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College news, December 6, 1950
Bryn Mawr College student newspaper. Merged with Haverford News, News (Bryn Mawr College); Published weekly (except holidays) during academic year.
Bryn Mawr College (creator)
1950-12-06
serial
Weekly
6 pages
digitized microfilm
North and Central America--United States--Pennsylvania--Montgomery--Bryn Mawr
Vol. 37, No. 09
College news (Bryn Mawr College : 1914)--
https://tripod.brynmawr.edu/permalink/01TRI_INST/26mktb/alma991001620579...
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation.
BMC-News-vol37-no9
“The College Hews
VOL. XLVIi, NO. 9
ARDMORE and BRYN MAWR, PA., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1950
Copyright, Trustees of
Bryn Mawr College, 1950
PRICE 15 CENTS
R. W. Chapman
Gives Personal
Side of Austen
. Spicy Anecdotes Liven
Limited Material
Of Letters
Mr. R. W. Chapman of Oxford
University spoke on the letters of
the nineteenth-century English
novelist, Jane Austen, from the
stage of Goodhart Auditorium on
Thursday, November 30. He be-
gan his address by listing all the
reasons why one could not expect
to learn much from the letters,
which is probably what most crit-
ics would say, and then very neat-
ly proceeded to present the charm-
ing, personal glimpses of Jane
Austen which are found only in
her letters.
He described the expense of
writing letters in her. day, and the
limitations of space inthem. When
a letter found its way into a
household along with a supply of
cheese, and was then read by all
of the family and half the serv-
ants, it would naturally contain
gossip and chatty bits of news,
rather than personal revelations.
The letters to Cassandra Austen,
Jane’s sister, which one may pre-
sume to have been more intimate,
were for the most part destroyed
by that reserved and proper lady.
(Mr. Chapman reminded his _au-
dience of Jane Austen’s back-
ground; her family was a remark-
able one. Tiwo of Jane’s brothers
became admirals. Her many live-
ly nephews and nieces were among
her favorite correspondents. Her
advice to a niece who inclined to-
ward writing novels states the
principles which she herself car-
ried out so admirably: “Let the
Portmans go to Ireland but as you
know nothing of the manners
there, you had better not go with
them.” Her belief that a writer
should write about what he knows
best because he has lived with it
longest is rephrased another way:
. “Three or four families in a coun-
try village are the very thing to
work upon.”
In the letters one is also pleased
to find specific references to Miss
Austen’s novels. She tells of vis-
iting a gallery where she sees a
picture of Mrs. Bingley of Pride
.and Prejudice in a white dress
Chilly
by Betty-Jeanne Yorshis, °52
The hall is dark, and cold, and
empty. Two silent people sit in
the middle of the deserted audi-
torium. The only life and animation
in the place is centered on the
stage, on Deirdre’s (Sue Halperin)
golden hair, where she stands,
framed by the beginnings of an el-
egant but sombre set, supplicating
the Fates for happiness with her
husband, Naisi. The scene—Rob-
erts Hall, Haverford. The time—
end of the first act rehearsal. The
play—Deirdre of the Sorrows, to
UC Loyalty Oath
Jeopardizes Right
To Free Opinions
Specially Contributed by
Phil Kunze, ’53 and
and Barbara Goldman, ’53
_ for the Alliance
With the growing threat of Com-
munist infiltration, the citizens of
the United States are facing a
grave practical dilemma. They
must decide whether they would
rather curb the activities of per-
sons suspected of Communist af-
filiations, or permit Communist
groups to operate freely in at-
tempting to indoctrinate ‘our
citizens. We, as students, are par-
ticularly interested in the educa-
tional aspect of this problem, which
has been brought to the fore by
the Loyalty Oath at the University
of California. We wonder just how
many people know what the Oath
is all about. .How did it-originate?
Who supports it? Why has it
caused such a furor in the whole
academic world?
The oath began its stormy his-
tory on March 24th, 1949. At that
time, the Regents of the University
of California adopted an “oath of
loyalty” requiring each faculty
member to assert not only that he
supported the Constitution of the
United States and the Constitution
of the State of California, but that
he was not a Communist, or con-
nected with ideas or enterprises
which could render his loyalty
doubtful.
When this requirement was pre-
sented before the Northern section
of the Academic Senate (roughly
those members of the faculty with
three or more years service) it
aroused immediate and strong op-
position. A Senate committee was
appointed to confer with the Presi-
with green ornaments. (She had} ent. A revised form of the oath
always suspected that green was
a favorite color of hers). How
ever, she saw no pictures of Mrs.
Darcy and concluded that her hus-
band was so fond of her that he
kept all her portraits at home
away from the prying eyes of
other men.
Mr. Chapman had somewhat
limited material to deal with, and
much of it was already familiar to
a good part of the audience. For
these disadvantages, however, his
careful presentation and charming
anecdotes were excellent compen-
sation. His friendly feeling, not
only for Jane Austen but all of
her: associates, both real and fic-
tional, made the evening a pleas-
ant addition to one’s experience
was apparently agreed upon be-
tween them, and June 24th, this
form was accepted by the Regents.
During the summer it became
obvious, however, that the new
form was not at all acceptable to
the faculty. A new committee was
asked to meet with the Regents on
September 29th and 30th, and a
new revision slightly different
from the previous one was framed.
The entire Senate, North and
South, voted, in February, two
resolutions. One rejected the spe-
cial oath; the other suggested as
an alternative that aside from the
Constitutional Oath, faculty con-
tracts contain a statement of the
non-communist policy and that the
faculty member accept his position
‘subject to this condition of employ-
in the literary field.
Continued on Page 5, Col. 4
‘Deirdre’ Rehearsals Anticipa
A Warm and Enjoyable Opening Night
be given December 8 and 9 at
te
8:30.
We had come much earlier than
8:30 to watch the rehearsal of this
Synge play, based on the turbulent
history of Ireland. We were driv-
en over by the energetic and om-
niscient director, Margery Low,
who, every night at seven, ferries
her entourage in shifts to Roberts
Hall where the Haverford section
of the cast is met, and the rehear-
sal begins. Costumes are tried on,
and soon the cast emerges, meta-
monphosed from a college group
to a set of Irish nobles and peas-
ants. But there is only a semi,
transformation. Naisi wears a
flowing red cape, but the rest of
him resembles Haverford. Deirdre,
likewise dressed in red, shows her
plaid skirt and lumber jacket un-
derneath. Only Conchubar, (Jiggs
Kunkel) the King of Aidan, is ful-
ly costumed, but even he is not
complete, for his large stature is
too much for his Anglo-Saxon
dress which is fine in front, but is
split in the back.
The stage crew, meanwhile,
rambles around oblivious to every-
thing but their own special busi-
ness, looking after the wants of
the production. The minor char-
acters ‘busy themselves over a
Continued on Page 3, Col. 4
CALENDAR
Wednesday, December 6
Alliance Discussion (Group,
‘Mr.-Charles Walker, “Is Paci-
fism Valid Today?” ‘Common
Room, 8:45 p.m.
Thursday, December 7
Dr. Leo Strauss, Professor of
Political Science at the Univer-
sity of Chicago, “Can There be
an Ethically Neutral Social
Science?” Common Room, 8:30
p. m.
Friday, December 8
Synge’s Deirdre of the Sor-
rows, presented by the Bryn
‘Mawr College Theatre and Hav-
erford Cap and Bells Club, Rob-
erts Hall, 8:30 p. m.
Saturday, December 9
Deirdre of the Sorrows, sec-
ond performance, Roberts Hall,
8:30 p. m.
Farber Expounds
On Transcendence
And Philosophies
On Tuesday, November 21, in
the Common Room, Dr. Marvin
Farber, Chairman of the Philoso-
phy Department at the Univer-
sity of Buffalo, delivered a lecture
on “Transcendence and Experi-
ence”, under the auspices of the
Bryn Mawr Philosophy Depart-
ment.
Mr. Farber began by expound-
ing the position of the phenomen-
alist as exemplified in the phil-
osophy of Edmund Husserl. Any
philosophy of experience must
answer the’ questions where is ex-
perience, when is experience, what
are its causal conditions, and
what are its boundaries. It must
also deal with what is beyond ex-
perience. This problem of trans-
cendence is a central one in his
philosophy. “The term ‘beyond’
is as intriguing as it is useful.
When the immediate environment
is sufficiently penplexing or em-
barrassing, we must press ‘be-
yond’ it . .. thus, ‘transcendence’
may refer to the limits not of hu-
‘man taboos, prejudices, or vested
interests. ‘Freedom’ then lies in
the ‘beyond’. Under a dictatorship
that may be one of the few poss
ible devices for conveying the as-
pirations of deliverance.”
Since the procedure of phenom-
enology is to begin with the self
and its experience of phenomena,
Husserlis—-confronted with the
difficulty of how to ground the giv-
en by means of the given. Phen-
omenology meets this problem by
raising the phenomena into the
Continued on Page 5, Col. 1
Common Treasury
Dues Set at $7.40
Common Treasury dues for the
year, 1950-1951, have been fixed at
$7.40 per person. The dues will
be put on the December 13 Pay
Day of every undergraduate and
will be allotted as follows:
$3.25 Undergrad
1.65 Alliance
Sunday, December 10
Bryn Mawr Music Club Con-
cert, Wyndham Music Room,
5:00 p. m.
Sunday Evening Chapel Serv-
ice, Rabbi Morris S. Lazaron of
Baltimore, Music Room, 7:30
p. m. :
Monday, December 11
Current Events, Mr. Reid of
Haverford, “South Africa”,
Common Room, 7:15 p. m.
English Department, Dr. Rhys
Carpenter, “Two Legends in
Verse”, Art Lecture Room, 8:30
p. m.
Tuesday, December 12
. Hugo von Hosmannsthal’s Je-
dermann, presented by the Ger-
man Club, Skinner Workshop,
8:30 p. m.
Wednesday, December 13
Wednesday Morning Assem-
bly, Dr. Joseph C. Sloane, “The
Diamond Jubilee Exhibition at
the Philadelphia Museum of
Art”, Goodhart, 8:45 a. m.
Film on_ Skiing, Common
-75 =Self-Govt.
45 N.S. A.
1.00 A. A.
30 Drama Guild '
The Common Treasury is an
amalgamation of the treasuries of
Self-Govt., Undergrad, Alliance
League, and most of the clubs
The League is financed by the Ac.
tivities Drive; and the clubs, with
the exceptions of N. S. A. and
A. A., are supported by separately
collected dues. The remaining or-
ganizations, however, are financed
almost entirely by Common Trea-
sury dues. Since every student is
“ipso facto” a member of Self
Govt., Undergrad, Alliance, Lea-
gue, and A. A., and has a right to
participate in any of their activi-
ties or in the activities of any
other student organization, it is
felt that the method of charging
each student a fixed amount is the
most equitable.
In order to clarify the present
apportionment of money among
the organizations, an approxima-
Room, 4:15 p. m.
A. A. Produces
Dance Numbers
And Two Plays
‘Lady Precious Stream’
And ‘The Night’
Outstanding
by Helen Katz, ’53
If the performances put on by
Actresses Anonymous last Friday
and Saturday nights were, as
Trish Richardson, production man-
ager, said, ‘not attempts at a fin-
ished production, but merely out-
lets for their creative energies”,
then the group can well be proud
of its attempts, its creativeness,
and its energies. The dance se-
quences, the one-act play Over-
tones, and the first act of Lady
Precious Stream were an amusing .
though, at first, slow evening’s en-~
tertainment.
The first piece, Alice Gersten-
burg’s Overtones, was interesting
in the cleverness of the lines; the
idea of two women and their inner
selves all appearing on stage at
once was intriguing. It was Mai-
sie Kennedy, as Harriet, who held
the production together, and au-
dience interest seemed to center
about her. Her shadow, Patsy
Price, was excellent in her por-
trayal, but at times too enthusias-
tic. One wished that Chris Scha-
vier, as the second woman, would
have projected her lines more con-
sistently, but toward the end, she
gained confidence and was- better
heard. Perhaps it was the bar-
renness of the stage, the iback-
stage noise, or the lack of rehear-
sal time, but somehow the produc-
tion lacked sparkle.
By the time the intermission
was over, the Workshop was com-
pletely filled, and the first number,
danced toa Debussy string quartet,
begian. As the curtain opened the
Continued on Page 5, Col. 2
U-Grad Suggests
Mayday Program
The proposed program for Mid-
dle-sized May Day, to be present-
ed on Saturday, April 28, 1961, is
as follows:
8:00 A.M. Sophomores wake the
seniors.
Hymn to the Son
9:00 a.m. Breakfast.
10:15 a.m. Academic Assembly.
11:15 a.m. Hooprolling.
Singing at top of
Senior Row.
1:00 (P.M. Lunch.
2:30 p.m. College Parade led by
Fireman’s : Band.
Maypole Dancing.
Crowning of Senioz
President as May
Queen and her speech,
Miss McBride’s
speech,
3:30-6:00 p.m. Sophomore
nival.
6:30 p.m. Dinner.
8:30 p.m. Arts Night.
10:30 p.m. Hall or informa}
dance.
The voting will be on Thursday,
Car.
Continued on Page 6, Col. 3
December 14, after lunch. - ~
1