Page Two.
THE SALEMITE
Friday, March 13, 1942.
Published Weekly By
The Student Body of
Salem College
Member
Southern Inter-Collegiate
Press Association
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EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Editor-In-Chief Carrie Donnell
Associate Editor Barbara AVhittier
OPEN FORUM
WHAT IS
I. R. S.?
EDITORIAL STAFF
N'evis Editor Doris Shore
Sports Editor Louise Bralower
Music Editor Alice Purcell
Faculty Adviser Miss Jess Byrd
Sara Henry, L*ila Johnston. Julia Smith, Frances Neal,
Daphne Reich, Katie WolfF, Mary L. Glidewell, Elizabeth
Johnston, Barbara Lasley, Margaret Moran, Marie Van Hoy,
Helen Fokaury, Margaret Leinbach, Mary Lou Moore, betty
Vanderbilt, Mary Worth Walker, Elizabeth Weldon, Mary
Louise Rhodes. Lucie Hodges, Frances Yelverton.
FEATURE STAFF
Feature Editor Eugenia Baynes
Mildred Avera, Dorothy Dixon, Anita Kenyon, Nancy
Rogers, Nona Lee Cole, Elsie Newman, Ceil Nuchols Mar
garet Ray, Dorothy Stadler, Elizabeth Griffii^ Spach,
Kathryn Traynham, Reece Thomas, Marion Goldberg, Mary
Best, Katherine Manning. *
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Business Manager Nancy Chesson
Assistant Business Manager Dorothy Sisk
Advertising Manager Mary Margaret Struven
Exchange and Circulation Manager Dot McLean
ADVERTISING STAFF
Flora Avera, Becky Candler, Doris Nebel, Betty Moore,
Adele Chase. Mary E. Bray, Nancy McClung, Mrah Lindley,
Allene Seville, Elizabeth Griffin, Margaret Kempton, Sara
Barnum, Jennie Dye Bunch, Lib Read,
O’Neal, Vvonne Phelps, Elizabeth Bernhardt, Edith Shapiro.
A MODEST
PROPOSAL
Last week an editorial request was made
thaij we be allowed to use the basement porch
of Main Hall for smoking. We who smoke
would enjoy that privilege tremendously; but
while we’re asking for greater leniency in
smoking regulations, may we ask the council
and the administration to also consider a re
quest that we be allowed to smoke in our
rooms. We don’t want to seem like a group
of wild-eyed revolutionists flying about with
bombs under our coat-tails, but we do feel that
Salem could keep her smoking regulations
apace with other colleges at least in the Caro-
linas.
The strongest argument against smoking
in our rooms seems to be something about fire
insurance. Well, while we admit not knowing
all the ins and outs of insurance policies, we
find it rather inconsistent reasoning which
permits the faculty to smoke in Main Hall and
at the same time forbids the students to smoke
in far better built dormitories.
A second argument against our smoking
in the dormitories.is a purely social one . . .
and may we answer simply that we certainly
haven’t reached college age without learning
the fundamentals of common courtesy. Al
though most of us who smoke have room
mates who smoke, those with non-smoking
room-mates hardly need be reminded of the
consideration they have to use over and over
again in their daily living with people.
The last con in the smoking argument is
an hygenic one . . . and all necessary here is to
ask that the council and the administration
jaunt down to the game room and see for
themselves if it’s humanly possible for any
one place to be less hygenic than the game
room.
Perhaps there’s some reason which we
don’t know against our smoking in the dormi
tories . . . and if there is, we ask only to be
told. If there isn’t any better reason, however,
we think it only fair to be given the same
smoking privileges granted to the girls at
Carolina, Duke, W. C., and Converse.
Dear Editor:
Do you remember, or rather can you ever forget, those
grueling exam days? The days when we were all complete
wrecks? . . - the days when we were so confused from cram
ming for two exams daily that, we could learn absolutely
nothing ? Do you remember how we finally threw up our hands
in desperation and decided what the heck ? Dou you remember
how order and sanity and pride left us, and how we were to
tired to do anything well?
I remember . . . and I don’t want to do it again!
Someone told me, when I was a bewildered freshman
who had never faced an exam, that the purpose of examinations
was to give the, student a chance to organize the work she has
done chaotically throughout the semester into a neatly ordered
unit. And after my first paralyzed day on exams, I liked having
two weeks in which to organize my though and to pick up those
odds and ends which I had overlooked ... I liked trying to
tie up all my subjects into sotaie semblance of order ... I liked
feeling the purpose of work that resulted from a survey of the
semester ... I liked taking exams then because there was
reason behind them. Exams done slip-shodily, as ours had to
be done, are a waste of time.
Do you remember how we felt last semester after we had
studied all night for two exams? Do you remember how all
those Spanish words kept cropping up in our history outlines?
. . . how with an utter turmoil for a brain, we left one exam
and had to start immediately preparing for the next day’s
exam? There was nothing really accomplished by those exams
. . . their only value was testing teacher’s ability to grade pa
pers and get results in on time, and we already knew they
could do it. There was no real test of the student’s intelligence,
for intelligence had to give way to meaningless memorizing.
There was no opportunity to think over books and notes and
to derive our own conclusions from them ... we had to be
blind scholasticists accepting on faith what we saw printed.
When I think of the worn out tissues, the strained nerves,
and the upset stomachs . . . when I think of the nights, even
after the gruel was over, when I was still too nervous to go
to sleep . . . when I think of the disinterested faces that greetec
second semester, faces still too groggy to get excited about
clean slates and new horizons . . . when I think of what we die
to our bodies at the time when the government as well as our
common sense demanded physical fitness . . . well, I’d rather
have five zeros than to face such an orgy again this semester
WE DO HATE SATURDAY CLASSES!
In the Spring, a young girl’s fancy
turns to weighty matters of war,
life, philosophy, the new deal, and
improvement of the status quo. In
this frame of mind, with grave con
sultations as to what could best im
prove living conditions of the Sal
em workers, a new idea evolved.
Startlingly new and to' the best ad
vantage of both students and teach
ers . . this is it: that all Saturday
classes should be permanently sus
pended, and should be made up by
having classes in the afternoon un
til five on week-days. There would
bo no cuts. To those suspicious that
such an idea was engendered by in
dolent ambitions, we will try to
put it in a more acceptable light.
Firstly, our teachers, poor over
worked, underpaid, worthy individ
uals need thei time to rest on week
ends as well as to enjoy much
needed recreation. Do you see, stu
dents, how selfish w^e have been in
accepting the sacrifice of Saturday
classes? Our teachers hate that
eight-thirty class as much as we do,
and because we hadn’t sat down
and analyzed the problem, we have
accepted their well-meant offerings
without objections. Will we con
tinue to allow their self-denial!f
Secondly, to resurrect an old ax
iom, “when you work, work hard
;when you play, play hard.” Would
not added pressure during the week
necessitate more application and a
greater amount of concentrated
study?
Thirdly, our teachers have long
complained of the evils of the cuts
system, and how cutting classes up
sets their entire schedule. We are
entirely in sympathy with them.
Cuts do upset test dates (and other
dates). The student misses out on
work, and the poor teacher even
tually has to make it up with her.
Again, we are motivated by concern
over the teacher’s welfare.
Fourthly, and this summons up all
our other points, the general happi
ness of everyone —' students, teach
ers, and the cuts committee, would
result. We advocate no Saturday
classes and no cuts. In the sacred
name of patriotism, consider it. To
boost moral! Liberty on week-ends
and the pursuit of happiness —
students, what about itf
E.
AVhat does the organization I. R. S. mean
to you? Does it suggest, a.s past elections of
representatives have indicated, a social organi
zation completely divorced from the academic^
athletic, and dramatic phases of college life!
We usually say, when discussing nominees for
the I. R. S. council, “Jane is just the girl. She’s
always dressed neatly.” Well, suppose Jaae
does dress neatly ... do you want the well-
dressed, if brainless, jane to say to the world
at large that she REPRESBlNTS Salem?
We have allowed ourselves to accept this
precedent without thinking once what an or
ganization titled “I REPRESENT SALEM”
should mean. From the handbook we learn
that the purpose of the I. R. S. council is to
act as a “Social Standards Committee” and
to “improve and further the social activities
of Salem.” The duties of the I. R. S. are to
suggest when and where stockings should be
worn, when and where hats should be worn,
and to give one dance a year. The powers of
the council are nil. The president is auto
matically made the I. R. S. representative on
the Student Government council. When a girl
is “tried” for being negligent about her hose
and hats, therefore; she is penalized by the
Stee Gee council? . . . with only one vote from
I. R. S.
If it is necessary to tell college students
what they should wear at specified times, and
the point is debatable, is it necessary to have
a council so sadly misnamed to report these
girls to another council for punishment? Or
ganization thus gets lost within itself, govern
ment gets confused, and the whole eifect is
bunglesome and inefficient ... and entirely
unnecessary! A social club such as I. R. S.
may represent one side of Salem, but we hope
that it does not represent the Salem that we
love and work for. It represents a narrow,
finishing school Salem which was replaced
many years ago by a Salem dedicated to the
development of thoughtful, intelligent well-
balanced citizens.
If we are to pay part of our budget money
to an organization called I. R. S., it should
be an organization of which we are proud . . .
it should be an organization that we would
be glad to have represent us at any time for
any occasion. If we are, in our points system
to give the officers of I. R. S. recognition equal
to that given Student Government officers . . .
then, we should see that they are deserving of
our recognition. The girls we elect to the
council of I RSjPRESENT SALEM should be
girls that are outstanding in all college fields:
they should be good students, good leaders,
good athletes as well as good socialites. Unless
we have an organization that represents Salem
at its best in its best, we would do better with
out any organization at all.
MUSIC IN THE AIR
Next week Misses Mayme Porter
and Hazel Read will present the
third in a, series of faculty recitals.
The program- will consist of Johann
Sebastian Biachfs "French Suite,
Number IV; ” two Scarlatti sona
tas; and Mozart’s “Sonatp in D-
major” played "by Miss Porter.
Miss Eead, accompanied by Mar
garet Vardell, will render Mozart’s,
“Sonata in E flat for Violin and
Piano.”