RAM’S HORN
‘The Voice of the Student Body*
Volume III, Number 5
SOUTHEASTERN COMMUNITY COLLEGE, WHITEVILLE. N. C.
January, February, 1968
Folk Singer To Perform February 7
Fine Arts Series To Feature Cynthia " " ,
Cynthia Gooding, folk singer,
will perform at the Fine Arts
Series second concert on Feb
ruary 7, 1968 at 8:00 p.m. The
concert will be presented in the
Whitevllle High School auditor
ium. Activity cards entitle all
see students to be admitted free
of charge. For a small fee,
the general public may also en
joy the concert series.
At a time when singers of folk
songs are becoming ever more
numerous and more popular with
the public, a striking, Minnesota
born contralto by the name of
Cynthia Gooding stands out
sharply as one of the finest
artists in her field. One critic
in Harper’s Magazine said,
“Minnesota may be proud of
having produced the Brothers
Mayo but they should be equally
proud of having produced the
first-rate cosmopolitan per
sonality that is Miss Gooding’s.”
“Miss Gooding sings in a rich,
dark, and mellow contralto and
accompanies her self well with the
guitar. As a folk singer, she
deliberately tries not to be arty
and therefore does justice to
the beauty and natural artistry
of folk songs.”
“Critics from California to
Rhode Island have echoed the
same kind of admiration for her
direct, simple, and effective ap
proach to the singing of folk
songs, the beauty of her
voice, and her skill as a
linguist (she sings in French,
Spanish, Turkish, Italian, and
Russian).”
Miss Gooding feels very
strongly that folk singing is a
highly personal art-an expres
sion of the singer’s own ex
perience of the subject or emo
tion represented in the songs
she sings. Miss Gooding is not
one of those singers who sings
what is required by the current
market. “The artist are those
who sing as they think and feel
they must and wait for an au
dience to find them,” states
Cynthia Gooding. Miss Gooding
differentiates sharply between
folk music and popular music.
The latter, she feels, tends to
present life through rose-colored
glasses, while folk music,
springing as it does from the
realities of man’s-experience,
expresses the fact that man is re
sponsible, in large measure for
his own joys and sorrows. It’s
a fact that Ufe is not easy. Man
can make life better or worse.
“The songs I sing tell me the
truth and as I sing them, per
mit me to tell the truth to those
in my audience,” says Cynthia.
She sings to tell people how she
feels and “to tell myself, too.’*
As for the current revival of
interest in folk music, Miss
Gooding thinks that any one of
the explanations being circulated
may have some validity. “It
is a sympton of the search for
a “national identity,” a return
to the simplicity in a too com
plex technological age, or at the
simplist level a part of the do-
it-yourself craze. She finds that
the folk buffs she hears from
have a number of things in com
mon: they are above average in
education, curious, and seem to
have a desire to create some
thing that is theirs, even though
it is only a small work of art.
AS a performer Miss '3ooding
is not a grandstand player. She
-meets an audience very much as
she would meet people at a serial
gathering. There is a gra^
warming up process, tne per-
I
Cyntbla Gooding, folk singer, will display her talents on February
7 at 8:00 p.m. In the Whitevllle High School auditorium.
former and her listeners be
coming acquainted with one
another. Always the song and
her feeling about it comes first
and so complete is the communi
cation between singer and audi-
see Selects New Dean
Dr, Robert K. Gustafson of
Laurinburg has been named Dean
of Instruction at Southeastern
Community College, Gustafson
will take over the position on
June 1, 1968. The appointment
fills a post formerly held by
Dr, Charles R. King, who re
signed August 11 to become
ROBERT K. GUSTAFSON
president of Southwest Vir
ginia Community College.
Dr. Gustafson is
a.ssociate professor In the
“on
nf Southeastern, express^
Pleasure with the appointtiMnt,
south-
said comer.
Dr, Gustafson is well known in
is^e?J"artive at
and has delivered
at professional
several Pape« the
meetii^. . ^_„^s since the col-
staff at St. An iqgi Prior
,es.»s to«naf InlW-
to assuBW “ s^tson on
college in Red Springs.
Dr. Gustafson holds a BA in
Applied Arts from UCLA and
obtained his Master’s and Doc
torate from Union Theological
Seminary in Richmond, Virginia.
He is a Fellow in the Danforth
Foundation. Gustafson is mar
ried to the former Helen Sherill
of Fayetteville and they have
a son Glenn, age 8, and a daugh
ter Sheryl, age 5.
He is active in the social,
civic, and educational programs
in this part of the state. Dr.
Gustafson is presently a mem
ber of the Scotland County Com
mittee on Mental Retardation,
chairman of the Bi-Raclal Com
munity Betterment Committee,
member and director of the Tri-
County Community Action Pro
gram and Is a member of the
Laurinburg Lions Club.
During the semester break at
St. Andrews he visited South-
eastern’s campus and met with
the Faculty, Administration, and
various students. “I am very
impressed with Southeastern and
look forward to assuming my
duties as Dean of Instruction on
June 1,” stated Dr. Gustafson.
ence that even a large auditorium
becomes an intimate room.
Cynthia Gooding was born in
Rochester, Minnesota. Her
grandparents still live there.
Miss Gooding recalls that she
College Civitan
Club Organizes
At Southeastern
During fall quarter of this year,
the Student Government approved
a constitution to form The Colle
giate Civitan Club of Southeast
ern Commumity College. TTiis
was a high point of recognition
for see because only three col
leges have the colle^ate civitan
club in North Carolina and only
ten such clubs exist in the South
eastern United States,
The club presently has fifteen
members and more members are
asked to join. Two of the mem
bers are from the parent club,
Whitevllle Civitan Club, and act
as advisors for the club. Mr,
Richard Robbins will act as
the faculty sponsor.
Bob Andrews, Initiator of the
club, stated that the club will
act as a service club for SCC,
Among their services will be
helping at the door at social func
tions, being in charge of refresh
ments at ball games, and aiding
the Student Government and com
munity in all possible ways.
After the club becomes fully
organized, it will be able to
compete with other civitan clubs
in athletic events.
began singing when she was very
young, to the accompaniment
of the carillon of the Mayo Clinic.
Her family moved to Cleveland
when she was three, Cynthia was
educated at private schools there
and in Toronto. The Goodings
moved again, to Lake Forest,
Illinois, where Cynthia made her
debut, after a brief stint as
mail^rl at the Great Lakes Naval
Training Station, Cynthia return
ed to Rochester for a time. At
the age of 19, she went to Mexico
City. There she worked at the
American Embassy as a mes
senger and bilingual telephone
operator. Returning to Rochester
with a guitar, a fluent knowledge
of Spanish, and a matador’s cape,
she did a weekly radio program
of Spanish music and commentary
in honor of the city’s many Latin
American visitors.
Literary Review
Editors Receive
Various Works
Southeastern’s literary re
view, first announced in this
paper as a “tentative proposal,”
is now a possibility as distinct
as a beacon in a li^t fog. The
editors have received a number
of works, some serious, some
humorous, and a few unprintable.
The majority of these contri
butions have been poems, and
poetry is a perfectly acceptable
art form, but students are asked
to remember'that the magazine
\yas suggested as a creative
outlet for any of the various
arts. Essays, photographs,
drawings, paintings—any art
work will be considered, and at
present is considered de
sirable—if not for volume, at
least for variety. Students will
be glad—possibly surprised—to
discover that the first volume
will contain works by instruc
tors and students from other
institutions of higher learning.
The review is as yet unnamed—
the editors having rejected to date
their own ideas, but they do have
material of some quantity. So the
entirety can be likened, conceiv
ably, to a pretty girl in need of a
suitable dress.