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College news, May 12, 1954
Bryn Mawr College student newspaper. Merged with Haverford News, News (Bryn Mawr College); Published weekly (except holidays) during academic year.
Bryn Mawr College (creator)
1954-05-12
serial
Weekly
6 pages
digitized microfilm
North and Central America--United States--Pennsylvania--Montgomery--Bryn Mawr
Vol. 40, No. 23
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-vol40-no23
Page Two
THE COLLEGE NEWS ©
- =, anes
Wednesday, May 12, 1954
THE COLLEGE NEWS
FOUNDED sy 1914
Published weakly dune “the Sollene. Year (except during ‘Thane,
Christmas and. Easter holidays, and’ during examination weeks) in the interest
of Bryn Mawr College at. the Ardmore Printing ereon: Ardmore, Pa., and
— Mawr College.
in it may be reprinted either wholly or in part without permission of the
Editor-in-Chief,
Nothing that appears
EDITORIAL BOARD
Editor-in-Chief
Harriette Solow,
Evelyn DeBaryshe, ‘56, Copy
Charlotte Smith, ‘56, Managing Editor
p Molly Epstein, ‘56
EDITORIAL STAFF \__.
Donnie Brown, ‘57
-Mimi-Collins, ‘57
Epsey Cooke, ‘57
Lois Glantz, ‘56
Marcia Goldstone, ‘56
Ann Lebo, ‘55
‘Carol Hansen, ‘57
Se I”
Sports Editor Rosémary Rudstrom, ‘55
‘56
Marcia Case, ‘57, Make-up
Joyce Mitchell, ‘55
Sally Moore, ‘56
Barbara Palmer, ‘57
Ruth Rasch, ‘57 >
Helen Rhinelander, ‘56
League Representative
Elizabeth Warren, ‘56
Staff Photographer
Eleanor Small, ‘55
Business Manager
Margi Abrams, ‘56
Business Staff
June Edelman, ‘55
Virginia Gavian, ‘57
Gloria Strohbeck, ‘57
Annabelle Williams, ‘56
SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER
Diana Fackenthal, ‘55
SUBSCRIPTION BOARD
Saren Merritt, ‘55
Diane Druding, ‘55
Suzanne Hiss, ‘55
Sondra Rubin, ‘56
Carol Stern, ‘56
Connie Alderson; ‘56
Margaret Schwab, ‘56
_Carlene Chittenden, ‘56
_ Polly. Lothman, ‘56
Joan Polk, ‘56
aubstripfien, $3.50
Mailing price, $4.00
Subscriptions may begin at any time
Entered as second class matter at the ype eae Pa., Post Office
Under the Act of March 3, 1879
The Job
Problem
In order to give the students both an opportunity to
finance part of their college education and to gain working
experience, the college has opened certain campus jobs to the
students and has seen that off-campus jobs are made known
and assigned to them. However, these two purposes have of-
_ten come into conflict.’ Is the first responsibility of the col-
lege to see that the students who have the greatest need are
given preference i in jobs? If this is so, on what basis can this
need be determined? Or should the jobs be open to everyone,
and decided on a competitive or merely a first-come first-
served basis?
The College seems to have no clear-cut policy on this
question. In many cases, scholarship students are given pref-
erence. In other instances, such as baby-sitting, the need of
those wanting to work has not been considered. Certain hall
jobs that do not require particular ability or talent are often
decided on the basis of seniority or on the basis of the first
who was to sign up.
While it is easy to say that those who have the greatest
need should have priority, we feel that it is difficult for the
college always to determine and decide on such a basis. °
If
scholarship students are automatically given preference in
all jobs, they may be depriving students who may -have as
great a need as they. And it would seem highly impracticable.
to look into the individual circumstance before deciding every.
campus job and every Friday night baby-sit. In addition,
if all jobs were decided completely on the basis of need, those
who would like the experience of working but who do not
happen to have a need at the present may never get a chance
to work at all.
We feel that the answer to this dilemma is to sik more
campus jobs open to the students. Student waitresses i in the
pins the grounds could be ‘done by the ‘Auten
In short, we feel that as long as the demand for jobs is
greater than the supply, more opportunities for work should
he. mace ayalignte to the students. $s
only discordant note was the inci-
“ |dental music which was repetiti-
Jarrell Satirizes
Writes ‘Picture
by Evelyn DeB 4 e 5G
-The Alfred ‘Knopf Publishing}:
Company recently sent us a paper-
bound copy of a new book, Pictures
From An Institution in the hope
that we would want to review it.
It is free, (to us) 277 pages long,
and is written by a Mr. Randall
Jarrell, a teacher at Bard College.
With the book, they supplied its
jacket, complete with favorable
comments by Louis Untermeyer,
Marianne Moore and Richard Bis-
sell.. We take them up on it here.
Pictures From an Institution, A
Comedy, is a set of portraits of a
group of men and women connect-
ed with a progressive college for
women. We have it on good auth-
ority that the college is Bard,
about which Mary McCarthy has
written The Groves of Academe.
| There is no plot, and only the ten-
uous thread of the theme of social
satire. to connect the sketches; all
the seven or eight persons dealt
with are allied in circumstance ‘by
residing at Benton College in the
capacity of teachers,’administrators
or visiting artists. Nothing hap-
pens in this book. We must suppose
that he is aiming at the simple sa-
tire of the group who inhabit the
campuses of most eastern colleges.
He is amazingly successful, and
his book is as funny as Mr. Unter-
meyer guaranteed it would be.
Description of Gertrude
The most huneitant hive in the
collection, is the character of Ger-
trude Johnson, a novelist, tempor-
arily teaching, around whom the
book can be said to revolve, if
it moves at. all. “She,” says Mr.
Jarrell would have “come from
Paradise and complained to God
that the apple wasn’t a Winesap
at all, but a great big pulpy Wash-
ington Delicious.
“Age could not wither nor custom
stale her infinite monotony; in
fact, neither Age nor. Custom
could do anything (as ‘they said,
their voices rising) with the Amer-
ican novelist Gertrude Johnson.”
Gertrude has come to Benton Col-
lege because she is between nov-
els. With her is her husband Sid-
ney. The description of their re-
lationship needs only her thought:
“I wish I made enough from my
writing so Sidney wouldn’t have to
work.” She soon finds in Benton,
and its President, Dwight Robbins,
her new novel.. In order to gather
material, she gives a dinner party,
to which most of the characters of
the comedy are invited: The Rob-
bins; the author who tells the
story in the first person, (to give
the book some shade of continu-
ity); his wife; a young girl who
is the friend of himself and his
wife, and Professor and Mrs. 'Whit-
taker. The only persons not _in-
cluded are the Rosenbaums, and.
Miss Batterson. Mr. Rosenbaum
is the musician in residence, Miss
Batterson an English teacher.
This is the only event of any
consequence that occurs in the
book. An Arts Night takes place,
which Gertrude, the author and his
wife attend tigether; Miss Batter-
_ Letter To Editor
‘Thank You’ To Faculty
For Cooperation,
‘Says Habashy ©
‘Seay Editor,
In this last issue of the College
News, I want to take the oppor-
tunity to say “Thank you” to the
many members of the faculty who
made possible a successful year of
Current Events meetings and also
to Mr. Bachrach and. Mr. Dudden
for their ui advice durin;
gressive College;
From An Institution’
son dies, Mr. Rosenbaum attends
her funeral; the term ends, ‘Ger-
trude writes her ibook; the Se
ters disperse for the summer.
The major’ portion of the com-
edy is given over to Mr. Jarrell’s
dissection of the people with whom
he deals. Mr. Robbins, the president
who sees in himself am analogy to
Jay Gatsby and tries hard to be a
boy wonder, is very comprehensive-
ly drawn, and with the wit that is
essential to this book. It is a very
good, superficial portrait of a man.
It is not lacking in sympathy but
it does lack dignity, and any tinge
of respect for the man as a human
being. ¥
Unsatisfying
The Rosenbaums are the: only
people whom Mr. Jarrell has im-
bued with cémmon sense and. an
understanding \of life, for it is the
lack of such an understanding for
which he takes the rest of the cast
to task. They are German-Jewish
refugees, in a world which they’
must take without much sympathy,
but with an amused understanding.
Gottfried Rosenbaum “is the only
point of sanity, beyond Jarrell him-
self, in the whole of Benton.
The book is consistently amus-
ing, and at times even brilliant in
its characterization.
Continued on Page 3, Col. 1
Chem. Open House
Features Research
The Bryn Mawr Chapter of Sig-
ma Xi and the Department of
Chemistry held an open house in
Park, on Tuesday, May 11. The
program included a business met-
ing, short lectures, and displays-in
ihe various laboratories.
First on the agenda was the ini-
tiation of the newly-elected mem-
bers to Sigma Xi, an honorary sci-
entists’ society. ‘hose admitted as
full members were Robert 1S. Da-
vidon and George Vaux; promoted
to full membership—Georgiana W.
Seovil and Frederick C: Strong;
chosen associate members—Mabel
M. Chen, Louise F. Hutchinson,
Marilyn R. Loeb,: and Dorothy C.
Selby.
A slate of ‘candidates was sub-
mitted and: voted upon. Mary S.
Gardiner was elected president;
John C. Oxtoby — vice-president;
and Edith H. Lanman—member at
large, for the next two years.
Members of the chemistry staff
gave short talks.
Dr. Frances Berliner spoke about
her work in organic chemistry per-
taining to the electron release of
the alkyl groups. These groups
have more~electron—releasing~ en-
ergy than the hydrogen ion, how-
ever within the groups there are
various inconsistencies with re-
spect to the electron releasing pow-
er. By observing aromatic com-
pounds substituted with ' alkyl
gioups, Mrs. Berliner hopes to find
an ‘explanation for this behavior.
‘|Miss Lanman is studying the oxi-
dation potential of Rhodium. She
has noticed many unusual proper-
ties of this element which is found
in the second triad of the periodic
table. Dr. Zimmerman, with the
heip of graduate students, is doing
photochemical work with the com-
pound, azobenzene, which has two
isomers. By. subjecting it to rays
he can transform the structure ayd
thereby study the mechanism by
which it changes.
Until a few years ago shiinltete
were puzzled as to how the elec-
trons were arranged in the benzene
ring. The modern theory is that
| these electrons form a cloud ‘over
, molecule. Dr;
Current Events
Mr. Bachrach Says U.S.
Suffers From
Obsession
’ The’ McCarthy-Army hearings
American political life, for here
the right wing of the Republican
The implications of this situation,
and what it means in terms of the
power of McCarthy in the future,
and of the reign of McCarthyism
was discussed at, Current Events
on Monday, ‘be 3, by Mr. Bach-
rach,
Battle Between Friends
McCarthy, two months ago, was
important to the Republican party,
and was needed to sustain the only
issue they had, that being the issue
of communists in government. He
was condemned only when he be-
gan to attack Republicans instead
of Democrats. The battle today is
not really determining anything as
it is between the’ giant communist
hunters themselves, Mundt and
Dirksen versus their former ally.
These persons agree on the one
fundamental, that the most import-
ant job is to hunt subversives. This
hearing has brought out quite a lot
of dirty business, wire tapping be-
ing used freely, and the fact that
McCarthy is very likely ,in cahoots
with the _F.B.1, something that
Hoover has not dented.
No one wanted_this h al-
ly, and the end result is not like
to be decisive because of the con
tions of the hearing. Though Mc-
Carthy may lose his power, unless
he comes up with a big communist
fish in the next few months, ‘the
tenor of fééling im the United
States - which he groused will not
decrease.
The fundamental fact is that the
United States suffers from an ob-
session of fear, to which even the
President himself’ has succumbed
in his firing of Dr. Oppenheimer.
‘would be the top defendant.
Up to a certain point ‘it seemed
as though Cohn and not McCarthy
But
then when the television cameras
came into play McCarthy could not
resist. He made it his fight.
These hearings have led to a
shift’ of -public opinion. Three
months ago only one senator voted
against McCarthy in a showdown
in the senate but now senators are
losing their fear, beginning to
turn their back on this communist
hunter,
Shift of Public Opinion
“*
These hearings reflect the poli-
tical vacuum that exists today.
Liberals in America should adopt
a positive rather than the present
anemic, fear-ridden policy they
have been following, especially in
foreign affairs. In reality there is
really no opposition policy in for-
eign affairs. We do not know what
to do with ourselves. Any sugges-
iton of support of Red China or-
partition of Indo-China means po-
litical suicide.
It is not only the parties that
must do this changing, the change
must come from the basis of dem--
ocracy, the people.
Library Ope Open Late
On Two Sat. Eves
The jie Reserve pat eee:
and the Reading Room, usually
closed on Saturday nights, will be
‘pen specially this Saturday and
next Saturday nights (May 15 and
22) from 7 to 10 p.m., for exam_
studying. Miss Agnew made the
arrangements’ to meet student re-
quésts for extra library time. Only
{the main door will be open, so en-
studying on these nights.
eo:
party is battling its former ally.
are an ‘interesting phenomenon in .
\
building if you are .
linterested in a few hours et —
2