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| Friday, September 22, 1967

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THE COLLEGE NEWS -



: College Seeks Diversity. Quality

In Each Potential Freshman

‘*We get diversity without trying
to get it,” said Miss Vermey,
Director of Admissions for. the
College, summing up the college’s
lack-of-overall-policy admissions
policy, in a recent interview.

The Admissions Committee con-
sists: of Miss Vermey, six faculty
members selected by nominations
from the faculty.committee, who

_ serve: three year terms, and Mrs.

Marshall and Miss McBride as ex-
officio members. Last year the
faculty members were Mr. Patten
(English), Mr. Schneider (Soci-
ology), Mr. Varimbi (Chemistry),
Miss Ulfelter (Latin), Miss Good-
ale (Anthropology), and Mr. Bur-
lin (English),

The faculty reads all the appli-
cants’ folders and devotes a lot
of time and hard work to admis-
sions, according to members of
the committee. Bryn Mawr is un-
usual in having the faculty play
such an important role in ad-
missions, ‘for it is they, essen-
tially, who select the new class.

The Committee demands no set
standards in the students it choos-
es for Bryn Mawr. Each member
ae to get to know the individ-

ual applicant. Yet the members
of the committee do have widely
ranging perspectives on the Bryn
Mawr student body. They recog-
nize some common qualities to
be looked for in students. But
they see these qualities expressed
differently by every Bryn Mawr
girl.

An intellectual spirit or ‘‘alive-
ness,” along with academic per-
formance, is sought in students,
according to Miss Vermey. Cur-
josity in a girl’s studies: and life
is. not shown just by marks, said
Miss Vermey. It canbe seen in
‘@-'teacher’s reaction tothe stu-
dent, in a-personal interview, and
in. what the student writes about
herself.

Although academic ‘curiosity is
a@ factor which plays through all
applicant cases, each studentdem-
onstrates her eagerness to learn
in a distinct way.

fem

i Mummified Cats

’ Miss Vermey gave hypothetical
examples of a girl’s excitement
in learning. One applicant was
interested in archeology since the

third grade, read voraciously in ,

it, and even mummified a cat.

“T think that girl really had a lot
.of curiosity,’’ said Miss Vermey.
Another girl spent her interview

sae about mystery stories. She
an enthusiastic response

4o, the world which would be re-
7 sree in her work, explained
Miss Vermey. Another - student was

A about what she wanted
“to do, and had developed all her
interests equally. But she becomes
“absorbed in what she is doing

— reading all through Hemming-

“way until she exhausts him, for §

example -- although there is no
design to her activities.
Academic excellence is an ob-

vious and universal quality to look
for in new students, thought Mr.
Patten. He talked about his unique
view on what academic excellence
in a student means.

He defined academic excellence
in terms of the response of a stu-
dent, with something inside her-

self, to the excitement of a pro-

fessor in his field. Mr. Patten
looks for a student who has come
alive and responded to a stimu-
lus from a teacher, or from the
inherent appeal of a certain sub-
ject.

She should have the self-
discipline to carry her excite-
ment to learn into the actual
digging out of information and
ideas. At the same time she
should possess imagination to dis-
cover the most efficient why of
dealing with the subject matter
she is given, of discovering short
cuts and connections. |

A retentive and/logical mind is
helpful in a student. Finally, ‘‘in-
tellectual wattage’’ or sheer per-
ception of the world is necessary.

These qualities should be mainly
focused on academics, Mr. Patten
thought. But it is good that some
of a student’s energies are left
over after studies. An excitement
in the life of the mind doesn’t
exist only in a relationship be-
tween the student and books, but
in many aspects of life -- in art
and music for example. If you
are really ‘‘turned on’? by some-
thing, Mr. Patten explained, the
excitement spills over into what-
ever you are doing.

Yet it is not right to exclude a
girl who holds a love of one thing.
A student who never does anything
but. work math problems may be
on. the track of an important dis-
covery. She is also exemplifying
another quality -- concentration
-- which is of value, too.

Finally, it is good if a girl’s
response to various subjects and
activities is tied together by a re-
flectiveness, by some goals which
lend structure to her life, and
which show an inner penetration
of the outside world.

‘*The students will keep Bryn
Mawr the way it is or change it to
something else,’’ claimed Mr.
Schneider, emphasizing the im-
portance of change in an acad-
demically excellent educational.

Pizzazz

‘¢Quality in a girl’ I can only
call pizzazz, flair, vitality,’’ he
continued. We get all the ‘‘good
students’? we want, Mr. Schneider
claimed. It is a question not of
who is academically fit, but who
is selected from all the aca-
demically fit applicants.

It is vital that students not only
do their work, but flavor their
Bryn Mawr experience with their
own talent. They should make use
of their education in their own way,
and contribute to it. The college
must ask itself not only what it
can do for its students, but what
they can give to it. It is hard to_





photo | by Steve Faust

- The bookstore w was one long line this week.



determine which students have
something special to give to the
school, with only interviews and
recommendations to go on, Mr.
Schneider said.

Secondly, Mr. Schneider thought
that the Bryn Mawr student body
should approach a representation
of the student generation. Girls
who have had psychiatric upsets
or hpi “a should not automat-
ically be rejected, for this kind of
experience is part of the new gen-
eration. Bryn Mawr has full rep-
resentation of the quiet passive
student, who has always done well
in school, but who has perhaps
never. questioned the purpose of
what she is doing, and made learn-
ing relevant and useful to herself
and the people around her, claim-
ed Mr. Schneider.

Students should challenge them-
selves by asking, ‘‘What do I want
to know about myself and my
times?”’ and ‘‘What am I here
for?’’ After thinking about these
questions, they will be better able
to design-and demand the educa-
tion they want and need.

Creativity .

* “Learning should be an intense
and immediate concern, some-
thing that becomes a part of you,
even if it shakes the hell out of

you -- it’s not just something you~ .

DO,” said Mr. Schneider. Students
should be more than institutional-
ists who follow along and take the
courses they’re supposed to take.
“This is not a call for creativity
in its own right,” he explained.
“I mean creativity in the literal
sense, that the education becomes
creative, that it changes the stu-
dent. It should incite self-aware-
ness, self-questioning, even dis-
content.

Education is a bringing to con-
sciousness,’’ he concluded, not
an obstacle course of things to
be learned compulsively.

Mr. Varimbi advocated the di-
versity of students which a faculty
committee of different views
reading all applications makes
possible. The various members of
the Committee have certain biases,
and see merit in different things.
‘“‘For example,’’ said Mr. Varimbi,
“as a scientist, I might favor a
student who had achieved a lot in

Academic Rules
Reprinted, Given
To All Students

The revised academic rules
for undergraduates has been print-
ed and is being distributed
to students this week, >

It contains the rules for
exams and papers, requirements
for graduation, and standards of
work drawn up by the faculty in
the first section, The second sec-
tion is devoted to the academic.
honor system, The honor system is
formulated by the students and
accepted by the faculty,

This section includes several
new paragraphs on the self-
scheduled exam system to
go into operation this winter, In-
stead of the Haverford phrase
about not divulging ‘‘form, con-
tent or degree of difficulty”
of an exam the exam
period, the Bryn Mawr student
must not discuss the ‘‘nature,
length or degree of difficulty”
of the exam.

The penalties for breaking
the academic rules of the college
range from cancellation of part
or all of a course, or suspension
or. expulsion from the college,

SP ncn tom on penaltiés are made

by the Administrative Board,
which consists of the Self-Gov
Executive Board, three faculty
a

fe ef

Harriet Leach is growing up.










































by Steve



‘science, but was less interested
in English.’’

Any more “efficient’’ system
which would cut down the work
of the Admissions Committee by
judging applications in terms of
‘fixed demands and by using the
faculty committee only in ‘“‘doubt-
ful’? cases is unjust. When a col-
lege invents a pattern for the type
of students it wants in a class, it
creates an artifical diversity.
This is the trend in many colleges
today, Mr, Varimbi claimed.

Academic talent and perform-
ance are keys in the acceptance
of students at Bryn Mawr and a
variety of girls are bound to come
naturally. It is better for a class
to be a little unbalanced than for
the Committee to arrange a model
of balance. ‘‘The orchestra sounds
better if you have a bassoon,”’
Mr. Varimbi quipped, ‘‘but the
college will survive a year or two
without one.’’

Mrs. Marshall,, an ex-officio
member of the Committee explain-
ed how terribly complicated ad-
‘missions are. It is, for example,
difficult to understand a student’s
background and recommendations



Open Undergrad
Meeting
Monday
7:15

f

College Bowl ...

(Continued from page 1)

urge everyone to come to the first
try-out meeting on Tuesday
night, and to think of students
who might do especially well in
the game, According to Mr, Pat-
ten, this is a _ time when
students should recall their school
spirit and move themselves
to actively stand up for
the Bryn Mawr team’s efforts,

Would-be contestants will write
down answers to 100 questions
prepared and read aloud by Mr.,.
Patten; each girl will then cor-
rect her own paper as Mr, Patten







reads aloud the correct answers,

Later’ on Mr, Michols
may set up a buzzer system
for team practice, and Haverford
may be invited to offer a mock
team for competition,

i Kathy Murphey

if the Committee is not familiar
with her school.

She thought that in general a
Bryn Mawr student should be per=
sonally strong and academically
able; emotionally sound and hon-
est as well as intelligent.

Diversity is important in the
student body and in each student’s
life. If a girl has a passion for
Greek poetry and studies nothing
else, however, she is welcomed,

too.
Kathy Murphey

National Mobilization,
Draft Resistance,

Plays To Be Planned

Opportunities to work against
the war in Vietnam will be ex-
amined and discussed in an
opening meeting next Sunday
evening at 8 p,m, in Erdman’s
living room,

Three projects were partially
developed during the summer, The
first is working with Ann Davidon,
wife of a Haverford physics pro-
fessor, on the International
Vietnam Theater, in conjunction
with the Angry Arts and the Phila-
delphia : Street Players in wrfit-
ing and putting on anti-
war plays to be shown in the
Philadelphia and Main Line area,
Mrs, Davidon will be at the meet-
ing to explain more fully,

Second is a draft resistance
movement, which probably would
involve leafletting the high schools,
In the same field, but with dif-
ferent aims, is draft counseling,

Third is publicity and planning
for the October 21 Mobilization in
Washington, D.C, at the Pentagon,
Busses are available through the
National Mobilization for $6 round
trip, Scholarships are available,

Students, professors, and any-
one else who is _ interested
in these three projects or any
others are invited to attend, People
who. worked for Vietnam Sum-
mer or some other group
and have had experience writing
flyers, distributing leaflets, and
talking to people about either
the draft or the war are especial-
ly ~ wel The activities
discussed at the meeting will be
under the general auspicis of the
Vietnam Summer project that
operated on the Main Line this
summer,

=