2

~~ are framed by politicians, they are “loadéd.” As a commu= |;

sai
tan Man ‘Survive? a

‘Sunday nights.

— i it iat tt

Page Two ui



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THE COLLEGE NEW

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Wednesday, 11, 1962 __
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‘a teh

. The whole college community has a responsibility (define | :

how you will) to concern itself with the problems of peace
‘and:.war, ~

“Why? Not because we-are experts-except insofar |-

as We are “expert” at thinking through problems of great
pe in al As. we, individual professors and students, meet
in these public conversations, we can represent what others

. have come to in their own thinking but have, perhaps, never

articulated. To “articulate” is not just “to say” but means
to see and analyze relationships. ‘l'hat is, we can define the
field of in@uiry; we can formulate the questions; we can learn

how to think by testing-our statements and re-defining our

questions; and as’we do so, the audience is doing the same.
At the first stage, it is not a question of deciding whether we
need ‘‘facts” or “opinions” but of. putting the questions—ot
trying to find what the first questions are. As those ques-
tions are framed by the press, they are pre-judged; as they

nity of intellectuals, we have a duty to put the questions
straight, to define them rigorously, to to ask questions which
every citizen, every human being whe is awakened to the
problem must ask. We have to get beyond “Red or.Dead,”
“Peace or Freedom,” etc. We have to see what it is we are
asking when we ask, “Can Man Survive?”

_°Thus, Mrs. Werner Berthoff, member of. the English
Department, explains the aims ot the joint faculty-student
steering committee which — s set up the series: of programs
outlined on page one. The ews heartily supports both the
idea and the goals of this series and: hopes that every mem-
ber of the college wei sed will participate actively in the
discussions.

Changes i in Hall Deine

Included among the often more -aesthetically pleasing

~signs that spring is approaching is the planning-of-who- wilt

live where next year. The procedure for reaching this deci-
sion will be somewhat different this year. The quota system

_—the number of students from each class who may reside in

a hall—will be retained, but upperclassmen who wish to
move will now draw early to determine the hall they will be
in next year, and then will draw for rooms. after the mem-

bers of their respective ‘classes within the hall have drawn.
In the past, students wishing to move-into a different hall

have been required to wait to draw for a room until all the
students already living in that hall had completed their draw-
ing. Now, the opportunity of obtaining a good room is given
on a basis of class seniority rather than length of residence
within a hall, As already pointed out, however, those with-

in a class already residing in a hall wilt have preference over

members of their class entering the hall. An exception to
this system. is*made in the case of freshmen entering a hall
from Batten House, East House, the College Inn, the Gradu-
ate Center, and the Deanery. These girls draw for rooms.
along with the members of their class already residing in the
hall which they are entering.

‘While this procedural change is hardly a major one, it
, does improve an upperclassman’s chances of obtaining a

good room if she is considering moving from her hall. The

News welcomes any thange such as this which contributes

to the campus becoming less dorm-oriented.

The Edge 8,

The News, which, in its past issues has been grimly cri-
tical of various aspects. of the college, has now—like the rest
of Bryn Mawr—found a new. place to relax and cast a sunnier
eye on the world. - coffee-at reasonable prices,-singing,

guitar playing, student art work, a place to go to talk and/

smoke when we become jaded of dorm smokers—all these

things have endeared the new Edge to us.
The Edge was recently founded for Bryn Mawr and Hav-

---yerford-students-by-#he-Main.“uine Ecumenical Council... It is

located in the Villevand open from:9 to‘1 Tuesday through
Members of local churches serve as wait-
resses. Students: froni the two colleges provide the enter-
tainment and thé art which decorates the walls. ‘This new
opportunity for students to display their creativity is, we
feel, the primary value of the Edge. We are, however, more
than ready to admit the secondary‘values. Since the closing
of the Beau and Belle, we have been in great need of a place
to take a date in the Ville. With the opening of the Edge
we have found a haven for food and talk after 10:30.

There is, however, one criticism which various people
have voiced. Since the Edge is often overflowing and over-
crowded and since one of its purposes is to provide a place

- for discussion on fhe college level, the presence of many high

school students every night is somewhat resented. We have
no place to entertain after 10:30 at night; these students,
at least, have their own homes in which to talk and have
guests. Of course, the News is not fully acquainted with
the financial considerations of the Edge which may make-the

admittance of high school students ncessary, but-we feel the

management might, at least, think .about the possibility of
restricting admission to only collegiates,

Compared to the value of the new-coffee-house, however,

we feel the criticism is minor. We welcomé the Edge as a
center of sociability, creativity, communication—and coffeé!



THE COLLEGE. NEWS

FOUNDED IN 1914
Publisned weekly déring tne College Year (except during.
_Tnenksgiving, Christmas and Easter holidays, and during examina-



Printing Company, Ardmoré, Pa., and Bryn Mawr College.

The College News is fully protected by copyright.. Nothing that, appears
in it may be reprinted wholly or in part witnout permission of the Editor-in-Chief.
EDITORIAL BOARD ¢




Editor-in-Chief ...... bipcethes se teen enineet ees siivies ‘- Janice Copen, ‘63
CM WOOT ona hos cc eecvvness Se nih scat Josie Donovan, ‘62
—mmetete Editor 255 cebocce ek oe xneiacevcueecvavh +.., Filen Rothenberg, ‘64
Malem EdHOF 5 jie eek cee eve ecececvees . Sea Jy, Charlene Sutin, ‘64
“Members-at-large™. 2 Brooks Ro! ‘3 wy eaan }“eisberg, “65
Contributing Editors eo tas cee Pixie: Schieff i 4 liné* Dubkin, 63
Juli Kasius, ‘63; (Mifanda Marvin, ‘63

Co-Business Managers ................ Cynthia Brown, ‘64; Judy Zinsser, ‘64
PCG Er ee ere Alice Longobardi, ‘63

’

tn teenporn lane atta Sagan it 3 Ate nad ‘ anit

lating!”

~—tione-wweeks)-in~tae--interest..of Bryn. Mawr College.at. the Ardmore...

Theater of Absurd:
lonesco Presents —
-Rampaging Rhinos

by Brooks Robards ’64

“Absurd is that which is devoid
of purpose .. . cut off from his re-
ligious; metaphysical, and transcen-
dental roots, man is lost; all his ¢gg-
tions become senseless, absurd, use-
less.” Playwright Eugene. Ionesco
is speaking here about the Theater of
the Absurd.

Because his play Rhinoceros ran
on. Broadway, Ionesco is probably.
the most well-known: (in the U: “$7
dramatist of the Theater of the Ab-
surd. The Theater of the Absurd
began in France, and has_ since
spread to the United States; where
it is firmly entrenched in New York’s
off-Broadway. It grew out of the
existentialism of ‘such writers as
Albert Camus, and claims among
its ranks Jean Genét( The Balcony,
The : Blacks), Samuel. Beckett
(Krapp’s Last Tape), and Edward
Albee (The Zoo Story), as well as
Tonesco é

‘The members of ‘the Theatre of
the Absurd endeavor to create a
non-rational world, as Ionesco indeed
seems to have accomplished in his
plays. In The Lesson, ‘a profés-
sor tries in vain to teach his.young
student who adds and multiplies with
ease, how. to divide. Finally, in his
frustration, he kills her.

In Rhinocerds, a young man,
Berenger, tries to cope with a world
in which everyone begins to turn into
rhinoceroses.. He ‘becomes’ involved
in an argument /over whether the
rhinoceroses:have one or two horns
and are therefore African or Asian.
When the girl he loves joins the
ranks of the~ rhinoceroses, Beringer
himself begins to want to transform.
But. in the end he decides “I’m the
last man left, and I’m staying that
way until the end. I’m not capitu-{

Ionesco mixes-the--ecomic withthe
pathetic, the. ridiculous with the
meaningful._Although he-saysthat
he is dealing with the absurd, that
is only half the story. For in por-
traying the irrational and the silly,
Tonesco does not’ detach himself en-
tirely from reality; his. ambivalence
is confusing at times. He, along
with the other members of the The-
atre of the Absurd, and the “College
of Pataphysics” believe. that man’s
traditional beliefs are an attempt to
evade reality, and that. these beliefs
are no longer useful. At. times he

Continued on Page 6, Col. 3

Competitions To Seek

Ventures In Verse

Two opportunities for students
interested in writing are open to
Bryn Mawrtyrs_ this spring — a
poetry .contest and el Nad for
literary workshops,

The first of these is a contest for
the best four to. eight line light
verses written in the form of the
stanzas contained.in The Shrewd
Nude and Other Light Verses and
Dark. by John Milton Hagen. $250.
in prizes is being offered by A: S-
Barnes and Co. All verses. must be
limited to eight lines, first-word
‘rhymed, one entry to .. contestant.
The contest ends June 30, 1962.
Poetry should be sent to “The
Shrewd Wude”,-c/o A. S. Barnes
and Co., 11 East 36th St., New
York 16, N. Y.

dents “are 12 fellowships for this
year’s session of the New York
City Writers Conference, held an-
nually at Wagner College, Staten
Island, N. Y., from July 10-20. The
fellowships are for workshops in
fiction, poetry, and drama.

Special prizes 2available will in-
elude...ione..of.. $100. for_.the_best.
avant-garde. poem writer and the
$500 Stanley. Award in Drama, for

|which judges ‘will ‘include Edward’

Albee, and David Susskind.

Further information may be ob-
tained by ‘writing the Administra-
tion Secretary,-_New York. City Wri-
ters Conference, Wagner College,
Grymes: Hill, Staten Island 1, N.
» £ ood



"*

Also available-for qualified stu-|

Letters Recry

To ‘the Editor:

Now that the wo year tind per-
iod for the ‘new’ election system
has expired, it is time for an. ap-
*praisal “of its merits in order to plot
a. course for, the~future.

The present system ‘consists of a
completely open’ method of nomi-
nation: -anyone -can nominate a
girl for office;. once nominated,
eyen if only by. one person, a girl
may run for office. The theory be-[
hind the adoption of this particu-
lar system of nominations was to
allow for as broad a base for par-
ticipation as possible, by both
nominators and nominees. Although
the general response to this pro-
cedure has been good on the part
of the nominators, the response on
the part of the nominees has been
very poor. (Only 15% of those
nominated for Self-Gov President
aceepted, only 18% of those nom-
inated for Undergrad President
accepted. In fact, the only percen-
tage of acceptances over 50 was
for First Sophomore to Self-Gov.)
This_lack of interest on the part|€
of the potential candidates ‘could
indicate-a variety. of things: it
could indicate that- a eandidate
wants. to have some idea of how
‘much support she has; it could in-
dicate that the candidate feels ei-
ther unqualified or unsure of her
qualifications; it could indicate
that’ she does not feel able to
spare the time; or it could indicate
that she does not consider running
for .and/or winning an _ office a
worthwhile enterprise. Whatever
the reason, it is abit unsettling ‘to
realize that 85% “of the: nominees
for Self-Gov President declined
(etc.). What is wrong, and can it
be remedied ?

Following the nomination proce-
dure is'a long and complicated ser-

Lies of primaries, dinners, final

votes, and occasional re-votes.
These machinations take almost. a
month to resolve, and as time
passes, participation in them de-
ereases. sharply. As it is now, the
schedule is overcrowded. It is a
little unfair to ask students to vote
intelligently in“ four or five elec-
tions a day, yet on the other hand,
it is inordinate to extend «the al-
loted time to include more than %
of the school year. How can the
procedure be made any more lei-
surely and thoughtful without its
being elongated? What could be

omitted ?

Still another problem is one of
mechanics. The committee in
charge of elections ( a six mem-
ber committee) has an almost}
super-human task in contacting
nominees, counting votes, announ-
cing results, informing candidates.
It is impossible for’ such a small
group to achieve anywhere near
a maximum of efficiency when its
tasks are so varied and time-con-
suming. How can the membership
of the committee be. most efficient-
ly changed? :

Although there are many other
facets to consider © concerning our
election system, this should be
enough to give an indication that
it leaves plenty of room for im-

provement.
Ellen Coreoran "62
Former: ‘Head of the

Election Committee
Po



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Thursday—April : 26—9 | A.M..

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Friday—April 27—10 A M. to
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Sale prices. range from 5¢ to
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A’.





Inadequacies

Of College Election System _

To the Editor:

Bewildered freshmen are plung-
ed into a barrage of elections at
the beginning of the semester, and
throughout the year have an in-
terminable number of meetings to
elect temporary “reps” to various
organizations. It’s bad enough
electing the first round of tempor-
ary reps, chairmen, and songmis-
tresses, but by the time the second
and third. rounds roll by, it’s small
Fwonder that the attendance at —
meetings has dwindled well below
quorum. level. »

Rationalizations

I have been givén only three
rationalizations for the infinite
number of both meetings and tem-
porary officers: 1) it gives us a
chance to get. acquainted with each.
other and achieve “class, unity”; 2)
it gives more freshmen a chance to
participate in Bryn Mawr organ-
izations; 3) it gives members of
the class better knowledge of the
capabilities of the candidates run-
ning for the permanent offices.

In my opinion, freshmen meet
each other in the halls, at. Lan-
tern “Night rehearsals, and work: ~
ing—on- the. Freshman._Show.. At-
tending tedious meetings, in ‘which
the only unifying element is a uni-
‘versal béhd of boredom, is: not the
most effective way of providing
“class. unity.”

Secondly, it doesn’t take a vote
in a meeting to make anyone
member of the class interested in
the inner workings of Self-Gov.,
A. A., Undergrad, and so .on.
Electing six members of the class
to an organization during- a -year
is not a” guarantee that any more
than six people are going to be-
come involved with that organiza-
tion. Also, . the.. freshmen have
shown a great deal of enthusiasm
in becoming involved in campus
activity without: the incentive of
a majority vote—witness the per-
centage of freshmen in the mem-
bership of the S.P.U..— or. the
freshman interest taken: in mate
ters like the self-gov. exam.

Lastly, electing several tem-
porary chairmen and songmistres-
sesso that class members may get
an idea of the capabilities of can-
didates is futile in that these tem-
porary officers hold only one class
meeting during their term—a meet-

ing to elect their successor. One

election meeting is_not_sufficient-to
show the inherent qualities of

leadership, etc. It also automatic- .

ally implies that the’-permanent
officers must be girls’ who’ were

temporary” officers—not ‘necessarily ~

true or desirable.
I would like to make the follow’
ingx suggestions for improvement. I

certainly don’t claim that these,

are the only -possible: basis for
correction i.e, anything would be
better than the way it’s being done
now):

A. Do away with the temporary

chairmen and ‘songniistresses én-
‘| tirely. Have two big meetings’ (run

by the junior class president) in
which freshmen who had expressed
an interest in running for office
(perhaps by: signing -up in the
halls) would speak briefly to the
class, giving past- experience, and
their reasons for running, Elec-
tions could then be held for per-

thereby saving: a lot of time, plus

insuring that. the class knows the.

“who and why” of the candidates.

- B. Only four reps from the ¢lass
should be elected to an organization
during the year, two at, the egin-.
ning, and sophomore reps in the

spring. They should only “be elected °

to the ipso facto organizations, “Other-
wise, freshmen should run as reps
from; their halls stone: with the
upperelag®men.

“ Perhaps a totaley diftonentt solu-
tion would be preferable—but I

submit.a. plea for badly needed. Tex.

form. :
Caroline Roosevelt
_ President of the Tyecianen Class

“|manent officers: at-a third-meeting, — ---

\