GRAPES OF
WRATH
Wednesday Night
The RIdgerunner
The Students^ Right to Information and Expression
A-B
versus
AUGUSTA
FEBRUARY 23
Vol. 1 No. 7
Asheville-Biltmore College, Asheville, North Carolina
February 14, 1966
CURRICULUM
CHANGES
UPCOMING
In four separate faculty meetings
during the current academic year, the
Curriculum Committee has submit
ted reports to the faculty for action.
At the September 23, 1965 meet
ing the following changes were made
in the men’s Physical education
courses:
Volleyball and badminton and also
tennis and golf were made into sep
arate courses; soccer and combatives
were added.
In the women’s program, field
hockey was put in place of soccer
and speedball.
At the meeting of October 20,
1965 the following course changes
and additions were adopted:
1. History 33D (The South to
1865) and
History 33E (The South Since
1865) were abolished.
2. In place of those courses abol
ished, the following two were added:
33F North Carolina History
North Carolina’s development from
its colonial origins to the present. Its
contributions to the nation and the
Southern region are evaluated. Poli
tical history is discussed in relation
to the state’s social and economic
problems.
33G Civil War and Reconstruction
A study of the factors leading to
secession and Civil War. Militarj^
operations are outlined, but the war s
social and economic consequences
are stressed, as well as Reconstruc
tion, the Grant Era, and the “New
SouA.”
Six sets of proposals were adopted
at the December 15, 1965 meeting.
The following is a summary of the
major ones:
The comprehensive examination in
the GEC will be given at the end
of the junior year.
After the current year, the GRE
will no longer be a part of the com
prehensive examination, but will still
be required for all seniors.
Education 33X, The Teaching of
Science and Mathematics in the
Elementary School will be added.
General Anthropology 13A will be
added next year.
Continued on page four
Homecoming Weekend Set
SANDY LEDBETTER
SANDY MASTIN
LINDA PICKER
INDEPENDENT
WORK TO START
Programs for both honors-level
and marginally-prepared students at
Asheville-Biltmore College were an
nounced Thursday morning at an all
college assembly by Dr. William E.
Highsmith, president.
Also announced was a change in
the college’s grading system which
will provide a rating between the
High Pass and Pass grades currently
used.
Both the honors-level programs
and the grading change are effective
this fall. The “Guided Studies Pro
gram,” for students who plan to enter
college, but have difficulties in Eng
lish, will begin in the sumer.
Dr. Highsmith emphasized that
the college’s basic program of study
remains the same and that the new
programs augment the basic program.
He said the new study programs are
being instituted to make the col
lege’s curriculum even more relevant
to student needs.
On the honors level of study, the
Independent Scholar and Tutorial
Scholar programs will be initiated.
The Independent Scholar, design
ated preferably no earlier than the
junior year of studies, will not take
courses, receive credits or grades in
the area of his major. He will work
independently on a planned program
SUSAN PATTERSON
NANCY ENEVOLD
of study and research directed by a
faculty advisor.
The Independent Scholar will take
general examinations over the gen
eral education requirements and the
area of his or her major. While
demonstrating competency in all
areas required by students taking the
basic program, the Independent Schol
ar must maintain the honors level of
work at all times, Dr. Highsmith
said.
For those very rare people with
capabilities in all areas of instruc
tion, the Tut;orial Scholar Program
will provide total independently stu
dy, he said. The Tutorial Scholar,
who may not enter the program
prior to his junior year, will be guided
by a personal supervisory committee
of representatives from each division
with the professor from the student’s
area of concentration serving as
chairman.
As the Independent Scholar Pro
gram, the Tutorial Scholar must
maintain work on honors level at all
times.
Under Guided Studies, Dr. High
smith said students whose entrance
Queen To
Be Named
The 26th
It’s that time of year again, and
the second annual Homecoming
weekend is rapidly approaching the
campus of Asheville-Biltmore Col
lege.
The Monogram Club with the
backing of the Organizations Com
mission has designated the weekend
of February 25 and 26 for the annual
festivities.
The weekend will start with the
final appearance of the Bulldogs on
home court for the season when they
meet with Maryville College on Fri
day night, February 25. The home
coming court will be presented dur
ing the half-time of this game. Hopes
have been stated for the staging of
a bonfire and rally preceeding the
game.
On the following night, the Home
coming Dance will be held at the
George Vanderbilt Hotel’s West
Ballroom from 9 ’til 1.
The dance is restricted to A-B
students and their dates ONLY.
Mrs. Patsy Boozer Ballard, the 1965
Homecoming Queen will crown her
successor during tlie dance. The girls
chosen by the Bulldogs to serve as
the 1966 Homecoming Court and
Queen are: Misses Sandy Ledbetter,
Sandy Mastin, Linda Ficker, Susan
Patterson, and Nancy Enevold.
The dance will be semi-formal and
the music will be furnished by the
“Caravelles.”
All studnets and faculty are in
vited to take part in the entire week
ends planned activities. It hapens
but once a year, so don’t miss it!
tests show deficiencies in English
will be expected to enroll in a sum
mer program of preparatory work.
Guided studies will supplant
remedial programs previously taken
by students already carrying college
credit courses. After faculty study,
it was decided that the remedial pro
gram provided needed background
too late, T*he student often was in
trouble with other studies before re
medial work could assist him.
Continued on page 4
STATEMENT ON SPEAKER-BAN QUESTION BY PRESIDENT HARRIS
As regards the recent banning of
two speakers, Herbert Apthekcr and
Frank Wilkinson, from addressing an
assembly on the campus of U.N.C.,
Chapel Hill, I, President of the Stu
dent Government Association of
Asheville-Biltmore College, feel it is
time to express my feelings on the
principles underlying this action. I
say principles because it is not a
question or personalities or individuals
at stake in the Trustee’s ruling at
Chapel Hill. Rather it is more a con
flict of interpretation of what consti
tutes democratic ideals of academic
freedom in this State.
It has been suggested that college
students are too young or impression
able to withstand the rhetorical bar
rage from so called subervisives, Com
munists, and “Fifth Amendment
pleaders,” who would flood through
the gates of our colleges. The idea
is that academic freedom, in this
sense, is dangerous and threatening
to the ideals of democracy and capi
talism which our country’s youth has
been brought up to cherish.
John Stuart Mill said, “Both
teachers and learners go to sleep at
their post, as soon as there is no en
emy in the field.” By keeping those
who we happen to disagree with away
from our campus platforms, we are
removing the “enemy” from the
field. And our institutions of higher
learning will indeed become drowsy
with the same type of sleep that en
cumbered Europe in die pre-World
War Two Era. . . the same sleep
that allowed Chamberlain to turn
away from reality after Munich and
say, “peace in our time.” This is our
Munich? How much longer can we
afford to sleep?
By way of example , let us consider
how keeping the “enemy” from the
doorstep may breed ignorance that
will leave the student unprepared for
the day when his beliefs will have lo
be defended from the challenge of
communism. Let us examine three
facts surrounding the twenty-one
U.S. soldiers who turned Communist
following the Korean conflict.
Fact number one is that this was
the first instance in history where
American troops were faced with
the ideological confrontation of
democracy and communism. For the
most part the twent-one, who “went
over” to the enemy, were not really
familiar with or prepared for the
methods and arguments of the Chin
ese Communist.
Fact number two is that when
confronted with this new challenge
to their traditional democratic bel
iefs, these soldiers did not know
how to defend them. This enemy
was new and strange to them and
thereby held the advantage.
Fact number three, though, is that
all but three of the defectors have
now returned from Red China, All,
but these three finally came to realize
what communism is and what it
stands for. By close association with
and free digestion of communist
doctrines these eighteen rejturnees
came to see the mistake they had
made.
If you consider these twenty-one
men are too few to point out the
dangerous path we are now taking,
remember that this happened only
eight years after the start of the
Cold War. Today, twenty-one years
have passed since the idicological
struggle began, how many poorly in
formed Americans would go over?
How many twenty years from now?
The conclusion is simple. If we
are to shield our students from the
ways and wiles of the communist
then we will doom them to the in
tellectual impotency which prevented
the Korean turncoats from being able
to stand up for the very ideals upon
which our society is based.
If the speaker ban disappears in
name only, and the members of the
college community, both faculty and
student, accept this compromise of
principles, then the colleges will not
give the students education, they will
only instruct. As you know, one can
instruct an animal, but only f>eople
can be educated.