3

a

Friday, November 17, 1967

THE COLLEGE NEWS





Majoring at Haverford:



Difficulties Snag Interest Development

The following article is a
sequel to an article by Sally
Dimschulz which appeared in
the NEWS two weeks ago, éx-
plaining the difficulties she
has discovered in trying to
major in biology at Haverford.
The purpose of this article is
to interview other girls who
have tried to major in a Haver-
ford department. The NEWS has
gathered from talking to ad-
ministration officials and
students that misunderstanding
and confusion cloud the whole
issue of majoring at Haverford,
and that the deans have not
done much ‘to clear it up.

There seems to be a general

lack of communication among stu-
dents, departments, and adminis-

_ tration about Bryn Mawr girls
‘who want to major at Haverford,

Despite this lack, there-have been
several cases of interaction be-
tween the administrat'on, the Cur-
riculum Committee, and girls who
are interested in a particular de-
partment at Haverford,

Religion -- a major department
at Haverford, but not at Bryn’
Mawr -- has drawn several Bryn
Mawr girls into study of some
depth,

Cheri Ritter ’69 was the first
student to petition for a major in
religion at Haverford, . In an in-
terview with the NEWS, she ex-
plained that when she had her rou-
tine sophomore dean’s appointment
last year, she talked about her in-
terest in religion, and said she
wished there were more religion
courses at Bryn Mawr. Mrs,
Pruett suggested to her the possi-
bility of majoring at Haverford, At
the time, there were other students
‘trying to take Haverford religion
courses, but no majors, Mrs. Pru-
ett said, She thought that Cheri
might act as a test case for the
Curriculum Committee,

The request went in, and after
two meetings, the Committee re-
sponded by stating that it would
be impossible for Cheri to major
in religion at Haverford,

Mrs, Pruett gave.two reasons
for the Committee’s decision,
Cheri said. One is that Bryn
Mawr doesn’t feel that majoring
in religion is a good preparation
for the graduate study in religion
a student might do, A strong lib-
eral arts background is necessary

Writing Fellowships
Available to Seniors
In U.S. and Canad

Fourteen fellowships’ of $3,000
each will be awarded to seniors
in American and Canadian colleges
and universities through a writing
contest administered by the Col-
lege English Association and spon-
sored by the Book-of- apbtbsrcaiar
Club.

According to the Chairman of
the Board of the Book-of-the-
Month Club, there are many fel-
lowships available for those who
wish to pursue _ scientific and
scholarly investigations but rel-
atively few are available to the
young creative writer. ‘‘We hope
this program will help rectify this
situation. We have designed it
to give the gifted college senior

“an opportunity to develop his cre-
ative talents in the year follow- ©

ing his graduation.”

Closing date for entries is Dec-” j

ember 1. Winners will be noti-
fied by May 1.
Application blanks and: full in-

formation about the program may _
‘be obtained by writing to Dr. Don-

ald Sears, Director, Book-of-the-
Month Club Writing Program, c/o
College English Association, 345
Hudson St., New York, N.Y. 10014,

‘choose’ be

for géod work in graduate school.
The Admissions Committees of
various theological seminaries
support this view,

Secondly, Mrs, Pruett pointed
out that Bryn Mawr graduates re-
ceive their degrees only from de-
partments offering graduate level
instruction, The religion depart-
ment at Bryn Mawr is not part of
the graduate school,

Cheri is now majoring in philo-
sophy, and thinking about going into
religious education when she grad-
uates,

What is needed at Bryn Mawr
is not necessarily a major depart-
ment of religion, Cheri concluded,
But since many people want to study
religion, more courses should be
set up. After a recent talk. with
Mrs, Marshall, Cheri believes that
the administration is actively
seeking professors for the depart-
ment, now that they are aware of
the student interest init... How-

ever, Cheri is convinced that any .

Bryn Mawr girl attracted by re-
ligion should look into the kinds
of ‘‘fantastic courses’? and the
different approaches Haverford
offers,

Bonnie Cunningham ’68 has also
tried..to explore her interest in
religion while at Bryn Mawr, She
wanted to declare a double major
in French and religion, and to
major in religion at Haverford
because she believes the depart-
ment thére differs widely from
Bryn Mawr’s,

As a freshman, Bonnie said she
tried to take the introductory reli-
gion course at Bryn Mawr, then
taught by Miss Corbet, She was
forced to drop because of the irreg-
ularity of class meetings.

The ‘next year she was able
“Mr. Enslin’s b




lical history ¢
in the bible as literature. She
registered for History of the Bible,
but also listened to Mr, Spiegler’s
beginning religion course at Hav-
erford. §piegler’s course dis-
cused the history and the liter-
ature of the bible together, In
addition it considered the views
of modern philosophers on the
bible, and the purpose of the bible
today. Although she personally
preferred “Spiegler’s approach,
Bonnie was told by the adminis-
tration that she couldn’t. take his
class because it was the same
as the introductory course En-
slin offered.

Three weeks into the semester,
she petitioned Miss
writing a letter which listed all
her reasons for choosing Spieg-
ler’s course, She explained the
differences between Spiegler’s and
Enslin’s classes some of which
were made obvious in the Bryn
Mawr and Haverford catalogues,
Bonnie claimed, Miss McBride



_a school with amore suitable major

McBride,








































permitted her. to go over to Hav-
erford, but the reason she gave
for granting permission was that
Bonnie had been dropped from
Miss Corbet’s course as a fresh-
man,

In trying to declare her double
major she was advised by the deans
to write a letter to the Curriculum
Committee, When Cheri was
turned down, by the Committee
Bonnie realized that she wouldn’t
be allowed to major at Haverford,
either, She never filed a for-
mal petition.

This year (after writing a letter
to Mrs, Marshall over the summer)
Bonnie has been able to take an
allied comp in religion at Haver-
ford, Mr. Spiegler is drawing up
a special comp for her, This
is a new pattern in Haverford-
Bryn Mawr cooperation,

Bonnie concluded that the pre-
cedent of taking Haverford courses
has awakened interest among Bryn
Mawr girls in departments which
have emphases and courses to
offer distinct from Bryn Mawr’s,

For example, the religion de-
partment at Bryn Mawr, said
Bonnie quoting the deans, is con-
cerned mostly with ‘‘the history
of religions.”” The courses she
has had at Haverford deal more
with the relation of ‘religious’
ideas tocontemporary questions --
be they theological, literary, or
properly philosophic. The use of
ideas rather than restriction to
facts interests her most, although
she acknowledges that the Bryn
Mawr department is certainly res-
pected in its field.

She described one Haverford
course, Religious Ideas in Modern
Culture, that incorporates novel-
ists such as Kafka, Camus, and
Greene, and philosopers Bult-

“mann, Tiilich, and Buber in look- ”

ing at how contemporary man ap-
proaches. the modern world, The

Haverford department reaches out |

into different fields, including
French, her major, in opening
her mind to different themes and
approaches, and new ways of think-
ing about traditional problems.

Involvement in a Haverford de-
partment which has no counter-
part at Bryn Mawr doesn’t mean
that you don’t ‘‘come here for the
whole Bryn Mawr education,’’ said
Bonnie, It doesn’t mean necessar-
ily that you should transfer to

department,

Engineering is another major
not offered by Bryn Mawr, Grethe
Holby °70 is considering majoring
in engineering at Haverford.
Grethe recently talked with Mrs,
Pruett, who said that the deans
have expected such a request for
a long time, She suggested that
Grethe petition the Curriculum

Committee, Kathy Murphey









photo by Kit Ba

‘Nancy Miller and Lucy Jennings illustrate their feelings toward
“the Bryn Mawr Trust Company with a form of protest made well-

- known in another context.

BMC Alumnae
Protest W ar

Emily Balch °89

: The petition in the box below was sent to Drewdie Gilpin by
: Mrs. J. H. Reynolds, ’30 who is heading an ad hoc committee
: of Bryn Mawr alumnae who dre against the war in Vietnam.
: Mrs. Reynolds wrote to Drewdie, in part: ‘‘We should very
: much like to have some help from the students. We are going
: to have to raise some money for advertisements in.the ‘‘Nation,’’

‘‘New Republic,’ etc. The lack of protest on the part of the
: Bryn Mawr undergraduates puzzles us. Perhaps you can help
: us to understand.’? Mrs. Reynolds added a P.S. ‘‘And where are

: the faculty?”

: Emily Greene Balch, who is mentioned in the first paragraph

: of the petition, graduated in 1889, Bryn Mawr’s first class.
The Nobel Peace Prize was given to her in 1946, partly for
her work in founding, with Jane Addams, the Womens’ Internation-
al League for Peace and Freedom in 1915. John Dewey wrote
of her after she-received the prize:

‘‘In honoring Emily Greene Balch, the Nobel Committee
of Oslo has not only honored itself, it has given deserved
and needed recognition to all those patient, hard-working
pioneers of the peoples of the earth whose intelligent
faith, courage and persistence is the sure guarantee as
well as inspiration of the establishment of enduring peace

among nations.

What I should like to emphasize chiefly is her constructive
statesmanship--her intellectual leadership in the under-
standing and solution of the complicated concrete problems
of organizing ‘the affairs of a dynamically peaceful. world.” .
The ad hoe-committee askes that signed copies df the petition

be sent to:Mr. J, H. Reynolds, Route’1, Box 113, St. Augustine,

Florida 32084,



BRYN MAWR ALUMNAE PROTEST AGAINST WAR IN VIETNAM

Emily Greene Balch, whose Centenary falls within the current
year, was a member of Bryn Mawr’s first graduating class.
A life-long worker for peace and social justice, she was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946, one of two American women ever

thus to be honored.

=~

We, the undersigned alumnae of Bryn Mawr College, can
think of no more fitting memorial to Emily Balch than to jgin
the rising thousands throughout the country who protest, on
grounds of morality, and in the interests of world peace and
security, our government’s presence and policies in Vietnam.

This is a war we cannot win, politically or militarily. We
can only ‘‘make a desert and call it peace.’’

We call upon the Administration to halt the bombing of North
Vietnam forthwith, without demand for the promise of reciprocal
action by the Hanoi government, initiating at the same time a
cease-fire to be followed by offers of negotiation with all parties
concerned, including the National Liberation Front as party

in its own right.

Only thus can peace be brought to a ravaged land and South
Vietnam be. permitted to work out its own political destiny.

(signature)

(class)



(address)





Campus Young Democrats

Young Democrats and Young Re-
publicans Clubs are being organ-
ized on the Bryn Mawr campus,
They are reported to be eagerly
looking for members.

Young Democrats’ first meet-

: ing will be held on December 6,

at 7:30 p.m. in the Common Room
in Goodhart Hall. The guest speak-
er will be the coordinator of YD
in the Mainline area. Future plans
include joint discussions with
Penn’s YD, working for local and
national candidates in the 1968
elections, meeting partyleaders

~~ and’ concerned students, and hav-

ing lectures and debates on im-
portant political issues. All those
who are interested should contact
Alice Rosenblum in Pembroke

‘And Republicans Organize

East.

Young Republicans will have its
first meeting on Monday, Novem-
ber 20, 1967, at 7:30 p.m. in Room
6, Spanish House. The meeting
will *be to draw up a charter and
plan future activities -- Penn YR’s
has suggested cooperating in a
December film festival (old Ron-
ald Reagan and Shirley Temple
movies?) and a banquet in Feb-
ruary. If the provisional charter
is accepted, Bryn Mawr may be
able to send two delegates to the
State YR Convention in Carlyle |
December 9, 1967,.and thus have:
a voice in statewide activities.
Anyone interested is asked tocon-

tact Thea Modugno in Spanish
House before the 20th.