THE SALEMITE
FITS For All
FITS day is over now and the freshmen are
formally orientated, initiated, and made a part
of Salem College. The beanies are hung on
bulletin boards or stuffed in the back of a
drawer with a look of relief—and of pride.
The freshmen know that they belong now.
Although it is still too early to evaluate' the
strengths and weaknesses of the FITS pro
gram this year, certain things are evident.
Although the way the program was carried
out or the way a few individuals reacted to
FITS was not perfect, the idea behind the
program is good.
The freshmen enter Salem and they seem to
be a mass of new faces. They must meet their
classmates and the rest of the school—and
we must meet them. The FITS program has
been planned by the sophomore class to pro
vide a way to meet the new Salemites and to
have fun at the same time. We hope that for
the majority of both classes, this purpose has
been accomplished.
Is FITS just for the freshmen and sopho
mores however? FITS seems to have an even
wider effect on our whole campus. The FITS
program, since it includes each class and each
individual, has helped to foster a feeling of
unity—a feeling of school and class spirit that
too often lacks expression at Salem. Our love
is true, and it has been true—but this FITS
program unites us as a unit the way singing
the Alma Mater and then scattering in 50 dif
ferent directions can’t. This is a time “The
spirit makes us one.”
Yes a few sophomores did get calldowns for
being over zealous about beanies, and a few
freshmen were probably bored. But the girls
did stand out in the rain for an enthusiastic
pep rally on Wednesday night. That kind of
unity makes the imperfections of FITS trivial
indeed.
Keep Library Open
On Monday morning at 8:30 the professor
walked into class, adjusted his book and notes
on the speaker’s stand, and then looked at
his class. He looked at the sleepy girls (Sat
urday had been Carolina’s homecoming week
end) and then glanced back at his notes. The
girls didn’t look very studious this morning.
“Well, we’ll try some class discussion on our
outside reading first,” he said hopefully.
Jane looked down at her blank notebook,
and Betty recrossed her legs and stared at the
white chipped place on her “Fire Engine Red”
nail polish. The professor caught Sally’s at
tention and asked, “Now Sally, what do you
think our author was trying to say?” Sally
was a good student—she would help perk up
the discussion thought the professor. But
Sally looked down too. “I haven’t read it,”
she said. “When I got back from Carolina,
the library was closed and I couldn’t get a
reserve book.” “Neither could I,” echoed
Betsy and Ann and Mary.
The professor leaned forward on the
speaker’s stand and began to lecture. It was
impossible to have class discussion on material
the students had not read.
This scene has been repeated many times at
Salem in many different classes. Students re
turned. to campus after 5 o’clock on Sunday
and they couldn’t get the book that they
needed to prepare for classes.
We are not claiming that each student
would be well prepared for Monday classes if
the library were open on Sunday night, but
we are suggesting that this would provide a
greater opportunity to prepare the assignment
on Sunday night. The Sunday night hours
would also benefit the Salem students who do
not leave campus for the week-end. On Sun
day night the dorms are necessarily noisy as
the other girls return to campus, unpack and
exclaim about their week-end fun. The library
would provide a quiet place in which the stu
dents could study and not be disturbed.
Sunday night library hours would be a
.special blessing for the students during the
time they are working on term papers. Many
times we are writing papers using periodicals
which can not be taken out of the library.
No work on these term papers can be done on
Sunday night now.
We realize that the librarians would have
to work longer hours in order to have the
library open on Sunday night. And it would
cost more to pay the librarians and their
helpers. But the students would appreciate
and benefit from the extra library hours. We
hope that the Library Committee will consider
this suggestion carefully.
News In Review
REPUBLICANS: Vice-President
Nixon spent this week touring a
large part of the country, in spite
of some adverse weather conditions.
Monday night he appeared in Char
lotte, N. C. to a packed Coliseum.
He emphasized the importance of
voting for the man and not the
party. His wife, Pat, told reporters
that she would campaign for her
husband only as part of a team,
and not on her own. Nixon’s re
ception in Boston, Massachusetts
was unexpectedly warm, consider
ing the fact that it is Kennedy’s
own home grounds. Nixon pre
dicted that the Republicans will
carry both North and South Caro
lina in the coming election.
DEMOCRATS: Bob Kennedy,
and company got a ticket for speed
ing in Nebraska. Sister Ethel Ken-
brother Jack's campaign manager,
nedy spoke to a group in Harlem,
and mother Rose is still campaign
ing. In a speech to a group in
Springfield, Illinois Monday, Ken
nedy said that agricultural hard
times must not be allowed to de
velop to the point that “a Demo
cratic Administration must once
again be called in to bail out the
country.”
TPIE UNITED NATIONS: Pre
mier Khrushchev turned many of
the other U. N. members against
himself as he shouted and pounded
the lecturn, in effect denounced the
United Nations itself, and repeated
his attacks on U. N. Secretary-
General Dag Hammarskjold. Shak
ing off his security guards shortly
after his arrival on Manhattan Is
land, he drove rapidly to Harlem
to visit with Cuba’s Fidel Castro.
Could it be that the Soviet Premier
is under pressure from the higher-
ups in the Communist regime and
is getting a little too hot under the
collar to remain calm; the U. S. is
attaining obvious prestige in this
fifteenth General Assembly. Neu
tral nations continued their court
ing of both east and west and, in
between times, of each other. Aus
tralia’s four-power summit confer
ence proposal was submitted to re
place the Khrushchev-Eisenhower
proposal made earlier by the neutral
nations. President Eisenhower en
tertained cabinet ministers from the
new African nations at his suite in
the Waldorf, and Nikita appeared
totally unexpected at a cocktail
party given by Toga in the Plaza
Hotel. Mr. K. is determined not
to miss a single one of his remain
ing chances to improve his position
in this Assembly. Fidel Castro has
declared his country on the side of
the Communists — score one for
Russia. Castro tried a verbal at
tack on our present presidential
candidates, but was restrained from
doing so by the presiding officer.
FRANCE: Brigitte Bardot at
tempted suicide on her twenty-sixth
birthday, but is now recovering
nicely with her husband Jacques
Charrier, more often estranged than
not, at her side.
MOVING PICTURES: “Sunrise
at Campobello” is predicted by
Time to be not only a heroic drama,
a patriotic myth, a situation com
edy, and a soap opera, but also
“campaign propaganda for the
Democrats.”
BROADWAY: “Irma La Douce”
is a new musical which has opened
rather successfully. It concerns a
Parisian prostitute and a virtuous
young law student. Directed by
Peter Brook, it has England’s
Elizabeth Seal in the title role.
TELEVISION: “The Tom Ewell
Show”, a family situation comedy,
“My Three Sons”, starring Fred
MacMurray as a widower with a
ten-year-old son, and “Guestward
Ho”, based on Patrick Dennis’
Auntie Marne are among the new
offerings on the T. V. this fall.
SALEMITE: The staff was at a
loss last week to find anyone to
write “Beyond the Square”, and so
had to substitute a news summary
in its place. The editors are very
much interested in anyone who
would like to try their hand at
this column.
NOTE: News summary con
densed from Time, October 10, 1960.
Published every Friday of the College year
BY THE Student Body of Salem College
OFFICES—lower Floor Moin Hall — Downtown Office—414 Bank St., S W.
EDITOR Mary Lu Nuckols
BUSINESS MANAGER Sara Lou Richardson
Printed by the Sun Printing Company
Subscription Price—$3.50 a year
News Editor Becky Boswell
Associate Editor Susan Hughes
Feature Editor Peggy Brown
Copy Editor Ellen Rankin
Headline Editors—Alta Lu Townes, Susan
Ray Kuykendall and Bonnie Bean
Managing Staff—Mary Jane Crowell and
Rooney Nelson
Asst. Business Manager Nancy Peter
Advertising Manager Becky Chappell
Circulation Manager Donnis Mauney
Lay-out Editor Becky Boswell
Managing Editor Elizabeth Lynch
News Writers—Sally Harris, Sue Sample,
Jane Peele, Dot Grayson, Betsy Hicks,
Ann Moore, Ur Smith, Betty Lou
Creech, Kit Foard, Page Bradham, Kay
Long, Ann Romig.
Feature Writers — Felicity Craig, Liz Wil
son, Bugs Brandon, Cynthia Randolph,
Jerrine Fuller, Mary Ann Brame, Mikki
Althouse, Rooney Nelson, Jenet Yar
borough, Susan Hughes, Becky Shell,
Dean Major, Nancy Peter.
Typists Ginger Ward, Elise Vitale
Proof-Readers Ann Moore, Liz Smith
Faculty Advisor Miss Jess Byrd
October 7, 1960
Around The Square
By Susan Hughes
Red splotches climbing on Home Moravian
Church . . . going to supper in the dark . . .
maple leaves scattered on the brick sidewalk
... the squash of overripe crabapples that
have fallen . . . and rain—yes, this is fall at
Salem, the last days of being able to walk
outdoors without coats and to keep windows
open all the time. The weekend of rain was
a hint of the “indoor” weather we’ll be having.
Speaking of rain, Abbie Suddath had a
stroke of luck Tuesday. The sun came out
just in time for the annual pictures she has
been trying so desperately to schedule to be
taken.
Some “kind” soul caused hearts to jump up
in throats Monday night (excuse me, Tuesday
morning) when he called and asked for “Ken”
on 3rd floor Bitting at 5 a.m. Dr. White’s
comment to a new student in Shakespeare the
other day was “I thought maybe you were an
other freshman coming to get a lock of my
hair.” (Sounds like a leftover from the
scavenger hunt.)
And speaking of expanding—as we have
been for the last several weeks—tonight we
have another opportunity to hear what Mr.
Kennedy and Mr. Nixon have to say, this time
to the press, on television. Watch it whether
you’re required to or not, and believe it or
not, it doesn’t really hurt to sit and watch
these debates with a date—it won’t impair
social life. Go to the fair or to the movies
another night.
I thought the girls did an excellent job of
defining our honor tradition in chapel Tues
day. Perhaps more of us should have had to
write a formal statement (besides on the test)
of what honor really means to us. This could
be a part of the challenge—our attitudes about
personal honor and integrity will be with us
as long as we live and can help or harm us
in relationships with those around us. Dis
cipline is a word that not many people like,
but the discipline involved in honor and per
sonal judgment can pay off if we let it.
Salem’s disciplines aren’t just to keep us from
having fun or to make us squirm and wonder
who’s been breaking rules; they rather will
enable us later to accept the rules of the so
ciety and government to which we are re
sponsible.
Justice Is Theme Of
‘‘The Affair^ By Snow
Justice is the theme of THE AFFAIR, by
C. P. Snow, and the story is an examination
of human conduct when intelligent people feel
an injustice has been done. The action takes
place against the background of Cambridge
University campus during 1953-54. A place,
one would think, far removed from the ten
sions and strife of the work-a-day world. But
is it?
The campus is split wide open over the
issue of whether or not the case of a young
tutor, dismissed on charges of fraud of a
photograph used in his thesis, should be re
opened. Here we see rivalries for honor and
power which are every bit as unseruplous as
in any other segment of society. The author
does not condemn the college for this but uses
this situation to point out that motives behind
results of condition rather than reflective
human conduct are complex and often the
thought.
The plot of this story is made more involved
when we find the scientist is suspected of
being a fellow traveler and an unattractive
personality. He is just the type one finds it
easy to believe could have done such a thing.
But the important question is, did he: The
drive and singleness of purpose in this writing
produces a work that reads like a detective
story.
THE AFFAIR, is the eighth title in a series
by this author called STRANGERS AND
BROTHERS. It fits into the main theme of
the series but is also a complete story in itself.
Snow is a physicist and taught at Cambridge
m his youth. His works have been well re
ceived in England but have just recently
caught on in this country. He is an excellent
story teller and his interest in modern science
has done much to bring the literary and
scienjific world closer together;
This is a masterful work dissecting power
and prestige and its effects on individuals and
society.