LIBRARY :s SCOTT LLEGE 82608 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation http://www.archive.org/details/agnesscottalumna3337agne I AGNESJSOTT ' w~ m &. &. ? ? S&. x sx f ? 31. 1921 Oct. 5. 1924 March. Ann Hertzler Jervis lost her onlj child, a son, in an automobile accident in the spring. 1 925 Lillian Middlebrooks Smears husband was killed at a railroad cross ing near Soperton, Ga., June 27. Hei brother, W. T. Middlebrooks, d i e c April 29. 1928 Elizabeth Hudson McCul loch's mother died in the spring. 1 929 Kitty Hunter Branch lest hei father during the year. Frances Wimbish Seaborn's aun' died in July. 1 93 1 M y r a Jervey Hoyle's hus band, Kevin, died July 17. 1932 Sara Will Berry Paul die< Oct. 24, 1953. 1 935 Virginia Nelson Hime, Gai Nelson Blain '33, and Emily Nelsoi Bradley '27 lost their father May 3. 1938 Julia Telford's father died ii June. 1 939 Mrs. Emily Anderson Sewell grandmother of Julia Sewell Carte: and Edith Sewell Bergmanis '53, am mother-in-law of Margaret B 1 a n < Sewell '20, died July 21. 1 946 Dr. J. C. Register, father o: Anne Register Jones, died July 19. 1 948 Anna Clark Rogers lost he: mother in July. 1953 Martin A. McRae, father o Margaret McRae Edwards died ver; suddenly in September. 10 AGNES SCOTT lumnae uarterly winter 1955 THE ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION OF AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE OFFICERS MARY WARREN READ '29 President GRACE FINCHER TRIMBLE '32 Vice-President FLORENCE BRINKLEY '14 Vice-President VELLA MARIE BEHM COWAN '35 Vice-President MARJORIE NAAB BOLEN '46 Secretary BETTY MEDLOCK LACKEY '42 Treasurer TRUSTEES JEAN BAILEY OWEN '39 FRANCES WINSHIP WALTERS INST. CHAIRMEN CATHERINE BAKER MATTHEWS '32 Nominations FRANCES CRAIGHEAD DWYER '28 Special Events EDWINA DAVIS CHRISTIAN '46 Vocational Guidance MARY WALLACE KIRK '11 Education LEONE BOWERS HAMILTON '26 Publications BELLA WILSON LEWIS '34 Class Officers NELLE CHAMLEE HOWARD '34 House LOUISE BROWN HASTINGS '23 Grounds MARIE SIMPSON RUTLAND '35 Entertainment LOCAL CLUB PRESIDENTS MARY PRIM FOWLER '29 Atlanta ERNELLE RUTH BLAIR FIFE '36 Decatur REESE NEWTON SMITH '49 Atlanta Junior SYLVIA McCONNEL CARTER '45 Southwest Atlanta STAFF The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly is published four times a yet ANN WORTHY JOHNSON '38 (November, February, April and July) by the Alumnae Association i Director of Alumnae Affairs Agnes Scott College at Decatur, Georgia. Contributors to the Alumni ELOISE HARDEMAN KETCHIN p und rece [ ve t he magazine. Yearly subscription, $2.00. Single copy 50 cent House Manager ' " * MARY P CHAPMAN Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office of Decatur, Georgi Office Manager under Act of August 24, 1912. MEMBER AMERICAN ALUMNI COUNCIL the AGNES SCOTT ALUMNAE QUARTERLY Uolume 33 Winte 'inter i lumber 2 1955 Contents Hollywood at Agnes Scott Mary Frances Sweet, M.D. Janef Preston Frances Winship Walters James Ross McCain When Far From the Reach Marion Merritt Wall Alumnae Club News Class News Club Directory Vella Belun Cowan Eloise Hardeman Ketchin 8 10 28 COVER The cover photograph is of Miss Jean Peters, who plays Catherine Marshall in the film "A Man Called Peter," and several professional extras shown in a scene taken on the quadrangle. Photograph by Gabriel Benzur. THE FILMING OF /\ MAN CALLED PETER f\ 20th-century Fox is producing Catherine Marshall' "A Man Called Peter." A team from the studio, in eluding Jean Peters who plays Catherine and Richar Todd who plays Peter, came to Atlanta in the earl fall to film scenes in Atlanta, Covington, and at Agne Scott. Scenes at the college included the quadranglt hockey field, and entrance gate. The picture will b released nationally during Easter week. These photc graphs were made by the studio cameramen. LIGHTS Classes went on not quite as usual during the filming Ion the campus. Sets of the Dean's Office and a college dormitory room were built at the studios and other Agnes Scott scenes filmed there. Almost 200 students I were in the campus scenes and "strollers" has become a campus by-word. A Freshman sighed as the team left and asked: "What else is there to live for?" Miss McKinney says that an alumna ivrote her, when the Infirmary was being built, "students today may have a new Infirmary but we had Dr. Sweet " Dr. Siveet willed her estate, $150,000, to Agnes Scott. As Dr. Alston says, "No gift we have ever received represents more devoted and careful stewardship." The Alumnae Office is acting as Treasurer for a fund to have her portrait painted and hung in the Infirmary. If you'd like to contribute, ?nake your check to the Alumnae Association. MARY FRANCES SWEET, M. D. Janef Preston '21 Dr. Sweet was a rare human being. Her influ- ence abides in the life of this college, which for over forty years she served with vision, loyalty, and devotion, and in the lives of those who knew personally the quality of her mind and spirit. This quality of her being is perfectly suggested in words used by a former president of Harvard to describe the truly cultivated person: a person of "quick perceptions, broad sym- pathies and wide affinities; responsive but independent; self-reliant but deferential ; loving truth and candor but also moderation and proportion ; courageous but gentle ; not finished but perfecting." Nothing was more characteristic of Dr. Sweet than the breadth of her sympathies and interests. She was well trained and able in the field of medicine. Taking degrees from Syracuse University in 1892, she did resi- dence work at the New Eng'and Hospital for Women and Children in Boston. Then after several years of private practice, she came to Agnes Scott as College Physician and Professor of Physical Education. Throughout the years of her active service 1908 to 1937 she did far more than care for the health of students. Immediately she took her place as the head of a recently formed department; gifted with imag- inative insight, she devoted herself to far-reaching plans for the department and to the well-being of the whole college community. Fellow-workers speak appreciatively of her trust in those who worked with her. Early asso- ciates tell of her heroic labors and of her resourceful- ness during the harrowing days when thirty members of the student body were stricken with typhoid fever, and of her courageous insistence in opposition to the opinion of the consulting doctor that the campus well was contaminated. Alumnae remember how she caught the imagination of students and persuaded them to substitute the friendly rivalry of the Black Cat stunts for the crude hazing of freshmen then inl practice. Her colleagues in administration and faculty! recall the part she had in shaping sound academic pro-l grams and policies. Co-operative but independent, cou-l rageous but gentle, seeing the near problem and the far goal, she was always a positive and unifying influ-1 ence in the college. Her remarkably fine mind was engaged by manyB interests other than medicine. She was well informed in the field of history and current affairs; she wasl an astute business woman ; already a linguist, she wasl an eager learner of a new language not many yearsB before her retirement; she was a voracious reader alii her life. Especially she took delight in literature and! was keenly perceptive of its values. She loved the beautyB of the natural world and the deepening experiences ofl travel. In later years of invalidism, memories of manyH a summer in Europe or New England evoked her de-i lightful, quiet talk. Above all, the scientist and theB contemplative met in the woman who had an unflagging! interest in the frontiers of re'igious thinking, whoseB reticent speech about the spiritual life was freshlyH minted, whose faith was rooted in devotion. Her loyalties were as deep as her interests wereB wide. She was a devoted daughter and sister. Fori many years in her home on the campus she cared fori her mother and her invalid brother. She was a loyal! member of the Methodist Church she was loyal tol her friends. She was loyal to this college which she! loved with singular devotion, supporting its standards! and ideals, expressing her life in its life, and giving! to it her entire personal fortune. She was a quiet, reserved person, but her warm,! sincere interest drew students and colleagues to her andl invited confidence. She was a generous sharer in thelj lives of others. One counted oneself rarely fortunate! to have her for a friend. One delighted in her wit and humor, her wealth of interest, her pleasure in life. One turned to her for help and advice, sure of unfailing strength and wisdom. One liked merely to be quietly in her presence, aware that her serenity came from inner peace. Not long ago, in conversation with a friend, she pointed out in the Saturday Review of Literature a poem that she liked very much, "The Sommersville Scene," by M. A. DeWolfe Howe. Perhaps to those of us who knew her, and to those who did not, it may quoted only in part suggest her own spirit: "This beauty past compare I cannot prove but it is there ! Nor can I prove that one I loved, Too humble to let others see In what a sphere she moved, Bore with her to another sphere such wit And tenderness as now no longer be. This too, unproved, is utter truth to me. So here by Heron Cove still pondering, Musing on mysteries, With bird-songs, silvered clouds, dark trees, With peace and beauty steeping all of it, 'Tis but a step from pondering to wondering If God, himself so near, may one day spread His rule of love, and arm the spirit-led To overthrow the brawling crew Of thing-slaved men who doubt his word. No proof that this can be has yet been heard, But in my heart of hearts remains unmoved A faith not yet by reason proved." MRS. FRANCES WINSHIP WALTERS James Ross McCain Mrs. Walters' legacy of over four million dollars is the greatest single gift Agnes Scott has ever re- ceived. This memorial to her was read into the minutes of the December, 1954, Board of Trustees meeting at which time the Board voted to carry out Mrs. Walters' wishes in the erection this year of the Frances Winship Walters Dormitory. Part of the income from the estate will build the dormi- tory, and these funds will also make possible adequate faculty salaries and the strengthening of aca- demic departments. Mrs. Walters' gift puts the college well on the way to becoming, in Col. George Washington Scott's words, "As great an institution of this kind as there is in the land." Mrs. Frances Winship Walters was born in At- lanta, Ga., September 25, 1878, and passed away November 14, 1954. She was the youngest daugh- ter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Winship, pioneer leaders in the growth of the city. Her principal education was at Agnes Scott Institute, as it was then known, where she made a good record and completed her course in 1894. The Institute was only two years old when she entered it. She never forgot its goal (first announced when she was a stu- dent in it), to become eventually "fully abreast of the best institutions in this country." She was in thorough accord with the ideals of the young Institute, and kept up her interest in it during the entire period of sixty years after she left it as a student. On October 2, 1900, she married Mr. George C. Walters, a very fine young man from Richmond, Va. It was an ideal match with every promise of happiness and success, but in 1914 the husband was stricken with sudden illnes in the prime of life and did not recover. The perfection of that union was proved by the years of widowhood in which she ever remained loval to his memory, insisting on keeping his name in her permanent address, Mrs. George C. Walters. After losing her life-mate, she gave herself to thoughtfulness of others and to aiding worthy causes. Most of her benefactions were made anonymously and were hardly known even to her clorest relatives. She was a devoted member of St. Mark's Methodist Church in Atlanta, and she constantly helped in its development. Her best known contributions were a beautiful chapel which she p'anned in detail herself and the air conditioning of the sanctuary. In 1920 she contributed $1,000 to begin the "George C. Walters Scholarship" at Agnes Scott, and con- tinuously from that time she aided in all of the many campaigns and forward movements of the College. She never waited to be asked for support, but always volunteered her generous donations. These included two gifts toward the erection of Hopkins Hall, the main Gateway, the Foundation that bears her name, the Frances Win; hip Infirmary, and many other smaller gifts. In 1937 she was elected to the Board of Trustees of Agnes Scott as an Alumna representative. For seventeen years, she rendered valuable service until her death, taking part in the work of almost all com- mittees, and being Vice-Chairman of the Board for the last few years. She did not often take part in discussions and never entered debates, but she read with utmost care all letters, reports, bulletins, or other information about the College, and was perhaps better informed as to its real progress and problems than most members of the administration. Her diligence in this was truly remarkable. Many years ago, during the post-depression days which were so difficult for all colleges, she cheered the administration of Agnes Scott by confiding that she had put the College into her will for a very helpful sum. Her decision to make Agnes Scott her residuary legatee, with her history-making gift, came after she had studied attentively our Development Program for raising ten million dollars by 1964, our 75th anniver- sary. She was a member of the committee which formu- lated the details of the effort, but she could not come to the first meeting. She read the report with enthu- siasm, for it had been her hope that Agnes Scott might reach a point of real equality with the best colleges for women in this country. Her thoughtfulness in providing that one-half of | her own magnificent gift should be matched before I coming into the College portfolio shows not only her ' own devotion, but her practical concern that her gift might stimulate others in joining this forward move- ment. She wanted her Alma Mater to enjoy the oppor- tunity for real greatness. The Board of Trustees of Agnes Scott College! record our gratitude for her wonderful gift, quite the largest in the history of our institution, and rejoice I in our privilege of association with her during these seventeen fruitful years. Her appreciation of the finest things in life, her generous sense of stewardship, her faith in God's direction of her own life and of the College, her loyal support of our best ideals, lead us to say very humbly and yet sincerely, "Thank God for Frances Winship Walters!" 1 Marion's first article for the Quarterly, written when she was a senior, concerned the changes in social regulations at Agnes Scott. This is her report of a far different social life. The drawing of a house in Curacao is by her husband, J. N. Wall, Jr., Naval Liaison Officer at Curacao. WHEN FAR FROM THE REACH Marion Merritt Wall '53 When I did a daily stint with the Alumnae Office files to help pay my way through Agnes Scott, the names with unlikely, foreign addresses were always strangely romantic and fascinating to me. I assumed that any Agnes Scott alumnae who was out of the continental limits of the United States was a mission- ary, gone forth bravely to exemplify Agnes Scott ideals to the unwashed, and doubtless cannabalistic, heathen. These foreign addressees I always pictured, as I dream- ily fingered the file card, as crosses between Katherine Hepburn, in the first scenes of The African Queen, swathed in Victorian laces, righteousness and perspira- tion, playing a wheezy organ for the spiritual edifica- tion of a tribe of savages, and Miss Scandrett, forever and unswervingly sensible, blasting apart the seemingly impossible situation by applying The Rules to it. I always put the card back, generally in the wrong place, always with a sigh, thinking of that little band of daughters, wandering far from the sheltering arms, who had made their choice and departed civilization. I hope that some student now holds my card, which reads : Wall, Mrs. John Newton, Jr. Reigerweg, Willemstad Curacao, Netherlands Antilles I hope that she pictures me in floating voile and a pith helmet, holding back a ferocious head-hunter band with a thin treble rendition of Gaines, or perhaps as a tireless social worker, singlehandedly and simul- taneously battling a malaria epidemic, a smuggling ring, land a villianous dictatorship. However, it was not selflessness, or even zeal, that bent us to Curacao, but something more unflinching than either, orders from the United States Navy. When Iwe had looked up Curacao on the map, and decided that it was even more remote than we had thought, I considered sprucing up the place morally, socially, and so on. But we found out when we got here that John Wesley and a few others got into the act first, "^l_ =>g^p03 in fact some time ago, and as far as education and social reform are concerned, Peter Stuyvesant founded the first college here before he was sent off to be governor of the little outpost of Nieuw Amsterdam. The island is so reformed it's hardly any fun any more. Out in the cunuku (or countryside to a non- Curazoleno), the people still live in thatched clay huts, and paint hex marks on the doors, but they also have an adjacent car-port-hut for the shiny new Cadillac. Mama carries a jug of water on her head, but when she gets home, she puts it in the automatic washing machine. We even ran into a smuggler on the beach one night, but we scared him to death. These things can be depressing to a would-be evangelist and exposer of vice, just off the airplane. But I just had to make the best of things, and Jack and I settled down in a "little bit of Holland in the Caribbean." The island is shaped, figuratively speaking, like a doughnut, with a small bite taken out of the side. The harbor, one of the busiest in the world, is the hole in the doughnut. Around the hole is the second largest oil refinery in the world. (When the oil refinery at Abadan closed down, we had the world's largest operating oil refinery, but it was reopened be- fore our new status could make the encyclopedias and almanacs). To the windward side of the refinery the smell is terrific. One assumes an expression which seems sophisticated but is only a result of holding one's breath for long periods while driving past. There is Willenstad, the most quaint (word I picked up from the tourists) little town, with very old Dutch colonial houses that look like birthday cakes with white plaster icing. There is a bridge on pontoons floating across the harbor mouth, which is part of the main road. When the bridge swings aside to admit ships, the ensuing traffic jam makes the tourists on the ships think that the whole town has turned out to see them. The entire populace, on foot and in cars, is at the water's edge, and indeed, from the deck of a ship, all the yelling and blowing of horns must sound very festive. Curacao has its share of exiled South Americans who skipped with the funds during one regime or another, of bruja, or primitive witchcraft, poison vege- tation and ghosts, but our most notable experiences in living in the tropics came with matters of climate. Curacao has two kinds of weather : hot sun and strong wind, and hard rain and strong wind. It's one or the other of these stages all year, no thunder, no lightning, no fall, no spring, no anything else. The wind is the outstanding factor. Once it rolled up our dinner in the tablecloth like a jelly roll, with food and dishes instead of jelly. Once it lifted a large rug and dropped it on an unwary Dutchman who was struggling with an American-style buffet lap dinner. That kind of thing can be very rattling for hostess and guest alike. No Puckish thing, this wind, it just blows. So we took a house that was scientifically designed, with holes to catch only certain amounts of wind which would cool the house. Since most of these holes were along a sort of patio wall, they served as entrance and exit ports for most of the wild life of the region. We got a cat to combat this situation, but unfortunate- ly, the cat much preferred tinned cat food to wild life. The Navy wife who was my predecessor in Curacao had written me that we would have a British West Indian servant who lived in the house, worked seven days a week, and cost the equivalent of about thirty dollars a month. This sounded absolutely the greatest to me, and before we left the States, I begged a pink chiffon tea gown with a train from Jack's aunt, and an enormous breakfast-in-bed tray from my mother, both articles remnants of more glorious days befo' de wa' and the minimum wage law. I felt that I was then prepared for the role of lady of leisure. Sara, our much anticipated gem whom we hired with the house, turned out to be about four feet high, of indeterminate age, and possessed of arms which hung well below herl knees, six pigtails at assorted angles, and the most raucously pink and white false teeth, size enormous.! It turned out that Sara could not cook, and efforts! to teach her produced fantastic results. She did learn J to make pudding in all flavors currently produced by I the Royal people, but anything more complicated than two cups of milk and stir was too much. My tea gown and tray gathered dust while I manned the kitchen, battling a refrigerator which completely defrosted it- self every time it got a whiff of tropic air, and a Dutch stove, sans broiler, which regularly made a most terrifying explosive noise. You see, there are a few hazards here, but if you came to see us, you would find a busy, scrubbed little Dutch island, administered by perhaps the most boringly efficient government in the world, and there are more church steeples than trees. The inhabitants grow rich by frugality and industry, play soccer, and order clothes from the Sears Roebuck catalogue instead of wearing native dress. Rather than dine on toasted missionary, they go on board a tourist ship for a European dinner. It can be fairly depressing to us zealous reformers. ALUMNAE CLUB NEWS The Alumnae Association salutes tzvo new Alumnae Clubs, one in Orlando, Florida and one in Waynes- boro, Virginia to be known as the "Valley Club." Salutes go also to the many groups who met to mark our 66th Founder's Day. The Atlanta Club has run true to form this year with a splendid corps of officers and excellent pro- grams and plans. In the fall a printed program of the year's plans was sent to each member of the club, listing speakers, hostesses, places of meeting. Dr. Alston and Miss Ann Worthy Johnson '38, spoke to the group in September about "News from Agnes Scott College." This was followed in October by Miss Kitty 8 Johnson '24, discussing "Outstanding Fall Books" and in November by Dr. William L. Pressly, Presi- dent of the Westminster Schools and husband of Alice McCallie Pressly '36, speaking on "High School Prep- aration versus College Requirements." Plans for the spring include a special Founder's Day Program on February 19 on the campus in collaboration with other local clubs. The officers for the Atlanta Club this year are: Mary Prim Fowler '29, President; Caroline Hodges Roberts '48, First Vice-President ; Lois Mclntyre Beall '20, Second Vice-President ; Ruth Ryner Lay '46, Recording Secretary; Jo Culp Williams '49, Corresponding Secretary; and Gloria Melchor Lyon '46, Treasurer. The Atlanta Junior Club has regular monthly meetings and is led by the following group of officers: Reese Newton Smith '49, President; Frances Clark '51, Vice-President; Margaret Ann Kaufman '52, Secretary-Treasurer. At the October meeting, held at the Alumnae House, Dr. Posey talked about his trip to Europe. In November Senora Maria deLeon Ortega, on campus as a University Center lecturer, gave a musical program, and the club had a delightful Christmas party on December 8 at Reese's home. On January 12, at the alumnae house, Miss Sara Colp who teaches Spanish in the Atlanta Schools dis- cussed "Foreign Languages in Elementary Schools." The Junior Club is in charge of plans for the joint meeting on the campus on February 19. The Chapel Hill Club is planning a Founder's Day dinner under the supervision of Frances Brown '28, of the Duke University Chemistry Department. She will be assisted in these plans by Sterley Lebey Wilder '43, and Betty Sullivan Wrenn '44. Alumnae in Chapel Hill, Durham and vicinity have been in- vited to join this group in February. Last year at the Founder's Day meeting the club presented a highly successful skit about life at Agnes Scott in 1900, 1920, 1930 and 1950. The Charlotte Club began its fall work with a dinner meeting on October 26, presided over by the following new officers: Anne Flowers Price '43, Presi- dent; Shirley Gately Ibach '43, Vice-President; Betsy Deal Smith '49, Secretary; Rita Adams Simpson '49, Treasurer. A former Agnes Scott faculty member, Miss Thelma Albright, now Dean of Students at Queens College, was the speaker at the October meeting. The Charlotte Club is looking forward to its Founder's Day program when Dr. Alston will be their guest. Plans for the spring work include a tea for prospective college students, and judging from the large number of girls that come to the college from Charlotte and vicinity, this club is doing a splendid job of contacting prospects for Agnes Scott. The Lexington, Ky., Club is planning a luncheon at the Phoenix Hotel for Founder's Day this year, with Dr. McCain as speaker. The officers for this club are Lillian Clement Adams '27, President, and Louise Jett '52, Vice-President. The Long Island Club has sent the alumnae office some very fine reports of its monthly meetings. Fall plans included a tour of the United Nations buildings, luncheon and ta'k by the Public Relations Officers of the Pakistan Delegation on November 9. The group was conducted through the LTnited Nations head- quarters by Catherine Crowe '52, one of our own alumnae. New officers elected at the December meet- ing are: President, Anne Kincaid Reid '51; Vice- President, Katherine Benefield Bartlett '41 ; Secretary- Treasurer, Catherine Lott Marbut '29, and Program Chairman, Ceevah Rosenthal Blatman '45. Because of the proximity of this group to New York, they are planning a yearly subject of study (this year is Art), with bi-monthly luncheon meetings at members' homes and alternate months for special field trips to various places of interest in the city. Plans for February are to have a speaker from the Metropolitan Mu c eum of Art discuss the meaning of an art masterpiece, with each member having read a book of art criticism as preparation for the meeting. It all makes you wish you could be in that club, doesn't it? The Louisville, Ky. Club, with Elizabeth Allen Young, '47, as President, met October 15 at the home of the president for a social gathering. Guests at this meeting were Dr. and Mrs. Philip Davidson. He was formerly on the Agnes Scottt faculty and is now President of the University of Louisville. The Manhattan Club enjoyed a social hour when the group met in August at Martha Baker '46's apartment. New officers elected at this meeting are: President, Norah Little Green '50; Program and Pub- licity, Cissie Spiro '51; Secretary-Treasurer, Martha Arnold Shames '45, assisted by Bernice Beaty Cole '33. They planned a November meeting with other Agnes Scott clubs in the area, and to attend the Barnard Forum in February. The New Orleans Club deserves orchids for their splendid achievement of founding a Scholarship Fund at the college, reported in the Fall Quarterly. They continue to add to their fund. This spring one of the New Orleans alumnae will come to the campus to present the fund to the college at a formal cere- mony. This money raising project by New Orleans surely spurs on the rest of us to do much more for the college! The Shreveport Club has made plans for a Found- er's Day Luncheon at the home of the club president, Marguerite Morris Saunders '35, and also for a tea in April for projective Agnes Scott students. The Southwest Atlanta Club is a fine, new en- thusiastic group of alumnae headed by Sylvia Mc- Connell Carter '45, Julia Goode '50, Miriam Carroll Specht '50, and Faye Ball Rhodes '49. One unusual thing about this club is the fact that they hold meet- ings even through the summer months! They en- joyed a picnic with their members and families in July. Although this group is comparatively new in alumnae work, they voted to send $25.00 to the Alumne Fund many thanks! The Westchester-Fairfield Club enjoyed a luncheon meeting in October at the home of the Secretarv: Louise Brown Smith '37. At this time the club planned a tour of Yale University on November 10 and a Founder's Day program. We heard later that the toui of Yale conducted by Polly Stone Buck '24, was just perfect. The guests were unanimous in praise of their guide and the tour itself. In the future the group hopes to take similar tours. The West- chester-Fairfield club is making regular contributions for the expenses of an Agnes Scott student and this should be a challenge to any club. The Alumnae Office appreciates so much the fine reports that are being mailed to the office about your club activities. The above news items were gleaned from these reports. If you are a club officer, please check with your secretary to be sure she has an ample supply of report blanks on hand. If not, let the alumnae office know. Vella Marie Behm Cowan '35 Alumnae Association Executive Board Vice President for Clubs CLASS NEWS Edited by Eloise Hardeman Ketchin Deadline for yiews in this issue was December 10, '5t. News received between that date and February 10, '54, will appear in the Spring Quarterly. DEATHS INSTITUTE Edith Hooper Mangum died Sept. 16. Her sister is Ada Hooper Keith. Frances Winship Walters died Nov. 14. Dr. Julia Jordan Emery, sister of Annie Emery Plinn, died Nov. 24. The Rev. S. Dwight Winn, brother of Emily Winn, died Dec. 9. Margaret Booth died Aug. 14, 1953, in London while conducting a Euro- pean tour. 1919 Margaret Brown Davis died April 20. She was the mother of June Brown Davis '49. 1 926 Emily Capers Jones Murphy died in November. 1927 D. C. Fowler, husband of Thyrza Ellis Fowler and brother-in- law of Mary Ellis Shelton '29, died Nov. 3. Lillian Clement Adams lost her mother Nov. 9. John Van Cleve Morris, husband of Elsa Jacobsen Morris, was killed in November. 1929 Sally Southerland lost her mother Nov. 9. Mrs. Harry J. Spencer, mother of Olive Spencer Jones, died Dec. 9. 1 932 Carter Tate, husband of Nell Starr Tate, and brother of Sarah Tate Tumlin '25, died in September. 1 933 The Rev. J. R. Hooten, father of Mildred Hooten Keen, died April 8. 1945 Mrs. Wynton R. Melson, mother of Montene Melson Mason and Wynelle Melson Patton '52, died July 1. 1 948 Dr. R. K. Andrews, father of Virginia Andrews, died in November. SPECIALS Mary Buttrick Starnes died Sept. 22. 10 sm AGNES SCOTT alumnae quarterly THE ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION OF AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE OFFICERS MARY WARREN READ '29 President GRACE FINCHER TRIMBLE '32 Vice-President FLORENCE BRINKLEY '14 Vice-Presiden t VELLA MARIE BEHM COWAN '35 Vice-President MARJORIE NAAB BOLEN '46 Secretary BETTY MEDLOCK LACKEY '42 Treasurer TRUSTEES JEAN BAILEY OWEN '39 FRANCES WINSHIP WALTERS, INST. CHAIRMEN CATHERINE BAKER MATTHEWS '32 Nominations FRANCES CRAIGHEAD DWYER '28 Special Events EDWINA DAVIS CHRISTIAN '46 Vocational Guidance MARY WALLACE KIRK '11 Education LEONE BOWERS HAMILTON '26 Publications BELLA WILSON LEWIS '34 Class Officers NELLE CHAMLEE HOWARD '34 House LOUISE BROWN HASTINGS '23 Grounds MARIE SIMPSON RUTLAND '35 Entertainment LOCAL CLUB PRESIDENTS MARY PRIM FOWLER '29 Atlanta ERNELLE RUTH BLAIR FIFE '36 Decatur REESE NEWTON SMITH '49 Atlanta Junior SYLVIA McCONNELL CARTER '45 Southwest Atlanta STAFF ANN WORTHY JOHNSON '38 Director of Alumnae Affairs ELOISE HARDEMAN KETCHIN House Manager MARY P. CHAPMAN Office Manager MEMBER AMERICAN ALUMNI COUNCIL The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly is published four times a year (November, February, April and July) by the Alumnae Association of Agnes Scott College at Decatur, Georgia. Contributors to the Alumnae Fund receive the magazine. Yearly subscription, $2.00. Single copy 50 cents. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office of Decatur, Georgia, under Act of August 24, 1912. the AGNES SCOTT ALUMNAE QUARTERLY Volume 33 Number 3 Spring 1955 Contents Acknowledgments 2 Friendship, Morality, and Literature 3 Ellen Douglass Leyburn Productive Graduate Study 8 Jeanne Addison Masengill Coleridge on the Value of Studying the Past 12 R. Florence Brinkley Class News 15 Eloise Hardeman Ketchin Commencement Program 26 Club Directory 27 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS For many alumnae, Agnes Scott's liberal arts education has been the impetus for graduate study and for devoting a lifetime to things of the mind. The roster of graduate degrees would make a book half as thick as the Alumnae Register. For this issue of the Quarterly, the Education Committee of the Alumnae Association, Mary Wallace Kirk, Chairman, Lucile Alexander, Leone Bowers Hamilton, Mary King Critchell, and Ruth Slack Smith, present the graduate mind at work. So, our thanks go first to the contributors: R. Florence Brinkley, Dean of Woman's College, Duke University ; Ellen Douglass Leyburn, Associate Professor | of English at Agnes Scott; and Jeanne Addison Masengill, Director of Courses, Language Center, Bangkok, Thailand. We are indebted to Harriet Stovall '55 for the cover design and illustrations made especially for this issue as part of an assignment towards the completion of her art major. Ann Worthy Johnson, Editor FRIENDSHIP, MORALITY and LITERATURE Ellen Douglass Leyburn IT IS ALWAYS a delight to honor achievement, and we shall all share in the pleasure of congratulating the seniors whom you are shortly to hear announced as having been elected members in course of Phi Beta Kappa. But I do not need to speak to you of them and their attainments, which you have witnessed for four years. I should like rather to consider this morning the purposes which motivated the group of young men who came together in the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg a hundred and seventy-nine years ago to found this society. They gathered to promote friendship, morality, and literature which was their term for all liberal studies. The date of their meeting was 1776, so long ago as things are reckoned in this new country that Phi Beta Kappa is sometimes spoken of as a venerable organization ; and indeed the historical flavor of their surroundings and the heroic parts they were to play in the Revolution invest them in our imaginations with a sort of legendary antiquity. But the conceptions which brought them together in the ardor of affirmation were cen- turies old when they formed Phi Beta Kappa as old in fact as man's sense of the dignity of his own humanity. So in thinking about these attributes of man, I invite you to consider the em- bodiment of them in a man who lived long before those youths in colonial Virginia agreed to emulate each other in the cultivation of friendship, morality, and literature. I should not go quite so far as Dr. Johnson did in saying "The biographical part of literature is what I love most" ; but with his reason for loving it I am in hearty accord: It gives "us what comes near to ourselves, what we can turn to use." And so I ask you to summon the pictures you have in your minds of Thomas More, whose death four hundred and twenty years ago still stirs the imagination of men in a way comparable to the death of Socrates. But it is his life which gives meaning to his death. And as we think of his life, we are likely to think first of his friendships. Erasmus, the greatest scholar of the century, was his lifelong friend and dedicated to More the wisest and gayest and most ironic of his books, The Praise of Folly. In a letter describing More, Erasmus writes: "He seems born and framed for friendship, and is a most faithful and enduring friend. He is easy of access to all ; but if he chances to get familiar with one whose vices admit no correction, he manages to loosen and let go the intimacy rather than to break it off suddenly. When he finds any sincere and according to his heart, he so delights in their society and conversation as to place in it the principal charm of life ... In a word, if you want a perfect model of friendship, you will find it in no one better than in More." After More's death Erasmus writes: "In More's death I seem to have died myself ; we had but one soul between us." Not only the Dutch Erasmus, but the whole circle of English humanists, Colet and Grocyn and Linacre, with whom he studied Greek, and Bishop Fisher, who died with him, were all his devoted friends. When he had to go on the difficult mission to Flanders, which gave him the setting for the opening of Utopia, he spoke of the friendship of Tunstall, his companion, and of Busleiden and Peter Giles, humanists of Brussels and Antwerp, as the great joy of the embassy. He sponsored the long sojourn of Holbein in England, to which we owe our wonderful array of Tudor faces, j including More's own, which Holbein painted as serenely grave, though one can see J in the eyes that look steadfastly out upon the world the possibility of the gaiety to which all his friends bear witness. As I have been reading about him during these past few months, it seems to me that the word I have most often encountered is merry. More even hoped to be merry in heaven with Audeley, who had the horrid task of condemning him to death at Henry's behest. The first story we have of him from \ Roper, his earliest biographer, tells how he would step in among the players at Christmas time when he was a page, "young of years," in the household of Cardinal | Morton, "and never studying for the matter, make a part of his own there presently among them which made the lookers-on more sport than all the players beside. In whose wit and towardness, the Cardinal much delighting would often say of him unto the nobles that dined with him, 'This child here awaiting at the table, whosoever shall live to see it will prove a marvellous man.' " And on the last page Roper tells that when More was going up the scaffold, "which was so weak that it was ready to fall, he said merrily to Master Lieutenant, 'I pray you Master Lieutenant, see me safe up, and for my coming down let me shift for myself.' " His wit and charm drew all sorts of men to him ; even the king in his happy early years would come home to Chelsea to be merry with him, and used to send for him so constantly as an after dinner companion that he had to abate his "accustomed mirth" in order to diminish the number of invitations and thus have some time for his family. And it is in his family that he preeminently shows his power of friendship. It is striking that when anyone speaks of More's home, it is always of his household. It is not of the house that we think, though the mansion in Chelsea was stately and beautiful, nor of the estate, though the gardens and grounds were spacious and well cared for and More loved to walk along the paths overspread with rosemary which he had planted himself "not onlie because his bees loved it, but because 'tis the herb sacred to 'Remembrance'." But it is the people gathered around him there who come to mind. In his last years his family included his three daughters and their husbands, his son John and John's very young wife, his adopted daughter Margaret Giggs, and eleven grandchildren ; but besides these there were constant visitors, often distinguished scholars from abroad, and a whole company of "merry young scholars," as Chambers calls them, who belonged to the household in one capacity or another, including "merrie John" Hey wood, the dramatist, one of More's closest young friends. More had taught his children himself, besides having other distinguished tutors for them, giving his daughters the same training as his son, so that it was a household of real intellectual companionship and delight, where at meals after a passage of scripture was read and discussed, Master Henry Patenson, the domestic fool, was allowed to bring the conversation down to a lower level. And then there was rich table talk, witty dialogues, such perhaps as those in Heywood's plays. The atmosphere was full of music. It is indicative both of More's love of it and of his tact that he prevailed on Dame Alice, his rather unbending second wife, to learn music so as to participate in this family pleasure. Harpsfield, one of the early biographers, says of her, although she was "aged, blunt and rude," More "full entirely loved her," and "he so framed and fashioned her by his dexterity that he lived a sweet and pleasant life with her, and brought her to that case, that she learned to play and sing at the lute and virginals, and every day at his returning home he took a reckoning and account of the task he enjoined her touching the said exercise." The person dearest to More was his daughter Margaret Roper, who had become a very fine scholar under his tutelage and who seems of them all most perfectly attuned to his spirit. Her devotion is complete, and the story of her breaking through the press of guards with halberds to embrace her father after his condemnation is one of the most touching that Roper tells. But Roper's own devotion seems to me still more remarkable a tribute to More's power of friendship. Roper was a grave, literal minded man, who often missed the point of More's ironical wit until he had pondered it. Furthermore, he was the husband of More's favorite daughter and might well have been jealous of the intimate bond between father and daughter. Instead, he worshipped More hardly this side idolatry ; and in the conversations he records we see exactly why. Roper's innocent artlessness gives them the very stamp of authenticity, and we hear the sound of More's voice as he says "Son Roper." After one of the sessions with the king's comimssioners, for instance, Roper says: "Then took Sir Thomas More his boat towards his house at Chelsea, wherein by the way he was very merry. And for that was I nothing sorry, hoping that he had got himself discharged out of the Parliament bill. When he was landed and come home, then walked we twain alone into his garden together; where I, desirous to know how he had sped, said, I trust Sir, that all is well, because you be so merry.' 'It is so, indeed, Son Roper, I thank God,' quoth he. 'Are you then put out of the Parliament bill?' said I. 'By my troth, Son Roper,' quoth he, 'I never remembered it.' 'Never remembered it, Sir?' said I, 'a case that toucheth yourself so near, and us all for your sake! I am sorry to hear it; for I verily trusted when I saw you so merry, that all had been well.' Then said he, 'Wilt thou know, Son Roper, why I was so merry?' 'That would I gladly, Sir,' quoth I. 'In good faith, I rejoiced, Son,' quoth he, 'that I had given the devil a foul fall; and that with those Lords I had gone so far as, without great shame, I could never go back again.' At which words waxed I very sad ; for though himself liked it well, yet like it me but a little." On less solemn occasions Roper sometimes remonstrates with him for what to his sobriety seemed reckless daring of judgment: " 'By my troth, Sir, it is very desperately spoken!' That vile term, I cry God mercy, did I give him. Who, by these words perceiving me in a fume, said merrily unto me: 'Well, well, Son Roper, it shall not be so; it shall not be so!' Whom, in sixteen years and more being in house conversant with him, I could never perceive as much as once in a fume." In More's friendships, his whole beautifully rounded self was involved. So if I have conveyed at all the quality of his friendship, I have already suggested something of his literature and morality. His learning was part of the whole man, and it was constantly related to the conduct of his life with other men. Studies are his joy, as he makes them the recreation of the citizens of his Utopia ; but they are a means of life, not a distraction from it. The qualities of More's mind are admirably balanced. His prodigious memory was partly trained by the almost bookless methods of teaching Latin at St. Anthony's school. From his schooldays, the rapidity of his brain was remarked. One of his fellows says: "Every body who has ever existed has had to put his sentences together from words, except our Thomas More alone. He, on the contrary, possesses this super-grammatical art, and particularly in reading Greek." To the great disgust of Erasmus, More's father stopped his devoting himself to Greek by cutting off his supplies at Oxford and tried to turn him into a sensible lawyer like himself by putting him into the inns of court. More mastered English law as he had mastered Greek, and went on to become the greatest lawyer in England. His gifts seemed exactly suited to his task whether he was skillfully managing a debate or delivering impartial judgments, always refusing the least advantage to anyone connected with him. His knowledge of the intricacies of English law was controlled by a fine wisdom. One of his early biographers tells the story of a homely, scrupulous judgment that shows he also had common sense and a knowledge of people and dogs. Indeed he loved all sorts of animals. Sir Thomas his last wife loved little doss to play withal. It happened that she was presented with one, which had been stolen from a poor beggar woman. The poor beggar challenged her dog, having spied it in the arms of one of the serving men that gave attendance upon my lady. The dog was denied her; so there was great hold and keep about it. At length Sir Thomas had notice of it; so caused both his wife and the beggar to come before him in his hall; and said, 'Wife, stand you here, at the upper end of the hall, because you are a gentlewoman; and goodwife, stand there beneath for you shall have no wrong.' He placed himself in the midst, and held the dog in his hands, saying to them, 'Are you content, that I shall decide this controversy that is between you concerning this dog?' 'Yes,* auoth they. Then said he each of you call the dog by his name, and to whom the dog cometh, she shall have it. I he dog came to the poor woman; so he cause the dog to be given her, and gave her besides a French crown, and desired her that she would bestow the dog upon his lady. The poor woman was well paid with his fair speeches, and his alms, and so delivered the dog to my lady. In matters of more moment, it is his power to see distinctions clearly as much as his impregnable integrity which marked his career. It is this combination of qualities which led him to the Lord Chancellorship and thence to his death. He could see the clear legal and moral difference between the Act of Succession, which he could accept as law, however much he disapproved, and the Act of Supremacy, which his legal mind and his conscience rejected. His morality as much as his learning is the mark of the whole man. It is his sheer goodness which suffuses Roper's portrait of him. Erasmus's letter describing him concentrates more on his charm, his genius for friendship and the grace with which he ordered his household, cheering the low spirited with merry talk and loving to jest, especially with women, even the rather dour Dame Alice; but through all Erasmus s account runs the feeling of his sense of proportion, his reluctance to shine at court, the sparseness of his diet, the modesty of his dress. Erasmus did not know that under even this plain garb he wore a harsh hair shirt. His austerities were for private discipline, not for public note. He meant that no one should know of his hair shirt except his daughter Margaret to whom he entrusted the washing of it; but one summer night as he sat at supper without a ruff, the young wife of his son saw it and laughed. The hair shirt explains much about More. In his youth he had written a set of very bad verses which include the line "None falleth far but he that climbeth high." More never climbed high in his own conceit. Thus he could quietly resign the chancel- lorship when he could no longer in conscience serve the king. Thus he could calmly re- organize his household calling them together to explain the reduction in their mode of life. Thus he could gently bid them farewell when he was committed to the Tower of London. Thus he could spend the months of his close imprisonment in devotions, preparing for his death much as he had thought he would like to spend his whole life in following the rule of the Carthusian monks, soberly but not solemnly, cheering his poor Dame Alice, who never could really understand why he would not swear the oath and come home to Chelsea, and having the wonderful conversations with Margaret Roper which are recorded in their dialogue letter, and writing the Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation, which is not about his own woes but about those of the kingdom. Thus he could go to the scaffold where he declared himself the "King's good servant, but God's first." Twenty years ago on the four hundredth anniversary of his death More was canonized. He is a saint, not just in Roman Catholic hagiology, but in truth and one whose sainthood has a special meaning for a community of students like ourselves. PRODUCTIVE GRADUATE STUDY Jeanne Addison Masengill FOR A FEW people who look back over their educational careers in the light of i the known present and the supposed future, a clear progressive pattern may emerge, of steps carefully planned and accomplished, all leading toward a predeter- mined goal. But for most of us, I suppose, the pattern would be considerably more complex a few carefully planned steps, a number of sudden new directions, and often even a new goal. Indeed, the difficult thing is likely to be finding a pattern at all. To know whether or not you got where you were going, you have to remember where you wanted to go. As I try to recollect now, tranquilly, my state of mind as I approached the end of my senior year at Agnes Scott, I remember very vividly the sense of the oppressive nearness of the future, the awful, absolute necessity of making up my mind, and the apparent infinitude of possible choices. I felt that I must choose my goal immediately and finally. To make matters worse, I genuinely thought that I could choose at that stage to be a doctor, a journalist, a dramatic actress, a scholar, or, with a few minor additions, a perfectly domesticated wife and mother. My very list of possibilities points up another problem which worried me greatly and seemed to compound thrice over the confusion of the prospective future. A man, I reasoned, might plan on being a doctor with at least a reasonable hope that his course would be unchanged. But a woman must plan conditionally to be a doctor. She may plan to be a doctor if she doesn't marry, if her husband doesn't object, if her children don't interfere, and so on. I suppose few would disagree that, for better or worse, when a modern woman finishes college, her expectations of the future are much more subject to alteration than those of a man. Indeed, it is this very fact, which leads me more and more to feel that a liberal education is not only the best possible education for a woman, but perhaps also the only feasible one. In my own case, a little more realism and common sense would have made me see immediately that the possibilities for the future were not really so limitless as I pretended. I had majored in English and minored in history, and always in the back of my mind had been the thought that I would like to be a teacher. Obviously I would need more education, and in the unremote and foreseeable future I would need a job. Directly, then, my decision to do graduate work was based on practical experience. But it was more than that, too. I had not studied enough. I was in the post chry- salid stage, eager not to settle down to write a thesis but to make a bigger and better survey of English literature. For this purpose the University of Pennsyl- vania was a perfect choice. There, for a master's degree, no thesis was required, but the staggering sum of twelve one-term courses instead. If one could afford only two terms, this meant six courses a term. I went to Pennsylvania, and I enjoyed my year there, skimming over many different things and dipping fairly deeply into a few. I emerged in due course with a master's degree and a surfeit of survey. At this point, the pattern called for teaching. Really creative teaching would have been a very healthy antidote. I was lucky enough to find a job teaching freshman and sophomore English in college. But my teaching at best was a poor at- tempt at recapitulation of the matter and manner of my own learning experiences. Sophomore literature seemed easy. I could follow the plan of my courses at Agnes Scott even down to the same pages of the same book. Freshman composition presented, I admit, something of a problem. But looking back, it seems that what worried me most was finding time to grade a hundred composition papers a week. My first year of graduate school had taught me many new facts. I had gained perhaps some new perspectives about literature. But I had not really assimilated them. I had not learned to shape and recreate them for communication. Perhaps this is hardly surprising. Such ability is certainly the result of time and trial and error, and sometimes never comes at all. From that first year on, my graduate career was directed more by chance than by careful and methodical planning. In some ways the new direction was amazingly rich ; in other ways it was extremely frustrating. My choice of a new graduate school was determined by the fact that I had married the philosophy instructor at my college. He was committed to return to the University of Virginia to receive his master's degree and continue work on his Ph.D. Fortunately, he was glad that I wanted to continue studying too. We even managed to share a job in the library so that we both might study and at the same time we both might eat. I knew very little about the graduate school of the University of Virginia. I wandered somewhat aimlessly into courses that I knew were required or into courses that sounded interesting. Now it seems to me that my worst mistake was that I had already finished two years of graduate school before I had any concrete idea of what my dissertation field would be. If I were starting graduate shcool again, I think I would pay a great deal more attention to choosing professors than I did in the past choosing them not so much for their personalities or their teaching techniques, but for their work as an index to their respective fields. I would read their articles and try to find out exactly what was going on in each field. If a man had no articles, I would not begin by studying in his courses. And I would pay a great deal of attention to the comments of other graduate students. This seems to me a realistic approach to the problem of the dissertation. In one year the student cannot hope to cover the range of interesting and possible sub- jects. If he finds a professor who can help direct him to a new field or a stimu- lating problem, he has made a great step toward productive graduate study. This does not limit his initiative or cut off his other interests. It simply saves him time. At the University of Virginia, I found eventually the most productive fields were two newly shaping sciences of English descriptive bibliography and descriptive linguistics. Descriptive bibliography is devoted to determining as scientifically as possible the author's exact intention as to the text of every work of literature. In its present form the study is relatively new and there are many jobs to be done. The work has all the fascination of crime detection, and its concreteness and the certainty of its results make it very satisfying. Obviously the field is severely limited. There is no room for poetic eloquence; and, in theory at least, once each text has been well done, it will never need to be done again. I stumbled on this field largely by accident and did a little work in it as part of my still-unfinished dissertation. The second field, descriptive linguistics, I met briefly in a Chaucer seminar. I learned enough to have respect for the subject and to know that I might find it interesting. But maddeningly, and as it now seems, ironically, I never had time in the university to pursue it. I say "ironically" because for the past three years my husband and I have devoted ourselves daily to the practical application of descrip- tive linguistics. We left the university four years ago during the severe academic depression which preceded the coming of age of the present crop of war babies. We were delighted to find a chance to teach English and to teach together in Thailand. Once in Bankok, we found the opportunities for constructive work even broader and even more available than we had supposed. We found ourselves in one of the few schools in the world which actually tries to use a descriptive analysis of English as a basis for teaching English as a foreign language. This means that our school had discarded the traditional grammar and translation approach in favor of an emphasis on spoken English. The technique de- pends largely on an analysis of the tones, stresses, sounds, and word patterns of the language. The materials at hand were stimulating to work with, though theoretical and not yet adapted for specific classroom use in Thailand. Our students were endless in number and desperately eager to learn. To be able to see an immediate and practical need and to do something about it was enough at first. We used our background of liberal education daily in teaching our students. And we daily found embarrassing gaps in it, which needed to be filled in. The whole realm of Eastern history, geography, and culture began to mean something. We travelled and explored and read and talked, and, I suppose, absorbed and fitted together some of what we had been learning during our years at school. Last year we went home and came back with a new impatience to do more than simply meet daily problems. All over the country there is a need for English and the grave handicap of years of self-perpetuating bad English teaching. By hard work, and by studying the particular problems of Thai speakers, the inadequate materials can be 10 and are being improved. In the last two months, my husband and I have been ex- tremely fortunate in being placed in a most advantageous position for carrying out some of our ideas. At the moment, he is acting as Director of the Language Center, and I am acting as Director of Courses. The world seems literally in our hands. We have never worked so hard or with such a constant sense of satisfaction. We now have twelve hundred students and are planning next term for sixteen hundred. We have certainly not proceeded with scholarly caution, and we have doubtless made many mistakes. But there are many blessings. We can try out in class tomorrow what we are writing today. We are working with people who make us feel that what we are doing is very much worth while. And we are daily fascinated with our work. Now, with three years of experience behind us, we are beginning to feel ready to go back to school. There are many things about linguistics that we still need to know. And yet, looking back, I cannot honestly say that I see clearly now that I should have studied linguistics instead of the Romantic poets. At the time I had an immediate need and desire for Romantic poetry and no interest whatever in launching into linguistics. Perhaps I might have kept a more open mind and have worried less about fitting into the pattern I thought I was following. But even then, it is unthinkable that I should have been specifically prepared for the exact turn of events which came. So, all roads lead back to the liberal education. For me, there is no doubt of that. And after college, the great thing seems to be to have a plan but recognize that it is a provisional one ; to follow it sensitively and critically, looking around as you go; to be willing to modify it, even to trade it for a new one if the need comes. The ultimate reconciliation of the actuality and the dream is much too delicate and special a problem for me to generalize about. But the average Agnes Scott student, by her studying, and her reading, and her conversation, is actually preparing to deal with her own case. 11 COLERIDGE ON THE VALUE OF STUDYING THE PAST R. Florence Brinkley IT WAS NEITHER aesthetic pleasure nor intellectual curiosity alone which led Coleridge to devote himself to a study of the past. It was the belief in certain funda- mental principles which have come very largely to be a part of our own thinking today. They bear especial weight since they come from a poet and are colored by a poet's vision. The first of these principles is that all knowledge is interrelated. Writing in 1827 to the young son of his physician, then studying at Eton College, Coleridge spoke of the fact that there was a time "when all the different departments of literature and science were regarded as so many different plants," each with its separate root. A truer conception of knowledge, however, was that of a wide-spreading tree. All phases of knowledge are embodied in a common trunk ; at the summit the trunk diverges into different branches and finally into twigs and sprays of practical application without losing its essential unity, for "one vital sap infuses all." No matter what the specialty may be, it first demands the whole: The clergyman must have the whole, the lawyer the whole, the physician the whole, yea even the naval and military officers must possess the whole, if either of these is to be more than a mere tradesman or routinier, a hack parson, a hack lawyer, etc. in short, a sapless stick. 1 The second principle is that of the continuity of life. Coleridge saw that life was j made more continuous when the present was understood in relation to the past, and he stated, according to the reporter of Philosophical Lecture IX, that "we can only consider that knowledge as truly mighty which is wedding the present to the past and future." 2 The study of history revealed that the law of cause and effect had worked | the same way in various periods, as is shown, for example, in the attempts to destroy fanaticism by persecution in the Peasant's War in Germany and the Civil War in England, and by the persecution of the Covenanters in Scotland. 3 A later example of the operation of this law was made in an extended comparison between the Restora- tion and the return of the Bourbons to power. 4 He concluded that if one would ' ascertain what effects certain causes will produce, he need only look back at history and "discover what effects they did produce." 5 An additional value to be derived from studying the past lies in finding that one's i own age is not unique and that similar problems in other ages eventually have been j worked out. Such knowledge affords hope and encouragement in contemporary situa- I tions. The Elizabethan age, for example, was considered the most brilliant period in 1 Quoted by Lucy Watson, Coleridge at Highgate, p. 128. 2 British Museum Manuscript Egerton, 3057, p. 6. ZBiographia Literaria (1818), I, 191-92. 4 Essays on His Own Times, II, 532-42. t>The Plot Discovered (1795), p. 29. 12 literature, and yet it was beset by many of the conditions which had arisen again in the nineteenth century: Then, as now, existed objects to which the wisest attached undue importance; then, as now, minds were venerated or idolized which owed their influence to the weakness of their contemporaries rather than to their own power. Then though great actions were wrought and great works in literature and science were produced, yet the general taste was capricious, fantastical or grovelling. 6 Coleridge further cited the fact that all Revolutions have been followed by a period of the "depravation of the national Morals: The Roman character during the Triumvirate, and under Tiberius ; and the reign of Charles the Second ; and Paris at the present moment." 7 The cause in each case was the same, "the sense of Insecurity" ; and when the cause was removed, the situation was relieved. Today he might add World War I and World War II to his list and hold out the same hope for alleviating the moral lag which has followed the upheavals. In studying the lives of the great men of the past, one is challenged to consider what such men would do under present conditions. Coleridge noted on the end page of Sir Thomas Browne's works that this idea had occurred to him "at midnight, Tuesday, the 16th of March, 1824," when just as he was stepping into bed, he happened to glance at Luther's Table Talk. He phrased the idea thus: The difference between a great mind's and a little mind's use of history is this, the latter would consider, for instance, what Luther did, taught, or sanctioned: the former, what Luther a Luther would now do, teach, and sanction. 8 An examination of the past not only reveals the continuity of life; it also develops a spirit of tolerance. One could see how able and honest thinkers had held opposite views on matters of great importance. Milton, for example, considered that the death of Charles I was an inevitable judgment resulting from his violation of the law; Jeremy Taylor, an ardent Royalist, that it was the martyrdom of a saint. A tendency to over-estimate one's own day is also checked by a survey of preceding times, for often those things which are hailed as new have been anticipated in preceding centuries. Political economy as a separate branch of knowledge was a relatively new subject in the early 19th century, but Coleridge pointed out that "the clearest teachers of political economy" belong to Old Testament Times and are "the inspired poets, historians, and sententiaries of the Jews." Their right to this claim lay not only in principles and grounds of state policy "whether in prosperous times or in those of danger and distress" but also in application of "precedent and facts in proof." 9 Coleridge's favorite period, the 17th century, was the source of many re- current ideas: "It would be difficult to conceive a notion or a fancy, in politics, ethics, theology, or even in physics or physiology, which had not been anticipated by men of that age." 10 He especially deplored the loss of time and effort in rediscovering some idea which had been previously discovered and overlooked. Locke was a prime offender in claiming as his own discoveries ideas which had been presented by Descartes. As evidence Coleridge interleaved the Essay on the Human Understanding, writing "opposite to The Friend (1818), III, 28-29. 7 "Blessed Are Ye" (Lay Sermon, 1817), pp. 1034. 8 Derwent Coleridge, Notes Theological, Political and Miscellaneous, p. 288. 9 "Blessed Are Ye," (Lay Sermon, 1817), Introduction, xiv-xv. 10 The Friend (1818), III, 69. 13 each paragraph the precise same thing written before [by Descartes] not by accident, not a sort of hint that had been given, but directly and connectedly the same." ll He further demonstrated that two of the great innovations attributed to Immanuel Kant really belonged to two famous Englishmen of the seventeenth century. To Kant had been attributed the distinction between the nature and functions of the reason and the understanding; yet he had "only completed and systematized what Lord Bacon had boldly designed and loosely sketched out in the Miscellany of Aphorisms, his Novum Organum." 12 The distinctions were recognized throughout the century by many other writers but were not always consistently maintained. To Kant was also attributed the discovery of the method of trichotomy that is of establishing a synthesis of which the two opposing concepts are diverse manifestations but this method was one of the great contributions of the distinguished divine, Richard Baxter. It was especially necessary, then, for anyone who attempted to make a contribution in any field to know what had been thought and said in the past. A man must know where to set out from. Coleridge realized that assimilating the past was the long method in gaining knowledge and that it required concentrated activity of mind. He distinguished mere informational knowledge from knowing and said, "The shortest way gives me the knowledge best, but the longest makes me more knowing." 13 It was through knowing that one gained the greatest values from studying the past. 11 Kathleen Coburn, The Philosophical Lectures ol S. T. Coleridge, pp. 378-79. 1 2 Letter to John Taylor Coleridge, April 8, 1825, E. H. Coleridge, Letters, II, 735. 13 Anima Poetae (American Edition, 1895), p. 147. 14 ._L DEATHS INSTITUTE Dan W. Shadburn, husband of Es telle Webb Shadburn and father o: Sue Shadburn Watkins '26 and Sar Shadburn Heath '33, died Dee. 25. John Shorter Cowles, father o Sallie Chase Cowles, died Feb. 5. ACADEMY Judge Robert Lee Russell, brothei of Mary Russell Green, Carolyn Rus sell Nelson '34, and uncle of Nanc; Green '43, died Jan. 18. Jim A. Minter, father of Marguerite Minter Privett and Lidie Minter '14 died in January. 1912 Baker W. Farrar, husband o Janet Little Farrar, died Feb. 10. 1915 Kate Lumpkin Richardsoi Wicker died Jan. 23. 1 920 Frank Anderson Sewell, hus band of Margaret Bland Sewell am father of Julia Sewell Carter '39 ant Edith Sewell Bergmanis '53, die( Jan. 28. 1 926 Mary Louise Bennett lost he mother in Sept., 1954. 1938 Richard A. Hills, Sr., hus band of Doris Dunn Hills, died Jan. 26 1940 Mrs. W. W. Newman, grand mother of Eleanor Newman Hutchen: and Sue Hutchens Henson '47, diet Feb. 20, in Huntsville, Ala. 1950 Charlotte Anne Bartlett died Feb. 11. REUNION FOR CLASSES OF '93 '94 AND '95 JUNE 4 J 6 I 7 AGNES SCOTT alumnae quarterly summer 1955 t gW !Ni> #n SJfe* tev "**#; wSrJsis jfl u*r ;.t' THE ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION OF AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE OFFICERS MARY WARREN READ '29 President BETTY ELLISON CANDLER '49 Vice-President FLORENCE BRINKLEY '14 Vice-President MARY PRIM FOWLER '29 Vice-President MARJORIE NAAB BOLEN '46 Secretary BETTY MEDLOCK LACKEY '42 Treasurer TRUSTEES JEAN BAILEY OWEN '39 CATHERINE WOOD MARSHALL '36 CHAIRMEN SARA CARTER MASSEE '29 Nominations FRANCES CRAIGHEAD DWYER '28 Special Events LORTON LEE '49 Vocational Guidance MARY WALLACE KIRK '1 1 Education LEONE BOWERS HAMILTON '26 Publications BELLA WILSON LEWIS '34 Class Officers RUBY ROSSER DAVIS '43 House LOUISE BROWN HASTINGS '23 Grounds MARIE SIMPSON RUTLAND '35 Entertainment LOCAL CLUB PRESIDENTS ALICE GLENN LOWRY '29 Atlanta SARA FULTON '21 Decatur MARGARET ANN KAUFMANN '52 Atlanta Junior MARY PHILLIPS HEARN '49 Southwest Atlanta STAFF ANN WORTHY JOHNSON '38 Director of Alumnae Affairs ELOISE HARDEMAN KETCHIN House Manager MARY P. CHAPMAN Office Manager MEMBER AMERICAN ALUMNI COUNCIL The AGNES SCOTT Alumnae Quarterly Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Ga. Volume 33 Summer 1955 CONTENTS ASSOCIATION REPORTS ALUMNAE FUND REPORT Number 4 WORKING WITH PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS Mi/zi Kiser L(, Board Members Ann Worthy Johnson 5 SOME MARKS OF A FREE MIND E. Harris Harbison 10 COLLEGE NEWS TO CHARLOTTE BARTLETT Ann Williamson Campbell 12 CLASS NEWS Eloise Hardeman Ketchin 1 3 Cover: The 66th Commencement procession entering Presser Hall. This and the other photographs in this issue are by John Carras. The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly is published four times a year (November, February, April and July) by the Alumnae Association oj Agnes Scott College at Decatur, Georgia. Contributors to the Alumnat Fund receive the magazine. Yearly subscription, $2.00. Single copy 50 cents. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office of Decatur, Georgia under Act of August 24, 1912. I THE ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION REPORTS I DIRECTOR OFFICE "1 S T COLLEGE U. ALUMNAE TRUSTEE- E X E B c - SECRETARY .PRESIDENT U A A T R MANAGER f I D- TREASURER HOUSE I MANAGER- 1 I" PROPERTY VICE PRESIDENT CLUBS L-CONSTITUTION V E ^COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN Nominations Special Events M E M B E R S Vocational Guidance Education Class Officers House and Grounds Entertainment ORGANIZATIONAL CHART OF THE AGNES SCOTT ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT'S REPORT: We have endeavored this year through the Alumnae Board to do all we could in the matter of relationships relationships be- tween alumnae and students, alumnae and faculty and alumnae and their college. We have tried to show, as well as tell, the students of the interest alumnae have in them. The use of the Alumnae House for their families and friends has been made available and as pleasant as possible. The tea for freshmen was delightfully informal and well attended. The Career Coffees were continued, creating an atmosphere in which students could talk of their futures and interests m specific fields and have their questions answered by experienced professional women. We have talked to the Senior Class, at one of its meetings, welcoming them into a new relationship with the college as alum- nae and explaining the need for their support and in- terest. We have tried, in a visit to a faculty meeting, to in- form our faculty of what the Alumnae Association is and is trying to do. We want to enlist their interest and continued support and advice in doing a better job. Within the Association, we have attempted to in- form our members of the accomplishments and plans of the college. The committee working with the Class 1 Council has worked hard to interpret the Alumnae Fund and to make each alumna feel important to the college by urging her to express her own ideas for the growth and effectiveness of our Association as well as our college. Much work has gone into the encourage- ment of alumnae club groups in all parts of the coun- try. We have had 3 new alumnae clubs organized this year, bringing the total to 34 clubs with an approxi- mate membership of 1,000. We have reports of meet- ings, good and varied programs, and a growing interest in the seeking out of outstanding high school girls in each community to be prospective Agnes Scott stu- dents. One heart-warming gift this year came to the college from a comparatively small alumnae club in New Orleans, a scholarship fund of $1,450. From eight clubs came requests, which were fulfilled, for a representative from the College to attend Founder's Day meetings. We have made every effort to bring alumnae back to the campus through careful reunion plans and campus programs for local Clubs. We were very interested this year in a count made of living alumnae of Agnes Scott. We found that there are at present 8,984 Alumnae, 3,392 of whom are graduates. We can now proudly add 98 graduates of the Class of 1955 to this number. We are amazed to find how relatively few we are certainly compared to the larger college and universities rosters. We are also proud and justly so I think to find among that number so many outstanding career women, home- makers and volunteers in civic, cultural, and religious endeavors. As for the finances of the Association, here is a brief outline of the budgets under which we work. The Executive Board of the Association prepares an annual budget and presents it for payment to the College. In turn, all gifts to the annual Alumnae Fund go to the College. This was our third year of operating on this fiscal plan, and it is proving to be wise for both Asso- ciation and College. This budget covers salaries for the Director of Alumnae Affairs (her salary is a part time one as she has a dual capacity, being also Director of Publicity for the College) ; one full time clerical staff person, our office manager; and the resident house manager. The budget also includes the publi- cation and mailing of the Alumnae Quarterly, the printing and mailing of Alumnae Fund appeals and other letters and information to alumnae, and office supplies and equipment. Our budget this year was $10,800, and we finished the year within this amount. As you notice, it does not include items concerning the Alumnae House which is a separate operation and works on an independent budget. The income from room rents, rentals of the parlors for parties, rental of academic regalia, and designated gifts from the Alumnae Fund is used to defray the expenses of run- ning the House: the laundry, the maid, cleaning and minor repairs; insurance and gas service. Although the books show a balanced operation, we are well aware that except for the generosity of the College we could not claim a balanced budget in this area as we show no charge for office rent, lights, water, heat, or upkeep on the grounds in our overhead expenses. We are indeed grateful for such generosity. Please do read the Alumnae Fund report, as it is an achievement of which we can all feel justly proud. Except for the peak reached last year, this year's con- tributions show a steady growth of the Fund over previous years. We feel that we can do a much better job with the Fund next year by better timing of ap- peals and by more interpretation of the real need for annual giving by a greater number of alumnae. Many of you have expressed the feeling that with the large bequests received this year, the need for small gifts was no longer so urgent. Each of us needs to realize that endowment is only one factor in evaluating the standing of a college. The percentage of alumnae giving annually is concrete evidence of their belief in *he work of the College and is thus of greatest im- portance to foundations and corporations as they make gifts to support higher education. Our percentage is less than 30 per cent which is low nationally as many colleges show 40 to 60 per cent. We have had a wonderfully active and enthusiastic board of directors this year, each doing a splendid job, and we pledge to the alumnae, the trustees, and to our college, an even greater effort to be of more service to Agnes Scott in the coming year. Mary Warren Read '29. Vice President: Constitutional Changes: The Constitution Committee has not had occasion to make any further suggestions about constitution revisions during this year; therefore, we have no report tc make. If you have found in carrying out the work of the year any places where you think constitution changes would be helpful for the Association, m\ committee would be grateful for your suggestions. I am not sure how many of the changes which we recom- mended have been passed. R. Florence Brinkley '14 House Chairman : The House Committee has com- pleted its major project for the year, the painting oi the downstairs rooms of the Alumnae House, and the upstairs bathroom. A contract was made after secur ing three bids on the job, and the work was completec| as specified. Since the House has mellowed with thci years, the enamel used on the hall woodwork was cu' with a gloss modifier to keep it from being too obi viously newly painted, and was a blend of Princess Ivory and Sandalwood, instead of original ivory. The living rooms were done with the exact shade used when the House was redecorated in 1947. The Chairman has also served as acting chairman for the Alumnae Property Committee since Christmas, and has done the necessary banking and check writing for the House. In addition she has purchased linens needed for the House, and supplied such flower ar- rangements as could be created out of dried materials for permanent decorations. At the suggestion of the Nominating Committee, the House Committee has asked Catherine Ivie Brown (Mrs. Paul) to be the new member of the self-perpet- uating committee. Ruby (Rosser) Davis is automati- cally chairman for next year. Financial report : Specified gifts for House Committee in 1954-1955 $ 80.00 Withdrawn from House Income for painting 120.00 $200.00 Total cost of labor for downstairs painting . . . $200.00 Gift of paint from the College (estimated) 60.00 Gift of labor for bathroom from chairman 10.00 Committee actually used $120.00 from House in- come on the redecoration job. Nelle Chamblee Howard. '34. TREASURER'S REPORT: Notes From Class Council: At the annual meet- ing on June 6 attended by class presidents and secre- taries, there was hearty discussion of our timetable for reunions. Sentiment expressed at the meeting and in letters from absent members appears to favor continu- ing with the Dix plan and also holding reunions at Commencement. Comments and suggestions from re- union presidents will be passed on to the reunion presi- dents for the coming year. When a class is faced with a Dix reunion and a "milestone" reunion (such as the 10th, 25th) in consecutive years, the president can poll the class to determine when to hold reunion. Sev- eral representatives expressed the wish that something be done to make it easier for alumnae and faculty to see each other at some time during the flurry of Com- mencement activities. The council agreed it might be a good idea to have one issue of the quarterly especially devoted to class news. Class news would continue to appear in the other issues, but a special effort would be made in the spring. It was suggested that this issue be sent to all members of reunion classes whether active or not, and that inactive members of reunion classes receive invita- tions to the Alumnae Luncheon. As the college needs the continuing annual financial support of its alumnae, despite the recent Walters gift, the suggestion was made that class presidents be pro- vided with more detailed information each year on what the needs are and the status of each class's giving. With the secretaries handling the gathering of news, the presidents would be free in their annual letter to concentrate on urging classmates to show an active interest in the college through the Alumnae Fund. Bella Wilson Lewis '34. FINANCIAL STATEMENT, June 30, 1955 SALARIES and SOCIAL SECURITY PRINTING OFFICE Telephone Supplies Postage Dues SUNDRY BUDGETED DISBURSED AMOUNT $6,130.98 $6,137.79 $2,489.83 $2,975.76 150.91 210.97 466.30 468.10 462.64 550.00 77.58 55.00 787.57 1,013.51 BALANCE DEFICIT $ 6.81 $485.93 60.06 1.80 87.37 22.58 225.87 Balance $867.84 This includes funds borrowed to pay for Wedgwood plates and funds received and transferred for Korean student. Please see also the Alumnae Fund Report. Betty Medlock Lackey '42. CLUBS: Summary of work done in 1954-55 1. Files completely reviewed once and news compiled for an issue of Alumnae Quarterly. 2. Letters written to newer alumnae clubs, and to New Orleans Club for scholarship fund. 3. Mimeo copies of the March 15th article in At- lanta Journal about Agnes Scott as a liberal arts college, written by Dorothy Cremin Read '42, was sent to all Alumnae Clubs. Mimeo work now in progress to send to all alumnae clubs a copy of the 1955 Founder's Day radio program. We feel both of these mailings can be helpful to local clubs in regard to program material. 4. All four local clubs contacted about sale and hand- ling of Wedgwood plates. 5. A new alumnae club was organized in Orlando, Florida. Mary Read made a trip there , for this event. 6. Served on finance committee in drawing up budget for next year. . Fella Marie Cowan '35. Grounds Chairman : The garden has been com- pletely reworked to the plans submitted by Edith Hen- derson, L.A. The pergola has been rebuilt. An open- ing between center posts has been made into each garden ; two posts have been moved to make center walkways. Shrubs have been pruned and trees and hedges moved. Magnolias have been planted in background for screening. Loquats are espaliered against the Din- ing Hall wall. Eventually a statue will be placed against this wall. The small boxwood bordering the beds have been removed because of their bad condition and another kind which are hardier placed there. The true dwarf or suffruticosa will not take the sun in these small beds placed so close to the brick. Jackmani Clematis (purple) and Clematis pami- culata have been placed on each post. Also we have planted Gypsophila (white), Nemophila (blue) and Sweet Alyssum in all the beds. Two hundred blue Iris (Dutch) were planted against the box hedge. These were my gift. At Christmas I had sent around 10,000 Narcissus bulbs to be planted on the campus, and they bloomed in profusion. This is a repeat gift of last year, so soon as these multiply the campus will be greatly enhanced in Spring with these blooms. Louise B. Hastings '23. Special Events Chairman: On Friday, March 18th, ten teachers attending the G.E.A. meeting, Mary Read, and your Special Events Chairman had luncheon together at the Capital City Club. It was decided to make this luncheon an annual event during the G.E.A. meeting and to invite to it not only teachers but an\ other Agnes Scott alumnae who would be interestec in attending. Those who came were: Mary Read Louise Cook, Frances Dwyer, Clara Dunn, Robert; Winter, Dorothy Adams Knight, Carolyn Galbreath Jean Danielson, Jo Barron, Mrs. Betty Harrison, San Fulton and Sara Mae Rickard. During luncheon there was much interest evidencei in the growth and development at the college. Severa expressed the hope that more scholarships could bi offered to prospective students since many highly in telligent students in the under-privileged areas ar< unable to attend Agnes Scott College because of finan cial reasons. Evelyn Hanna Sommerville was the alumnae speake \ at the annual meeting June 4th. Mary Mann Booi was in charge of the details of the alumnae luncheoi and Sally Brodnax Hansell introduced the speaker, i The Founder's Day Broadcast, "Living Is Our Busi ness," a stimulating discussion of liberal arts educatioi as background for professional careers, was played ove 17 stations over the country. Consideration is bein] given to making records of annual broadcasts and send ing the records to local clubs for their use at a clu meeting if they find the material timely. France Craighead Dwyer '28. Vocational Guidance Chairman : The Vocationa Guidance Committee sponsored three career confer ences for students. Dates, subjects and speakers were Feb. 2, Job Interviews and Opportunities for 195i Participants were personnel executives, B. W. Card well, vice-president in charge of personnel, Citizen and Southern National Bank, and Mrs. Christin Felts, of Consulting Psychologists Inc. Mary Mad son Wisdom was in charge. Feb. 3, Radio, Television and Drama. Participant were Miss Dean Dickins, director of women's pre grams, WGST; Mrs. Fenton (Pat) Riley, membe of the Atlanta Theater Guild and former model, an Miss Callie Huger, production and promotion assi tant, WSB-TV. I was in charge. Feb. 8, Interesting Work for English and Histor Majors. Participants were Miss Kitty Johnson, hen of the order department at Atlanta Municipal L brary; Mrs. Jim Boyd, until recently a member ( Regenstein's advertising department, and Mrs. Joh Pfeiffer, free-lance writer. Our chapel speaker on Feb. 2 was Dr. Eddie Neel Anderson, psychologist and counselor in family rel; tions. We were very pleased with the attendance at tl coffees. Between 20 and 30 students came to eai one. Marie Simpson Rutland did a splendid job of providing refreshments. The committee is also proud of the file of working graduates in the Atlanta area. The file, made up of replies to questionnaires sent out through the alumnae office, is available in the office. We hope this file will prove useful to future committees in securing speakers and to students who may wish to talk with graduates in some particular field. The cards are filed according to occupation. We received 128 replies. Twenty-eight of these came from graduates who are not employed outside the home. We sent out about 400 cards and believe that many of the homemakers didn't return theirs think- ing they weren't meant to do so. At any rate, we have names of 98 graduates now working in Atlanta two graduate students in the Atlanta area, and two home- makers who have part-time jobs. It is with regret that I feel because of other activ- ities to which I am committed I must resign from the board. As I said in my letter to our president, I considered it both an honor and a pleasure to serve. In addition to those already mentioned, the com- mittee is composed of Bella Wilson Lewis, Eleanor Reynolds Verdery, Deezy Scott and Peggy Bridges. My thanks go to each member and to Ann Worthy Johnson. Edwina Davis Christian '46. Note: Lorton Lee '49 has accepted the invitation of the Nominating Committee to serve as Vocational Guidance Chairman. 1954-55 ALUMNAE FUND REPORT $27,817 The 1443 Alumnae who contributed to this, the eleventh annual Alumnae Fund, can take unto them- selves a goodly measure of self-respect for the financial support they gave Agnes Scott this year, on two scores. Tirst, we are beginning to grow up in our understand- ing that annual giving by alumnae, without the impetus jof a special campaign, is a fundamental factor in the College's fiscal operation. Second, the amount of money (given to this year's fund, from July 1, 1954 to June 30, 1955, $27,817, is equal to the income on $900,000 linvested at 3 per cent. The temptation to pat ourselves jcollectively on the back and rest on these lovely laurels fan be overwhelming. A sobering thought is this: only yl% of alumnae contacted contributed this year. And (be assured that the Alumnae Office contacted every- one who has a current address on file! The Alumnae Fund is made up of all contributions (to the college given by alumnae. This is the way you designated that the Fund be spent this year: .UNRESTRICTED $10,137.00 SCHOLARSHIPS . . . . FACULTY SALARIES . . FOREIGN STUDENTS . KLUMNAE HOUSE . . . (SPEECH DEPARTMENT 796.00 311.00 515.00 413.00 100.00 SPECIAL FUNDS: Alexander Fund 25.00 Beach Fund 100.00 Cooper Fund 650.00 Cunningham Fund 25.00 Hale Fund 417.00 HollisFund 30.00 Holt Fund 5,000.00 McCain Library Fund 59.00 Pauline McCain Fund 25.00 MacDougall Museum 24.00 Newton Fund 100.00 Tanner Fund 38.00 Thatcher Fund . . 7,000.00 New Orleans Club Fund 1,074.37 Pilley Kim Choi Fund 283.00 Walters Hall 10.00 Dr. Sweet's Portrait Fund ....... 185.00 Statistics on the Alumnae Fund can be twisted, for better or worse. But here are a few more, for your thinking pleasure. The average contribution this year was $19.00. This can be misleading, because several large gifts pull the average to this high point. The percentage of alumnae contributing to the Fund this year, 21%, is a tally of total alumnae solicited. If we take the percentage of contributors who are graduates (3508), we take a nice, high jump to 41%. 5 I Institute Academy 1906-07 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 Living Number of Percent- Graduates Contributors ages 169 41 25 104 27 26 8 7 88 4 3 75 9 7 78 12 12 100 12 13 100 12 10 83 14 10 71 22 12 55 20 11 55 28 12 43 35 16 46 30 13 43 35 22 63 32 15 47 49 21 43 52 15 47 53 21 40 54 16 30 70 12 17 73 29 40 99 35 35 94 30 32 89 38 43 86 45 52 73 24 33 81 25 31 93 26 28 78 25 32 84 24 29 . 95 22 23 80 21 26 81 18 22 91 35 38 95 41 43 88 27 31 79 29 37 94 43 46 97 53 55 124 44 36 114 45 39 115 40 35 116 61 53 104 63 61 100 56 56 100 62 62 86 42 49 82 82 100 How do we compare with each other, in giving by - classes ? These are the most telling statistics for us. Hearty thanks go to each of us who are included in the decimal points above. Special thanks go to the i class officers who added their efforts to the Alumnae Fund solicitation. In almost every class showing ai high percentage of contributors, class members had either a written or personal word about the Fund from their officers. How do we compare with other private women's colleges in alumnae giving? The best figures avail- able are those compiled by the American Alumni Coun- cil ; the following are reprinted from American Alumni Council News, April, 1955, and are reports of last year's Alumnae Funds. Agnes Scott stands second in the South, Sweetbriar first, in the percentage of alumnae contributors. Vassar led the nation in total amount given, and Mt. Holy- oke led in number of contributors. Number Per- Living Alumnae of cent- College Alumnae Solicited Donors age Amount Agnes Scott 8,984 6,312 1,728 27.4 $ 28,733 Barnard 14,500 9,619 3,097 32.2 100,448 Bessie Tift 4,960 2,500 290 11.6 8,065 Connecticut 7,271 4,650 2,516 54.1 39,105 Bryn Mawr 8,696 6,533 2,452 37.5 60,404 Goucher 8,742 6,624 3,251 49.1 42,775 Hollins 5,500 5,500 631 11.5 6,157 Mary Baldwin 5,838 5,200 772 14.8 14,129 Mount Holyoke 13,725 10,765 6,936 64.4 121,763 Randolph- Macon 10,886 10,287 2,363 23.0 33,014 Shorter 2,006 2,006 273 13.6 6,221 Smith 28,285 26,116 12,666 48.5 283,762 Sweet Briar 6,775 5,344 1,685 31.5 18,775 Vassar 17,139 17,139 8,889 51.9 520,386 Wellesley 22,636 22,200 10,365 46.7 504,410 Wesleyan (Ga, ) 7,500 7,500 914 12.2 19,015 COLLEGE NEWS Walters Hall is now a great and gaping hole where the old science building once was. The few of us who remain on campus during the summer are learning to be excellent sidewalk superintendents. We started to print a picture of the hole for you in color it would be nice, since the Georgia red clay striations look something like the tones of the Grand Canyon, but it is hard to visualize the new dormitory at this beginning building stage. Better look at the drawing done by the architects, Ivy and Crook. The red brick and limestone finish will blend easily with other cam- pus buildings. Walters Hall will accommodate 145 students, will have a guest room, an apartment for the member of the Dean of Student's staff who serves as Senior Resident, and the long, wide basement area will be a student recreation center. "The quiet and still air of delightful studies" will have undertones of hammers and saws during this academic year, but the building is scheduled for completion toward the end of the term and will be ready for occupancy in September, 1956. It is heartening to see this new dormitory, listed as the first and most pressing need in Agnes Scott's long-range Development Program, well on the way to becoming reality. Mary Sweet Cottage, remembered as living quar- ters by some of us and as the Infirmary by more of us, had to disappear from the face of the land in order to make room for Walters Hall. For the last five years, the enrollment trend at Agnes Scott has been toward more boarding students, and all indications are that this will continue. During the 1954-55 session, there were 535 students enrolled, of which 80 were residents of Atlanta and vicinity ; of these 80, 30 lived on campus. This year, while Walters Hall is under construction, one of Miss Scandrett's problems will be to find, literally, the necessary number of beds for students. Some will live upstairs in Dr. McCain's home he says he is indeed looking forward to being a Senior Resident. The house next to Dr. McCain's, on the corner of S. Candler and Dougherty Sts., formerly occupied by the Business Manager, Mr. Rogers, and his family, will be a student cottage next year and has been named Alexander Cottage, honoring Miss Lucile Alexander, Professor Emeritus of French. Seven other cottages will again house students : Ans- ley, Boyd, Cunningham, Gaines, Hardeman, Lupton, Sturgis. These are, of course, in addition to the four dormi- tories, Main, Rebekah, Inman and Hopkins. Main has been subjected through the years to many trans- formations and transfusions. This summer, major surgery is being performed there, in order to replace the entire wiring system, to meet state fire protection specifications. Dr. Emily S. Dexter, Associate Professor of Phil- osophy and Education, has just made the difficult choice of retiring now instead of teaching actively an- other year or so. Her decision was announced at the Alumnae Luncheon, so many alumnae had the oppor- tunity to try to get her to change her mind to no avail, as any one of her former students might have prognosticated. The entire college community is grate- ful that we will not actually lose her since she plans to take an apartment in Decatur. Her summer plans include teaching and a trip to California where, as Vice-President, she will conduct a meeting of the In- ternational Association of Women Psychologists. Ru- mor, at present unconfirmed, says that Miss Dexter's direct and forceful mind may be cutting some clear paths across the Emory campus next year. The Alumnae Luncheon proved an occasion for news-gathering of other retired faculty members. Dr. McCain greeted us all by name. His wise, steady, and always available counsel remains a bulwark for the college administration. And he probably sees more alumnae than anyone ever has, in his wide travels. He delighted students this year with his account of Frances Winship Walters' life and by appearing at the Freshman Picnic attired in expertly tailored Ber- muda shorts. Miss Gooch, Miss McKinney, Miss Alexander, Mr. Holt and Mr. Dieckman came out to the luncheon, and Mr. Johnson blew in on a Florida breeze although he had to leave Mrs. Johnson at home in Delray Beach. Mrs. Sydenstricker and Miss Tor- rance both wrote that only doctors' orders kept them at home. Miss MacDougall was tied down by the business of detailed revising of her biology textbook. At the Annual Meeting of the Board of Trus- tees on June 3, Catherine Wood Marshall '36 who was elected to the Board last year as a Corporate Trus- tee was named an Alumna Trustee, replacing Frances Winship Walters. This change will be confirmed by the Alumnae Association at the first meeting of its Executive Board in September. During the Year, a new department was created at Agnes Scott, the Department of Education. Estab- lishing a separate department for education will ex- pand Agnes Scott's facilities for training in this field. It is not contemplated that a Major in education will be offered. The department is headed by Dr. Richard Henderson, and its courses are a part of the Agnes Scott-Emory Teacher Training Program, directed by Dr. John Goodlad. Educational Recognition came again to Agnes Scott this year in scholarships and grants awarded to students and faculty for graduate study. Three mem- bers of the Class of 1955 received Fulbright grants for study abroad, Georgia Belle Christopher, Con- stance Curry and Margaret Williamson. (Georgia Belle and Margaret are both Granddaughters, and Georgia Belle had her alumna mother and aunt at her Phi Beta Kappa initiation this Spring.) Georgia Belle also was the recipient of one of the coveted | Woodrow Fellowships for graduate study, but chose the Fulbright grant for study in England. Faculty Members who will be away on leave to do further graduate study next year are Frances B. Clark '50, Instructor in French, who will pursue studies | towards the Ph.D. degree at Yale on a grant awarded her by the General Electric Corporation one of only | six such grants made by the company for graduate study in the humanities: Marie Huper, Assistant Professor of Art who will work toward the Ph.D at the State University of Iowa; Dr. Margaret B. DesChamps, Assistant Professor of History, who has been granted one of two scholarships awarded by the Presbyterian Church, U.S., and will be in Scotland doing research on the Scottish background of the Presbyterian Church in America; Dr. Elizabeth G. Zenn, Assistant Profes- sor of Classical Languages and Literatures, who will do archeological research at the American Academy in Rome, on a grant from the Fund for the Advance- ment of Education. WORKING WITH PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS Mitzi Kiser Law '54 Between September and May I have joined the ranks of those called seasoned travellers. Perhaps the title alumnae-admissions representative would not at first seem to carry this distinction. I have, however, driven approximately 25,000 miles in the college car; climbed in and out of 10 planes, 25 taxis, and innum- erable cars of alumnae ; and, within the space of four months, have four times covered the distance between Florida and New York with side trips to Arkansas and Texas. The college has had field representatives at various times; but the position as it now is began developing in the fall of 1949 when Doris Sullivan Tippens was named alumnae representative. She was followed by Su Boney Milner, Sybil Corbett Riddle, and Ann Cooper Whitesel. We have all found that we are not representing Agnes Scott to "sell" the college but rather to assist in the selection of students and also in the important task of interpreting the college to school personnel and to candidates for admission and their parents. My own program this past year has included visiting applicants in their homes and at their schools, representing Agnes ; Scott at the high school college-day programs, and attending alumnae meetings and parties which alumnae have given for prospective students. Most of the seniors who apply have been on the mailing list (a list this year made up of girls from 41 states) because of a request for information from them ) their parents, an alumna, or a friend or be- cause they have talked with the Agnes Scott represen- tative at a college-day program or have attended a party for prospective students (often a tea or coke party given by alumnae). When I visit these appli- cants, I try to answer any questions they might have or discuss any problems ; we usually cover everything from roommates and location of the bathrooms to course of study and social life in Atlanta. I have seen approximately 115 of the incoming freshman class, and this partially accounts for my mileage. The college day programs to which I have already 'eferred have been planned by high schools in an at- :empt to help their students as they choose a college. *Vt these programs the students have an opportunity to isk questions and to receive information from official epresentatives of the colleges in which they have some nterest. Dates for the programs in different states often conflict, but I have been able to attend 50 this year and have visited an additional 50 high schools by appointment. Contact with Agnes Scott alumnae has been one of the most rewarding and refreshing parts of my work. I find it quite easy to see why many a fresh- man indicates that an alumna has been a decisive fac- tor in making her college choice. Agnes Scott alumnae have continued to be interested in and to support the college ; alumnae and alumnae groups have entertained a number of prospective students during the past year (high school sophomores and juniors as well as seniors) at functions apart from regular alumnae meetings; some have planned to do this when our college stu- dents have been home at vacation times. Presenting Agnes Scott to school administrators in the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas and in parts of Texas and Arkansas has been my contribution to the widening scope of alumnae-admissions work. Seasoned traveller becoming Long Island commuter, I feel con- fident that Florrie Fleming will continue in the de- velopment of alumnae-admissions work. SOME MARKS OF A FREE MIND Although addressed to the Clnss of 1955 at their Commencement , Dr. Harbison's words go directly to all of us who rejoice or rebel with the "free minds" with which Agnes Scott's liberal education endowed us. Dr. Harbison is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History at Princeton University, and his special field of interest is the Renaissance and Reformation. He is the author of Rival Ambassadors at the Court of Queen Mary, which in 1942 won the Adams Prize of the American Historical Association. E. Harris Harbison For Four Years you of the graduating class have been happily absorbing a "liberal" education that is, an education designed to "free the mind." Years ago a Renaissance school teacher said, "We call those studies liberal which are worthy of a free man." And we might say today that ideally the liberal studies are those best able to inspire and nourish free minds. Now in all the flood of commencement oratory that is going to wash over college campuses this week and keep restless people from their luncheons, I think there should be someone who gets up and says that this busi- ness of freeing minds if it is done successfully is a very dangerous and subversive enterprise. Take a young person and free him or her from the narrow bounds of time and place, of here and now ; emancipate her from personal and parochial prejudices by showing her glimpses of a wider world as seen by the great philosophers poets, artists, and scientists; break down those invisible guide-lines that keep her field of vision narrowed to her own family or vocation, her own class, her own nation, or her own race do all this, and almost anything may happen. A truly free mind is a very disturbing thing to most people, because it cannot comfortably be dismissed as just another representative of a party or pressure-group, another example of a fa- miliar fad or ism. Intelligence is always disturbing. And when it is mated with integrity, it can be posi- tively terrifying. What I am saying is that if Agnes Scott has really accomplished what it has meant to do with those of you who are graduating today, then I really ought to warn the world about the hundred-odd emancipated minds that are being loosed upon it this morning. And at the same time I ought to warn you that free minds don't necessarily mean happy minds. If your minds have acquired the marks of real freedom in your four years here, don't expect to find the world ready to welcome you with open arms, and don't expect that life will be a bed of roses for you from now on. I had a student this year from the Mid-West Chicago Tribune territory who did a paper for me on "Munich 1938." He came out of it with some dis- turbing ideas. The most unsettling was that there are no simple parallels in history -that "appeasement" in 1938 was futile, but that to call every suggestion of compromise in 1955 "appeasement," and so to rouse political passion by false historical association, might be stupid or wrong, if not actually suicidal. He tells me his idea will not be especially popular back home. I had another student this spring from South Caro- lina who did some research on education in his native state. He too ran into a very disturbing idea. Can one say, as many of his sources maintained, that the Negro is naturally incapable of the same kind of edu- cation as the white when the Negro has been excluded from such education for so many generations, thus preventing the production or any evidence which might answer the question? He told me his question might not be very popular in some circles at home. Now this sort of thing has been going on in hun- dreds of liberal arts colleges throughout the country during the past year. It is what has always happened for over five hundred years whenever a student really rises to the bait of "an education worthy of a free man." The first mark of a free mind, then, is a sense of perspective, a hunch about how it looks from "over there," a feeling for alternatives that comes from study and reflection. This means that a free mind is impa- tient with simple answers to complex questions, with intellectual short-cuts and quack-remedies. My mother had this sort of mind, but she had one very loveable weakness. She liked to send her three sons, when they were away at school, the names of the latest remedies she had found for the simple ills of mankind like the common cold. My youngest brother used to accuse her of running a "Medicine of the Month Club." One time he thought he'd humor her and get a bottle of the latest remedy. "What's it for?" he asked the druggist. "What've you got?" said the druggist. It is all too easy to turn this into a parable of the way we approach our national ills today. Whatever it is we've got chiefly national insecurity, with all its associated symptoms somebody has a nice, simple rem- edy for it that we can buy at any political soda-fountain. 10 Are we in danger from spies and saboteurs? Closing our doors to immigrants, purging high-school history- books, and televising congressional hearings will fix it. At least all this will make us feel better. Are un- stable free governments in Asia in danger? The threat of "massive retaliation" will fix it. Or at least it will soothe our pride. A free mind is suspicious when such simple, easy nostrums are offered to it. It cannot bring itself to believe, for instance, that 500,000,000 Chinese turned Communist simply because a few men in our State Department did the wrong thing ten years ago ; and that to turn these men out now will somehow fix everything. I cannot see any remedy for our present insecurity in a two-power world but patience, emo- tional maturity, courage, and intelligence. This brings me to the heart of what I want to say today. You of the graduating class may well agree with me. You may say, we see all this but what can we do about it? What's the use of what you call a "free mind" if it can see perfectly clear what's wrong with the world, but is condemned to frustration by its helplessness? The idealist of graduation week is too often the cynic of ten years later. Particularly in the case of women graduates of liberal arts colleges, the exaltation of glimpsing horizons beyond one's own time and place, one's own nation, class, and race, may become a source of mere torment during the long dis- cipline of dishpans and diapers. Now the last words of a colleague of mine bfore I came down here were, "Don't say anything to disturb them. Remember it's a commencement and they're all nice girls. Above all, don't mention dishpans and diapers." My wife was more honest. She said to tell you the truth namely that you may thoughtlessly curse your liberal education in the next few years ahead be- fore you come in the end to a full appreciation of it. With more right than a man, a woman may feel im- pelled to say to her Alma Mater, "You freed my mind, but did nothing to free my body from its ancient slav- ery to the home." This suggests then, that to free the mind without also somehow freeing the spirit the spirit that determines our inner attitude toward our- selves, our fellow human beings, and the universe may be futile and even destructive. The Greeks used one word, psyche, to describe both what we call the mind and what we call the spirit. The association suggests something very important : namely that mind and spirit are ultimately inseparable. The second mark of a free mind, in other words, is that it is grounded in a free spirit. The truly free mind is so because it is unafraid, because it is committed to something ultimate, because it has a point to which it can always return, as a man to his home. The ultimate test of a free mind is moral and spir- itual, not intellectual. The brilliant, frustrated intel- lectual is not a "free mind." But neither is the happy, well-adjusted member of what Mencken called the "booboisie," the woman college graduate whose con- versation never gets beyond bridge and babies. Too many of our college graduates end up one or the other. As for the particular problem of the liberally-edu- cated woman, no mere male can pretend to offer a solution. But two friends of mine one from the twen- tieth century and one from the fourteenth have sug- gested solutions which I am going to pass on to you for what they are worth. And I think each is worth a good deal of reflection. The first is from Lynn White, who is President of Mills College, and who has wrestled long and hard with the irony of preparing young women for a dozen years of cooking and washing by four years of Shake- speare and French. He gives not an inch on the long- run value of a traditional liberal education, particu- larly during those later years of a woman's life after the children are old enough to be out of the house most of the day. But he insists that if we can only rid our- selves of our prejudices about the slavery of the home, home-making can itself become one of the "liberal arts." He looks forward to the time when women's colleges will not only "offer a firm nuclear course in the Family, but from it will radiate curricular series deal- ing with food and nutrition, textiles and clothing, health and nursing, house planning and interior decor- ation, garden design, applied botany, and child develop- ment." "Would it be impossible," he asks, "to present a be- ginning course in foods as exciting, and as difficult to work up after college, as a course in post-Kantian phil- osophy would be ? . . . Why not study the theory and preparation of ... a well-marinated shish kebab, lamb kidneys sauteed in sherry and authoritative curry, . . . or even such simple sophistications as serving cold arti- chokes with fresh milk?" [Lynn White, Jr., Educat- ing Our Daughters, (Harper 1950), pp. 77-78] Well, this may go a bit too far. Let me simply say that one way women with free minds have got through those first dozen years with a fair degree of content has been to make a "liberal study," so to speak, of some aspect of their daily round of home-making like an engineer who can't resist reading about the history or social significance of the narrow technique which oc- cupies him eight hours a day. But there is another and more profound way and it is suggested by a great Christian mystic of the later Middle Ages, Meister Eckhart. Eckhart once preached a sermon on Mary and Martha and I urge you to 11 read it. He came up with the astounding idea that Martha's was really the better part, and that this was the lesson of the story. Why? Because Alary was still unsure of herself, still searching, still dependent on the spiritual guidance of others. Like you during the past four years, she was still at school. But Martha, Eckhart thought, had been through all this and had come out into serenity. Thus she was able to go about the menial tasks of the house, and to prove again that spiritual exaltation is always validated by the practi- cal service which overflows from it. Martha's calling was not really a hindrance to her, Eckhart says. "Work and calling, both, she turned to her eternal profit." But she was worried that Mary might sit forever at the feet of Christ. That was why she urged, " 'Lord, bid her get up,' meaning to say, 'Lord, I do not like her sitting there just for the pleasure of it. I want her to learn life and really possess it. Tell her to rise and really be Mary.' She was not really Mary," Eck- hart adds, "while she was sitting at Christ's feet . . . While she sat at the feet of our Lord and listened to his words, she was learning . . . But later on, when she had learnt her lesson and received the Holy Ghost, she began to serve . . . Only when the saints are saints, and not till then, do they do meritorious works." [The Works of Meister Eckhart, ed. C. deB. Evans, (Lon- don 1931), Vol. II, pp. 90-98.] What does all this mean ? I think it means that the freeing of the mind is never completed until it cul- minates in freely-accepted responsibility and service. Men are more in danger of losing sight of this fact than women, because women are thrust sooner and more completely into responsibility and service in their families. It may be, then, that a woman's curse is also her blessing. Her slavery to kiddies and cookery can serve as a bulwark of responsible intellectual freedom, as a man's career often cannot. If truly great minds are to be found ten years after graduation unpreju- diced and wide-ranging, but also unclouded by cynicism or despair there is a better chance of finding them among your sex than among mine provided you pre- serve the balance between Mary and Martha. Mary and Martha are really one person. They are you each of you rising from learning and going out to serve, not drowning your visions in drudgery, but keeping your mind alive and free in the discipline of responsibility. "Freedom," says Robert Frost, "is feel- ing easy in your harness." And it's not a bad definition. TO CHARLOTTE BARTLETT How very much we miss Charlotte, here at our fifth year class reunion. I was happy when Tuck asked me to write a tribute to her, for she meant so much to me, and I know there are so many others who loved her as I did. Yet I know that whatever words I may say about Charlotte will only be as / knew her any one of you might choose other words, for you knew her in other ways. So if when I'm through, you feel I've not spoken of the Charlotte you knew, forgive me. These things are spoken only to remind us of her, for, after all, no words can recapture the real Charlotte who lived and played and worked with us those four years. I shall not attempt a biographical sketch I know very little of her life before college, and you all know of her many and varied activities while at Agnes Scott. While all these activities indicate her wide interests, unbounded energy, and zest for life, they don't seem to me so important as the way in which Charlotte did all these things her approach to life, or rather her reception of life as it came to her. Indeed, there was always a path beaten to her room, and that is the thing that one remembers first the countless scores of friends. It was often amazing, and always interesting, the group of girls one could find in her room. Girls from every class and clique on campus would claim Charlotte as their friend and she was. Often the least loved girl in school would find love and understanding from Charlotte. Not only the less popular, but the most attractive social butterflies were among her closest friends, as well as the active leaders on campus. Charlotte loved across all social or intellectual barriers, because for her these barriers simply did not exist. It was not only on our own campus that Charlotte was a friend, but on the campuses of Emory and Tech as well. She loved the world, and so the world loved back. But she was not so engrossed in activities that she missed the education for which she came to college. Charlotte found her friends in books as well as people. Though she set no scholastic records, she had the genuine intellectual cursiosity that marks the real stu- dent. No field of study was beyond her interest, and many delightful hours could be spent in discussion with her the joys of a newly discovered author, a political movement, a new idea. As one who passed a re-exam 12 in Chemistry through her coaching efforts, I knew her desire for knowledge. Delving into some new subject could excite her to the point of exasperation at not being able to grasp it all immediately. Charlotte loved "the good, the true, and the beauti- ful" in the natural world much as did St. Francis, who also found his friends among the birds and flowers. A clear warm morning in the spring would send Charlotte bounding across the campus to classes with an irresistible gaity that even before breakfast made one smile. A sunset, a moonlight night, a playful squirrel would set her heart and imagination running, so that she seemed almost as one with the creation. And who will ever forget that first snowfall our freshman year, when with the other Florida girls, she helped wake us to see it cover the ground ? With an elflike spirit, she entered into every phase of life with her whole self. She kept back no part for her- self what was hers was held in an open hand herself, her possessions, her time and she never tired of the many claims upon her. Then Charlotte loved God. He was indeed her Friend of Friends, a daily companion to whom she could and did turn for guidance, strength, and com- fort. Hers was a joyful faith, and she was never ashamed to confess Him in the lowliest or most sophisti- cated company. Her whole life was a joyous dedica- tion to God so much so that there was the common saying on campus, "she's too good for this world." Perhaps that is why God, in His unsearchable Provi- dence, called her back. For us it is a comfort to know that her life is now perfected in pure communion with Him. What a blessing it was to have had her with us! What a joy to remember throughout all our lives. Ann Williamson Campbell '50 CLASS NEWS DEATHS INSTITUTE Anna Peek Robertson died July 16, 1954. Marie Goetchius On- died Feb. 15, 1954. Eleanor Cloud Bryan died March 18, 1953. Annie Morton Dodd died March 5. 1910 Eloise Oliver Ellis died Feb. 10. Edith Louise Brown Combs died July 25, 1954. 1914 Zelma Allen Tabor died Feb. 28, 1954. Mary Brown Florence lost hei mother in November 1954. 1917 Hooper Alexander, Jr., broth- er of Amelia Alexander Greenawalt died March 6. 1921 Lucile Smith Bishop lost her husband Dec. 1, 1953. 1 924 Sarah Aline Kinman died April 18. 1925 Robert Albert McKay, hus- band of Ruth Harrison McKay an< brother of Anne McKay and Ethe McKay Holmes '15, died April 26. 1 930 Elizabeth Eaton Leinbach diec in March. O. L. Adams, Jr., husband of Kath erine Crawford Adams, died May 7 Lillian Dale Thomas lost her moth- er Oct. 26, 1954. Edited by Eloise Hardeman Ketchin 1 93 1 Mrs. W. A. Bellingrath, moth- er of Elmore Bellingrath Bartlett and Suzanne Bellingrath Von Gal '41, died Feb. 28. 1 934 Adam H. Unsworth, husband of Kathryn Maness Unsworth, died in January. Ruth Shippey Austin lost her Fath- er in April. 1 940 Eugene B. Cass, father of Er- nestine Cass McGee, died May 6. 1941 Margaret Murchison's father died in March. 1 949 R. H. Johnson, father of Hen- rietta Johnson, died Feb. 15. Return Postage Guaranteed by Alumnae Quarterly, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia , Wf IttTanta, Georgia !j^H . " v .j *$l 5W AGNES SCOTT ALUMNAE QUARTERLY THE ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION OF AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE OFFICERS MARY WARREN READ '29 President BETTY ELLISON CANDLER '49 Vice-President FLORENCE BRINKLEY '14 V ice-President MARY PRIM FOWLER '29 Vice-President MARJORIE NAAB BOLEN '46 Secretary BETTY MEDLOCK LACKEY '42 Treasurer TRUSTEES JEAN BAILEY OWEN '39 CATHERINE WOOD MARSHALL '36 CHAIRMEN SARA CARTER MASSEE '29 Nominations FRANCES CRAIGHEAD DWYER '28 Special Events LORTON LEE '49 Vocational Guidance MARY WALLACE KIRK '1 1 Education LEONE BOWERS HAMILTON '26 Publications BELLA WILSON LEWIS '34 Class Officers RUBY ROSSER DAVIS '43 House LOUISE BROWN HASTINGS '23 Grounds MARIE SIMPSON RUTLAND '35 Entertainment LOCAL CLUB PRESIDENTS ALICE GLENN LOWRY '29 Atlanta SARA FULTON '21 Decatur MARGARET ANN KAUFMANN '52 Atlanta Junior MARY PHILLIPS HEARN '49 Southwest Atlanta STAFF ANN WORTHY JOHNSON '38 Director of Alumnae Affairs ELOISE HARDEMAN KETCHIN House Manager MARY P. CHAPMAN Office Manager MEMBER AMERICAN ALUMNI COUNCIL The AGNES SCOTT Alumnae Quarterly Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Ga. Volume 34 Fall 1955 Number 1 CONTENTS HOMER TEACHER OF THE LIBERAL ARTS M.Kathryn Glick ALUMNI RESPONSIBILITY FOR QUALITY IN EDUCATION Theodore A . Distler AGNES SCOTT HEWS TO INDIVIDUAL LINE Dorothy Cremin Rind CLASS NEWS Eloise Hardeman Ketchin 1 3 Cover: Academic tools on the steps of Presser Hall await their owners' return from Chapel. Photo by Bill Wilson Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly is published four times a year (November, February, April and July) by the Alumnae Association of Agnes Scott College at Decatur, Georgia. Contributors to the Alumnae Fund receive the magazine. Y early subscription, $2.00. Single copy 50 cents. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office of Decatur, Georgia, under Act of August 24, 1912. Annually, a member- of the faculty speaks at a chapel program on some aspect of the liberal arts. Miss Glick, professor of classical languages and literature, chose to talk about Homer. Here she gives us, as she says Aeschylus has been credited with describing his own work, "slices from Homer's banquet." M. Kathryn Glick HOMER teacher of the liberal arts I WANT TO TALK to you this morning about a phase of the Liberal Arts which I find exciting. We used to use the term Humanities rather than Liberal Arts. I like Humanities better because it seems to me to focus the attention more nearly where it belongs, that is, on Homo, Alan. But the teachers of established disciplines, or subjects, were selfish and, as new fields of knowledge were added to college curricula, the entrenched groups refused to admit that such sub- jects as science and social science were humane subjects. For many years a battle raged, the humanists behaving most unhumanely and forgetting entirely the famous phrase of Terence: homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto (HT.77). The result was the general adoption of the term Liberal Arts comprising "three broad areas: the world of nature, the world of human society, and the world of human ideals, aspirations and values" with the term Humanities designating the last division of knowledge. My own feeling is that what makes an art a liberal one is the manner in which it is presented and the pur- pose for which it is taught. I know that both Latin and Greek have been sinned against in this respect and both subjects have paid a heavy penalty for the sins of some teachers. And while we do not spend all of our time in Latin and Greek classes on Latin syntax and Greek verbs, as many of you think, I maintain that both Latin syntax and Greek verbs can be liberally taught. I also know, from personal experience, that History and English literature can be illiberally taught. The subject matter in itself, though it may help, does not guaran- tee that any body of material is always a Liberal Art. In brief, I should say that any subject which is taught for the enlargement of the human spirit rather than the enrichment of the human pocket book is a liberal subject. Liberal Arts, however, is not a new term. Cicero says that arts, i. e., liberal arts and practise of the virtues are the most fitting arms against old age (aptissima omnino . . . arma senectutis artes exerci- tationes virtutum. de Sen. 9). And again in his de- fense of the poet Archias, speaking especially about the study of poetry which was the principal Liberal Art of his time, he says: Quod si non hoc tantus fructus ostenderetur, et si exhis studiis delectatio sola peteretur, tamen, ut opinor, hanc animi remissionem humanissimam ac liberalis- sirna/n iudicaretis. Nam ceterae neque temporum sunt neque aetatum omnium neque locorum; at haec studia adulescentian alunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis perfugium ac solacium praebent, delec- tant domi, non impediunt foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur. (Pro Archia VII). Now, as 1 have said, the Liberal Arts for Cicero and Vergil and the other Romans were Greek and Latin poetry, primarily Greek poetry. They were steeped in Greek poetry and particularly in Homeric poetry. The first Roman textbook was the XII tables of the Roman Law; the second, available in the latter half of the third century B. C. was a Latin translation of Homer's Odyssey. Horace speaks of using this translation of the Odyssey in the middle of the first century B.C. Horace also speaks of the moral value of Homer. In writing to a friend, he says: I have been reading afresh at Praeneste the writer of the Trojan War: who tells us what is fair, what is foul, what is helpful, what not, more plainly and better than the Philosophers. (Epist. 1.2). The Iliad and the Odyssey have been called the Greek Bible. Certainly for centuries they were the chief ingredient in Greek formal education, and in Greek culture. Homer was the final authority on all sorts of questions from morals to diplomacy and Achilles was the model of Greek manhood certainly until the time of Alexander the Great. Sophocles is called 'the most Homeric of poets' and Aeschylus was said to have described his own work, modestly, as 'slices from Homer's banquet.' The Greeks, beginning with Homer, wrote man 1 with a capital M. Certain qualities were innerent in manhood. The Greeks, I think, would not have under- stood our tendency to explain shoddy behavior and man's general shortcomings with "O, he is only hu- man." It is not that the Greeks did not know that there are two sides to man's nature, but they chose to emphasize the noble side. This seems to me good. If you shoot at a star, you certainly have to aim higher than if you shoot at a worm. Let us consider for a while some of the qualities in- herent in the Iliad which, I believe, had very great influence on the Greeks and Romans. The Iliad is not the story of the Trojan war, but of the events of a few days during the tenth year of the war. However, by skillful use of episode and digression, Homer tells us much about the war, but does not include the fall of Troy. This very limitation of subject matter is evi- dence of an instinctive control of form which is typical not only of Homer but of the Greek mind generally. But listen to the Iliad for a moment: Sing, goddess, the wrath of Achilles Peleus' son, the ruinous wrath that brought on the Achaeans woes in- numerable, and hurled down into Hades many strong souls of heroes, and gave their bodies to be a prey to dogs and all winged birds; and so the counsel of Zeus wrought out its accomplishment from the day when first strife parted Atrides King of men and noble Achilles. The theme of the poem is noteworthy. I want to quote Kitto here : What shapes the poem is nothing external, like the war, but the tragic conception that a quarrel between two men should bring suffering, death and dishonour to so many others. So 'the plan of Zeus was fulfilled.' And what does this mean? That all this was specially designed by Zeus for inscrutable reasons of his own? Rather the opposite, that it is part of a universal Plan: not an isolated event something which, as it happened, so fell out on this occasion but something that came from very nature of things: not a particular, but a universal. It is not for us to say whether it was from pondering on this episode of the war that Homer was led to this conception, which he then saw could be ex- pressed through the Achilles-story: the important thing is that this is his subject, that such a cause had such an effect: and that it is out of this clearly conceived subject, and not merely from literary contrivance, that the Iliad derives the essential unity which informs it, in spite of its epic expansiveness. (The Greeks, p. 47.) Homer, after this brief introduction, describes this quarrel in the most vivid manner. I should like to read it to you but time forbids. Briefly it is this: the Greek army is dying of a plague. Achilles is concerned for the army and calls council meeting to find out the cause. The priest says it is because Agamemnon has dishon- ored the priest of Apollo and refused to return the priest's daughter, a captive of war who has fallen to Agamemnon's lot. Agamemnon is unwilling to give her up and, when forced to for the sake of his army, he angrily takes Achilles' prize, another woman captive. Homer reports it brilliantly, not by any description of abstract qualities, but by showing us the two men quar- reling violently. Thus are we introduced to the charac- ters and the action. Of this Homeric trait, Aristotle says: Homer, admirable in all other respects, has the special merit of being the only poet who rightly ap- preciates the part he should take himself . . . After a few prefatory words, (he) at once brings in a man, or woman, or other personage; none of them wanting in characteristic qualities, but each with a character of his own. (Poetics, 1460a). It may seem that so violent a quarrel over a girl was a petty thing. There is, however, something more in- volved. The girl is only the symbol of something much more serious. One of the key words in Greek thought is Arete, sometimes translated as virtue, more correctly perhaps, as excellence or essence. It means actually Manliness, that quality which makes a man a man and sets him oft" from all other beings. The arete of a Hom- eric hero is prowess as a fighter ; Achilles was recog- nized by both Greeks and Trojans as the foremost Greek fighter. The girl, his prize of honor awarded by the army, was concrete evidence of his prowess. So, when Agamemnon using his position as commander-in- chief highhandedly took Achilles prize of honor, he was injuring him in the most vital part of his being. This arete is emphasized by Homer. He mentions it specifically as part of the training of three of his char- acters: Achilles (II. XI. 783ff.), Glaukus (II. VI. 208ff.), and Hector. When Hector's wife, Andro- mache, begs him not to return to the battlefield, he re- plies: Surely I take thought for all these things, my wife: but I would be ashamed before the Trojans and Trojan women with trailing robes, if like a coward I shrink away from battle. Moreover, my own soul forbids me, for I have learned to be ever valiant and fight in the forefront of the Trojans, winning my father's great glory and my own. (II. VI. 441 f f . ) As civilization progressed, the conception of arete changed, its importance did not. Oedipus' arete in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex is, perhaps, his prowess in the pursuit of truth, in defiance of the warning of Teiresias the prophet, the concern of his wife, and finally, I think, in defiance of his own knowledge that that truth would bring him ruin. In Plato, arete is a man's prow- ess in the development of his reason, or his soul if you please that part of him which is divine, which is his means of communication with the divine, which his failure to use is sin, and without which he is not a man. This appreciation of excellence also shows itself in various phases of Greek life: in the quality of the liter- ature, the lines of the temples, and the grace of the vases. Most of our Greek vases are not signed ; they were made by ordinary potters. The great Ionic frieze on the Parthenon was executed by ordinary stone- cutters. The Athenian population as a whole attended the productions of Greek tragedies. All of these things indicate the general high degree of excellence both in workmanship and appreciation. Homer portrays Achilles magnificently : a man who chose a short but glorious life in preference to a long, undistinguished one; trained to be a "speaker of words" as well as a "doer of deeds" ; a man loved and respected by his friends and equals, and loved by his captive slave woman, courteous to his friends, and considerate of their feelings; lenient towards his enemies before the death of Patroklus ; willing to give up his life for his friend he knew that his own death was to follow his killing of Hector ; quick to obey the gods. He was also a man devoted to the truth whether in himself or in another man, he says: "For hateful to me as the gates of Hades is the man who hides one thing in his mind and speaks another." (II. IX. 312-313). Yet with all these admirable qualities, Achilles was lacking in one important essential, namely an ability to control his emotions. It is this lack of self control which brings grief unbearable upon himself and misfor- tune to his friends and companions. The importance of self-control is embodied in an- other key Greek word Sophrosyne, not mentioned but implied by Homer in the Iliad. It is impossible to trans- late this word by a single English word. It means bas- ically sound-mindedness. It is sometimes temperance, sometimes self-control, sometimes more nearly a recog- nition of the fact that man is only a mortal. It may at times have any one of these meanings or a combination of them. This word and all that it signifies was as im- portant in the Greek character, in literature and art, as arete. The lack of self-control in Achilles brought about the death of his friend, Patroklus, and led to the ter- rible vengeance which he took on Hector's body after killing him. Achilles is the first great tragic hero. It is only when Achilles recognizes the common human- ity of Priam and pities him that he rises to his full stature as a man. Listen to Homer again: And as they both bethought them of their dead, so Priam for man-slaying Hector wept sore as he was fallen before Achilles' feet, and Achilles wept for his own father, and now again for Patroklus, and their moan went up throughout the house. But when noble Achilles had satisfied him with lament, and the desire thereof departed from his heart and limbs, straightway he sprang from his seat and raised the old man by his hand, pitying his hoary head and hoary beard, and spoke to him winged words and said: "Ah, hapless, many ill things truly have you endured in your heart. How dared you come alone to the ships of the Achaeans and to meet the eyes of the man who has slain full many of your sons? Of iron truly is your heart. But come sit upon a seat, and we will let our sorrows lie quiet in our hearts, for all our pain, for no avail comes of chill lament. This is the lot the gods have spun for miserable men, that they should live in pain; yet them- selves are sorrowless. (II. XXIV. 508ff.) Achilles is an individual and unique, yet he is also universal humanity in its greatness and in its sorrow and weakness. The pessimism, or rather the tragic sense of life, so prominent in this passage, but existing throughout the poem is another typically Greek characteristic. The re- markable thing is that this feeling does not paralyze. They still go on and do their best. As Sarpedon says to his friend Glaukus: Ah, friend, if once escaped from this battle we were to be forever ageless and immortal, neither would I fight myself in the foremost ranks, nor would I send you into the war that gives men renown. But now for assuredly ten thousand fates of death do every way beset us, and these no mortal may escape nor avoid now let us go forward, whether we shall give glory to other men, or others to us. (II. XII. 321ff.) Actually this feeling is coupled in the Greek char- acter with a tremendous zest for life. It is really further evidence of their sophrosyne. But as Matthew Arnold said of Sophocles, Homer truly "saw life steadily and saw it whole." The whole panorama is there in the Iliad. Hector noble, dutiful son, loving husband, and devoted father, devout, says: Moreover I have awe to make libation of gleaming wine to Zeus with unwashed hands; nor can it be in any wise that one should pray to the son of Kronos, god of the storm cloud, all defiled with blood and filth. (II. VI. 266-268.) He is the mainstay of his city though that city is upholding a cause for which he has no sympathy and which he knows means the destruction of all which he holds dear. He is always courteous to Helen though she is the cause of all his trouble. And Andromache, a lovely lady, whose sufferings are those of every woman in every war, is portrayed with an unequalled beauty of sympathy and under- standing. There is Paris attractive, handsome, a coward, and completely lacking in any sense of responsibility. There is also Sarpedon with his unforgettable state- ment of the relation of privilege and responsibility: Glaukus, wherefore have we twain the chiefest hon- or, seats of honor, and messes, and full cups in Lykia, and all men look on us as gods? And wherefore hold we a great domain by the banks of Xanthos, a fair domain of orchard-land, and wheat-bearing land? Therefore now it behooves us to take our stand in the first rank of the Lykians, and encounter fiery battle, that cer- tain of the well-corsleted Lykians may say, 'Verily our kings that rule Lykia are no inglorious men, they that eat fat sheep, and drink the choice wine honey- sweet: nay, but they are also of excellent might, for they fight in the foremost ranks of the Lykians.' (II. XII. 31 1. ) An appreciation of Beauty also appears on practi- cally every page of the Iliad: physical beauty repre- sented by Helen so unusual that old men understand why young men fight for such a woman ; and also by young men ; the beauty of nature trees, clouds, flow- ers, the snow, the rainbow are all effectively set forth in the many similes. There is the beauty of various kinds of works of art, and pervading the whole, the beauty of the poem itself. While the Iliad is full of war, I think it is fair to say that Homer does not approve of its tragic waste. That is obvious from the very theme of the poem which I mentioned at the beginning of this paper. There is also a recurrent note of regret running through the poem over the destruction of youth and beauty. Con- sider this simile used to describe the death of a rather conceited young man engaged in his first combat. As a man grows a healthy young olive tree in a special place, where there is plenty of water a fair thing, full of life, tossed by the breath of every wind, and covered with white blossom ; suddenly a wind comes with a mighty blast and wrenches it from its place and stretches it upon the earth. (II. XVII. 55- 58.) Let me summarize briefly just some of the humane qualities which are impressed upon a student of the Iliad: an instinctive control of form; adherence to the highest quality within one; the importance of self-con- trol and temperance at all times; a realization of the seriousness of life and at the same time a zest for life ; the relation of responsibility to privilege; an appreci- ation of beauty in all of its forms ; a healthy regard for the truth ; and a deep realization of the position of man and his proper relation to God. It is not always possible to judge the effect of any one teacher of the Liberal Arts. I think we do have some indication of the effectiveness of Homer as a teacher. Consider this partial list of names from the fifth century all of them men who certainly owed much to Homer: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Phidias, Herod- otus, Pericles, Socrates, Euripides, and even Plato who admits that he loves him even though he criticizes him.. But we have another judgment of a people brought upon Homer set forth in the pages of Thucydides. In this first quotation a Corinthian, an enemy of Athens is speaking: The Athenians are addicted to innovation, and their designs are characterized by swiftness alike in con- ception and execution . . . they are adventurous be- yond their power, and daring beyond their judgment, and in danger they are sanguine . . . Further there is promptitude on their side . . . They are swift to follow up a success, and slow to recoil from a reverse. Their bodies they spend ungrudgingly in their country's cause; their intellect they jealously husband to be employed in her service. A scheme unexecuted is with them a posi- tive loss, a successful enterprise a comparative failure. The deficiency created by the miscarriage of an under- taking is soon filled up by fresh hopes; for they alone are enabled to call a thing hoped for a thing got, by the speed with which they act upon their resolutions . . . To describe their character in a word, one might truly say that they were born into the world to take no rest themselves and to give none to others. (Bk. I, 70f.) This next quotation is part of the funeral oration which Pericles is represented as delivering in honor of the Athenians who fell in the first year of the Pelopon- nesian war. I cannot quote it all. Further, we provide plenty of means for the mind to refresh itself from business . . . We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude for- eigners from any opportunity of learning or observing, although the eye of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality; trusting less in system and policy than to the native spirit of our citizens. The freedom which we enjoy in our government ex- tends also to our ordinary life. There, far from exer- cising a jealous watchfulness over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbor for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in those injur- ious looks which cannot fail to be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty. Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although decision usually is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of reflection. But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most justly to those, who best know the difference between the hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. In short, I say that as a city we are the school of Hellas; while I doubt if the world can produce a man, who where he has only himself to depend upon, is equal to so many emergencies, and graced by so happy a versatility as the Athenian. (Bk. II, chs. 39ff.). To have had a part in such an achievement is some- thing which any teacher might well envy. If there were time, we might go on to list other Greeks, Rom- ans, Englishmen, even Americans, and men of other nationalities whom Homer has had a hand in molding. It would be a truly remarkable tribute to a great teacher. Mr. Distler, former president of Franklin cs" Marshall College, has been for the last ten years Executiz>e Director of the Association of American Colleges. He will be Commencement Speaker for Agnes Scott June 4, 1956. In this article, first delivered as a talk to the 1955 conference of the American Alumni Council, he points out a few paths leading to the two-way street of alumnae- college responsibilities. RESPONSIBILITIES OF ALUMNI FOR QUALITY IN EDUCATION Theodore A. Distler AS A FORMER COLLEGE president and now the executive director of an association that represents our colleges of liberal arts and sciences on the national level, I welcome the opportunity of talking to the American Alumni Council about an issue which is of vital importance for the future of higher education in the United States. 1 take it for granted you all agree that quality is a vital issue for higher education. This is not the kind of operation in which we can get by with a rough and ready job. Unless we are prepared to set ourselves high standards of performance and strive with might and main to live up to them, we might as well give up pretending. At the present time this is very much of a practical problem. There is no blinking the fact that quantity is often inimical to quality. In setting up the goal of pro- viding higher education for a far larger proportion of our youth than has ever been attempted anywhere, we are faced with unexampled difficulties in preserving an adequate standard of quality in the education we offer them. Broadly speaking, the difficulties grow with the stu- dent population. We are now feeling the first surge of what has come to be called the tidal wave of enroll- ments. In ten or fifteen years it may double the already prodigious volume of college entrants. We are at our wit's end to find means of merely accommodating this vast inrush of students of providing enough living space, teaching equipment and above all teachers to cope with it. In this situation the danger of losing sight of quality is greater than ever. We shall all have to strain every nerve to keep quality in its rightful place in our educational planning and practice. And in this responsibility I deliberately include alumni. That is the theme of the ideas I want to put before you today. Alumni responsibility is a relatively new idea. In the past everybody else had his place in the scheme of educa- tional responsibility for general policy and financial management. The several administrators had their specific responsibilities for detailed planning and day- to-day operation. The faculty were primarily respon- sible for the maintenance of academic standards. Even the student had at least a theoretical responsibility for contributing to the attainment of the institution's aims. Only the alumnus was left out in the cold. Robert Hutchins once remarked that "alumni are in- terested in all the things that do not matter." If this is taken at its face value as a statement about the attitude of alumni, I am sure you disagree with it as strongly as I do. As a reflection of the opportunities alumni were usually given for interesting themselves in the things that do not matter, it is not far from the mark. Fortunately the picture is changing fast. "In the centuries ahead," notes President Robert G. Sproul of the University of California, "the record of history may well show that the greatest contribution that the United States has made to the advancement of educa- tion is in the creation and cultivation in alumni of a sense of continuing membership in and responsibility toward their colleges and universities . . . The alumni of American colleges and universities never cease to think of themselves as members of the family. By their loyal affection for alma mater, by their active labor in its support, and by the contributions they make to it, they bear witness to a relationship as vital as that ac- cepted by any student, professor or administrative officer." The characteristic relationship between educational institutions and their alumni associations is now one of interdependence. The institutions recognize a respon- sibility for promoting alumni activities, not only through financial subvention but equally through ad- ministrative organization. In many colleges the alumni secretary has the status of a regular member of the administrative staff. Personally I regard this as a de- sirable arrangement. At the same time alumni are expected and encouraged to take an increasingly active part in the administrative and academic business of their alma mater, as well as furnish financial support. In the words of President Arthur S. Adams, of the American Council of Education, "They should be asked to assume responsibility; they should have full information, and their opinions on vital matters of university policy should be seriously sought and seriously considered." If I were giving advice to my former colleagues and their development officers, I should emphasize those words, "asked to assujne responsibility." There is a temptation to think that alumni have an automatic obligation to devote their time and energy and money to their alma mater just because they are alumni. If they show any hesitation, one can always remind them how much the college has done for them. After all, their education, which played a vital role in what- ever success they may have achieved, cost far more than they ever had to pay for it, and it follows that they are now under a corresponding obligation to repay the debt. For my part I do not think this argument is either tactically sound or logically justifiable. In the first place, if you believe that a fellow is under an obligation to you, it is not smart to keep on reminding him of it. Even if he is disposed to admit the obligation, he may well resent your harping on it. Beyond that, it does not square with my idea of the aims of a liberal edu- cation. We pride ourselves on equipping our students to live a full life and to play the part of good citi- zens. Then are we entitled to assume that alma mater holds a first mortgage on their social energies? Must we not show some trust in the judgment we claim to have developed in them and allow them to make their own decisions in allotting their available resources of time and money among the many demands made on a responsible citizen? I like to think of alumni as being in an analogous position to that of stockholders in a modern corpora- tion though of course they may have drawn substan- tial dividends in advance of their main investment. They are not obliged to go on investing or to take an interest in the business. They can sit on their capital and leave policy to the management. Or they can insist on knowing what is going on and why, and, by taking a lively interest in the affairs of the institution, establish their right to a voice in its directon. This is how I think it should be. Alumni cannot be compelled to admit an obligation ; they can and should be encouraged to assume a voluntary responsibility. What then are the particular responsibilities that alumni may be expected to assume in the effort to main- tain quality in higher education? To arrive at them we must analyze the main factors that govern educa- tional quality. The First Responsibility First of all I would place educational opportunity. No form of education can do an effective job unless it is suited to the needs and capabilities of the student. In particular, higher education in the United States of America cannot do the job the nation expects of it un- less it enables every young man and woman of ability to develop his or her talents to the highest possible degree, regardless of accidents of birth or economic status. The historic response of alumni in this field has been through financial aid. There is scarcely a college in America that has not at least one alumni scholarship. In many institutions a major share of the burden of providing scholarship funds is borne by alumni. It is not an accident that scholarship aid is woven into the fabric of American education. If higher education were to be limited to those who could pay tuition with- out the help of scholarships, a disastrous dilution of quality would result. No college has all the scholarship resources it needs to make sure that its educational facilities will be used to the greatest advantage. Many private colleges are forced to supplement gifts and en- dowment income earmarked for scholarships by divert- ing badly needed operating funds to student mainte- nance. So by accepting the responsibility for raising increased scholarship funds, alumni can help both to improve the quality of the student body and indirectly to improve the facilities which the college offers. You will have noticed that I take it for granted that alumni will devote their attention to meeting the needs of students of scholarly capacity. I am well aware that in a few colleges highly organized groups of alumni seem to feel that their main responsibilty is to furnish so-called scholarship for athletes. I suppose that in any alumni body there will always be perennial sophomores who will contribute cheerfully to capture a promising tackle no matter what his academic record or prospect of serious attainment. But I am happy to see many other alumni responding with equal enthusiasm to the call for support of a promising and deserving student regardless of his athletic ability. And I have sufficient faith in the liberal education to which our students are exposed to believe that future generations of alumni will choose the better part. The Student Aid Plan A different form of financial assistance, even more widespread in its potential benefits, to which alumni are giving and will, I hope, continue to give their sup- port, is the so-called Student Aid Plan. I refer to the proposal, sponsored by the American Council on Edu- cation and embodied in several bills introduced into the current session of Congress from both sires of the House, for a tax credit to be granted to those who are responsible for meeting the fees and tuition costs of college or university student. I have been pleased to see articles in support of the plan appearing in many- alumni magazines. I hope you will carry on the good work. Although the bills before Congress command a good deal of bipartisan sympathy', they have not yet been taken up by the appropriate committees, partly perhaps because tax relief in general is a somewhat sensitive issue at present. If you agree that the plan would make a substantial contribution to the welfare of higher edu- cation, I am sure you will urge your members to make their views known to their congressional representatives. You will no doubt find it a pleasant change to make an appeal that calls for no money but the cost of a stamp and very little time. The part that alumni can play in keeping the ave- nues open to talent is not limited to financial assistance. I was interested to find that you are devoting a session of your conference to discussion of "How to Use Alum- ni in Student Recruiting." At a time which now seems as unreal as a dream when enrollments were at a low ebb and the problem was to find "bodies" that could pay the price of admission, a few colleges turned in desperation to their alumni as barkers. Just a few years later, we had the other extreme or thought we had and colleges were deluged with applications from qualified students far beyond the numbers they could accommodate. In pursuit of some means of screening the applicants, especially in areas remote from the cam- pus, they turned again to the alumni. Some relied on informal reports; others developed elaborate procedures of interviewing and reporting that raised alumni vol- unteers almost to the status of assistant admission officers. As the tide of enrollment rises, the calls made upon alumni for this kind of service will surely increase. Alumni will have the task of carrying the college's message to promising students in their local high schools, representing their particular institution on College Night, standing ready to furnish answers to the inevitable questions, keeping in touch with pros- pective students and their parents in order to smooth the path to admission and subsequent adjustment to college life. To make a job of this they will have to be more than loyal alumni ; they must be well-informed alumni. To be quite frank, this means that they will have to know far more about the college of today, not of their own day than the average alumnus knows at present. Through this kind of service, whether on the part of individuals or of alumni schools committees, your alumni will be making a more far-reaching contribution to educational quality than may be evident at first sight. Their primary concern, like mine at this moment, will be with quality in the colleges and universities. But quality begins at a lower level. It is a truism that higher education is dependent for the quality of its student material on the performance of the high schools. In doing a job for their colleges the missionary alum- ni will be making a contribution to progress in the schools. Simply by seeking to make sure that prospec- tive college entrants have the necessary preparation, they will stimulate thinking and may ultimately pro- voke action to improve curricula and methods. At least they can hardly avoid taking a more active and in- telligent interest in the school system of their com- munities. In fact enthusiastic college alumni are often candidates for local school boards and amongst the most vigorous promoters of school bond issues and other measures aimed at raising the standards of pri- mary and secondary education. My last word on the subject of alumni responsi- bility for educational opportunity is perhaps a harsh one. We have looked at fields of service that involve financial sacrifices and sacrifices of time and energy, but the toughest service of all is one that entails a sacrifice of personal pride and affection. Most colleges give some degree of priority in admission to the sons and daugh- ters, or other close relatives, of alumni. It is natural and proper that they should. But, as the demand for college education swells, the day may come when the number of applications from the families of alumni equals the quota of admissions. In that situation should a college be expected to let family connections outweigh all other considerations in the selection of its student body ? Alumni may take some convincing to accept the fact that their responsibility for quality in education may entail the exclusion of one of their own children from following in father's footsteps. Yet if need be, we must strive to convince them. Our success or failure may well depend in turn on the quality of the liberal education we are purveying. The Second Responsibility The second factor in educational quality is good physical conditions for teaching and learning. I need hardly elaborate it for this audience beyond saying that I include the whole of the plant and equipment needed by an institution of higher education dormitories, dining-rooms and student unions no less than class- rooms, libraries and laboratories. In this field alumni responsibility is primarily finan- cial. As you know, the total building needs of colleges and universities over the next decade and a half have been estimated at upwards of twelve billion dollars. This is a pretty tall order. Publicly supported institu- tions may be reasonably confident that their essential needs will be met by the responsible legislatures. Private institutions must rely on private generosity. The educa- tional organizations, including my own, have been urging the Congress to make more funds available on more favorable terms for loans under the College Hous- ing Program, but at best the program can meet only a fraction of housing deficiences, and housing repre- sents no more than half of all the buildings needed. This formidable bill calls for all the funds we can raise from trustees, parents, friends and corporations as well as from alumni. Industry has already set a splendid example of generosity, and its contributions are growing from year to year. But wealthy alumni constitute our best single hope for large individual gifts and bequests. The alumni body as a whole is the only source we can rely on for the steady support on which to build a development program. Above all, the faith and devotion that alumni manifest by their own gifts is the best starting point a college can have for appealing to the generosity of others. The Third Responsibility The third factor that I wish to emphasize is even more important than the other two. Good education means good teaching. The backbone of the college is the faculty. Let me quote from the statement issued by Henry Ford II in announcing the Ford Foundation plan for contributing $50,000,000 toward the improvement of faculty salaries : All the objectives of higher education ultimately depend upon the quality of teaching. In the opinion of the Foundation Trustees, private and corporate phi- lanthropy can make no better investment of its re- sources than in helping to strengthen American educa- tion at its base the quality of its teaching. . . . Nowhere are the needs of the private colleges more apparent than in the matter of faculty salaries. Merely to restore professors' salaries to their 1939 purchasing power would require an average increase of at least 20 per cent. Even this would not bring teachers in our private colleges to their economic position before World War II in relation to that of other professions and occupations. They have not yet begun to share the benefits of the expanded productvie system of this nation, and the whole educational system suffers from this fact. In more than its purpose and its dimensions, the Ford grant is the most significant contribution made in recent years to the welfare of higher education in America. Personally I am glad to see one of the major foundations coming back to the practice of making capital gifts, which I believe to be an essential func- tion of foundations. But a still more valuable feature of the plan is that it is deliberately designed as a stim- ulus to further giving. As the whole program is based on matching gifts, it is a direct challenge to the col- leges and their well-wishers to put out their own best efforts. In finding the matching dollars the colleges are go- ing to rely mainly on their alumni, both for personal contributions and for carrying the appeal to a larger audience. In this connection, I was impressed by the words of Thomas A. Gonser in the annual Fund Issue of the American Alumni Council News: "We won't be able to do what we should for the teacher, or for any aspect of the life of our college, until we can show that the alumni are strongly behind the pro- gram. No other leadership group has one tenth their power." He added that, according to a public opinion survey, a majority of those who make gifts to uni- versities prefer to see the money used for faculty sal- aries. The ceonomic position of our faculties, however, need not be simply a function of the basic salary scale. In an article entitle "The Salary with the Fringe on Top," in the May issue of the Association of Ameri- can Colleges Bulletin, Dean Brooks of Williams Col- lege urges the desirability of extending the use of spec- ial, non-recurring grants, compulsory saving devices, central purchasing and other forms of group action. He argues that such fringe benfits may be a far more effec- tive means of meeting real need than any general salary increase that could be achieved at a similar cost. I hope you will throw the weight of alumni opinion behind ac- tive exploration of the potentialities of these measures, which may sometimes make the difference between los- ing and holding a first-class teacher. "And Gladly Teach" Even this is not the whole story. Over and above financial aid, there is another, relatively unexplored field in which alumni can give effect to their sense of responsibility for good teaching. While it is intolerable that society should presume on the devotion of men and women who, in the classic expression of scholarly dedication "gladly teach," it is a fact they do not seek their main satisfaction in material rewards. Other- wise they would not resist the attraction of greatly superior remuneration offered by other careers, or in some cases would not have deliberately turned from better-paid jobs to teaching. The professor's greatest thrill arises from kindling the spark of intellectual curiosity in the growing mind, in seeing the torch handed on and his own dreams of discovery realized in 8 succeeding generations of students. People who are re- mote from academic life may lose sight of, or never grasp this fact. Is it not then a prime duty of alumni to show their appreciation of the fact and interpret it to others? I do not mean that they should paint idealized portraits of the professor, inspired by dim but roseate recol- lections of the giants of their youth. I mean that they should get to know the present faculty, show interest in their work, and perhaps help to create opportunities for them to demonstrate its social value outside the campus. I see no reason why we should not "take the professor on the road" to explain the program of his department. I believe that by conveying in such ways their recognition of what the teacher has done to en- rich their own lives and the life of society in general, alumni can have an incalculable effect on faculty mo- rale and thus on the quality of higher education. You alumi executives as interpreters of alma mater to her former students must take the lead in bringing home to them the importance of adequate educational opportunities, satisfactory teaching conditions and, above all, a good faculty. Your goal may be set by the dictum of John Stuart Mill that "one person with a belief is a social power equal to ninety-nine with only an interest." If you can shift a fair proportion of the ninety-nine among your alumni into the class of those with a belief, they will clearly recognize and cheerfully accept their full responsibilty for quality in education. NEW RECORDS The Department of Speech has made four new recordings this year to add to their series of "Agnes Scott voices." Why don't you order them from the Alumnae Office and gather together the alumnae in your town on Founder's Day to listen to: MISS GOOCH and MISS WINTER MR. STUKES MR. TART JOHN FLYNT, WESLEY STARKE, HENRY SIMMONS and MR. ROGERS. AGNES SCOTT HEWS TO HHBBEI TOP: Susan Col- trane '55 visits a student art exhibit in Buttrick gallery. CENTER: Dr. Rob- inson and Louise Robinson '55 (no kin) solve a math problem after chapel. BOTTO.M: Miss Anne Salyerds, in- structor in Biology, initiates a lab class in the intricacies of dissection. A Liberai Arts College like Agnes Scott is an island in an academic sea of mass education. The problems facing the 66-year-old college for women in Decatur are typical of those confronting similar schools all over the nation. Here are a few of them: Developing a well-rounded individual student in a time of specialization and "assemblyline" instruction. Retaining good teachers when other fields beckon with more tempting salaries. Planning for the future in the face of rising costs. Dealing with the expected upsurge in the number of applicants for entry the result of the much-dis- cussed "war baby" crop. In addition, a woman's college must compete for the best students with co-ed schools. Agnes Scott believes it has a ready answer on this point. In co-ed schools, college officials state, the top campus posts go most frequently to the males, leaving the bright girls in the roles of little helpers. In an all-girl college feminine qualities of leadership have fuller play. And a girl can do her best to shine in the classroom without making her boy friend look like a dud in comparison. Limited Enrollment Whether to expand is the question looming largest in the minds of many college presidents nowadays. The peak of college enrollment is expected in the 1960's. Dr. Wallace M. Alston, president of Agnes Scott for the last four years, has made his decision to keep the college small. Enrollment will not be allowed to go above 550. In his opinion, that is the size student body which can best profit from the Agnes Scott program of individual attention and close association between professor and student. There are 537 young women attending classes dur- ing the present 1954-55 season. Of these, 465 board at the college. While the total number of students has remained fairly constant in recent years, the ratio of boarding students to day students has changed. Ap- proximately 100 more girls are living on campus now than during the 1952-53 session. Thirty of them are Photos by Bill Wilson. )UAL LINE Dorothy Cremin Read '42 Atlanta residents. College officials credit this trend in part to the fact that students' parents have more money to spend. Tuition, room, meals and fees cost a boarding student $1,275 per year. Costs for a day student total $525. The phrase "hand-picked group" is mentioned often at Agnes Scott, and while it may bring a shudder to students, the statement is literally true. Prospective students are weeded out through examinations, inter- views and investigation. With increasing competition among students for entry, a college spokesman sug- gested that "admissions policies may become more se- lective." Weeding Program The weeding program makes for a diversified stu- dent body. At present, Agnes Scotters are graduates of 144 secondary schools in 26 states and half a dozen foreign countries. Georgia still contributes the great- est number of students, with Alabama in the number two position. Dr. Alston describes the plan of education at Agnes Scott as one "predicated upon the conviction that a mind trained to think is essential if life is to be unfettered, rich and full ... we are concerned with the enrichment of the whole personality . . . The Agnes Scott ideal includes high intellectual attainment, simple religious faith, physical well-being and the de- velopment of attractive, poised, mature personality." Selecting students who will most profit from such a regimen is a serious matter. Some scholars flourish in the atmosphere of a small campus, others accom- plish more in the bustle of huge institutions with thousands of students. Each student, "hand polished" as at Agnes Scott, represents a greater investment on the part of the college than the student pays in fees and tuition. That is generally accepted by educators as one of the greatest dangers to the independent liberal arts college in our time. The state-supported schools look to greater tax appropriations to meet their deficits. The private school has to depend upon its endowments. These are built up through the gifts of alumni (in the case of Agnes Scott, "alumnae"), corporations, estates and well-wishers. The income from endowments provides the war chest for upkeep funds for buildings, scholar- ships for deserving students and better salaries for pro- fessors. Winship Bequest Agnes Scott received a magnificent bequest last No- vember from the will of the late Mrs. Frances Win- ship Walters of Atlanta, amounting to some $4,050,- 000 and more than doubling the endowment fund. Her gift has provided a tremendous boost to the col- lege's $10,000,000 long-range development program, scheduled to culminate in 1964 on the 75th anniver- sary of Agnes Scott's founding. Ground will be broken on a half-million-dollar dormitory to bear Mrs. Wal- ters' name as soon as classes are dismissed in June. Of the new long-term plan, which includes new buildings, scholarships, lectureships and departmental improvements, one unit has been completed. That is Hopkins Hall, named for the first dean of students, Miss Nannette Hopkins. Previous recent building pro- grams produced the new science building and the ob- servatory building which houses the largest telescope in the Southeast. Agnes Scott has had only two deans of students Miss Hopkins and the incumbent, Miss Carrie Scan- drett. Also symbolizing the loyalty of the school's leaders, Agnes Scott has had only three presidents. The first was Francis Gaines, then Dr. James Ross McCain and now, Dr. Alston. What keeps a professor at his classes despite the siren song of industry and of larger institutions? It isn't the superior pay. Inequities in salaries still exist at Agnes Scott and in other small colleges. And retire- ment programs are inadequate. Love of Teaching Part of the picture takes in the pleasures of the academic life, the freedom to think and teach without interference, the sheer love of teaching and the feeling of discovery when an occasional good mind comes to light. Many of the professors at Agnes Scott are frankly idealists who do not want to see the humanities lost in a flood of over-specialization. "Youth," said an English professor of formidable intellect. "Youth holds us here." There are numerous extracurricular activities. And Georgia Tech and Emory are not far away, for social activity. A student put the matter of brains and Agnes Scott very succinctly, however. "Studying here is like playing tennis you enjoy it more if you are good at it." 11 DEATHS INSTITUTE Cora Strong died June 5. Harriett Eliza Guess Goddard died May 11. Dr. William Leon Champion, hus- band of Sue Harwell Champion and father of Jennie Champion Nardin '35, died July 2. Edward Henry Mitchell, husband of Leuelle O'Neal Mitchell, died in May, and her sister, Mrs. Verna O'Neal Watkins died in August. 1921 Elva Keeton Kelly died Feb. 28. 1923 Mary Elizabeth Harris Yon- gue died April 26. 1 926 T. L. Johnson, brother of Ster- ling Johnson, died June 12. 1927 Mildred Cowan Wright lost her father in May, 1954. 1928 Easai Gershcow, father of Hattie Gershcow Hirsch, died July 6. 1930 Clarene Dorsey lost her father in March. 1931 Clarence R. Ware, father of Louise Ware Venable, died July 16. 1 932 Julia Grimmet Fortson lost her mother Feb. 26 and her father April 27. Dr. William H. Trimble, husband of Grace Fincher Trimble, died July 26. 1 933 John Francis Ridley, father of Margaret Ridley Beggs, died Aug 1. Rosalind Ware Reynolds lost her father this summer. 1 939 Lucius Tyler, father of Elinor Tyler Richardson, died March 17. 1 940 Charles R. Bixler, husband of Sally Matthews Bixler, died Feb. 8. 1 94 1 Ruth Allgood Camp and her husband, Dr. Raymond S. Camp, died August 30. 1 947 John Hume Hyrne, husband of Susan Jordan Oliver Hyrne, was killed in a plane accident this summer, shortly after they were married. REUNION JUNE 2 for '96, '97, '98 and '99. 12 Return Postage Guaranteed by Alumnae Quarterly, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia **V Ga. AGNES SCOTT PLATES A view of Buttrick Hall as seen from Inman Porch is pictured in blue on W edgivood's white ''Patrician" pat- tern plate. Order yours from the Alumnae Office Prices, postpaid : $3.50 each 6 for $20.00 Proceeds from plate sales go to the Alumnae House. AGNES SCOTT alumnae quarterly In this issue TEACHING WRITING SCHOLARSHIP spr 19 ing 56 THE ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION OF AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE OFFICERS MARY WARREN READ '29 President BETTY ELLISON CANDLER '49 Vice-President FLORENCE BRINKLEY '14 Vice-President MARY PRIM FOWLER '29 Vice-President MARJORIE NAAB BOLEN '46 Secretary BETTY MEDLOCK LACKEY '42 Treasurer TRUSTEES JEAN BAILEY OWEN '39 CATHERINE WOOD MARSHALL '36 CHAIRMEN SARA CARTER MASSEE '29 Nominations FRANCES CRAIGHEAD DWYER '28 Special Events LORTON LEE '49 Vocational Guidance MARY WALLACE KIRK '11 Education LEONE BOWERS HAMILTON '26 Publications BELLA WILSON LEWIS '34 Class Officers RUBY ROSSER DAVIS '43 House LOUISE BROWN HASTINGS '23 Grounds MARIE SIMPSON RUTLAND '35 Entertainment LOCAL CLUB PRESIDENTS ALICE GLENN LOWRY '29 Atlanta SARA FULTON '21 Decatur MARGARET ANN KAUFMANN '52 Atlanta Junior MARY PHILLIPS HEARN '49 Southwest Atlanta STAFF ANN WORTHY JOHNSON '38 Director of Alumnae Affairs ELOISE HARDEMAN KETCH1N House Manager MARY P. CHAPMAN Office Manager MEMBER AMERICAN ALUMNI COUNCIL The AGNES SCOTT Alumnae Quarterly Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Ga. Volume 34 Number 2-3 Winter-Spring, 1956 CONTENTS EDITORIAL PROFESSOR GOES BACK TO FIRST GRADE AN AUTHOR AND HER BOOK Olive Ann Burns Florence E. Smith THE COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARSHIP 7 Brown, Rearick, Kline CLASS NEWS 10 Eloise Hardeman Ketchin The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly is published four times a year (November, February, April and July) by the Alumnae Association of Agnes Scott College at Decatur, Georgia. Contributors to the Alumnae Fund receive the magazine. Yearly subscription, $2.00. Single copy 50 cents. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office of Decatur, Georgia, under Act of August 24, 1912. Editorial QUALITY, TOO, IN TEACHER EDUCATION AGNES SCOTT'S DECISION last year to establish a Department of Education has raised some healthy questions among alumnae. Is the College not hewing adamantly to a liberal arts program? Is there now a major in Education? If the teacher-training courses at Agnes Scott are part of Emory University's pro- gram, does that mean that Agnes Scott will become a part of Emory? The Agnes Scott-Emory Teacher Education pro- gram, a great experiment and recent development in teacher training, is based upon the simple but funda- mental belief that it is possible to retain the recognized benefits of a liberal education while providing selected college students with the professional competence neces- sary for teaching in an elementary or secondary school. In no area of our nation's manpower, as we enter the second half of the twentieth century, is the need so stark as in the teaching field. We are convinced at Agnes Scott that we must graduate teachers who are both educated and trained in the broadest sense of each term. Since 1899, Agnes Scott has been unashamedly dedi- cated to quality in higher education. Today, the resist- ance to quantity rather than quality is difficult and will become increasingly so in the 1960's when the hordes of students now bursting the walls of secondary schools begin knocking on college entrance doors. Agnes Scott does not seek, now or then, to train all the teachers, only a comparative few, but these it wishes to endow especially well, with a solid grounding in the arts and sciences plus proficiency in the skills of teaching. When the Curriculum Committee of the College approved the separation of the work in Education from that in Psychology and created the Department of Education, President Alston explained: "The establish- ment of this separate department emphasizes the sig- nificance of teacher education in the liberal arts and provides a more adequate medium for Agnes Scott's effective participation in the p^og-am. // is not antici- pated that a major will be offered in Education." The opportunities for doing quality training of teachers are limitless in the joint Agnes Scott-Emory program; limitations, particularly in the area of prac- tice teaching, would be grave if each institution at- tempted an independent, unrelated program. Since 1952 Agnes Scott and Emory have combined their resources at the undergraduate level for the preparation of teach- ers. Dr. John I. Goodlad is director of the overall program, and its happy results are a reflection of his insistence on the dual goals of broad knowledge and efficient teaching techniques for his students. Dr. Richard L. Henderson is head of Agnes Scott's Depart- ment of Education, on joint appointment with Emory. (See the article on Dr. Henderson in this issue.) Other members of the Education faculty divide their respon- sibilities between Agnes Scott and Emory. Thus primarily through faculty is the Agnes Scott- Emory program coordinated. Each institution, of course, preserves its own rights in faculty appointments, cur- riculum and administration. The use of resources of both institutions makes a powerful force for accom- plishing the kind of teacher training which can be respected for its quality. We who are Agnes Scott alumnae salute the Agnes Scott-Emory program and wish it well is it begins to grow. AWJ This article first appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Magazine, January 13, 1955. PROFESSOR GOES BACK TO FIRST GRADE Olive Ann Burns A COLLEGE PROFESSOR in Atlanta has gone back to the first grade. For the last two months, Dr. Richard L. Henderson has spent three hours a day as an assistant in Mrs. Florence Freeman's first grade at Morningside School. Dr. Henderson's regular job is teaching teachers to teach. He's professor in the Agnes Scott-Emory Teacher Education Program, and is supposed to know all the answers. You wouldn't think he could learn anything in the first grade. What he learned wasn't ABC's. What he learned was the difference between theory and real life. Educators theorize, for example, that an adult should never raise his voice at a child. They insist that it's not necessary to be loud to be firm. "But I found out it's hard to remember that when you're tired and a child starts throwing grapes," said Dr. Henderson. "A teacher MUST control her voice, or she'll be screaming all day. But the habit of calmness is not easily acquired." Another textbook theory is that one should ignore misbehavior whenever possible. Of course you have to stop a child if he's pouring paint out the window or knocking over another child's version of the Empire State Building. But you shouldn't make a big issue of it. The theorists say that pressure brought against an uncooperative child by the other children is far more effective than any disciplinary measure the teacher invents. "I believe all this," said Dr. Henderson. "But after one day in the first grade it really hit me that when a teacher has 33 pupils, she's GOT to control the troublemakers, either by isolation or some other means of punishment. Otherwise she'd never get anything taught. It's not fair to the group to let one child keep the whole class disrupted. Yet it isn't fair to that child not to try to find out why he does the things he does. "It was brought home to me that we still don't really know how to help teachers help kids with emotional difficulties. We can give the teachers an intellectual understanding of human behavior through courses on child growth and development. I don't mean these courses are a waste of time. But a teacher can't look on page 40 of a text book and find out why Jane is so shy she never opens her mouth. Page 121 doesn't tell why Tommy is- always punching the other kids. The tragic thing about emotionally upset children is that today the average teacher doesn't really have TIME to find out why. She just hopes they will respond to the group lessons on cooperation and good behavior." Another theory of modern education is that children should be taught as individuals. "The importance of the individual is the basis of our democratic society," said Dr. Henderson. "We feel definitely that each child should be guided according to his own particular needs, interests and talents. However, in a crowded classroom there's no choice but to teach everybody alike. The program has to be geared to what the 'average' child is interested in. "It wouldn't help to put all the bright pupils in one class and the not-so-bright ones in another. They still wouldn't have the same interests. Anyway we don't want to do that. We don't want to build an aristocracy of intellectual snobs. Many kids who're not A' students can be leaders in other ways." The theorists think children should feel free to express themselves. A system of rigid classroom rules is not considered desirable. "But with 30, 40 or 50 kids," said Dr. Henderson, "the class has to be regi- mented. The alternative is bedlam. "I hate to bring psychology into this, but there's something that makes a small group of children behave difHerently from a large group. The bigger the class, the more they're affected by a certain mass stimulation. They stay excited and are easily distracted. A first grade teacher with a large class spends most of her time just keeping the kids quiet. At the end of the year they will be 'socialized,' and they will know something, but they won't know what they ought to for second grade work." At this point Dr. Henderson and I were joined by Dr. John Goodlad, director of the Agnes Scott-Emory Teacher Education Program. "In the 19th Century," said Dr. Goodlad, "a head- master might have a couple of hundred kids in a room. He'd have several assistants, called monitors, to help teach and keep order. Even 50 years ago in Atlanta, teachers averaged 45 pupils. Some had 60 or 80. But in those days teaching wasn't scientific. In the last 30 years a lot of research has been done. We have proved that you can keep order by keeping children interested. We don't believe in shaming or Hogging. And we know that children learn more in small dis- cussion groups than in the lecture system with arbitrary subject matter and no student participation. Yet at the same time we're learning more and more about children and the value of small groups, we're getting more and more crowded classrooms. It's terribly up- setting to conscientious teachers having to do what they don't believe in. Many leave the profession. Part of our job is to help teachers do the best they can and quit worrying." Of course Dr. Henderson didn't really learn any- thing in the first grade that he didn't know before. But thinking about a problem isn't like being face-to- face with it. You can understand the difficulties of working with a mob of children, yet never really feel what a teacher feels when she knows her pupils aren't learning what they ought to. "Still we have to face the fact," said Dr. Henderson, "that ours is a system of mass education. And it's going to get masser and masser. Statisticians figure that at least until 1965, public schools in the United States will enroll a million more first graders every year than they had the year before. (Atlanta has 7,000 more children now than last year.) The country needed 165,000 new elementary teachers in the fall yet last spring all of the colleges and universities qualified only 32,000. Last year a nationwide survey in medium- sized cities showed that 70 per cent of elementary chil- dren were in classes of more than 30 pupils. "In Atlanta the average in grade school is 34 pupils per teacher, but some of the classes have as many as 45. In DeKalb County, most of the classes have be- tween 40 and 50 children. At the present rate of growth, DeKalb needs a new school for 500 children every five weeks. Many DeKalb youngsters are already going to school in apartments and churches. More than 3,000 children in the Atlanta system go to school in churches." Dr. Henderson and Dr. Goodlad think the situation is serious almost to the point of complete disorganiza- tion of the American school system. "I am appalled at the apathy of the public," said Dr. Goodlad. "This is a national crisis. It's all hap- pened since the war something nobody ever antici- pated and in a few years these children will be in high school. The plain truth is that the American people are going to have to do on one car and fewer clothes and dig down to pay more taxes." "Until that happens there is really no chance for children to get the kind of education they ought to have," said Dr. Henderson. "Teaching in the first grade, I realize more than ever that the below-average children and those with emotional problems are defi- nitely not getting the extra help they need. Even the average boys and girls aren't getting an adequate edu- cation. Miss Ira Jarrell, superintendent of Atlanta schools, put it this way: 'The basis of a good school is the teacher's ability to teach, and you just can't teach 40 children.' " Dr. Henderson thinks crowded classrooms are the chief reason so many children are having reading dif- ficulties these days. "The problem can be explained by simple arithmetic," he said. "If you had only 10 pupils, each one could read aloud for six minutes in an hour. With 30 pupils, each can read aloud only two minutes. They just don't get enough practice. "One solution is to divide the class into three read- ing groups according to learning ability. The chil- dren will accept as a natural thing the fact that some learn faster than others, but many parents are furious when their child is put in the slow group. Another difficult) with this system is that the teacher must keep the other boys and girls busy while one group reads. It's hard for first graders to work 20 or 30 minutes at a time on their own. After they finish drawing a picture or doing a workbook assignment, thev usually start talking or playing or throwing spitwads." It is encouraging that teachers are finding ways to overcome some of the problems of crowded classrooms. Dr. Henderson pointed otu that many student teachers from the colleges serve as nonpaic assistants while get- ting practice. Some high school girls help in the lower grades during their free periods. Mothers often volun- teer to spend one or more hours a week reading stories or doing odd jobs that leave the teacher free to work with pupils who need extra help. The Ford Founda- tion is doing research on the apprentice system. It has in mind giving an experienced teacher 60 or 80 pupils, with the assistance of one or more less qualified teachers and a secretary. "The only trouble," said Dr. Henderson, "is that few schoolrooms are big enough to accommodate 80 children." In Atlanta, many grade schools have special arl French and music instructors who work an hour o two a week in each class. For the so-called "problem'! children, more and more elementary schools here ar4 getting special counselors. They talk with the childrei) and their parents and try to find out what's wrong] Another source of help for the worried teacher is thq Atlanta Area Teacher Education Service, a cooperative! group that meets regularly to discuss specific problerr cases. "Atlanta has a better school system than most cities! and has little trouble getting qualified teachers," com- mented Dr. Henderson. "Hut just the same we've got too many children per class. Mrs. Freeman and I do very well teaching together, but I can't imagine trying to handle this group alone." It's not that the professor doesn't enjoy children. He's a big jolly man who likes to tell stories and juggle lemons and teach reading and writing. He gets! a kick out of the snaggle-tooth age so proud of the' space where a tooth was and now isn't. And he enjoys the challenge of trying to explain thinks like Ph.D. to a 6-year-old. This little boy wanted him to "fix" his stomach- ache. He said he couldn't. "Aren't you a doctor, Dr. Henderson?" "I'm not that kind of doctor." "What kind of a doctor are you?" Dr. Henderson thought a minute. "I don't know how to explain it so you can understand," he said helplessly. "You might say my work has to do with the head. Does that satisfy you ?" "No," said the boy. AN AUTHOR AND HER BOOK Florence E. Smith "A POISED, CALM FIGURE in simple black with three white orchids on her shoulder, Miss Stevenson sat in the Agnes Scott Library on Saturday, December 3, surrounded by her former English teachers, Miss Laney and Miss Leyburn and other faculty members and students." So Eleanor Swain, editor of The Agnes Scott News, December 7, 1955, described Elizabeth Stevenson '41 at the autographing party given by Mrs. Edna Hanley Byers soon after the publication of her biography of Henry Adams (Macmillan, 1955, $6.00). President Alston came in to have his copy autographed and to tell her how proud the college was of her and other friends came to rejoice with her that the work of six years had been so successfullv concluded and to wish for her book a good reception. On January 9, 1956, an article in The Atlanta Journal by Edwina Davis '46 announced the choice of Elizabeth Stevenson as Atlanta's "Woman of the Year" in Arts. The chairman of the selection com- mittee, the Rev. Wilson W. Sneed, said: "Her book brought forth from the most significant group of critics a national recognition of Southern scholarship." In examining the acceptance and national recognition of a book one turns first to the publisher who must be convinced of its worth or it would not be published. The enthusiasm of the Macmillan Company is evident in its Fall 1955 Catalog in which the Henry Adams is described as a "magnificent biographv" and "dis- tinguished by delightful qualities of scholarship, style and critical appraisal. In any publishing season, Henry Adams would by a major achievement." This opinion is backed by excellent advertisements in the major book review magazines, such as The New York Times Book Review for November 27 and December 11, 1955. The entire page advertisement for the Macmillan Company in the Winter, 1956, American Scholar, is given to this one book. Also, the Henry Adams is one of the nine non-fiction books of 1955 nominated for the National Book Award (Saturday Review, February 4, 1956). Then attention turns to the question of how wide- spread may be the interest of the country's newspapers. On the day of publication, November 29, 1955, Orville Prescott, reviewer for The New York Times, gave his entire "Book of the Times" to a consideration of the Henry Adams. Among his comments we find: "This is a highly readable story of a peculiar and greatly gifted man, a persuasive interpretation of his cryptic character and an excellent critical analysis of his works. Miss Stevenson is sympathetic but judicious, respectifully admiring her hero but by no means blinded by worship. Aware of his faults, fascinated by his mind, she has made Henry Adams live in her pages as he never made himself live in his diffident and self- concealing autobiographical masterpiece The Education of Henry Adams. . . . Miss Stevenson's book about him is the most interesting biography of an American I have read this year. ... It is very good indeed." Interesting reviews are also found in The Atlanta Constitution and Journal, December 4, 1955; The New York Herald Tribune, November 28, 1955; The Christian Science Monitor, December 29, 1955; The Washington Post, December 11, 1955; The Boston Sunday Globe, December 11, 1955; and The Los Angeles Mirror News, December 5, 1955, in which James Bassett says: "In this superlative, perceptive study of an inquiring man's life, Miss Stevenson brings to breathing reality the puzzling character that was Henry Adams . . . her account ... is colorful, fascinat- ing reading. And it should capture some of the most impressive literary prizes for 1955." Reviews may also be found in Newsweek, December 5, 1955; The Saturday Review, December 10, 1955; Time, December 12, 1955; The Nation, December 24, 1955; The Atlantic Monthly, February, 1956; and The Manchester Guardian Weekly, February 2, 1956. In the year-end lists of good books Miss Stevenson's was suggested by Time, December 26, 1955; The World Alliance News Letter, December, 1955; Holi- day, December, 1955; and The Library Journal, October, 1955. On the "In and Out of Books" page in The Nezv York r Times Book Review the Henry Adams was listed for several weeks in the "And Bear in Mind" column. In the Book of the Month Club News, January, 1956, Clifton Fadiman says: "Her book has value not merely as an intelligent, well- researched statement of Adams' career, but as a portrait in depth of his group." In the Semi-Monthly Book Review of the University of Scranton, Pa., Thomas Rowan says: "Written in a style that shows control, high-precision . . this biography is a model of objec- tively (the bibliography, exhaustive notes, and minutely itemized indices at the end of the book, also recom- mend it as a case-study for aspiring biographers)." While this wide-spread interest of newspapers and periodicals is impressive we still wish to know the response of men who as professors and writers think of Henry Adams not merely as a book to be reviewed but as a challenging person to be analyzed. Henry Steele Commanger in The New York Times Book Review, December 11, 1955, reminds us that "it is' not only a career but a fate to be an Adams," for, in this case, it meant having a father who was ambassador to Britain, and a grandfather and a great-grandfather who were presidents of the United States. Professor 1 Commanger recognized the problems of a biographer who has to compete with the brilliance of Adams' The I Education of Henry Adams in which he "quite de- liberately wrapped himself in layers of obscurity" and discusses at length Miss Stevenson's analyses of the] Education and of Adams' other writings such as Mont-\ Saint-Michel and Chartres, the History of the United | States, and John Randolph. Letters to the publisher from Professors Henry Pochmann of the University of Wisconsin, Stow Par- sons of the State University of Iowa, and Eric F. Goldman of Princeton, comment on her book as "per- ceptive," "discriminating and well-written," and "one of the genuinely distinguished biographies of the last decade." Professor H. C. Nixon in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Winter, 1956, writes: "We have here a full and intimate picture of America's greatest philosopher- historian." He also speaks of the "deftness and sim- plicity" with which the author explores her subject. In The Nation, December 24, 1955, Howard Mum- ford Jones says: "She writes with wonderful acumen, full knowledge, and excellent sensibility. Her style takes on more and more the flavor of her subject, her mastery increases with the progress of the book. . . . When she is completely involved with this intricate mind and more intricate personality, she could not write better or be more perspicuous. I think her Henry Adams is at the moment the richest and fullest portrait of the great American Enigma that we have." Allan Nevins in the American Heritage, December, 1955, speaks of the biography of Henry Adams as "penetrating and absorbing" and believes that "Those interested in history, letters, and art will find Miss Stevenson's study not only full in its presentation of biographical fact, but rewarding in its critical judg- ments and psychological insights. America has had greater spirits than Henry Adams, but none more intensely searching. It has had finer minds but no intellect freer, lonelier, more devoted to a group of realities. Reading this book, we are carried to the austere vantage point where he brooded, ever questing, ever dissatisfied, over the destinies of man." Here is a joint statement on the meaning of scholarship at Agnes Scott. A senior, a junior and a member of the Philosophy faculty presented these inter- pretations in a recent chapel program. THE COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARSHIP NONETTE BROWN '56 WHEN GEOFFREY CHAUCER lived, books were a great luxury, and he had small means and a large library. He knew the philosophy of his day and as much of classical thought as was available then. He had a wide and accurate understanding of the budding sciences of his age. He probably spoke at least three languages well enough to be used on political missions to France and Italy. All these things are obvious in his writings. But what is also obvious is his tre- mendous, vital interest in every phase of life. His was an attitude of scholarship and his field was the whole world. His mind was as open to the wonders of a soft new spring morning as it was to Boethius' ideas. He sought to understand all he could and to relate what he knew to what he did. There weren't enough hours in the day to learn what he wanted to know, so he gladly stayed up half the night. This eager interest in the world and people con- stitutes the kind of scholarship which frees people in college from a dreadful kind of materialism called "grade-consciousness." Grades can so easily cease to be a gauge of progress and can become an end in themselves, when we lose sight of the point of studying and need an artificial stimulus. A professor I had last summer used to say, "Seek ye first the kingdom of Truth, and the grades shall be added unto you." The consciousness comes late for some of us, that the long afternoons spent in the library are preparing minds to he ready to receive the excitement of ideas. We either expect the excitement to come without being sought or simply drudge to get through. But excite- ment does come when another mind speaks directly to our mind, and we share with a man who lived a hundred years ago the warmth and renewal of spirit found in the discovery of an idea that will remain to thrill other minds perhaps another hundred vears from now. Practically, this kind of scholarship and interest leads us to study not just the parts we think will appear on the test. It is being conscious that learning one thing necessarily leads us to need to know something else. It's understanding our friends the better because we understood people in a book. It's when we're honestly pleased to understand at last how to work a math problem, after the exam, even. It's when we share the kind of integrity that made a great actress, on the eve of the last performance of a successful play, say to her director with a radiance worthy of first- night confidence: "At last, today, I understood how to do the scene that before now has eluded me." It's being willing to study something so hard or intangible that we know there's a good chance we won't ever grasp it fully, willing to because we thus discover first hand the awe-inspiring fact of mystery in life and in human personality, and perhaps this awe in the face of mystery is the beginning of wisdom. When we become so interested in a subject that we look forward to a chance to study, and when it is important to us to understand without worrying about being given credit for understanding, then I think we are on the way to becoming scholars who share in the artist's efforts to create the lucid moment Joseph Conrad speaks of thus: "And when it is accomplished behold! All the truth of life is here: a moment of vision, a sigh, a smile. . . ." And these, too, are "moments to remember." DOROTHY REARICK '57 A consideration of scholarship need not limit itself exclusively to books, homework, and burning of the midnight oil. Neither does it have to concern merely the struggle to get a text read and a paper completed, or to out-study the other fellow and set the curve on the math exam. No, true scholarship is more than that. A rhyme with which I became familiar early in life was one found on a small clay plaque, picturing a quaint old gentleman walking through the woods. The rhyme went something like this : "While some delve deep in musty books in quest of learning rare, Ye wise folk walk by trees and brooks and gain of wisdom there." That jingle made quite an impression on me. Here was an old gentleman who apparently thought more of nature than he did of school. Maybe he had never gone to school. If he hadn't, he was still a wise man the caption said so. Thus, reasoning in a childlike fashion, I asked : why did anybody go to school ? Why not just turn to nature, play hookey, and be smart? The passing of a few years sometimes has a marked effect on the logical reasoning of a child. Anyone at Agnes Scott College would have to admit that books and schools do play their part in the education of an individual. One cannot, in our present society, be con- sidered an educated man until he has spent some time within the halls of an institution of learning and has developed an acquaintanceship with a number of books treating a variety of subjects. The real question for us to consider, therefore, lies not in the worth of books to one who would aspire to be a scholar. Rather, we should shift the emphasis and try to discover what it is in scholarship that is vital to one's being and essential to the very "living" of life. Ralph Waldo Emerson would declare three influ- ences to be all-important in the education of "The American Scholar." These are: the study of nature, an understanding of the past as found in books, and the dynamic application of one's knowledge to life about him through action. He is quick to note a short- coming of the student of his day, which is even more apparent in the so-called "mass production" scholar being turned out of many of our colleges today. Due to an over-emphasis on books, he declares, we find the scholar, "instead of Man-Thinking," the "bookworm." Books themselves become, "the best of things, well- used ; abused among the worst." To Emerson, "Know thyself" and "Study nature" became one and the same maxim. So today, we may reflect, the earnest student and scholar should hunger after the truth that exists about him in order to under- stand himself. Enough of bare memorization of facts and half-comprehension of the basic principles of science or psychology the scholar should go farther, with a spark of imagination and a creative interest in seeking for something new and exciting to the mind. James Russell Lowell, in his Harvard Anniversary address in 1886, warned against the "pursuit of facts which are to truth as a plaster cast to the marble statue." Continuing this analog)-, we may well deplore the confused and muddled mind of the plasterer, which, pointed the right direction, and given time and insight, could rearrange itself to become the mind of a master sculptor. The mind, then, is ever important. Numbering among the scholar's tools are books, paper, and pencil ; his motivation, perhaps, is furnished in part by a particular course of study or a certain professor. By far the greatest of his assets, though, is his mind, which distinguishes him from all the other orders of animal life. This mind is by nature an inquiring one ever questioning ever seeking to find. To the inquiring mind, all of life is like a jigsaw puzzle. The pieces, at first appearance irregular and unrelated, gradually take on sense and symmetry and can be joined together. The final picture, while still not complete to our human eyes, at least takes on a semblance of the truth undergirding all of life. In another sense, life may be considered the labora- tory of the scholar. Here is found an immeasurable store of nature's wealth that may be taken for analysis. Here, too, is raw material sufficient for innumerable syntheses to be carried out. Given an active mind, the right spirit, and the will to perserve, the extent of the laboratory work that may be undertaken is without limit. To the eye of the scholar, a drop of water may become an ocean ; a grain of sand, a mountain, and a speck of moss, a forest. If one is to realize the true spirit of scholarship, however, he must not be content to live forever within the realm of books, nature and lofty thoughts. Scholar- ship extends beyond the school, beyond the study of the materials of nature, beyond the field of logic. Scholarship, in a word, is dynamic. It is a way of life. There is a great deal of difference between a true scholar and merely an instructed student. The one has learned to make his scholarship dynamic and living; the other has, through a course of study, only become more exposed to bare facts and stagnant principles. 8 Scholarship demands action. It calls for the best that lies within the scholar to interpret life as he has come to see it. Thus, we see that the spark of scholarship must not be allowed to die after schooling days are over. The first ideal of Agnes Scott College is high intellectual attainment ; if we are to realize this ideal, we must strive for something deeper than the memorization of facts to pass a history test. Ever inquiring, ever questioning, ever seeking to find an answer, we must never cease to be a scholar. By studying what lies close at hand, we may better under- stand that which is not so readily apparent. When far from the "sheltering arms," far from books and library stacks, far from classroom desk and science laboratory, the scholar still possesses a valuable resource, that of life itself. C. BENTON KLINE, JR. Scholarship in the sense in which it has been dis- cussed in these excellent presentations is only possible so long as there are centers which serve to keep it alive. I should like to have you consider briefly the role of colleges and universities as communities of scholarship. Society has long supported colleges for this function. Here in the colleges of our land and of other lands, time and resources are provided for research and thought and for the communication of the fruits of this research and thought. Men and women are freed by society to pursue the truth in a way that private citizens are not often able to do. Scholarship does not reside peculiarly in the college and university. But in these institutions there is the opportunity for sustained and intensive work of the mind. Colleges and universities are thus first of all com- munities of research and thought. Here it is possible to carry on the investigations in the natural sciences and in the social sciences which serve to enrich the life of man. Here historical scholarship seeks to under- stand the richness of the past. Here literary and artistic study and criticism may be pursued. And here we find great endeavors of creative thought and specula- tion that may broaden our understanding of all of life about us. This opportunity and function of the university or college is perhaps more evident in Europe than in this land. In Germany it is often the case that the pro- fessor's lectures represent the latest results of his own research and thought, so that each year there is a new course. But even here, where our educational system makes it mandatory that the same course be given year after year, new insights, new views, new understand- ings, are made a part of the work of the teacher. I have been reading recently a good deal by and about a British scholar, A. E. Taylor, who was a professor of philosophy. It is interesting to follow the development of his mind as the years passed. He made himself an expert in the philosophy of Plato. He wrote on Aristotle. Then he became interested in the medieval period and the thought of Thomas Aquinas. One day I was surprised to run across a review by him of a translation of the works of Descartes, in which his criticisms extended to the felicity of the translation as well as to its philosophical accuracy. Later I found a review of his on three books on the problems of relativity in physics. Here was a mind freed to study widely in the work of the university. But colleges and universities are also communities which exist to communicate the insights gained by study and research. This communication takes place on many levels. There is the communication between scholars, found in the professional and scholarly jour- nals. Here the results of research are published for criticism and acceptance or rejection by the larger community of scholarship. But many a teacher who never publishes a book or article is daily communicating his insights to his students. Teaching is the essential part of the college. And teaching is scholarly communication just as surely as published work. Communication of scholarship seems necessary. There is really no such thing as an isolated scholar, or scholar- ship for its own sake. In Princeton there is a unique institution. The Institute of Advanced Study, which was founded as a place where scholars might be given even more opportunity for their pursuits than teaching affords. And while there are no classes in the usual sense in this Institute, still from the very beginning there have been seminars where the fruits of study and experiment and creative thought have been shared. You are members of a community of scholarship. You enjoy the privilege of fellowship with others like yourself here. But that fellowship centers about the primary interest of this as of any college, the scholarly endeavor. You must share this interest if you are to enter fully into this community. You do not remain here forever. But wherever you are, you can continue the habits learned here and sustain the interests developed here, though perhaps in a less intensive way. More than this you can work to insure the continuance of this college and others like it against the pressures in our society which would water down the function of educational institutions. You can help to maintain the college in its highest function a community of scholarship. CLASS NEWS Edited by Eloise Hardeman Ketchin DEATHS FACULTY AND STAFF Mrs. Minnie May Davis Tenner, secretary to Dr. Gaines, died in August. Harriet Daugheity, a member of the nursing staff at Agnes Scott for a number of years, died in January. INSTITUTE Julia Stokes and Florence Stokes Mellinger lost their sister, Minnie Stokes, Sept. 5. Virginia George died March 1, 1955. Margaret Jewett Cheshire, sister of Mabel Jewett Miles and Martha Jew- ett Academy, died Nov. 11. Sue Lou Harwell Champion died Nov. 20. Her daughter is Jennie Champion Nardin, '35. Nannie Lou Jossey Blackstock died Jan. 22. Selden Bryan Jones, husband of Anais Cay Jones, died Dec. 27. <\CADEMY Mary Lou McLarty Johnston d April 27, 1955. Patti Hubbard Stacy died Oct. Janie Louise Hunter WestmoreU died Sept. 30. 1 908 Queenie Jones Sheperd d Jan. 5. 1910 Dr. Samuel J. Crowe, brotl of Flora Crowe Whitmire, died N 13. 1911 Sarah Gober Temple died J 21. Her sister is Eilleen Gober In: tute. 1912 Hortense Boyle Bell died F 16, 1955. 1919 Robert Cotter Mizell, husbs of Louise Felker Mizell, died Dec. 1921 James Houston Johnston, ther of Eugenia Johnston Grift died Feb. 7. 1925 LeRoy E. Rogers, Sr., fatl of Margaret Rogers Law, died Oct. Elliott M. Stewart, husband of 1 bekah Harman Stewart, died Jan. 1 929 J. H. Maddox, husband of 1 sie McNair Maddox, died Sept. 3, 19 1930 Henry W. Pittman, III, s of Sara Townsend Pittman a Henry, died Oct. 23. 1932 Susan Glenn lost her fat? in the spring of 1955. Mrs. Howard Stakely, mother Louise Stakely, died Nov. 26. 1 933 W. D. Wise, husband of Luc Stein Wise, died last fall. 1 934 Mrs. Charles W. Tway, moi er of Liza Tway Autrey, died Dec. 1 935 Jennie Champion Nardin 1< her father in the summer of 19; her aunt in October, and her motr in November. 10 Alsine Shutze Brown lost her mo er this year. 1936 Helen Ford Lake died Ma 23, 1954. 1 947 Marjorie Harris Melvil four-month-old daughter died 1 summer while undergoing he surgery. Barbara Wilson Montague lost mother in April, 1955, and her fat died in November. 1950 A. S. Wilkinson, father Nancy Wilkinson and Sara Cather Wilkinson, '48, died Sept. 8. 1951 Elaine Schubert's father t killed in an automobile accident the spring of 1955. 1953 William Francis Thorn; father of Anne Thomson Sheppa died Sept. 19. 1 955 Renee G a 1 a n t i Feldnu mother died last fall. \\ :; ^ Return Postage Guaranteed by Alumnae Quarterly, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia AGNES SCOTT alumnae quarterly In this issue Laney Hayes Grafton Summer 1957 THE ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION OF AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE OFFICERS MARY PRIM FOWLER '29 President BETTY ELLISON CANDLER '49 Vice-President PATRICIA COLLINS ANDRETTA '28 Vice-President BELLA WILSON LEWIS '34 Vice-President ANNETTE CARTER COLWELL '27 Secretary BETTY MEDLOCK LACKEY '42 Treasurer TRUSTEES CATHERINE WOOD MARSHALL '36 MARY WARREN READ '29 CHAIRMEN SARA CARTER MASSEE '29 Nominations RUTH RYNER LAY '46 Special Events LORTON LEE '49 Vocational Guidance MARY WALLACE KIRK '1 1 Education LEONE BOWERS HAMILTON '26 Publications MARTHA ESKRIDGE LOVE '33 Class Officers MARYELLEN HARVEY NEWTON '46 House DOROTHY CHEEK CALLOWAY '29 Entertainment LOCAL CLUB PRESIDENTS ALICE GLENN LOWRY '29 Atlanta SARA FULTON '21 Decatur MARGARET ANN KAUFMANN '52 Atlanta Junior MARY PHILLIPS HEARN '49 Southwest Atlanta STAFF ANN WORTHY JOHNSON '38 Director of Alumnae Affairs ELOISE HARDEMAN KETCHIN House Manager DOROTHY WEAKLEY '56 Office Manager MEMBER AMERICAN ALUMNI COUNCIL The AGNES SCOTT Alumnae Quarterly Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Ga. Volume 35 Number 1 Summer, 1957 CONTENTS EMMA MAY LANEY "REALMS OF GOLD" SUE MITCHELL '45 EXHIBITS George P. Hayes Emma May Lane), ON BEING ABOVE AVERAGE Martha Stackhouse Grafton '30 THE WHAT, WHY, AND HOW OF AGNES SCOTT CLASS NEWS Nancy Edwards '5S Sue Lile '58 Martha Meyer '58 Eloise Hardeman Ketchin Cover. Miss Laney and Robert Frost admire a prize-winning photograph of Mr. Frost. Photo by Charles Pugh. Other photos in this issue are by Gaspar-Ware, except those on p. 6 by Oliver Baker. The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly is published four times a year (November, February, April and July) by the Alumnae Association of Agnes Scott College at Decatur, Georgia. Contributors to the Alumnae Fund receive the magazine. Yearly subscription, $2.00. Single copy 50 cents. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office of Decatur, Georgia, under Act of August 24, 1912. EMMA MAY LANEY George P. Hayes Dr. Hayes OF A BOYHOOD teacher Thomas Wolfe wrote, "More than anyone else I have ever known she succeeded in getting under my skull with an appreciation of what is fine and altogether worth while in literature." Seldom does a teacher get under our skulls. And when one does, language fails to explain why. Qualities of personality can be listed, but in the friend and teacher we honor today the active force of this intense "liver of life" defies formulation. To adapt Dr. Johnson's words on Fal- staff, "Unimitated, unimitable friend and teacher, how shall I describe thee?" Students going into her class for the first time became aware that they were entering on a new dimension of living, that they were thrillingly alive because the teacher was, that they were swept up and carried along by her boundless intellectual energy and enthusiasm, and that they were left breathless by her ability to express so many ideas so quickly. She was constantly fighting the clock. She gave everything she had to her students and demanded something comparable in return. In each day's assignment for more than thirty years she found a fierce delight as if she were discovering the poem or the novel for the first time; she had a touch of genius in her skill in sharing her experience with others; but she was even more eager for the students to engage the problem independently for themselves. Her mind "the quick forge and workinghouse of thought" was often active, outside of class, in search- for fresh sources of appeal to students in an ancient text, in working out new connections with other liter- ature and with present-day life, and in contriving new devices for stabbing youthful spirits broad awake. The violinist Milstein says, "Up to the very minute when I raise my bow, I keep trying to devise fresh ap- proaches to concertos I have played dozens of times." In these ways our friend made works of art a warm reality; she brought them "into the intimate home of the mind and heart." Mere books no longer, they were "heightened moments of life" which she carried across to the imaginations of others by the fire of her spirit. Whatever she says has the knack of fastening itself in some cranny of the mind and of remaining permanently alive there. Nor is this all. Have you never heard her sum- marize, in strict outline form, a sermon or lecture in language clearer and more graphic than the original? Writes one of her former students: She is the first person who ever gave me an inkling of what intellectual rigor is . . . She was quick to reject inaccuracy or sloppiness of any sort . . . The apprehension of her quality was a good thing for a lazy freshman like me to be stirred by. To enter her class was a searching confrontation. For fifty minutes one's mind was totally alert and con- centrated on the material of the moment. One had to be prepared in body, mind and spirit. On the other hand, from the teacher herself one could expect absolute hon- esty, directness and frankness. One knew that she was ever extending her own intellectual frontiers and that she was really interested in each individual student. In departmental council our friend expressed her views with fluency, conciseness, trenchancy, and shrewd common sense. It was her glory that she never let us rest content in the present state of affairs ; with a passionate earnestness that swept all before it she would 1 stir us to fresh efforts to maintain standards. She was usually the initiator and by common agreement ever the efficient organizer and planner in departmental projects. In the larger community of the college was ever teacher immediately and intimately aware when prob- lems and misfortunes confronted individuals, or swifter to help, or more practical or resourceful in counsel ? Has any teacher fought so many battles for others and for causes always beyond self? Did any teacher ever care more for this goodly fellowship of Agnes Scott, for its ideals, or for expanding the horizons of the students so that they could find in literature "the model and the revelation of their humanity"? Last year I was reading from a work by a teacher a school-master of four centuries ago. Roger Ascham has this to say : Surely I perceive that sentence of Plato to be true, which saith that there is nothing better in a common- wealth than that there should always be one or other excellent man whose life and virtue should pluck forward the will, diligence, labor and hope of all others, that following in his footsteps they might come to the same end whereunto labor, learning and and virtue had conveyed him before. When I first read that sentence, I wrote in the margin the initials E. M. L. Emma May Laney, your teaching is not over, for you are, and will continue to be, alive in the minds and hearts of thousands in their "study of imagina- tion" and your leaven is actively working there. Nor can you really leave this college. For Agnes Scott is what it is partly because of you ; and your students and other friends with whom you have shared the riches of your spirit will always find you here. Then let our Schoolmaster Roger Ascham phrase our wishes for you: May you have "life, with health, free leisure and liberty, with good liking and a merry heart." IIOM ER NOISLE FARM KIPTON, VEItMONT lU*^L^cc4?l+l Ann Zeigler DeLaMater, was killec in a hunting accident in December 1955. Anna George Dobbin's father diec Dec. 7, 1955. Sarah Smith Austin's father die( in April. 1 948 Mrs. C. J. da Silva, mother oi Jane da Silva Montague and Jean da Silva Ricketts, died Jan. 19. Southworth F. Bryan, husband oi Rebekah Scott Bryan, was killed in a plane crash Jan. 4. James David Hughes, Jr., son of Ann McCurdy Hughes and Jimmy, died from severe burns Jan. 4. 1 949 Dr. S. M. Carroll, husband of Marguerite "Peggy" Pittard Carroll, was killed in an automobile accident in January. 1950 Dr. Charles William Bartlett father of the late Charlotte Bartlett, died March 1, 1956. 1 952 Mrs. J. Wright Brown, mothei of Barbara Brown and Judy Brown '56, was killed in an automobile ac- cident March 2, 1956. 1 953 George B. Sheppard, father of Priscilla Sheppard, died July 18 ; 1956. Rosalyn Kennedy Cothran's father died in February. 1954 Harriet Durham Maloof's mother died in the summer of 1956. J. B. Hutchinson, father of Eleanor Hutchinson Smith, died Sept. 4, 1956. 1 957 Dorothea Anne Harlee died Oct. 8, 1956. SPECIALS Lois Patillo Bannister died March 16, 1956. Emma Belle Dubose Johnson died April 13. Return Postage Guaranteed by Alumnae Quarterly, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia AGNES SCOTT PLATES A view of Bit ft rick Hall as seen from In man Porch is pictured in blue on W edgewood' s white "Patrician" pat- tern plate. Order yours from the Alumnae Office Prices, postpaid : $3.50 each 6 for $20.00 Proceeds from plate sales go to the Alumnae House. agnes scott alumnae quarterly THE ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION OF AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE OFFICERS MARY PRIM FOWLER '29 President MITZI KISER LAW '54 Vice-President SYBIL CORBETT RIDDLE '52 Vice-President alice Mcdonald richardson '29 Secretary MARY MADISON WISDOM '41 Treasurer TRUSTEES CATHERINE WOOD MARSHALL '36 MARY WARREN READ '29 CHAIRMEN ELIZABETH BLACKSHEAR FLINN '38 Class Officers BELLA WILSON LEWIS '34 Club PATRICIA COLLINS ANDRETTA '28 Constitution MARY WALLACE KIRK '1 1 Education DOROTHY CHEEK CALLOWAY '29 Entertainment CATHERINE IVIE BROWN '39 House LOUISE GIRARDEAU COOK '28 Nominations MARY CAROLINE LEE MACKAY '40 Property LEONE BOWERS HAMILTON '26 Publications RUTH RYNER LAY '46 Special Events LORTON LEE '49 J o cation al Guidance STAFF ANN WORTHY JOHNSON '38 Director of Alumnae Affairs ELOISE HARDEMAN KETCHIN House Manager DOROTHY WEAKLEY '56 Office Manager MEMBER AMERICAN ALUMNI COUNCIL The AGNES SCOTT Alumnae Quarterly Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Ga. Volume 36 Number 1 Fall, 1957 CONTENTS COLLEGE NEWS "SKIT DAY" FOR MR. STUKES DEAN S. GUERRY STUKES "A TEMPERATURE OF THINE OWN" THE GEORGIA FOUNDATION FOR INDEPENDENT COLLEGES Mildred Mell Lynn IVhite, Jr. Luther Smith CLASS NEWS Eloise Hardeman Ketchin Cover. We tried to catch for you in pictures Mr. Stukes' famous grin and laugh. Cover photographs by Gaspar-Ware; other photographs in this issue, p. 1-5, ASC News Service; p. 6, Timothy Galfas; p. 7, Kerr Studio; p. 11 John Carras; p. 13, Gaspar-Ware. The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly is published four times a year (November, February, April and July) by the Alumnae Association of Agnes Scott College at Decatur, Georgia. Contributors to the Alumnae bund receive the magazine. Yearly subscription, $2.00. Single copy 50 cents. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office of Decatur, Georgia, under Act of August 24, 1912. College News THE 69TH ACADEMIC SESSION opened with a full house 601 students. There are 211 new students, from 22 states and 1 foreign country. The Freshman class has 197 members, all brilliant and beautiful. Only 57 day students are commuting to the College this year, and 20 of these are married so must live in town (we do not yet offer co-ed dormitories!) Thus, the trend toward an almost total boarding student popula- tion, noticed six years ago, is now a pattern at Agnes Scott. C. BENTON KLINE, JR., new Dean of the Faculty and Head of the Philosophy Department, spoke at the Honors Day Convocation, on October 3, which occa- sion served as Dean Kline's inauguration. You will receive a copy of his address, an excellent interpreta- tion of Agnes Scott as a liberal arts institution and an indication of Mr. Kline's foresighted thinking about the College's future. THERE IS ONLY ONE MR. STUKES, and that one served Agnes Scott for many years in three capaci- ties, as Dean of the Faculty, Registrar, and Head of the Department of Psychology. Laura Steele '37 has been promoted to the position of Registrar; she will also continue to carry the responsibilities of the Ad- missions Office. Dr. George E. Rice joined the faculty this year as Professor of Psychology and head of that department. TWO NEW EVENTS ARE SCHEDULED in the college calendar this year, Sophomore Parents Weekend and the Spring Arts Festival. Fathers and mothers will "go to Agnes Scott" with their daughters at Founder's Day time, February 22. Student inspired and planned, the Arts Festival will combine the efforts of Blackfriars, Dance Group and May Day Committee in one major production. Other sections of the festival will include a lecture by May Sarton, who writes for The New Yorker magazine ; a creative writing panel discussion ; and an art panel discussion plus an exhibit. Alumnae Day, Saturday, April 19, will be a part of the Festival. This will give alumnae the best opportunity imaginable to see Agnes Scott in action today. Class of 1961 Bottom Row Beth Magoffin Betsy Paterson Nancy Moore Carol Fields Second Roiv Pam Sylvester Pete Brown Judy Maddox Alva Gregg Rosa Barnes Ann Frazer Third Row Marv Ware Dinah McMillan Letitia Move Nancy Hughes Betsy Boyd Mike Booth Marion North Fourth Row Betsy Dalton Caroline Simmons Harriet Higgins Margaret Roberts Betty Mitchell Not pictured: Florence Ga 'Grandmother; deceased. Granddaughters Dorothy Seay '32 Elizabeth Howard x-'33 Ann Pennington x-'34 Sarah Campbell x-34 Annie Johnson '25 Valeria Posey '23 Mary Smith '24 Crystal Wellborn '30 Rosa Miller '36 *Mary Danner Inst. Mary McCallie '30 Leonore Gardner '29 Elizabeth Woolfolk '31 Douglass Rankin '27 Elizabeth Cobb '33 Alice Chamlee '36 Julia Napier '28 Mary Keesler '25 Emily Spivey '25 Katharine Gilliland '27 Margaret Kump '35 Ann Moss '29 ines Kathleen Belcher x-'22. "SKIT DAY" FC "F ELLOW STUDENTS, faculty, administra- tors, staff, alumnae, trustees, friends never let it be said that a woman can't keep a secret. For we, 600-strong . . . have kept [one] for over three months, a secret extending well beyond the limits of the college community." The secret "Skit Day," the day when students, faculty, administrators, alum- nae, trustees, and friends expressed their love and gratitude to Dean S. Guerry Stukes for his forty-four years of service to Agnes Scott. In November, 1956, a committee appointed by President Wallace M. Alston met to discuss how to honor Mr. Stukes on his retirement from the college. The members of the committee were unanimous in feeling that whatever way was chosen must be in the spirit of smiles and laughter, rather than farewell and tears. Finally, it was decided that March 29, 1957, would be "Stukes Day." The entire plans for this day were kept a secret from Mr. Stukes, and included a "This is Your Life" skit by the students, a luncheon for the entire campus community, and the gift of a new Oldsmobile to Mr. and Mrs. Stukes. In the months that followed there was considerable conspiring, exploration, research, and planning. Miss Leslie Gaylord, assistant professor of mathematics, and Penny Smith '57, president of Student Government, were appointed co-chairmen of activities for Stukes Day. Correspondence with trustees and members of Mr. Stukes' family was Miss Gaylord's main assignment, but she also attended to last minute details such as hav- ing students make appointments with Mr. Stukes for March 29 to assure his presence on campus. Mrs. Roff Sims, professor of history, was chairman of the com- mittee charged with raising funds for the purchase of the car. As the time approached for the occasion, there was one major problem how to be sure that Mr. Stukes would be in chapel. The problem was solved by having the president of Student Government write a letter to the faculty requesting that the students be allowed to have a "Skit Day," since the faculty had found it impossible to present their famous production of past years, "Shellbound." The Skit Day, as the letter read, was to be a program by the students consisting of take- offs on the faculty. After reading the letter at the March faculty meeting Mr. Stukes commented: "As "The shadowed, studied, recorded, and deluded-by-a care- fully-contrived-misconception" Mr. Stukes goes to "Skit Day." Peggy Fanson '59 portrays the Air Force days of Mr Stukes in the "This is Y our Life" skit. Photographs for this article were made by Dorothy Weakley '56 for ASC News Service. t MR. STUKES one who is close to the student body and aware of cur- rents and undercurrents, I feel that this is a very valid proposal which deserves our support. The students just need this." The "informed" faculty voted affirmative for the proposal and all, including Mr. Stukes, agreed to be there. The long-awaited day arrived and at noon, the shadowed, studied, recorded, and deluded-by-a-care- fullv-contrived-misconception Mr. Stukes went to "Skit Day." A student group, headed by Carolyn Barker '57, had written "This is Your Life, Mr. Stukes" which began with the birth of Little Guerry, who laughed and giggled instead of crying. The skit included his days at Davidson College, early days at Agnes Scott, Air Force days, courtship with his wife, Frances Gilliland '24, and his duties as teacher and administrator at the College. Many of his family were present for the day and appeared in the skit: his wife, his sister, Mrs. John A. Burgess; his brother. Judge Taylor Hudnell Stukes, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Carolina; his daughter, Marjorie Stukes Strickland '51 ; and grandson, Peter Strickland. There was no speech-making, or program, at the luncheon served in the Letitia Pate Evans Dining Hall. This was a time of informal good fellowship for the campus community, the Stukes family, trustees and the Alumnae Association's board. The napkins for the occasion were inscribed with "We Love You, Mr. Stukes" in large red letters. As groups left the dining hall, they gathered on the steps and lawn to await the climax of the day. On the steps of the building, Mr. Stukes was presented with the keys to a metallic-rose Oldsmobile by President Alston on behalf of all who had contributed toward the gift. During the luncheon, the car had been driven to the front of the dining hall, where it was wrapped with a clear plastic cover and wide blue ribbons. Even greater than the tangible gift perhaps was the spirit which pervaded the whole campus throughout the day. It was one of smiles, laughter and a great deal of love for one who was characterized in the skit as a "counselor of students, backpatter, sounding-board, and giver of loving advice." The Stukes family Dining Hall. gathers at the luncheon in Evans Mr. Stakes' daughter, Marjorie, and grandson, Peter, came from Pennsylvania for a visit, and unknown to Mr. Stukes, were in Decatur a day before the occasion. %s 4 j# On the steps of the dining hall Mr. Stukes is presented with the keys to a metallic-rose Olds- mobile by President Alston. Mrs. Stukes, who was, of course, informed of all plans, chose the color of the car, and escorts her stunned husband to the car. The gift from alumnae, students, faculty, and friends awaits Mr. Stukes. Mr. T. M. Callaway, Decatur Oldsmobile dealer, zvho assisted in the purchase of the car, is ready to take Mr. Stakes for his first ride as President Alston speeds him on his way. Mrs. T. M. Callaway (Dorothy Cheek '29), member of the Alumnae Association Board, congratulates Mr. Stukes on his "merry Olds- mobile." After his first ride, Mr. Stukes laughs with conspirators Miss Leslie Gay lord, Mrs. Wallace M. Alston (Madelaine Dmi- seith x-28) and President Emer- itus J. R. McCain. Mr. Stukes said he was fearful that the Alumnae Association would "do" to him what ice "did" to Aliss Laney upon the occasion of her retirement formal speeches at the Alumnae Luncheon by a former student and a colleague. We gave him our word that this would not happen, but we did ask Miss Mell to write this article for the Quarterly, on Mr. Stukes as a faculty member knew him. Dean S. G. Stukes Mildred Mell TO TELL THE STORY of years of exper- ience at Agnes Scott, with Mr. Stukes as Dean of the Faculty and as a fellow faculty member, requires deliberate use of the "boiling down" process, because of the great mass of impressions which come vividly to mind when looking back over those years. And vet the mass when mulled over and enjoyed seems to make a pattern which is clear and certain. The pattern when described with mere words falls far short of the reality but perhaps it may have the power to evoke pleased recognition of a familiar personality from Dr. Mildred Mell those who have known him as guide, as counsellor, as ready-listener, as fellow teacher and as friend. First, there has been over the years Mr. Stukes as Dean of the Faculty. Holding fast to his determination that academic standards at Agnes Scott must be kept high and therefore must be subject constantly to critical evaluation and revision, he has led the way by pointing out problem points and suggesting needed changes. But always he has refused to dictate; he has made the faculty feel that the shaping of the academic program waswas equally its job. When teaching in the class- room is part of a situation in which the teacher must assume some responsibility for the total program, the experience becomes a freer and more satisfying one. At Agnes Scott we who teach know that to a great extent because of Mr. Stukes we have "our fingers in the pia" and therefore both the "pie" and our teaching take on more meaning for us. As Dean, Mr. Stukes has had to listen to faculty members, particularly to heads of departments, talk over new courses to be introduced or old courses to be repeated. The voice of the faculty member might have been sure and full of conviction. Or it might have been uncertain and troubled. No matter. Mr. Stukes listened patiently, interestedly and constructively. Just to talk things over with him often clarified one's thinking or gave perspective, or brought new ideas to the surface which had been vague and unformulated. Mr. Stukes would say what he thought with directness and convic- tion, but he never failed to send the faculty member out feeling that even if all course problems had not been solved, the way had been opened for the finding of a good solution and that the good solution would be found by the faculty member. Again as Dean, but half-way as friend, general prob- lems in one's teaching or special problems involving the work of an individual student could always be talked over with him and thereby usually be made to appear the kind of thing which most people encounter from time to time, just a part of the "normal" experience. Most of us can take the "normal" in our stride and get ready for the next thing which may loom up ahead of us. So, having the chance to take troubles to Mr. Stukes was just the thing we needed sometimes, a sort of life- saving prophylaxis. His ready willingness to listen and to talk has made many of us of the faculty want to talk things over with him even when those things were only remotely connected with the college. And many a tense nerve has become relaxed and quiet because of his wise analysis, sympathetic understanding, and friendly interest and concern. Busy as Mr. Stukes' official duties always kept him, he did his full share, if not more than his full share, of committee work. There was, of course, the Curriculum Committee. Even when he was not a member of a sub-committee, many hours and half-hours of his time were given to discussing ideas and recommendations while they were in process of formulation for a report to the whole committee. And there was never a sign of impatience or unwillingness to help even if he needed the time desperately for something else. The story of his work on committees could be endless. That on the Lecture Committee continued through many, many years of doing a job really "beyond the call of duty." During those years he was a familiar figure in the lobby of Presser seeing that people felt welcome and that details of handling the events planned by Lecture Com- mittee went smoothly. How many times emergencies arose over the years is unknown, but Mr. Stukes always managed to cope with them ! Association in work and conferences has been only a part of the way by which the faculty has known Mr. Stukes. The association has been a many-sided one in- volving chats in the hallways, chats at coffee hours before faculty meetings, perhaps longer conversations in his own homes or in the homes of faculty members. Seeing him in this kind of friendly, informal way has strengthened and enriched the bonds established in working with him. What a "pick-up" it has always been to see him in the hall of Buttrick and laugh over some amusing incident with him! Indeed, what a "pick- up" it has always been to just hear his laugh in Buttrick even while he talked with someone else! These are a few of the impressions which a faculty member likes to think about when looking back over the years during which Mr. Stukes was well, he was Mr. Stukes on our campus. There he was always "glad to see you," and he meant it. Always he was approach- able, ready to talk things over from the gravely im- portant to even the trivial, and through the days and years he had in all his relations to the faculty and to all others wonderful "human-ness" which marked him as a very rare person. This fall his retirement has taken him out of the routine activity of the college, but we hear his laugh in the halls and we can stop and talk without feeling con- science stricken about taking up his time unnecessarily! Having him around as friend to all of us has given a good start to this year. Mr. Stukes and Mr. J. A. McCurdy, president of the Decatur Federal Savings and Loan Associa- tion, discuss Mr. Stukes' new position, Educa- tional Consultant to the corporation. In an- nouncing Mr. Stukes' appointment, Mr. Mc- Curdy said: "Mr. Stukes is one of the South's best known educators. In making available his services to provide educational counselling for those who may wish it, Decatur Federal takes the lead in seeking to help its members and others solve problems which are constantly in- creasing. If you have children below college age, we believe a conference with Mr. Stukes will be enlightening and helpful." Mr. and Mrs. Stukes are living in Decatur at 639 E. Ponce de Leon Ave. Here is Agnes Scott's 68th Commencement address, delivered June 3, 1957. Dr. Lynn White. Jr. is president of Mills College, Oakland, California, a liberal arts college for women very similar to Agnes Scott. After you have read this article, we think you will want to read Dr. White's book, Educating Our Daughters. "A TEMPERATUR THE COMMENCEMENT exercises of a col- lege are always a moment of jubilation: the harvest is in, and those who have sowed in tears come again rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them. You of the graduating class are to be congratulated. And what's more, you know it! But let's be candid. Isn't it a fact that if you had been receiving this degree two years ago, when you were sophomores, you would have assumed it with far more confidence than you have today? In a liberal arts college like Agnes Scott, at the end of four years you rather suddenly become much more aware of the vast extent of what you don't know than of what you do know. No matter how brave a front you put on, you feel your inadequacy a bit more vividly than you do your competence. This is nothing to be discouraged about. In fact it is the sign that your education has begun to "take" ; for in intellectual humility is the beginning of wisdom. But one's first experience of learned ignorance can be very disturbing. To graduating seniors like you it is the more disturb- ing because Commencement breaks the orderly pattern of academic life and unless you are going on to graduate work catapults you into uncertainties and irregularities of daily existence where you will be much more on your own than ever before. This greater freedom of choice as to what you will do and when you will do it is in itself an achievement, something very good. But like learned ignorance, and particularly in conjunction with learned ignorance, this new freedom which is coming to you has its dangers. Indeed, an influential school of social psychologists led by Eric Fromm insists that the maladies of our modern age can largely be traced to the double fact, first that we now know so much, and so much that seems mutually contradictory, that we have lost our confidence in truth, and second that we have achieved so much freedom of action and choice, that we have lost the ability to choose. So we seek an authority which will both choose for us and tell us what the truth is. Such a theory does much to explain the world-wide growth not only of communism and the various fas- cisms, but of a wide spectrum of milder authoritar- ianisms which tell people what to think and do. The escape from freedom and responsibility takes curious forms here in America. For your summer read- ing, let me commend to you Wallace Stegner's mar- vellously written Big Rock Candy Mountain. When it was published a few years ago it achieved far greater critical acclaim than popular sales because, I believe, it probes so deeply into the mythology of American life that it makes most of us terribly uncomfortable. For nearly three centuries, whenever an American found life getting too dense, he picked up and moved West. If things didn't work out where he settled, he picked up again and moved on, always confident that just over the Western horizon lay that Land of Cocayne what the frontier ballad calls "the big rock candy mountain with the lemonade springs" where all his problems would automatically be solved. So long as there was good free land to be taken up the myth had enough substance so that many good lives could be built on it. But when about 1890 the land suited to homesteading gave out, the myth remained. Stegner's novel is the tragedy of a life built upon escape from immediate problems in terms of a once valid solution which has ceased to be available. His hero's wife and son do their best to get him to face up to things as they are, but in vain. The mirage of a vanished frontier leads him to destruction. These things are not fiction, even though their most powerful analysis, in this case, is a work of fiction. While as a native son of California, I should be the last to say that the West does not have its charms, 8 OF THINE OWN" Lynn White, Jr. nevertheless the continued westering migration of mil- lions of Americans is something which cannot be ex- plained entirely in rational terms. In some measure they are escaping, but in terms of an outmoded myth ; and if things don't work out in California, there is no place further west to go. This is certainly one reason why California has by far the highest suicide rate in the United States. When the frontier myth fails these men and women, and they find that they have not escaped by moving, but remain trapped, they go to the Golden Gate Bridge and throw themselves lemming- like into the Pacific waters gilded by the setting sun. Penetration into Reality We have not really grown up until we consciously determine to face up to our problems and how to solve them in the light of the inescapable facts, and in the darkness of the inescapable uncertainties. Anything else is escapism. But it should be noted that such words as "escapism," "evasion," "flight" must be used cautiously; for some things which may look like flight from reality may be in fact penetration into reality. Those of us who are Protestants, for example, generally look at monas- ticism as an "escape." But we should remember the decision of Ishmael, the narrator of another great American novel, Moby Dick, to seek the silence of the night watches of the infinite ocean. Puritanism in New England provided no monasticism, so Ishmael found his cloister in a whaler, and plumbed the depths of reality. Conversely many actions which, on the surface are socially accepted as "facing the facts" may be actually a means of escape from freedom and responsibility. If I were speaking to a graduating class of young men I would talk chiefly about escape into "success." You all know perfectly well what the word "success" means in the American language ; it is success as an economic producer. This image is the most powerful single in- fluence in the lives of American men. It is almost uni- versally believed that if a man is a "success" he is like- wise a good husband and father, a stout citizen and a child of God. Although it stems largely from women, few American women really understand the fearful pressure to which ever)' American boy is subject, from earliest infancy, to become a "success." It has built the world's most magnificent economic structure, and it has destroyed scores of millions of souls. There is, of course, nothing at all inherently evil in the normal pat- tern of an American man's life and ambitions; we need and must have business and professional men dedicated to doing well what they start out to do. What is spirit- ually wrong with our pattern of "success" is that the definition and scope of masculine "success" has become so rigid and universally accepted that it relieves the male of the species, as a rule, of the necessity of asking "Who am I, and what is my destiny?" You who are women, and especially college women, are more fortunate. Our society is much more doubtful about you than it is about your brothers. We don't quite know what we mean by "success" for a woman. Thanks to the older feminism and the newer technology, vou can now do practically anything a man can do, if you want to, and if you are four times brighter than most men. You can even be ordained into the clergy of some of our most respectable churches! On the other- hand it is still socially permissible for you to do all the fine old female things which the feminists disliked so thoroughly. In other words, you face a range of options which really compels you, as few men are ever com- pelled to ask "Who am I, and what is my destiny?" America offers you no automatic escape from the reality of your soul by a sterotype of womanly "success." \ ou must think and choose as few men ever have to think and choose. This is magnificent, hut it is also tough. In a sense, men have it easier! Here you are at your Commence- ment, equipped with that superbly detailed ignorance which is the finest flower of a college education, and likewise with the necessity of finding a new pattern of daily living to replace the collegiate routine. The temp- tation to escape is going to be greater than you may realize. Neurosis, dope, alcoholism these are the cruder forms of escape, and you doubtless have enough sense to avoid them. The three commonest forms of escape which I see in girls in the years immediately after college are all things excellent in themselves which may be nntered into for the wrong reasons. All three of them boil down to trying to get somebody to solve your problems for you.. Escape Matrimony First of all, there is the flight to matrimony. I be- lieve firmly in the value of marriage for most people, myself included. But I am very much afraid that many girls get married because they want someone to be strong for them, to make adult decisions for them. They con- fuse the greater physical strength of men with intellec- tual and moral strength, not knowing that we men in general are, on the inside, just as weak, pulpy, groping altogether like little white maggots as are most human beings. A girl who marries a husband as a substitute father is likely to discover between the fine biceps a boy who married her as a substitute mother for men too, sometimes use matrimony as an escape. I hope that most of you will decide to marry; but I hope that you will marry as adults, and not to pro- long your childhood. Moreover I hope that you will stand for the right of some people to remain unmarried if they want to. The bachelor and spinster were once common, perhaps, usually, by reason of economic or other misfortune. But marriage in our time is getting to be a social necessity; just a habit, not a sacrament. And in so far as it becomes a fixed pattern, it runs the risk of becoming an escape. Escape Rel igion In addition to the flight to matrimony, there is the flight to religion. Religion can serve either as a way of facing the ultimate mysteries, joys and agonies, or as an opiate, a way of evading adult responsibility for thinking rigorously and making choices in terms of all the ambiguities. When Jesus said that only those who become like little children can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, I think he did not mean that perpetual in- fantilism is essential to salvation. I think rather that he wanted us to have the little child's sense of perpetual wonder and confidence in the incomprehensible. Nothing depresses me more than the escapism of the peace-of-mind books which have flooded this country: they have no relation to high religion. I do not detect that Christ enjoyed perpetual peace of mind : he wept over Jerusalem, scoured the money-changers from the Temple, sweat blood in Gethsemane, and felt a moment of abandonment bv God on the Cross. As for so-called "positive thinking": 1 find Scripture thunderously re- plete with negative thinking when negation is needed. Melville's Moby Dick is a curious but intensely religious book, and it is high religion which speaks when Ishmael says: "Doubts of all things earthly, and intui- tions of some things heavenly ; this combination makes neither believer nor infidel, but makes a man who re- gards them both with equal eye." I hope that each of you may discover for yourself a living faith which will not be destroyed by the re- curring phenomenon which St. John of the Cross used to call "the dark night of the soul," but which will enable you to say, with his fellow Carmelite St. Teresa of Avila, "All the road to heaven is heaven." But this is not a road to be found by those who use religion as an escape from the necessity of their own thinking and choices. Escape Counselling The third mode of escape which tempts young college women in our time, in addition to the flight to marriage and the flight to religion is what (for lack of a better word) I shall call the flight to counselling. The temptation is the greater because the campuses of our better colleges today are so thoroughly equipped with experts professionally set up to give every manner of good advice: deans, assistant deans, residents, assist- ant residents, vocational advisers, chaplains, physicians, consulting psychiatrists, and so on. Everyone of these officers, and their equivalents in the larger society be- yond the campus, has a legitimate function, and we would not be without them. Yet they themselves, in their franker moods are generally the first to admit that many who seek them are really trying to pass on to them responsibilities which should not be passed on. The symbol of this whole situation is a classic Neiv Yorker cartoon of not long ago : a lunching debutante says to her girl friend, "It's going to be a very happy marriage. You see, our psychiatrists know each other." Very often each of us need advice, and when we need it we should seek the best available. All I am suggesting is that when we ask for it we should first look at ourselves with very clear eyes and make certain that we are not asking it simply as a means of prolong- ing the dependency and irresponsibility of childhood. How can we find the strength, the stability, to make unnecessary the sort of escapes from maturity which I have been describing? Traditionally people have thought of inner fortitude in terms of such metaphors as the rock, the pyramid. But for our new age such images are misleading: we can find no security in institutions, in inherited but unexamined ways of life, or in beliefs validated by an outside authority. Not the pyramid but the gyroscope, must be the model for the strong individual today. Margaret Mead expressed the issue perfectly when she said that we must help children to achieve the stability of a trout in a mountain torrent. And this is perhaps the central ideal of Melville's Moby Dick : the sea is "the image of the ungraspable phantom of life"; and as the novel draws toward its climax, Captain Ahab cries, "Then hail, forever hail, O sea, in whose eternal tossings the wild fowl find this only rest!" 10 A commencement like this is like the dropping of a garland of flowers on the waves as one sails out of the harbor of Honolulu. As you sail on, you will find, if you wish to find, that the ancient Ionian philosophers were right when they said "All is Flux" ; but you may also discover that this is not a counsel of despair. You may find stability in yourself, as you learn the way of the gyroscope, the trout, the sea fowl. It is in each of you to become not a person who spends her life passively adapting to uncontrollable circumstance, but rather a free agent acting in terms of uncontrollable circumstance, riding out the waves by good helmsman- ship, intiger vitae "Unscathed by life" invulnerable to change. This kind of strength, and its sources, cannot really be described in words, but only pointed to by the great symbols of religion. It was said in Greece that "Apollo who speaks at Delphi neither denies nor affirms, but points." Yet in our time my friend Alan Watts has rue- fully noted how many people suck such pointing fingers for consolation. It is the central paradox of high religion that the clear recognition and acceptance of our limitations frees us from those limitations. In college, during registra- tion for a new term, how often have you moaned "Oh, what course shall 1 take? when obviously the only real answer is "Do well, whatever you take." In coming years you will occasionally hear a young wife whining, "Did I marry the right man?" Only by such accep- tance of the defects and inadequacies inherent in the human condition can we learn spiritual equilibrium, the art of the trout. On this June morning I seem to have been larding my thinking liberally with strips of blubber from the Great White Whale. And Ishmael has said all this better than I ; so I leave you with his words. "Oh Man ! admire, and model thyself after the whale ! Do thou too remain warm among ice. Do thou too live in this world without being of it. Be cool at the equator ; keep thy blood fluid at the Pole. Like the great dome of St. Peter's and like the great whale, re- tain, O man ! in all seasons a temperature of thine own." The Commencement Academic Procession forms on the Colonade and marches to Presser Hall. 11 Luther Smith This fall, President Alston and the presidents of eight other Georgia colleges have been devoting a great deal of concentrated time to the work of the Georgia Foundation For Independent Colleges. Travelling in teams of two, they have visited businessmen throughout Georgia interpreting the role of the independent college. In this interpretation, an important factor is the percentage of alumnae who contribute to the college. Alumnae may strengthen and undergird with pleasant fact Dr. Alston's ivords by giving to the Alumnae Fund and thus increasing our percentage. As of October 1st, 12% of the 6900 Agnes Scott alumnae sent fund appeals in September have contributed to our 1957-58 Alumnae Fund. TWO SIMILAR problems face Agnes Scott and eight other accredited, four year liberal arts colleges in Georgia. These problems are 1 ) re- taining good teachers when other fields beckon with more tempting salaries, and 2) planning for a future which promises rising costs. During the past fifteen years, colleges have received diminishing income from sources of endowment, gifts and grants. Institutions of higher learning, frontiers of our free enterprise system, need more assistance today. Their income has remained relatively fixed during an inflationary period. Economic conditions limit new endowment funds, and income from existing endow- ment buys less than formerly. Notwithstanding a few large gifts from devoted friends of higher education, huge gifts from individuals have been largely curtailed by tax policies of recent years. To meet their economic problem with foresight, Agnes Scott and eight other accredited, four year liberal arts colleges of Georgia formed The Georgia Founda- tion for Independent Colleges in October, 1956. The colleges associated in response to the need of business and industry for a joint or "United Fund" channel for aid to higher education in the state. Member colleges of the Foundation are Agnes Scott, Brenau, Emory, LaGrange, Mercer, Oglethorpe, Shorter, Tift, and Wesleyan. Only the undergraduate College of Arts and Author of this article, Luther Smith, ii executive secretary of the Foundation. Copies of the Constitution and Bylaws of the Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges will be sent upon request. Please write to Mr. Smith at 306 Persons Building, Macon, Georgia. Sciences of both Emory and Mercer are members, not the whole of the universities. In the brief time since the Foundation's office was es- tablished at Macon during February, 1957, contribu- tions have been made by, to name a few, Plantation Pipe Line Co., Union Carbide and Carbon Corp., U. S. Steel, National Dairy Products Corp., Addressograph- Multigraph Corp., Time Inc., Babcock and Wilcox Co., 20th Century Fox Film Corp., Graybar Electric Co., Inc., Massachusetts Mutual Life Ins. Co., and New England Mutual Life Ins. Co. The association of liberal arts colleges in Georgia is similar to a pattern followed in 38 other states. Such associations are formed to provide businesses, industries, and foundations a single channel of investment in higher education. The following amounts show how business is investing in the South's colleges through independent college associations: Foundation Amount Given Through 1956 Virginia Foundation ( formed 1 952 ) _._ ___.$8 1 7,039 Kentucky Foundation (formed 1952)... ..... 490,498 Arkansas Foundation (formed 1954). 355,983 North Carolina Foundation (formed 1953).... 289,197 Louisiana Foundation (formed 1952) 211,200 South Carolina Foundation (formed 1953)... 174,377 Like these foundations, the Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges was formed to interpret the basic philosophies in which its member colleges believe and on which America was founded, and through 12 greater understanding, to encourage continuing finan- cial support of higher education from business and industry. The question may well be raised, "Why does cor- porate business and industry so strongly support higher education?" First, such support is given because colleges represent the frontiers of free enterprise. They con- tribute to the creation of a climate of public opinion necessary to maintain our American system unencum- bered by false ideologies and philosophies. Another reason for this strong support is that colleges help develop the human resource : prospective employees capable and willing to be trained for executive respon- sibility, and young people better able to adjust them- selves and their homes to our rapid state and national expansion. A third reason for such support is that gifts are used where there is real need. One of the pressing needs is the improvement of faculty salaries. A fourth reason business, industry, and foundations invest so wholehartedly in colleges is the very fact of alumni support. A frequent question asked by a cor- poration which plans to contribute is, "How much do your alumni give?" Another is "How many of your alumni give?" When a large or small corporation or foundation gives to the Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges, all nine accredited, non-tax-supported, four- year liberal arts colleges in Georgia share in the gift, unless it is designated. If assignment of gifts is not stipulated by the donor, they are divided 60 per cent equally and 40 per cent in proportion to enrollment. Gifts to the Foundation are deductible for tax purposes. Trustees of the Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges include President Wallace M. Alston and W. E. McNair from Agnes Scott, President Josiah Crudup and Worth Sharp from Brenau, President S. Walter Martin and Bradford Ansley from Emory; President Waights G. Henry Jr. and G. M. Simpson from LaGrange, President G. B. Connell and Rabun L. Brantley from Mercer, President Donald Agnew and George Seward from Oglethorpe, President George A. Christenberry and Cecil Lea from Shorter, President Carey T. Vinzant and Starr Miller from Tift, and President B. Joseph Martin and Miss Carolyn Churchill from Weslevan. President Wallace M. Alston Prepares His Talks for Georgia Businessmer 13 mother of DEATHS FACULTY Jane Brookfield Brown, former member of the faculty, July 5. INSTITUTE Jane Strickler Denny, May 24. Mrs. Milton A. (Nellie Scott) Cand- ler, daughter of founder, George W. Scott, July 4. She was the mother of Nell Scott Candler and Eliza Candler Earthman, and the grandmother of Nell Scott Earthman Molton '38. Bessie Harris Clayton, Jan. 22. 1910 George E. Wilson, Jr., husband of Lida Caldwell Wilson, in August. 1917 Mrs. L. P. Skeen Augusta Skeen Cooper; Rebekah Skeen Candler '26; Virginia Skeen Norton '28; Elizabeth Skeen Dawsey '32, and Martha Skeen] Gould '34, June 1. 1919 Henry Losson Smith, father of Lulu Smith Westcott, Aug. 15. 1920 David Ira Shires, husband of Ann Houston Shires and father of Ann Shires '57, in June. 1923 Mrs. Daniel Gilchrist, mother of Philippa Gilchrist '24, and Edith Gil- christ Berry '26, April 20. 1926 James Toole Fain, SrL, father Ellen Fain Bowen, May 15. 1927 Eugene A. Stead, Sr., father Emily Stead, May 14. 1931 Ruth Hall Christensen's mother, in February. Ruth Pringle Pippen's mother, Aug. 12. 1932 Frances Crosswell Symons, May 3. Mimi O'Beirne Tarplee's mother, in August. 1933 Charlton Keen, Sr., husband of Mil- dred Hooten Keen, July 11. 1938 Mrs. Robert Rounsaville, mother of Capt. Frances E. Castleberry, May 10. 1942 Mr. Fred P. Brooks, Sr., father of Dr. Betty Ann Brooks, May 24. 1944 Walter Frederick Kuentzel, husband of Agnes Douglas Kuentzel, in August. 1955 Benjamin Franklin Stovall, father of Harriett Stovall. June 12. of of 14 Return Postage Guaranteed by Alumnae Quarterly, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia AGNES SCOTT PLATES A view of Butlnck Hall as seen from Inman Porch is pictured in blue on W edgetvood's white "Patrician" pat- tern plate. Order yours from the Alumnae Office Prices, postpaid: $3.50 each 6 for $20.00 Proceeds from plate sales go to the Alumnae House. alumnae q uarterti ass aiktfwi THE ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION OF AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE OFFICERS MARY PRIM FOWLER '29 President MITZI KISER LAW '54 Vice-President SYBIL CORBETT RIDDLE '52 Vice-President ALICE McDONALD RICHARDSON '29 Secretary MARY MADISON WISDOM '41 Treasurer TRUSTEES CATHERINE WOOD MARSHALL '36 MARY WARREN READ '29 CHAIRMEN ELIZABETH BLACKSHEAR FLINN '38 Class Officers BELLA WILSON LEWIS '34 Club PATRICIA COLLINS ANDRETTA '28 Constitution MARY WALLACE KIRK '1 1 Education DOROTHY CHEEK CALLOWAY '29 Entertainment CATHERINE IVIE BROWN '39 House LOUISE GIRARDEAU COOK '28 Nominations MARY CAROLINE LEE MACKAY '40 Property LEONE BOWERS HAMILTON '26 Publications RUTH RYNER LAY '46 Special Events LORTON LEE '49 Vocational Guidance STAFF ANN WORTHY JOHNSON '38 Director of Alumnae Affairs ELOISE HARDEMAN KETCHIN House Manager DOROTHY WEAKLEY '56 Office Manager MEMBER AMERICAN ALUMNI COUNCIL The AGNES SCOTT Alumnae Quarterly- Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia Volume 36 Winter, 1958 Contents Number 2 Impressions of Agnes Scott A Colder Kaleidoscope Our Age of Loneliness Wisdom and Knowledge The March Class News Margaret W . Pepperdene Kathryn Johnson '47 Miriam Koontz Drucker Kivai Sing Chang 11 Choon Hi Choi 12 Eloise Hardeman Ret chin Cover. Dr. W. A. Calder, professor of physics and astronomy, secured this picture of the rocket of Sputnik I passing the constellation Lyra on Novem- ber 24, 1957. (See p. 3.) Other photographs in this issue: p. 1, Gasper- Ware; p. 3, Associated Press; W. A. Calder; p. 4, Kerr Studio; p. 5, Gabriel Benzur; p. 7, Gaspar-Ware; p. 10, Kerr Studio; p. 11, Bill Young. The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly is published four times a year (November, February, April and July) by the Alumnae Association of Agnes Scott College at Decatur, Georgia. Contributors to the Alumnae Fund receive the magazine. Y early subscription, $2.00. Single copy 50 cents. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office of Decatur, Georgia, under Act of August 24, 1912. Dr. Margaret II'. Pepperdene, during the three quarters she has been at Agnes Scott since her appointment to the faculty of the English Department in 1956 (she was on leave one quarter) has made a special place for herself as a teacher on this campus. We contemplated asking someone to ivrtte a profile of Jane Pepperdene, to explain how this came about, but determined that it would be much better to ask her to put in writing some of the things she has said about Agnes Scott's effect on her. We believe that alumnae will rejoice in her words. Impressions of Agnes Scott Margaret W. Pepperdene Dr. Pepperdene IT IS PERHAPS presumptuous of me, after only a few terms on this campus, to present my impressions of Agues Scott to you who are so fa- miliar with the College. But a newcomer can sometimes see with a fresh vision and perspective what may have become dulled by familiarity to the eyes of others. There were several features of Agnes Scott which impressed me as unique when I first came here; and I continue to feel that these features are seldom found in our institutions of higher learning today. Having been more or less accustomed as an instructor in English to overcoming ?. general apathy, even resis- tance, among students to the study of anything so im- practical as literature, I was surprised at the intellectual curiosity and breadth of intellectual interest I found among Agnes Scott students. In my own experience, in both state and private colleges, I had seldom found students who cared more for the subject matter of a course offering than for the hour of day it was taught, the ease with which a high grade could be secured, or the theatrical prowess of the instructor. Yet, at Agnes Scott enrollment in the difficult courses is well over that of comparable courses in larger colleges. In one university that I know of, for instance, no courses are offered in medieval literature, not even Chaucer, on the undergraduate level, because the English department faculty has discovered that students will not risk lower- ing their grade-point average to accept the discipline of learning to read Middle or Old English. At Agnes Scott, on the other hand, where courses are offered both in Chaucer and Old English, English majors as well as students from other departments are willing to make the extra effort to master the language and are willing, too, to risk making a poor grade to satisfy their desire for the actual achievement of knowledge. Nor is it unusual for a student group here to petition the faculty for new course offerings ; whereas, at most colleges and universities new courses are more often introduced to placate the specialized interests of faculty members than to satisfy the intellectual curiosity of the students. I am not speaking in terms of the breadth of the curriculum offered Agnes Scott students, nor am I implying that the average student I.Q. is necessarily higher at Agnes Scott than elsewhere. The curriculum is broad in its scope, and the students are excellent ; but the impressive fact is that the students possess an intellectual energy, an eagerness to learn, and a delight in the learning process that are not necessarily con- comitants to carefully planned programs of study or high scholastic entrance requirements. Each new Fresh- man ultimately invigorates the intellectual atmosphere of the campus with new energy, but only because there is already present a forceful and distinctive intellectual climate which gives form and direction to her own energies. Freshmen here, as elsewhere, go through the difficult process of shedding their high school aura, adjusting to new situations, and discovering to their dismay how little they know. But after only a few months, they are caught up at Agnes Scott into the vital intellectual climate surrounding them, and are stimulated to extend their reach toward knowledge which had seemed beyond their grasp and to relish toughness and soundness rather than the superficiality or even practicality of knowledge. If knowledge is to evoke such eagerness and curiosity in its pursuit, there has to be some animating force which gives vitality to knowledge, some force which makes all knowledge meaningful to the whole life of man. One of the great problems facing educators today is that knowledge is commonly considered neither attractive nor respectable unless it is economically or technologically useful. Many college students, especially those in the fields of business administration, profes- sional education or pre-professional training, resent even brief exposure to knowledge outside their special- ized fields of interest as a waste of their time and energy. The elective system, originally intended to broaden the scope of a student's interests, has deteriorated in in our schools and colleges to a means by which a stu- dent may avoid difficult subjects. The recent television program, "Where We Stand," designed to compare the strength of the United States with Soviet Russia, pointed up this deterioration of the elective system. In the Alhambra High School in California a large number of boys, including some who intended to go on to a uni- versity, were taking "co-ed cooking." When questioned 1 as to why they were taking this course, they groped hopelessly for a reasonable answer, but finally admitted that it was an easy way "to pick up credits." Almost every college has its "crip" courses filled with students merely to complete their hour requirements for gradu- ation. With the deterioration of the elective system and the growing emphasis on the practical results of educa- tion, the horizons of knowledge have become constricted in most American colleges so that the learning process is limited to an apprenticeship. It is therefore a striking phenomenon that at Agnes Scott one finds students eager to explore fields of knowl- edge outside their own special interest, with little regard for the difficulty of securing good grades. Stu- dents of history enjoy literature and language courses ; English majors may even be found in advanced science courses; and some science majors are taking as much as thirty quarter-hours in philosophy, literature and the classics. The whole student body displays an interest in the varied topics presented by visiting historians, literary critics, theologians and scientists. This wide interest is fostered but not imposed by the elective system at Agnes Scott and by the Lecture Association and the University Center's visiting scholars program ; but the initiative and the response are peculiarly the property of the students. The opportunities which Agnes Scott gives for the expression of this intellectual energy are results rather than causes of the unique intellectual atmosphere pervading the College. The complete absence of apathy, and in fact, the per- vading presence of intellectual vitality at Agnes Scott I can only attribute to another feature characteristic of this college and too seldom found now in American institutions of higher learning. This is the conscious acceptance of a framework of spiritual values against which knowledge is projected and within which it can become animated and meaningful. The spiritual force of Christianity has permeated our western civilization and historically has been the one great integrating theme of all our intellectual achievement. Whether as individ- uals we acknowledge Christianity as our belief or not, we must accept the historical fact that we live in a society leavened with Christian values: our concepts of right conduct, of the individual worth of man, of man's purpose on earth have moulded our social mores, our laws, our political theories and our philosophy. The universal nature of Christianity, the infinite scope of its concepts, can contain all knowledge and imbue it with significance for the whole life of a man or man- kind. Literature, history and philosophy become as meaningful to the student as physics, chemistry, bacter- iology or psychology, for they all enrich the knowledge man needs of himself, of his world, and of his God. The horizon of learning becomes infinite, and the at- tainment of learning is limited only by the capacity of the individual. Many educators are alert to the need of spiritual values in education, but few have succeeded in effect- ing the subtle fusion between spiritual values and the great body of knowledge, so that knowledge can become meaningful to all phases of man's life. In the "Second Report to the President" (July, 1957) the Josephs' Committee, after exploring the many practical prob- lems facing higher education today, emphasizes that the paramount goal of education "is to develop human beings of high character, of courageous heart and in- dependent mind, who can transmit and enrich our society's intellectual, cultural and spiritual heritage, who can advance mankind's eternal quest for truth and beauty and who can leave the world a better place than they found it." Many institutions pay lip service to this paramount goal of education, but other than the fostering of "Religious Emphasis Week" or Student Christian Associations, nothing is done to identify the intellectual life of the student with his spiritual life. Other institutions, operating at the opposite extreme, impose in the name of Christianity a rigid and narrow sectarianism upon their students which stifles the mind, shrivels the horizons of learning and effectively divorces the spiritual from the intellectual life. I feel that Agnes Scott maintains the perilous balance i between these two extremes. Here, the spiritual values j are implicitly accepted and fostered by the entire college community. Traditional Christianity, rather than spe- cific sectarian beliefs, gives a breadth and depth of meaning to knowledge and serves as the fusing element between knowledge and the application of knowledge to life. The concept of honesty, for example, operates not only to govern one individual's relations with another but to inspire a desire for straight-thinking, fair self-evaluation, and satisfaction with nothing short of the truth in knowledge. Dissimulation, superficiallv, glibness and intellectual snobbery have no more place in this context than intolerance, bigotry or dilettantism. Integrity of intellect and of character develop simul- taneously, and each nourishes the other. Within the discipline inspired by the infusion of knowledge with the spiritual values of our religious heritage, when it is successfully effected as it is at Agnes Scott, there is a freedom of spirit as well as of intellect which engenders an atmosphere of unself-conscious good humor and friendly ease. Students have a sense of shared experiences, both intellectual and spiritual, which begets a genuine interest in the happiness and well-being of fellow students that transcends the relationship of personal friendship. One of the first things I heard about Agnes Scott before I came to the campus was a comment from a friend of mine on another university faculty, who had recently visited the College. "There is an air about that place," he said, "unlike any place I've ever been. It's both absorbing and exciting." Donald Davidson has said that knowledge that possesses the heart as well as the head pervades the entire being as the grace of God pervades the heart and soul and that this knowledge "relieves the individual from the domination of the mob, the insolence of rulers, the strife of jealous factions, the horrible commotion of foreign wars and domestic politics, the vice of envy, the fear of poverty. Positively, it establishes the blessed man in a position where economic use, enjoyment, under- standing, and religious reverence are not separated but fused in one." This "knowledge carried to the heart" seems to me to be the dominant characteristic of Agnes Scott. In this day of sputniks and rockets, Agnes Scott's Bradley Observatory and its director, Dr. William A. Calder, have frequently found their way into the headlines. Kathryn Johnson '47 , a staff writer for the Associated Press, gives us the opportunity in a realistic profile to meet this man behind the news. * X .. ' P Jfi. balder Jxaletdoscopi Miss Johnson . Kathryn Johnson, '47 Dr. Calder IF YOU GRADUATED from Agnes Scott before Dr. William A. Calder, Chairman of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, came to teach, and before the Bradley Observatory was built, you know you were born a few years too soon. Why would a study, compounded of starry nights and cold mathematical calculation, fill a classroom to overflowing with students eager to learn a subject usually considered a little abstruse for the tastes of most women ? First, as Dr. Calder explains, there is the eternal human fascination with the stars. Second, there is the intellectual pleasure of working in a pure science, a form of enjoyment which college women share with the rest of intelligent humanity. Dr. Calder will give you as the third reason, the prospect of having the best telescope south of Wash- ington and east of Arizona to use in observation. But if you have visited the fourth floor of Campbell Science Hall and talked with Dr. Calder, with classical hi-fi music playing softly in the background, and sur- rounded by his dog, Stormy, his physics apparatus, cameras and various inventions of his creative mind, you A recent display in the library shows one of the new "eyes." understand the biggest magnet of all is Dr. Calder himself. Here is a man of vast ingenuity, with an informal, vibrant personality, and an unbounded humor. Dr. Calder is of medium height, with short-cropped sandy hair, a mobile alive face with blue eyes that reflect a kind of perpetual excitement as though the thing about to happen to him never happened before tc anyone. When Dr. Calder came to Agnes Scott in Septem- ber, 1947, there was no observatory, and few students took physics or astronomy. Largely due to his efforts, the Bradley Observatory was built and equipped to become one of the finest collegiate observatories anywhere. Sights never seen before in Georgia have filtered through the powerful 30-inch lens telescope to the knowledgeable eyes of Dr. Calder and his students as they watch from the wooded hilltop on the campus celestial spectacles which no instrument previously in this part of the country had been strong enough to provide. As Director of the Bradley Observatory, Dr. Calder has a continual stream of visitors from various groups, both adults and children, to the observatory. The large membership of the Atlanta Astronomers, an amateur group formed by Dr. Calder in 1948, meets monthly at the observatory. There is also a monthly open house for the general public, in addition to certain weekday nights, when the observatory must be open for students. Since coming to the college, Dr. Calder has developed an effective astronomy program in the area centered around the observatory, and has made Agnes Scott a regional center for the study of the universe. As Dr. Wallace Alston, President of Agnes Scott, pointed out, Dr. Calder has been more instrumental in adult education in astronomy than anyone in this section. In addition to his making astronomy as a course one of the most popular, Agnes Scott is one of the leading undergraduate schools in astronomy in the country, in proportion to its size. Even Dr. Calder, in his infinite reluctance to take credit due him, will admit that there is much good chance that bv the time the average student graduates from Agnes Scott, she will have taken astronomy. "My students work like beavers," he went on. "The level of their work is unsurpassed anywhere and I have examination files from other leading colleges and universities to prove it." Dr. Calder is of constant value in public relations as a link between the college and the public community. He is the person consistently called by wire services, the Atlanta newspapers, TV and radio stations as the authoritative word in the many scientific news interests of these days. Since the advent of sputnik, he is possibly the most-quoted scientist in the area on the subject. When this writer tried to reach him by telephone one evening last fall when sputnik was due to pass over Atlanta, Mrs. Calder reported he had been so deluged with telephone calls, night and day, that he had fled to the science hall for escape. Public Speaker Dr. Calder is also much in demand as a speaker. He plans to make a talk soon at the Federal Penitentiary, his text being, "Ad Astra Per Aspera" "To the Stars Through Bolts and Bars!" He will speak on, he says with a twinkle, interplanetary space travel. Dr. Calder said he will be just as enthusiastic as he wants to be in talking to the prisoners, because he knows "there won't be a lot of calls afterward!" He will speak soon to a group of Emory graduate students, on the topic, "The Influence of Astronomy on Other Subjects." Dr. Calder has in mind not the obvious subjects such as the physical sciences, or thought and philosophy, but the influence of astronomy on psychology. As he explains it in layman's language, experimental psychology started by the experience of an assistant in an observatory who noted star crossings too late. The assistant was fired for his slow reaction time, and an important part of experimental psychology was be- gun. Man as an observer had certain reactions; this led to the first studies of human beings as observers. Even the beginning of sampling of star counts in different areas of the heavens such as the counting of the myriad stars in the Milky Way led to the basis of the use of statistics in psychology. Gadgeteer Not long after coming to Agnes Scott, Dr. Calder found a used metal terrestial globe about 12 inches in diameter. He removed the paint from it and with the use of a mirror and star map, he poked holes through tape through the globe, using several sizes of needles, the heavier needles for the brighter stars. Thus was contrived the planetarium globe which turns the ceiling and walls of the special room of Dr. Calder's own design, in the observatory, into an authentic starry sky, with all the planets and constellations in their places for any time of year he chooses. He has even had his students paint in black the skyline of Agnes Scott on the wall background. Dr. Calder adds zip not often found in laboratories in astronomy in the use of his own inventions and creations in teaching. Educational gadgetry takes, in Dr. Calder's own words, appreciable time and thought. But when it pro- duces a wide-awake class, it is worth the effort. He invented an apparatus called a "domesticated" Eclipsing Binary System. Astronomers usually have to sit fcr many months at a telescope to observe double stars, which seem so close together when one star moves behind the other. Dr. Calder rigged up two bulbs that revolve around each other and produce the effects of an eclipsing binary system when viewed from the distance of the long attic of the science hall. On each side of the gadget is located a rheostat for controlling "star" brightnesses. The relative sizes of the stars can be varied by changing the bulbs. Variations of inclination, showing total and partial eclipses, can be produced. The apparatus by which the double star system at the other end of the attic is observed consists principally of a small telescope, equipped with a photoelectric cell, an amplifier and a microammeter. It is a unique experience watching the eclipses from the stars. Thus an experiment which would take per- haps months of effort can be conducted through his invention in a half-hour. Dr. Calder has also taken a completely round white globe (an old globe formerly used on porches and rarely found today), placed it on a black velvet cloth in the attic of the science hall, and projected a photo- graph of the moon on to it. Thus, with the lights off, a simulated moon is perfectly reproduced for use in studying the actual features of the moon. These are but a few of his many instruments for demonstration and teaching purposes. Many of these he has written up for "Sky and Telescope" magazine. Another interest of Dr. Calder's is photography, which he teaches Spring quarter. He has a fascinating collection of stereoscopic slides which he made of various Dr. Colder and students explore the heavens through the 30-inch Beck telescope in the Bradley Observatory. scenes around Stone Mountain and Decatur. He is also much interested in tape recording. Invariably, something of his humor creeps into his teaching methods. He once taped off the sinister music played on the TV $64,000 Question program when the contestant is placed in the box for questioning, and relaxed his students by playing the tape before an exam. In a true-false exam, his students will tell you that it is not unusual to find one of the questions "This exam is a stinker," to be marked true or false. Dr. Calder gads about the campus on his Italian motor scooter, to and from the science hall to his home and the observatory. He has been known to give the girls a ride on rare occasions. Musician "I'm an infamous harpist but I enjoy it" is the way he describes his chief musical interest. His friends will tell you he is a distinguished harpist and ardent music lover. He also plays the violin and viola and participated in the Christmas music program at the college with his harp. A scientist in every sense of the word, Dr. Calder is yet no worshipper of scientific research. He believes that science and the genius of scientific thought are overrated. He feels that scientists are like the "thirteenth man to fly across the Atlantic" ; plenty of other men, given time and opportunity, could do it as well. Dr. Calder, for example, doesn't begin to have as much admiration for scientists as for Debussy. Debussy, he explains, might not have been born and so his particular music might never have been created, where- as a research worker nowadays, with the abundant help of equipment and fellowship grants, will produce what another worker might also easily produce. Dr. Calder thinks scientists as teachers now have more respect than ever before, and that a scientist need not be humiliated because he is not turning out research. Dr. Calder, however, has been doing valuable re- search for years on the relative brightness of the sun and moon. He believes and is conducting experiments to prove that the reflectivity of the moon is much brighter than present science textbooks say. When he was resident astronomer at Harvard, he had already gained international recognition for his work in this field. When several Soviet fliers were lost in the Arctic, the Russian government wrote him asking how much brightness of the moon they could rely on while search- ing for the fliers. This was during the period of eternal night in the Arctic. A teacher, someone once said, affects eternity ; you can never tell where his influence stops. It is as a teacher that Dr. Calder is at his best, largely because he enjoys it so and because of his great love for astronomy. The purest science there is, he says. To say that Dr. Calder is that rare individual, a really happy person, is not, perhaps, to best describe him. His wife said it well when she said, "the word 'happy' has a connotation not exactly right for a sensitive person. I would say, rather, he has known depths of contentment, happiness and satisfaction." Dr. Calder's wife, Dorothy, is a talented artist; she teaches art at Decatur High and is art consultant for Decatur elementary schools. The Calders have two children, Bill Calder, a Lt. j.g. in the Coast Guard, who lives with his wife and small son at Corpus Christi, Texas, and a daughter, Frances, also married, now a junior at Agnes Scott. Dr. Calder received his schooling at the University of Wisconsin and Harvard University and was as- sociated for some time with the Harvard Observatory. When quoted by the Atlanta Journal in late Decem- ber, 1957, as to what is ahead in '58, Dr. Calder said, among other things: "The very best thing that could happen in science would be the realization of international peace which would free us from the waste and abuse in pursuing science for defense purposes. As to technical advances, nothing could rival the achievement of a controllable fusion process which would put unlimited energy at man's disposal. "Think of the transformation that could be accom- plished in barren and desert regions where human beings are now barely surviving. This is one of the most difficult and ambitious projects ever conceived. But some new lead, if not a clear breakthrough, is to be expected in 1958." ttftftttrt We wanted to share with alumnae the ideas Dr. Miriam Koontz Drucker, assistant professor of psy- chology since 1955-56, expressed to the college com- munity in a chapel talk this year. OUR AGE OF LONELINESS Miriam Koontz Drucker Dr. Drucker IF IT WERE possible to project oneself far into the centuries of the future, and then look back with understanding upon our present time, it would be exceedingly interesting to know by what name, by what descriptive phrase or title our present age will be designated to separate it from the different ages surrounding it. Many ideas for such a title have already been suggested: the scientific age, the atomic age, the age of anxiety, the age of loneliness. As a social scientist whose specialty of training and experience deals most with the relatively unexplored frontiers of human relationships, my own inclination, without benefit of prophetic insight, is to see our era as the age of mental hygiene, or the age of the search for mental health, or perhaps more specifically as the Era of the Discovery and Exploration of the Self. For while the important few beyond the guarded laboratory door probe the structure of the atom, within the equally guarded secret recesses of human minds there seems to be a kind of frantic jabbing of the human structure. We have come to appreciate and count on the automobile, the supermarket, the telephone, and tele- vision, the sanctuary and the flu shot, but if the accumu- lated experience of those who work most intimately with people, not things, can be trusted, we are on the crest of an era where each man's most typical relationship with himself is one of doubt, question, distrust, and ill ease. There is no evidence which I can find, either spiritual or scientific, which demonstrates that self appraisal in itself is the cause of our perplexing tussle with ourselves. There is evidence, however, of both sorts to suggest that our self appraisal is most often done without honesty as we know it, and without truth as we each experience it. Apparently our self exploration is in the direction of finding ourselves not as we are but as we think the world around us demands us to be; apparently we look inward with our minds made up as to what we must find. The discrepancy between expectation and reali- zation cries out for an answer. In that agonizing mo- ment when the pattern for self and the outline of self jeer at each other, it is not to honesty and truth that we of this present age find it easy to turn. I am not so much concerned at the moment with why we turn from truth, as I am concerned that at no other time and in no other way is truth more essential to us. It may be that here as elsewhere truth is sometimes disappoint- ing, but the lack of it cripples, punishes and incapacitates the very self with which each of us is concerned. Truth, like charity, or integrity or love or any other human quality toward which we aim, must begin at home if it is to exist anywhere in our human relationships. There is no such thing as being truthful with one's roommate, or one's teacher, or one's students, if within one's searching of one's self hidden self truth is not there. And there is no such thing as love or honor for one's roommate, or teacher or student, if within one's searching of one's hidden self love or honor is not there for self. The struggle of our age away from anxiety and lone- liness toward mental health is, in its essence, the strug- gle to find the self as it is within us. That this period of history has already been called by these names indicates the length and breadth and pain of our struggle. To make matters worse, apparently each of us must, in the final analysis, make this struggle alone. With the best of scientific or spiritual knowledge to help him, another person can only understand that we are struggling; he cannot make the struggle for us; he can go with us as far as we will take him into self, but when we no longer share our self with him, we are again alone. Alone, and yet not quite alone, for in the innermost recesses of self, between honesty and deception, there is present the One who "when I sit in darkness ... is ... a great light unto me." Even though at times we try to escape, God is with us. Whether we accept Him or whether we do not, He is still closer than life and breath. In the midd'e of loneliness, God is there and self is not alone. There is no promise in the New or Old Testament that God's followers will not have to struggle with th- honest understanding of self. But there are many promises that where we are, there He is too, during our Age of Loneliness. What is truth f Jesus said, "1 am the truth." It is the truth in our self appraisals that will make the self free from this anxious age. WISDO and KWAI SING CHANG MAY I FIRST express my thanks and my appre- ciation, and fright for your choice and for my privilege and honor. And may I also make an- other prefatory remark to the audience in general, and that is that my words are addressed to the Senior Class and so everybody else, parents, friends, colleagues, may either relax or eavesdrop. The realm of knowledge and wisdom, I think it is true to say, is the main concern of a college. And a college has four classes, but only two kinds of people Sophomores and Seniors. For our purpose we shall say that Juniors and Freshmen are non-existent. We shall define them into non-existence. Juniors, I think we can say, are really transitional paragraphs. Freshmen are merely dangling participles looking for a connection. That leaves us Sophomores and Seniors. What are Sophomores ? I think we ought to be orthodox, there- fore, we shall look into the Oxford English Dictionary to find out what Sophomores are. This dictionary states that a sophomore is a second year student. That tells us nothing because we still want to know, what's a Sophomore? And in order to find out we have to look under another word sophomoric. There we find this definition (and the Sophomores will please keep in mind that I am reading this definition.) : "All or per- taining to, befitting or resembling, characteristic of a sophomore." But that's not the end, it goes on to say "hence" that's the most important part "hence, pretentious, bombastic, inflated in style or manner, immature, crude, superficial." I think I ought to stop here and talk to the Sopho- mores. I will make two remarks. First, you will re- member I read this from the dictionary. And second, 8 this definition was coined one hundred years before Agnes Scott was founded. So now we can continue, but still we have to ask the question, why such nasty names? That's because sophomore is made up of two words, placed side by side, wise and fool. The original culprits are the Greek Sophists of the 5th century B.C. They were the ones who gave rise to this name. The Sophists, at least some of them, used to think and argue in this fashion: nothing exists; if anything existed no one would know it ; if someone should come to know- it, he could never describe it. That's knowledge that they used to sell for good money that's sophomore. What about Seniors? Turning to the dictionary again, we find that a Senior means, first, you're aging. I think yesterday's hockey game proved that !* But, then, that's not the only meaning; there's another meaning of senior. It also means superior in standing. The dic- tionary doesn't elaborate on this, so let's work out the meaning ourselves. Investiture symbolizes your move- ment from the rank of Sophomores to that of Seniors, This is a symbol that goes back to the feudal contract of the Middle Ages. Then the vassal or the tenant would kneel and pledge allegiance before his lord. The lord, in turn, would perform what was known as investiture, by handing to that vassal, that tenant, a banner or charter or some piece of clothing to signify his receiving or getting a new rank, a new office. So, following this custom, you in your turn are going to be invested, or clothed, from sophomore knowledge to a superior kind, which we will call wisdom. The freshman team beat the Seniors 3-1. Dr. Chang joined the faculty of Agnes Scott in September, 1956, as Visiting Professor of Philosophy and Bible. Although his parents are Chinese, he is a native of Hawaii and came to Agnes Scott from kohala. Ffaicaii. He received his A.B. degree from the University of Hawaii, his B.D. and Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and. Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh. The Class of 195S chose Dr. Chang to deliver their Investiture address which we have edited from a tape recording. KNOWLEDGE Some time ago on TV, there was on the "$64,000 Question" program, a grandmother named, I believe, Mrs. Catherine Critzer, and she chose the Bible for her field. Her answers took her up to $32,000, then she quit (showing she knew just as much about income tax rates as about Bible facts!). There followed news- paper reports saying that thousands and thousands of Americans were consequently buying more and more Bibles and reading more from their Bibles. This makes one ask the question, were those thousands and thous- ands looking for knowledge or wisdom ? The kind of question that Mrs. Critzer had to answer, such as: Name eight of the twelve disciples ; might be a good question for a quiz program, but it surely doesn't rep- resent what the Bible calls wisdom. The Bible itself makes a distinction between wisdom and knowledge, as in the twenty-eighth chapter of the Book of Job, which is a poem written in the same age in which the Greek Sophists worked. Let's read the first part of this poem : Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine. Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted from the ore. Men put an end to darkness, and search out to the farthest bound the ore in gloom and deep darkness. They open shafts in a valley away from where men live; they are forgotten by travelers, they hang afar from men, they swing to and fro. Vs for the earth, out of it comes bread: but underneath it is turned up as b\ fire. Its stones are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of gold. That path no bird of prey knows, and the falcon's eye has not seen it. The proud beasts have not trodden it; the lion has not passed over it. Man puts his hand to the flinty rock, and overturns mountains by the roots. He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing. He binds up the streams so that they do not trickle. and the thing that is hid he brings forth to light. But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know the way to it, and it is not found in the land of the living. If you translate this fifth-century B.C. Hebrew poem in modern terms, or more prosaic terms, I think you might give the essence this way : we know how to make moons and almost to travel to the moon, but we still don't know how to get along with each other whether in terms of the neighborhood level, the national level, or the international level. Thus the question asked 2400 years ago is still our question : where shall wisdom be found and where is a place of understanding? One negative answer from the Bible is that wisdom is not mere knowledge or the accumulation of facts and skills, because the fifth-century poet says that man is able to refine gold, smelt copper, move mountains, cut channels in rocks and bind up streams, but he cannot find wisdom. We like to assume that just be- cause we know so much more than our grandfathers and our grandmothers we must be wiser. Now, that doesn't follow. Our grandfathers and our grandmothers could travel no faster than Abraham, Isaac or Jacob. But just because we can travel at the rate of 600 miles per hour instead of 6 doesn't mean that we are brainier or better, or our trips anymore worthwhile. It's what we are, not what we can do, not how fast we can do it or how fabulously we can do it, that makes us civilized. San Quentin prison, in California, is today fortu- nate enough to have a Columbia University man run- ning its library. The library has 25,000 volumes fov 4,500 men, and, to show you what a Columbia man can do, in two years time after this man took over, readers in the library jumped from 480 to 3,200. The average reader borrows 100 books a year, and the circulation facts, classified, go like this: first in popularity his- tory, travel, biography, 12,000 readers; second, prac- tical arts and sciences, 10,000 readers; third, literature, language drama, 7,000 readers; and last philosophy, psychology, religion and ethics, 5,000 readers. I'm quite sure some of these readers can go all the way to the top in a quiz program. That doesn't mean that they are any brainier or better. And so, where shall wisdom be found and where is a place of understanding? The poet in Job gives first a negative answer. Man does not know the way to it, and it is not found in the land of the living. But if you read to the end of the poem you will find another answer, a two-fold one. He says at the end : God understands the way to it, and lie knows its place. And the second part of this answer, which is repeated in Proverbs, Psalms and other books goes like this, as expressed in Psalm III : The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In essence, that's the poet's answer. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Can we interpret these words to mean religion is the beginning of wis- dom? Not if we mean by religion a formal acceptance and reciting of creeds, or a ceremonious practice of rituals, or even a stylized look of piety. Rather, taking an old meaning of the word fear, we should say that reverence is the beginning of wisdom. That can be instilled by the church,, the school, or the home or all together, because true reverence combines the searching wonder of the scientist, the awe of the artist, and the devotion of the saint. That's what true wisdom, true reverence involves. So it is the attitude that frees us from all dogmatism concerning the truth of things or events, or the worth and dignity of people as people. This is the beginning of wisdom. This is the insight that tells us what to do with our knowledge. How do we find it? The New Testament and the Christian church point to Jesus of Nazareth and say He is the Way, the Truth, and the Light, follow Him. This is harder than it sounds at first, because it means not merely acquiescing to the teaching of Jesus; it involves living according to that teaching. And that is a stumb- ling block for most people. But there is no getting around this point, whether one turns to the West or to the East in the search for wisdom. This is in the end the answer. Eastern thought and Eastern philosophy point to the same direction in this search for wisdom. One basic principle, for instance, running all through Confucious' 1 thought is the idea of -t- ; it's made up of two words, one word placed on top of the other, translated "sincerity." The top word means "little," the bottom word means "part." And Confucious summarizes his idea of sincerity this way: under heaven it is only those who are possessed of the absolute Z\ % \ who can develop fully their nature; able to develop fully their nature, they can develop fully the nature of men; able to develop fully the nature of other men, they can develop fully the nature of things; able to develop fully the nature of things, they can help heaven and earth in transforming and nourishing life; able to help heaven and earth in transforming and nourishing life, they can be one with heaven and earth. And we find the same emphasis in Hindu thought. According to the Hindu scriptures, "To know is to become." Mere theoretical knowledge is useless in Hindu thought. Therefore, in order to arrive at the self must first be Dr. and Mrs. Chang, Jasmine, 1, and Forsythia, 4. purified through detachment, through meditation, through self-discipline. In short, what all these amount to is this : what we see depends on what we are. You can draw the implications for yourself from that. Now we come back to you. Today you are being invested or clothed ; as Seniors you are formally moving from the knowledge of the fifth-century Greek Sophists to the beginning of the wisdom of the fifth-century Hebrew poet. But whether this investiture represents formality or reality depends on you, on what you do from now till June. God bless your efforts. 10 Choon Hi Choi is a student at Agnes Scott from Seoul, Korea. In order for you to know something of her and her experiences before she came to Agnes Scott, we are reprinting her story, "The March," which appeared in the fall edition of the Aurora. THE MARCH Choon Hi Choi Choon Hi, daughter of Pilley Kim Choi, '26, IT WAS ONLY day before yesterday that the refugees from the north began to appear in the city. And the road certainly hasn't been as crowded as it is now. This evening the rows and rows of refugees are endlessly pouring into the city, and most of them are farmers. I can tell from their belongings. Everybody is carrying loads. There is no exception, whether they are aged or young. All the possible facul- ties of the body are called out and put at work. Look at that woman! She is carrying on her head, on her back, and still her both hands are not free. I don't see how she can walk miles and miles that way, even if Korean women are expert carriers. Some lucky families have carts ; they must have been well-to-do families in their villages, perhaps owned some land. The carts are loaded to the top; in each on top of everything else is a big basket full of children excitedly clapping their hands and staring at this city called Seoul. The fathers are pulling in front and the mothers push from behind. It is good that they didn't bring their mules with them. Surely there would be no room for animals. I try to read the expression on their faces but I can't, and I don't know what it is. They seem expressionless. They want to walk faster and faster, yet they are held back by the crowd in this dreary, solemn march at twilight. My brother stops a man in the crowd. They speak to each other across the trolley track. "Where are you coming from?" The man says, "From Miyari." Miyari . . . Miyari . . . my heart is beating and Miyari is clanging in my ears. The Communists are only four miles away, then. Mv brother questions him again, "Are we winning or . . .?" The man is impatient at stopping. He gestures as if he doesn't want to speak and shakes his head hastily, "I really don't know. But I tell vou this. Until this morning, you know, they were fighting at Uijongbu, but this noon I heard them not very far from us. So I guess . . ." He stops there as if afraid of putting defeat into words and quickly goes on his way. My brother and I silently watch him until he becomes a tinv speck in the crowd. The people continue to stream by on the other side of the tracks. Army trucks going north turn the corner, forcing the crowd aside. The open trucks are full of so.diers standing together in new, greenish khaki uniforms. Some have helmets on, but some only have service caps, and I wonder whether they will get any helmets when they reach the front line. I am glad they are singing. We are the banner of . . . March on. march on . . . until the day of victo ry I love this song. It has so much power in it. We used to sing this, waving our flags and marching through the street on the 1 5th of August, the day of liberation. And then, if you were at any second-story building along the street, you would be able to see how beautiful our flags looked, waving, flapping softly in the students' hands. As each truck passes by tonight, the people standing on this side of the street clap their hands, and shout "Long live Korea!" But it is strange that the song does not echo through the air. It seems to fall heavily upon the crowd. I don't know why I am not able to hum it to myself as I used to like to do. My brother taps my shoulder. "We better go home ; it's getting dark and I felt some rain drops." "Yes, we should be getting ready, too. Look, look at the sky!" The dark grey cloud is spreading with speed from the northern sky, and from time to time faint popping sounds are heard. It will be raining tonight. Mv brother and I run all the way back heme. 11 DEATHS INSTITUTE Frances Fisher Warren, Sep!;. 9. Alberta Bun-ess Trotter, April 22. Bessie Harris Clayton, Jan. 22. Lottie Anderson Pruden, Oct. 22, 1956. Louise Hansell Whittle, in Novem- ber. 1921 Mrs. J. A. Hall, mother of Helen Hall Hopkins, in September. 1923 Martha Mcintosh Nail's mother, Sept. 19. 1925 Alicia Young, April 9. 1926 William Quinn Slaughter, father of Sarah Slaughter, Oct. 29. 1933 Mary Torrance Fleming, Oct. 22. 1934 Fred Kyle, husband of Buford Tin- der Kyle, in September. 1935 Margaret Coins Wagner, Sept. 27. Edith Kendrick Osmanski's three- year-old daughter, Spring of 1957. 1944 Fred Maxwell, father of Mary Maxwell Hutchinson, March 19, 1957. 1945 Mary Anne Snyder Lee, Aug. 13. 1947 L. Hall Mason, husband of Dr. Sarah Cooley Mason, Nov. 3. 1951 Mrs. Nicholas G. Gounaris, mother of Anna Gounaris, Aug. 19. Special Julia Pearl McCrory Weatherford, Oct. 4. AGNES SCOTT PLATES A view of Buttrick Hall as seen from Inman Porch is pictured in blue on Wedgwood's white "Patrician" pat- tern plate. Order yours from the Alumnae Office Prices, postpaid: $3.50 each 6 for $20.00 Proceeds from plate sales go to the Alumnae House. TEST YOURSELF 1. What happened to the Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly on Jan- uary 18, 1958? 2. What happened to 6,864 alumnae in February, 1958? 3. What should happen, do you think, to 9,300 alumnae as soon as possible? 1. The Quarterly was named the "most improved" alumni maga- zine at the Southeastern District conference of the American Alumni Council in Williamsburg, Virginia, January 15-18, 1958. 2. This, the Winter, 1958, issue of the Quarterly is being mailed to all alumnae whose current addresses are on record at the Alumnae Office, as of Feb. 10, 1958. 3. We (the editor, the Alumnae Association Board, and the Col- lege Administration) want to send all issues of the Quarterly to all alumnae, because it is the one publication which can bring to you continuous interpretation of Agnes Scott today. Would you like to receive the magazine regularly? Are you willing to accept the responsibility of annual giving to Agnes Scott with- out the string of a subscription to the Quarterly being tied to your contribution to the Alumnae Fund? Return Postage Guaranteed by Alumnae Quarterly, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia FINE ARTS FESTIVAL APRIL 17-19, 1958 Calendar of Events April 17 Mae Sarton, poet and novelist, lecture, "The Holy Game," the creation of a poem. April 18 Michael McDowell and Irene Leftwich Harris, duo-pianists, Music Department Faculty. Creative writing panel discussion of student work from Agnes Scott and other colleges, led by Mae Sarton and Flannery O'Connor, Georgia author. Blackfriars and Dance Group present a festival version of Shakespeare's "The Tempest." April 19 Art panel discussion, moderated by Marie Huper, Agnes Scott Art Faculty, panel members: Carolyn Becknell, Becknell Associates, Atlanta; Lamar Dodd, University of Georgia; Paul M. Hefferman, Georgia Tech; Joseph S. Perrin, Georgia State College. "The Tempest," second performance. SATURDAY, APRIL 19, IS ALUMNAE DAY Alumnae Luncheon 12:30 P.M. rnnae q uarterlf spring 1958 mm^Bmm^^mm THE ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION OF AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE OFFICERS MARY PRIM FOWLER '29 MITZI KISER LAW '54 President Vice-President SYBIL CORBETT RIDDLE '52 Vice-President ALICE McDONALD RICHARDSON '29 Secretary MARY MADISON WISDOM '41 Treasurer TRUSTEES CATHERINE WOOD MARSHALL '36 MARY WARREN READ '29 CHAIRMEN ELIZABETH BLACKSHEAR FL1NN '38 Class Officers BELLA WILSON LEWIS '34 Club PATRICIA COLLINS ANDRETTA '28 Constitution MARY WALLACE KIRK '1 1 Education DOROTHY CHEEK CALLOWAY '29 Entertainment CATHERINE IVIE BROWN '39 Hot LOUISE GIRARDEAU COOK '28 Nominations MARY CAROLINE LEE MACKAY '40 Property LEONE BOWERS HAMILTON '26 Publications RUTH RYNER LAY '46 Special Events LORTON LEE '49 Vocational Guidance STAFF ANN WORTHY JOHNSON '38 Director of Alumnae Affairs ELOISE HARDEMAN KETCHIN House Manager DOROTHY WEAKLEY '56 Office Manager MEMBER AMERICAN ALUMNI COUNCIL No. 3; The AGNES SCOTT Alumnae Quarterly Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia Volume 36 Spring, 1958 Contents The Struggle for Communication 1 Jeanne Addison Masengill '46 The Struggle with God Edmund A . Steimle Are You Prepared for Leadership 7 Jean Bailey Oiven '39 Let's Keep the Liberal in Our Education 10 Paige Violette Harmon '48 'A Sound Frame, A Solid Intellect" 12 Harriette Haynes Lapp Class News 15 Eloise Hardeman Ketchin Lover. Spring's blossoms brought a particular beauty to the campus this year, after a long, cold winter. This magnoja blossom should stir memories in alumnae hearts. Photo by Kerr. Other photographs in this issue: p. 13, Gospar-Ware; pp. 13-14, Charles Pugh. The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly is published four times a year (November, Eebruary, April and July) by the Alumnae Association of Agnes Scott College at Decatur, Georgia. Contributors to the Alumnae J und receive the magazine. Yearly subscription, $2.00. Single copy 50 cents. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office of Decatur, Georgia, under Act of August 24, 1912. Eighty days is not required for ideas to go spontaneously around the world. Without seeing Dr. Drucker's article in the Winter, 1958 Quarterly, Jeanne Addison Massengill '46 has expressed some of the same beliefs in this chapel talk given at the Woman's College of Beirut, Lebanon, where she teaches English. the struggle for communication jeanne addison masengill '46 IT HAS BEEN SAID that the human spirit en- closed in a body can be compared to a person enclosed in a small dark room, without light, sound, ventilation, or communication with the outside world'. And yet, perhaps the most basic of all human needs, the most poignant of all human yearnings, is the need and yearning for communication. We all want to understand, and, above all to be understood but we are perpetually turned back within the confines of our small dark rooms. Tennessee Williams in the Preface of his Cat On a Hot Tin Roof has summed up very vividly his idea of the human dilemma: It is a lonely idea, a lonely condition, so terrifying to think of that we usually don't. And so we talk to each other, and write and' wire each other, call each other short and long distance across land and sea, clasp hands with each other at meeting and parting, fight each other and even destroy each other because of this always somewhat thwarted effort to break through walls to each other. As a character in a play once said, "We're all of us sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins." A society without some degree of communication is absolutely beyond the powers of imagination. In fact, anthropologists often date the beginning of human beings from the invention of language. And yet, as most of us know, more language is frighteningly in- adequate for any real communication. Even in a society where everyone speaks the same language, there are endless limitations, some inherent in the nature_ of our imperfect languages, and some imposed by society itself. Williams says, The discretion of social conversation, even among friends, is exceeded only by the discretion of . . . the grave wherein nothing is mentioned at all. Unless we do escape from the "solitary confinement" of our skins, we can obviously have no true conception of the greatness of either man or God. To enable us to escape, even if only momentarily, is the function of all serious conversation, all education, all friendship, love, art, and even religion. It is in direct proportion to our ability to escape that we are able to share the great insights, visions, and enlightenments of the world. And it is directly in proportion to their ability to free us that we measure the greatness of education, friendship, love, art, and religion. To share in the thoughts and emotions of another is incredibly difficult. It may be impossible. The wise Homer tells us that even in moments of great common sorrow, each mourner weeps secretly for his own woe. We know that all of us have been conditioned and shaped by different environments and experiences. To communicate between worlds takes a tremendous effort : the effort first of all to know oneself ; second, the effort to imagine a world that one has not felt; and third, the effort to remove all the disguises deliberate and in- voluntary which distort the impressions of both sender and receiver. It is the constant effort of the artist, for example, to become more and more fully aware and to communicate to as many levels of con- scious and subconscious perception in his audience as possible. Henry David Thoreau has described the state of mind of the ideal artist: The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but onlv one in a million is awake enough for effec- tive intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face.- Communication between men forces increasing won- der at the complexities of the human soul its little- ness and its bigness. Andre Malraux, one of the most profound and stirring of modern novelists, has des- cribed Art as "an attempt to give men a consciousness 1 of their own hidden greatness." It is communication, he says, "which makes man human, which enables him to surpass himself, to create, invent, or realize himself." The possibilities of human communication are tre- mendously exciting. All of us work constantly, whether in freshman English or in the artist's studio, to make our expressions and insights deeper, more subtle, more precise. We can already imagine a future where com- munication may be possible without language. Such communication may be magnificent ; it may provide salvation at the blackest moments of solitude and despair; it may be stimulating and inspiring but ultimately it is tragic tragic because it is never complete, never entirely satisfying. Malraux has dramatized the human condition very vividly in his novel Le Temps du Mepris or Days of Wrath. It is a novel set in Nazi Germany, and the hero is literally in solitary confinement : He must wait. That was all. Hold out. Live in a state of suspended animation, like the paralyzed, like the dying, with the same submerged tenacity like a face in the very heart of darkness. Otherwise madness." The hero is saved at the absolute verge of madness by three notes of music which represent for him the whole world of art, order, and beauty. A guard came back into the corridor, humming. Music! There was nothing around him, nothing but a geo- metric hollow in the enormous rock, and in this hole a bit of flesh awaiting torture; but in this hole there would be Russian songs, and Bach and Beethoven. His memory was full of them. Slowly, compellingly, music was banishing insanity from his breast, his arms, his fingers, and from the cell. . . . the music now issued forth a call that was echoed and reechoed to infinity. In this insurgent valley of the Last Judgment, it seemed to bind in a common bond all the voices of that subterranean region in which music takes a man's head between its hands and slowly lifts it towards human fellow- ship. But the salvation is only momentary; the vision cannot endure: With his eyelids tightly shut, a slight fever in his hands that were now clutching his chest, he waited. There was nothing nothing but the enormous rock on every side and that other night, the dead night. He was pressed against the wall. "Like a centipede," he reflected, listening to all this music born of his mind which now gradually was withdrawing, ebbing away with the very sound of human happiness, leav- ing him stranded on the shores . . . Once more he began to pace the floor. The hand which was to be his- death hung beside him like a satchel . . . The hour that was approaching would be the same as this; the thousand smothered sounds that teem like lice beneath the silence of the prison wotdd repeat to infinity the pattern of their crushed life; and suffering, like dust, would cover the immu- table domain of nothingness. He leaned back against the wall, and surrendered himself to stagnant hours." It is the ultimate tragedy of even the greatest of human relationships, which makes the idea of God so compelling, so absolutely irresistible to human beings. Here at last is an end to the struggle to be understood. True, the struggle to understand continues; but in this, one may be assisted by an infinite grace unquestion- ing and unquestionable. I know of no greater expression of the simple certainty of God's complete knowledge and power than Psalm 139. I use this psalm as a closing prayer: Lord, thou hast searched me out, and known me: thou knowest my down-sitting, and mine up-rising; thou understandest my thoughts long before. Thou art about my path, and about my bed: and spiest out all my ways. For lo, there is not a word in my tongue; but thou, O Lord, knowest it altogether. Thou hast fashioned me behind and before: and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful and excellent for me: I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit: or whither shall I go then from thy presence? If I climb up into heaven, thou art there: if I go down to hell, thou art there also. If I take the wings of the morning: and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there also shall thy hand lead me: and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Preadventure the darkness shall cover me: then shall my night be turned to day. Yea, the darkness is no darkness with thee, but the night is as clear as the day: the darkness and light to thee are both alike. 1 will give thanks unto thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. Try me. O God, and seek thy ground of my heart: prove me, and examine my thoughts. Look well if there be any way of wickedness in me: and lead me in the way everlasting. the STRUGGLE with EDMUND A. STEIMLE GOD Dr. Steimle, Professor of Practical Theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, led Agnes Scott's annual Religious Emphasis Week, February 10-14. His directness and honesty, the clarity of his thinking, and the strength of his commitment to God had an especial impact on members of the college community. This article has been edited from one of his chapel talks. I SET BEFORE YOU the subject of religion as a struggle with God, first because I believe that true religion is never completely free from strug- gle, no matter what level of religious experience a man attains, from the questioning, skeptical undergraduate sniffing suspiciously at the edges of it to the completely dedicated saint. But there is a second, more immediate, reason for viewing religion as struggle, and that is because the notion of struggle is apt to be pushed aside these days when religion in its popular, best-selling form is being hawked for just the opposite reason: that re- ligion will give you freedom from struggle; that it will release tensions, eradicate worry, do away with problems and perplexities. Take your troubles to church, the familiar ad reads and leave them there. In short religion is supposed to make life simple, easy, and effortless. I have no quarrel with most of this as a possible by-product of a deep and abiding faith. But this is the by-product of a faith a life perspective which involves constant struggle on every level. I have no idea whether this approach which sees struggle at the heart of religion will appeal to you or not. On the basis of some profiles of the contemporary undergraduate, I suspect it won't. You are aware, I presume, of what people are saying about you ? Even your best friends ? The typical undergraduate today lacks a critical and probing mind ; that his chief interest, like that of his elders, is security, his besetting sin : apathy. "Struggle" then may have little appeal. And yet, for the life of me, I cannot understand why even the people who go in big for comfort and security ex- pect to engage in some sort of effort and struggle for everything else in life except religion. They'll sweat and strain to get through college; they will struggle to understand the mysteries of chemistry, history or psychology, even if the ultimate objective is security. And beyond academic matters even the starry-eyed young couple recognizes that living happily ever after involves struggle, too ; they know that there must be compromise and adjustment to make a go of it. But religion, which has to do with the meaning of the totality of life is supposed to come to full bloom and mature without the slightest bit of effort or struggle. If doubts and questions come, some students actually push them down, guiltily, as if these were alien to the nature of religious faith. The result of all this is that we have the most appalling biblical illiteracy the Christian world has probably ever known. Adults walk around reciting prayers they learned as adequate for their needs when they were five-year olds. College students attempt to make sixth-grade Sunday school lessons fit the intellec- tual dimensions of college physics or philosophy, and some have been known to resent even a scant year's course in religion when it is required. It's hardly sur- prising, then, that when these grade-school level religious horizons do not fit college-level intellectual horizons, religion is put in a separate compartment in- sulated from other areas of growth and inquiry, or you "have faith" or you don't. The first level of the struggle with God, then, is at the intellectual level. Theologians call this area of struggle "apologetics," which does not mean apologizing for the faith you hold. It means, I suppose, simply the clearing away of intellectual underbrush and establish- ing an area or arena in which communication can take place between the man of faith and the skeptic. Symbols This intellectual struggle begins with the elementary but fundamental truth that we communicate with each other by means of symbols. Much as your professors might think it greatly to your advantage could they simply inject their thought into your heads willy-nilly, the best they can do is to stand at the threshold of your domain and signal their meaning to you by means of symbols words, analogies, picture language. Com- munication, then, takes place when the symbol used means the same thing for them as it does for you. Much of our intellectual difficulty with biblical religion (not all of it, of course, as we shall see, but much of it) rests right here. I'm not at all sure I am not being too elementary for Agnes Scott if so, forgive me, put me down as a fuddy-duddy teacher who always insists on review of the fundamentals. The biblical writers use symbols which represent a meaning for them, but apparently a lot of college products never get around to finding out what meanings those symbols represent. This involves catching their world-view, the kind of literature they used, the historical situation to which they addressed themselves. Failing in this struggle to get behind the biblical symbols and imagery, the usual course is to take it all literally, and the result is utter confusion. So we read of Christ "sitting at the right hand of God," of Jonah spending three days in the belly of a whale, of the creation of the world where green vegetation precedes the creation of the sun, of Christ ascending up into heaven on a cloud, of heaven's streets paved with gold and precious jewels and angels playing harps, of the command to pluck out your right eye if it offends you. Taken literally, these symbols are meaningless. And yet if we were to take your ordinary conversa- tional symbols literally, you would think us hopelessly stupid and square. For example, a friend of yours got "smashed at a terrific blast Saturday night." How dreadful! Is he in the hospital? "They had a jam session after the dance" and it wasn't spread on toast or muffins! Ridiculous. In my own experience much misunder- standing of biblical religion among college under- graduates and graduates lies at this point. At least we ought not chuck the whole business before engaging the intellectual struggle to get at the meaning behind the symbols and imagery. Take, just as an example, the admittedly difficult story of Christ's ascending into heaven on a cloud. In the world-view of the first century this may have provided little difficulty, even if taken literally, and yet even then the story was an attempt to portray vividly a meaning that went far beyond the literal sense of the story. Today, with our knowledge of the universe, its literal meaning approaches the ridiculous. Were it to | happen today, Christ would have to watch his take-off | time so as to avoid cruising airliners and jet planes, to say nothing of avoiding a collision with a bevy of sput- I niks. However, the meaning behind the story remains I unchanged. For the writers, Christ was divine; his appearances after the resurrection stopped, and he I returned to God to rule over all the created world. And | where would he go except "up?" You and I still use the symbolic "up" when we want to indicate a reality beyond the material, tangible world about, even though literally "up" is meaningless with respect to a planet whirling in space. This illustration indicates not only the problem of getting behind the imagery of the meaning but also that an attempt to get behind the symbols and imagery to the meaning in back of them certainly does not solve all the problems. This does not necessarily make all the stories "easier" to accept or believe. This is not an attempt to explain away difficult parts of the biblical record, like the attempt to explain away the feeding of the 5000 on the basis that it was a glorified Sunday School picnic when everyone brought his own lunch. This illustrates simply that there ought to be an attempt to understand the meaning behind the symbols and imagery of biblical re- ligion in order that communication can take place. Once that attempt is made, however, we encounter an intellectual struggle of a different kind. For the meaning behind the often strange and baffling biblical symbols and imagery seems to be quite clear on this ; it is the record of a God who makes himself known on his terms, not ours. The Bible, according to its own view of itself, is not the record of man's growth in religious knowledge and awareness, the story of man's gradual discovery of God. On the contrary, it is the story of God's invasion of our world in ways surprising to us. Crucial Absurdities The absurdity of crucial events in the story under- lines this. For example, the story begins with God choosing an insignificant nomadic tribe to be the agent of his revelation. No reason is given why this particular people should be chosen. It is understandable that a God whose innermost character is love should choose a com- munity of people to reveal that character, for love is meaningless apart from persons in relationship to a community. But why this community? Looking back on their later history we can say that the chosen people, the Jews, developed a high degree of religious sensitivity. But to say that this was the reason for God's choice is to misread the record and obscure the absurdity of it. Even more absurd is the Christian affirmation that God presented himself to man incarnate in a peasant carpenter's son, Jesus of Nazareth. Equally absurd is the notion that such a God would die a criminal's death or, if he was only a man, that he should rise from the dead. For let's get this straight; the Bible knows noth- ing of an immortal soul which automatically goes on living after the body is destroyed. It knows only death and a resurrection at God's hands. And this, to our minds, is absurd. Either there is an indestructible spark 1 of immortality in us which death cannot destroy, or [ else, when you're dead, you're dead. So we figure! The point of all this is that these crucial absurdities underline the fact that what we have here is a record ' which purports to be God's action on his terms, not I something a man would dream up out of his head as to what God ought to be like. We are forever trying to doctor up the story to make it fit what we think God ought to be like and how he ought to act. Men are forever trying to make Christ out to be a very good man a great moral teacher. But as C. S. Lewis has pointed out, this is the one option not open to us. "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said," Lewis writes, "wouldn't be a great moral teacher. He'd either be a lunatic on a level with the man who says he's a poached egg or else he'd be the devil of hell . . You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon ; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But don't let us come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He hasn't left that open to us. He didn't intend to." At least, biblical religion is coherent in this: if God were to invade our world he would do it on his terms, not ours; it would be unexpected, surprising, even absurd otherwise he'd not be God but simply an extension of what we think God ought to be like. Let us then be honest enough to struggle with biblical religion on its own terms. Agree, disagree ; accept, re- ject; but struggle with it on the best of what it purports to be, the record of God's invasion of our world rather than a human attempt to "discover" God or create one in his own image. But if the struggle with God remains at the intellec- tual level, as if religion were merely something "out there" somewhere, to be tossed back and forth in a bull session as a kind of test of our wits, we are simply deceiving ourselves. For if this is God's disclosure of himself, then this involves the meaning and purpose of life in very personal terms. It involves me. And that takes the struggle to a far deeper level, to the level of my will, my whole being, the way I live my life. Demands For God makes demands ; calls for commitment and for trust that issues in obedience. The demand is to think of others first; that love is the divine law of life. And most of us, I suspect, acknowledge the validity of this claim. This is how life ought to be lived, isn't it so? But as soon as I have in my inmost being acknowl- edged the claim of love upon my life as a divine claim, as the way all life, including my own, ought to be lived, there I am, in fisherman's language, hooked, and I thrash about desperately trying to get off the hook. Consider what a radical demand this is. Here I am with those words "I am" standing up front and center in most of my thought symbolic of the ob- vious fact that I am at the center not only of my own life but of everything that goes on around me. I like or don't like; I want or don't want; I take, give, love, or resent. And so with the other concentric circles around me the university, the neighborhood even world events. All of it in a sense revolves around me. But with the acknowledgment of the claim of love, another "I am" invades my tidy little world and tries' to elbow me out of the center of it. "I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other gods before me . . . thou shalt love the Lord thy God and thy neighbor as thyself." It's not at all strange that I thrash around trying to get off the hook, to repudiate the claim by all kinds of evasive actions. Evasive Actions One kind of evasive action we have already referred to. If we can keep the struggle with God on the in- tellectual level, we can keep him at a distance. The technique calls for raising an infinite number of ques- tions without ever committing yourself, like that theo- logian who had a chance to go to heaven but preferred to stay in hell because in heaven all the questions were answered. One of the commonest evasions of God's claim upon us in the intellectual climate of the uni- versity or college is to keep it at the level of intellectual debate. But evasive action is not limited to those who refuse to commit themselves. There are any number, within the Christian church, for example, who profess a com- mitment but who are actually engaged in evasive action. There are those who deftly shove God out of the center of the picture by making religion a means to their ends. God is no longer in the center, for all their pious professions. The purpose of the religion is primarily its usefulness to them. It takes care of their neuroses and insomnia ; helps America keep ahead of the Russians ; gives them a sense of security in an insecure world ; even helps them through exams, perhaps. It's a good trick if you can manage it, for instead of God making his uncomfortable claim upon you, you make your claim upon him and end up with God at the end of a string. Another evasive action among the religious is to senti- mentalize religion until its stark claim and radical absurdities are smothered under whipped cream and chocolate icing. The radical idea of God coming to earth incarnate in a child is buried under a vague Christmas spirit with its exchange of gifts, office parties, and pretty pageantry plus a faint aroma of "good will to men" and a sentimental longing for "peace on earth." Or the radical notion of death and resurrection is smothered under the sweet odor of Easter lilies, a fash- ion parade and the pagan concept of a spring festival with the "death" of winter giving way to the "resurrec- tion" of springtime. It's pretty but it's not what the New Testament means by death and resurrection. The evasive action of the sentimentalists denies such unpleasantnesses as sin and hell, makes heaven about as sickening as an eternity of frozen custard and ends with a God about as awe-inspiring as a friendly pal who lives upstairs. Yet, for all our evasive actions, there is no escape. The evasions fool only ourselves. For there is always this "other" call him what vou will who is I inescapable, who is God, as Paul Tillich points out, just because he is inescapable, who sees us for what we really are, sees us in a way we are unwilling to see even ourselves, and lays his claim upon us. We can try to get off the hook, try to escape, to run way. We can dream of space travel to the moon, or we can try running away here at home, running from TV to Hollywood to Reno to Florida to the corner bar and back to TV again, but there is no escape. "If I ascend up into the heavens thou art there." Once you have acknowledged his claim of love, there is left only a struggle, like Jacob at the Jabbok struggling in the darkness with that mysterious spirit until the dawn. The New Testament story is the story of Every- man : either you reject God and try to kill him because you cannot stand to have him around, in which case you end up with a God of your own making; or you surrender and submit to him, "Not my will, but Thine be done." But this submission or surrender is not passive. Sub- mission is itself a struggle, and here we come to the ultimate struggle with God on the deepest or, if you prefer, the highest level. This is not the struggle with self, though it includes that of course, but the struggle with God, the kind of struggle pictured in the book of Job. Job was impatient (contrary to the popular phrase, the patience of Job). Job was mighty impatient; he questioned God, summoned him to debate, "I will fill my mouth with arguments," demanded answers. This was not because he doubted God but rather because he was so sure God must have an answer to the dilemma of life. And God answered him, though not in the way Job expected. It is this kind of struggle that goes on in the life of the committed man, the religious man, the man the New Testament calls humble and "meek." For meek- ness in the New Testament does not mean a cringing doormat. In New Testament times, they used to call chariot horses "meek" because they were full of life and fire and energy but were sensitive to bit and bridle. This is an accurate picture of the religious man: not the namby-pamby caricature which has been foisted upon a gullible public by cartoonists and some church men, too, God pity us but men of fire and spirit and energy whose deep and undergirding trust and commitment to God does not put a damper on their probings and questionings but rather results in a continuing struggle with God. Such men probe the mystery of His being, wrestle with the mysteries and tragedies of life, seek answers for social injustice or the place of religion on a university campus. They struggle with God knowing that His will is good and they are forever trying to discover what that will may mean for our world, for our communities and for us. This is the struggle with God as one man sees it from the standpoint of the Bible. Are You Prepared For Leadership? No matter what her marital status or career demands, the educated woman faces the responsibility of com- munity leadership. Jean Bailey Owen '39, a former president of the Alumnae Association, gave some guide- posts in this area to the student body in a speech made at the request of the 1957-58 Mortar Board Chapter. Jean Bailey Owen '39 ANOTHER FRESHMAN and I once told Miss Preston that we didn't see how we could write a paper on "The Education of Richard Feverel" because we thought the subject had been pretty well exhausted in the novel by George Meredith. She in- formed us that in reaching this conclusion we were showing how very young we were. We did not take this to be a compliment as we would if the same words were spoken to us now for even then we realized that she was referring to our mental maturity, not to our chronological age. At about the same time, after being sent to appear on a program for a Decatur women's organization, another Freshman and I agreed that we hoped we would never become club women. Again, we were showing how very young we were ! A member of Mortar Board has asked me to talk on leadership in the community after college. Mortar Board honors leadership during college as the first of its three ideals. It is the purpose of the organization to call attention to, reward, and develop further those who have been leaders on the campus for their first three years, but it desires, as one of the services of its current chapter, to stimulate all of the student body to enter into activities in this community, thus to develop new generations of leaders here at Agnes Scott. First, I predict that all of you will be leaders in your community after college whether you assume business careers or become housewives, any vows you may make to the contrary notwithstanding. Second, I advise you not to fight too hard against the opportunity to lead, for there are many rewards in capitulation. And third, I urge you most strongly to use every occasion provided at Agnes Scott to practice and achieve some skill at leading. If you were born with a good mind you don't have the right to let it vegetate, and if you can lead you don't have the right to withhold leader- ship. On the other hand, there is an obligation, which those who founded Mortar Board very well understood, to develop leadership in others in the officers of organizations you serve, in your children as they reach an age to exercise leadership themselves. The other Freshman and I were repelled by the thought of becoming club women because all we saw were the mamma hats, the comfortably-padded figures and the lady who had forgotten her glasses and couldn't see to read the treasurer's report. We didn't spare a thought for the money that had been raised, the scholar- ships started, the crippled children cared for, the cloth- ing contributed for disaster areas, the libraries launched. Even a greater lack of insight was that it did not occur to us to inquire into the background of the club officers. We would have noticed had they made hash of the English language or been utterly ignorant of parliamen- tary procedure, but no such lapses occurred so we must have assumed that all women were born knowing these things. They aren't. Had we inquired here in Decatur and Atlanta, we would have found an astonishing num- ber of Agnes Scott alumnae among these people, and in another city perhaps some other college would have been well represented. For whether you like it or not, our American society today is keyed to the use of volunteer organizations. When I was a child, the PTA was a group of ladies, not top large a group, who offered to help the school in various relatively minor ways (although the founder had had a much larger vision). If some luxury in the way of equipment was desired by the faculty or students, the PTA might or might not attempt to raise the money to provide it. Today, PTA contributions to the purchase of record players and tape recorders, audi- torium curtains and basketball courts, musical instru- ments and driveways, library books and cafeteria dish- washers are budgeted for by the public school adminis- trations. Administrators have come to expect this load to be carried, at least partially and sometimes entirely, by the volunteer parents' organizations. If the police want a safety campaign publicized, if Civil Defense wants First Aid courses; if hospitals want flowers or additional linens; if the Mayor's office wants a clean-up campaign, or a charity wants a door- to-door drive, they send out a plea to the Garden Clubs, the PTA's, the women's clubs, for money, material and personnel. And they get it. So whether the forecast appeals to you or not, after an interim of career and/or marriage and children, you are going to find yourselves beseeched and besieged to take offices in women's organizations, because you will be the people who can preside over a meeting, organize a committee and balance a treasurer's report. Since it is as inevitable as gray in the hair and as a decision to tint or not to tint and as inexorable as the need for a calorie chart, you might as well shoulder this noblesse oblige, enjoy it and be proud of it. Such are the rewards of capitulation. Atlanta Alumnae Statistics It has often been pointed out to you that a liberal arts education prepares you for a business career or housekeeping. Now we may as well look at another side of some statistics collected in a survey done last year. From a questionnaire answered by 286 Atlanta alumnae of Agnes Scott, here are the statistics of surrender to the inevitable: 92%- were active volunteers in church work and 8 1 % in civic work. The church work included teaching Sunday School, working on various women of the church projects such as Circles, Alter Guilds, church music, Bible study. PTA work ranked second only to church work out of these 286 who have among them 428 children. Fund-raising and executive board positions for such organizations as Community Chest, Red Cross, Tallulah Falls and Rabun Gap Nacoochee Guilds, Junior League Speech School and others followed. Boy Scout and Girl Scout group leadership was high on the list, with Garden Clubs also occupying a prominent spot. Interest groups such as study clubs, Atlanta Art Association, civic clubs, music clubs were numerous. As to the achieve- ment of Agnes Scott alumnae in these fields, there is the fact that for eleven of the fifteen years the Woman- of-the-Year program has been in operation in Atlanta, an alumna has been honored in one or more of the program's categories. And even those whose pro- fessional achievements have been so recognized also give community service and leadership. For example, Sarah Frances MacDonald, of the class of 1937, who was woman of the year from the legal profession last year, this year is president of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society a financially uncompensated use of her legal knowledge to benefit the community. Women of the Years But what about those of us and here I am think- ing of you as already part of the group covered on the survey who are not Women of the Year, but just women of the years and years, in Sunday School and PTA and youth groups! If you teach Sunday School after graduation, will you need this liberal arts train- ing? Well, you will be expected by the parents of those in your class to be more experienced, trained, and long-suffering than the children's public or private school teachers. You will have problem children who can be neither expelled, suspended nor even given a hint that they might stay home. If, when your children are old enough, you take a Cub Scout Den or a troop of Brownies (your child won't get in, if you don't) you will have need of every bit of normal and abnormal psychology you ever took at Agnes Scott. You will find an outlet for playwriting, dramatic coaching, ceramic art, choral work and American history. If you become concerned about the operation of the school cafeteria, or about why new schools are not built large enough even for the first year of operation, you will need to familiarize yourself with the amazing labyrinths of your state government. Your college training will have given you the knowledge of how to go about finding your way through these mazes. And the main thing is that you will not swallow the priestly pronouncements from bureau heads and legislators that "nothing can be done about it." You will know that the very walls of Jericho sometimes fall before reasoned arguments backed up by accurate information. And, if you express your concern over a community problem, whether it be political, social, medical or economic, I guarantee you will be Chairman of a committee to do something about it. Leaders don't look for a community the community looks for leaders. If you do no more than raise the standard of the quality of the poetry quoted at Garden Club inspirationals you will have served and lead full worthily ! I further urge you to plunge at least to the limit of the point system in those extracurricular activities here which will give you practice in this leadership for which you are destined. Let me illustrate. There are alumnae of Agnes Scott and other colleges who, as students, did not participate in extra curricular activi- 8 ties. They felt that they were in college for an academic education and nothing else (and besides, they were often engaged.) For many years they eluded the respon- sibilities of community leadership by insisting that they could not preside at a meeting. But, inevitably, they became interested in one or two organizations, wanted them to prosper, and finally accepted a presidency, because even though they did not recognize it, other members of the organization knew they had the back- ground for the job. The common experience of these alumnae is that conducting their first meeting allays their fears. They have no difficulty in appointing chairman and getting the work done they even enjoy it. And they admit that their college would mean more to them today, that they could have taken pleasure in the knowledge of their ability many years ago if they had tried their navigational skill at community leadership in the protected waters of college experience. There is a better chance for you to try your leadership skills at Agnes Scott than in many other institutions because a far greater percentage of the student body has the opportunity to hold office than in larger schools. Rewards So you see, there are rewards in succumbing to the lure of community leadership. There is the satisfaction, of course, of seeing things you feel are important being done. There are honors, like the Woman of the Year awards in various fields, the rise from local to state to national organizations in positions and responsibility. There are even silver pitchers, tea services and plaques. But there are also hazards. Temperance wasn't meant only for the alcoholics : in community service, you can go too far, take on too much ; moreover, there is no point system to provide the cautionary light. A recent Saturday Evening Post article entitled "My Husband Ought to Fire Me" says: "See that efficient mother of four wielding the PTA gavel and wearing the crisp fresh blouse ? There's a safety-pin somewhere underneath, and goodness only knows what the baby is pinned with. Furthermore her husband is really going to catch it when she gets home tonight and finds he opened the canned ham for dinner instead of warm- ing up that perfectly good leftover shepherd's pie." Let's face it, you have to draw the line somewhere short of the 40 hour week in community leadership. The humanists' ideal of the universal man is not achiev- able today by either atomic scientists or housewives. You must choose your majors and minors even in com- munity service. Finally, there is the need to feel in later years that there has been some real traction between your college career and your mature life, that you were not spinning your wheels in however intellectual a setting but that in college you were moving forward with a purpose and toward a satisfying and worthy destination. Dr. Alston said in his last report to the Board Trustees : "The importance of Agnes Scott as a college cannot be estimated by numbering our alumnae. The number, of course, will always be relatively small. Nor can the contribution of this institution be measured accurately merely by determining the wealth or re- nown of our graduates. The ultimate test is the intrinsic worth of Agnes Scott students here and after college days are over, in the homes that they establish the professional and business careers upon which they enter the church, civic, educational, and social relationships that they maintain. I am quite willing for Agnes Scott's contribution to be measured in such terms ; that it should be so measured is, at any rate, inevitable." There is that word "inevitable" again, and you will in your own particular community find his scale of measurement a valid one. Among the women of your era and in your living area, in however small a scale, because of your background, you'll find a place not unlike the one Theodore Roosevelt pictured for this nation in the world he foresaw, when he said : "The world of democracy has set its face hopefully to- ward our democracy, and, oh, my fellow citizens, each of you carries on your shoulders the burdens of doing well for the sake of your own country and of seeing that his nation does well for the sake of mankind." It is heartening to the college administration to knoiu that alumnae support them in the desire to make A gnes Scott the finest liberal arts college in the land. Paige Violette Harmon '48 collected some material on the subject and prepared, this talk for the Founder's Day meeting of the Hampton-Newport-News-Warwick Alumnae Club. Let's Keep The LIBERA1 WITH NEWSPAPERS, radio and television blasting away on travel in outer space, trips to the moon, and our entire country clamoring for more top-flight scientists, it may seem presumptuous for me to attempt to dro'wn their cries with a plea to keep the liberal in our education. We may take a liberal edu- cation as a matter of course, but our present state of national hysteria emphatically underlines the need for a liberal education system as an integral part of our American way of life. In a world- that becomes more complex each day, we need free men with free minds who have an under- standing of man, his physical world, and his religious and philosophical heritage. A liberal education is dedi- cated to the development of the individual as a whole being: his mind, his heart, and his spiritual self. There are almost as many definitions of liberal education as there are definers, but at this Founder's Day meeting I think it particularly fitting that we ex- amine the Agnes Scott Ideal formulated by Dr. Gaines, the first president of Agnes Scott. 1. A liberal curriculum, fully abreast of the best institutions of this country 2. The Bible as a textbook 3. Thoroughly qualified and consecrated teachers 4. A high standard of scholarship 5. All the influences of the college conducive to the formation and development of Christian character 6. The glory of God the chief end of all It is significant, I think, that of the six components of the Ideal, three are concerned primarily with scholarship and three emphasize the importance of Christian religion. If a liberal education could be placed before our eyes as a richly woven fabric we would see the intellectual achievements as the woof the threads of knowledge carried back and forth across the warp of strong fixed spiritual values. Agnes Scott's new Dean C. Benton Kline in his Honors Day address last year said a liberal education must mirror three characteristics of man : it must have breadth to match the wide range of the human mind ; it must have depth to match the capacity of the human mind to penetrate into reality; and it must foster judgment to match the critical function of the human mind. The liberal arts college in its curriculum of history, languages, literature, arts, philosophy, sciences offers a breadth of knowledge at once overwhelming and tantalizing. A major in one department and, to a greater degree, a student doing independent work in a specific area practice study in depth. But the truly educated student continues to seek the adventure of learning long after graduation. He has mastered the tools of study, he may apply himself at will : he is limited only by his own capacity. A liberal education by its breadth and depth en- deavors to increase the resourcefulness of the individual. His background of knowledge gives him the confidence and courage to evaluate ; the Christian framework of that knowledge should help him to judge wisely. The goals of a liberal education are those of a life- time and the productive value of the liberal arts college must be determined by the value of the lives of its students in their homes, churches, communities and governments. The College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium provides a dramatic example of the powerful influence a liberal arts institution may be expected to wield. The College of Europe has 38 students, each an honors graduate with at least four years of liberal arts training in a national university. The teachers and students rep- resent fourteen nations, including the United States, and they live and learn in a practicing international com- munity. The College of Europe is regarded by many as the key force in the drive for a United States of Europe. The students are intended to develop a Pan- European as opposed to a strictly national viewpoint. By focusing attention on the common heritage of Europe's history, culture, and economy, the founders, a Spanish historian and a Belgian monk, have dedicated the college to the search for "A common remedy, a common hope for the future." The professors emphasize that few conclusions are drawn in the daily seminars facts are presented in hopes that the student's mind will climb above the subject and see it as a European whole. Surely this College of Europe fosters judgment on a high, and practical, level. The worth of the college's efforts cannot be specifically assessed, but the force which has gained direction at the College of Europe is now working to achieve a United Europe; the majority of students who have attended are now back where the college hoped they would be : following public service careers in their own national governments or teaching 10 In Our Education Paige Violette Harmon '48 in local universities. They are spreading the influence of their liberal education to develop a freer, richer, more enlightened world. In the United States the liberal arts college has been beset by many problems: the trend toward special- ism in American life, the trend toward specialization of the elective system, the prevailing attitude that pos- session of knowledge or education is just a little em- barrassing. Originally, and until the latter part of the 19th Century, liberal education was the only form of higher education in this country. Graduate schools developed to fill the demand for specialists until the 20th Century brought the rise of technical schools. Their growth has often been at the expense of the liberal arts colleges. By pointing to their practical value they have found it much easier to raise money than have the liberal institutions. For this reason, in many large universities the liberal arts colleges, surrounded by special schools, have lost departments to the special schools. The Department of Economics, for example, may have gone to the School of Business Administration of the Department of Psychology to the School of Education. Fighting this loss of students and departments, many departments in the liberal arts colleges have sought to involve students early in specialization in their own fields. This has drawn the departments away from each other and clouded the liberal goal of a broad scope of learning. "Specialist education is essential to our national life," but higher education will suffer if we place the occupa- tion before the man. John Stuart Mill said, "Men are men before they are lawyers or physicians or manu- facturers; and if you make them capable and sensible men, they will make themselves capable and sensible lawyers or physicians." Many institutions are making a distinct move in the direction of liberal education as a base for specialism. Many technical schools have added courses in English, history, or economics, and in the majority of colleges an attempt is being made to keep the emphasis on liberal education during the first two years. In the next few years our colleges will be faced with the problem of a largely increased college age popula- tion. President Anderson of Chatham College has said, "there is too much talk about how to provide a college education for all who want it, too little on what colleges should provide and what students should seek." We have an alarming number of students who are admitted to colleges but who are not capable of doing college level work. In 1955 this group numbered a dismaying 150,000. I hope that our liberal arts colleges will maintain high standards of scholarship by adhering to a strictly selective admissions policy. With the Explorer and the Sputnik orbiting about our world we are all caught up in the excitement of scientific discovery. There is a great need for a knowl- edge and comprehension of the scientific viewpoint even for the non-scientific student. Loud cries are heard for a speedup of the science and mathematics programs: "Russia outproduces us in scientists; we need more technologists." I contend that our liberal education produces and will produce more true scientists men devoted to science for the enrichment of life than Russia will ever produce. Science provides knowledge but it does not tell us what to do with it. Our educational system must pre- pare men for the responsibility of using what science has produced. In an age of mechanical brains and weapons of al- most unimaginable power we do not need more push- button experts. We need resourceful, imaginative and articulate planners who will insure that the products of scientific discovery and technological invention are the tools, not the masters, of man. This is the challenge the liberal arts colleges face. They cannot be replaced in our educational system by technical schools and they should not attempt to replace the technical schools. Liberal education should be the sound base on which special training is built. In its Report to the President, the Josephs' Com- mittee defined this primary goal of education: "to develop human beings of high character, or courageous heart and independent mind, who can transmit and enrich our society's intellectual, cultural and spiritual heritage, who can advance mankind's eternal quest for truth and beauty and who can leave the world a better place than they found it." Our need to attain this goal is self-evident and urgent. I believe the liberal arts college is dedicated to this goal and I hope the liberal arts colleges will be the foundation for the future growth of our higher educational svstem. 11 // Mrs. Lapp A SOUND FRAM GATHERING THE MATERIAL for this article has been sheer enjoyment, and I trust that I pass some of this pleasure on to you. The Library and the Alumnae Office yielded a large part of the information, and while their files of old annuals are not quite complete, these sources are in- valuable and the pictures in them are beyond a price. It may seem surprising that a small school for girls in the South had "Physical Culture" as early as 1889, its opening year, but the Decatur Female Seminary, precursor of Agnes Scott Institute and Agnes Scott College, did, and furthermore, then and ever since there has been a trained person responsible for the program. Before I take you back through the years, there are three quotations which I want to set before you to keep in mind, because they seem to me to sum up much of what has been and is being striven for in the world of physical education. First, said the Romans: "Mens sano in corpore sano." Second, Goethe tells us: "There are eight prerequisites for contented living: health enough to make work a pleasure, wealth enough to support your needs, strength to battle with difficulties and overcome them, patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished, charity enough to see some good in your neighbor, love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others, and faith enough to make real the things of God and hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future." And, third, Robert Browning says to us: Body and mind in balance, a sound frame A solid intellect, the wit to seek, Wisdom to choose and courage wherewithal To deal with whatever circumstance Should minister to man Make life succeed. The ends may ever have been the same, but the means of reaching them have surely varied. So, let us follow the path at Agnes Scott from Physical Culture to Physical Training, to Physical Education, from the days of the Decatur Female Seminary (with 65 pupils) to the Agnes Scott College of today (with 600 stu- dents). An old history of the Institute, written in 1897 for the Aurora, as the college annual was then called, reports: "The first term of the new school began September 25,- 1889. Miss Nanette Hopkins had been elected principal with Miss Cook as assistant. Miss Pratt was teacher of piano, Miss Fraser, teacher of art and physical culture." Proving the existence of physical culture is a series of photographs, enchanting pictures of "A Bicycle Club" with the girls dressed in suits standing beside their tall bicycles. The suits had long skirts leg o'mutton sleeves, high-necked blouses. Dainty hats, with wings, were perched upon their pretty heads at a precarious angle for bicycling. There was also a picture of a tennis club; the members were dressed in long, white skirts and white blouses, and their racquets were held coyly behind their shoulders. Pictured, too, are a group of Seniors who composed the "Walking Club," wearing the hand- somest suits imaginable. The next club pictured has no bearing on physical culture but is so beguiling I think it should be men- tioned, "The Sewing Club." The well house, which was right in front of Main Building, formed the background for the picture of the "sewers" who are seated in rocking chairs "on the Lawn." The girls had on light, airy dresses and dainty, lace-trimmed aprons. On the opening page of the 1898 Aurora is written: Agnes Scott Institute, 6 miles East of Atlanta on the Ga. R. R. Connected with the city by 2 electric lines. The athletic groups pictured that year were a bicycle club, a tennis club (each member having added a perky cap to her costume), and, for the first time, a basketball team whose members wore long, dark volumi- nous skirts and blouses with huge initials, A. S. I. em- blazoned in white across the front. In the 1899 Aurora there are photographs of the 12 A program planned this year for one of the Atlanta Alumnae Club's meetings was a brief history of physical education at Agnes Scott with a fashion show of "gym" costumes then and now. This is the commentary that accompanied the show, given by Mrs. Lapp, assistant professor of physical education. SOLID INTELLECT" Harriette Haynes Lapp ever-present tennis club and an "Antiwalking Club." To my own delight, the editor of this volume says, in regard to physical training (no longer physical culture, please note) : "Pupils are taught to assume a dignified but easy and graceful carriage, and careful physical examinations are stressed." The annual assumes the name of the Silhouette in 1902, and that volume shows members of the tennis club holding their racquets like mandolins. Golf appears for the first time in 1902, apparently well organized and taught. At this point in my research, I turned to Dr. McCain for help, and he directed me to the bound catalogues of the college, which should really be on exhibition. A banner year, according to these, for physical education was 1904, when a red-brick building was erected just to the right of and a bit behind Rebekah Scott Hall. In it there were classrooms above, a very nice gym- nasuim below, and a "natatorium" where "Instruction in swimming is given with splendid facilities ; the pool is 20' by 40'." I taught there when I first came to Agnes Scott, and it is hard for me to believe the pool was that size. One side-stroke took you across, and three strokes lengthwise would have carried you straight out the small, dark window at the other end. The pool was three feet deep, at the most, which did have its decided teaching advantages. One could and did learn herein, and one could and did get mighty wet. The catalogue states: "Students not wishing to take lessons may have the use of the pool by paying an extra fee." The 1904 catalogue informs us that the aims in physical education were "to develop moral training, skill, endurance and alertness," and that much of the work was done out-of-doors. The catalogue also an- nounces: "Those engaging in basketball will receive very careful attention, as there are the proper facilities for guarding against injurious results. Only those physically sound will be allowed to engage in this delightful game." The 1905 Silhouette delineates tennis, golf, baseball, basketball and track. In one picture, a group of sprint- ers are crouched for the "take off" of a 50-yard dash, garbed in the usual full and lengthy skirts of the period, and high-necked, long-sleeved shirtwaists. Their beau- tiful hairdos, pompadours, have each hair in place, making me wonder how far they ran. Old and new in swimming attire: left, Jane Law '60, and, right, Caroline Hodges Roberts '48, president of the Atlanta Alumnae Club. 13 The next few years jog along with no major changes in sports activities or clothes. Then, in 1908 hockey reared its energetic head for the first time, and black serge bloomers came onto the campus on the same wave, worn with long black stockings. By 1910, the middie blouse and turtle-neck sweater were almost a stock uniform. The Silhouette for that year portrays the skating clubs and hockey teams in this outfit. The tennis players had donned long white dresses again, after a long absence from this garb. The records indicate that for several years after this came the days of physical education classes for each student "3 times a week" and a four-year requirement of courses for graduation. These were the days of "exercise cards" for each student: "gym is a necessary nuisance and it takes a sense of humor to endure it." These were also the days of May Days in front of Inman or White House. The majority of the audience for May Day consisted of Decatur's very young and their dogs. This meant that the rest of the audience stood. The piano was always hidden, often from the dancers, too, and more often not heard. Costumes for the dancers had to be ample ; no vestige of the female leg or foot could be showing, so there were stockings dyed to match all costumes. With Miss Hopkins' unerring eye for pro- priety overseeing the dancers, the lower extremeties remained under cover. Nonetheless, the productions were quite good. Old and new in tennis attire: left, Virginia Brown McKen- zie'47, program chairman of the Atlanta Alumnae Club, and right, Rosa Barnes '61, daughter of Rosa Miller Barnes '36. When the little red schoolhouse was torn down, the gym went with it, but the natatorium has stayed on to do noble duty housing a huge transformer. One can see it today, just by looking through an iron grill in the sidewalk. Our present Bucher Scott Gymnasium dates from 1927, and we have come from a one-member department of physical education to a five-member one with several student aids, too. We can see that the physical education program has progressed with the times and the College. Today, under the leadership of Llewellyn Wilburn '19, it is organized along the educational lines that are in keep- ing with present educational trends. Its philosophy and goals attempt always to enhance the development of the individual as a whole, both physically and mentally. Briefly, the aims of the department are to help a girl gain skills, establish balance and self confidence, be able to meet and adjust to social situations, and be able to choose and discriminate among the myriad responsi- bilities thrust upon her, thereby freeing herself from the tensions of everyday living. To catch you up on dress, students today wear navy blue shorts, well-tailored ones, and white shirts for most sports; white shorts are appropriate for the tennis courts. Bathing suits are, of course, vintage 1958, not 1898. The program in the department today is a far cry from its beginning, although in no way is it more serious, I am sure. We offer classes in dancing (modern, folk, square), swimming (beginners, intermediate, advanced, and Red Cross senior life-saving and instruc- tors courses) synchronized swimming, archery, tennis, golf, fencing, tumbling, badminton, riding, basketball, hockey, Softball, volleyball, and body mechanics (known to many of you from former years as "I. G.") All of these are seasonal classes. Then there is a course in recreational leadership, planned primarily for those who expect to teach in the elementary grades, but it has proved to be popular with students who are leaders in church youth programs, who conduct play-ground programs or who are camp coun- selors. Miss Wilburn teaches the courses and has an arrangement with the Decatur and Kirkwood schools whereby our students are assigned to a particular grade for organized play, at least once a week, during the spring quarter. The department now has a two-year requirement for graduation, within which each student must pass a swimming test, have one quarter each of a team sport, dancing, and an individual sport. The department works with other departments in the College on special events such as May Day, or, this year, the Fine Arts Festival. It also has its own "extra-curricular" activities, Dance Group, Dolphin Club, and Tennis Club. Ad- mission to these is by tryouts, as is participation in all team sports. With the teaching condition well nigh perfect and with the cooperation of the students, Agnes Scott's physical education program is still going strong. Do come back to see us and to play with us once again. 14 DEATHS INSTITUTE Grace Elyea, Dec. 29, 1957. 1917 Mrs. C. H. Newton, step-mother of Janet Newton, Virginia Newton '19 and Charlotte Newton '21, Dec. 30, 1957. 1923 William Henry Lumpkin, husband of Margaretta Womelsdorf Lumpkin and father of Margaretta Lumpkin Shaw '52, Dec. 16. 1924 Frances Amis' mother, in Sept. 1957. Edna McMurry Shadburn's hus- band, the summer of 1957. 1930 Dr. Robert Herring Wright, Jr., husband of Ruth McLean Wright and father of Carolyn Wright McGarity '59, Dec. 1957. 1936 Louise Maclntyre Hughes, Jan. 6. 1953 The Rev. H. C. Holland, father of Mary Holland Archibald, in 1957. F B A S E A 1 6 J r p i F M \e Jxt S< gnes cjcott alumnae quarterly ^^ summer ig^8 THE ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION OF AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE OFFICERS ISABELLA WILSON LEWIS '34 President MITZI KISER LAW '54 Vice-President SYBIL CORBETT RIDDLE '52 Vice-President EVELYN BATY LANDIS '40 Vice-President CAROLINE HODGES ROBERTS '48 Vice-President ALICE McDONALD RICHARDSON '29 Secretary BETTY JEAN ELLISON CANDLER '49 Treasurer TRUSTEES CATHERINE WOOD MARSHALL '36 MARY PRIM FOWLER '29 CHAIRMEN ELIZABETH BLACKSHEAR FLINN '38 Class Officers PATRICIA COLLINS ANDRETTA '28 Constitution MARY WALLACE KIRK '1 1 Education ALICE GLENN LOWRY '29 Entertainment CATHERINE IVIE BROWN '39 House LOUISE GIRARDEAU COOK '28 Nominations MARY CAROLINE LEE MACKAY '40 Property JEAN GREY MORGAN '31 Publications DOROTHY CHEEK CALLAWAY '29 Special Events BARBARA SMITH HULL '47 Vocational Guidance STAFF ANN WORTHY JOHNSON '38 Director of Alumnae Affairs ELOISE HARDEMAN KETCHIN House Manager DOROTHY WEAKLEY '56 Office Manager MEMBER AMERICAN ALUMNI COUNCIL The AGNES SCOTT Alumnae Quarterly- Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia Volume 36 Summer, 1958 Contents 1957-1958 Alumnae Fund Report Fine Arts Festival Kudos to Clubs Number 4 The Independent College Alumnae Inaugurate Presidents Louisa Jane Allen '56 Lynn II kite, Jr. Class News Eloise Hardeman Ketchi Cover. Photographs of some of the events in the Fine Arts Festival are pictured with the abstract design that was a "trade mark" of the Festival. Photos by Kerr Studios (see p. 2-3). Other photos in this issue are by Kerr Studios, except on p. 8 by Red Bright, Millsaps College. The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly is published four times a year (November, February, April and July) by the Alumnae Association of Agnes Scott College at Decatur, Georgia. Contributors to the Alumnae Eund receive the magazine. Y early subscription, $2.00. Single copy 50 cents. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office of Decatur, Georgia, under Act of August 24, 1912. 1957-1958 ALUMNAE FUND REPORT IN AN ANNUAL report to the Board of Trus- tees, President Wallace M. Alston stated, "We at Agnes Scott . . . have recommitted ourselves to the educational purpose of this College since its incep- tion," and this year 1,760 alumnae around the world recommitted ourselves to the purpose of the College through their contributions to the annual Alumnae Fund. The amount of money given to this year's fund, from July 1, 1957-June 30, 1958 totalled $20,462, of which $13,725 was unrestricted. The Alumnae Fund is mad; up of all contributions to the college given by alumnae. It is encouraging that this year the unrestricted portion of the fund increased. This is the money the College can use where it is most needed. The Alumnae Association is, also, most aware of the unrestricted figure; the College supports the operation of the Asso- ciation, as it does other administrative departments, but if the unrestricted portion of the Fund covers this cost (this year, $12,000), then, in effect, the Alumnae Association is paying its own way. Statistics on the Alumnae Fund are both rewarding and challenging. The 1,760 who gave are only 25.5% of all the alumnae who were contacted. (This is the high- est percent in the past three years.) The percentage of contributors who are graduates jumps to 43%. (Last year this figure was 359c.) We must compare our alumnae giving not only with what we did the year before, but also with that of other private women's colleges. In a report for 1957, just published, I oluntary Support of America's Colleges and Universities, compiled by the American Alumni Council, the American College Public Relations As- sociation, and the Council for Financial Aid to Educa- tion, Agnes Scott ranks 8th among 129 private women's colleges in endowment (book value), while in alumnae giving we rank 52nd. Here then, spelled out for us, is our responsibility for the years ahead. Can we get to 8th place in alumnae giving next year? DISTRIBUTION OF GIFTS Unrestricted Alexander Fund Alumnae Association Alumnae House Art Department Bartlett Fund Caldwell Fund Choon Hi Choi Fund 725 Development Fund 1,500 Pauline McCain Fund 3 73 Dyer Fund 500 MacDougall Museum 31 80 English Department 60 New Orleans Fund 245 160 Foreign Students 488 Scholarships 990 100 Hale Fund 362 Tanner Fund 21 47 Holt Fund 98 Thatcher Fund 1,000 400 Laney Fund 95 Anna 1. Young Fund 300 153 McCain Library Fund 32 GIVING BY CLASSES Class Percent Class Percent Class Percent Class Percent Inst. 26 Acad. 34 1906-07 100 1908 100 1909 66 1910 80 1911 75 1912 73 1913 86 1914 54 1915 50 1916 50 1917 66 1918 50 1919 51 1920 59 1921 58 1922 27 1923 62 1924 72 1925 27 1926 45 1927 39 1928 35 1929 54 1930 49 1931 49 1932 28 1933 46 1934 44 1935 32 1936 27 1937 36 1938 41 1939 45 1940 45 1941 41 1942 34 1943 42 1944 38 1945 43 1946 40 1947 37 1948 40 1949 47 1950 47 1951 47 1952 36 1953 51 1954 61 1955 39 1956 71 1957 100 F N E F E S T A R T S V A L ^{~} N APRIL 17th > 18th and 19th ' with br 'g htl y| \^S colored banners and balloons fluttering in the breeze, Agnes Scott presented its first Fine Arts Fes tival. The Festival was a culmination of the efforts of the following departments: Art, English, Music, and Physical Education, and of Aurora, Blackfriars, Dance Group, May Day Committee, and Music Club. In order to enable these organizations to devote their time, efforts, and money during the entire year to the preparation and presentation of a larger program than is usually possible this Festival incorporated the tradi tional productions of Blackfriars, Dance Group, and May Day. Blackfriars, the dramatic club on campus, and Dance Group had long wished to combine their talents and present a joint production. In giving Shakespeare's The Tempest this ambition was realized through special choreography which was added to the original play, The English Department and the Aurora, the campus I arts magazine, brought outstanding literary critics to the campus for this occasion. Art students wanted to share Agnes Scott art work with that from other colleges and universities, and this was done through a joint art exhibition held in Rebekah Recreation Room. Music students hoped to perform programs that could not be fitted into the normal schedule and were there- fore pleased to present the comic opera La Serva Padrona and a chapel program of concert music. The college had looked forward to a time when the various arts could be seen in proximity to one another, and this was accomplished in the Festival. This fete was the result of many months of planning, practicing, per- servering, co-operation, and co-ordination on the part of students and faculty alike. Nancy Kimmel '58, Fes- tival Chairman, a Steering Committee, and Co-ordi- nating Committee put the plans into action. Almost everyone at Agnes Scott contributed thought, time, and talent to the execution of the Fine Arts Festival." (from 1958 SILHOUETTE) A scene from The Tempest shows Miranda (Nora Ann Simpson '59) and Prospero (Nancy Kimmel '58) April 17-19, 1958 Right: Dance Group added its expressionistic dances to The Tempest. Below: The Art Panel, Marie Huper, moderator, Lamar Dodd, Joseph Perrin, Paul Heffernan, and Carolyn Becknell, discussed aspects of the artistic trend in modern times. Literary panelists, Eliz- abeth Bartlett, James Dickey, Morgret Trot- ter, moderator, Hollis Summers, and May Sar- ton discuss the writing in Aurora. Miss Sarton, novelist, poetess and critic, opened the Fes- tival with a lecture. Above: Students, faculty, and guests watch a movie on French art on the din- ing hall steps. Right: The cast of La Serva Padrona was composed of James Kane, Atlanta baritone, Rose Marie Regero '61, and Pierre Thomas, assis- tant professor of French. A major change in the Alumnae Association's Executive Board, organization has established the office of Regional Vice-President and abolished the office of Club Chairman. A goodly portion of the four vice-presidents' responsibility has to do with serving alumnae clubs which are already established and fostering the development of new clubs. (See inside front cover for names of vice-presidents.) These notes on clubs were prepared by Bella Wilson Lewis '34, new president of the Alumnae Association and the last Club Chairman. KUDOS TO CLUBS... STUDENTS . . . Decatur Club hears students report on their programs of Independent Study . . . Foreign student from Israel speaks to Southwest Atlanta Club . . . Sara M. Heard '58 helps Shreveport Club entertain prospective students . . . Marietta Club brings prospective students for planned visit to campus . . . Mothers of Agnes Scott students attend alumnae gatherings in Charlotte, Lynchburg, Washington, and Wilson, N. C Students discuss current campus life for Atlanta Club. FOUNDER'S DAY from GEORGIA to CALIFORNIA . . . Birming- ham hears Ann Worthy Johnson . . . Charlotte has Dr. McCain and sends a contribution to the McCain Library Fund in his honor . . . Anderson, S. C, Baltimore, Charleston, W ' . Va., Chattanooga, Columbia, S. C* Columbus, Ga., Los Angeles, Nashville, New Orleans and. Tampa hold meetings "on their own" . . . Washington turns out in snowstorm to hear Dr. Hayes . . . Greenville, S. C. has Lorton Lee '49, Vocational Guidance Chairman of Alumnae Association . . . Hampton-Newport-News-Warwick hears paper on the liberal arts education given by Paige Violette Harmon '48 (see Spring, 1958, Quarterly). FACULTY MEMBERS VISIT CLUBS ... As are most of our personal ones, the travel budget of the College is limited, but faculty and staff members do speak to alumnae groups when travelling for other purposes . . . Dr. Alston in New York with the four clubs in the area at a combined meeting . . . Dean Kline with the Greenville-Spartanburg groups . . . Dr. Posey draws together the Louisville-Lexington Clubs on one of his jaunts as president of the Southern Historical Association . . . Dr. McCain spreads himself from Miami to Jackson, Miss, to Wilson, N. C. . . . Dr. Alston, Dr. McNair and Dr. Garber attend Charlotte's spring meeting while in town for the General Assembly's meeting. PROJECTS . . . Washington pulls out all the fund-raising stops working toward a $1 ,000 scholarship fund they're almost there . . . New Orleans sells old clothes to add to its already-established scholarship fund . . . Southwest Atlanta, with only a round dozen members, sells cards and candy to ?nake a $40 gift to the Alumnae House . . . Northside Atlanta makes a contribution to the Louisa Allen Scholarship Fund. SPECIAL KUDOS TO . . . Washington for its excellent Newsletter . . . Marietta for local publicity and current information on alumnae . . . Charlotte for sponsoring an autographing tea for Catherine Marshall '36 . . . Atlanta for a breakfast at the College for alumnae attending annual meeting of Georgia Education Association . . . Columbia, S. C* for organizing its own club this year . . . Jacksonville, Fla. for doing the same. The Barnard Forum, since 1949 an annual winter event in New York City, has offered for open discussion the critical educational issues of the times. Alumnae groups of 50 colleges, including Agnes Scott, have sponsored the Forum. This year. What's Ahead for Higher Education? was the question. Dr. Lewis W. Jones, President of Rutgers, spoke for the publicly-supported university, Senator Margaret Chase Smith spoke for the federal government, and Dr. Lynn White, Jr., then President of Mills College, noiv professor of history at U.C.L.A. (and Agnes Scott's Commencement speaker in 1957) spoke for the independent college. We have edited his address from Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Barnard Forum. The Independent College Dr. Lynn White, Jr. Lynn White, Jr. PUBLIC EXCITEMENT over the prospects for higher education in this country has risen to such a point that in recent months a number of "tranquilizer" addresses have been proffered us, designed to calm the fears of parents that their offspring may not get into Alma Mater, or the fears that, in the mad rush to the colleges, rigorous academic education or is it just the ivy? is going to be trampled to a pulp. We have been told in these speeches that since American higher education has in fact expanded about tenfold in the last five decades, there is no great cause for alarm in the certainty that it is going to double or perhaps even treble during the next dozen or fifteen years. The chief difference now, it is said, is that our statistical services are so much better than ever before that whereas the past blundered blindly into unexpected expansion, we can see, to some extent, what is coming and can plan intelligently for it. I agree the statistics do give us great advantage. But they do not console me as I contemplate the problems of the independent college or university during the next couple of decades. Our thinking must start, I believe, from the fact that we are going to be faced with a horrifying dearth of competent professors. In the first decade of this century, many professors were reasonably well paid in relation to the general economic level. But the great inflation which was a by-product of the first World War saw little compensatory increase in faculty pay checks. The boom of the 1920s will go down in academic history as a disgraceful era when trustees and regents filled our campuses with lavish pseudo-Gothic and pseudo- Colonial buildings, but forgot their professors. Then came the inflations of the second World War, and of the Korean War. By this time the effect of four decades of academic starvation could scarcely be disregarded ; it became clear not only that Ph.D's had long been leav- ing our faculties in a steady stream, but that economic conditions of life in the academic world were so abysmal that bright young people, even when they got the doctorate, were often going immediately into other kinds of employment. Now at last the professor is getting into a seller's market. And believe me, he is going to make all of it that he can. Graduate study is a fearfully lengthy pro- cess, and there is no possibility that it can be speeded up sufficiently, or expanded quickly enough, to meet the need which is already painful in the sciences and which will shortly be equally so in all fields of learning. We shall, of course, be forced to systematic recruitment of professors from Europe, Latin America and Asia, where there are considerable reservoirs of impoverished scholars. The recent record of academic exiles in this country gives us great hope for enrichment from these sources. But academic immigration will not fill more than a small fraction of the need. Every kind of insti- tution is going to start bidding for the scarce available talent. Some colleges and universities will get left. Their faculties are going to be down-graded to the high school level. A shocking report published two months ago by the Research Division of the National Educa- tion Association shows how rapidly this is already happening. I strongly suspect that we shall soon see r quite sharp polarization among our colleges and uni- versities ; the mediocre will become worse, while the good will become better. Competent scholars will gravitate not only to the campuses which are able to offer the best salaries, but to the campuses which for that very reason can provide companionship with othe; first-rate scholars, the prestige of being in such a com- munity, reasonable teaching schedules, and (an intan- gible too often forgotten by those who inhabit univer- sity offices) administrative courtesy towards pro- fessors. Needless to say, the public relations men of the colleges-which-get-left will frantically erect Potem- kin villages; but the public will not long be fooled. Let me offer another proposition which I personally regard as a fact. Save perhaps on the northeast sea- board where ideas about public higher education are curiously atavistic, state legislatures, with much moan- ing and groaning, are going to make whatever appro- priations may be necessary to keep the state universi- ties, and perhaps the state colleges, too, in respectable shape. They are going to do it, at least west of the Appalachians, because the voters are going to insist that they do it. This means that many tax-supported institutions will be paying attractive professorial sal- aries. Not merely for replacements, but to provide for the inevitable expansion, these state campuses are al- ready raiding independent colleges and universities as never before. And this is only the beginning. Where are the independent institutions going to find the cash as ammunition to fight off such raids and thus hold their own academically ? One assumes constantly growing programs of fund-raising from alumni, parents, corporations, from anyone who can be persuaded or blackmailed. One assumes likewise a continuation of the present gradual change in the handling of endow- ment funds ; a change from trusteeship of dollar values to trusteeship of purchasing power, in recognition of the long-term inflation which destroys the purchasing power of dollars. But it is clear that these measures alone will not be sufficient. Recently, here in the northeast, there have been several suggestions that a larger part of the cost of college education perhaps even the full cost should be passed on to the consumer and his family. To the objection that not many families could afford so much, and that such a move would de-democratize student bodies, the reply is made that a college educa- tion is demonstrably the world's best investment, and that students should not hesitate to borrow amply for it, confident that their increased earning power in later years will make repayment simple. Let me say that I find myself shocked by this confirma- tion and consecration, from high sources, of the view that the prime purpose of a college education is to make more money than otherwise would be possible. I myself have mentioned earlier that our technological revolu- tion has made necessary a constantly rising level of popular education. But surely it is selling the academic birthright for a very maggotty mess of pottage to put the economic motive first in the quest for sound learning. Moreover, this proposal is strictly masculine in its mode of thought. I know of no wide survey of loan funds, but I suspect that college girls are much more reluctant to borrow for their education than are college boys. Every college girl whom I know expects to work at some periods in her life. But she is also quite resolved to marry and have children. I might say to have them in droves. She knows that her husband may well have accumulated debts, particularly for graduate and pro- fessional work ; and since she does not expect to be a full-time worker while the children are young she is determined not to present her husband-to-be with the inverse dowry of her own college debts. To put great emphasis on loan funds, and on college as a financial investment, would create a cultural atmosphere which would lead to disaster. If the private institutions adopt this tactic, the spiritual elements in American education will quickly be drained off into the low-tuition state institutions and the former will degenerate into trade schools pure and simple. However, undoubtedly, independent institutions are going to find themselves forced to raise their fees to levels which make us shudder to contemplate. Whereas today the total fees of a resident undergraduate in a good independent college run in the neighborhood of $2,000, it is my bet that within a decade such fees will amount to at least $3,000, in terms of the present value of the dollar. In no other way can independent colleges hold or secure adequate faculties. I believe that even at such levels there will be a considerable constituency for the independent institutions. All of our independent institutions are going to raise their fees drastically, and will still find students. But won't they also be pricing themselves out of so large a segment of the market that any attempt at quantitative expansion would be folly? Parents, you see, are not merely having more babies, they are having them in terms of a new demographic pattern, and not enough attention has been paid to it. Young people are marrying earlier than ever before and having children quickly. One result is that these children are arriving at college age before the father's earning power has reached its maximum. Moreover, thanks to overmuch reading of child psychology, babies are now being deliberately bunched, like asparagus. In the 1890s one of Mrs. White's proper Bostonian rela- tives wrote a cousin: "Is it not a fearful thing that she has two living under the age of eighteen months?" The chronological result of all this is inevitable; these bunched children three, four or five of them will be in college, and in graduate and professional study, simultaneously. Not only will papa normally be unable to foot the bills in an independent institution: little aid can be expected from grandparents. In earlier and less pasteurized generations, grandparents were often dead when grandchildren reached college age, and some inheritance was available for education. Today grandfather and grandmother have a far greater life expectancy and are, moreover, relatively younger because of the tendency to early marriage. Moreover, grandparents are decreasingly able to subsidize the edu- cation of grandchildren. Whereas once one saved money for old age, now one accumulates pension rights and annuities the capital basis of which cannot be touched. We must conclude that while in so vast and complex a land as ours there will be a large and perhaps sufficient clientele for independent colleges, every demographic- change now taking place tends to reduce the size of the market available to such institutions. And perhaps this is the fundamental question: why should one pay fabulous fees to go to an independent college or university? It has been taken for granted, particularly in the Northeastern states, that these harbor the academic aristocracy, that they make available a considerably superior brand of education as compared with low-tuition, tax-supported campuses. Being professionally an historian, and having watched the tendencies within my own discipline for nearly thirty years, I have become increasingly nervous about this assumption. But how does one measure academic quality? It occurred to me that I might get some pointer-reading by examining the American Historical Review at different dates. This Review has by far the widest circulation of any historical journal in the nation; it is the organ of the American Historical Association and its articles are carefully selected. The focus, however, is less on articles than on the review of publications in the entire range of history. When a scholar is invited to review a book in the American Historical Revieiv, this means that in the editor's opinion, he is the leading American authority on that particular subject. The academic location of the con- tributors to the American Historical Review should, therefore, be a fairly accurate index to the location of academic quality in the field of history. And the study of history is so intertwined with other kinds of scholar- ship that the academic quality of an institution's history department is probably not a bad indication of the general intellectual level of the campus. It was not until April, 1930, that the American Historical Review began to attach academic affiliations to the names of its contributors. Prior to that time the historical profession in this country had been so largely concentrated in the institutions of the Eastern sea- board that, as in the case of a British weekend party, there were no introductions; you simply knew who people were. Volume 36, spanning September, 1930, through July, 1931, is therefore the first complete volume to give identifications. This I compared with Volume 62, spanning, September, 1956, through July, 1957. It became clear that great changes had taken place during those twenty-seven years. In Volume 36, 64 per cent of the contributors were attached to independent institutions, and 36 per cent to tax-supported institutions. (In tabulation I omitted a scattering of lone-wolf scholars, European professors, government officials and the like.) In other words, in 1930-31, nearly two-thirds of the top historical scholars were in independent colleges and universities. In 1956-57, this category of campus still held the lead, but by a far slimmer margin ; 54 per cent as compared to 46 per cent in the tax-supported institutions. The real significance of the figures may perhaps better be seen by arranging them in another way. The 1956-57 volume is much plumper than the one 27 years earlier, and contains nearly twice as many aca- demic contributions 490 as compared to 256. But whereas historians in independent institutions had in- creased their participation by 62 per cent (from 163 to 264), historians in tax-supported institutions had run up their contributions by 144 per cent (from 93 to 226). The conclusion is inescapable. While the entire historical profession in this country has been heightening its activity in a remarkable way during the past 27 years, the historians in state and city colleges and universities have been improving their quality and their participation in historical activity more than twice as fast as the historians in the privately supported institutions. A year ago the latter still seemed to have an eight per cent margin of qualitative superiority, but it is rapidly vanishing. I strongly suspect that a check of any comparable learned journal would yield similar results for other academic disciplines. Whether we like it or not, the dynamic center of American scholarship, the weight of academic authority, is shifting rapidly from independent to state institutions. Where does this leave the independent colleges and universities? To put it in the vulgar term, what have they got to sell, and is the market going to be adequate? The greatest virtue of our independent institutions is their astonishing diversity. Because of their almost infinite variation, I believe that it would be very dangerous to lay down guide lines for all of them; for some might be deceived about their special situations. I am certain that each campus must survive and prosper in terms of a lucid understanding of its own distinctive qualities and of the support which may be found in its own distinctive constituency. Many of our greatest in- dependent colleges and universities have been carried through the decades not only by a certain excellence but by a momentum of unexamined public acceptance. We are now in a new demographic, economic and academic context in which this momentum cannot be counted on indefinitely. Each institution must ask itself, in its own terms, where it stands, what it has to sell, and to whom. While scarcely a campus does not have committees now debating the matter, it is my personal belief that very few independent institutions will decide to attempt to grow quantitatively to any great extent; for, since students will continue to cost more than they can possibly pay in fees, quantitative expansion will only rarely help to maintain quality. The exceptions will chiefly be found in those Roman Catholic establish- ments where a very high proportion of the faculty consists of unpaid clergy. It may be also that the large, independent, urban, non-resident universities which make no pretense of maintaining a low student-faculty ratio, and which are not burdened with the overhead costs of residence facilities, can grow considerably. But most of the typical American residential liberal arts institutions are going to find that, if they are to main- tain their academic quality, they must increase fees to the point where their part of the market is so small that expansion is impossible. This same crisis hit the private elementary and secon- dary schools of America in the nineteenth century when the public schools became a major national enterprise. Such independent schools serving the earlier years of education continue to be a lively and significant part of the total educational structure of the country; but they touch only a small fraction of children. So, I believe independent colleges and universities will continue to prosper among us, but that their proportionate contribu- tion to American life and thought will be much reduced as the decades pass. In conclusion, however, let's recognize that the in- dependent institutions will be kept healthy not only by the sort of objective appraisal which I have tried to provide for you, but also by loyalty and even by passion. As one who graduated from an independent university, did all his post-graduate work and teaching in similar institutions, and who not for fifteen years has presided over a small college replete with adven- turousness and excitement, I myself believe passionately in the importance of maintaining such campuses at the highest intellectual level. America needs them as an essential element in its pluralistic society. The city and state colleges and universities need them as foils, need them as surety against standardization, need them as barriers against the overgrowth of educational bureau- cracy. But academic loyalties have too often been clothed in cliches and outmoded assumptions. Unless these are quickly abandoned, they will become the wind- ing-sheets of independent higher education. ALUMNAE INAUGURATE PRESIDENTS Dr. and Mrs. Ellis Finger THE TURNOVER in the position of college president in our country seems sometimes alarm- ingly rapid. The position is, of course, one of the hardest to fill in our society, because we set im- possible qualifications for it : The Man must be all things to all men, educator, administrator, scholar, mentor, fund-raiser, arbiter, minister, public relations expert, financier, psychologist, sociologist. One of Agnes Scott's great strengths is the continuity of leadership the College has had. In seventy years there have been only three presidents, and the institution has been blessed in each instance by having The Man accept the responsibility. This year there has been a veritable rash of inaugura- tions of new college and university presidents, across the nation, and Agnes Scott has usually been invited to send a representative to these functions. The College has often asked an alumna who is near the institution concerned to represent Agnes Scott. For each of these alumnae, it proved to be, from their reports, a pleasant and rewarding experience. Jane McLaughlin Titus '31 wrote Dr. Alston about march- ing in the academic procession at the Skidmore inaugu- ration with the President of Barnard College, Dr. Millicent C. Mcintosh. College representatives are usually placed in inaugural processions according to the date of the institution's founding, and both Barnard and Agnes Scott began in 1889. Jane proved to be one of the members of the three husband and wife teams at inaugurations this year. Her husband, Albert Titus, was asked to represent the American Chemical Society at the Skidmore ceremony. Mamie Lee Ratliff Finger '39 represented Agnes Scott at President Richard A. McElmore's inauguration at Mississippi College, and her husband, Ellis, who is president of Millsaps College, was there for his insti- tution. At the University of Alabama, to help launch President Frank A. Rose's new career, was Grace Walker Winn '41 ; her husband, Albert, went to represent Davidson College. When Helen Faw Mull '23 went to represent Agnes Scott at a different type of ceremony, the dedication of McMurray College for Men, her husband, James, accompanied her. Helen says: "Both of us were made to feel like V.I.P.s ... In the academic procession I was among Deans and Professors ... at dinner with the Dean of MacMurray for Women ... It was a holiday that cheered the heart of a Georgia girl now far from the reach of the sheltering arms." Phillipa G. Gilchrist '23, who is on the faculty at Wellesley, went to Mt. Holyoke for President Glenn's inauguration. Carrie Scandrett '24 went to the festivi- ties for Dr. O. C. Carmichael, Jr., new president of Converse College. Ruth Slack Roach '40 was at the Transylvania College ceremonies, Olive Graves Bowen '28 donned academic regalia at Fisk University, and Mary Monroe McLaughlin '45, immediate past presi- dent of the Birmingham Alumnae Club was at Bir- mingham-Southern for Dr. Henry King Stanford's inauguration. Dr. Stanford's wife is Ruth King, x-36. The Louisa Allen Scholarship Fund has been established by Louisa s parents and friends. If you would like to add to the fund, please make your check payable to Agnes Scott College. Louisa Jane Allen '56 The sudden death of Louisa Allen in an automobile accident on April 9, 1958, has shocked and saddened alumnae and members of the college community. A present member of the campus community would probably remember Louisa as the chief figure behind the rostrum at a Thursday Student Government chapel, as the high scorer for her class basket- ball team, as one of the leads in a Dance Group production, or as the student who was studying three foreign languages concurrently. We, to whom she meant so much, can only try to recapture in words the real Louisa. We will remember not only her activities which proved her wide interests, but also the spirit in which they were performed. Her zest for life was indicated by her unbounded energy and the generous giving of herself. Her genuine and enthusiastic desire for knowledge was exemplified by her concentrated study of languages, although the problems that a conscientious student leader encounters never seemed to daunt her good nature. The true quality of friendliness was reflected in her kind word and cheerful smile for all. Her amiability was a result of her deep interest in people. Our lives are enriched bv having known her, for "to live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die." Guerry Graham Fain '56 Dorothy Weakley '56 DEATHS Institute Fleetwood R. Kirk, husband of Mamie Cook Hardage Kirk, April 13. Mabel Lucille Jewett Miles, April 12. 1918 Virginia Lancaster McGowan, Feb. 8. Carolina Ramsey Randolph, sister of Sarah Randolph Truscott '19 and Agnes Randolph Hill '20, March 1. 1920 Clara Boynton Cole Heath, sister of Elizabeth Cole Shaw '28, May 4. 1921 Margaret McMillan, April 9. 1924 Vic Howie Kerr's mother, in Sep- tember, 1957. Edna McMurry Shadburn's hus- band, Benjamin F. Shadburn, the sum- mer of 1957. Elizabeth Perry Talley's husband, Andrew Pickens Talley, in February, 1957. 1927 Dr. Edward R. Leyburn, father of Margaret Leyburn Foster '18 and El- len Douglass Leyburn, March 27. 0. T. (Lew) Clarke, husband of Caroline McKinney Clarke, stepfather of Louise Hill Reaves '54, and son-in- law of Claude Candler McKinney In- stitute, on May 10. 1932 Frances Arnold's mother. Jan. 6 1933 Howard Kimbrough Moss, father of Marie Moss McDavid, Elizabeth Moss Mitchell '29 and Nell Moss Roberts '40, March 17. Dr. Benjamin Joseph Bond, husband of Amelia Wolf Bond, Feb. 28. 1935 Mary Green Wohlford's mother, Mrs. J. Howell Green, March 2. 1940 Eloise Weeks Gibson's father, April, 1958. 1943 Bizzell Roberts Shanks' husband, Dr. Edgar G. Shanks, this spring. Pat Perry Braun's son, Terry, Dec. 1957. Ruby Rosser Davis' mother, in March. 1948 Clarkie Rogers Sawyer's father, March, 1958. 1956 Louisa Jane Allen, April 9. 1957 Molly Adams' mother, Oct. 21, 1957. ALUMNAE QUARTERLY FALL 1958 WHAT'S IT LIKE TO BE A FRESHMAN TODAY? SEE PAGE 2 THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE SEE PAGE 6 BIG SISTER SEES DOUBLE ALUMNAE QUARTERLY FALL 1958 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE / DECATUR, GEORGi/ Volume 37, Number 1 CONTENTS Freshmen . . . It's Frantic, It's Fun and There's a New Freedom The Education of Conscience Middle East, Past and Present Class News C. Ellis Nelson 2 6 Mary L. Boney 10 Eloise H. Ketchin 12 COVER Jane Kraemer '59, Orientation Chairman, pins a name tag on Sue Chipley '62, while twin sister Nan Chipley watches. (See story, page 2). Photograph by Carolyn Wells, '55. The Alumnae Association of Agnes Scott College Officers Bella Wilson Lewis '34, President Evelyn Baty Landis '40, Vice-President Sybil Corbett Riddle '52, Vice-President Caroline Hodges Roberts '48, Vice-President Mitzi Kiser Law '54, Vice-President Alice McDonald Richardson '29, Secretary Betty Jean Ellison Candler, '49, Treasurer Staff Ann Worthy Johnson, '38, Director of Alumnae Affairs Eloise Hardeman Ketchin, House Manager Dorothy Weakley '56, Office Manager Alumnae Trustees Mary Prim Fowler '29 Sarah Catherine Wood Marshall '36 Chairmen Elizabeth Blackshear Flinn '38, Class Council Patricia Collins Andretta '28, Constitution Mary Wallace Kirk '11, Education Alice Glenn Lowry '29, Entertainment Doris Dunn St. Clair x-'38, House Louise Girardeau Cook, '28, Nominations Mary Caroline Lee Mackay, '40, Property Jean Grey Morgan, '31, Publications Dorothy Cheek Callaway, '29, Special Events Barbara Smith Hull, '47, Vocational Guidance MEMBER OF AMERICAN ALUMNI COUNCIL The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly is published four times a year (November, February, April and July) by the Alumnae Association of Agnes Scott College at Decatur, Georgia. Contributors to the Alumnae Fund receive the magazine. Yearly subscription, $2.00. Single copy 50 cents. Entered on second-class matter at the Post Office of Decatur, Georgia, under Act of August 24, 1912. An atmosphere of intense delight hovering over serious purpose is the one into which new students walk and which they immediately take into themselves. FRESHMEN... it's rrantic, it's run ana there's a NEW FREEDOM Sue and Nan Chipley arrive at Rebekah Scott Hall from San Antonio, Texas. The very atmosphere at Agnes Scott becomes supercharged at the begin- ning of the fall quarter not on the day of Opening Convocation, but a full week before this. Upperclassmen return a week early, to set about the intensive orientation program for new students and to spend a brief weekend in retreats where the major student organiza- tions meet for planning the year's emphases. The shouts, squeals, sometimes un- inhibited yells with which the "old girls" greet each other, breathe sud- den forceful life into the campus. The noise emanating from Evans Din- ing Hall during the first meal where old friends meet is like that made by thousands of bees working as- siduously in an enormous beehive. This time of reunion and fresh feel- ing is like a rebirth for those of us who man the offices on the campus during the lonely summer months. And this atmosphere of intense de- light hovering over serious purpose is the one into which new students walk and which they immediately take into themselves, thus increasing and sustaining it. The "New Students' Calendar of Activities for Opening Days," pub- lished each year by the student Chair- man of Orientation (this year, Jane Kraemer from Richmond, Va.,) floors most Freshmen with its multiplicity of events and plethora of places to be at certain times. We'll try to de- lineate, for alumnae, freshman re- action to these first days at Agnes Scott, as lived by Freshmen them- selves in this instance, two Fresh- men, twins, Nan and Sue Chiplev, from San Antonio, Texas. Why did the Chipleys choose Agnes Scott for their College in the first place? Both agree that people, alumnae and students, influenced them most. They have alumnae rela- tives in Athens, Tenn.. their aunt, Reba Bayless Boyer '27 and her daughter, Sara Ann Boyer Wilker- son '52 whom they have long ad- mired and loved for being the kind of women they are. Then, the Mc- Curdy family in San Antonio is well represented in the Agnes Scott stu- dent body with Anne '58, Runita '59 and Sue '61 (note to Dr. and Mrs. McCurdy: we understand that you have two more daughters headed to- ward Agnes Scott and we regret that your youngest child is a boy ! ) Nan and Sue Chipley talked to Runita and Sue McCurdy about Agnes Scott hst year; Nan says, "They made us sure we wanted to go." Sue Chipley says that the twins' first reaction to Agnes Scott was gratitude for getting their applica- tions for admission in 1958 accepted last February. This was the first year that the College's Committee on Ad- THE AGNES SCOTT PHOTOGRAPHS BY CAROLYN WELLS 00 The twins, like all new students, are amazed at "how much" Miss Scandrett knows about them. l^. \J Lucy Scales '61, a sophomore helper, sees that Nan and Sue sign up for library classes. Lissions had been able to accept Lome students so early in the year. (The twins took their College Entrance Board exams in December and are bure that early acceptance by Agnes Scott made their senior year at Alamo High School in San Antonio much pleasanter. They tell of several friends who had difficult days of awaiting word from colleges of their choice. During the summer, a veritable barrage of mail went to the twins, including letters from officers of Stu- dent Government, Christian Associa- tion. Athletic Association and Social Council (an organization new to most alumnae), a clever brochure from Social Council suggesting kinds of clothes needed for life at Agnes Scott, a bulletin of information in- cluding highlights of the College's calendar of events for the entire year. What the twins appreciated most in their mail were notes from the stu- dents who would be their shepherds for the mysterious first days of col- lege, their Junior Sponsors and Sophomore Helpers. One twin's Junior Sponsor is a twin herself. Jody Webb, daughter of Jo Smith Webb '30. Other Freshmen may have looked forward to hearing from the girls who were to be their roommates. The twins wanted to room together and Miss Scandrett so placed them, in a room in a wing of Rebekah Scott Hall where some Seniors, as well as other Freshmen, live. They left San Antonio on a plane at midnight Wednesday, Sept. 10, and didn't sleep until Friday, Sept. 12. Pure exhaustion put them to sleep Friday, although they wanted to stay awake to celebrate their 18th birthdays that day. (Nan was born a few minutes before Sue. but Sue reports that she's never felt younger or that she had an older sister. I The Chipleys were first-in-line for the registration procedures Thurs- day morning at 9 a.m. Laura Steele '37, Registrar and Director of Ad- missions, had arranged these pro- cedures to be carried out with both dispatch and careful individual con- sideration. With the faculty's Com- mittee on Courses for Freshmen the twins chose for their first quarter's studies chemistry, English, European history, mathematics and Spanish. Although they do have some classes together, they were not placed in the same section of all their courses. For example, Dr. Robinson is leading Sue into the intricacies of college algebra, and Miss Gaylord teaches Nan. Both of these members of the faculty have indicated approval of the twins as students. For the twins, the most startling academic experience was being placed in an advanced Spanish class. They had studied Spanish for three Nan questions Miss Gaylord about a principle of college algebra. Dr. Rob leads Sue into the intricacies of mathematics. ALUMNAE QUARTERLY / FALL 1958 FRESHMEN Continued years in high school, and their rec- ord there plus placement tests put them in a higher-level course. Neither realized this when the Course Com- mittee assigned them, but both are now enjoying and responding to the challenge of advanced placement. One reason for this may be that Dr. Florence J. Dunstan is teaching their Spanish course; Dr. Dunstan holds degrees from two Texas institutions. Southern Methodist University and the University of Texas. As Sue says, "She speaks our kind of Spanish we can actually understand her!" I The twins most often use "we" and "our" rather than "I" and "my.") They agree that their course in European history is hardest for them and that what they were most afraid of at first was what kind of physical- education course they would be re- quired to take. They'd never seen a hockey stick, so signed up for folk dancing. They are both good swim- mers and are already anticipating spring quarter's sports activities when they can take riding they've been brought up on horseback, Sue says. After two weeks, they were begin- ning to settle down in academic routines; at this point they uttered their first typically freshman cry of amazement at the quantities of time they spend in academic pursuits. Their attitude toward their own re- sponsibility in learning is signifi- cant. Nan said: "We will never go to class unprepared." But long before they attended their first class at 8:30 on Wednesday morning, Sept. 17. they felt, as they expressed it, that they "belonged" at Agnes Scott. After they completed registration on Sept. 11, they went over to "The Hub," the student activi- ties building, for open house held by Social Council during the two days of freshman registration. After lunch they snatched a brief moment to do just necessary unpacking, then were off with their sponsors to tour the campus and meet people. They went to vespers, led by Dr. Alston, held just after supper on the steps of the dining hall, then to "Dek-It," model rooms showing the current best in decoration of dormitory rooms. Their room will be judged in the "Dek-It" contest for the best freshman room. The twins' reaction to Miss Scand- rett was that of hundreds of other former and present students; she put them at ease, at once, and they came from the interview full of wonder- ment at "how she knows so much about us." Miss Scandrett and mem- bers of her staff had studied records on Freshmen since August 19, but Nan and Sue chat with Joe Hutchinsol Sigma Chi at Georgia Tech, before leaviri for a hillbilly rush party. her store of information about eac individual is amazing and it make for an immediate and good undei standing which the student carrie normally not only through her co lege years but for the rest of her lifi During one talk with Miss Scan drett, she told the twins that sh was so glad she wouldn't have to b concerned about their getting ad( quate sleep because they wouldn feel it absolutely vital to talk a night in order to get to know eac other, as some new r roommates d< The twins said they appreicated pai Miss Laura Steele '37, Registrar, helps the twins register. Sue and Nan check the bulletin board for coming events. I THE AGNES SCOT cularly being under no feeling of bligation to talk to each other early i the morning! After President Alston's talk to ew students, the twins had a "hand- ook class." the first of many in hich a member of Student Govern- ient"s Executive Board leads dis- ussion of student government regu- 1 tions. Dinner that Friday night was seated meal for new students, served iy members of Christian Association vho also sponsored vespers and a ing. On the calendar for Friday eve- out to Agnes Scott for supper and a dance. Wearing their yellow "rat caps," they seemingly poured out of busses onto the hockey field for sup- per. Buttrick Drive was roped off for dancing, and two bands played, one in front of the gym and one by Buttrick Hall. Some people wondered if the students were enjoying these festivities as much as Dr. and Mrs. Alston and Dr. and Mrs. Edwin D. Harrison. Tech's new president and his wife. Nan and Sue Chipley were back Nan and Sue prepare their room for the Dek-lt contest. ning was a party given by Social Council, and this is the only event of the orientation program which the Chipleys missed; this was the moment when no-sleep-since-Texas caught up with them. The first weekend away from home is usually a difficult time for Fresh- men, and the student Orientation Committee at Agnes Scott crams these days with activities to ward off lone- liness and incipient homesickness. This year, on Saturday, hordes of Freshmen from Georgia Tech came from their first shopping trip to At- lanta that Saturday in time to change from their "downtown" clothes into campus ones, to join the Freshmen from Tech. They were on this day- experiencing their first realization of being very far from home, family and friends. Sue said: "We didn't know a soul in Atlanta we'd never even been in Georgia." Saturday night fixed that. Each of them has a certain charm com- pounded of beauty and poise, and neither w ill ever have to be concerned again about "not knowing a soul." In fact, the rumor came from the Tech campus the next week that there were two Elizabeth Taylors at Agnes Scott. They have been besieged by fraternities at both Tech and Emory to help with rush parties, and the Saturday after the dance at Agnes Scott, the editor of "The Rambler," Tech's student magazine, came out to interview them for a picture story in his publication. On campus, too. the twins have met people. The night of their first day of classes they went to hear Michael McDowell's piano recital and then to President Alston's reception for new students and faculty, where they had the opportunity to be greeted by faculty and staff members. They also went to the "Meet-the-Minister's Tea." a part of Agnes Scott's orienta- tion program when ministers from many Atlanta and Decatur churches come out to the College. The Chip- ley's are Methodists and have not yet decided which church will be theirs while in college; on their first three Sundays they attended two Methodist and one Presbyterian church. They are indeed fortunate to have each other, and some of the rough spots other Freshmen encounter are smoothed over for them because of this. They left at home their mother and a younger sister; their father, C. A. Chipley, a prominent San An- tonio businessman, died recently. They confess to having telephoned their mother, but only once. They w ere, at first, a little envious of many other Freshmen who could go home easily because of short distances. They will not be at home until the Christmas holidays, but with Black Cat day coming (marking the end of orientation), six-weeks-grades re- ports and first exams to be hurdled, plans for Thanksgiving with the Ten- nessee relatives, and a full academic and social calendar, home-going time will suddenly burst upon them. And Nan and Sue Chipley are two 1958 Freshmen who will go home to their family as an integral part of the Agnes Scott family. ALUMNAE QUARTERLY / FALL 1958 Is there a way to increase the rational control of the irrational forces that war within us? Reconciliation with external authority, growth in personal responsibility, an expanded social loyalty . . . this is a positive conscience. The Education or Conscience C. ELLIS NELSON A YOUNG GIRL emerged from a movie one Sunday afternoon a few years ago and felt her right arm become stiff. In a short time it was paralyzed and she was hospitalized for diag- nostic procedures. After several days of tests, the doctor came to the con- clusion that there was nothing physi- cally wrong with the girl, so he began to talk quietly to her about events leading up to the paralysis. Her story, in a few sentences, is this. She was with a group of friends that Sunday when they proposed going to the show. She did not have the power to resist the plan, yet she belonged to a church which made Sunday attend- ance at movies a major sin. This case is not too unusual; it would be classified by a psychologist as conversion hysteria. The girl's con- science was violated by seeing the show; it threw a vast amount of guilt into her psychic system which was projected into her arm, probably the arm used to handle the ticket, and there was felt as paralysis. Thus, punishment fit for the crime could be ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. Nelson is professor of religious edu- cation at Union Theological Seminary in New York. This article is edited from his Honors Day address at Agnes Scott, given Sept. 24. His wife is an alumna, Nancy Gribble Nelson ex-'41. When asked why he didn't bring Nancy with him when he came to be Honors Day speaker, he said: "Because she has three chil- dren!" endured because guilt must come out in some form. Morality runs deep in our lives deeper than we suspect; for much of our conscience is unconscious. In fact, our conscience is extremely moral especially that part which lies so deep we cannot recall its course. We feel the effect of conscience every day, sometimes in moments when we have done what we know to be right and joy permeates our whole being, making the day glorious. At other times, we feel the sting of the accuser and melancholia spreads through our soul. In Kafka's play "The Trial,"' the victim is persecuted, arrested, tried, and finally punished without ever knowing the cause of the arrest or the purpose of the trial. The dramatic effect is achieved by the principle character's struggling man- fully against an unknown accuser, never able to be free and never able to know the cause of his bondage. The Unity of Selfhood We cannot avoid conscience and we cannot violate conscience, as the girl with the paralyzed arm dis- covered. Conscience will win even at the cost of physical or emotional sickness. Our question is can con- science be educated? Is there a way to increase the rational control of the irrational forces that war within us? Plato visualized the rational ele- ment in man as a charioteer holding the reins on two unruly steeds. The two wild horses charged with energy, pranced about, rushing into action without deliberation or reflection! The two steeds were irrational, ruled by desire and passion. Reason was re latively weak, clutching the reins anc shouting, using its modest energy t( guide and direct the power of th animals. Plato's illustration comes very neat Freud's conception of man which is presented pictorially on the cover oi a medical journal. The page is al most covered by a lush green tropical growth out of which rises a brilliant, muscular, sinister devil of such size that he towers over the man standing in the lower left corner of the page. Visually these symbols represent the id. The man, small in stature com- pared to the beast of passion, is standing at attention and is a golden color, symbolic of how we see our- selves our ego. To the foreground,! and larger in size than the figure o the man, is a blue shield on which a large, pink hand is held in the posi- tion a traffic cop uses to mean "stop." This is the super-ego. The cover de- sign is called "Forces of Personality." The rational element, the golden- colored man standing at attention, like Plato's charioteers with two wild horses, looks pathetically ineffective. Indeed, the tragedy of our personal and corporate liveis today is the in- effectiveness of our rational control of our lives. This does not refer to the rational understanding of nature. Since the modern scientific method of investigation developed, man has pyramided his knowledge of life so THE AGNES SCOTT 'resident Alston and Dr. Nelson march into Jaines Chapel on Honors Day. [hat today death itself is postponed at least ten years for the average per- son, and the fantastic force of the atom has been domesticated. The Rational control of our lives means |the ability to see man everywhere as (possessing the inalienable rights as- sociated with individual dignity, :equal protection under law, equal op- portunity for education according to lability and interest and the develop- ment of world-wide rather than j parochial loyalties, the ability of an individual to enlarge the area of rea- son over his passions, the formula- I tion of sentiments that include faith, hope, and love directed toward the welfare of others. In short, the educa- tion of a Christian conscience. The Problem of Conscience It is necessary to say a Christian conscience, because conscience alone is not enough. There is a real sense in which Durkheim is profoundly right when he says, "Everything that is found in conscience comes from society." A striking statement of why so much comes to the baby from society is given by Adolph Portmann. Man's birth is physiologically a pre-mature birth, Portmann says, meaning that not until the end of one full year of life is a baby as mature as like mammals are when they are born. More than any other living thing, man is shaped by his environment is shaped from the outside. Although the content of conscience is from so- ciety, the capacity to develop a con- science is innate. Conscience in this sense is like language; the capacity to speak is innate but the language to be learned is supplied by society. Society is represented to the baby by his parents, especially the mother. He soon learns that there is an order of things that must be followed in order to get love and approval; there are also things he must not do in order to avoid disapproval and punishment. The baby's morality is based on authority. It is respect for law. and it is negative like the police- man's hand held up in the command, "Stop!" This is the negative con- science, consisting of what we have been told we must not do. Its power within us is based on fear of disap- proval and punishment. Authority operates in the negative. Most civil laws state what we cannot do, or they limit our activity by drawing a boundary line, such as setting the speed limit at 60 miles per hour. The earliest memory that we have recorded in the Bible reflects this memory of what is prohibited. The Adam and Eve story is told within the context of what they could not do eat the forbidden fruit. The regulatory articles of religion, the Ten Commandments, are stated nega- tively. Unfortunately, just when the baby is beginning to establish some independence of his own, he is too often introduced to the church and religion in the negative sense, so that he developes a firm conviction of religion as a universalized negative conscience. By this process of training, the moral law becomes the authority, taking the place of parents. The in- dividual then has his moral and religious life arrested in its growth. Under these conditions, the individ- ual's problem is simply how to have as few qualms of conscience as possi- ble as he faces the demands of the moral law. Usually this leads to all kinds of evasive action to keep the letter of the law so conscience won't hurt but all the while doing violence to the intention of the law. For ex- ample, a girl raised by a very strict mother was told never to kiss a boy until she was engaged. Furthermore, the mother was very careful to quiz the daughter each time she came home from a date to be sure that she had obeyed. Naturally, the girl was somewhat restricted in her so- cial life until she hit on a happy solution. She discovered that she could let boys kiss her and still pass her mother's test! That story is an illustration of how negative conscience handles religion. Judaism has its Talmud, Roman Catholicism has its Codes of Penance, and Protestantism has its Puritan Ethics. In all three, the same psy- chological process is at work. Con- science has become primarily moral law. Religious faith, rather than being the means of relating a person to God, has become a matter of right conduct and attention to the form of worship. Our problem would be simple if we could eliminate restraint, restriction, punishment, and direction from the raising of our children. However, this is not possible, so we inevitably develop a negative conscience in the child by the very process of his grow- ing up. But to allow our conscience to remain a "law" conscience is to allow the regulatory mechanism of our lives to remain immature. An immature conscience means one that is dependent upon external authority, authority such as law, or an authori- tarian figure such as a dictator or big brother, and it puts responsibility on this external authority rather than assuming responsibility itself. Conscience and Guilt The main problem of an immature conscience is that it keeps us in bond- age to authority, either law or a law- giver. The self is arrested in develop- ment, unable to evaluate new and different problems, restricted in its ability to choose proper goals and move ahead in an ever widening and deepening participation in all of life's opportunities. Conscience, as a term, has this negative connotation, for it comes out of the common Greek life and al- ways means a guilty conscience. You ALUMNAE QUARTERLY / FALL 1958 CONSCIENCE Continued may be surprised to learn that con- science is not a Biblical term; it is used only once in the Old Testament (Leviticus 5:1 1 and its main usage in the New Testament is by the Apostle Paul. In fact, the term is forced on Paul by the Greeks in the Corinthian church. The Greeks were accustomed to testing their actions by their con- science; so when the issue of eating meat that had been offered to idols came up, the Greeks naturally wor- ried about their guilty conscience. Paul told the Greeks at Corinth that they could not really solve an ethical problem in the light of the Christian faith by the use of conscience. A Christian could eat meat offered to idols even though Greek conscience was violated, because to the Christian an idol was nothing. In short, con- science was an unreliable guide for ethical conduct because it was a crea- ture of culture. I remember when a young Brazilian visiting in this country for the first time went to a men's club supper in one of our large Presbyterian churches in North Carolina. He was scandalized to find a small compli- mentary package of cigarettes at each place setting. In fact, when he talked to me about his experience, he was still in a mild state of shock. Of course, the North Carolinians were just being patriotic in using their principle agricultural commodity. For conscience's sake, some people will not drink Coca-Cola, although that is hardly a problem in Atlanta! If it were only a matter of cigar- ettes or Coca-Cola, then the identifica- tion of conscience with right would be reasonably harmless. But, unfor- tunately, conscience under the domi- nation of authority also seeks to gain goodness by force. This is goodness that arises not out of love or concern, but out of hate. It is fierce goodness. The Apostle Paul demonstrated this fierce goodness when he persecuted the Christians, for he was compelled by his conscience to stamp out the group that failed to follow the strict letter of the moral Jewish law. Fierce goodness can become im- perialistic, because it is really driven by hatred of external authority. Arthur Miller's play, "The Crucible," deals with the witchcraft persecution in New England. In the first act we learn that a number of ills have be- fallen members of the community, and it is suspected that a witch has come to inhabit and control one of the people in the community. In the second act we see the full power of the legal apparatus of the community brought to bear on this suspected witch. One can easily see, as the play progresses, the compulsive quality of this puritanical goodness. Finally the community kills the man suspected of witchcraft, convinced in its own mind that the voice of conscience was the voice of God. The Education of Conscience Many people live with an immature conscience, plagued with guilt and dispensing fierce goodness, but this does not mean that we are left in this miserable state. Here we come back to the question raised in the introduction: "Can we educate con- science?" The answer is yes, but the word "educate" must be carefully defined when we associate it with conscience. The development of a positive conscience will not take place with added information. You are no better off morally at the end of your college career than you are at its beginning if college to you is just the acquiring of knowledge. Through college, you will become a better informed person, but you will not be a better person. "Educate," when associated with the cultivation of an "ought" that is, a positive conscience -- means reconciliation with external authority, growth in personal responsibility, and an ex- panded social loyalty. Reconciliation with external au- thority is necessarily a first step, for we must grow beyond the confines of a negative conscience. A negative conscience has only one strategy repression. A positive conscience utilizes reason to work through emo- tional problems. Fortunately, through college experiences, we already have progressed a long way toward the development of an "ought." We also learn from our parents and othe: adults who are our loved ones wha we ought to do. Because we lov< these adults we incorporate theii ethical standards into our lives. Love is the key word here. Onh love can break the power of law. Re member the pathetic story of the gir with the arm paralyzed by her nega tive conscience? I must tell you now how her story ended. The doctor finding nothing wrong w ith her phvsi cally, listened to her story. The gir sobbed with grief over the act that she had considered sin. yet the doctor talked kindly to her. Without taking sides on the ethical issue of Sunday movies, the doctor looked straight into her eyes with kind, fatherly con- cern and accepted her as she was, a frightened, confused, young girl. The girl, surprised at receiving no punish ment or condemnation, began to re- gain the use of her arm. Thus she learned that she could be loved even when wrong. Love is an effort to actualize the good in another. Love is always found in a life situation trying to reconcile the person to a higher level of living than law. So the figure of the Christ continues to come to us with trans- forming power, even two thousand years after he was nailed to a cross, because he actualized the love of God. In the words of Paul, "God showed his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) In relation to God, Christ creates a new situation for us whereby we are not related to God in fear or law but more as sinners in the hands of a loving God. Under these conditions a person brings his rational faculties into play, for he is no longer held within the fence of a culturally-conditioned moral law. The. Christian must apply his mind to evaluate new and differ- ent problems, because he knows he cannot automatically trust the old ways of behavior. Reconciliation with external authority means also a growth in understanding the use of authority which we have within our power. That is, when reason unites with authority in this sense, then rea- son must also be sensitive to the 8 THE AGNES SCOTT will of God as that will may ex- press itself in new forms. This con- cept of authority is the foundation of democracy. To put it the other way around, democracy is based on the Judaic-Protestant conception of conscience wherein we conceive of ourselves as being under authority, but that authority is a loving God who wants us to realize our highest potentialities. Out of this spirit came the words, "All men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights and among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Growth in Personal Responsibility Growth in personal responsibility is a second requirement for edu- cating a positive conscience. We must have a continuous creative rela- tionship between ourselves and our environment. Here is an enormous opportunity for learning. Now that you have made your first major, sustained physical break with your home, you are observing that many people act and think differently. Per- haps you have now eaten with a Negro or discovered someone who seems perfectly wholesome and yet entertains friendly ideas toward so- cialized medicine. Let me alert you to the fact that these encounters are the stuff out of which you develop a positive conscience the opportunity to grow in your own personal re- sponsibility and understanding. Consider now again the question, "Shall we eat meat offered to idols?" with which Paul was confronted in Corinth by Greeks who were afraid of their conscience. Since an idol is not anything, Paul said, a person can eat meat even if it has first been a sacrificial offering to an idol. "How- ever" (and here the highly-ethical, positive Christian conscience is at work), Paul continues, "if you sit down at a meal and someone says the meat has been offered to an idol, then for conscience's sake, not your con- science but the sensitive Greek con- science, you should refrain." An expanded social responsibility is the third dimension of an educated conscence. Here a person sees in the wider social issues of the day values that are as important to him as his personal concerns. At this point we must confess that the development of social loyalties beyond a parochial interest remains the vast undeveloped area of an educated conscience. Social loyalty is genuine only at the local level, and there only in the few who have a sensitive conscience. Loyalty to the nation is genuine in times of peril, but only a few souls have developed a concern beyond the nation. Our national leaders appeal for political support of foreign aid or the development of backward areas of the world on the basis of en- lightened self-interest, knowing that at the present the citizens of the United States will not respond to a higher motive. Indeed, social loyalty is so restricted in America at the present time that it does not include people of other races or classes. As a result, vast amounts of time and energy are being expended by community leaders and governors to restrict the privilege of American life to those who hold social power. Note the downward spiral of negative social morality. We will close public schools and stunt the growth of the whole population before we will embrace a social loyalty that shares opportunity equal- ly. Note also in our present situation how personal attitudes coalesce into a social attitude and, at the sudden calling of the legislature, can be solidified into a law. The fact that conditions in the Northeast, though different in expres- sion, are little improved over condi- tions in the South does not alter our problem. This tragic social situation substantiates my point that wider so- cial loyalties are created from the in- clinations of individuals. The lesson will not be learned until it becomes a part of our homework. The Apostle Peter had a tough time with his homework; he just didn't seem to be the type who could ex- pand his loyalty to include everyone. Perhaps we shouldn't be too hard in our judgment of Peter. After all, he had been carefully taught from birth that Gentiles were inferior to Jews. I do not know the content of that teaching, but I assume it took the characteristic form of much preju- diced thinking: that Gentiles were slow mentally, that they were natural- ly lazy, that they were happiest when they were ruled by Jews, and that God himself was most favorable to the Jews as illustrated by their long, suc- cessful history. With all of Peter's weaknesses, he had one towering strength he was mentally honest. He allowed the rational element in his life to speak f o and relate with his conscience. His negative conscience was repulsed at the idea of the Christian faith being available to Gentiles on the same basis as Jews. The persistent pressure on him was the vision of the Christ hanging on a cross, praying for Gen- tile and Jew as they crucified him, "Father, forgive them for they know not what the do." (Luke 23:34 1 That clash ruined his sleep as his awakened and growing positive conscience bat- tled with his deep-seated hatred of Gentiles. The book of Acts records three special revelations to Peter be- fore he could say to Gentiles, "Truly I perceive that God shows no par- tiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him." (Acts 10:35) Concern for all Mankind Peter w r as not in college, but his conscience was being educated in the only way possible in a real life situation wherein he allowed his mind to wrestle with his restrictive con- science. The result was the develop- ment of his concern for all mankind regardless of the condition of birth. With the Apostle Paul, who likewise had to learn that God does not show partiality to any one race, Peter created the concern for all people that caused the early Christians to push out from Jerusalem in all directions and create a new world morality. The extent to which Christianity can be a vital force in the present world situation is likewise dependent upon our ability to crash through the walls of irrational prejudice and articulate in clear terms the world- wide human concerns that motivate God's love. ALUMNAE QUARTERLY / FALL 1958 MIDDLE EAST Past ana Present Miss Boney plans her itinerary By MARY L. BONEY ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. Boney, associate profes- sor of Bible at Agnes Scott, holds degrees from the Woman's College of the Uni- versity of North Carolina, Emory University and Co- lumbia University. On her trip to the Middle East, she visited the Salfiti family in Ramallah, just north of Je- rusalem. Helen Salfiti, a 1958 graduate, was one of Agnes Scott's foreign students for four years. "A Travel Seminar to the Holy Lands and Middle East," the brochure read. Five weeks of moving about in that troubled area brought tremendous en- richment to twenty-five Americans who shared an interest in ancient and current history. After a week-end in Rome, the itinerary included stops in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and Greece. The tour was conducted by Professor Boone M. Bowen of the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, who had arranged for the group to hear experts, at every point, speak on both phases of our two- fold concern. It was at Cairo that we had our first introduction to the intriguing, troubled Arab world. After a night flight from Rome, the Nile delta ap- peared below us just at dawn, and the lush vegetation of the river valleys was in stark contrast to the desert which pushed in from the dry regions. It was evident, as we were to be re- minded many times, that "Egypt is the gift of the Nile." While we did not neglect the usual tourists' agenda which included rid- ing camels to the pyramids and sphinx at Gizeh, sailing by moon- light on the Nile, visiting the Tombs of the Sacred Bulls at Saqqara, and shopping in the famous bazaars, the most rewarding part of our stay in Egypt came through our contacts with people who shared our interests. We had the privilege of spending two mornings in the national museum with Dr. Ahmed Fakhry, chairman of the archaeology department of the University of Cairo and former head of antiquities for the Egyptian government; he and Mrs. Fakhry also had us in their home overlook- ing the Nile for an Arabic meal and an evening of stimulating conversa- tion. A man of dynamic personality, Dr. Fakhry 's scholarly integrity and his intense devotion to things Egyp- tian aroused our admiration and re- spect. He has published the results of his archaeological investigations in English, French, German, Arabic, and Chinese. Being strongly influ- enced by Toynbee's interpretation of history as a dialectic between chal- lenge and response, Dr. Fakhry I wanted us to share one basis of thil influence, so walked untiringly wit us through the museum, pointing oil the amazing achievements of tbj Old, Middle and New Kingdoms. Another personal contact whic meant a great deal to us was tha with Dr. and Mrs. Raymond Mdj Lain of the American University a Cairo. After visiting the university . 'I we spent an evening in the McLain'l apartment in the embassy section ofi Cairo. As president and dean ot women, this charming couple from Kentucky have been serving th< school for five years. The 38-yearj. old school had an enrollment lasl year of 780 men and women fronj 28 countries but is having an in! fluence far beyond its numbers While these students could attencj one of the four Egyptian universil ties (where 80,000 are enrolled) foil much less money, this private liberal arts institution never has a student- recruitment problem, and its grad- uates are in constant demand. It ful- fills its primary function of teaching through a curriculum which is based on the humanities and which starts always from the Middle East. Colonel Nasser Contemporary Cairo just cannot be discussed without some mention of the central figure of Egypt today. Even if his smiling face were not to be found on nearly every public street and public building, the firm grip which he has on the people is evident in their conversation. This was my first experience at witness- ing such hero worship. Colonel Nas- ser has captivated not only the polit- ical loyalty but also the enthusiastic devotion of Egyptians, and they seem never to tire of talking about him at least to Americans! They point out with pride the relatively simple house he lives in, near the army bar- racks, in sharp contrast to the opul- ence of ex-King Farouk's palace. They tell of his insistence that his wife return a dress she had bought because the Nassers could not afford its cost, fifty dollars. They cite his attendance at mosque on Friday, when he visited Russia, as evidence 10 THE AGNES SCOTT )f his holding to religious faith while n an atheistic country. While he is i loyal Moslem, eager to identify his Arab Republic with the Islamic ivorld, Nasser seems to have more liberal views than the orthodox fol- lowers of Mohammed, who balk at any attempt to change the social status quo with the expression, "It is the will of Allah." The same enthusiasm for this hero, though on a less obvious scale, was to be evident in Syria and Jordan also. Nasser has not solved the cru- cial problems of the Arab people, but many of his devotees whom we saw, both high and low, believe that he is headed in that direction. Jordan Today The major part of our pilgrimage was spent in the territory west of the Jordan River. We used Jerusalem, Jordan, as headquarters, visiting there the famous landmarks that are sacred to Jews, Christians, and Mos- lems. We took trips northward to such places as Anathoth, the home of Jeremiah; Gibeon, located defin- itely only in 1956, where Solomon asked God for wisdom; and Bethel, the site of Jacob's dream. Heading south, we visited the "little town of Bethlehem," and stopped at the Oaks of Mamre. where Abraham had the theophany mentioned in Genesis 18. On the Israeli side we saw Nazareth, the town of Jesus' boyhood, and spent an evening and a morning be- side the Sea of Tiberias (Galilee). Each day was crowded with op- portunities for remembering biblical events and stories, with the effect being, as one member of the party put it, a combination of inspiration and disillusion. It was inspiring to worship one Sunday morning at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, and to have the story of the resurrection become more meaningful there; it was disillusioning to see on that same evening a priest in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem dash across the sanctuary to turn out the lights on us because we had not made as much of a financial contribution as he thought we should! It was moving to kneel before the rock on ALUMNAE QUARTERLY / FALL 1958 which, tradition holds, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane; it was disappointing to be told that we could not enter the garden itself because so many visitors had cut souvenirs from the old, gnarled olive trees. But the words from the New Tes- tament that kept coming back to us were those from Luke in which Jesus wept over Jerusalem, saying, " 'Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace!'' The contemporary situation in that tragically divided city brought to a focus the tension of the Middle East, for both sides consider that a state of war still exists between them. We were especially conscious of what the division meant to scholar- ship. Archaeologists from one side have no chance to communicate with those on the other, except through outside contacts. Wadi Qumran, where the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, is in Jordan; the documents themselves (those dis- covered earliest I are in the custody of the Hebrew University in Israel. Another example is that the almost pathological bitterness of the Jor- danians has led them to cover, with long strips of white paper, the Hebrew titles in the Rockefeller museum, leaving only the Arabic and English. Guides in Arab terri- tory pointed out from ten-year-old memory places in Jerusalem, Israel: their Hebrew counterparts relied on second-hand information in designat- ing spots in Jordan. No Solutions The special visitors who talked with our group on both sides of the Mandlebaum Gate, the only place of access from Jordan to Israel, both enlightened and disturbed us. Refugee workers, the mayor of Jerusalem, a judge, and a lawyer who had worked with the Point Four Program spoke to us in Jordan; a former United Nations representative, the public relations director at Hebrew University, the head of the 10th an- niversary exhibition, and a leader in the Israel information office spoke to us on the other side. Each of these, along with other friends, was helpful in letting us know of the issues in- volved; but neilher they nor we could see a satisfactory solution to this problem in which injustice, prejudice, and misunderstanding are inextri- cably mixed. As we boarded the plane at Tel Aviv for Athens, we looked forward to the relative peace of Europe, the Cyprus situation notwithstanding, but at the same time we knew we could not forget those who had be- . . which included Greece. come our friends in the Middle East. Reflecting on these people, living in actual places, makes one realize that our religious forbears who occupied the same territory were not vague, ethereal beings, but real persons, enduring sun, stones and sand, and facing domestic as well as interna- tional crises. What to us is now past history was once current. The re- membrance that difficulties seemingly insurmountable were once overcome through faith which led to hard work underscores our confidence that God who has revealed Himself in history may be found in the present as well as in the past. 11 Miss Chloe Steel, assistant professor of French, returned to Agnes Scott this fall after a year's leave of absence to study in France. 4S' To Enlarge and Enrich Agnes Scott has received, from a donor who prefers anonymity, a grant of $24,000 to be used this year for the enlargement and enrichment of the department of his- tory and political science. A new faculty member has been added the department, Dr. William G. Cornelius (B.A., M.A. Vanderbilt Univer- sity, Ph.D. Columbia University), who is associate professor of political science. Three lectures of national stature in his- tory and political science will be brought to the campus this year. They are Senator J. William Fulbright, who will be at the Col- lege for three days in December as special lecturer in political science; Dr. Frank B. Freidel, professor of American history. Harvard University, who will come in January as a special lecturer in history; and Dr. Louis R. Gottschalk, professor of modern history, University of Chicago, who will come in April as special lecturer in history. Dean Kline Reports on . . . Doctoral Degrees and Women's Colleges: 1936-1956 A study 1 of the colleges of origin of per- sons receiving doctoral degrees in the 21- year period of 1936-1956 shows the follow- ing women's colleges to be oustanding: Number oj Graduates Awarded College Doctoral Degrees 1. Hunter 328 2. Wellesley 190 3. Vassar 180 4. Mount Holyoke .164 5. Smith 161 6. Radcliffe 126 7. Bryn Mawr 123 8. Goueher 71 9. Barnard 51 10. Woman's College, N. C. . . 37 11. Agnes Scott 31 11. Wilson 31 13. Randolph-Macon .... 30 13. Texas Womans' U 30 15. Connecticut College ... 27 15. Simmons 27 Since these colleges differ so much in size, a study was made of the proportion of doctoral degrees won to the number of students in the colleges. The average en- rollment for the period covered by the pub- lished study was worked out for each of the schools. The total number of doctoral degrees was divided by the number of years to give an annual average. The final index figure was reached by dividing the annual average of doctoral degrees by the annual average enrollment and converting the figure to number per thousand of stud- ents. The rank of colleges was as follows: Annual Doctoral (Rank in Degrees Knapp & per 1000 Greenbauni College Students Study) 2 1. Bryn Mawr . . . 2.45 (1) 2. Mount Holyoke . 2.40 (6) 3. Vassar .... 2.14 (4) 4. Radcliffe . . . 2.12 (3) 5. Wellesley . . . 2.01 (17) 6. Goueher .... 3.63 (15) 7. Wilson .... 3.61 8. Smith .... 2.94 (7) 9. Agnes Scott . . 2.69 (9) 10. Rockford . . . 5.83 11. Barnard .... 5.70 (2) 12. Wells 4.58 13. Randolph-Macon . 10.32 (16) 14. Elmira .... 7.46 15. Hunter .... 6.81 (10) 1. Doctorate Production in United States Universities 1936-1956, with Baccalaureate Ori- gins of Doctorates in the Sciences, A rts, and Humanities. Compiled by the Office of Scientific Personnel: M. H. Trytten, Director; L. R. Harmon, Director of Research. Washington: National Academy of Sciences National Re- search Council, 1958. 2. Robert H. Knapp and Joseph J. Green- baum, The Younger American Scholar: His Collegiate Origins. University of Chicago Press, 1953. This study was for the period 1946-1951. 13 Llewellyn Wilburn '19, Josephine Brid 9 mon '27, and Janef Preston '21 were some of the faculty members who toured Europe last summei \ t) g ip lid n ! '**$l^\ Mr. Stukes and Miss Leyburn lead an academic procession. Mr. Stukes spoke at Investiture on November 1. h ft ti h R This view of the Walters Infirmary and the gymnasium was taken in the front of Fran Winship Walters dormitory. Graduate Awards Four recent graduates of Agnes Scott are beginning graduate work this year as Woodrow Wilson fellows. They are among the thousand prospective college teachers in the U.S. and Canada who have been awarded Woodrow Wilson National Fellow- lowships. The Ford Foundation recently gave the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation $25,000,000 to aid outstanding graduate students. The student receiving the awards must be nominated by a faculty member, and the Foundation pays full cost of tuition and fees, and a living allowance, at the institution of the stud- ent's choice. Jeanette Clark '58 is at Yale University doing graduate work in philosophy of religion. Carolyn Magruder '58 has entered the University of Pennsylvania to persue studies in modern European history. Dorothy Rearick, '57 after a year study- ing chemistry in Germany on a Fulbright scholarship, is doing graduate work in chemistry at the University of Virginia. Lue Robert, '58 is at Columbia Univer- sity where she is beginning her graduate work in zoology. I Julia Gary, assistant professor of chemis received the Ph.D. degree from Emory Unr sity in August. DEATHS INSTITUTE larion C. Bucher, July 20. 'Jary Crenshaw l'almour, mother of Al- perta Palmour Macmillan and Mary Louise 'almoiir Barber '42, May 11. 1911 idith Waddill Smith, May 3. 1913 l"he Rev. Luther D. B. Williams, husband if Lily Joiner Williams, July 31 . 1917 'allie Young While Hamilton, June 16. 1929 J. Bonner Spearman, husband of Isabelle -eonard Spearman, June 25. 1930 \Ibert Solomon, father of Anne Ehrlich iolomon and Emilie Ehrlich Strassburger 27, in November, 1957. Carolyn Nash Hathaway and Ann Brown \ash Reece '33's mother, in the early sura- ner. 1936 William G. Weeks, father of Lilly Weeks McLean, Olive Weeks Collins '32, Marga- ret Weeks '31. and Violet Weeks Miller '29, July 7. 1938 Mrs. Edgar B. Kernan, mother of Mary Anne Kernan, Aug. 26. 1939 Mrs. W. H. Ratliff, mother of Mamie Lee Ratliff Finger, in an automobile accident March 29. 1946 Ruth Simpson Blanton, May 13, 1958. 1952 Nancy Dianne Dennison, sister of Lucile Dennison Keenan '37 and Jean Dennison Brooks '41, July 18. Specials Mrs. Henry C. Bedinger, mother of Mary Bedinger Echols, July 22. UUMNAE QUARTERLY / FALL 1958 - I Lotsj^ Now I Belond To You! IS a most pleasant experience for me to be no longer o-headed. Since coming back to Agnes Scott, in 1954. Ire held two positions, Director of Alumnae Affairs and irector of Publicity. The latter title, with a change in ording, now rests upon Nancy C. Edwards '58 who is ssistant Director of Public Relations and Development, he College couldn't have made a wiser choice, it seems li me; Nancy was president of Student Government last sar and has a particular understanding of Agnes Scott >day. She works with Dr. W. Edward McNair, Director f Public Relations and Development. Rejoice though I do at having just one head, and that le alumnae one, 1 still must have many arms. There is le Quarterly to publish, the Alumnae Fund to build, the rograms of the Alumnae Association to develop, alumnae lubs and reunions to foster and scads of addresses to hange. And, daily, I do say a prayer of thanks for the good eople who give of themselves to supply me with these lany arms members of the Association's Executive ioard, alumnae who contribute, gladly, to the Alumnae 1 und, club presidents, class officers, alumnae who write or the magazine, and the great majority, alumnae who, ust by being the people thev are. make Agnes Scott live n their communities. My strongest right arm goes by the name of Dorothy Veakley '56 and goes by the title of Office Manager. The itle belies both her capacities and achievements, and we onstantly search for a more correct name for her posi- ion; our latest, gleaned from some letters promoting a adio show, is "Creator, Moderator and Producer." She 3 all these things in the Alumrae Office. Titles tickle, sometimes. Another arm. or group of rms for me this year is a faculty committee appointed ecently by Dr. Alston, to work with the Alumnae Asso- iation, and I have titled it the Committee On Alumnae delations. 1 recall my amazement and delight, during one f my first faculty meetings, at hearing Dr. Alston appoint the Committee on Committees. The faculty committee on alumnae relations will become one of the standing committees of the faculty, when this Committee on Com- mittees meets next spring. This year its members are C. Benton Kline, Dean of the Faculty; Carrie Scandrett, Dean of Students; Dr. W. E. McNair, Director of Public- Relations and Development; Dr. Mary Virginia Allen '35. associate professor French; Dr. George Rice, professor of psychology, and Dr. Catherine S. Sims, professor of his- tory and political science. Another strong arm is a national organization which bears the title of The American Alumni Council. Here, in its district and national meetings, and through its central office, I have access to all the other folk in the country who are engaged in this often nebulous business of di- recting alumnae affairs. Through the Council I can know whether our alumnae programs and activities are com- parable in quality and scope with those of similiar insti- tutions of higher education ( 1 think we rate a good B-f-) . But with all my many and excellent arms, one more I need your comments, criticisms, commands. I have, from time to time, the feeling that I'm working in a vacuum. From an office on a campus in Decatur, Ga., which, by the way, was once the Silhouette Tea Room in the Alumnae House, how can I better reach you with an understanding of the Agnes Scott of 1958? What kinds of articles do you want to read in the Quarterly? Do you read, and react, to President Alston's annual reports which we mail you? What kinds of programs do you de- sire for alumnae club meetings, for Alumnae Weekend? How can we help you become what I term the most treasured, because the best informed, group of alumnae in the country? Give me my final arm! P.S. : Dorothy Weakley said that after reading this she felt like an octopus. Daily, I feel like octopi. - Sott Coll I -.la AGNES SCOTT PLATES A view of Buttrick Hall as seen from Inman Porch is pictured in blue on Wedgwood's white "Patrician" pat- tern plate. Order yours from the Alumnae Office Prices, postpaid: $3.50 each 6 for $20.00 Proceeds from plate sales go to the Alumnae House. Make check payable to Alumnae Property Committee. ALUMNAE QUARTERLY WINTER 1959 THE FACULTY SPEAKS ON PUBLIC SCHOOLS SEE PAGE 2 ALASKA HOMESTEADING VS. PHILLIPINE'S HEAT SEE PAGE 4 Ferdinand Warren Creates Mural (See back page for the story) T- ' fc 3& 6^ % X 1 * ALUMNAE QUARTERLY ^^^ WINTER 1959 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE / DECATUR, GEORGIA Volume 37, Number 2 CONTENTS The Faculty Manifesto After Five Years On Ice A Modern Saint Ruth Simpson Blanton '46 These Four Years At Agnes Scott Class News Sarah Cook Thompson '35 Ellen Douglass Leyburn '27 Lila McGeachy '59 Wardie Abernethy '59 Eloise H. Ketchin 2 4 8 11 12 14 COVER Ferdinand Warrens mural (see explanation on back cover) is hanging in the new offices of Foote and Davies. Atlanta printing firm which commissioned it. Photograph on front cover by Kerr Studios; that on back by Lane Bros. The Alumnae Association of Agnes Scott College Officers Bella Wilson Lewis '34, President Evelyn Baty Landis '40, Vice-President Sybil Corbett Riddle '52, Vice-President Caroline Hodges Roberts '48, Vice-President Mitzi Kiser Law '54, Vice-President Alice McDonald Richardson '29. Secretary Betty Jean Ellison Candler, '49, Treasurer Staff Ann Worthy Johnson, '38, Director of Alumnae Affairs Eloise Hardeman Ketchin, House Manager Dorothy Weakley '56, Office Manager Alumnae Trustees Mary Prim Fowler '29 Sarah Catherine Wood Marshall '36 Chairmen Elizabeth Blackshear Flinn '38, Class Council Patricia Collins Andretta '28, Constitution Mary Wallace Kirk '11, Education Alice Glenn Lowry '29, Entertainment Doris Dunn St. Clair x-'38, House Louise Girardeau Cook, '28, Nominations Mary Caroline Lee Mackay, '40, Property Jean Grey Morgan, '31, Publications Dorothy Cheek Callaway, '29, Special Events Barbara Smith Hull, '47, Vocational Guidance MEMBER OF AMERICAN ALUMNI COUNCIL The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly is published four times a year (November, February, April and July) by the Alumnae Association of Agnes Scott College at Decatur, Georgia. Contributors to the Alumnae Fund receive the magazine. Yearly subscription, $2.00. Single copy 50 cents. Entered on second-class matter at the Post Office of Decatur, Georgia, under Act of August 24, 1912. The threats in the possible closing of Georgia's public schools are clearly stated in THE FACULTY MANIFESTO "As members of the faculty of Agnes Scott College and citizens deeply concerned for the welfare of the South, we wish to express our earnest hope that the public schools will be preserved. We feel that closing them would be a major disaster to the region. "We assent entirely to the warning published by the Emory faculty of the loss in people qual- ified for every sort of work demanding special training, which the suspension of public education would cause. "Another even more far-reaching evil would be the spread of actual illiteracy. For the past fifl years we have struggled to build up the publ schools in order to combat exactly this handica and to give every person the educational equi] ment to function as a citizen in a democracy, seems the height of folly to jeopardize now tl fruits of the struggle. The substitution of privat for public schools, haphazard at best, would woi a peculiar hardship on the children of paren with small incomes, who would be left largely witl out any schooling at all. Since numerically th: group is far the largest in our population, a gret \A J^t Part of the faculty section of an academic procession moves from the colonnade to Presser Hall at Commencement. THE AGNES SCOT 1 roportion of our people would have little or no ducation. "Furthermore, illiteracy is now a much more erious economic handicap than it was fifty years .go, when the society of the region was largely .grarian and much of the work was hand labor, n this day of mechanization, there are very few obs which can be performed by illiterates. The leterioration of the working group because of lack )f education would make a still further gap be- : ween the per capita income of the region and that ~>{ die rest of the nation. "We feel also that closing the schools and thus naking idle a great number of active boys and ^irls would be inviting them to turn their energies to mischief or more serious trouble making. This Is said in no disparagement of our young people. There is real danger to the community in depriving lany large group of its normal fruitful occupation. "Any dislocation in our educational system would accelerate the migration from our region of its most gifted young people. We are just be- ginning to be able to hold them because of the influx of industry, which would itself be endan- gered by uncertainty about education and a supply of trained workers. "It is sometimes said that if the schools close, they can be re-opened. But it is wishful thinking to suppose that the re-opening would be the simple performance of opening the doors. A closing of the schools for however brief a period would bring about the loss of the best teachers and of many students who would never return. Re-opening would mean starting again the whole arduous and costly process of building up the organization and estab- lishing standards. "We urge, therefore, that our public schools be kept functioning without any break in the continuity of their service, so essential to the very life of the community." COMMENTS ON THE MANIFESTO President Wallace M. Alston has expressed the following reaction to the statement signed by members of the Agnes Scott family: "This statement, issued by mem- bers of the Agnes Scott faculty, has my complete approval. It comes vol- untarily from honest and concerned members of the teaching profession who have evidenced their interest in the welfare of young people by their sacrificial and devoted service, ft is a measured, realistic warning that closing our schools will prove to be an ill-considered action, destructive of the economic, intellectual, moral, ^nd spiritual life of our state." Mr. Hal L. Smith, Chairman of the Agnes Scott Board of Trustees, com- mented on the statement as follows: "The statement that came from the members of the Agnes Scott faculty is a fine one. They have a perfect right to express their beliefs in this manner since Agnes Scott stands for academic freedom. "It was not inspired by the admin- istration of the college, but is an expression of the deep concern of the faculty members who have signed it. Speaking solely as an individual I concur with their position." Dr. J. R. McCain, President Emeri- tus of Agnes Scott and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees, has authorized the fol- lowing comment about the statement from Agnes Scott faculty members: "I quite approve of it. The empha- sis is on a single point the import- ance to education at all levels of the public schools of the State. "There is no group of my acquaint- ance better qualified to testify on educational matters than the Agnes Scott Facultv. In academic training, in experience, in all tests of good citizenship, in unselfish and devoted service through teaching, and in other ways, they have proved to be wise and helpful counselors." FACULTY MEMBERS WHO SIGNED THE MANIFESTO John Louis Adams Mary Virginia Allen Ruth M. Banks Judith Berson Mary L. Boney Josephine Bridgman Edna Hanley Byers William A. Calder Kwai Sing Chang Anne M. Christie Melissa A. Cilley Frances Clark W. G. Cornelius Elizabeth A. Crigler S. L. Doerpinghaus Mrs. Miriam K. Drucker Florence J. Dunstan Mrs. William C. Fox Jay C. Fuller Paul Leslie Garber Julia T. Gary Leslie J. Gavlord Lillian R. Gilbreath M. Kathryn Click Mrs. Netta E. Gray Nancy Groseclose Roxie Hagopian Muriel Harn Irene L. Harris George P. Hayes Richard L. Henderson Marie Huper C. Benton Kline, Jr. Edward T. Ladd Ellen Douglass Leyburn Kay Manuel Raymond J. Martin Kate McKemie W. Edward McNair Mildred R. Mell Michael McDowell Timothy Miller lone Murphy Lillian Newman Katharine T. Omwake Rosemonde S. Peltz Margaret W. Pepperdene Margaret T. Phythian W. B. Posey Janef Newman Preston George E. Rice, Jr. Mary L. Rion Sara Ripy Henry A. Robinson Anne Martha Salyerds Carrie Scandrett Catherine S. Sims Anna Greene Smith Florence E. Smith Chloe Steel Laura Steele Koenraad W. Swart Pierre Thomas Margret G. Trotter Sarah Tucker Merle G. Walker Ferdinand Warren Robert F. Westervelt Llewellyn Wilburn Roberta Winter Mrs. J. Harvey Young Elizabeth G. Zenn ALUMNAE QUARTERLY / WINTER 1959 *J+4&&* a^ g^i i lK^ w; . "".,.ii Mt. Mayon in the Philippines is said to be the world's most perfect volcanic cone. Arter Five Years On I ce The Contrasts or Lire in the 49th State and the Philippine Island;, Saran Cook Thompson 35 Our family has been particularly fortunate in that we have been lo- cated in Alaska and the Philippine Islands for the past six years. It is wonderful to be living in this age to see the change, growth and de- velopment of places and people who live in them, to know and under- stand the people, their customs, their ideals, their dreams; and to feel that one has in some wav made a contribution, however small, and has had a personal part in the progress made by them. Both of these places have worked tirelessly to achieve recognition in the world. Alaska, the last frontier of America, has, after many years of striving, finally become the 49th state of the United States of Amer- ica. There is a continuing struggle in the Philippine Islands to establish this twelve-year-old Republic on a secure foundation and to have an honest, efficient government organ- ization which works for the develop- ment of the country and the good of its people. On April 2. 1952, at 2:00 p.m.. the Thompson family which includes my husband, whom I call Tommy (to others he is Herb), our daugh- ters. Sally and Joy. and myself reached Fairbanks. Alaska. Tommy had been assigned to Alaska by th| Civil Aeronautics Authority. W had driven our 1949 Dodge sedajj for approximately 5,200 miles ove the fine roads of the United Statej from Flushing, N. Y. to Canadf! through the mud to Dawson Creell and over 1,500 miles of snow an'h ice on the Alcan Highway. It ha>l taken fourteen days to make the trif| Even now some details of th drive are very vivid, like my sui! prise when six-year-old Joy's attack, of car sickness (so I thought) actual] ly proved to be chicken pox. No ] shall we ever forget the mud we erj countered between Calvary an] PHOTOGRAPHS BY HERBERT H. TH0MPS0 Ithabasca in the Province of Al- ierta, Canada; we drove for ten lours that day, and we progressed xactly 50 miles! When we reached Fairbanks, there rere no houses, no apartments, not ven a hotel room available for us. lach of the three hotels in town /as full. The one modern apartment touse had 285 families on the wait- rig list. In the entire town there were wo houses for sale, and the mort- ;ages on them, at 8 r/f , had to be paid n full within three years. The pay- ments on one, a tiny, two-room shack, cithout water, plumbing, or central leating were $130 per month, and he house was five miles from Fair- >anks. The second house was little tetter but more expensive. These facts we learned between !:00 and 4:00 p.m. that first day. V very kind lady who wished to help is called a friend who worked in he old Pioneer Hotel (a three-story rame building which burned a few nonths later with the loss of many ives) , and he arranged for one room for the four of us. After three days, with our living expenses averaging $50.00 to $60.00 per day, we bought the shack which was located just at the foot of Col- lege Hill in an area called College Flats. Before we could move in, we had to rent a bulldozer to move the drifted snow which blocked the en- trance. We lived for three years in this house, to which we added a very large concrete-block basement and four additional rooms. Tommy and I believe that we were the original "do-it-yourself" couple: we did all the work ourselves, after we each had put in eight hours at our office jobs. After four months we sent Sally to College Park, Ga., where she lived with my mother and went to school until November. 1953, when she joined us again in Fairbanks. The unexpected happens in every family. The following spring Sallv met Jo- seph P. McCarthy, who was a mem- ber of the Armed Forces at Ladd Air Force Base. They were married in November. 1954. and remained in Alaska until April, 1956. Joe is now working with a radio station in De- troit, and they live in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. They are parents of a two-year old son, Johnny, and a brand-new daughter, Susan; I cannot decide who are prouder, par- ents or grandparents. In November. 1955, we moved to an eighty-acre homestead, five miles from the center of Fairbanks. We were living there in December, 1956, trying to complete the requirements of the Homestead Law for owner- ship of the acreage, when my hus- band was notified by the CAA thai he was being transferred temporarily to Anchorage. Alaska, five hundred miles from Fairbanks. So, Joy and I lived alone in our Quonset Hut home for a year and a half, until April 9. 1957. We had no running water, or telephone, and our near- est neighbor was a mile away. However, to us those were minor details compared to keeping the car running at 50 below zero tempera- ture and keeping the fuel flowing for the heater in the house. Joy and I always slept with our boots, slacks, heavy coats, mittens and woolen scarves at the foot of our beds, so that in event of any emergency we could be dressed quickly for out- side temperatures. We were most fortunate, for we missed only one day from her school and my work. On March 8, 1957, Tommy re- ceived a cable from the United Nations offering him employment with the International Civil Aviation Organization in Manila. The posi- tion offered him was to be Chief of the ICAO Technical Assistance Mis- sion. As an expert in air traffic con- trol, he would instruct Filipino na- Chess is the most popular form of game; people from all walks of life play. Cowboy pants and hat have reached the Philippines-and music is an international language Sarah and Joy travel by dugout boat to reach Pagsanjan Fall tionals in air traffic control proce- dures and would act in an advisory capacity to the Philippine Govern- ment on aviation matters. He accept- ed this offer, obtained a leave of ab- sence from the United States CAA, and arrived in Manila on March 23. Joy and I left Fairbanks on April 10, and visited in Chicago, Detroit, New York City, and Atlanta. On the evening of May 24, she and I boarded a plane in Atlanta and be- gan the long flight to our new home. We particularly enjoyed the several hours we spent in Honolulu; this was my first visit to the place where Tommy had spent the four years, 1931-1935, which I spent at Agnes Scott. It was a sparkling, clear, bright morning on May 27, when we caught our first glimpse of Manila Bay and the city where we now live. April and May are the hottest months of the year in Manila, and the soaring temperatures seemed very strange after the snow that we left in Fair- banks. Actually, the heat here was a shock but a pleasant one after five years on ice! Within an hour Joy was in a swimming pool for the first time in years. Since this was my first experience in the Far East, I was very conscious of the contrasts in the city of Ma- nila. The new, modern buildings, often white against the tropical back- ground of palm trees and poinsettias, rise high in the air, while beside them are bombed-out ruins. The beautiful, wide streets, like Dewey Boulevard along the bay, remind one of the parkways in the United States, but when one enters the pre-war sec- tion of the old, walled city, the streets become narrow and con- gested, packed with cars, taxis, jeep- nies, calesas, and pedestrians, and one immediately feels the impact of the East. It is very disturbing to see the splendor of the Forbes Park resi- dential section, with its gorgeous mansions and landscaped grounds, set against the squalor and filth of the hovels where squatters live in bombed-out buildings. In these places I saw naked children playing in the mud, for there were no floors. Be- coming personally aware of this kind of life helps an American under- stand how it is possible for people living under such conditions of pov- erty to become confused and easily led by promises of help from those who wish to dominate the world. Another startling contrast shows in the very nice shops and stores, many air conditioned, on A. Mabini Street and the Divisoria Market, where hundreds of people haggle and bargain for purchases of all their needs, from food to bobby pins. In this market one's ability to bargain determines the price he pays! The bargaining is conducted as a good-natured game but for an American it can be a very expensive game unless one is familiar with current prices! Finding and buyin daily supplies is a time-consumin endeavor. The Filipino people are the mos hospitable folk I have ever met. W have been invited into their homes taken on trips, introduced to thei immediate families, relatives, ani friends. They have done everythin possible to make a stranger feel a home. These people are very ambitiouj and believe strongly in education. It is a distinct surprise to meet .1 young woman who looks as thougl| she should be a high school girj and to find she is a graduate radii engineer or a doctor with her M.D degree. A great many of the person who work in offices are also attend I ing college at the same time. Th scholarship competition in ever field is very keen, and parents makj tremendous sacrifices to send thei | children to the United States ami Europe for their higher education | This, perhaps, accounts for the grea number of people I have met wh< have lived in the States. (So far th| only one who said she did not likij the United States joined her husbanq in the middle of the winter in Minnj esota. It must have seemed colder tcj her there than Alaska did to mij when I went from New York State.j The Filipino people love music from the "rock and roll" on jukJ boxes to the symphonic concerj music. Although the local instruci tion in music is quite good, and the;' have many excellent performers! many of their best-known artists havi studied abroad. So far the interesi in classical music seems to be in for eign music, and even though therii is lovely native music, little has beer done to perpetuate it and give it t( the world. But there are many conj certs given by local musicians, anc visiting artists often perform here. It seems to me that Filipinos mus| come into this world dancing. I hav< seen tiny children and an eighty year-old lady doing intricate dance; with grace and beauty. Also, ever the motions of work of the Filipino: are rhythmic and patterned, whethei it be the houseboy, who is polishing the floor with cocoanut husk on his THE AGNES SCOT "eet. or the farm workers threshing 'he rice at harvesting time. I And the folk dances are very 'ovely. They range from the primi- . live, stamping rhythm of the Igorot festival Dance, a dance which is es- sentially a thanksgiving rite, to the Carinosa. which is a courtship dance tnd shows the influence of Spanish ulture on Philippine life. Some of he other dances show the Moslem nfluence in the Philippines. Pos- sibly the most famous of all the lances is Tinikling, in which the lancers imitate the movements of a Tikling, a long-legged, long-necked bird, as it walks about in the fields. In addition to being beautiful folk dancers, the Filipinos are outstand- ing dancers on the ballroom floor. Dancing has been Tommy's and my tabby since before we were married, tad we are enjoying very much the Variety of dance music here. There kre always rhumbas. tangos, cha- :has. mambos. pasa-dobles. occasion- ally a samba, and popular American liance music. This is so different from the situation in Alaska, where. I remember once a few years ago, We requested that the orchestra play k rhumba. and when they did, we became the only people on the dance floor, much to my dismay. The pastimes of the people range from chess to cock-fighting, and even, periodically, bull-fights. The Filipinos are true gamblers, and their games of chance include poker, mah- jong. Jai-Alai, horse races, cock- fighting, and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes which are legalized, and from which the winnings are tax-free. Chess is the most popular form of game; people from all walks of life play. Although it is said to be Presi- dent Garcia's favorite game, in the Philippines chess is not reserved for the intellectual but is enjoyed by all. The culture and physical charac- teristics of these people show the influence of many nationalities, rhese islands were invaded in 100 f\.D. by the Chinese, in 200 A.D. by the Arabs, in 1521 by the Spanish, ind in 1898 by the Americans, and :he religions, customs and character- istics of each group are seen re- flected in the present culture and The carabao is the chief work animal as the mule once was in the United States. people. There were, of course, other groups who came but with less last- ing influences. One of the most ob- vious results of these invasions is the variety of religions. Christians form the largest group (predominantly Roman Catholics, a minority of Protestants), and there are Mos- lems, a few Jews, and pagans. The Philippine Islands is a coun- try composed of 7,109 islands, but many of them are not developed and are not easily accessible. Transpor- tation between islands is either by water or air, and the problem of roads exists on each individual is- land. But the traveller finds rewards outweighing these hazards. A for- eigner should not come to Manila and go away thinking he has seen the Philippines. In the north, Bagiuo is a mountain resort town with many lovelv houses and clubs and a very nice hotel. The mountain scenery plus the cooler temperatures make trips there a must in hot weather. Cebu is one of the oldest cities in the Philippines; there we saw the place where Magellan planted the Cross in 1521 and the old Cathedral of Santo Nino built in the 16th cen- tury by the early Spanish conquer- ors. There are two interesting places for a day's outing within fifty miles of Manila. One is Tagaytay, which is mountainous. From a lodge there one can look out over Taal Lake with its extinct volcano island-crater which has another lake and a still smaller island in its center. The other place is Pagsanjan Falls. To reach it, we sat, two passengers to each dugout boat, with our legs flat on the bottom of the boat, and were rowed up-river through sixteen steps of rapids. The river winds tortuouslv in its banks which are striated with marks of previous water levels and covered with tropical vines. Tommy and I believe that our ex- periences both in Alaska and in the Philippine Islands are of excep- tional value not only for us but especially for Joy, who is growing up in this world at a time when ex- tremes are the order of the day. Certainly she is learning to adjust to places no matter how different they may be in climate, living con- ditions, or economic development. Too, although she attends school at the American School, she has many friends among the Filipino children who, large and small, readily accept her. One little boy two years old. who speaks no English, talks happily to her in Tagalog. She replies in English, and they get along wonder- fully! The girls who are her age seem much vounger than Americans of the same age. They are quite shy, very quiet, respectful and religious. And so Joy, at the age of twelve, has already learned from personal experience that it is not the differ- ences but the similarities in people which are important. M.UMNAE QUARTERLY / WINTER 1959 A MODERN SAINT Simone Weil's writings are intensely Christian, even shocking- ly so in the reality they restore to the Christian paradoxes we have made into platitudes. ELLEN DOUGLAS LEYBURN '27 As we survey the range of modern literature, I think we are bound to be struck by the seriousness with which our major writers take man's ultimate concerns. Here and there is a nihilist who seems able simply to shrug off his sense of meaninglessness and to laugh in a frivolous way at man's helplessness. So it seems to me Ionesco does in his at once hopeless and diverting plays like "The Chairs," where an old couple get ready for a performance which never occurs, or "The Bald Soprano" in which the banal conversation returns at the end to a repetition of the opening dialogue, giving a sense of life as a phonograph record caught in a discordant groove. But in the plays of Ionesco's master, Samuel Beckett, while there is laughter at the incongruities of man's as- pirations with his actions, there is nevertheless a sense of passionate concern, a longing to find meaning in this apparently hopeless round of trivialities and bodily per- formances. "Waiting for Godot" is to me an intensely moving play because while the two comical tramps who represent mankind never find the revelation which thev seek, they support each other in the search and they continue to wait and hope. Beckett is often referred to as a nihilist; but in this play, at least, I find a powerful affirmation both of human values and of the importance to man of his sense of something beyond himself. One of the writers who seems to me to convey most About The Author Dr. Leyburn, professor of English, beloved teacher and renowned scholar, holds degrees from Agnes Scott College, Radcliffe College and Yale Univer- sity. This article has been edited from a chapel talk which she presented re- cently at Agnes Scott. Ellen Douglass Leyburn poignantly this longing of modern man for meaning and his despair of finding it is Franz Kafka. In his novels, The Castle and The Trial, there is a nightmarish sense of man's bewilderment before his destiny as in the onei the hero struggles to reach the completely unapproach- able castle to which he is summoned and in the other he is involved in the trammels of an incomprehensible proc- ess of law. But the overpowering impression in both isi that of the compulsion to seek a meaning. The great reli- gious impulse of our time as I see it manifest in litera- ture seems to me to be this longing for a clarity which is denied. The seeking itself carries a kind of conviction. Certainly in a writer like Camus there is courage in fac- ing what seems to be reality and a sense of the im- portance of ultimate values. Besides those who write almost with the courage of despair, which has its own nobility, there, are some writers like T. S. Eliot who have come through the Waste Land and found in Christian revelation the ultimate reality. I should like to discuss a writer who never be- came a part of an established communion as Eliot has done, but who was nevertheless profoundly Christian. Nor did she think of herself as a writer. She published little during her lifetime, but the posthumous publica- tions from her journals show a power of pointed ex- pression which makes the comparison of them with the Pensees of Pascal seem not at all far fetched. Simone Weil was born in 1909 into an agnostic Jewish family in Paris. She died in 1943 in England, really of starvation because she refused in her illness from under- nourishment to take more food than the rations of her compatriots in the occupied zone in France. During her brief life, she attained to such spiritual vision and such commitment to it that it seems quite natural to find her referred to again and again in the accounts of her as a saint: "the Outsider as Saint in an age of alienation [one calls her] our kind of saint." Her writings are intensely Christian, even shockingly so in the reality they I THE AGNES SCOTT restore to the Christian paradoxes we have made into platitudes; but she did not feel that God intended her to serve in any communion. "I should betray the truth," she declared, "that is to say the aspect of the truth that I see, if 1 left the point, where I have been since my birth, at the intersection of Christianity and everything that is not Christian." One part of Gravity and Grace, the selection from her diaries made by Gustave Thibon after her death, he heads Contradictions. This power to see varied, even conflicting truth as true, is one of the strongest marks of her special perception. The other is her absolute commitment to the truth which she sees. At the age of five she refused to eat sugar because the soldiers at the front in the first World War could not get it. This self denying act of her childhood seems symbolic of the renunciations of her whole life, all made for the sake of identifying herself with those who suffer or are deprived. She says in one of her letters, "I have an essential need, and I think I can say vocation, to move among men of every class and complexion, mixing with them and sharing their life and outlook .... so as to love them just as they are." At 14 she passed through what one biographer calls "the darkest spiritual crisis of her life, feeling herself pushed to the very verge of suicide by an acute sense of her absolute unworthiness and by the onslaught of migraine headaches of unbearable intensity." She was to endure this acute physical pain all her life; but it never kept her from making the most rigorous demands on herself. Nor did she ever relinquish the sense of her own stupidity, feeling that God gave it its use in teaching humility. Actually she had a brilliant mind and obtained her baccalaureate with distinction at the age of 15. At the Ecole nofmale ( Superieure), where she studied from 1928 to 1931, she attained her agregee de philoso- phie at the age of 22 and won the undying friendship and admiration of the philosopher Alain, who introduced her to Plato, perhaps the strongest intellectual influence of her life. At this time she was an ardent radical and shocked the town where she held her first teaching post by making friends with industrial workers. Her response to criticism was to become a worker herself, taking a job in the Renault automobile factory. Of this experience she writes: "As I worked in the factory, indistinguishable to all eyes, including my own, from the anonymous mass, the affliction of others entered into my flesh and soul." After she recovered from the pleurisy brought on here by overwork, she went to Spain to join the Loyalists. This was her last purely political act; but she never lost her concern for a good society. One of her few writings intended for publication is The Need for Roots, written at the end of her life at the request of the Free French Government and setting forth not just principles for the regeneration of France, but her idea of a sound social order. It was after the time in Spain that while listening to a Gregorian chant at Solesmes, she had her first mystical experience, the feeling of Christ's passion as a real event. From that time on she made her strange spiritual jour- ney, so full of meaning for us because of its very indi- viduality. There were two Roman Catholics who meant a great deal to her in these years of her development as a Christian, Father Perrin, to whom her most revealing letters are addressed, and Gustave Thibon, a lay theo- logian in charge of a Catholic agricultural colony in the south of France, under whose guidance she worked in the fields with the peasants. But in spite of her great respect for these friends, she felt that she could not become a Roman Catholic, that her own destiny was to wail for God outside any group or organization. From this position she has spoken in a special way to the modern world. Leslie Fiedler, who writes the excellent introduction to the posthumous collection of her writings called Waiting for God, says, "Simone Weil's writing as a whole is marked by three characteristic devices: ex- treme statement or paradox; the equilibrium of contra- dictions; and exposition by myth. As the life of Simone Weil reflects a desire to insist on the absolute event at the risk of being absurd, so her writing tends toward the extreme statement, the formulation that shocks by its willingness to push to its ultimate conclusion the kind of statement we ordinarily accept with the tacit understanding that no one will take it too seriously. The outrageous (from the natural point of view) ethics of Christianity, the paradoxes on which it is based are a scandal to common sense; but we have protected our- selves against them by turning them imperceptibly into platitudes. It is Simone Weil's method to revivify them, by recreating them in all their pristine offensiveness." The core of all her thought seems to me to be a tre- mendous reverence, a sense of the immense distance be- tween man and God, over which God chooses to come to man. She often uses the figure of hunger to express man's state and his having to look in reverence and not to eat, or the figure of walking toward a goal. She says: "We cannot take a single step toward heaven. It is not in our power to travel in a vertical direction. If how- ever we look heavenward for a long time. God comes and takes us up." I have the feeling that the best way to communicate the quality of such a spirit is simply to let her speak. Here are some passages from her writing, which I have grouped according to the themes that recur throughout her work. The first general comments are on the nature of religious truth. She puts our whole concern with it in proper per- spective by saying: If we go down into ourselves we find that we possess exactly what we desire. An Imaginary divinity has been given to man so that he may strip himself of it as Christ did of his real divinity. Renunciation ... [is the] imitation of God's renuncia- tion in creation. In a sense God renounces being every- thing. We should renounce being something. That is our only good. AlUMNAE QUARTERLY / WINTER 1959 We are like barrels with no bottom to tliem so long as we have not understood that we rest on a foundation. Further she clarifies our relation to truth: We do not have to understand new things, but by dint of patience, effort, and method to come to under- stand with our whole self the truths which are evident. [Stages of belief.] The most commonplace truth, when it floods the whole soul, is like a revelation. About faith she says: We know by means of our intelligence that what the intelligence does not comprehend is more real than what it does comprehend. Faith is experience that intelligence is enlightened by love. Another subject which absorbs her is God's creative act. Creation is an act of love and it is perpetual. At each moment of our existence is God's love for us. But God can only love himself. His love for us is his love for himself through us. Thus, he who gives us being loves us in the acceptance of nonbeing. Then later in the same discussion: On God's part creation is not an act of self-expansion but of restraint and renunciation. God and all his creatures are less than God alone. God accepted this diminution. He emptied a part of his being from him- self .... God permitted the existence of things distinct from himself and worth infinitely less than himself. By this creative act he denied himself, as Christ has told us to deny ourselves. God denied himself for our sakes in order to give us the possibility of denying ourselves for him. This response, this echo, which it is in our power to refuse, is the only possible justi- fication for the folly of love of the creative act. She speaks of the parallel to God's creativeness in our- selves. Creative attention means really giving our attention to what does not exist. Humanity does not exist in the anonymous flesh lying inert by the roadside. The Sa- maritan who stops and looks gives his attention all the same to this absent humanity, and the actions which follow prove that it is a question of real attention. This leads directly to her comments on love. Among human beings, only the existence of those we love is fully recognized. Belief in the existence of other human beings as such is love. Lovers or friends desire two things. The one is to love each other so much that they enter into each other and only make one being. The other is to love each other so much that, with half the globe between them, their union will not be diminished in the slightest degree. All that man vainly desires here below is perfectly realized in God. We have all those impossible desires within us as a mark of our destination, and they are good for us when we no longer hope to accomplish them. It is only necessary to know that love is a direction and not a state of the soul. If one is unaware of this, one falls into despair at the first onslaught of afflction. This conception of love is linked to what she says of affliction. The extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffer- ing, but a supernatural use for it. Love of God is pure when joy and suffering inspire an equal gratitude. In general, we must not wish for the disappearance of any of our troubles, but grace to transform them. On the other hand she sees beauty as holy. Only beauty is not the means to anything else. It alone is good in itself, but without our finding any particular good or advantage in it. It seems itself to be a promise and not a good, but it only gives itself; it never gives anything else. The beautful is the experimental proof that the incar- nation is possible. Hence all art of the highest order is religious in es- sence. (That is what people have forgotten today.) A Gregorian melody is as powerful a witness as the death of a martyr. Poetry: [is] impossible pain and joy. A poignant touch, nostalgia. Such is Provencal and English poetry. A joy which by reason of its unmixed purity hurts, a pain which by reason of its unmixed purity brings peace. Of our relation to beauty, she says: We have to remain quite still and unite ourselves with that which we desire yet do not approach. We unite ourselves to God in this way: We cannot approach him. Distance is the soul of the beautiful. This idea of attentiveness that means union recurs con-fl stantly in her writings. The subject of attention is of the utmost importance to her. Extreme attention is what constitutes the creative faculty in man and the only extreme attention is religious. The amount of creative genius in any period is strictly in proportion to the amount of extreme attention, and thus of authentic religion, at that period. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer. She gives this account of her practice of attention inl prayer. A week afterward I began the vine harvest. I recited the Our Father in Greek every day before work, and I repeated it very often in the vineyard. Since that time I have made a practice of saying it through once each morning with absolute attention. If during the recitation my attention wanders or goes to sleep, in the minutest degree, I begin again until I have once succeeded in going through it with absolutely pure attention. Some- times it comes about that I say it again out of sheer pleasure, but I only do it if I really feel the impulse. The effect of this practice is extraordinary and sur- prises me every time, for although I experience it each day, it exceeds my expectation at each repetition. At times the very first words tear my thoughts from my body and transport it to a place outside space where there is neither perspective nor point of view. The infinity of the ordinary expanses of perception is re- placed by an infinity to the second or sometimes the third degree. At the same time, filling every part of this infinity of infinity, there is a silence, a silence which is not the absence of sound but which is the object of a positive sensation, more positive than that of sound. Noises, if there are any, only reach me after crossing this silence. Sometimes, also, during this recitation or at other moments, Christ is present with me in person, but his presence is infinitely more real, more moving, more clear than on that first occasion when he took possession of me. 10 THE AGNES SCOTT Ruth Simpson Blanton '46 Ruth Simpson Blanton '46 died May 13, after heart surgery. Her husband, The Reverend Leonard Blanton, and three children are in Laurel, Miss. Alumnae who were in college with her will remember her poetry, often published in The Aurora. We believe she would like best, as a memorial, for some of her poems to be pub- lished here, so that many alumnae may delight in them. Miss Laney wrote about her recently in a letter to Dr. Hayes: "George, I have not been able to get your news of Ruth Simpson out of my mind such eag- erness for life so crushed." To introduce her poems, we print first one written about her by her classmate and close friend, Bunny Weems Macbeth. I'LL ALWAYS REMEMBER Together we aspired to scale the heights And plumb the depths of all there was to know. While you were always first to glimpse new sights, You waited while I clambered up below. Together we heard harmonies inspired, And practiced many hours side by side. We shared the world of music. We desired So many things alike, so much we tried. Why you should have to leave this world I do Not know. You were so full of joy and wit And lovingkindness. But perhaps you knew The end: you were so near the infinite. Bunny Weems Macbeth TO A FAVORITE PROFESSOR (Dr. Hayes) Can it be so that you have sorrow, too? You live among the highest hills of thought With stars around your feet. It is in you I find the quiet radiance I have sought: The sunlight of unnumbered centuries, The spirit which transcends the baffled years, The long, still vision of Eternities, And sympathies too great, too deep, for tears. Your voice, your smile enchant me with their kindness. You take me from this pebbled world of mine To mountaintops. With patience for my blindness You teach me '"how man makes himself divine." Do you have sorrow, too? Can it be so? Your spirit is to pain as sun to snow. Lines written on leaving Agnes Scott after graduation: FAREWELL Does the bird Say "Soft, soft, soft, they go, they go," With tremulous shimmering note? Does he know The sweet sad word? Are there tears Between the petals of the rose Because the ivied gate must close For passing years? Ruth Simpson Blanton ON THE EASTER MORN BIRTH OF ELIZABETH RUTH (April 21, 1957) I did not sing the Easter song at Church That day, but went instead upon a search For Life, or Death I really had no say But crimson clover bloomed along my way. I had to go where those who dress in white Stayed round about like angels, till the night Brought miracle, the empty tomb, bright earth, Again the angel voice not Death, but Birth. AUTUMN Star-leaves, Five-pointed, red, Purple and saffron-gold, What is the whisper on the cold Wind's breath? Who grieves For summer fled? Autumn, dark-bright, will fold The leaves away; wind-voices old Sigh, ". . . Death." ALUMNAE QUARTERLY / WINTER 1959 11 1 wo Seniors . . . Roomrrul Lila McGeachy '59 President, Student Government Lila says: Often we ask ourselves, what is so special about Agnes Scott? Why are we so grateful to be a part of it? What difference does, has, and will it make in our lives? It seems to me that we are limited in a com- prehensive understanding of the col- lege field; if we graduate from Agnes Scott, most of us have been no other place and have no basis for comparison. And so in an evaluation we can only judge according to our own values, or another set of values which we accept for our own, and assimilate into ourselves. Agnes Scott has its roots in a set of values by which it has guided its students throughout its relatively short history of seventy years. Its founders wanted a Christian college which would further and nurture the education of young women. They wanted it to be a college of the lib- eral arts, insisting upon a high qual- ity of scholarship in an atmosphere of freedom and mutual concern which they felt could most naturally develop within the scope of genuine Christianity. And so we, the present student generation, have walked into an arena of life where for these short years of our lives we are given a great deal of freedom and yet we are given a guide by which to make decisions and upon which we exer- cise this freedom. We have become a part of a heritage which stands for the best man has to give, and beyond that, in ultimate terms, the best man has to give to God. The girls who come to Agnes Scott come from very representa- tive backgrounds, geographic and THESE FOUR YEJ* economic. We have 615 students, a third of whom are from Georgia; the rest of us are from approxi- mately thirty different states and six foreign countries. We are largely Presbyterian, with lots of good Methodists, Episcopalians and Bap- tists keeping us in line; we also have some Jewish students. We are different sizes and shapes, with blue, brown, gray and green eyes, brown, blonde, red or black hair. We cry against the idea of the typical Agnes Scott girl. We are normal, healthy, happy individuals, and just because our mothers tried to teach us nice manners and we like the southern tradition of young lad- ies wearing gloves doesn't mean that we are so special. If there is any- thing unusual about us, the reason for this is that we have come in con- tact with something real and right in this confused and troubled world. We live at a high rate of intensity at Agnes Scott. Most of us want to do well in our academic work. We want to accept responsibility, we want to take advantage of the opportunities which surround us, we want to really get to know other students and our administration and faculty, we want to read, to play, to date. Perhaps the finest and most mean- ingful thing about Agnes Scott is the people who make it up. The values of the college and the pur- poses it sustains are both the subtle and the open standards of all our judgments and policies and actions toward one another. These could not be carried on without people who be- lieve in them and live by them. Because we do somehow care for each other, we can operate within the freedom of an honor system. This is a reciprocal process, I be- lieve. The honor system is a per- meating attitude, or approach, to all matters of our life. It is the guide by which we make decisions. With as many folks as we have, all of us cannot be relative to each person, and so we have an established struc- ture, or rules, by which we agree to co-operate. But the structure does not limit personal integrity: to fol- low the structure demands personal integrity, and the rules are not so tight that there is no room for choice. So. for us there is an aura of trust which living within the bounds of the honor system allows us to have. We do not drink for situational and practical reasons; we make it no moral issue because that is left up to each girl; but whether we drink in our homes or not, we agree that in order to preserve the dignity and respect and purposes of our Col- lege we will unitedly not drink. We get knocked down with our papers and tests, in elections, in sports defeats, but we see each other pop back up and each of us, then, learns to do that. We develop aspira- tions to tackle almost anything, even if we must stand alone, humanly speaking, realizing that we may al- ways get knocked down. We will tackle Kierkegaard's Sickness Unto Death, qualitative chemistry, Shakes- peare's tragedies, or social psychology right now, and we will put them into a perspective for future refer- ence and life experience. Deep down inside we know that we are absorb- ing a good and penetrating and de- manding approach to life and, as much as we kick in the traces, we are grateful and willing to continue our lives in this way. 12 THE AGNES SCOTT ampus Leaders Delight i in ?^T AGNES SCOTT LILA McGEACHY '59 WARDIE ABERNETHY '59 Wardie Abernethy '59 President, Mortar Bocrd Wardie says: To STRIVE for intellectual attain- : ment, to search for knowledge, to i pursue and know the truth these ; are the primary reasons we are here at Agnes Scott, and it is to these . goals that we first direct our efforts. : The academic program occupies an I essential position in our aim to de- . velop the integrity of each individual | girl, the whole person. Our academic system at Agnes , Scott involves a developing, pro- \ gressive program. The first two years , are filled with required courses, cov- ering a wide range of subjects, to acquaint the student with a variety ji of fields in order that she may choose her major subject intelligent- ly later on. The last two years are primarily devoted to one major sub- ject. However, the opportunity for studying in departments other than i the chosen major one are vitally used. I have a friend who is a biology major and is taking two English courses this quarter, and an- other who is a music major but is interested as equally in philosophy. Our educational process at Agnes Scott is not confined to the class- room, however. To our campus come such emminent speakers as Robert Frost, Arnold Toynbee, Paul Tillich, and Sir John Gielgud. Some of these visitors remain on our campus for several days, talking with the stu- dents personally. Student-faculty friendships in and outside of class are one of the high- lights of our college careers. These are friendships which go beyond their particular area of specializa- tion and which develop mutual ap- preciation and understanding. We, as students, are invited into the homes of our professors, sometimes for seminars, other times for fun and fellowship with their families. Fore- most among my Agnes Scott memor- ies are the many Sunday evenings spent sprawled out on the rug of Dr. Alston's den listening to Saint- Saen's Symphony No. 3 in C Minor and eating do-nuts and hot coffee, or afternoon teas in the fall when he subtlely guides us into the TV room to watch the World Series, a most important part of a woman's educa- tion, he says! As part of the development of the whole person, we feel that stimula- tion of leadership qualities is very important. In this atmosphere of freedom and self-development, we have a system of democratic self- government. The four areas of our campus life are directed by four stu- dent boards: Student Government, Christian Association, Athletic As- sociaion, and Social Council. A group related to these four, which is very close to my heart, is Mortar Board, a senior society of leaders and scholars which seeks to serve the entire campus through creative thinking and as a liaison between the college's administration and its students. We feel that all these ac- tivities are not so much extra-cur- ricular as co-curricular, a vital stimu- lus to our thinking process and our search for the truth. Social life at Agnes Scott begins right in our own gothic halls and spreads as far away from the Tech engineers as Princeton Seminary. First of all, our dormitory life is both the bane and the blessing of our existance! Here we find our rest and friends, as well as a con- tinual burning of the midnight oil to put finishing touches on a term paper. The newness and the inti- mateness of this closely-knit life in- volve many growing pains, but the lessons in thoughtfulness, considera- tion and understanding gained in the process are well worth the effort. At any moment during our 18- hour waking day, a goodly propor- tion of students can be found in the Hub. taking a study-break with bridge cards, coke bottle and cig- arette in hand. The Hub, our stu- dent activities building, is the center of our campus society; here we play, we hold bull sessions, we swap jokes, we swap dates. Highlights among our campus events begin each year with Black Cat Day, a day when the entire cam- pus community faculty and admin- istration and families, students and dates honor the new freshman class in a day of competition and fun. Black Cat's a development from, and a far cry from, the hazing of Fresh- men in years gone by. Then in December we have our annual Christmas party, one of our most cherished traditions; this in- cludes a program by our Glee Club followed by refreshments (always do nuts and coffee), a big fire and Christmas carols. In January, the Junior class sponsors Junior Jaunt, a week of concentrated money-rais- ing efforts for local, national and in- ternational charities, culminating in a formal dance week end. We at Agnes Scott cherish these oppor- tunities to join together as a unit, realizing, enjoying and appreciating the bond of love which ties us to- gether within a mutually giving and receiving unit. ALUMNAE QUARTERLY / WINTER 1959 13 Retired Classics Head Dies Miss Catherine Torrance, retired chairman of the classics department at Agnes Scott, died October 20, 1958. Born in Charleston, Ind., Miss Torrance was a graduate of Hanover College. Hanover, Ind. She received her master of arts and doctor of philosophy degres from the Univer- sity of Chicago. Miss Torrance came to Agnes Scott in 1909 as co-principal of the Academy. She later joined the col- lege as a teacher of Latin, and re- tired as head of the classics depart- ment. GFFIC Contributors Increase; 1958 Gifts Total $72,500 The Georgia Foundation for Inde pendent Colleges has distribute! $72,500 to the state's four-year, ac e credited, private colleges not suj ported by taxes during 1958. Moi than 175 businesses and other frienc. have made contributions to th united fund for independent highe education. The amount contributed to th Foundation in 1958 is a $25,000 in crease over 1957 gifts. Number o y contributors has doubled. Unless otherwise designated b donors. 60 per cent of each contri bution is divided equally among th member colleges, and 40 per cent i divided on the basis of enrollmeni The nine member colleges whic share in the gifts are Mercei Emory, Agnes Scott, Wesleyan. L< Grange, Shorter. Tift, Oglethorpe and Brenau. n Dr. Virginia Tuggle '44, new "Phi Bete" J Meet the members of the art department: Marie Huper, art history and sculpture; Robert Westervelt, ceramics; Ferdinand Warren, painting. DEATHS FACULTY Catherine Torrance, former co-principal of the Academy and head of the classics de- partment of Agnes Scott, Oct. 19. INSTITUTE Ola Bob Jester Harbour, Sept. 29. Juliet Webb Hutton, Aug. 31, 1957. 1920 Clara Boynton Cole Heath, May 4. Her sister is Elizabeth Cole Shaw '28. 1927 Lib Norfleet Miller's father, Sept. 12, 1957. 1928 Laurence Lowe McCullough, husband of Mary Crenshaw McCullough, Dec. 12. 1929 Robert James Varner, husband of Jose- phine Pou Varner, and father of Joanne Varner '54 and Barbara Varner '59, Sept. 30. 1933 Mrs. Charles N. Alexander, mother of Mary Charles Alexander Parker, Sept. 18. 1935 Mary Lillian Deason's mother, in May. 1946 Eleanor Reynolds Verdery's mother, Sept. 16. 1948 Mrs. B. C. Davidson, mother of Alice Davidson, in October. 1951 Jeanne Kline Mallory's mother, Oct. 14. Jeanne Kline Mallory's father. Oct. 31. 21 I \j3\AA, We CeleLrate F ounder's Day and Al umnae Weel ee-en< ' YOU ARE one of the many alumnae ho read The Quarterly by begin- ng with the class-news section and iving the articles for future per- ial, please do turn back, now, to ige 2 and digest the Faculty's state- ent on the crisis facing education Georgia and, by implication, in her southern states. Such a clear-cut assertion of the asons for the necessity of keeping >en our public schools, from such qualified group, cannot but make umnae hearts rejoice. And, I trust. will bear some weight with Geor- a's General Assembly, which opens 5 sessions as I am writing this, the !th of January. By February 21. 1959, no prophet, en, could foretell in what direc- Dns the General Assembly may ive moved. On that date, the Alum- le Association, with help in plan- ng from the Faculty Committee on lumnae Relations, will hold an open rum for members of the five local umnae clubs on the subject of this isis in education. (I will report to )u on this in the spring issue of he Quarterly. ) After the forum. Dr. cCain will speak to the local alum- le at an informal luncheon. It seems to me that Agnes Scott umnae do, at least once a year, ad thoughts about their College >pping into mind. And this occurs. usually, around February 22, which the College celebrated for many years with a holiday. This is now no longer possible in the college's cal- endar, because class time cannot be taken from the too-short winter quar- ter. This year, Dr. McCain will talk to the students about the early days of the College as only he can at chapel on Friday, February 20. And we who are alumnae can cer- tainly, and do, commemorate the founding of Agnes Scott. For some of us fortunate enough to be living in communities where alumnae have banded together to form clubs, there will be Founder's Day meetings of alumnae clubs. Beyond the Atlanta area, the clubs which have reported to their regional vice-presidents and /or the Alumnae Office on plans for such gatherings include Baton Rouge. La.; Birmingham, Ala.; Charlotte. N. C; Columbia. S. C. ; Huntsville, Ala. (organizing a new club I ; Jacksonville. Fla.. Los An- geles, Calif., and Washington, D. C. From plans for Founder's Day. my thoughts must project to mid- April and Alumnae Week End, Class Reunions, the Alumnae Luncheon to Spring at Agnes Scott. It must be admitted that I find this projection a bit difficult, with Decatur's tem- perature now hovering around 20. It helps to remember the soft greens and softer breezes of a spring in Georgia, and to know that April will bring dresses of white and pink dogwood blossoms to Atlanta and the campus. I do. indeed, hope that April 17-18 will also bring many of you back to the campus. Reunion classes this year are, un- der the Dix plan: 1908, '09, '10. '11, '27, '28, '29, '30, '46, '47, '48, '49, '58. Milestone reunions will be held by the classes of 1934 (their 25th) and 1954 (their 5th.) Two classes. 1909 and '49, which are tapped under the Dix system for re- unions this year are also milestone reunion classes, the 50th and the tenth. Reunion class chairmen are al- ready laying plans for special re- union gatherings. And the Alumnae Association is working with the Fac- ulty Committee on Alumnae Rela- tions to make the April week end the kind that you want when you return to the campus. Blackfriars will pre- sent their annual spring play that Friday and Saturday nights; Satur- day morning there will be a "Going- Back-to-College" hour for those of us who yearn for some intellectual stimulation; and the hour before the Alumnae Luncheon we will meet in- formally with the faculty. So, come one. come all! AwvU (oJ^HsAjy ^W^Jfvv. ' J % / 5-S /;Mj* /44<*>***\ u y> I p THE "HISTORY OF PRINTING" MURAL l\ remarkable mural depicting the history of the written word has been created by Ferdinand Warren, N. A., head of the art department at Agnes Scott. Commissioned by an Atlanta printing house, the mural celebrates printing from primitive cave drawings through the Gutenburg Bible to contemporary presses. Mr. Warren has em- ployed dynamic texture and color in each panel; international recognition has been predicted for his innovations in the mural. nmna ALUMNAE QUARTERLY SPRING 1959 'Parmenides said, 'Reality cannot be otherwise than logic will allow that which is is, that which is not is not.' Now have I lost you?" SPECIAL REPORT THE COLLEGE TEACHER: 1959 See Page 10 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE / DECATUR, GEORGI, Volume 37, Number 3 CONTENTS The Lifeline To Greatness W. E. McNair 4 What America Reads Sybil Corbett Riddle '52 6 The College Teacher: 1959 A Special Report 10 Worthy Notes 27 Class News Eloise H. Ketchin 28 COVER It is a task to try to portray in pictures the art of teaching. Here the camera has captured C. Benton, Kline, Jr., dean of the faculty, teaching a philosophy class. See article on p. 10. (Cover photographs by Gaspar- Ware; frontispiece by W. A. Calder. I The Alumnae Association of Agnes Scott College Officers Bella Wilson Lewis '34, President Evelyn Baty Landis '40, Vice-President Sybil Corbett Riddle '52, Vice-President Caroline Hodges Roberts '48, Vice-President Mitzi Kiser Law '54, Vice-President Alice McDonald Richardson '29, Secretary Betty Jean Ellison Candler, '49, Treasurer Staff Ann Worthy Johnson, "38, Director of Alumnae Affairs Eloise Hardeman Ketchin. House Manager Dorothy Weakley '56, Office Manager Alumnae Trustees Mary Prim Fowler '29 Sarah Catherine Wood Marshall '36 Chairmen Elizabeth Blackshear Flinn '38, Class Council Patricia Collins Andretta '28, Constitution Mary Wallace Kirk '11, Education Alice Glenn Lowry '29, Entertainment Doris Dunn St. Clair x-'38, House Louise Girardeau Cook, '28, Nominations Mary Caroline Lee Mackay, '40, Property Jean Grey Morgan, '31, Publications Dorothy Cheek Callaway, '29, Special Events Barbara Smith Hull, '47, Vocational Guidance MEMBER OF AMERICAN ALUMNI COUNCIL The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly is published four times a year (November, February, April and July) by the Alumnae Association of Agnes Scott College at Decatur, Georgia. Contributors to the Alumnae Fund receive the magazine. Yearly subscription, $2.00. Single copy 50 cents. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office of Decatur, Georgia, under Act of Au-gust, 24, 1912. *fc ^ - .** %tt 4*~ "MP' /*>- '*. Black buildings on this drawing show tentative locations of new gymnasium, fine arts building and dormitory. THE LIFELINE TO GREATNESS Large Plans Are Ready for Agnes Scoit's Development By W. EJwarJ McNa Someone has said, "Make no small plans; they have no magic to challenge men's minds." Assuredly Agnes Scott has never made any small plans. In the earliest days when the institution had only five thousand dollars capital and no physical property, Colonel George W. Scott, our founder, wrote that it was his desire for the school to be as great as any institution of its kind in the land. From that day until now that same purpose has directed every effort and permeated all the plans of Agnes Scott. Certainly no small plans have been made. Through the years since 1889 one challenge after another has been met until today there is no college which surpasses Agnes Scott in academic recognition and. in the area of inde- U 3^*5 =* a. tftt r^A About the Author Dr. McNair is Director of Public Relations and De- velopment at Agnes Scott and is also a member of the English department's faculty. He holds a degree from Davidson College and two from Emory Uni- versity. Dr. W. E. McNair pendent colleges for women, only seven which \ks\ greater financial assets. Indeed, we of the present ai the recipients of a remarkable heritage of sacrifice, d votion, and unstinting effort. However, one is worthy of a great heritage only < he rises to its privileges and increases its values for sui ceeding generations. It was in this spirit that the Boar of Trustees in 1953 took the action which launched th development program in which we are now engaged. This program, as originally adopted on June 5, 195" envisioned increasing the assets of the college by $10 025.000. In 1957 this goal was increased to $10,475,00( this total being the aggregate of $8,050,000 for endow ment and .$2,425,000 for buildings, grounds, and equip ment. It is intended that this challenging goal be reache by 1964, the seventy-fifth anniversary of the foundin of the college. Since the inception of this program much has bee: accomplished. Hopkins Hall (completed in 1953) ani Walters Hall (completed in 19561 were among the need outlined in 1953. The renovation of Main, Rebekah Scott and Inman, as set forth in the initial development plans has been completed. Additional property has been pur chased, and many campus improvements have been made Moreover, in the last six years the endowment of thi college has been increased by more than $5,000,000 thereby bringing Agnes Scott's total assets to approxij mately $13,500,000. Of this total, $6,500,000 has beeij added within the framework of the development goal o THE AGNES SCOT' $10,475,000. Indeed, much has been achieved! But much still remains to be done before 1964. What, then, are the plans for raising the remaining $4,000,000 and how is it to be used? Let us deal with the second of these questions first. At least half of the sum to be raised will go into endowment. This area of the college's assets cannot be overempha- sized, for it is the life-line to the maintenance of the academic excellence which characterizes Agnes Scott. In the ten year period 1948-1958 the total expenditure for 'faculty salaries has increased by more than 105%. but iwhen one considers both that the cost of living has con- tinued to rise and that faculty compensation was at a .very low level in 1948, it is clear that the college still has much to do in this area. The competition in getting and holding skilled faculty members is becoming increas- jingly keen, and if Agnes Scott is to continue as a college 'where quality work is done, increased endowment from which income can be derived for the improvement of faculty salaries must be secured. (See the special article on page 10.) Further, there is need for additional invested funds for purposes of scholarships, or many young women who are in every way fitted for Agnes Scott will be unable to attend. The importance of increasing faculty salaries and of strengthening scholarship resources is attested by the circumstance that almost 80% of the total development goal is earmarked for endowment. New Buildings Needed In the realm of additional buildings there are also specific plans. For a long time Agnes Scott has needed an adequate student activities building. The old library, popularly known as the Hub, has in a makeshift way served this area of campus life for twenty years, but it was never intended to be used as an activities building. A commodious student center, then, is a must. Such a center as the Trustees have in mind needs to be in the dining hall-dormitory-classroom area of the campus; however all building sites on this part of the campus have long been in use. When it was realized that the student body has completely outgrown the present Bucher Scott Gymnasium (erected in 1925), the problem of the right location for the student activities building was solved. The gymnasium will be completely remodeled into an up-to-date student center and a new gymnasium will be constructed at the southwest end of the hockey field, this new physical education building to be large, modern, and functional in design. Another structure included in Agnes Scott's develop- ment program is a new fine arts building designed to accommodate the departments of art and speech. The art department, cramped as it now is in one wing of the third floor of Buttrick and in a portion of the basement of Campbell Hall (the science building), is in dire need of improved facilities. Also the department of speech has limped along for many years in inadequate quarters on the first floor of Bebekah Scott. The new building, as currently planned, will contain not only an art gallery but also class rooms, laboratories, offices, and a work-shop theater all facilities sorely needed by these departments in which work is steadily growing in scope and im- portance. Further, the shifting of the art department to this new building will free the space it now occupies and relieve over-crowding in other areas of Agnes Scott's academic program. Present plans call for the new fine arts building to front on McDonough street south of Campbell Hall. An additional dormitory is also in the picture. This building, it is hoped, will allow the college to eliminate the present outmoded "cottages" and house all resident students in adequate structures. This new dormitory, as now planned, will stand on the site presently occupied by Cunningham and Tart cottages. Bealizing that a major capital funds campaign will of necessity be a part of the completion of the seventv- fifth anniversary development plans, the Board of Trus- tees in the fall of 1958 through its development com- mittee, of which President Emeritus James Boss McCain is chairman, retained the firm of Marts and Lundy of New York to conduct a pre-campaign survey to determine what specific goals the college should aim for in a capital funds campaign. In this survey confidential interviews were held with a representative cross-section of alumnae, parents, students, faculty, and other friends of the col- lege, not only in the Atlanta area but also in four other geographical centers. In addition the administration of the college was asked to supply a vast amount of infor- mation. Having gathered all this material, officials of Marts and Lundy studied it carefully and early in 1959 submitted a full report of findings plus recommenda- tions. On March 13, 1959. the president of the firm met with the Board of Trustees and discussed what should be the next steps Agnes Scott would take. Campaign To Be Launched Meanwhile in January, 1959. during the period that Marts and Lundy was formulating its report and recom- mendations, Agnes Scott received from an anonymous donor a conditional gift of S500,000 payable on the con- dition that Agnes Scott raise the remaining $4,000,000 of its development goal on or before January 26. 1964. On the basis of this recent anonymous gift and the amount remaining to be secured toward the development ooal of 1964. the Board of Trustees in its meeting on March 13, 1959, unanimously voted to set the goal for the forthcoming capital funds effort at $4,500,000. The Board further approved in general the Marts and Lundy report with its recommendations and authorized the development committee to engage Marts and Lundy to conduct the capital funds campaign, delegating to the committee the responsibility and authority for working out and effecting this program. Thus. Agnes Scott is launched in another momentous activity one characterized by large plans. The aim and purpose of this program is to undergird the college for the challenging days ahead. It is designed to give Agnes Scott the resources necessary for the greatness which we firmly believe is the college's destiny. ALUMNAE QUARTERLY / SPRING 1959 i By SYBIL CORBETT RIDDLE '52 .0 THOSE OF US who are enter- tained by browsing the shelves of a second-hand bookstore, or reading the dim titles of our parents' or grandparents' library, the study of the best-selling books of America can be fascinating and adventurous. The literary taste of an age is a transient, varied, colorful show. For the true record of the vast public who take part in contemporary events, we must discover what they were thinking as well as what they were doing, and what they were reading of the mil- lions of pages of fiction and non-fic- tion written for them to digest. What makes a book popular? Re- cently in the New Yorker magazine, a cartoonist showed a publisher's agent exclaiming, "It can't miss, J. About the Author Sybil, Gene and their two children are living in Birmingham. She is a regional vice-president of the Alumnae Association and is completing a master's degree in English ; she used material from her thesis for this article. G. ! The author got disillusioned with Communism, escaped from behind the Iron Curtain, came to the United States, lived on a sharecropper's farm in Georgia, spent a year in a state insane asylum, turned to religion, and now is a monk!" Thus if we look for elements that produce best-sellers through the years, we are certain to glean a great many ill-assorted themes and no obvious answer to the ques- tion of literary taste. Certain themes do reappear, how- ever, over the decades, religion, ro- mance, self-help, historical or nostal- gic episodes. It is heartening to re- member one clear fact for the sake of the Christian foundations of our na- tion, though they seem often to have fallen. As Frank Luther Mott points out in Golden Multitudes, "Strictly speaking, there is only one all-time best seller the Bible and all others are only "better sellers" or "good sellers." If religion is a constant factor in popular books of America's three and a half cenutries, so, too, is romance, chiefly of the historical or nostalgic school. The novels of Sir Walter Scott and of James Fenimore Cooper, his American counterpart, were the most popular books in America in the early 1800's. The ideals of chivalry and honor in the ante bellum period of the South were derived in great measure from Scott's medieval novels. Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace, published in 1880, sparked a revival of the historical romance lasting to the turn of the cenutry. The 1930's and '40's saw a revival of the romance in the nostalgic vein; notable in this era were Anthony Adverse, and of course, Gone with the Wind. It would appear that periods o) stress and insecurity lead people to the religious theme for sources ol faith and to the romantic ideal for escape and entertainment. Whatever the theme or plot of a best-seller, thd single unifying element creating a popular book in a given era is simply the particular needs of the people at that point in history. Let's take a look now at the lead- ing books of the nation since 1900. We shall divide the half-century into four periods ; first, the Turn of the i i Century, then World War I and the i "Roaring Twenties," next, the De- 1 pression 30's and World War II and I last, the Post-war Decade just past. At the turn of the century, the U. S. could most truly be said to "stand on the threshold." Industry ' was booming, railroads had con- j quered the West, capitalism and giants of finance were in their hey- day. But while facing the world with I a bold and braggadocio front, the > nation was torn with internal dissen- j sion. In reading taste there was pri- marily a nostalgia for the early days of the nation. James Lane Allen and !, Winston Churchill were the leading II novelists, and their tool of expression U was the historical romance. Allen, j author of The Choir Invisible and The Kentucky Cardinal, was a sen- \\ timentalist, whose novels were marked by high ideals and nobly simple char- I acters. Winston Churchill, whose I THE AGNES SCOTT looks like Richard Carvel, The Crisis, nd The Crossing, led best-selling lists ,f fiction from 1901 to 1913, wrote n\h greater pith, taking as subjects he Revolutionary hero, the conflict if rebel heroine and Yankee lover If the Civil War period, and the ad- entures of George Rogers Clark. Another group of novels had a yet /ider appeal. These were books which adiated happiness and optimistic mtlook to the so-called down trodden nasses of the period, victims of in- lustrialism. Alice Rice led with Mrs. Viggs of the Cabbage Patch, the cene laid not in the vegetable garden it all, but in the slums of the Louis- ville factory district. Kate Douglas biggin followed with Rebecca of iunnybrook Farm, in which an or- phan girl portrayed unfailing optim- um in the face of poverty and sore jrials. Then appeared a sentimental Wthor whose fiction was to outsell kll others in this field, Gene Stratton- Porter, whose Laddie, Girl of the limberlost, and The Harvester are fond recollections of my own teen- age reading. Another Mrs. Porter (Eleanor H.) scored with the Polly- nna stores. Following these were the ighty-nine Grace Livingston Hill 'wholesome romances," perennial avorites of countless young girls and ttheir mothers. The same innocent type of fiction, though more rugged, attracted men. The popularity of these books stem- Jmed in part from the tremendous ap- peal of Theodore Roosevelt's espousal of the rough outdoor life. Jack Lon- don and Harold Bell Wright exem- plify this type of novelist, the first with pictures of primitive and wild jlife, the second with heroes who lived (clean and worked hard, and typified a kind of simple, muscular Christian- ity. How simple were the tastes in those days none of the psychological iprobings of the sex life of a middle- 'aged lawyer as seen in James Gould ICozzens' recent tome By Love Pos- sessed. Zane Grey later set an all-time ihigh record for total sales of adult I fiction with his myths of the western range. These proved to be exciting escape literature, "printed day- dreams" for the pre-movie era. Lastly in this period, there was the literature of the muckrakers. Socially conscious Americans read Lincoln Steffens' Shame of the Cities (1904) and other books whose authors pointed to the ills of industrialism. Such lurid themes as poverty, child labor, starvation and slums called forth a new realism in fiction. Out- standing of the new generation of authors were Frank Norris with The Pit (1903), Upton Sinclair with The Jungle (1906), and Winston Church- ill's Coniston ( 1906) . Sinclair's fam- ous novel prompted an investigation of filthy conditions in the meat-pack- ing industry, and resulted in pure food legislation. T YPICAL OF American feeling on the eve of World War I was the election slogan of Woodrow Wilson "He kept us out of war." Despite tremendous propaganda efforts of German and English journalists to sway public opinion each to his own side, and the war at sea that sank American ships and lost American lives, the American people remained relatively indifferent to the war in Europe right up to the eve of this country's entrance into the conflict. The top sellers in fiction to 1917 con- tinued to be the pale romances of Gene Stratton-Porter, and the he-man action stories of Zane Grey and Har- old Bell Wright. Beginning with the fact of United States' participation in the war, how- ever, there was a demand for war literature. One of the first and most influential of the war books was H. G. Wells' novel, Mr. Britling Sees It Through (1916-17), which gave Americans an insight into British character and behavior as an ally in war. The non-fiction list showed more clearly what the now war-minded United States wanted to read. There was the war poetry of Robert W. Service, and of Alan Seeger, who wrote "I Have a Rendezvous with Death." Arthur G. Empey's book Over the Top glorified the doughboy, and Edward Streeter's Dere Mable (1918) gave a touch of humor. The non-fiction of 1918 was primarily concerned with the bloody events in Europe, such as Richard Harding Davis' Adventures, and the several books by Coningsby Dawson on war as a crusade. In 1919 the top book in fiction was the famous Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Ibanez, an arresting combination of exciting romance and hatred of the Germans. Later, in 1921, the movie version of this war novel became the pathway to stardom for Rudolf Valentino. Following this, there was a complete fadeout of war books through the 1920's decade. A final postscript was added to the war literature in 1929, as a bitter novel by Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, summed up the disillusionment of a people sated with glory and honor, bent on achiev- ing material success. T _ he year 1920 is almost a magic date, for it ushered in a period of profound change in habits, attitudes, morals, and ideas among the Amer- ican people. Three primary elements of the new, so-called sophisticated attitude may be mentioned. The com- plete revulsion against the war just fought could be summed up in F. Scott Fitzgerald's statement that a new generation found "all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken." The automobile, shining symbol of speed, adventure, cosmo- politanism, brought far-flung altera- tion in habit and outlook for the average American family. Movies, radios, phonographs and jazz soon were replacing the quiet of the family parlor. Wartime had as always brought upheavals in society; labor came to the fore, as well as new rich, new middle, and especially new poor classes. The status of women was al- tered as we "emancipated ones" may still testify. In the intellectual field, Freud and ALUMNAE QUARTERLY / SPRING 1959 WHAT AMERICA READS Continued from page 7 Darwin were seeping through the up- per learned circles to greater num- bers of readers. Established writers and new ones gave impetus to a new morality and a breaking-down of old standards of behavior and belief. Notable new writings were the fiction of Mary Roberts Rinehart [Danger- ous Days, 1919) and Edith Wharton (Age oj Innocence, 1921). Sinclair Lewis in Main Street, published in 1921, brought a new note of realism into American fiction, which he con- tinued in his later best-selling novels Arroivsmith, Dodsworth, and Bab- bitt, the last adding a vivid new word to the American language idiom. F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels, be- ginning in 1920 with This Side oj Paradise, never reached the best seller lists, and were read by only a limited public. Nevertheless, they seemed to sum up the feeling of the jazz age. His works in turn affected other au- thors who did reach into every crevice of American life. His new description of hero and heroine as enjoying to the fullest the pleasures of the moment was in direct conflict with the earlier romantic notions of nobility, chastity, and idealism. In non-fiction, there was a steadier re-examination of former standards, a questioning of morals as judged by practical needs of the day, which represented a saner feel for values than that in fiction. The trend began with Henry Adams' critical examina- tion of his boyhood training in the light of contemporary need, in The Education of Henry Adams. This solid book led the best-selling non- fiction in 1919. and has since become a classic in our literature. Other books which were read for the light they might shed on past and future were Henrick Van Loon's The Story of Mankind, (19221 James Harvey Robinson's The Mind in the Making 1 1922), H. G. Wells' The Outline of History (1921-22), Lytton Strachey's Queen Victoria ( 1922 I , setting a new and urbane style for biography, and Will Durant's Story of Philosophy (1926-27). The religious theme pre- dominated in The Life of Christ (1923) by Papini, an interpretation in the light of the new psychology, and the books of Bruce Barton : The Man Nobody Knows and The Book Nobody Knows (1925-26), the last two on practical religion, written in a breezy, businessman's language. The rise of aviation was hailed with the popularity of We by Charles Lindbergh (1927) and Skyward by Admiral Richard Byrd (1928). There were many notable biographies which were widely read during the period, especially Victoria and Elizabeth and Essex by Strachey, Ludwig's three of Napoleon, Goethe, and Lincoln, and one of Henry VIII by Hackett. .HE change in temper from 1920 to 1930 was a phenomenon which took place almost overnight. Apropos was the sudden switch in popular song titles: 1928 "Making Whoo- pee," 1929 "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?," 1933 "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" People were unemployed, dispossessed, pov- erty-stricken; there were hungry, wandering millions. Then came the New Deal with its optimism and its determination to make things better. Where could they go but up? Although John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath did not appear until 1939, it quickly became the epic of the decade. Almost as stirring in its propaganda as Uncle Toms Cabin in the 1850's, it became the subject of impassioned discussion and the pe- riod's most popular novel, represent- ing the search for answers in terms of social values. The search went on in other areas, too, as great numbers of peopl sought new sources of faith. Man new sects and cults sprang up, note bly the Oxford Group with uppe class appeal, and Jehovah's Witnesse and Father Divine's "branch hef vens" at the other end of the pol( This religious fervor is reflected i the fact that in the period from 193 to 1945 there was at least one reli{. ious book on every annual best-selle list, while in the 1920's there wa hardly a volume. The Lloyd C. Doug las books began to appear in thi decade,Magnificent Obsession (1932) Forgive Us Trespasses (1932), Gree. Light (1935), White Banners (1936 and Disputed Passage (1939). Henr C. Link's well-known Return to Re ligion came out in 1937, and Sholen Asch's series of books began wit! The Nazarene in 1939. In the forties the demand for Bibles exceeded th book stores' supply, and heading th list of fiction best sellers for thre< consecutive years were Keys oj th Kingdom by A. J. Cronin, Song o Bernadette, by Franz Werfel, anc The Robe, by Lloyd C. Douglas. Rising from the same psychologica need of the people for reaffirmatioj of old values was Pearl Buck's Th Good Earth, which topped the fictioi lists in 1931 and '32. In the sarrn vein was Hilton's Lost Horizoi (1935) ; in non-fiction, Lin Yutang' graceful Oriental philosophy, Th Importance of Living, topped the lis in 1938. The general reader sought othei sorts of escape. There were Ely Cul bertson's Contract Bridge manuals also Life Begins at Forty, You Must Relax, Orchids on Your Budged especially Dale Carnegie's classic How to Win Friends and Influenct People, all of which offered momen tary vistas of success and security Escape readers also created a tre mendous vogue for the mystery anc detective story, especially the Earh Stanley Gardner series. Readers in the '30's and '40'$ seemed to prefer, however, historica novels. Hervey Allen's Anthony Ad verse in 1933 led off, topped the fie tion best sellers for two years run ning and set the pace for others tc follow. The greatest of all was Gone 8 THE AGNES SCOT1 with the Wind, which appeared in 1936, and proceeded to become America's largest-selling novel. Its dual appeal of action and characteri- sation was teamed with romanticism in setting and plot, realism in char- acters, and it became part of the fiber bf American thought. The appeal of the romantic past (Was a product of the hard times, to Ipeople frustrated by the present. Typical of a people's nostalgia were these best sellers, 1935, Thomas Wolfe's Of Time and the River; 1936, George Santayana's The Last Puri- tan; 1938, Marjorie Kinnan Rawl- tfngs, The Yearling; 1939, Eliza- beth Page's The Tree of Liberty. liXs World War II approached, 'there developed a great interest in 'non-fiction concerned with the rumbling events in Europe. Amer- icans bought Hitler's Mein Kampf, Vincent Sheehan's Not Peace but a Sword, John Gunther's Inside Asia, and William Shirer's Berlin Diary. In 1941, 7 out of 10 books on the non-fiction best-selling list were con- cerned with the war; in 1943, the proportion was 8 out of 10. The war best sellers included few jnovels, however. An exception was for Whom the Bells Tolls by Hem- 'ingway, published in 1940, which Isold 1 million copies by 1946. Stein- beck's The Moon is Down and John Hersey's A Bell for Adano were also highly popular war novels. The rash of war fiction in the postwar decade came as an afterthought. By 1945, the reading public had been greatly increased; it has been estimated that about 49 million people over 15 read at least one book a month. The world was as greatly altered after this war as by any previous con- flict. Events required a knowledge of new scientific discoveries and a re- orientation to a world always on the brink of war, if not involved in actual hostilities. Readers were led first of all to search for realities in religion. Rabbi Joshua Liebman's Peace of Mind, blending religious faith and techni- ques of modern psychology, was sec- ond on the best-selling non-fiction list in 1946, led all others in 1947 and was in third place in 1948. Other religious books were best- sellers, but none so popular as Peace of Mind. Norman Vincent Peale reached a large public with Guide to Confident Living in 1948 and The Power of Positive Thinking in 1952. Fulton J. Sheen's Peace of Soul and Fulton Oursler's Greatest Story Ever Told also made the best-seller lists. In 1950, 1952 and 1954 we had the Peter Marshall books, beginning with Mr. Jones, Meet the Master, then Catherine Marshall's two based on her husband's life. Beginning in 1952, the Revised Standard Version of the Bible headed the non-fiction list for four consecutive years. The religious theme in fiction again reflected the American's seek- ing of answers to the problems of the insecure days. Sample leading books were The Robe, Russell Janney's The Miracle of the Bells, Lloyd C. Doug- las' Big Fisherman, Agnes Sligh Turnbull's The Bishop's Mantle, Moses and Mary, by Sholem Asch. and Cardinal Spellman's The Foun- dling. One of the most surprising best sellers of the postwar period was Arnold Toynbee's A Study of History. This British historian linked history with theology and showed that the collapse of nations is concurrent with the failure of morals. Other strong sellers were the Kin- sey books on Male and Female Sexual Behavior (1948 and 1953). Thus, sensationalism became an habitual attitude following the horrors of war and psychological maladjustments. High on the lists of best-selling fic- tion were Earth and High Heaven by Gwethalyn Graham, Laura Z. Hob- son's Gentlemen's Agreement, Strange Fruit by Lillian Smith, and John Steinbeck's The Wayward Bus. We find this a continuing trend a reater preoccupation with sex and Drawings by Mary Dunn '59 sensationalism in fiction than ever before. Biographical books came back into vogue beginning with Betty Mc- Donald's The Egg and I (1945). Books about Franklin D. Roosevelt were legion; ranging from recollec- tions of cabinet members, his wife and son, to his secret-service guard and housekeeper, any and all Roose- velt reminiscences were collected. Other biographical studies which cap- tured the popular interest were: Black Boy by Richard Wright, Together by the wife of Gen. George C. Marshall. Gilbreth and Carey's Cheaper by the Dozen, Tallulah by the most famous Bankhead. the political autobiog- raphy Witness, by Whittaker Cham- bers, and /'// Cry Tomorrow by Lil- lian Roth. In non-fiction there was a rash of non-reading books; 1945-55 was the era of the do-it-yourselfer. Especially popular were cookbooks (4 best sellers in 10 years) , garden books, canasta books, picture books ranging from The American Past in 1947 to Ed- ward Steichen's Family of Man in 1955, from the Life and Times of the Schmoo in 1948 to Pogo in 1951. Now we may ask, what of the American reader today? Stuffed with psychology and sex, reaching for a practical religion, dreaming of doing it himself, what conscious thought does the general reader take for the issues of his time that will determine the future? Reading down the list of best sell- ers in recent years, especially non- fiction, we are forced to conclude with Randall Jarrell, writing in the Saturday Evening Post for July 26, 1958, that the taste of the age is ap- palling. Yet when many more mil- lions than ever before actually are reading something, that is itself a heartening fact. The tragedy is that to be intellectual is to be an egg- head, to read widely and construc- tively from the scholars of today is unheard of, certainly to discuss your thoughts on the crucial issues of the day with your neighbor often is to meet a blank wall. Yet, in a democ- racy, it behooves us all to become well-informed, to discipline ourselves to constructive and critical thinking. ALUMNAE QUARTERLY / SPRING 1959 PORTRAIT OF A POET: 1959 Tlic College Teacher: 1939 Poet Robert Frost's portrait, painted by Ferdinand Warren (left), head of the art department, hangs in the McCain Library. It was unveiled in January when Mr. Frost made his annual visit to Agnes Scott. Robert Frost wrote in a letter to Dr. Alston, upon the occasion of Miss Laney's retirement, "We teachers aren't permitted to visit each other's classes but we somehow come to know the good ones from the bad ones among us." The good ones are the core of higher education, and the following special report helps us understand why and how we must keep them so today. THE COLLEGE TEACHER: 1959 "If I were sitting here and the whole outside world were indifferent to what I was doing, I would still want to be doing just what I arn." I'VE ALWAYS FOUND IT SOMEWHAT HARD TO SAY JUST WHY I CHOSE TO BE A PROFESSOR. There are many reasons, not all of them tangible things which can be pulled out and explained. I still hear people say, "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach." But there are many teachers who can. They are teachers because they have more than the usual desire to communicate. They are excited enough about something to want to tell others, have others love it as they love it, tell people the how of some- thing, and the why. I like to see students who will carry the intellectual spark into the world beyond my time. And I like to think that maybe I have something to do with this. THERE IS A CERTAIN FREEDOM IN THIS JOB, TOO. A professor doesn't punch a time clock. He is allowet the responsibility of planning his own time and activi ties. This freedom of movement provides somethin very valuable time to think and consider. I've always had the freedom to teach what I believ to be true. I have never been interfered with in wha I wanted to say either in the small college or in thl large university. I know there have been and are inj fringements on academic freedom. But they've neve happened to me. THE COLLEGE TEACHER: 1959 I LIKE YOUNG PEOPLE. I REGARD MYSELF AS YOUNG. I'm still eager about many of the things I was eager about as a young man. It is gratifying to see bright young men and women excited and enthusiastic about scholarship. There are times when I feel that I'm only an old worn boulder in the never-ending stream of students. There are times when I want to flee, when I look ahead to a quieter life of contemplation, of reading things I've always wanted to read. Then a brilliant and likeable human being comes along, whom I feel I can help and this makes it all the more worthwhile. When I see a young teacher get a start, I get a vicarious feeling of beginning again. THE COLLEGE TEACHER: 1959 PEOPLE ASK ME ABOUT THE "DRAWBACKS" IN TEACHING. I find it difficult to be glib about this. There are majo problems to be faced. There is this business of salaries of status and dignity, of anti-intellectualism, of to< much to do in too little time. But these are problems not drawbacks. A teacher doesn't become a teache in spite of them, but with an awareness that the; exist and need to be solved. AND THERE IS THIS MATTER OF "STATUS." Terms like "egghead" tend to suggest that the in- tellectual is something like a toadstool almost phys- ically different from everyone else. America is ob- sessed with stereotypes. There is a whole spectrum of personalities in education, all individuals. The notion that the intellectual is somebody totally removed from what human beings are supposed to be is absurd. TODAY MAN HAS LESS TIME ALONE THAN ANY MAN BEFORE HIM. But we are here for only a limited time, and I would rather spend such time as I have thinking about the meaning of the universe and the purpose of man, than doing something else. I've spent hours in libraries and on park benches, escaping long enough to do a little thinking. I can be found occasionally sitting out there with sparrows perching on me, almost. "We may always be running just to keep from falling behind. But the person who is a teacher because he wants to teach, because he is deeply interested in people and scholarship, will pursue it as long as he can." Loren C. Eiseley T Ik .he circumstance is a strange one. In recen years Americans have spent more money on the trappings o higher education than ever before in history. Mor< parents than ever have set their sights on a college educatior for their children. More buildings than eve have been put up to accommodate the crowds. But in th< midst of this national preoccupation with higheij education, the indispensable element in education thel teacher somehow has been overlooked The results are unfortunate not only for college teachers, but for college teaching as well, and for all whose lives it touches, If allowed to persist, present conditions could lead to so serious a decline in the excellence of higher education' that we would require generations to recover from it.! Among educators, the problem is the subject of current concern and debate and experiment. What is missing, and urgently needed, is full public awareness of the problem and full public support of measures to deal with it.i H, .ere is a task for the college alumnus and alumna. No one knows the value of higher education better than the educated. No one is better able to take action, and to persuade others to take action, to preserve and increase its value.! Will they do it? The outlines of the problem, and some guideposts to action, appear in the pages that follow. I WILL WE RUN OUT OF I COLLEGE TEACHERS? No; there will always be someone to fill classroom vacancies. But quality is almost certain to drop unless something is done quickly WHERE WILL THE TEACHERS COME FROM? The number of students enrolled in America's colleges and universities this year exceeds last j year's figure by more than a quarter million. In ten years it should pass six million nearly double today's en- ! rollment. The number of teachers also may have to double. Some educators say that within a decade 495,000 may be needed J more than twice the present number. Can we hope to meet the demand? If so, what is likely 1 to happen to the quality of teaching in the process? "Great numbers of youngsters will flood into our col- i leges and universities whether we are prepared or not," a I report of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has pointed out. "These youngsters will be taught taught well or taught badly. And the demand for teachers will somehow be at least partly met if not with well-prepared teachers then with ill-prepared, if not with superior teachers then with inferior ones." Most immediate is the problem of finding enough qualified teachers to meet classes next fall. Col- lege administrators must scramble to do so. "The staffing problems are the worst in my 30 years' experience at hiring teaching staff," said one college presi- dent, replying to a survey by the U.S. Office of Educa- tion's Division of Higher Education. "The securing and retaining of well-trained, effective teachers is the outstanding problem confronting all col- leges today," said another. One logical place to start reckoning with the teacher shortage is on the present faculties of American colleges and universities. The shortage is hardly alleviated by the fact that substantial numbers of men and women find it necessary to leave college teaching each year, for largely financial reasons. So serious is this problem and so relevant is it to the college alumnus and alumna that a separate article in this report is devoted to it. The scarcity of funds has led most colleges and uni- versities to seek at least short-range solutions to the teacher shortage by other means. Difficulty in finding young new teachers to fill faculty vacancies is turning the attention of more and more ad- ministrators to the other end of the academic line, where tried and able teachers are about to retire. A few institu- tions have modified the upper age limits for faculty. Others are keeping selected faculty members on the payroll past the usual retirement age. A number of institutions are filling their own vacancies with the cream of the men and women retired elsewhere, and two organizations, the Asso- ciation of American Colleges and the American Associa- tion of University Professors, with the aid of a grant from the Ford Foundation, have set up a "Retired Professors Registry" to facilitate the process. Old restraints and handicaps for the woman teacher are disappearing in the colleges. Indeed, there are special opportunities for her, as she earns her standing alongside the man who teaches. But there is no room for com- placency here. We can no longer take it for granted that the woman teacher will be any more available than the man, for she exercises the privilege of her sex to change her mind about teaching as about other matters. Says Dean Nancy Duke Lewis of Pembroke College: "The day has passed when we could assume that every woman who earned her Ph.D. would go into college teaching. She needs something positive today to attract her to the col- leges because of the welcome that awaits her talents in business, industry, government, or the foundations. Her freedom to choose comes at a time when undergraduate women particularly need distinguished women scholars to inspire them to do their best in the classroom and labo- ratory and certainly to encourage them to elect college teaching as a career." SOME HARD-PRESSED ADMINISTRATORS find themselves forced to accelerate promotions and salary increases in order to attract and hold faculty members. Many are being forced to settle for less qualified teachers. In an effort to attract and keep teachers, most colleges are providing such necessities as improved research facili- ties and secretarial help to relieve faculty members of paperwork and administrative burdens, thus giving faculty members more time to concentrate on teaching and research. In the process of revising their curricula many colleges are eliminating courses that overlap one another or are considered frivolous. Some are increasing the size of lecture classes and eliminating classes they deem too small. Finally, somewhat in desperation (but also with the firm conviction that the technological age must, after all, have something of value to offer even to the most basic and fundamental exercises of education), experiments are being conducted with teaching by films and television. At Penn State, where televised instruction is in its ninth semester, TV has met with mixed reactions. Students consider it a good technique for teaching courses with large enrollments and their performance in courses em ploying television has been as good as that of student having personal contact with their teachers. The reactioi of faculty members has been less favorable. But accept ance appears to be growing: the number of courses offero on television has grown steadily, and the number of facult members teaching via TV has grown, also. Elsewhere, teachers are far from unanimity on the sub ject of TV. "Must the TV technicians take over the col leges?" asked Professor Ernest Earnest of Temple Uni versity in an article title last fall. "Like the conventiona lecture system, TV lends itself to the sausage-stuffing con cept of education," Professor Earnest said. The classroom he argued, "is the place for testing ideas and skills, for th interchange of ideas" objectives difficult to attain whei one's teacher is merely a shadow on a fluorescent screen The TV pioneers, however, believe the medium, usee properly, holds great promise for the future. FOR the long run, the traditional sources of suppl; for college teaching fall far short of meeting the de mand. The Ph.D., for example, long regarded b} many colleges and universities as the ideal "driver'; license" for teachers, is awarded to fewer than 9,(XX persons per year. Even if, as is probable, the number o; students enrolled in Ph.D. programs rises over the nexi i few years, it will be a long time before they have traveled jthe full route to the degree. Meanwhile, the demand for Ph.D.'s grows, as industry, i consulting firms, and government compete for many of the jmen and women who do obtain the degree. Thus, at the | very time that a great increase is occurring in the number of undergraduates who must be taught, the supply of new icollege teachers with the rank of Ph.D. is even shorter than usual. "During each of the past four years," reported the National Education Association in 1958, "the average i level of preparation of newly employed teachers has j fallen. Four years ago no less than 3 1 .4 per cent of the I new teachers held the earned doctor's degree. Last year only 23.5 per cent were at this high level of preparation." Here are some of the causes of concern about the Ph.D., to which educators are directing their attention: The Ph.D. program, as it now exists in most graduate schools, does not sufficiently emphasize the development of teaching skills. As a result, many Ph.D.'s go into teaching with little or no idea how to teach, and make a mess of it when they try. Many who don't go into teaching might have done so, had a greater emphasis been laid upon it when they were graduate students. The Ph.D. program is indefinite in its time require- ments: they vary from school to school, from department to department, from student to student, far more than seems warranted. "Generally the Ph.D. takes at least four years to get," says a committee of the Association of Graduate Schools. "More often it takes six or seven, and not infrequently ten to fifteen. ... If we put our heads to the matter, certainly we ought to be able to say to a good student: 'With a leeway of not more than one year, it will take you so and so long to take the Ph.D.' " "Uncertainty about the time required," says the Association's Committee on Policies in Graduate Educa- tion, "leads in turn to another kind of uncertainty financial uncertainty. Doubt and confusion on this score have a host of disastrous effects. Many superior men, facing unknowns here, abandon thoughts about working for a Ph.D. and realistically go off to law or the like. . . ." A lthough roughly half of the teachers in Amer- /\ ica's colleges and universities hold the Ph.D., more *- *- than three quarters of the newcomers to college and university teaching, these days, don't have one. In the years ahead, it appears inevitable that the proportion of Ph.D.'s to non-Ph.D.'s on America's faculties will diminish. Next in line, after the doctorate, is the master's degree. For centuries the master's was "the" degree, until, with the growth of the Ph.D. in America, it began to be moved into a back seat. In Great Britain its prestige is still high. But in America the M.A. has, in some graduate schools, deteriorated. Where the M.A.'s standards have been kept high, on the other hand, able students have been able to prepare themselves, not only adequately but well, for college teaching. Today the M.A. is one source of hope in the teacher shortage. "If the M.A. were of universal dignity and good standing," says the report of the Committee on Policies in Graduate Education, ". . . this ancient degree could bring us succor in the decade ahead. . . . "The nub of the problem ... is to get rid of 'good' and 'bad' M.A.'s and to set up generally a 'rehabilitated' de- gree which will have such worth in its own right that a man entering graduate school will consider the possi- bility of working toward the M.A. as the first step to the Ph.D " One problem would remain. "If you have a master's degree you are still a mister and if you have a Ph.D., no matter where it is from, you are a doctor," Dean G. Bruce Dearing, of the University of Delaware, has said. "The town looks at you differently. Business looks at you dif- ferently. The dean may; it depends on how discriminating he is." The problem won't be solved, W. R. Dennes, former dean of the graduate school of the University of California at Berkeley, has said, "until universities have the courage ... to select men very largely on the quality of work they have done and soft-pedal this matter of degrees." A point for parents and prospective students to remem- ber and one of which alumni and alumnae might re- mind them is that counting the number of Ph.D.'s in a college catalogue is not the only, or even necessarily the best, way to judge the worth of an educational institution or its faculty's abilities. To base one's judgment solely on such a count is quite a temptation, as William James noted 56 years ago in "The Ph.D. Octopus": "The dazzled read- er of the list, the parent or student, says to himself, 'This must be a terribly distinguished crowd their titles shine like the stars in the firmament; Ph.D.'s, Sc.D.'s, and Litt.D.'s bespangle the page as if they were sprinkled over it from a pepper caster.' " The Ph.D. will remain higher education's most honored earned degree. It stands for a depth of scholarship and productive research to which the master has not yet addressed himself so intensively. But many educational leaders expect the doctoral programs to give more em- phasis to teaching. At the same time the master's degre will be strengthened and given more prestige. In the process the graduate schools will have taken long step toward solving the shortage of qualified colleg teachers. Some of the changes being made by colleges an. universities to meet the teacher shortage constitut reasonable and overdue reforms. Other changes ar admittedly desperate and possibly dangerous attempt to meet today's needs. The central problem is to get more young peopl interested in college teaching. Here, college alumni an alumnae have an opportunity to provide a badly need service to higher education and to superior young peopl themselves. The problem of teacher supply is not on with which the college administrator is able to cope alone President J. Seelye Bixler, of Colby College, recentl said: "Let us cultivate a teacher-centered point of view There is tragedy as well as truth in the old saying that i Europe when you meet a teacher you tip your hat, whereal over here you tap your head. Our debt to our teachers il very great, and fortunately we are beginning to realizl that we must make some attempt to balance the accounl Money and prestige are among the first requirements. "Most important is independence. Too often we si back with the comfortable feeling that our teachers hav all the freedom they desire. We forget that the payol comes in times of stress. Are we really willing to allo\ them independence of thought when a national emergencl is in the offing? Are we ready to defend them against al pressure groups and to acknowledge their right to act a critics of our customs, our institutions, and even oul national policy? Evidence abounds that for some of ou more vociferous compatriots this is too much. They see n< reason why such privileges should be offered or why ; teacher should not express his patriotism in the same out worn and often irrelevant shibboleths they find so dea and so hard to give up. Surely our educational task ha not been completed until we have persuaded them that ; teacher should be a pioneer, a leader, and at times a non conformist with a recognized right to dissent. As Howan Mumford Jones has observed, we can hardly allow our selves to become a nation proud of machines that thinll and suspicious of any man who tries to." By lending their support to programs designed to imi prove the climate for teachers at their own colleges, alumn I can do much to alter the conviction held by many tha| teaching is tolerable only to martyrs. WHAT PRICE DEDICATION? Most teachers teach because they love their jobs. But low pay is forcing many to leave the profession, just when we need them most very Tuesday evening for the past three and a half months, the principal activity of a 34-year-old associate professor of chemistry at a first-rate mid- estern college has centered around Section 3 of the pre- vious Sunday's New York Times. The Times, which ar- tives at his office in Tuesday afternoon's mail delivery, :ustomarily devotes page after page of Section 3 to large telp-wanted ads, most of them directed at scientists and Engineers. The associate professor, a Ph.D., is job- Wnting. "There's certainly no secret about it," he told a recent lisitor. "At least two others in the department are look- 'ng, too. We'd all give a lot to be able to stay in teachi- ng; that's what we're trained for, that's what we like. But we simply can't swing it financially." "I'm up against it this spring," says the chairman of he physics department at an eastern college for women. ''Within the past two weeks two of my people, one an issociate and one an assistant professor, turned in their resignations, effective in June. Both are leaving the field one for a job in industry, the other for government ivork. I've got strings out, all over the country, but so "ar I've found no suitable replacements. We've always srided ourselves on having Ph.D.'s in these jobs, but it ooks as if that's one resolution we'll have to break in 1959-60." "We're a long way from being able to compete with ndustry when young people put teaching and industry on the scales," says Vice Chancellor Vern O. Knudsen of UCLA. "Salary is the real rub, of course. Ph.D.'s in physics here in Los Angeles are getting $8-12,000 in industry without any experience, while about all we can offer them is $5,500. Things are not much better in the chemistry department." One young Ph.D. candidate sums it up thus: "We want to teach and we want to do basic research, but industry offers us twice the salary we can get as teachers. We talk it over with our wives, but it's pretty hard to turn down $10,000 to work for less than half that amount." "That woman you saw leaving my office: she's one of our most brilliant young teachers, and she was ready to leave us," said a women's college dean recently. "I per- suaded her to postpone her decision for a couple of months, until the results of the alumnae fund drive are in. We're going to use that money entirely for raising sala- ries, this year. If it goes over the top, we'll be able to hold some of our best people. If it falls short. . . I'm on the phone every morning, talking to the fund chairman, counting those dollars, and praying." The dimensions of the teacher-salary problem in the United States and Canada are enormous. It has reached a point of crisis in public institutions and in private institutions, in richly endowed institutions as well as in poorer ones. It exists even in Catholic colleges and universities, where, as student populations grow, more and more laymen must be found in order to supplement the limited number of clerics available for teaching posts. "In a generation," says Seymour E. Harris, the dis- tinguished Harvard economist, "the college professor has lost 50 per cent in economic status as compared to the average American. His real income has declined sub- stantially, while that of the average American has risen by 70-80 per cent." Figures assembled by the American Association of University Professors show how seriously the college teacher's economic standing has deteriorated. Since 1939, according to the AAUP's latest study (published in 1958), the purchasing power of lawyers rose 34 per cent, that of dentists 54 per cent, and that of doctors 98 per cent. But at the five state universities surveyed by the AAUP, the purchasing power of teachers in all ranks rose only 9 per cent. And at twenty-eight privately controlled institutions, the purchasing power of teachers' salaries dropped by 8.5 per cent. While nearly everybody else in the country was gaining ground spectacularly, teachers were losing it. The AAUP's sample, it should be noted, is not repre- sentative of all colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. The institutions it contains are, as the AAUP says, "among the better colleges and universi- ties in the country in salary matters." For America as a whole, the situation is even worse. The National Education Association, which studied the salaries paid in the 1957-58 academic year by more than three quarters of the nation's degree-granting insti- tutions and by nearly two thirds of the junior colleges, found that half of all college and university teachers earned less than $6,015 per year. College instructors earned a median salary of only $4,562 not much better than the median salary of teachers in public elementary schools, whose economic plight is well known. The implications of such statistics are plain. "Higher salaries," says Robert Lekachman, professor of economics at Barnard College, "would make teaching a reasonable alternative for the bright young lawyer, the bright young doctor. Any ill-paid occupation becomes something of a refuge for the ill-trained, the lazy, and the incompetent. If the scale of salaries isn't improved, the quality of teaching won't improve; it will worsen. Unless Americans are willing to pay more for higher education, they will have to be satisfied with an inferior product." Says President Margaret Clapp of Wellesley College, which is devoting all of its fund-raising efforts to accumu- lating enough money ($15 million) to strengthen faculty salaries: "Since the war, in an effort to keep alive the profession, discussion in America of teachers' salaries has necessarily centered on the minimums paid. But insofar as money is a factor in decision, wherever minimums only are stressed, the appeal is to the underprivileged and the timid; able and ambitious youths are not likely to listen." PEOPLE IN SHORT SUPPLY WHAT IS THE ANSWER? It appears certain that if college teaching is tc attract and hold top-grade men and women, i drastic step must be taken: salaries must be doubled within five to ten years. There is nothing extravagant about such a proposal: indeed, it may dangerously understate the need. The current situation is so serious that even doubling his sal- ary would not enable the college teacher to regain his former status in the American economy. Professor Harris of Harvard figures it this way: For every $100 he earned in 1930, the college faculty member earned only $85, in terms of 1930 dollars, in 1957. By contrast, the average American got $175 in 1957 for every $100 he earned in 1930. Even if the pro- fessor's salary is doubled in ten years, he will get only a TEACHERS IN THE MARKETPLACE $70 increase in buying power over 1930. By contrast, the i average American is expected to have $127 more buying i power at the end of the same period. In this respect, Professor Harris notes, doubling faculty salaries is a modest program. "But in another sense," he says, "the proposed rise seems large indeed. None of the : authorities . . . has told us where the money is coming . from." It seems quite clear that a fundamental change in ; public attitudes toward faculty salaries will be necessary before significant progress can be made. Finding the money is a problem with which each college must wrestle today without cease. For some, it is a matter of convincing taxpayers and state legislators that appropriating money for faculty salaries is even more important than appropriating money for campus buildings. (Curiously, buildings are usually easier to "sell" than pay raises, despite the seem- ingly obvious fact that no one was ever educated by a pile of bricks.) For others, it has been a matter of fund-raising cam- paigns ("We are writing salary increases into our 1959-60 budget, even though we don't have any idea where the money is coming from," says the president of a privately supported college in the Mid-Atlantic region); of finding additional salary money in budgets that are already spread thin ("We're cutting back our library's book budget again, to gain some funds in the salary accounts"); of tuition increases ("This is about the only private enter- prise in the country which gladly subsidizes its customers; maybe we're crazy"); of promoting research contracts ("We claim to be a privately supported university, but what would we do without the AEC?"); and of bar- gaining. "The tendency to bargain, on the part of both the col- leges and the teachers, is a deplorable development," says the dean of a university in the South. But it is a grow- ing practice. As a result, inequities have developed: the teacher in a field in which people are in short supply or in industrial demand or the teacher who is adept at "campus politics" is likely to fare better than his col- leagues who are less favorably situated. "Before you check with the administration on the actual appointment of a specific individual," says a faculty man quoted in the recent and revealing book, The Academic Marketplace, "you can be honest and say to the man, 'Would you be interested in coming at this amount?' and he says, 'No, but I would be interested at this amount.' " One result of such bargaining has been that newly hired faculty members often make more money than was paid to the people they replace a happy circumstance for the newcomers, but not likely to raise the morale of others on the faculty. "We have been compelled to set the beginning salary of such personnel as physics professors at least $1,500 higher than salaries in such fields as history, art, physical education, and English," wrote the dean of faculty in a state college in the Rocky Mountain area, in response to a recent government questionnaire dealing with salary prac- tices. "This began about 1954 and has worked until the present year, when the differential perhaps may be in- creased even more." Bargaining is not new in Academe (Thorstein Veblen referred to it in The Higher Learning, which he wrote in 1918), but never has it been as widespread or as much a matter of desperation as today. In colleges and universi- ties, whose members like to think of themselves as equally dedicated to all fields of human knowledge, it may prove to be a weakening factor of serious proportions. Many colleges and universities have managed to make modest across-the-board increases, designed to restore part of the faculty's lost purchasing power. In the 1957 58 academic year, 1,197 institutions, 84.5 per cent of those answering a U.S. Office of Education survey ques- tion on the point, gave salary increases of at least 5 per cent to their faculties as a whole. More than half of them (248 public institutions and 329 privately supported insti- tutions) said their action was due wholly or in part to the teacher shortage. Others have found fringe benefits to be a partial answer. Providing low-cost housing is a particularly suc- cessful way of attracting and holding faculty members; and since housing is a major item in a family budget, it is as good as or better than a salary increase. Oglethorpe University in Georgia, for example, a 200-student, pri- vate, liberal arts institution, long ago built houses on cam- pus land (in one of the most desirable residential areas on the outskirts of Atlanta), which it rents to faculty mem- bers at about one-third the area's going rate. (The cost of a three-bedroom faculty house: $50 per month.) "It's our major selling point," says Oglethorpe's president, Donald Agnew, "and we use it for all it's worth." Dartmouth, in addition to attacking the salary problem itself, has worked out a program of fringe benefits that includes full payment of retirement premiums (16 per cent of each faculty member's annual salary), group in- surance coverage, paying the tuition of faculty children at any college in the country, liberal mortgage loans, and contributing to the improvement of local schools which faculty members' children attend. Taking care of trouble spots while attempting to whittle down the salary problem as a whole, searching for new funds while reapportioning existing ones, the colleges and universities are dealing with their salary crises as best they can, and sometimes ingeniously. But still the gap between salary increases and the rising figures on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' consumer price index persists. HOW CAN THE GAP BE CLOSED? First, stringent economies must be applied by educational institutions themselves. Any waste that occurs, as well as most luxuries, is probably being subsidized by low salaries. Some "waste" may be hidden in educational theories so old that they are acceptec without question; if so, the theories must be re-examine< and, if found invalid, replaced with new ones. The ide; of the small class, for example, has long been honorec by administrators and faculty members alike; there i now reason to suspect that large classes can be equall; effective in many courses a suspicion which, if foun< correct, should be translated into action by those institu tions which are able to do so. Tuition may have to bi increased a prospect at which many public-college, a well as many private-college, educators shudder, bu which appears justified and fair if the increases can b tied to a system of loans, scholarships, and tuition re bates based on a student's or his family's ability to pay Second, massive aid must come from the public, botl in the form of taxes for increased salaries in state anc municipal institutions and in the form of direct gifts t< both public and private institutions. Anyone who give: money to a college or university for unrestricted use o: earmarked for faculty salaries can be sure that he is mak ing one of the best possible investments in the free world' future. If he is himself a college alumnus, he may con sider it a repayment of a debt he incurred when his col lege or university subsidized a large part of his own edu cation (virtually nowhere does, or did, a student's tuitioi cover costs). If he is a corporation executive or director he may consider it a legitimate cost of doing business; th supply of well-educated men and women (the alternativt to which is half-educated men and women) is depended upon it. If he is a parent, he may consider it a premiun on a policy to insure high-quality education for his chil dren quality which, without such aid, he can be certair will deteriorate. Plain talk between educators and the public is a thirc necessity. The president of Barnard College, Millicent Cl Mcintosh, says: "The 'plight' is not of the faculty, but ot the public. The faculty will take care of themselves in the future either by leaving the teaching profession or bj never entering it. Those who care for education, those who run institutions of learning, and those who have chil dren all these will be left holding the bag." It is hard tc believe that if Americans and particularly college alum ni and alumnae had been aware of the problem, they would have let faculty salaries fall into a sad state. Ameri- cans know the value of excellence in higher education too well to have blithely let its basic element excellent teach- ing slip into its present peril. First we must rescue it; then we must make certain that it does not fall into dis- repair again. Some Questions for Alumni and Alumnae Is your Alma Mater having difficulty finding qualified new teachers to fill vacancies and expand its faculty to meet climbing enrollments? Has the economic status of faculty members of your college kept up with inflationary trends? Are the physical facilities of your college, including laboratories and libraries, good enough to attract and hold qualified teachers? Is your community one which respects the college teacher? Is the social and educational environment of your college's "home town" one in which a teacher would like to raise his family? Are the restrictions on time and freedom of teachers at your college such as to discourage adventurous research , careful preparation of instruction, and the expression of honest conviction? To meet the teacher shortage, is your college forced to resort to hiring practices that are unfair to segments of the faculty it already has? Are courses of proved merit being curtailed? Are classes becoming larger than subject matter or safeguards of teacher-student relationships would warrant? Are you, as an alumnus, and your college as an insti- tution, doing everything possible to encourage talented young people to pursue careers in college teaching? If you are dissatisfied with the answers to these questions, your college may need help. Contact alumni officials at your college to learn if your concern is justified. If it is, register your interest in helping the college authorities find solutions through appropriate programs of organized alumni cooperation. EDITORIAL STAFF DAVID A. BURR The University of Oklahoma DAN H. FENN, Jr. Harvard University RANDOLPH L. FORT Emory University CORBIN GWALTNEY The Johns Hopkins University L. FRANKLIN HEALD The University of New Hampshire CHARLES M. HELMKEN St. John's University JEAN D. LINEHAN The American Alumni Council ROBERT L. PAYTON Washington University MARIAN POVERMAN Barnard College FRANCES PROVENCE Baylor University ROBERT M. RHODES Lehigh University WILLIAM SCHRAMM The University of Pennsylvania VERNE A. STADTMAN The University of California FREDERIC A. STOTT, Jr. Phillips Academy, Andover FRANK -J. TATE The Ohio State University ERIK WENSBERG Columbia University CHARLES E. WIDMAYER Dartmouth College REBA W1LCOXON The University of Arkansas CHESLEY WORTHINGTON Brown University ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Photographs: Alan J. Bearden Printing: R. R. Donnelley & Sons Co. This survey was made possible in part by funds granted by Carnegie Corporation of New York. That Corporation is not, however, the author, owner, publisher, or proprietor of this publication and is not to be understood as approving by virtue of its grant any of the statements made or views expressed therein. The editors are indebted to Loren C. Eiseley, professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, for his contributions to the introductory picture section of this report. No part of this report may be reprinted without express permission of the editors. PRINTED IN U.S.A. (jJcrdtko/ "Oi Shoes and Snips and Sealing W ax This issue of The Quarterly has been |a particularly exciting one for me, its editor, for two reasons. First, we were able to publish the special ar- ticle (see page 10) on faculty prob- lems. Dave Garroway said, on his TV program, "Today," March 25th, that the article would be published in "all the better alumni magazines in the nation." Our thanks go to the American Alumni Council under whose auspices the report was pre- pared, and to the Carnegie Corpora- tion which granted funds to the Council for editing costs. Second, this issue is being mailed to all alumnae whose addresses we have, and our thanks go to the Col- lege for the additional financial bounty to make this possible. And more hearty thanks go to the College for the good news that next year all four issues of The Quarterly will go to all alumnae, beginning with the fall issue. This means that a contribution to the Alumnae Fund is no longer a requisite for receiving the magazine. It also means that next year we must plan our contributions to the Alumnae Fund with honest care: we are supporting the kind of education we received and want others to con- tinue to receive. More of us need to contribute, and all of us need to contribute more. Now is the moment to turn back and read, or re-read, Dr. McNair's article (page 4j on plans for Agnes Scott's development. I like Ed's phrase describing this whole effort as "Agnes Scott's vision of greatness." Dr. Alston makes this vision more explicit in his address at the Alum- nae Luncheon on April 18. Be as- sured that alumnae will be kept in- formed as plans and decisions are made in the development program. The moving of Class Reunions, the Alumnae Luncheon and the Annual Meeting of the Alumnae Association out of the hectic Commencement weekend has proved to be propitious. Alumnae can more quickly plunge into Agnes Scott's own atmosphere when College is in session. So, many good heads and hands have worked to help alumnae do just this on April 17-18. Roberta Winter '27 and her Blackfriars chose four contemporary one-act plays to pro- duce for us; three faculty members were asked to do special lectures for us, Dr. Garber on archeology and the Bible, Dr. Omwake on child de- velopment and Dr. Sims on current educational trends. There was also a pleasantly informal hour with the faculty and Dr. Calder had "Obser- vatory Open House" for us. Behind this program lies an attempt to answer the demand from you for in- tellectual stimulation when you re- turn. Another hue and cry from you is to continue publishing new addresses in The Quarterly. We accede to this demand in this issue and will con- tinue to print them in next year's is- sues; they cannot be reprinted in the last issue this year, Summer, 1959. Several of you have asked where to get Simone Weil's books. This stems from Miss Leyburn's article on her writings in the last Quarterly. The three books from which Miss Leyburn quoted, Gravity and Grace, The Need for Roots and Waiting for God, are all published by Putnam, 210 Madison Ave., N. Y. 16. There is also a paper-back edition of The Need for Roots, published by Beacon Press, 25 Beacon St., Boston 8. This leads me to confess that my printer and I have been in some sack-cloth and several ashes; there was a typographical error in Miss Leyburn's name in the Winter Quar- terly, and to the first person who writes me about a gross error on the front cover of that issue, I'll send, free, a copy of a book titled: A Primer of Alumni Work. My calendar shows May Day back in its proper place the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice will be its theme, and modern dance its hall- mark. Then, we draw one deep breath and Agnes Scott's seventieth Com- mencement will be at hand, June 8, 1959. (^^-vtuO^VW ^^sW^hf^v. >* 27 71 1 )r. George Hayes, head of the English department, and Dr. Mat French department, are on leave this quarter, and each garet Phyth is traveling ian '16, head of the tn Europe. Alumnae Fund Report April 1, 1959 Total: $17,066.79 Restricted $ 4,054.6 Unrestricted _ 13,012.1 Total Contributors: 1435 22% of 6592 contacted 35% of graduates The overall percentage of contribute (22%) is based on the total number < alumnae who are contacted we have 65 i, ' ^ THE ALUMNAE QUARTERLY SUMMER 1959 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE / DECATUR, GEORGI Volume 37, Number 4 CONTENTS On Having a Point of Reference James T. Cleland 4 Eloise H. Ketchin 8 Class News Worthy Notes 19 COVER Jane King '59, her parents, Mr. and Mrs. M. M. King, and brother, Al, of Bristol, Va., leave Inman Hall (where Jane served as house president) with a small portion of the car's load. (See back cover) Photographs by Kerr Studies. Frontispiece (by Jim Brantley) shows the 1959 baccalaureate procession. The Alumnae Association of Agnes Scott College Officers Bella Wilson Lewis "34, President Evelyn Baty Landis '40, Vice-President Kathleen Buchanan Cabell '47 Vice-President Caroline Hodges Roberts '48, Vice-President Marybeth Little Weston '48, Vice-President Gene Slack Morse "41, Secretary Betty Jean Ellison Candler, '49, Treasurer Staff Ann Worthy Johnson, '38, Director of Alumnae Affairs Eloise Hardeman Ketchin, House Manager Dorothy Weakley '56, Assistant Director of Alumnae Affairs Alumnae Trustees Mary Prim Fowler '29 Sarah Catherine Wood Marshall '36 Chairmen '38, Elizabeth Blackshear Flinn Class Council Sara Frances McDonald '36, Constitutio Mary Wallace Kirk '11, Education Alice Glenn Lowry '29, Entertainment Doris Dunn St. Clair x-'38, House Jean Bailey Owen '39, Nominations Virginia Brown McKenzie '47, Propert Jean Grey Morgan, '31, Publications Dorothy Cheek Callaway, '29, Special Events Barbara Smith Hull, '47, Vocational Guidance MEMBER OF AMERICAN ALUMNI COUNCIL The Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly is published four times a year (November, February, April and July) by the Alumnae Association of Agnes Scott College at Decatur, Georgia. Contributors to the Alumnae Fund receive the magazine. Yearly subscription, $2.00. Single copy 50 cents. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office of Decatur, Georgia, under Act of August, 24, 1912. ! mm _ ""-"' "^i ON HAVING A POINT Ol Such A Point Agnes Scott Can Be Suggests The 1Q5Q Baccalaure% Many OF YOU are acquainted, I hope, with the writings of John Buchan, the Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and biographer, who died a few years ago when Governor General of Canada. Perhaps you know him better as Lord Tweedsmuir. His auto- biography Pilgrim's Way has been a best-seller, and it may well become a classic. There is one tale in it that has always been a sheer delight to me. It brings together two very diverse geo- graphical localities. One is Rothiemurchus. a little high- land hamlet nestling under the shoulders of the Cairn- gorms, part of the mountainous backbone of Scotland. It is a wee bit village; in 1957 the parish kirk could boast of but 154 members. The place with which it is linked is Baghdad, the fabled old Mohammedan city in Iraq, on the eastern bank of the Tigris. It was once renowned for learning and culture; it was a cross-center of trade and was known for its minarets and gardens and palaces. What have these two places in common in John Buchan's tale a Scottish village and a Mesopotam- ian city? For that we have to go back to the War of 1914-18. Baghdad was a Turkish base of operations against the British in Mesopotamia. In 1916 General Townshend had been defeated at Kut, and British prestige was at a low ebb in the Near East. But in 1917 a new campaign was opened, and in due course Baghdad was captured. There was in that successful British force a boy from Rothie- murchus, who was wounded and shipped home. A friend of John Buchan saw the soldier in hospital and asked him where he had received his wound. He answered simply and to the point: "It was twa miles on the Roth- iemurchus side of Baghdad." Two miles on the Roth- iemurchus side of Baghdad! And John Buchan com- mented: "His native parish under the knees of the Cairngorms was the point from which he adjusted him- self in a fantastic world, and the city of the Caliphs was only an adjunct." The Rothiemurchus side of Baghdad! He estimated the world by what he knew as really mean- ingful to him. He had a point of reference that was fixed, steady, immutable, to which all else referred, and by which all else was measured. He drew his meridian not through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, but through his mother's cottage in Rothiemurchus. No longer is Baghdad a far away place, with a strange-sounding name, when you know which part of it is the Roth- iemurchus side. You domesticate it. You make it a suburb of home. a Rothiemurchus as hdads of the world. IT IS IMPORTANT for us to have we dwell in and visit the Ba^ Why? For one thing, it gives us a fixed point amid the drift and swirl of the passing show. It is a passport from home in the midst of a world of alien visas. It is a point of reference by which we fix the geography of the world we experience. Think of David in the Old Testament, chased all over the foothills of Judah by the Philistines; separated from home, a fugitive with a price on his head, a stranger in his own land. Do you recall how he sits with his men outside the Cave of Adullam, during a lull in the constant, miserable going-to-and-fro? He re- flects. And his mind goes back to one place. Bethlehem his village, his father's farm, the flocks he tended his home. He mutters to himself, yet loudly enough for others to hear: "Oh, that someone would give me a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem that is at the gate." (II Samuel 23:15) Three of his men did just that. They broke through the Philistine lines and brought him a skinful of Bethlehem water. That steadied David. He went on from there to complete and decisive victory, to the kingship. He made Jerusalem his capital city, but he is always known as "David of Bethlehem." A point of reference can be a stabilizing influence, partly because it is a known and loved fact in a world of That's Rothiemurchus over against Baghdad. A point of reference can also be a source of endless satisfaction. It can be a memory that sweetens the sour days, that gives a chuckle to the heart when the environ- ment is gloomy and the atmosphere raw. Leigh Hunt has put that fact into memorable lines: Jenny kiss'd me when we met, Jumping from the chair she sat in; Time, you thief, who love to get Sweets into your list, put that in ! Say I'm weary, say I'm sad, Say that health and wealth have miss'd me, Say I'm growing old, but add, Jenny kiss'd me. change. THE AGNES SCOTT tEFERENCE par ess by James T. Clef an a These last four times have caught something that noth- ing can destroy or even damage: Say I'm weary, say I'm sad. Sav that health and wealth have miss'd me, Say I'm growing old, but add. Jenny kiss'd me. There's a memory from Rothiemurchus that is a source of endless satisfaction in Baghdad. A point of reference can be a point of return. It is not good for us to be drifters, voyagers with no home port, tramp steamers which seldom return to the home waters. It breeds restlessness and a discontent; it makes us foot- less rather than footloose. We become a thing of shreds and patches, a picker-up of unconsidered trifles. Baghdad is fun: it is exciting; it is stimulating; it is challenging. But it is wise to take time out, to go home on furlough, to see the old familiar faces and the half-forgotten scenes. Here are some lines from The Laws of the Navy, a parody on Kipling's The Laa- of the Jungle: When the ship that is tired returneth, With the signs of the sea showing plain; Men place her in dock for a season. And her speed she regaineth again. So shalt thou, lest perchance thou grow weary, In the uttermost parts of the sea. Pray for leave, for the good of the service, As much and as oft as may be. It may be fun to be a ramblin' wreck. But I'm sure it is more sensible fun to be a ramblin' wreck from Georgia Tech. Because then one does have a point of return. Don't forget to come back to Rothiemurchus after you have wearied your feet and yourself in Baghdad. Thus, it is a good thing to have a point of reference. It steadies us. delights us, and receives us to itself. THE HOPE OF the administration and faculty of this college is. I am sure, that Agnes Scott will be to vou just such a point of reference. They want Agnes Scott to be for each of you an established, known, and loved fact. They want it to be a source of endless satisfaction. They want it to be a point of glad return. They want it to be Rothiemurchus in a world of a thou- sand Baghdads. For those of you who are graduating, the College has continued on page 6 DR. ALSTON LEADS A COMMENCEMENT SERVICE IN GAINES CHAPEL. ALUMNAE QUARTERLY / SUMMER 1959 BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS Continued sought to enlarge your cultural interests; to stabilize you with a sense oi history; to cultivate a taste in lit- erature, in more than one literature; to stretch your thinking and to make it thinking. It has strived to open up enough vistas to make you wish to wander down them for years. Not all of you will. I think of the re- action of two students to a course on Shakespeare. One became so excited about the dramatist and his era that he made the Elibabethan period his avocation. He laid possessive hands on great wealth in the commercial world, and when he died he gave his college and his nation and the world the Folger Shakespearean Library in Washington. The other student, returning to his Alma Mater for a reunion, stumbled across his English professor and com- mented: "There is a question I've been meaning to ask you for years. You may recall that I never completed your class. I left in the middle of Hamlet. Would you tell me: How did the play ever come out?" (Yet I am told he probably makes a good alumnus. We shall not go into the connotation of "good." I For some of you the elect your courses have offered you a fixed point of judgment and taste, a norm of deep satisfaction by which you will test what life brings to you. In the papers you have written you have sought to add something to the sum total of your knowledge. It may be a very little something, at its best; but it is something discovered, nourished, and brough to ma- turity with care, with accuracy, with insight, and with due recognition of the contribution of others. That is a sound point of reference for the future. That is true in the scientific disciplines also. There you have been subjected to the demands of measurable accuracy. You have been rigorously taught to seek the truth, come whence it may, cost what it will. You have been disciplined to obey the laws of nature. Sometimes you have been able to' adapt them for man's comforl but only if you cooperated with them. That is a gooi point of reference. Thus Agnes Scott has hoped and tried to be in dii ferent areas, with different interests, a Rothiemurchus- an established fact in your life, and an experience o deep satisfaction. Morever, it wishes to be a point o return. You will come back for class reunions, or at othe seasons. Good, but not good enough. The folk who taugh you know that, and they ask you keep in touch in sucl a way that the standards set and accepted may be main tained and improved for the College and for you. Ther are the alumnae groups throughout the land, where no* and again you may hear about your Alma Mater and it hopes and fears, its disappointments and successes. Ni matter in what Baghdad you exist, Rothiemurchus wil be whispering its wisdom and its love. It will keep yoi in mind of its various points of reference. Although these individual and separate points o /\ reference are good, there is one criticism o A. .m. them which is valid. They are too numerous ti make for an integrated alumnae body. Loyalty to an' one of them would mean the fragmentation of life rathe than its unification. They would set you off in separati fields of enterprise, with scarcely a gate breaching thi walls and hedges. Good fences do not necessarily maki good neighbors. Robert Frost is right: "Something then is that doesn't love a wall." In a college we seek the truth. It is surely a valid as sumption that there is a unity to truth, and that eacl several part is what it is by virtue of its place within th( whole. But it is an obivous fact that no one academic study ever grasps the whole. Some would say that then is no attempt made by any to grasp the whole. They art ! JAMES T. CLELAND, Duke University A Rothiemurchus for Dr. Cleland may well be Duke University, where this Scotsman is now the James B. Duke Professor of Preaching and Dean of the Chapel. Born in Glasgow in 1908, Dr. Cleland earned his M. A. at Glasgow Uni- versity and then came to Union Theological Seminary in New York, from which he holds two degrees, S.T.M. (summa cum laude) and Th.D. Davidson College has awarded him an honor- ary D.D. degree. Aside from degrees, he is a master of the arts of preaching and teach- ing; in addition to holding five lectureships at theological seminaries, he has been on the fac- ulties of Amherst, Union Theological Seminary, Pacific School of Religion and Duke. He wen i to Duke as Professor of Preaching in 1954 anc[ was named Dean of the Chapel there in 1955 He is in such demand as a speaker, teacheii and preacher that President Alston had to in vite him many months ago to preach Agnel Scott's 1959 Baccalaureate Sermon. His word:! go so straight to alumnae hearts, as well as tcl Seniors', that we wanted to share them witr alumnae. If you would like to persue his writ ings further, he lists the following publications The True and Lively Word (1954) and sermon; in Best Sermons, 1949-50 (1949) and in Thefj Interpreter's Bible (1953-57, Vols. II and VI). THE AGNES SCOTT 'severally content with the area prescribed to each. Each has enough to do to probe the depths of its own particu- lar interest. Yet there must be some unity, some over-all wholeness, which embraces every particular area, so as to give meaning to the business of living something which unites literary criticism and nuclear physics, Which links the Mendelian Law and the Beethoven Fifth, which makes Karl Marx and Winston Churchill brothers lunder the skin, away under the skin. How do we find 'their interrelatedness, and so the unity in which all 'cohere? Here we are driven back to philosophy and religion. We are forced back, down and up to the idea of God. That is all-important to any person as a person, though it may seem remote to her as an economist, as a nurse, as a musician, as an English major, or as a house- Wife. Theology will always be in theory the Queen of the Sciences. As Dr. Van Dusen, the President of Union Theological Seminary, has pointed out: it will be the Queen of the Sciences, "not because the Church says so, or because superstition or tradition have so imposed it upon human credulity, or because it was so recognized iin one great age of learning, but because of the nature ! of Reality because if there be a God at all, He must ! be the ultimate and controlling Reality, through which all else derives its being; and the truth concerning Him, as best we can .apprehend it, must be the keystone of the ever-incomplete arch of human knowledge." I imagine that it why we are here in this Baccalaureate Service Sbefore you graduate on the morrow. It is a recognition of that fact that only under God is our knowledge com- iplete; that the fear of the Lord i.e., religion is some- thing beyond knowledge; it is the beginning of wisdom. I hope you will make the 139th Psalm part of your iheritage. It is the poetic prayer of a God-conscious man, la man who knows that no matter what he thinks or says or does, no matter where he is in life or death, he is constantly under the eye of God. Do what he will, he cannot escape God once he has become aware of Him. It is an awesome fact, to become so aware of the living God. Listen to Him: Lord, thou hast searched me. and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou under- standest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art ac- quainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand it is high, I can- upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; not attain unto it. Whilher shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou ait there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the utter- most parts of the sea; Even there shall ihy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. AtUMNAE QUARTERLY / SUMMER 1959 Let us bring that norm to our condition. It is good to be a research student in Medieval History. Yes, but it is not the point of reference for testing life. It is good to be a buyer of merchandise. Yes, but at most it gives you a job. It is good to be a nurse. Yes, but how do you relate new life and new death in your care of the patient? What the different disciplines can each give us is its distinctive point of reference for making a liv- ing or enjoying a life. Each gives us a point of refer- ence. They cannot, and do not, (or should not I, give us the point of reference for mortal men and women, who are set in the mystery of whence and whither. When man thinks hard, and thinks wholly, not fragmentarily. he begins to think of God and His ways with men. That has been obvious in fiction like Mountain Meadow and movies like The Little World of Don Camillo. It is the nub of plays as old as the Antigone and as new as Fam- ily Portrait. We need your separate brains, your distinctive trained minds, on this question of integration and unification in God, because it is a question of the whole truth. We need your insights and researches, not in competition, but in cooperation, to help us know more and more about God and His purpose for man. It means that the poet and the scientist, the prophet and the technician, the mystic and the research scholar should work to- gether. This question of God is tremendously important for all of you, because long before you were Agnes Scott graduates ( and long after I , you were women, the crea- tures of a Creator. He is the point of reference. I HAVE BEEN talking about Rothiemurchus and Bagh- dad. I want to change the name of one of these towns to another name already mentioned. Baghdad remains; it is always with us. I want to substitute an- other for Rothiemurchus. An Old Testament story tells us of a statesman, Daniel by name, who was caught in a political frame-up in the town of Babylon, not too far from the present site of Baghdad. He was commanded by law to do something against his principles. What did he do? He opened his windows toward Jerusalem, and laid the matter before God. Then he defied the authori- ties. Now, why Jerusalem? That was his homeland, his spiritual homeland. He tested Babylon by Jerusalem. Our churches are oriented east; the altar or the com- munion table stands in what is the ecclesiastical East even if it be not the geographical east. Why? Because it, too, points to Jerusalem. It reminds us of Daniel and of a greater than Daniel. It reminds us of Jesus the Christ, whose standard was so consciously and consisten- ly the idea of God that, in an endeavor to understand him, men called him the Son of God, the Word of God become flesh. When we begin to know what he was seek- ing to do in the name of God. and begin to understand what he was seeking to teach about the character and will of God, and begin to follow in the way that he walked through life under the eye of God. then our Rothiemurchus will be Jerusalem. And we shall live, and one day we shall die, on the Jerusalem side of Baghdad. DEATHS INSTITUTE 1936 Ruth Holleyman Patillo, April 9. Nina Jones, March 5. Her sisters are Lillian Jones Grey Academy, and Inez Jones Wright "11. Annie Laurie McDuffie Monroe, April 25. ACADEMY Emmakate Amorous Vretman, April 15. Dr. Hal Curtis Miller, husband of Lil- lian Davies Miller, Feb. 27. 1911 Virginia Hoffman Leach, March 26. 1913 Christian A. Raauschenberg, husband of Lina Andrews Rauschenberg, March 3. 1919 Margaret Burge. April 16. George W. Stowe, father of Mary M: garet Stowe Hunter and Mabel Stoi Query "43. April 18. 1938 Walter Goode Paschall, husband of El King Paschall, May 5. 1942 Mrs. Roscoe Arant, mother of Marti Arant Allgood and Louise Arant Rice '5 April 12. 1949 Sarah Elizabeth ""Boo" Agel. daughter "Penny" Rogers Agel and Fred, Feb. 2 1951 J. Donald Reid, husband of Ann Kinca Reid, Feb. 28. 1956 Jacqueline Plant Fincher's father, Man 14. THE AGNES SCO" Lcrfcu^ . Brief Words On Some Beloved Agnes Scott Folk nes Scott's Commencement, the end of the academic ar and publishing the year's last issue of the Quarterly ake me feel as if I should write you an evaluation, a miming up of 1958-59. But President Alston will do this for you and more jautifully and better than I could in his annual report. p, I would just like to call to your minds some of the eople who are a part of Agnes Scott. First, let me commend to you. individually and col- ctively, the Class of 1959. 108 strong. As they assume umnae status, they should know that they are, indeed, welcome addition to the 3600 graduates of the College, nd let me assure them that we will begin publishing ews about them in the fall issue of this magazine. During the year, several alumnae have been asked to spresent Agnes Scott at colleges and universities which ere holding inaugurations for new presidents. This srvice on the part of alumnae is a good example of the vo-way path between alumnae and the College. I quote rom a report Ann Alvis Shibut '56 wrote after attend- ig such a ceremony at the University of Hawaii: "'I did ome thinking on the way home: I had welcomed the nance to participate in the ceremony for several reasons: ) repay in some way all that Agnes Scott had meant to le. . . . The experience of serving as Agnes Scott's dele- ate .. . brought me an enriched feeling of pride in my wn alma mater and its administration and faculty." Other alumnae representing Agnes Scott were: Vir- inia Sevier Hanna '27, Virginia Caldwell Payne '37, lentry Burks Bielaski '41, Sybil Corbett Riddle '52, Scott Jewell Newton '45, Helen Land Ledbetter '52, Frances ireg Marsden '41, Mitzi Kiser Law '54, Isabel Ferguson lagardine '25, Eugenie Dozier '27, Miriam Preston St. llair '27 and Mary Ford Kennerly '19. One page 9 you will find that Miss McKinney, beloved rofessor-emeritus of English, has been in the news re- ently. So, also, has been Dr. Alma Sydenstricker, pro- sssor-emeritus of Bible, who, at the age of 93 has just ompleted a nine-months course in Bible study, given to ame 200 women in weekly classes in her home in Bates- LUMNAE QUARTERLY / SUMMER 1959 ville, Ark. A story about her was published in the Arkansas Democrat May 10, 1959, from which I quote: "Mrs. Sydenstricker has a brilliant mind. She was graduated from Montgomery College, Montgomery, Mo., her birthplace, at the age of 16. When only 22 she was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree at the Uni- versity of Wooster, now Wooster College, in Ohio. She was the first woman ever to receive a Ph.D. degree from the school, and at that time she was among the few women in the nation with a Ph.D. degree .... "Mrs. Sydenstricker speaks and reads six different languages. Her large Bible is written in six languages Hebrew. Latin. Greek. German. French and Italian . . . She has been 'retired' as a professor of Bible at Agnes Scott College since 1943 after serving in that capacity for 26 years . . . Dr. Sydenstricker is already looking forward to next fall's classes." The exigencies of printing space do not allow me to quote from the many letters we receive from Agnes Scott people or to print the letters themselves. There is space to share with you part of one from an alumna of my class, 1938. Elsie West Meehan wrote of her pleasure in knowing that the Quarterly would go to all alumnae next year, because "we don't have any conscious interest in current events, and like the senile, remember mostly the cold grits on the breakfast table, the mission furniture in Inman, the sickly atmosphere of the old Infirmary, an- tique toilet fixtures, library at the Murphey Candler, and a quick snack in the Alumnae House. "It is the new Quarterly with its photograph of Hop- kins Hall in dogwood dress that stimulates one's interest in ASC today; class news to make her nostalgic; familiar names of forgotten faculty members: and blueprints of development plans to make the reader suddenly aware of her link to something alive and growing." {"XryrH, CjJ 3T 19 ACCALAUREATE. receiving diplomas, the most unglamorous item in the schedule, daisy chain, hook burning, teas and cof- A typical commencement morning scene fee are not the only events significant to on the Agnes Scott campus is the graduate Commencement at Agnes Scott. The moving and her family striving to pack the variety of a four-year accumulation is perhaps the of possessions into the family car. 82608 FOR REFERENCE Do Not Take From This Room