THE LANCE
Official Publication of the Student Body of St. Andrews Presbyterian College
Vol. 14 No. 19
ST. ANDREWS PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE, LAURINBURG, N. C.
Iliursday, April 24,1975
Bottoms Speaks On
Grass Roots Faith
Dr. Lawrence W. Bottfflns,
moderator of the General
AssonUy of the Presbyterian
Church in the United States,
addressed the SA community
in Harris Courts last Thursday
night as Spring Convocatian
Speaker. Dr. Bott(Hns, the fir
st Uack moderator of the cen
tury-old body, addressed him-
sdf to the role of the in
dividual in todays’ church,
telling his audience; “God is
calling us to serve at the
grass-roots level.” He said
that God’s intent is that all
St Andrews’ President Donald Hart presents a gift to the
college’s spring convocation speaker. Dr. Lawrence Bottoms.
mai belong to a universal
diurch, encompassii^ “the
people of today, the people
who are dead, and those yet to
be bom...God didn’t create
man to serve systans and in
stitutions. He created man to
serve other men. You have
creeds you’ll die for, but you
won’t live them.” Church,
state, and home are all
creations of God, established
as checks and balances, not as
divisions he stated. “This is
why the church is divided
today.”
An entertaining and witty
speaker, Dr. Bottoms was in
troduced by College pastor
George Conn.
The convocation opened
with a prelude, “Sing My Soul,
His Wondrous Love,”. Sung by
the college dioir, directed by
Dr. James V. Cobb. Bagpiper
Arnold Page led the
processional.
Tom Hay President of the
College Christian Council,
gave the invocation, and the
benediction was by J. M.
Nicholson, moderator of
Fayetteville Presbytery.
Also a part of the con
vocation were a statement of
perspective by Dr. Hart, an
anthem, “"nie Lord is Risen,”
(William Billing) by the choir,
and the college Alma Mater.
Perkinson Calls Enrollnient
Top Priority
Rat
In an interview with The
Lance last week, St. Andrews
president-elect Alvin Perkin
son said that his first priority
as president would be “to
begin work on increased
enrollment.”
“We are currently drawing
up a marketing plan to be put
into effect July 1 that will
enable us to pinpoint those
areas fron which we’ve had
the most students in the past
and work on those areas,
taking advantage of the
reputation the college has
built up”, Perkinson said. “At
the same time we plan to go
after junior collie transfer
students, who tend to wait un
til early summer to decide
where they are going to go in
the fall.” Most of a college’s
problem with attrition, he
noted, comes in the students’
first two years. The transfer
®ffort, he noted, “will help
strengthen the small uppw
classes as we try to reduce at
trition in the lower classes.
Asked how he felt about his
experiences at St. Andrews
since the April 3 an
nouncement of his ap
pointment, Perkinson laughed
and said, “If everyone is as
friendly in a year as toey ve
been so far I’ll consider ^e
whole venture a success. He
said he would take over as
president on a full-time basis
on May 5, and be joined by his
wife and four children when
school ends.
Describing his view of ms
iob as it relates to the students
of St. Andrews, Perkinson said
he wanted to become acquain
ted with as many students as
possible and cultivate an
“ooen door atmosphere m
which students would feel free
to come by and see me at any
time.”
Recalling a line by Thomas
Hardy he ^quoted in his ac
ceptance speech on “hi^
thinking and plain living”, at
St. Andrews, the Tennessee
native said he did not an
ticipate any drastic cuts in
programs w budgets next
year. “We’re just going to
have to make sure our money
is well spent,” he said.
“Tliere may have to be a
slowdown in salary increases
for a while,” he said, “and
there are some ad
ministrative areas that we
can save in.”
Perkinson approaches his
new position with an air of
complete confidence. “There
will be a substantial increase
in enrollment in 1976,” he
says. “We can overcome
these proUems-I have no
doubts about it.”
Cultural
Weekend
A Success
The majority of students at
St. Andrews agree that the
communities surrounding the
college play a major part in
the school’s image, growth
and devel(^)ment. On Satur
day April 18, the Black
Student Union, in its efforts to
bring about a stronger unity
between the collie and those
conrniunities, sponsored a
Cultural Enrichment
Weekend.
Not really sure of how St.
Andrews and its surrounding
communities would react to
the extravaganza, the BSU
sponsored a number of dif
ferent events and speakers in
as many diverse areas as
possible. The wide range of en
tertainment and features
proved to make their efforts a
success.
The Cultural Enrichment
Weekend began with a dance
Friday evening featuring
“Z^uilis,” a thirteen piece
band from Charlotte, l^tur-
day afternoon, the BUS choir,
along with the Peguese
Singers and the Jones Chapel
Junior Choir put together an
emotionally moving concert,
in which soloists Brenda
Howard, Grada Byrd and
Greg Smith filled their audien
ce with joy as they led the
choir in a numer of songs.
When the final SMig, “Reach
Out and Touch,” was being
sung by the BSU choir, one of
the most moving scenes of the
sraigfest took place as Brenda
Howard reached out to the
audience and everyone joined
hands and sang together .
Art was another aspect of
the weekend. Artist Beth Mc-
Clennahan and Professor
Charles Refers displayed a
variety of works from their
collections. Miss Mc-
Clennahan, a Laurinburg
native, displayed toi different
pieces of her work, reflecting
her fascination with old
people and the many different
struggles that they encounted
after the Civil War.
Charles Rogers, Assistant
Professor of Art at Jduison C.
Smith University, presented
both his art and a sli^ presen
tation. His paintings reflect
the feelings and expressions of
black people during the sixties
President-elect Perkinson