THE LANCE Publication of the Student Body of St. Andrews Presby terian College VOL. 13 NO. 11 'ST- ANDREWS PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE, LAURINBURG, N.C THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28,1974 Cutbacks Made In Maintenance To continue the reports from different areas of the college Mr. Wade Hendrix was contacted this week for a discussion of the effect of the cutbacks on his staff. The Physical Plant was cut both in personnel and budget as all departments of the college have been. Although the quota to cut was 10 positions, he actually only had to cut 3. The staff has had to double up quite a bit and yet they continue “to do the best they can.” Mr. Hendrix did not have to cut 10 positions because 3 of these 10 positions were empty and 3 people had recently retired. One person quit and 3 others he had to let go. From a total of 44 employees there are now 34 which means that this has increased everyone’s workload. Some of the results of these cuts will be; a slowing down on being able to respond to work-orders from the dorms, yard care reduced to a minimum and lack of time and staff to move fur niture, etc. for students. (T^ie ground crew was 10 and it i^ now 4). Mr. Hendrix said that vehicles would always be provided for students’ needs to move things and that he and his staff would try to keep up with workorders as best they could. He was anxious for students to know that they have not given up and that they will continue to try and keep up everything. Whenever there is a major breakdown somewhere all other problems have to be neglected for awhile. Some students noticed failure in the heating system recently, which turns out to have been a result of trouble with the boiler. This problem was complicated by the fact that Mr. Hendrix had had to cut the shifts for the boiler room from 3 to 2 and then finally to 1. The shift had left at 4:30 one day and no one was there to catch the problem at its beginning. It is repaired now, however. Of course, prices are going up everywhere and the Physical Plant can not avoid that fact. Fuel oil has gone from 13 and 9/10 cents to 30 9/10 cents a gallon. The motor fans in the heaters (individual dorm rooms) will begin to wear out soon-these were $34 a piece and are now $50. There is an area in which students can actively help he Physical Plant in ijs overload of work, that is, to take care of die areas that we live in and are partially responsible for. It is not just major events that are co^ly but also par ties, unnecessary trash, bot tles, and cigarettes thrown around which are rarely cleaned up by the students themselves. Students could also help by keeping a look out for destruc tive forces which have caused around $400 worth of damage in the last 2 weeks. College Anticipates Large Deficit Many questions have oc curred concerning the finan cial status of the college. In or der to answer some of these questions , a reporter from The Lance talked to Dr. Julian Davis, Business Manager here at St. Andrews. Mr. Davis said that at the beginning of the fiscal year the college had anticipated a deficit of $232,000.00 It was planned that the next year would even things out. All of this was planned before enrollment was known for this year. This factor would have led to a $400,000.00 deficit if immediate action had not been taken ie. the faculty cut back. Through these cut backs the deficit prospected is $280,000.00. Also, the college expects next year’s enrollment to be ap proximately the same as it was at the beginning of Fall Term ’73, which will be a stablizing factor. Another factor that many Noted Poet To Read people are not aware of is that mere are several other funds besides the operating budget. The college has 2.5 million dollars in endowments, $1,300,000 in securities and a physical plant worth $20,000,000 to draw from. Major fund raising projects are in operatin for next year and program development will come from funds other than the operating budget. The trustees have renewed their commitment to the school and are doing all they can to help, says Dr. Davis. Dr. Davis stated that the college is not in the hole because of interfund borrowing. The only debt out side the coUege is the debt to the Federal Government for the unpaid balance on dor mitory bonds. « Dr. Davis does not believe the college is on the verge of bankruptcy. Immediate ac tion was needed to curb the slide and immediate action was taken. On Friday night the Black Mountain Festival will con tinue with its series of distinguished poetry readings with Robert Greeley, who taught a Black Mountain College during the fifties. Greeley is the author of several books of poetry- including For Love, The Whip, All that Is Lovely In Men, Words, A Form of Women, and a novel, The Island. His writings-poetry, fiction, and criticism-^ave appeared in numerous magazines here and abroad, and his books are now being published in several European countries, including England, France and Ger many. He has made extensive reading tours both in this country and in England. He has been the recipient of several awards for his work- most notably a Rockefeller Grant and a Guggenheim Grant to work abroad. Creeley, according to one critic, “belongs to the main stream of modern poetry from William Carlos Williams, Pound, and Zukofsky to the present experimental writers.” Long labeled, as a “Black Mountain poet”, Creeley has developed a style uniquely his own that defies such easy categorizing. His poems tend to be miniatures- that is, he writes in short, quick lines, carefully measured and drawn that, at their best, are intense in the emotional impact they con vey. There is joyous beauty and force in the compression of his poems-in the way Cree ley selectively discards what is superfluous or obtuse for ly ric epigrams that are lean, truthful and wire-taunt on the page. Each word is carefully weighed for its rhythmic possibility, and then placed together-perhaps welded would be a better word- into tight, quick stanzas that grab the reader with the un derstatement and power they incur so forcefully that one is hesitant to accept the jolting truth, they have received-and thus, no single poem by Creeley, and especially his later poems, can be read once but rather must be read several times, slowly, dif fusing the strength his lines emanate and envying the ten se beautyt underneath. In ap pearances, Creeley’s style is rather like that of a light weight boxer-compact, graceful and quick, yet the power they release is heavyweight in its impact; bonehard and staggering, un- Williams Last Wednesday, Jonathan Williams gave a reading "before an almost capacity audience in the Williams’ reading had a dif ferent tone than the other distinguished poets who preceeded him in the series of poetry readings in connection with the Black Mountaia. Festival. The poetry that he read was richly humouroi^- which brought forth in termittent and enthusiastic applause-and, at tinies, rather ribald in an appealmg and irreverent style. Much of his poetry is derived directly from the lidiom of the North Carolina Mountain people; he forgettable. Reads is intrigued with the natural music of their language, and often puts it down on paper verbatim, making only the ap propriate line breaks, thereby constructing poetry out of a rich and humourous language- -that might, otherwise, have been lost. Williams feels that poetry is, quite literally, everywhere, and one needn’t travel around to find it, though he is something of a traveller him self. He feels, though, that the best poetry he has written has come from common people- that is, farmers, gas station attendants, grandmothers, old (Contiaued to Page i Fiedler And Fox Coming The Black Mountain Festi val continues this weekend and Monday with Leslie Fied ler and Hugh Fox appearing for readings and lectures. Leslie Ffedler, in- tematioinally recognized as one of America’s most provocative literary critics, could well be one of the most exciting speakers to visit St. Andrews Wing the festival. He is the author of three books forming a trilogy dealing with the sexual myths of America: “Love and Death in the American Novel,” “Waiting for the End”, and “Return of the Vanishing American”. He starts with our primeval past and carries his observations to the present in order to see what myths we really live by. A man of very controversial opinion, Fiedler’s in terpretations of various literary works--from Shakespeare to Mark Twain- have drawn outraged respon ses from traditionalists. He will be sitting in on classes Friday and will talk on the in fluence of Black Mountain in American arts and letters in the 1950’s and 1960’s on Satudayat8p.m. Hugh Fox is a professor of American Thought and Language at Michigan State University and is the editor of “Ghost-Dance”, an important journcd of avant-garde poetry. He is a well known poetic and historical critic, much of his writing having been published and widely circulated. On Monday, March 4, Fox will ap pear in the lounge of the Student Union to read. An un disclosed event is to take place during reading. Cage To Perform Recognized as two of the most influential artists of con temporary music and dance, John Cage, compser and Mer- ce Cunningham, dancer and choreographer, will perform March 5 at Scotland County High School Auditorium. Cage, a highly controversial figure in modem compostion, has abandoned the traditional structure of composition and art to pursue what he feels is a more relevant art for modem man. This art, as he explains it, attempts ‘ ‘to wake up” man “to the very life we’re living,” by making man aware of the massive changes constantly surrounding him in the world. To reveal these changes. Cage structures his music by time units rather than classicial rythym. In so doing, he allows chance and in determinancy to structure the music and create a new ex- perence in living in which self- expression has no part. The avant-grade activities of Cage reach into many areas of experimental music. His in- (Continued to Page 3)