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THE COLLEGE NEWS









THE COLLEGE NEWS

(Founded in 1914)

Published weekly during the College Year (excepting during Thanks-
giving, Christmas:and Easter Holidays, and during examination weeks)
n the interest of Bryn Mawr College at the Maguire Building, Wayne,



Bryn,.Mawr College. :
The College News is fully protected by copyri i Mounngitt
appears in it may be reprinted either wholly or in part without written
permission of the Editor-in-Chief. ‘ Neo

Editorial Board

Susie INGALLS, ’41, Editor-in-Chief
VIRGINIA SHERWOOD, ’41, Copy ALICE CROWDER, ’42, News.
ELIZABETH CROZIER, ’41 AGNES MASON, ’42
JOAN Gross, ’42 LENORE O’BOYLE, ’43

Editorial Staff

BARBARA BECHTOLD, ’42

MARGUERITE BOGATKO, ’41
~~“ BARBARA COOLEY, "42>

ANN ELLICOTT, '42

FRANCES LYND, 43

ANNE DENNY, 743

BARBARA HERMAN, ’43





AGNES MARTIN, 43
ISABEL MARTIN, ’42

~- JANET MEYER; ~42-—————---—-—-
VIRGINIA NICHOLS, ’41
REBECCA ROBBINS, ’42
SALLY MATTESON, ’48
SALLY Jacoss, ’43

Sports, Music
CHRISTINE WAPLES, °42 PorTIA MILLER, '43
Photo
Theatre LILLI SCHWENK, 742

ELIZABETH ALEXANDER, *41

Business Board - pats
MARGUERITE Howarp, ’41, Manager ELIZABETH GREGG, ’42
RutH McGovern, ’41, Advertising . Betty MARIE JONES, ’42
JuDITH BREGMAN, °42 CELIA MoskovitTz, ’43
MARTHA GANS, 742 MARILYN O’BOYLE, ’43
ELIZABETH NICROSI, ’43

Subscription Board
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CONSTANCE BRISTOL, 43 WATSON: PRINCE, ’43
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Wi ;

1)



OPEN FORU™





French University Education

Dependent on State; Free
Of * Politics



Specially contributed by Mlle. Breé

education in three fundamental
ways.

‘in the hands of the State.

versities have given up both the
residentia} and tutorial system, and
are absolutely co-educational.

lected students and train them for

on the Ministry of Education and

they may be connected with. Thus
the Ecole Polytechnique depends
partly on the Ministry of war;



Entered as second-class matter at the Wayne, Pa., Post Office



the Institut Agronomigue on the



Democracy in Action

The League Conference to be held this Saturday has taken
advantage of the three-college plan in a field ideally suited for this
type of cooperation. The commission meetings should be of im-
mense value to the participants, for the work done by each college
is different and the experience acquired varies. Because of this
wide background of practical knowledge, these special sessions
should appeal to a wider group than those in the League itself.

The general meeting is significant in that it challenges the in-
dividual to recognize the responsibilities of citizenship. We feel
that the organizations of the three colleges. which make this con-
ference possible deserve great credit, and we hope the undergradu-
ates give it their full support.
od



Seminar System

Very little educational material can long be confined within the
scope of one field. At Bryn Mawr, we pattern our course of study
along the line of that subject which we choose as a major, but un-
less our subject is one whose boundaries are sharply defined, we
lose much through concentration within its prescribed limits. The
boundaries of our subjects are admittedly arbitrary. In many, we
pursue course after course which, if repetition is to be avoided,
covers an artificially defined scope. _

The ultimate result of departmental and interdepartmental
divisions of subject matter is that courses become pigeon-holed, and
are pursued as separate entities with vague attempts on the part of
the student to correlate her work. But such correlation becomes an
extra-curriculum activity and is necessarily patchwork. In the
social sciences, for instance, this problem is especially evident. The
study of The City, now offered as the advanced course in sociology,
is certainly not fully useful until the techniques of economics, poli-
tics, and anthropology are brought to bear upon the problem.

Our first two years are spent taking required courses, survey

courses, and acquiring a general knowledge within our major fields.
Required language and science courses should be completed in these
years if they are to serve as effective tools for further study.
- Our Junior and Senior years should be devoted to more special-
ized learning. But unless we are able to use this learning in con-
junction with its neighbor subjects, and to apply it to those prob-
lems which in practice do not confine themselves to a single field,
we are being merely academic.

The seminar system offers a means of studying problems of
centralized interest through the coopération of several departments
as well as within separate departments. Bryn Mawr has tried
this method with apparent success in an eighteenth century course.

Seminars demand work, and such work is not passive. Reports

and papers like those delivered in Swarthmore seminars become

useful to the entire group, and discussions based on such reports

__ will not be-undisciplined, Seminars can emphasize approach as well
vas fact, and this knowledge of how to attack a problem is of grow-

ing importance. They are valuable as a means of bringing informa-
tion and facts to focus on the fundamental problems raised in

any. field, and in encouraging not only independent, but creative
* learning on the part of the student. iitee



?

Ation to college personnel.

College Defense Plans oe
—Work for-defense can_be-carried





Ministry of Agriculture,
etc. They have only lately
admitted women. The most fa-
mous of these schools are: L’Ecole
Normale Superieure which has
graduated such men as Jean
Jaures, Charles Péguy, Jean Gir-
andaux, Jules Romains, Léon
Blum, André Tardieu, Edouard
Herriot, André Siegfried, ete .. .
a long list of well-known names...
L’Ecole Polytechnique for engineers
and future army officers, L’Ecole
Centrale, L’Ecole des Mines, Les
Beaux Arts, Saint Cyr, L’Ecole
Navale, L’Ecole des Chartes. The
students in these schools, with the
exception of the Beaux Arts, are
exclusively French, recruited by
competitive examinations among
the High Schaol students who have
passed the baccalaureat. They live
in, unlike the University students.
They pay no fees; scholarships are
available for those whose families
could not afford pocket money, or
who might need their salary to live
on. They have to complete their
studies in a given time. When they
graduate they are generally placed
by the State in positions where
their special training is needed.
The universities proper are di-
vided into Facultés: Letters, Pure
Sciences and Mathematics, Law and
Medicine. The examination sys-
tem, degrees and requirements are
extremely varied, far too compli-
cated to explain briefly, but they
are uniform all over France. This
makes it possible for a student to
transfer without loss of time, from
one university’ to another, and all
degrees, whether from the Sor-
bonne or a provincial university

ments are accepted without ques-



gree of government service comes

panded for defense purposes, stu-
dents should be urged to take civil
service exarhinations.

Mr. MacKinnon attended a con-
ference section concerned with the
role of private colleges in defense.
The professors of men’s colleges, he

act upon college life. The morale on
the campuses of men’s colleges, it

of the students.

French university education is
different from American university

First, it is almost entirely
With the
exception of the Catholic Univers-
ity of Paris and a few Protestant
“schools of theology; alt French uni-|republie—brought- an- unusual -seri-
versities are financed by the .Min-
istry of Education and are, under
its direction. Secondly, French uni-

Thirdly, there are besides the uni-
versities in France a number of
highly specialized and often famous
schools which recruit carefully se-

definite careers such as engineer-
ing, agriculture, army and navy,
etc. These schools depend directly

whichever other State department

have the same rating. Require-:

tion by the students. If a student

under civil service even when ex-'

said, were generally concerned with
|the effect. of .the ‘selective service

-was brought out in discussion,
| varied from extreme “jitteriness,”
to an apathetic attitude on the part

Emphasized Abstraction

4 --Saniefaiet :
Specially contributed By ‘Jose

It is difficult to imagine what has
become now of the carefree and
picturesque life of the Spanish uni-
versity-student of twenty years
ago. Even under the dictatorship
of Primo de Rivera a shadow had
fallen on it, and when King Al-
fonso left Spain in 1931, the new




>

ousness into the noisily irresponsi-
ble student-circles. Then came the

Universidad Central in Madrid
might be firing a machine-gun
from behind a rampart of text-
books in the Ciudad Universitaria,
that last grand gesture of King
Alfonso (two hundred and fifty
million pesetas) while Franco’s
shells were pounding the splendid
new classrooms and libraries, the
shining laboratories and hospitals
into rubble and dust. Now our
student, if he is not in jail or in
a concentration camp in Southern
‘France, may be shouting “Arriba
Espana!” in the ranks of the to-
talitarian Falange, while his pro-
fessors, duly enrolled in the S. E.
V.. (Sindicato espaol universi-
tario) are collectively serving the
Corporative State.

There was a time, however, when
the State, even though meddlesome
and bureaucratic, was only a dis-
tant and fatherly presence. A stu-
dent entered the Instituto (one in
every province) at ten, for a six-
year course. He might drop out
in the middle, taking his Bachil-
lerato elemental and bécome a mod-
est civil servant, or he might con-
tinue to the bachillerato wniversi-
tario, officially- supervised. for all



wants a degree requiring Latin, as
almost all French degrees do, and
does not know Latin, he or she gets
to work and learns Latin.

_ Except for laboratory courses
and hospital work in the scientific
and medical training, there is no
required attendance at courses. A
student fulfills certain require-

¢ P ;

ments to register in a course; he
pays his fees; he is free to disap-
pear until examination time; if he
does not show up at the examina-
tion, or fails, he is free to start
again another year. There are
minimum time limits for taking de-
grees. A student cannot take a
License in less than two years;
the average’ student takes three
years; but nothing will ‘prevent
anyone from trying for ten years
if he feels so inclined. A student
is free not to do a single paper dur-
ing the whole year. He has the
program of the course; a minimum
reading list is suggested. He can
work or not as-he pleases—health,
organization of work, success or
| failure, etc. are his own responsibil-
ity. Examinations therefore are
serious and very important. For
each course there are three or four
written examinations each lasting
from four to seven hours accord-|
ing to the degree taken, and as
many oral examinations for those
who have passed the written ex-
aminations. I am leaving aside the
special organization of work for the
doctorate, etc. pee

The fees in a French university
are very low, almost nominal.

‘quantities; thé lack of attendance
requirements means that a large
number of students can earn their
living and work meanwhile for
their degrees. Both the univers-
ities andthe schools of which’ I
{have spoken are open to all classes
and used by all classes. Educa-



’ Cut Committee

tion is a national enterprise. So
far politics have never interfered

Former Spanish Universities
|

Gilkey *

Civil War, and a student of the

Scholarships are available in large;

Any. student, if late fora | with-the-teaching;it-has—been-ex-





Discussed at Conference) |. 5 cde. ee he
Park, by extracurricular courses



Bryn Mawr, by discussion groups,





|such as that in first aid given at |

campuses. Because the lower de- |’

class, must report her late-
ness to the Dean‘s office im-
mediately after the class.
Otherwise, her cut will be
counted.

tremely free of government-con-
|| trolled thought; in fact, it has
prided itself on the complete inde-
pendence left to both students and
professors, and on offering equal
| opportunities to all. .

















United Campaign.
Anyone interested in con-
| tributing to the-United Char-
| ities Campaign, please see
- Ann Adams or Mary Rambo,
Pembroke East. Most of t#®
|. schools and colleges in this
CAS “wre having . drives.
| for the money and have con-
|| tributed large sums. Since

the College has no drive, any
'| voluntary donations wil]/be
'| greatly appreciated. a

schools including the many private
ones, and opening the gates to one

2







last two years, according to his
j bent, ‘he might have chosen: either
the section letras or that of cien-
| cias, and in both he would have
studied certain subjects which in
this country are taught in the Jun-
ior College: the sciences, or psy-
chology, ethics, logic and even ele-
mentary law. He might have had
three years of Latin, no Greek, two
modern foreign languages, French
first, and in the last two years
English or Italian or German,. at
choice and in the order of general
preference.

And so, at sixteen or so, but often
almost an adult in looks, he would
have been suddenly “on his own.”
Picking his studies in one of the
five faculties (philosophy and let-
ters, law, medicine, pharmacy, no
theology any more) he could now
tackle four years (five for law or
pharmacy, seven for medicine) of
a traditional mixture of café-life,
irresponsible politics, dissipation .
perhaps and frantic annual-exami-
nation periods which would make
him licenciado, and perhaps, if he
felt the call for a few more years
of study, provide him with a doc-
tor’s degree.

The evils which beset the teach-
ing at. the tstituto would have
been with him in. the university:
centralized and bureaucratic con-
trol, a very short year (seven
months) and a heavy and some-
times. ill-arranged curriculum,
large classes, often stale official
text-books and nearly always teach-
ing-methods. emphasizing abstrac-
tion and memory. No sports or
group-contacts to speak of. A dis-
couraging picture, you may say;
and the answer would be: yes, any-
where but in Spain. There, some-
how, equipment, methods, statisties
do seem to mean less than any-
where else. In a country showing
an illiteracy of over 45% (1980),
native intelligence, essential prac-
tical knowledge, sobriety, dignity,
good manners can be excellent;
professors in the institutos may
often be distinguished men; uni-
versity professors may ignore poor
libraries and even in the sciences
achieve the training of brilliant
disciples. In the last thirty years
or so, moreover, both the Right and
the Left were endeavoring to coax
the official system to a higher, more
nearly European level: on the one
hand the Jesuits, whose better
buildings, modern equipment,
smaller classes, football fields were
favored by the well-to-do; on the
other hand, such highly modern
organisms as the Junta para am-
pliacion de estudios (1907), origi-
nally a private foundation, show-
ing the way to the highest scien-
tific achievements and rich already
in accomplishments when the Civil
War began. The young Republic
had already begun to multiply
elementary schools for free and
sompulsory education«and a New.
Day was undobutedly coming for
Middle Schools and Universities
alike. The models were there: the
spirit, now broken, must eventu-
ally revive and a great modern sys-
tem will come into being.

What it may become is to some
extent foreshadowed in Spanish
America, with over fifty universi-
ties, some of them older than Har-
heavily burdened
Spanish tradition,~-but showing, at
all levels, notably in Costa Rica,
Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, a
growing independence, earnestness
and promise.

CeNntrarzZzead” ana tiie



-of-the-eleven--universities;—In-his-—-—