Let’s Go To “School For Lovers” Tonight MAROON AND GOLD On To Statesville! Let’s Win The Tournament! VOLUME 29 ELON COLLEGE, N. C. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1950 NUMBER 10 Dehate Team Shows Well At Davidson On Saturday night, February 11th, the Elon Debating Club journeyed to Davidson College for a series of debates on the subject of “Nationalization of Basic In dustries of the United States,” meeting groups from Davidson and Randolph-Macon in a triangu lar contest. The speakers from Elon were Ray Hayes and Bill Sinclair, rep resenting the affirmative side of the question, and Billy Mittel- stadt and Emmett Nesbitt, speak ing for the negative. They were extended a cordial welcome by the Davidson College debaters, who were hosts at a good dinner before the debates got underway. The first affirmative debate for Elon found Hayes and Sinclair opposed to a Davidson team, com posed of Shelly Beard and Mal colm Doubles. After an hour of' hot argument the Elon team walked away with a victory, this contest. The first appearance of Elon’s negative team saw Mittelstadt and (Continued On Page Four) AN OPERA LOVER James Edwards, prominent Ral eigh dentist, well known through out the state for his baritone voice and his work as a radio and con cert artist, will sing the role of Gratiano, one of the lovers, in the Mozart opera, “School For Lov ers,” to be presented in Whitley Auditorium here tonight. Last season he had the role of the dashing toreador in the Raleigh Opera production of “Carmen.” He has also appeared as Lucas in “The Student Prince,” and he is one of the few baritones in the country to do the title role in a dramatized version of “Elijah,” Forty-Three Pledges Taken On ‘^Bid Nighf BUSY DAYS AHEAD WITH EXAMS NEAR Days of play are about over for Elon students this quarter, and the next few days will be busy ones as the entire student body buckles down to work in preparation for the winter quar ter examinations, scheduled to get underway just one week from this morning. Some students observe, how ■ ever, that every cloud has a sil ver lining and ask pointedly “if exams come, can holidays be far behind?” The exams end next Friday, March 3rd, with a ten- lay holilay period scheduled from that time until Monday, March 13 th. All English 12 and all after noon classes are scheduled for exams next Wednesday morn ing, followed by 8 o’clock class es that afternoon. Thursday will bring exams on 9 o’clock classes in the morning and 10:30 classes in the afternoon. Exauinations on 11:30 classes are scheduled for Friday morn ing. Blanchard Is New Science Club Prexy Jake Blanchard, who is now vice-president of the Science Club, will assume the duties of president when the students re turn for the spring quarter. Blan chard was elected to the office on February 6th, when Freddy Wil liamson announced that he would graduate at the end of the winter quarter. At the same time Na varre Barron was elected vice -president to fill the vacancy caus- .ed by Blanchard’s elevation to the presidential chair. As part of the club’s bi-weekly meeting, Roland Yii told the members of the progress being made by science in China. He held the group’s attention , with ease as he told of the backward scientific policies of the Chinese and of their deficiency in modern mahinery and sanitation. The glamour and excitement of fictional “collitch days” hung over the Elon campus on Saturday night, February 8th, as the broth ers and sisters of Elon’s eight Greek letter fraternities and so rorities welcomed forty-three new pledges into the bonds of broth erhood and sisterhood. Two weeks of “rushing” came to a climax that night with a round of parties, which closed before the midnight hour and set the stage for the traditional serenades by each of the four fraternities to their sister sororities. The sere nades in turn were featured by the announcement of the names of the new pledges by each group. A dense fog, hanging low over the £ampus in a manner to put London to shame, threatened mo mentarily to turn into rain, but this failed, to dampen the spirits or chill the enthusiasm of the “brothers” as they sallied forth from Alamance to sing and shout their greetings to the "sisters,” v/ho hung over the balcony rail ings of West Dorm and Ladies’ HaU. lota Tau Kappa led the way out to the West Campus, followed in order by Kappa Psi Nu, Sigma Phi Beta and Alpha Pi Delta, and “early-to-tted slumberers” awak ened to the strains of sentimental songs, lifted upward through the fog to the girls on the balconies. The soft strains of the sentimen tal songs were broken by the stac cato count of a-one, a-two, a- three,” as the brothers chanted the number of their pledges. ALPHA PI DELTA, with twenty- six active members on roll this quarter, pledged only two. Active members of this group include Dallas Berry, Jake Blanchard, Stuart Cooper, Delmas Core, Har old Daniels, George Etheridge, Russell Godfrey, Carlos Hart, Muril Hughes, Harry Keeton, Joe Kent, BiU Kivett, Walker Kivett, Bill Love, Art Mizell, Richard_ Painter, George Patterson, Har vey Scoggins, Bill Stiteler, Jake Thompson, Ireland Upchurch, Ar nold Ward, Bob Williams, Freddy Williamson, BiU Yeager and Rob ert Yates. New pledges are J. Alva Minor and Wink Ward. IOTA TAU KAPPA, with twen ty-one active members this quar- (Continued On Page Four) OFFER SCHOOL FOR LOVERS’ ON ELOr^’S CAMPUS TONIGHT IN SOPRANO ROLE If, as the old adage has it, coming spring brings thought of love, then Elon students will be offered a rare opportunity to leam of that gentle art to night when a company of North Carolina’s own singers present Mozart’s great opera, “School For Lovers,” over in Whitley Auditorium. The curtain will rise at 8:15 o’clock. The presentation, which is ex pected to attract music lovers from Burlington, Greensboro and other cities in Piedmont North Carolina, is part of the new “grass-roots” opera pro gram now underway in the Tar Heel state under the auspices of the opera department of the North Carolina Federation of Music Clubs and designed to let people in all parts of the state hear opera by native mu sicians. The plan was originated by A. J. Fletcher, well-known Raleigh attorney and business man, who is known throughout the state as both a singer and actor. His idea of presenting grand opera in plain English, minus its high hat and stuffed shirt dressing, has caught on in other states, and he has been honored re cently by appointment as na tional opera chairman for the National Federation of Music Clubs. One of the Tar Heel musici ans—even though an imported one from far away Iowa—to ap pear in “School For Lovers” here is Miss Virginia Groomes, a member of Elon’s own music faculty. Miss Groomes, who came to Elon last September, will sing one of the leading so prano roles, that of Leonara, in tonight’s show. She has already earned a large following, both in the student body and in sur rounding communities, for her very excellent work with the Elon College Choir. The remainder of the cast for the opera will come from the memgership of the Raleigh op era group. One of them is Miss Marie Van Hoy, Salem College graduate, who will sing the role of Desplna. Out~ of school only a short while, she has crowded a great deal of stage experience into her few years. She sang the role of Cherubina in the Piedmont Mu sical Festival production of “The Marriage of Figaro,” and later she played leading roles in “The Bartered Bride” and “The Student Prince.” She has also appeared in several plays with the Raleigh Little Theatre group. "School For Lovers” tells the story of Don Alfonso, an old bachelor, who tried to convince two young' soldiers, Ferrando and Gratiano, that their sweet hearts, Leonora and Dorabella, will prove disloyal to them if given a chance. This is stoutly denied by the young lovers, and a wager is laid that, if the men will follow Don Alfonso’s in structions, the girls will accept other lovers within forty-eight hours. Under terms of the wager, Ferrando and Gratiano agree to become the instruments of their sweethearts’ undoing, so Don Alfonso accoonts for their contemplated sudden departure with the story that they have been called on for military duty. A sad farewell is said, and then they return in the guise of Alban- an noblemen, each to make love to the other’s sweetheart. The unravelling of the situation teaches all a lesson in the School For Lovers.” The, showing tonight will be hnder the direction of Robert C. Gird, who came to North Caro lina recently to direct the state wide opera movement. A grad uate of Ohio University, he studied voice in New York with the late Oscar Seagle and opera dramatics with Enrico Clay Dillon. The opera tonight will not be included on the regular student and music association tickets, but a special rate will be offer ed to the Elon students, and family tickets may be purchased at gieatly reduced rates by members of the faculty and people of the community. ELON CHOIR TO MAKE NORTHERN TOUR m:w?i The Elon College Choir, which leaves on Friday, March 3rd, for a tour of the Northern States, is shown in the above picture. Members who will make the trip shown left to right, are as fol lows: FRONT ROW: Virginia Pla, Margaret Kipg, Helen Jackson and Barbara Bailey. SECOND ROW: Melba Foster, Emma Jean Clayton, Jean Fuqua, Jane Fuqua and Jane Transou. THIRD ROW: Marion Turk, Wynona Womack, Jane Upchurch and Sharon Black. FOURTH ROU: Jimmy Rhodes, Charles R. Johnson, James Clybom, Bill Foley and Fred Sahlman. FIFTH ROW: Virginia Davis, Martha Veazey, Ann Truitt and Geneva Cooper. SIXTH ROW: Charles Lynam, Jack Castle, Warren Johnson, Cecil Graham Womack and Oscar Holland. SEVENTH ROW: Dorothy Parker, Jane Dougherty and Annie Laura Albright. BACK ROW: John Truitt, John Vance, David Chand ler, Roger Wilson and Baxter Twiddy. € Miss Virginia Grooms, who has gained a wide following since joining the Elon College Music faculty last September, will sing one of the leading soprano roles, that of Leonora, in Mozart’s op era, “School For Lovers,” which will be presented in Whitley Au ditorium here tonight. Miss Groomes, a native of Menlo, Iowa, is a graduate of Simpson College and received her Masters De gree in Music from the Teachers’ College of Columbia University. She had experience as music councillor at Montlawn, Nyack, N. Y., and as a public school mu sic teacher before assuming her duties as a voice instructor here at Elon. Legislature Names New Officers The Student Legislature wound up its proceedings for the winter quarter of 1950 last Wednesday night, when the group .passed three bills and one recommenda tion. It also recognized the resig nation of Arthur Mizell, Joe Kent, Jack Ketner and Freddy William son, four of its members who will graduate at the end of this quar ter. A1 Pate was elected to replace Joe Kent as speaker pro-tem, and Fleetwood White was elected sar- liamentarian to fill the place made vacant by Marion Adams earlier in the year. The legislature did not have the authority to elect a speaker, since the constitution states that the vice-president of the Student Body shall be speak er. This office will be left vacant until the regular elections, the duties being filled in the mean time by A1 Pate. The bills passed and the one recommendation to the adminis tration are: (1) An election has been au thorized to fill vacancies in the Student Legislature. (2) Authority has been granted (Continued On Page Four) Choir Leaves March 3 On A nnual Trip North Just back from a triumphal tour of Eastern Virginia last weekend, the Elon College Choir leaves again on Friday of next week for an 11-day tour, which wiU carry the singers through the Middle Atlantic States and into New England. This marks the third consecutive year that the group has made the long trek northward. The choir, directed by Prof. John Westmoreland and with Prof. Fletcher Moore as accom panist, left here last Friday after noon, February 17th, on the Vir ginia tour and returned on Sun day night after appearing in six Congregational Christian church es in the Tidewater section. The first program was at the church in Suffolk at 8 o’clock on Friday night, followed by a sec ond appearance in the Christian Temple in Norfolk at the same hour on Saturday night. There were four programs on Sunday, the first at 11 o’clock Sunday morning at the Liberty Spring Christian Church near Suffolk, followed by other ap pearances at Rosemont Church in Norfolk at 2:30 o’clock and at South Norfolk Church at 4:30 o’clock that afternoon, with the final program at the Christian Church in Franklin, Va., at 8:00 oc’lock Sunday night. The program offered by the Elon singers in each case featured the organ music of Professor Moore, several numbers by the entire choir and by a small en semble of singers, along with solo renditions by Miss Virginia Groomes, of the music faculty, and by Sharon Black, Dorothy Parker and Charles Lynam, stu dent soloists. Fred Sahlman also did one solo number at the piano. This program, which was re ceived with enjoyment and praise in each appearance, is the same which will be offered by the stu dent group on the longer trip into northern states. The itiner ary for the northern trip has not been made public, but the choir will be gone throughout the spring holiday season, leaving on Friday, March 3rd, and returning on Tuesday, March 14th. NEW DANCE RULES* FOR FRATERNITIES The various Elon sororities and fraternities will be permit ted to dance at their annual banquets, which are planned for the spring quarter, accord ing to a new ruling handed down last week by the faculty social committee. The ruling was made public by Prof. J. L. Pierce, committee chairman. The permission for dancing came as an answer to a peti tion filed recently by represen tatives of the various fraterni ties. The committee, after con sidering the request, recom mended to the administration that the request be granted, and the recommendation was duly approved. Mid'W inter Meet Held By Trustees The board of trustees of Elon College held its annual mid-winter meeting in the office of President Leon E. Smith in Alamance Hall on Tuesday, February 14th, with twenty-one of the thirty-five mem bers of the group in attendance. Dr. W. H. Boone, of Durham, chairman of the board, presided over sessions held in both the morning and afternoon, with D. R. Fonville, of Burlington, secre tary to the group, also present to carry out his duties. President Smith, in his regular report, told the trustees of the completion of the Alumni Memor ial Gymnasium and declared that the coUege has had a highly suc cessful year ahead. The financial condition of the college was des cribed as healthy, The registrar’s report showed a steady growths in enrollment for the past five years, with a peak enrollment of 1,043 students in 1948-1949 and with a total enroll ment for this year of 1,016 stu dents. ^