3

Wednesday, April 20, 1955

“THE COLLEGE NEWS

Page Three



Parents Appraise Life At Bryn Mawr: Sample Lectures,
Teas, Panels, Enjoy Chorus Concert And Fine Weather

President Describes BMC’s Make-up,
Brings Out Independence Of Students

Bryn Mawr Curriculum
Contains 3 Types
Of Courses

One of the panel discussions of-
ficially opening Parents’ Day, Sat-
urday, April 16, was the session
on the undergraduate curriculum,
held in the Music Room of -Good-
hart.

Dean Dorothy N. Marshall open-
ed the discussion with* some gen-
eral information about the plan of
study at Bryn Mawr. The courses,
she said, include three types: those
required for the A.B. degree, those
taken in the major field, and a few
free electives.

Two main subjects of contro-
versy regarding the course of.
study are #he direction of study,
“from the specific to the general,”
and the unusually large number of
courses required in most major
fields.

Anne Haywood, a chemistry ma-
jor, discussed the controversy over
the number of courses taken each
year. She said, in her opinion, the
specialization resulting from the
heavy major led to greater co-ordi-
nation among all subjects.

Habits of Thinking,

Professor Walter C. ichels
spoke in defense of Pe gon
major. The main purpose of a col-
lege education, he said, must be to
learn habits of thinking, and we
cannot do this through superfiicial
thinking.

He told of one physics major
who had asked him what he ex-
pected of his students after four
years of physics. His reply was

that a great deal of detailed infor-

mation was needed for the final ex-
aminations, but that any course of
study, primarily, should enable a}

student to recognize the nature of | opments.

a logical argument, and to read a
book.



Teaching And Research
Most Valuable
Combined

Teaching and research have al-
ways been carried on simultane-
ously by the Bryn Mawr faculty.
‘A panel discussion led by Mrs.
Manning and participated in by
Mr. Berry, ‘Dean Bliss of the grad-
uate school, and Miss Lang consid-
ered the value of this two-fold ac-
tivity for student and teacher.

M. Carey Thomas, Mrs. Manning
reported, had two aims in mind in
founding the college: to make
Bryn Mawr better than Harvard,
and to choose the faculty on the
basis of their academic calibre
and not on their personal charm or
wit,(To do this with no money
she would stay up late reading the
theses of “red-hot Ph.D.’s so that
she could get them young and
cheap’). The result was a combin-
ation of teaching and individual
scholarship from the faculty, en-
couraged by the college.

The contribution of this research
to Bryn Mawr was discussed by
Dean Bliss specifically relating to
the graduate school, and by the
other two professors in relation to
their personal attempts to inte-
grate teaching and reséarch.

Dean Bliss feels that the one-
fifth of the student body which
makes up the graduate school has
always made a valuable contriqu-
tion to the education of the unde
graduate at Bryn Mawr. se
graduate students. have a strong
influence on the calibre of teach-
ing, not only because the faculty
likes teaching students with a sin-
gle-minded interest in their fields,
but because it keeps them on their

toes and abreast_of current devel-
a

Secondly, the extra facilities re-
quired for the academic work ‘of

Judith Catlin, a Russian major, the graduate students add to the
brought out that some students re- equipment of the rest of the Col-

gretted the lack of an “area stud- lege.

Continued @age 5, Col. 2

Our library and laboratory
Continued Page 5, Col. 3



Wilson, Progressives, Recommended
Gov't. Aid For Freedom, Individualism ©

As part of the Parents’ Day pro-
gram, Mr. Dudden spoke on
“Woodrow Wilson and the Progres-
sive Era.” The Progressive move-
ment grew out of the feeling of
the people that the “new America
was somehow short-changing the
old ideals of American democracy.”
Farmers’ problems, monopolies and
trusts, slums, wages and hours dis-
putes and government corruption
caused this feeling.

The old idea of liberalism meant
“hands off of private property,”
and in the Jeffersonian sense was
equated with the idea of the least
possible government. Progressives
felt that this was no good for the
20th century. One must make use
of the democratic machinery to|.
achieve freedom and individualism.
The question was, how far can this
go before socialism begins?

‘Writers and Movements

Early Progressives were mainly
writers, who investigated and de-
scribed corruption in industry and
government. Also important were
the Granger movement, Knights of
Labor, and Populist Party. The
movement, which began on a local
level, “percolated upward” to the
national level and was bi-partisan.

While Teddy Roosevelt, the pro-
gressive, was engaged in trust-
busting activities around 1905,
Woodrow Wilson, the liberal, was
still in the midst of his academic

career. Of his stay at Bryn Mawr,
he said that teaching women “re-
laxes one’s mental muscle.” In
1910 Wilson became governor of
New Jersey, the most corrupt state
in the Union at that time, and
cleaned up the government. This
immediately made him a leading
contender for the presidency.

' Moved-“The Minds of Men”

In 1912 Taft was up for re-elec-
tion on the Republican ticket;
Roosevelt, advocating a “new na-
tionalism,” was backed by a pro-
gressive splinter of the Republic-
ans; the Socialists nominated Eu-
gene Debs; and the Democrats put
up Wilson on a™‘new freedom”
platform. Wilson,\who had ‘an
“astonishing power tg move the
minds of men,” won the\election.

This first administratidn was de-
voted to internal improvements.
The tariff was lowered,. and the
Federal Reserve system and Clay-






ton Anti-Trust-Act-were instituted.)

By 1916, Wilson was running on
a slogan of “He kept us out of
war,” and the issue was neutrality,
not progressivism. The imminence
of our entrance into the war ended
the Progressive movement for the
time being, However, the era left
behind the idea of the strong ex-
ecutive and the paternalistic pro-
gram of a welfare state. The new
freedom for the individual had be-
come strangely like Roosevelt’s



new nationalism. -

‘according to “Weezie”







About 225 parents attended
Bryn Mawr’s second Parents Day,
Simpson, |
chairman of the Parents Day Com-'
mittee. Of these, most came from
the East Coast, with about two-
thirds from New York.

The general feeling seems to be
that Parents Day was a great suc-
cess. “The high point of the day
was definitely the afternoon ses-
sions”, explained Weezie, and it is
thought that perhaps next time
there might be opportunities to go
to more sessions.

Weezie noted that she and Mrs.
Paul were quite pleased with the
number of students working on
Parents Day, altogether between
100 and 150. She also wants to
thank the faculty committee. mem-
bers, Mr. Green, Miss Mellink and
Mr. Michels, and the faculty mem-
bers who were willing to give a
“Saturday lecture’.

The only catastrophe of the day
was the serving of “salt instead of

|
iene in the Deanery tea.”



“Turning to the student ‘as an
adult person who should be learn-
ing to make her own decisions,”
was the theme when President
Katharine McBride spoke to the
parents at 12:00 p.m. in Goodhart.
She explained “why we do- what
we do.”

Academically, perhaps the stu-
dent should have all the independ-
ence she can take. A professor will
tell her when he thinks a project
will lead to a dead end, but let her
make the choice and help her with
what she chooses. This may mean
that..a-professor-is--working on-as
many projects as he has students.
“Nothing is so demanding of fac-
ulty time,” said Miss McBride who
considers this policy “wel worth-
while.”

In addition, faculty members
also work on their own research.



Climate Change Explains Collapse

Of Some Mediterranean Civilizations

The profound, but often neglect- } present excavations may show

ed, influence of climate upon civi-
lization was the central theme of
“Climate and Civilization”, a Par-
ents’ Day lecture by Dr. Rhys Car-
penter in Dalton Hall.

Dr. Carpenter cited three “aston-
ishingly heavy effects” of climate
on comparatively modern civiliza-
tions: 1) The dust bowl of the
Southwestern United States; 2)
the glaciation of Iceland, which did
not have ice when it was discover-
ed; and 3) the glaciation of Green-
land, which drove out a Norse col-
ony, and which is now receding.

However, Dr .Carpenter showed
the relationship between climate
and civilization most extensively in
the Mediterranean region, for
whith he has developed a new
theory not yet accepted by his
archaeological colleagues, |

Today there is no rain in the
Eastern Mediterranean region dur- |
ing the summer, although it does
rain during the winter. This con-
dition results from the same cause
as the lack of rain in the Sahara
desert: the action of the air and
winds which rise from the Equator.
In effect, the Sahara desert moves
up into the region of eastern
Greece during the summer, and
the land is terribly arid.

The cause of the former lush-
ness in desert regions, Dr. Carpen-
ter attributes to the ice sheets
during the Ice Age. As they moved
south, they pushed the temperate
climactic belt south until it reach-
ed the present Sahara _ region.

Then, as the ice retreated, the rain- |

bearing climactic belt moved
north, and the civilization was de-
stroyed.

However, “it is possible to imag-
ine” that even more ice melted.
This, said Dr. Carpenter, “ought to
make more Sahara” over southern
Europe, and this assumption seems
true as evidence indicates that in
5000 B.C. southern Europe was
warmer than it is now.

constant? questioned Dr. Carpen-
ter. Although scientists do not
know“if climate is cyclic, there is
further evidence of the similar in-
fluence of climate on civilization
in the Mediterranean.

For instance, in 1200 B.C. the
great civiilzation of the Greeks
and the Hittites in the Eastern
Mediterranean collapsed suddenly.
Dr. Carpenter listed and discarded
the possible reasons for this col-

lapse: “Political reasons ae de



Is this profound climactic change’

barbarians destroyed the Hittite
empire) don’t hitch up to the facts,
economic explanations don’t make
sense.”

Moreover, Dr. Carpenter went
on, the plague doesn’t seem to be
the answer, Thus he has concluded
that drought brought about by
climactic change, struck the region
and the people-were forced to de-
sert it suddenly, ruining their civi-
lization. The climate’ may have
led to the disintegration of the Ro-
man Empire, also. For as polar
ice melts, the waters of the Medi-
terranean rise, and this exerts such
an influence upon the climate that
drought conditions result. In 600
A.D., as in 1200 B.C., these high
water and drought conditions were
present, and in 600 A. D., the weak-
ened Roman Empire began to col-
lapse.

This gives. the professor a “knowl-
edge of what is possible in advanc-
ing fields of study not available in
any other way.”

Policy making and operations re-
lating to social life are shared by
the College staff and_ Self-Gov.
Deans and wardens along with spe-
cialists, including physicians, psy-
chologists and vocational advisors,
know the student well enough to
help her when she needs it, wheth-
er she is aware of the need or not.

“Selected Group”

Self-Gov. is successful._because
the students are “a pretty highly
selected group” and “enough stu-
dents care” to make it work well.

“We talk with them and offer
suggestions,’ said Miss McBride.
“Often enough I find the student
proposal was the better,” she con-
tinued. “Their knowledge of their
own group. is closer and more ac-
curate than mine.”

Bryn Mawr’s students run many
college activities, including some
managed by staff officers in other
colleges. They are entirely re-
sponsible for the Freshman Week
program “and we think it goes
very Well.”

In (addition there are activities
like current events and_ sports.
Some students participate in many
of these. A few join none. “My
own theory,” said Miss McBride,
‘fs that each student should be in-
terested and active in oné”

Respect Strong
Bryn Mawvr’s relation to its stu-

dents is one of “respect, ‘‘note-
worthy here... because it is
so strong.” The second aspect of

the relationship is high expecta-
tion. M. Carey Thomas realized
that this spurs the student to high
achievement before psychologists
advanced the theory. Her view
was that the students wanted not °



the easiest but the best.



Joseph C. Sloane Discusses Manet,

Pivotal Figur

The sample Parents’ Day lecture
in History of Art given by Dr.
Sloane, concerned Manet, “one of
the most pivotal figures in modern
art”. Before embarking upon the
theme of the lecture, “Manet and
His Critics”, Dr. Sloane offered
some background information.

The middle part of the 19th cen-
tury had seen painting dominated
by the two schools of Ingres and
Delacroix. Both these artists were
what could be called “history paint-
ers”, They took their subjects
from the Bible, antiquity, mythol-
ogy, employing no modern ones.

However, as art came more and
more into the possession of a mid-
dle class not well versed in artis-
tic values, these “antiquity paint-
ers” were soon found to be out of
touch with the times. The problem
thus. created was how to adjust art
to the rapidly changing demands
of society.

“Ina way, the first solution was

provided by the reaiist, Courbet,
who eventually made the gallery
goers realize that what was im-
portant was not what the picture
was about, but how it was handled.

In this realm excelled Manet,
who inherited the -avant-garde
leadership from Courbet. Manet
favored realism, but not dramatic
pictures. For him, a painting was
not an interpretation of human ac-
tion, but simply “art for art’s
sake”,





e In Modern Painting

If Manet painted a dead bull
fighter, he did not wish people to
wonder what -had happened. For
Manet there was no story. This
was simplywa man in bullfighter’s
clothes, lying prostrate upon the

ground. The important point in
Manet’s art was what it was, “in
and out of itself, and not what it
told about people”.

An incident caused. by Manet’s
“art for art’s sake” was the ban-
ning of his painting of the execu-
tion by Mexican troops of the
French - installed puppet - emperor,
Maximililan. Manet, as always, not
caring for the story behind a pic-
ture, had used soldiers wearing
French uniforms as models, thus
depicting French soldiers execut-
ing Maximillian. The French gov-
ernment, feeling itself largely re-
sponsible for Maximillian’s death,
felt that Manet deli
ed a French firing squad and not a
Mexican one, thus implying that
the French had caused the emper-
or’s death. :

Manet considered a work of art
as a “thing to be-vatued for what
is in it and not outside of it”. He
was a “modern” because he was
“one of the first to throw subject
matter overboard”. Like many of
those who are the first to point the
way in a new direction, he suffered
greatly; in his case, at the hands
of the critics and the public.



rately show-. .