LIBRARY
A'liirews Presbyterian CoIlegS
NOV 17 19T8
THE LANCE
A Weekly Journal of News and Events At St. Andrews Presbyterian College
Volume 18, No. 6
Laurinburg, North Carolina
November Z, 1978
Convocation Invests Blackburn In McGaw Chair
First Named
Chair
BY JON JOHNSON
On Thursday, Oct. 26, Dr.
Thomas Blackburn was
vested with the McGaw Chair
of Chemistry. The ceremony
was able to give students and
faculty a better understanding
of the nature of the McGaw
professorship and also
allowed many a change to
learn more about Dr.
Blackburn.
President Perkinson told the
audience that the Investiture
Address would not be given
because Dr. James N. Butler,
a close friend of Dr. Black
burn and a Professor of Ap
plied Chemistry at Harvard,
was ill and had been ordered
to bed. President Perkinson
announced that he had thought
to read the speech but, after
reviewing it, had decided too
much would be lost in the
translation from Harvard
scientist to Tennessee
humanist. ^
Perkinson attempted to
underscore the importance of
the investiture to St. Andrews
by giving a short history of
professorial chairs from the
dim beginings in the 10th
century to the present and
more enlighted age. Loaded
with this heavy weight of
tradition, St. Andrews,
eighteen years after its in
ception, now has its first
professorial chair.
In order to fill this position,
“St. Andrews made formal
announcement of the
establishment of an endowed
professorship in the sciences,
and the journals of higher
education carried notice of the
search for a teacher-scholar
with an outstanding record as
an undergraduate teacher and
with a distinguished record of
scholarly productivity. Dean
Crossley continued, “The
nationwide search was on.”
St. Andrews spent a great
deal of time deciding what
type of person they wanted
and who among their ap
plicants best filled these
qualifications. The College
wanted someone whose
primary commitment would
be to undergraduate teaching,
whose personal and social
commitment would be con
sistent with the role and
mission of the College, and
whould would be committed to
the teaching of humane values
through science.
That Dr. Blackburn is an
interdisciplinary man, one of
the qualifications mentioned
by Dean Crossley in his
speech, was made evident in
Dr. Blackburn’s response. His
speech could not have been
much more interesting,
humorous, or to some
students, more surprising. Dr.
Blackburn talked about his
feelings about St. Andrews
and the relation of science in a
liberal arts education.
Dr. Blackburn, in his
comments about his com
mitment to the liberal arts
announced that each year he
would award a prize to the
best poetry, prose or graphics
by a St. Andrews student
which related to science in
some discernible fashion. The
works would be judged by a
committee made up of
representatives from both the
sciences and the arts.
President Perkinson, in his
closing remarks, introduced
and welcomed Dr. Black
burn’s family. He told those
assembled that tliis in
vestiture was of great im
portance to the school; it was
a further example of the
College’s commitment to
excellence. This investiture
was able to honor Dr.
Blackburn’s academic en
terprise and bring him to St.
Andrews so that we might
benefit from his work.
President Perkinson said that
the school welcomed Dr.
Blackburn not only for himself
but for what he symbolized.
Address by Dr. Thomas
Blackburn.
President Perkinson,
students and colleagues,
guests and friends:
I am honored indeed by the
occasion and by what lies
behind it. To the donor of the
gift whose fruits I and a
number of students now en-
about today is the initiation of
a newcomer who on that
subject could only relieve that
gravity with the short of
hilarity with which old ranch
hands watch a tenderfoot
approach the meanest bull in
the meadow. It may not be a
papal bull, but it’s not a paper
tiger, either. My own ox is as
yet ungored on the subject,
and I have little liking for the
dilemmas that oastoral motifs
INVESTITURE OF DR. THOMAS R. BLACKBURN by Presi
dent Perkinson and Dean Qrossley. (Photo by Qay Hamilton).
joy; to my faculty colleagues
who have worked extra hours
to enrich this occasion; and to
my students who have ex
tended the warmest and
deepest welcome to St. An
drews, thank you.
When President Perkinson
first asked me to respond
briefly - and the request was
put in so many words - to this
occasion, I welcomed the
opportunity to say something
to you in a serious way, but
was unsure of my approach.
Of course Dean Crossley’s
invitation to us all to partake
in a dialog on the college and
the church would provide any
public speaker this year with a
topic incapable of exhaustion.
But there is a certain gravity
to that topic, and what we are
Writer’s Forum Sponsors
Martin Robbins
The Writer’s Forum con
tinues tonight with Martin
Robbins, who will read from
his own works at 6:30 in
Granville.
Robbins is adept at com
posing, computers, athletics,
singing, and poetry. Some of
these talents were displayed
last night in Vardell where he
entertained with “Shakespear
BY STEVEN J. KUNKLE
in Song.”
“He’s a perfectionist both in
his music and in his own
writing. He is internationally
known for translations as well
as his original work,” says
Professor Ron Bayes, St.
Andrews writer-in-residence.
Robbins, often described as
A Very Unusual Man, is a
Harvard professor and a full
time Bostonian;_^^^_^^__
may conceal. Where the
footing is tricky, who am I to
horn in? If I appear to graze
the subject once or twice in
what follows, it is only
because of the catholicity of
the church’s implications and
concerns.
Though a newcomer to St.
Andrews, I am not a
newcomer to the liberal arts
tradition, or to its values.
Those values are given unique
expression in this college and
in its aims. I would like to
consider briefly what those
aims look like to a scientist,
because science has been and
continues to be a major focus
of St. Andrews Education.
Let me begin by asking
rhetorically whether science,
in particular chemistry, is one
of the “Liberal Arts” in the
first place. And before you
settle to hear another af
firmation that it is, let’s agree
that, offically, on paper, and
in the mandatory curriculum
of St. Andrews, there is no
doubt. This is probably the
only serious academic in
stitution in this arm of the
galxary, all of whose
graduates have interpreted an
infrared absorption spectrum.
That is no trivial commitment
in time, monev. or more
precious than either, moral
credibility with our students.
Yet what occurs by statute
and, by and large, with
dedication and good humor on
the part of faculty and
students in the laboratory is
no sure guide to the inner
reality. There is also some
fear and loathing and
boredom in that interaction-on
both sides, students if you
hadn’t guessed. What is so
liberating about the carbonyl
stretching frequency that we
insist that all freshmen,
however briefly, learn it? Isn’t
it all the mere particularities
of that infamous stuff, brute
matter? And why do we, when
we could teach anything it all
to our captives in STMS, insist
that they learn to make
aspirin out of raw materials?
Because the skill will come in
handy during later stress
periods? No, we do because in
a way that I hope will become
clear, we believe with the
alchemists that crucial values
are at stake as much in the
chemist’s, as in the
philosopher’s retort.
Those values are to be
found in the college aims,
though pertiaps not where
they are most obvious. The
only explicit mention ot
science that I find in that
remarkable list of in
terlocking ideals is, frankly, a
bit puzzling to me: “A clear
(Continued On Page 3)
Bayes
Named To
Regional Board
Professor Ronald Bayes,
writer-in-residence at St.
Andrews College for the past
10 years, has been appointed
to the regional board of
directors of the Poetry Society
of America.
An accomplished poet
himself, Bayes has had
several volumes published,
but more importantly has
fostered and developed an
extensive and unrivalled
publishing program at St.
Andrews, as well as inspiring
many students to work at and
improve their abilities in
creative writing.
This month marked the 10th
anniversary of the writers’
reading program at St. An
drews which has brought a
steady flow of accomplished
writers to the campus.
Students have had numerous
opportunities to work with
these people, and have also
had opportunity to participate
in the reading program.
2-
This
Week
/
^ - lliursday - Episcopal Worship Service: Tlie Holy Eudiarist;
6:30 p. m., Meditation Room - Poetry Forum: Dr. Martui Rob
bins; 6:30 p. m., Granville Lounge.
Friday, November 3 - CCC: Retreat to Montreat - Art Squad:
Slave Auction; Farrago, 8:00 p. m., $1.50 admission, refresh
ments and food. „ *
Saturday, November 4 - Cross Country: DIAC Track meet at
Virginia Wesleyan - Volleyball: vs Brevard College, Oiovrane
CoUege; 2:00 p. m., home - CUB: Dance with “Neuse ; 9:00 p.
'”smd^y! N^vOTto-f-Open Bicycle Outing: Meet at Belk Cen
ter; 1:30 p.m. -CUBfibn: “Notorious”
Monday, November 13 - Mass: Meditation Room, 5:00 p. m. -
Faculty Dinner: with William jackson; Presidents Dining
Room, 6:00 p. m. - Monday Happenings in the Arts: Faculty
Recital with Emily Ellsworth, soprano, and Lee Kessleman,
piano; 8:00 p. m. Vardell
Tuesday, November 7 - Election Day
Wednesday, November 8 - CCC: Student-Faculty Fum; “The
Great Debate, Part II”, 11:30-12:30 p. m., Avinger Aud. - CCC:
Worship Service; 6:15 p. m.. Meditation Room - CCC: Almost
Midnight Snack and Discussion; Meditation Room, 10:00 p. m. -
11:00 p. m.