edmund Alban Harvey
Floyd Henry Bradley
Percival Rudolf Roberts
Lemuel David Smith
Herbert Stokes Killie
Eunice Darnell Mitchell
Ferd Oliver Fuqua
M ilford Garrett Farley
William Holmes D. Brown
Robert Warne Laubach
Osborne Robinson Quayle
Clinton Elmer Walter, Jr.
Emma Tourney Miller
Eleanor Pusey Clement
Samuel ■Clarence Lemmon
Rebecca Jones Hogsett

of Death
12/30/54
12/22/54
3/17/54
12/9/54
11/2/54
10/7/54
10/12/54
11/20/54
1938
Deceased
12/7/54
12/8/41
12/6/54
9/24/54
10/12/54
12/28/54
8/31/54
1952

Alumni Issue