Newspapers / Salem College Student Newspaper / Jan. 13, 1961, edition 1 / Page 2
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THE SALEMITE January 13, 1961 Page Two Isn’t There Some Truth In Sarton’s Accusation That Salem Is Bland? Miss May Sarton, Uondthaler lecturer, was on campus on Dee. 8. She spoke in chapel that niornin;, and to a meeting that night. But Miss Sartoii will probably be remembered on Salem campus more for an informal re mark made to a small group of students at dinner. Miss Sarton stated that she had found Salem to be “charming—very charming—but very bland.” Salem exploded with justified criticism of Miss Sarton’s rudeness and hasty judgment. After less than 24 hours on campus, we feel that Miss Sarton cmuld not have known our campus well enough to have made a valid judgnumt—we are a bit more complex than she seemed to feel. But in our criticism of Miss Sarton, we too often went ovtu’ board in a defcmse of Salem. Salem suddenly became all good and holy as we defended it against the “outsider” who had criticized oTir school. We criticized rudeness and lack of a valid understanding but we ignored the basic question Avhich she raised: “Is Salem bland?” And we who have known Salem for two, three or four years mu.st truth fully admit that to too large an extent, Salem is bland. No, we don’t mean that everyone at Salem is a half alive o.strich who is trying to ignore the outsifh* world. But we do imuin that there is much room for improvement. There are distui’bing signs of blandness, apathy, indif ference, complacency—what ever you want to call it. Th(‘r(‘ is too much blaudness at Salem for every student -who admits that she will graduate with out really knowing anything except who Sally is dating and what Ann wore last week-end. —who after four years at Sahun and three years of marriage will not be able to dis cuss anything except how many teeth •Junior has. —who has not seriously (piestioued any of her basic beliefs, ideas or opinions, changed any opinions slu' brought with her to Salem. —who has not been ac,tivel,>’ involved in any school organization (in this generalization we omit the freshmen who need a year to adjust to college life.) —who hav(> nevei' taken a ))ositive action such as writing a letter to the editor, see ing th(‘ i)ci-son in authority, or contacted a Stee (lee member or dorm president about the stud (> n t problems (weryone gri])es about. -who has not attended lectui'es, recitals, concerts, or Pierrette ])roductions because they didn’t want to see or hear anything that wasn’t light and gay. —who has avoided taking courses that have the re])utation of being hard and chal lenging in favor of crip courses. —who faithfully read “Around the Scpiare” and ignore “Beyond” and editorials. —who are working more for a degree than foi- an education—who are just trying to get hy with the least possible effort. -—who don’t read the newspapers well enough to know what is going on in Washington, the Congo, Laos, in race re lations. medical care for the aged, federal aid for education. —who do not read good books during the summer and who probably won’t read anything more serious than a cook book after graduation. Each student will have to judge for herself to what extent these conditions exist at Salem and in herself. "We are all complacent to a certain degree. It is evident that we are discussing here blandness, or apathy, on two levels. There is indifference toward activities on campus w'hich the head of every organization has had to deal with. And there is the more serious problem of indifference to things beyond our campus limits. Although five years from now it prob ably won’t matter whether you were active in the WKA, Pierrettes or the Salemite, it will matter if you don’t have the background in formation on what is happening now or the ideas and concept with which to meet future problems. Well, what can be done about the apathy at Salem? Not much that we can think of. Better planning of programs in order to relate campus activities to the outside world could help somewhat. In the rush of term papers and tests we are too often inclined to fill the program time rather than take the extra thought, effort and time involved in planning worthwhile programs. The Y service projects are a wonderful example of what can be done with a little extra inititative and imagination. It has shown that good planning can bring good results. Salem students have shown a vital interest in local affairs in the community they are a part of for only four years. Another recommendation that we would make is to deal with more vital controversial i.ssties in chapel and club programs. The Y again sets us a pattern by its excellent dis passionate discussion on yace relations last week. We would also like to see a regular foi-mal debate on some controversial issue in chapel with no apologies made for taking one side or the other on for disagreeing with some one else. Too often we find that an overly delicate appreciation of the other point of view leads to a superficial skirting of the problems we are discussing. We should relate our programs with the vital issues beyond the square. Another recommendation would be' to use our foreign students, Oslo scholars and our American students living in foreign countries in programs to discuss controversial issues. While knowing of the dating customs in an other country is interesting, wouldn’t it also be interesting to hear their views on segre gation, the American educational system and the advantages of socialism"? Perhaps if some of these things are done, Salem students won’t be called bland by our future visitors. Beware Impostors! Dear Salem Students, _• .- —_ ■■>«■«» t ttm PRESS PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY OF THE COLLEGE YEAR by the Student Body of Salem College Downtown Off,ce-414 Bank St., S.W, 7 Sara Lou Rich;;^o„ Printed by the Sun Printing Compony Subscription Price—$3.50 a year News Editor - Associate Editor Feature Editor .. Copy Editor Becky Boswell Managing Editor : Elizabeth Lynch e u u.. Cartoonists—Eloise Upchurch, Bugs Bran- Susan Hughes Catherine Eller. Peggy Brown ^^^jyertising Manager . Becky Chappell reggy oiuyt,. ^^^jyertising Manager . Becky Chappell Ellen Rankin circulation Manager Donnis Mauney Susan Lnv-out Editor Becky Boswell Headline Editors-Alta Lu Townes, Susan Lay-out Editor Becky Boswell Ray Kuykendall and Madge Kempton. Faculty Advisor Miss Jess Byrd Asst. Business Manager Nancy Peter Photography Editor McFate r- II j Managing Staff Wanda Cervarich Managing Staff—Mary Jane Crowell and, ... 0-- ^ TTIIIS Rooney Nelson Typists Ginger Ward, Elise Vitale Feature Writers - Felicity Craig, Liz Wil- News Writers-Sally Harris, Sue Sample, son. Bugs Brandon, Cynthia Randolph, Jane Peele, Dot Grayson, Betsy Hicks, • . - M *1 A__ D kisuL-: Ann Moore, Liz Smith. Bettv Ifm. son, wwya wiwmv»wii, 1 Jerrine Fuller, Mary Ann Brame, Nikki Althouse, Rooney Nelson, Janet Yar borough, Susan Hughes, Becky Shell, Dean Major, Nancy Peter. Ann moore, t.i4 Smith, Betty Lou Creech, Kit Foard, Page Bradham, Kay I Ann Ann Romla. Long, Ann Romig. Proof-Readers Ann Moore, Liz Smith Around The Square AYell, Cbristma.s is over now, and I’m back up here at the North Pole getting readj^ for iK'xt year. But 1 was rather disturbed about some re])orts that I’ve been getting from Win ston-Salem. It seems that some overly friendly men have been impei-souating old Santa in the last couple of weeks. They hang out between Sal mu and the downtown shopping district. They start conversations with the girls, and some of the impersonators have even pretended to be giving away free bowling tickets. Better be careful .girls, these fake Santas aren’t really me. Oh, you can’t tell these despicable imperson- atoi's by the way they are dressed. They don’t wear my holiday costume — they are neatly dressed and look innocent enough. Some of them even seem to be employees of Old Salem, Inc., but they are just another despic able brand of the impersonators. Because these impostors are afraid of de tection, they usually only talk to girls who are walking uptown alone. Mrs. Claus and I therefore recommend that you try to walk uptown by pairs or groups of three. If you must walk alone, be sure that you don’t stop to talk to these impersonators. Anyone who would impersonate old Santa just isn’t to be trusted. Well, have a happy year and I’ll see you next Christmas. Sincerely, Santa Claus By Louisa Freeman Several weeks ago, when a- noted authoress visited Salem, she made the statement that Salem girls are “charming, but bland”. According to Mr, Webster, bland is “a drink of buttermilk and water;” liow could anyone possessed of normal intelligence call a Salem girl a drink of buttermilk and water ? Even if this were not exactly the connotation of bland that Miss Sar ton had in mind, there is certainly no basi^ for tlie statement. Look at Frances Bailey for in stance. Could a “bland” student be inspired by Plato’s Phaedo to write a biology, term paper on that fascinating, non-Passerine old- European bird, the Hoopoe ? At least Mr. McKinley has found a fellow bird-lover with whom he can share all his valuable prints and pamphlets. Bland can mean “not stimulating” also. But who could be more stimulated than the eight seniors who came back from Christmas with diamonds, or Lorenda Hooks, who didn’t come back at all ? And now that Mr. Wendt lias celebrated a certain birthday with all due festivity—coffee and cake during the day—he has just begun to live, too. Of course there is a lot of in terest and enthusiasm at Salem Col lege. The Terrace Lounge Beauty Parlor,, run by Miss Warren (Sheena), is a thriving business in terest, with its latest under-the- dryer conversation being Mary Dabney Henderson’s new pin, Ginny Kay Fortson’s new pin (not a fra ternity one, however), the four ap paritions who invaded the salon Saturday night, and all the scandal that went on in Jacksonville over the holidays. The education department oc casions a lot of interest, also. Think of the hours these future members of the teaching profession (not job) spend on their time lines of eternal verities and on their bulletin boards ! ^ Foolish perhaps, but never bland. And spaghetti enthusiasts en joyed a dinner cooked by Linda Lee Rich combined with a kitchen shower, both in honor of Libba Lynch. Now really ... no group of bland females would have bothered themselves by getting en tangled in cooking a spaghetti din- ner. Instead, they would have sent Libba a few magnetized potholders and guaranteed-not-to-rust egg- beaters and let it go at that, Libba, Cathy Gilchrist, Page Brad- ham, Liiidy Wimbish, and Sally Spangler won’t be back second se mester. The only use for Miss Sarton s famous “bland” might be found by those girls who are get ting married—the use being in the recipe, of cour.se. Page will have little time to be bland and much time to be charmin.g while she stu dies in Europe. After examining all the evidences of activity, enthusiasm, and interest around the square, it is easy to see that only a person unfamiliar with what life replly is could say that the school and its students are “charming, but bland”. Write^ Rewrite, And Revise! Dear Editor, The Sands of Time are Running Out.,', Ill other words, the deadline for all articles, essays, sltort stories, art work, poems, critiques and Deep Thoughts which will be published in The Archway, Salem’s Literary Magazine, at Easter, is fast ap proaching. One week after second semester begins we must regretfully shake our heads and reject even the Masterpiece of the Twentieth Cen tury. (Of course I don’t think we would do that, but still, you get the general idea.) So all you shy artists who are blooming unseen and wasting your sweetness on the desert air— Well, anyhow, if you would like your work to be considered for The Archway, please turn it in to Ann Moore (203 Strong) not later than February 7th. (This date can easily be remembered as it is exactly one week before A'alentine’s Day. For those of us to whom Valentine’s Day is simply A Day Like All Others, it is exactly two weeks and one day before Wash ington’s birthday.) This is still a new and experi mental venture, and it needs the contributions . of as many Salem students as possible if it is to be a success. Between semesters you will have nothing to do. So dig out those cherished, dog-eared manuscripts. Revise them. Turn them in. We do the rest. As Ever, Felicity Craig Editor of Th* Archway
Salem College Student Newspaper
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Jan. 13, 1961, edition 1
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