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THE COLLEGE NEWS

Friday, March 3, 1967 _



THE COLLEGE NEWS

; Mlsciaties $ $3.75 ~ Mailing price $5.00 - Subscriptions may begin at any time

Entered as eecont class matter at the Bryn Mawr, Pa. Post Office, under
the Act of March 3, 1879, Application for re-entry at the Bryn Mawr, Pa. Post
Office filed October ist, 1963,

Second Class Postage paid at Bryn ‘Mawr, Pa.
FOUNDED IN 1914

ing, Christmas and Easter holidays, and during examination
pte in the interest of Bryn Mawr College at the R.K. Printing °
Company, Inc., Bryn Mawr, Pa., and Bryn Mawr College.
The College News is fully protected oy copyright. Nothing that appegrs in
it may be reprinted wholly or in part without permission of the- Editor-in-Chief,

a EDITORIAL ‘BOARD
I ky hoe ces ee tev ee tas '. , Christopher Bakke '68
» Managing Editor....... Rea aeieleta bree WEE Cb ele ete Kathy Murphey '69
Copy Editor........ Neeia CRIA 6 9.5 Sew Ooo aoa ees VE Cookie Poplin '69
6) a ah 8 6 oy hee 0s ON A Nancy Miller '69
eo 5 5 oh 5 Fk 46 oe 0 0 eho 0008 'e bb om Janet Oppenheim ’70
‘Contributing Editors...... ¢ sees Nanette Holben 68, Marcia Ringel '68
I NE, ook so oe 6 cl vss 8 OVA Vw we Se Ellen Saftlas 70
Senweription Menager .... 0.0 sce cece tr eenee -, .Mary Ann Spreigel ’68
PMA iy MONG Oe oa aang enn tn an et OAT Ne i Valerie Hawkins '69
en aay CaS eas rarace ar Petee was «+». «Marian Scheuer '70

Offices in the Inn
‘Phone: LA 5-9458

ta



ood

Lecture Board

"This year we -have-an-absence. of candidates-for
Interfaith and a dearth for Alliance. Perhaps the
reason for this lack of enthusiasm in the elections
is not so much campus apathy as the nature of the
two organizations involved,

It is unfair to call Alliance and Interfaith ‘‘nothing’’
organizations. But it is true that they are largely
meant to be alliances of smaller interest groups,
without any definite character or affiliation of their
own,

- But these smaller groups seem a lot more willing
and better able to carry on religious and political
action on campus than the general organizations
which loosely tie them together. There was a series
of complaints at the beginning of this year about
the lack of Jewish-oriented activities in Interfaith,
Finally a few students jumped up and starteda Jewish
discussion. group which now meets regularly... When
Alliance tried last semester to take a poll of stu-

‘dent opinion on the war in Vietnam, it met with

accusations that the distributed questionnaire

was biased and not representative of conservative
roves Most of the political action on campus is
sponsored by groups like the Social Action Com-
mittee, the International * Relations Club, and the
new Committee of Responsibility. They can
act without worrying about reconciling all shades
of opinion at Bryn Mawr.

One valuable function Alliance and Interfaith do
perform consists in providing lectures. However,
many of them are poorly ‘attended. Some of the
Alliance lectures this fall were given to an audience
of two or three, Smaller groups may have
~ wanted to invite speakers in whom they knew their
members were interested. However, the budget of
branch groups under Alliance and Interfaith is gen-
erally limited. The Social Action Committee’s, for
instance, is only $100 a semester, hardly enough to
set up any program of outside speakers.

' We feel that Alliance and Interfaith should be
replaced by a non-partisan board designated to
coordinate lectures, The board would consider re-
quests for speakers from various groups and
individuals, It would delegate funds on the basis
of available money, how many people were interested,
and how many other requests had been made, It
would also fix dates for lectures to keep any one
week from becoming overloaded,

. In this way the Social: Action Committee could
ask for money to hold a teach-in on the CIA, while
the Young Americans for Freedom could discuss the

read of communism in Latin America. Eachcampus
group would have equal claims on the lecture board,
| If more people were curious about Zen Buddhism

_. than about early Quakerism, the lectures would

a ‘reflect this tendency.

Alliance and Interfaith can’t manufacture enthusiasm.
on campus, Furthermore both organizations are
forced to constantly worry about taking a partisan
stand on issues, and even about choosing issues,

_ Students can’t expect Alliance and Interfaith to guess.
ee oe menemated in a: then turn Bien esena hs al





"

Letters to the Editor



i) ¥ * Published weekly during the College Year except during Thanks- |
sie



Interfaith Is Dead

To the Editor:

No one has accepted the nom-
ination for the presidency of In-
terfaith, Approximately ten stu--

4-dents' were nominated and de-

clined, not because they are not
interested, but because they are
involved in other activities, For
this reason, the Interfaith Board
decided last week that an Inter-
faith committee under the auspices
of- Undergrad should be tried at
least for a year, The issue will
be brought up-and settled at-the
March 6th meeting of Undergrad,

This year Interfaith has concen- .

trated mainly on the lecture ser-
ies and has tried to present topics
of universal interest, Interfaith
has not, however, started any dis-
cussions of an ecumenical nature,
either on campus or with other
schools, A committee could be
set up so that the work in both
these areas would be divided, For
example, there might be two people
to set up and carry out the lecture
series, two to maintain contacts
with the local churches and co-
ordinate denominational groups on
campus, two to establish contacts
with other schools, and two to
handle publicity, A chairmanwould
be responsible for coordinating the
committee, calling meetings, go-
ing to Undergrad meetings, etc.;
she would be elected by the com-
mittee, For such a committee to
be effective, its members must be
committed and willing to think of
new ideas and carry them out,
Hopefully a committee such as
this will give Interfaith enough
flexibility so that it can re-evalu-
ate its whole structure and, there-
by, better serve students’ inter-

ests,
Madeleine Sloane ’68





News Crisis

To the Editor:

In connection with this week’s
editorial I would like to submit that
I find it intensely humiliating to
have to concede that a news or-
gan attached to a school such as
Bryn Mawr should have to strug-
gle to maintain its very existence,
Whether the funds for the sup-
port of the College News should
be extracted from Undergrad or
from the administration itself is
of little relevance in the long run.

What is infinitely more significant

is the fact that the responsibility
for the financial difficulties of the
NEWS rests with the students them-
selves, with those very individuals
who are most intimately benefited
by its presence,

The obvious lack of active par-
ticipation in the construct of the
college paper can perhaps be’for-
given but not the lack of aware-
ness which manifests itself among
the student body by a shockingly
low number of student subscrip-
tions to the NEWS, If the COL-
LEGE NEWS should disappear from
the campus, its loss would signal
an eloquent reproach to all those
who chose to overlook its value
in a moment of crisis.

Marina Wallach, ’70

Key Fears

To the Editor:

In last week’s COLLEGE NEWS
Debbie Jackson voiced concern
over the attitude behind the present

- demands for increased freedom.



Judy Chapman recognized the need

tor thought and discussion before



equated the Self of Self-Govern-
ment with the individual, This
equation is wrong. Self-Govern-
ment. is the manner in which

“this college community has chosen

to deal with the human problems
which inevitably arise where
people are in contact and possibly
conflict with each other. The Self
of Self-Government refers to
the student body as a whole, a
unit, not to any individual self.
But this does not mean that the
individual self has no place within
our system of government. It means

‘that neither the individual nor the .

.system can operate without mutual
consideration.

Suppose Self-Government is
interpreted as meaning that the
government of each individual
is to ‘be left entirely to that in-
dividual. What will the con-
sequences be? What changes
will occur in the communal aspects
of life here? What will Executive

Board’s job.be? Executive Board. .
will formulate policy in individual |Bella Lisook -

cases. On what grounds? According
to what guidelines? How will Ex-
ecutive Board ever be able
to take any action other than re-
minding an offender of her
responsibilities? Admonitions
alone are impotent--barely heard
and soon forgotten. Will we open
ourselves. to internal conflict due
to the relativity of honor? What
will the Hall President’s job be?
Will. she be unnecessary because
we shall have achieved a utopia
in which there are no rules to
break? Will she assume the re-
sponsibility of holding frequent
meetings at which the spirit of
the system will be made clear?
Would any one come to these
meetings? If you think many people
would be willing to devote them-
selves to the self-examination
necessary to make. this idea work,
please remember the shortness
of memory and lack of response
evident in the mén-in-the-rooms
question.

The government of every indi-
vidual by herself alone tends,
then, to encourage anarchy, Ulti-
mate authority would not rest
with the Executive Board (a lenient
body, always willing to consider
individual circumstances), not with
the Hall President, but with the
individual. The philosophy behind
the suggestions of the Con-
stitutional Revision Committee
is a philosophy of isolationism.
It makes a girl responsible to
herself for her actions and to
herself alone. Responsibility to
others is not thought to be im-
plicit in self-responsibility.

If indeed the student body is
calling for isolationism it should
attack the definition of Bryn Mawr

as a residential college, and stop

merely pretending to support a
system which holds respect. for
the community and responsibility
to that community in high regard,
The plea is--don’t confuse the
issues. Perhaps we would like.to
suggest that the Board of Trustees
reconsider the definition of Bryn
Mawr College. If so, our sug-
gestion--can be made and con-
sidered. But for the present
and the immediate future we dolive
here as a community. And as a
community we cannot afford
to submerge ourselves in the chaos
of freedom from law.

What is true of the student com-
munity is true of the individual;
if she is to preserve an integrity
a wholeness, in her life she cannot
submerge herself in the freedom
from law which is chaos. We
subject our academic work to a
rule of carefulness, thorough-
and thoughtfulness, that
‘freedom WITHIN law. If
ire whole people, the same —

s and principles must be





do not reveal any awareness of the
FACT that, as of now, we do not
live our lives in isolationfrom one
another, nor do they reflect any

thoughtful consideration of the im- ~

plications of living an in-
dividual WHOLE life.

As Hall Presidents we have had
practical experience with the per-
sonal problems ‘engendered - by
our system of Self-Government.
The doubts we express, the ob-
servations we make,
directly from that experience and
are offered to you as their result.
We hope you will remember that
we. condemn. the proposals less
than the spirit which permeates
them. Unfortunately, experience
tell us the proposals seek license--
not principle, but license.
We call on you to consider the
ramifications of the choice pre-
sented for your vote--and
to choose with care, :
Sandy Gilluly - Batten House
Peggy Heston - Pembroke East
Pembroke West
Paishy Meigs -. Wyndham

Ann Platt - Rockefeller
Unwarranted Fears
To the Editor; |

Recent letters and editorials in
the NEWS about the proposed con-
stitutional -revision, both those
which support the changes and
those which express reservations,
all make the unwarranted assump-
tion that the revisions will bring
about fundamental changes in the
attitudes and behavior of students.
I doubt that they will.

Most of the controversy has been
about the elimination of the cur-
few and the initiation of a ‘‘key
system’’, The hall presidents who
wrote the above letter represent
the concern that without a curfew
people will tend to spend more
time out of the dorm and destroy
what sense of community that there
is there. I think that is highly
unlikely,
under the present system gives
a girl*the option of being out of
the dorm all the time if she wants
to be, and yet overnights aren’t
used extensively during the week.

By eliminating the 2:00 curfew
the proposed rule change elimi-
nates an arbitrary limit, I can-
not imagine that-suddenly large
numbers of people will want to
come in between 2:00 and 8:00. It
is very possible that having no cur-
few will make it easier for a girl
to come in earlier than 2:00, since
that will no longer be a limit
to be pushed toward. :

The hall presidents who wrote
the above letter state that they
are concerned not so much with
specific rules changes, but with
the spirit of ‘isolationism’? of
the individual in which they were
made. [ think they are wrong
in assuming that in giving the in-
dividual the freedom to make
choices, such as when to come in
at night or what to wear on a giv-
en occasion, we are fostering
anarchy. They object to the fact
that under the revised constitution
‘cultimate authority will rest not
with executive board ( a lenient
body always willing to consider
individual circumstances), not with
the hall president, but with the in-
dividual.” | firmly believe that
that is exactly where it should
rest, The role of executive board
should not be to stand over us
all and be ‘lenient’, but rather
to administer a system which pro-
vides a framework in. which its
members can make responsible
decisions,

We agree that we all should
participate more in our self-go-

participation is fostered if the in-

‘dividual must make decisions as .
_ to what her responsibilities toher~_

aera Oe eer

come .

The overnight signout

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