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College news, December 1, 1967
Bryn Mawr College student newspaper. Merged with Haverford News, News (Bryn Mawr College); Published weekly (except holidays) during academic year.
Bryn Mawr College (creator)
1967-12-01
serial
Weekly
4 pages
digitized microfilm
North and Central America--United States--Pennsylvania--Montgomery--Bryn Mawr
Vol. 54, No. 10
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-vol54-no10
THE COLLEGE NEWS
Friday, December 1, 1967_
THE COLLEGE NEWS
Gitar be. 68
Managing Editor
Nancy Miller "69
Photographic Editor
Marian Schever '70
Associate Editors
Robin Brantley '69, Kathy. Murphey "69
Editorial Board
Cookie Poplin '69
Advertising Manager
Valerie Hawkins °69 Adrienne Rossner "69
Business Manager
Ellen Saftlas °70
Subscription Managers
Sue Auerbach '71, Alice Rosenblum ’71
Subscriptions $3.00 -- Mailing price $5.00 -- Sub- :
scriptions may begin at any time.
COLLEGE NEWS is entered as second class matter
at the Wayne, Penna, Post Office under the act of
March 3, 1879. « ~
Founded in 1914 3
Published weekly during the college year except during
vacations arid exam. periods.
The College News is fully protected by copyright.
Nothing that appears in it may be reprinted wholly or in
part without permission of the Editor-in-Chief.
“Gaean —
“The college is really out of it.” “tts not relevant to my life;
what’s really important is happening outside.’’ ‘‘I don’t feel like a
member of any community here.’’ ‘‘Here there is no community.”’
The observation that students are alienated from Bryn Mawr (see
article to right) strikes a devastating blow to the alleged purpose of
* this college. Many members of both the student body and the admin-
istration are fond of reciting the well-known rhetoric extolling the
advantages of a small college: itisareal community, everyone cares
what everyone else is doing, people know each other, we all live and
work together on projects of mutual interest, ad nauseam,
A question now has arisen about the validity of that description of
Bryn Mawr. Ironically, it has been raised by someone who is perhaps
most involved with what many would say is the center of the Bryn
Mawr community, the social and academic honor systems. The aliena
tion and fragmentation she has found is very disturbing.
Perhaps however, this. center is really empty: the reason for this
alienation is that there actually is nothing meaningful and unique here
for students to build a community around, Maybe many students do not
care to make Bryn Mawr anything more than a series of classroom
lectures that will be attended only when they do not conflict with more
preferred activities,
If this is true (and the NEWS is not now suggesting that it is) then
there is no reason for Bryn Mawr tocontinue to frown on off-campus
living. There is no reason to increase Undergrad dues for activities
that no one is interested in participating in, let alone paying for. There
is no reason to pretend that Bryn Mawr is a community.
If, on the other hand, this is not the true situation, and there IS a
core of mutual experiences (both in and outside class) that can be
called Bryn Mawr, now is the time to find out why some students
are not experiencing it, and feel alienated from it.
The NEWS is not even sure that there is agreement on the value of
having a Bryn Mawr community. Assuming, however, that there is
such agreement, we would like to see some serious thinking, talking,
and writing done on several related questions:
one
bo
cesecece
raeceaeaectaee
l.Is rea comnrunity at Bryn Mawr?
2. If <’-re is, how can students who are now alienated from it be
brought into it?
3. Uf there is not, how can one be developed?
Iniquity
Better late than never: Marriott is. at long last permitting charges
at the College Inn, It is welcome news that the company has finally
abandoned its farcical policy of ‘‘student protection” for a more real-
istic system of student convenience,
It would be gratifying, however, if the Inn were open on a regular
basis for the students to enjoy their new liberty. Theoretically, it is;
theoretically the Inn is student-run from 9:30 to 12 every weekday
night,
Yet never does the week go by that at least one student fails to
appear, These girls are paid (and paid well: $2,50 an hour) simply to
open. the building and serve food, When it does not suit them, they do
not show up, This lack of responsibility is (a) annoying to thé other
students, who are deprived of the Inn’s services. and (b) unfair to
Marriott, which loses an evening’s business,
Furthermore, when the College Inn is open, rarely is it run to
anyone’s satisfaction, There is an incompleteness about the food
served, One student, for example, ordered soup and asked for crackers
with it -- not an outrageous demand, No, she was told, the crackers
are downstairs in the storeroom. Why is the storeroom so inaccess-
ible? If it is, why was the cracker supply not checked beforehand?
Yet in spite of the fact that the Inn keeps irregular hours and is
poorly run, it manages to have the highest prices around, A ‘‘Jumbo
Cheeseburger”’ (in itself a misleading name, as there is no ‘‘Normal”’
or ‘*Mini’’ cheeseburger alternative) is 55¢. It is simply hamburger,
cheese, and bread, At the Blu Comet, acheeseburger for 65¢ includes
lettuce, tomatoes, onions, relish and french fried potatoes. Why
should Marriott make a vast profit on the College Inn? It is enough that
it makes a healthy sum on catering tothe dorms -- where the quality
of food served often drives students to the Inn for sustenance,
‘Bryn Mawr students were presented with an all-new College Inn
this fall, The decor sacrificed a degree of charm-.for gleaming
K.B..
Viewpoint:
§
Alienation Plagues Campus
In last year’s discussions about
the proposed Self Gov constitu-
. tional revisions, students support-
ing change emphasized that re-
strictions discourage the in-
dividual questioning of values and
ideas which leads to the estab-
lishment of a viable individual
ethical system. Only in the midst
of such questioning can we main-
tain a vigorous and dynamic com-
munity, Certainly, an excess of
rules is not conducive to an at-
* mosphere in which individuals
question and grow together.
: Absence of Rules:
However, the absence of rules
does not in itself guarantee the |
vigorous community we all en-
visioned in our discussions last
spring. The institution over the
past few years of unlimited class
cuts) driving privileges, and later
hours s made it possible for
students to spend an increasing
part of their college life involved
in activities outside of Bryn Mawr.
Potentially, this situation has great
value for Bryn’ Mawr,- for stu-
dents. now have more to contribute
to each other and to the group as
a whole. I think, though, that the
very reverse may be the result
of the changes which have been
taking place here over the past
seven or eight years. The com-
munity is: becoming increasingly
fragmented.
The rule changes have given
us what might be called a nega-
tive freedom, a liberation FROM
restraint, but we have: not yet
decided as a group what the posi-
tive communal aspects of ‘this
new freedom are to be. We know
what we are free from having to
do; we have not yet decided what
we are free TO DO, what our
responsibilities are to ourselves,
to each other, and to Bryn Mawr.
I do not mean to imply that a
series of implicit regulations and
duties should replace the former
explicit ones, for it is impossi-
ble to legislate a community into
being. On an individual level, the
pasis for this positive use of
freedom is a constant searching
-on the part of each student for the
value system, the internal set of
rules, which she believes to be
that of a decent human being. The
‘responsibility of the group as a
whole to each individual is to main-
tain an atmosphere in which she
may choose her values free of
pressure from those around her.
A positive communal use of free- .
dom requires in addition a re- .
sponsibility of each individual to
the group. This requirement can ©
be met only when every student is
concerned about what Bryn Mawr
is to be.
At present, no such concern
exists. A majority of undergrad-
uates feels, I believe, an aliena-
tion from Bryn Mawr and a less-
than-deep involvement in their
academié and other occupations
here. As a result, they seek mean-
ing elsewhere, and feel little at-
tachment to Bryn Mawr or re-
sponsibility toward developing a
real community here. If we are
not to exploit the opportunities
inherent in our living together as
a group, the essence of Bryn Mawr
as a residential college has little
significance.
Superficial Manifestations
The Self Gov Boards, as_ they
have been operating until now,
have dealt chiefly with the super-
ficial manifestations of this frag-
mentation and dissatisfaction. We
can deal with rulebreakers; we
can worry. about excessive drug
use. These problems are, how-
ever, only symptoms of some- .
« thing much more basic that is
wrong. An individual who feels
content and creative in his every-
day life does nof need constantly
to escape into a drug euphoria,
and does not develop a psycholog-
ical dependence on drugs.
The Self Gov Boards this year
have tried to include the student
body as a whole in the Self Gov
decision-making processes by
holding open meetings on impor-
tant questions and by printing ex-
tensive discussions of policy in
‘the NEWS, If students believed that
Letters to the Editor
Tact of Course
To the Editor:
There is a way to criticize
while being tactful. The course
evaluation sheet seems to have
been written in some places by
people who do not know anything
of these two qualities. In a num-
ber of cases the compiled com-
ments were vindictive and destruc-
tive rather than constructive. I
think that in some cases a eee
ple most eager to respond were
those who disliked the course the
most and were eager to take crack
shots at their ‘“tormenters.” In
many instances the comments re-
corded showed a complete lack of.
humanity and feeling, even though
the criticisms may be somewhat
. valid.
It is necessary to have some
way of communicating student feel-
ings about courses to the profes-
sors, but it should not have to
descend to the level af personal
insults and disrespect.
Lois Portnoy °68 |
To the Editor:
I am writing to correct an er-
ror made about me in the Novem-
ber 17 issue of the COLLEGE
NEWS,
Im the eittor’s note to an arti-
cle on Sas Haverford, it
5 modernization, Surely some of this new efficiency could-extend to — reo
ic ananaremci at ;
This week's inbhiinie from the Marriott paychecks:
“The Aim of Education Is Action, Not Kno
article. I wrote it because I felt
that many students were being
cheated by the present policy (or
non-policy, perhaps). I never in-
tended to use myself as the focal
point of the argument, and I hope
that students did not read it witb
that impression,
Sally Dimschultz ’70
FREE Slates March
On Main Line District
A march from the Suburban
Theater in Ardmore to the Main
Line Board of Realtors in Bryn
Mawr will occur this Saturday,
December 2, at 10 a.m., under
the sponsorship of Project FREE
(For Real Estate Equality)
The purpose of the march is to
put pressure on the Board of
Realtors to cease discriminatory
practices against non-whites who
seek housing on the Main Line.
Project FREE was founded two
years ago, and is comprised of
housewives, clergymen, college
students, and businessmen, most
of whom live along the Main Line.
FREE is demanding that the
board give equal service to all
home-seekers, that it refuse to
accept discriminatory listings, and
that it co-operate with and share
real estate commissions with non-
discriminatory brokers.
It is specifically demanding that
the board Sead to meet the housing
they had an important role in their.
own government, we thought, they
might feel less alienated from
Bryn Mawr and find a construc-
tive role to play within it.' Even
if this effort on our part has had
some success -- and EF am not
at all sure this is so -- it is but
a very small part of what needs
to be done.
If students are to feel them-
selves a part of a community at
Bryn Mawr, they must be able
to find here meaningful endeavor
which they share with.other mem-
bers of the community. ‘Students
seldom discuss academic mat-
ters except the night before a
test. Why is there such a current
of anti-intellectualism? What
changes could we make in the
academic program at Bryn Mawr
that would make students find more
significance in what is, after all,
the purpose of their presence here?
Where is the new creative arts
program for which money has been
appropriated? Should we_ not
examine again the reasons for
the divorce of creative arts and~
academics?
, Community Disintegration
we are to discover the foun-
dations of the disintegration of
community at Bryn Mawr, we must
ask sweeping questions about the
nature and philosophy of the Col-
lege, the student government, the
faculty, and the students. Such
questioning seems a beginning to
the only constructive role possible
in the face of what I see asa
disintegration of the purpose of
Bryn Mawr.
Self Gov obviously cannot do
all of this. The problems we see
around us now cannot be dealt
with by the legislative and judi-
cial functions which Self Gov has
performed in the past. I hope that.
we can initiate the radical group
self-examination which I see as
necessary to an attempt to make
Bryn Mavr have a significance as
a community.
Drewdie Gilpin
President, Self Gov
applebee
have you:ever thought about
dropping out? not out of school,
not even out of life really, but
just a sort of physical dropping
out, becoming invisible so that
you wouldn’t have to talk to peo-
ple anymore but could keep on
being around without anyone no-
ticing you.
just think of all the things you
wouldn’t have to worry about if no
one knew you were there: if you
happened to wake up feeling like
you’d spent the night beingdragged —
over rocks, your best friend
wouldn’t get insulted when you
walked glassy-eyed past her in the
hall without speaking. or if you.
walked into a room full of people
and sat down and started reading
‘*time*’? because you didn’t have
anything particularly brilliant you
wanted to say, no one would think
you were being anti-social, or
maybe you had just finished a rough.
afternoon in the geology lab and
what you really wanted to do was
lie on your bed listening to sooth-
ing stereo sounds -- and in walked
lisa to tell you exactly why it was
essential to her moral integrity
to leave bryn mawr and join the
coal miners in appalachia, you
could keep on listening to your
soothing stereo sounds until you |
had recovered because of course
how could she talk to you if you
weren’t there (physically speaking
i mean)?
dropping out (for a week or so
at a time) is probably the answer
-to the world’s: problems. at least
it is to mine. so if you miss my
owl eyes in the dark, don’t get
worried: .i’m still around (spir-
itually speaking). —
; applebee
2