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YOU’RE BREAKING
OUR HEARTS . . .
THE TWIG
Newspaper of the Students of Meredith College
... ’CAUSE YOU’RE
LEAVING, SENIORS!
Volume XXIX
MEREDITH COLLEGE, RALEIGH, N. C., FRIDAY, MAY 20, 1955
No. 11
Seniors Will Graduate May 30
Initiates Honored
By Alpha Psi Omega
On Thursday, May 5, in chapel,
the Alpha Psi Omega, National
Honorary Dramatics Fraternity,
held its Spring Tapping Ceremony.
The new initiates were Kathy At
kins, Sally Drake, Jeanne Grealish,
Mary Kiser, Emily Newman, and
Betty Jean Blackmon.
On Thursday night. May 12, at
8:30 in the Hut, Alpha Psi held its
formal initiation. The initiates wore
evening dresses, and the cast mem
bers, clothed in black robes of judg
ment, listened to the requirements,
which were the memorization of
lines and dramatic endeavors. After
the initiates had fulfilled their re
quirements, they were presented
with a rose and ribbons of their
fraternity colors — amber and blue.
On Society Night, the Alpha Psi
Award will be given jointly by the
Alpha Psi and Playhouse to the best
player of the year.
Plans Announced
For Summer School
Summer school at Meredith will
be held from June 6 through July
16 this year. Courses will be offered
in the following subjects: art,
biology, education, English, geog
raphy, government, history, mathe
matics, applied music, religion, soci
ology, and Spanish. However, the
college does not guarantee to offer
any course listed above for which
there is not a minimum registration
of six students.
Registration will begin in the col
lege library at 2:00 p.m., Monday,
June 6. During the six-week ses
sion, a student may earn a maxi
mum of six semester hours of credit.
Classes will meet from 7:45 a.m.
to 1:00 p.m. Monday through Satur
day, except July 4.
Senior Research
Paper
June Vann, a senior sociology
major from Washington, N. C., gave
a presentation of her senior re
search paper Friday, May 13, at
7:00 p.m. in Faircloth Parlor. The
public was invited to attend.
The paper was entitled “How
People Heard About Two News
Items: Churchill’s Resignation, and
the North Carolina Legislature’s
School Integration Resolution.” In
preparing the paper, June did field
work of interviewing. She then com
piled the data thus found, and from
it drew certain conclusions. These
conclusions were compared with
studies made by other sociologists
on the same topic.
Annual Awards to be
Made Society Night
One of Meredith’s most im
portant occasions is Society Night,
held every year at graduation time.
This year it will be on Saturday,
May 28, at 8 o’clock in Jones Audi
torium and will have for its speaker
Mrs. Bernice Kelly Harris, who is a
1913 graduate of Meredith. Mrs.
Harris is a well known North Caro
lina novelist particularly known for
her characterizations of eastern
Carolinians.
The program begins with a pro
cessional of the members of the As-
(Continued on page five)
Class Day Exercises
To Be Held May 28
On Saturday afternoon. May 28,
at 4:30 p.m., the annual Class Day
exercises will be held in the middle
of the court. For the occasion, both
the big sister and little sister classes
of the present Senior Class will be
on hand to participate in the fes
tivities. At this time the sister classes
honor one another with songs and
gifts. Early Saturday morning the
Sophomore Class will pick daisies
for the daisy chain through which
the seniors will pass. At present, the
program has been tentatively set
as follows: the processional of the
sophomores, carrying the daisy
chain on their shoulders and sing
ing “Seniors, Dear Seniors”; the pro
cessional of the seniors through the
daisy chain; welcome to all guests
by Joyce Causey, president of the
Senior Class; the seniors’ song to
their big sisters, the Class of ’53;;
and their response; the presentation]
of the wishbones to the sophomores,
a tradition of the odd class; the “Big
Sister-Little Sister” song with the
sophomores’ response; presentation
of the Last Will and Testament and
the Class Prophecy; presentation of
the gifts, the main one being the
gift to the school; and recessional to
Johnson Hall steps where the sopho
mores form the numerals of the
graduating class. Following the pro
gram the seniors will elect their
alumnae class officers.
School of Christian
Studies Slated Here
(Reprint from News and Observer)
Complete program details for
the third annual Meredith School
of Christian Studies were an
nounced recently by Dr. Ralph E.
McLain, chairman of the school
and head of the Department of Re
ligion at Meredith College.
The school, which will be held
on the Meredith campus June 13-17,
will feature as daily lecturers a
noted English theologian, a Baptist
minister, and a professor of Union
Theological Seminary in New York
City.
Dr. John Seldon Whale, awarded
degrees by both Oxford and Cam
bridge universities, was elected
president of Cheshunt College,
Cambridge, in 1933. He has lec
tured extensively in England and
America, and is the author of num
erous books.
Dr. Whale will deliver four lec
tures at the Meredith school on the
general thefne, “Ancient Problems
in the Modem World.”
The minister is Dr. Carlyle Mar-
ney, pastor of the First Baptist
Church of Austin, Texas, and a
graduate of Southern Baptist The
ological Seminary. He spent three
months in 1954 in preaching mis
sions in Korea and Japan, and
regularly appears on radio and tele
vision programs. His four lectures
will follow the theme, “Structures of
Prejudice.”
Dr. James Muilenburg, Daven
port Professor of Hebrew and the
Cognate Languages, Union Theolo
gical Seminary, taught at Yale and
Mt. Holyoke College before accept
ing his present post in 1945. In
1953-54 he was resident director of
the American School of Oriental
Research in Jerusalem. His theme
will be, “The Prophet Jeremiah and
His Times.”
Rev. Sankey L. Blanton
Mrs. Bernice Kelly Harris
COMMENCEMENT PROGRAM
Friday, May 27
8:00 P.M - - - - ....Annual Concert
Saturday, May 28
9:30 A.M .Annual Meeting of Kappa Nu Sigma
10:30 A.M Meeting of Alumnae Association
Frances Wallace Rankin, A.B., President
Address: Virginia Highfill, A.B., Osaka, Japan
1:00 P.M Alumnae Luncheon
4:30 P.M Class Day Exercises
8:00 P.M ..Society Night
Address: Bernice Kelly Harris, A.B., Seaboard, N. C.
9:30 P.M Annual Meeting of Silver Shield
Sunday, May 29
11:00 A.M Baccalaureate Sermon
The Reverend Sankey L. Blanton, Th.M., D.D.
President, Crozer Theological Seminary
4:30 P.M Organ Recital
Harry E. Cooper, Mus.D., F.A.G.O.
Meredith College
8:00 P.M Senior Vespers
8:45 P.M Reception for Parents
Monday, May 30
10:30 A.M ....Baccalaureate Address
Henry Steele Commager, Ph.D.
Department of History, Columbia University
Conferring of Degrees
Full Schedule Seen For Alumnae Day
This year, Saturday, May 28, will
be Alumnae Day. The program will
begin at 10:30 Saturday morning
as the alumnae register in the lobby
of Jones Auditorium. Frances Wal
lace Rankin, ’46, of Raleigh, presi
dent of the Alumnae Association,
will preside over the activities of the
day.
The highlight of the morning’s
program will be an address by Vir
ginia Highfill of Winston-Salem
and Japan. Miss Highfill is now on
her first furlough from her work as
a missionary to Japan. Before her
graduation from Meredith in 1947,
she was president of the Baptist Stu
dent Union, a member of the Silver
Shield, and an English major. In
1949, she graduated from the Car
ver School, of Missions and Social
Work in Louisville, Kentucky, with
the degree of Master of Religious
Education. Miss Highfill served as
educational director at Baptist
churches in Mooresville and Dur
ham before being appointed by the
Southern Baptist Foreign Mission
Board in 1950 as a missionary to
Japan. During her year’s furlough
Miss Highfill has spoken in churches
and in mission and training schools,
explaining the mission work being
done in Japan. Her headquarters
for the year have been in Winston-
Salem with her mother and father,
although she is spending ten weeks
this spring studying at Union Semi
nary in Richmond. Miss Highfill
spent two years in Japan working
in a Baptist church in Tokyo. The
last two years she has worked in
The speakers for the commence
ment exercises held May 29-30
will be the Rev. Sankey L. Blanton
of Crozer Theological Seminary
and Dr. Henry Steele Commager of
Columbia University.
The Rev. Sankey L. Blanton
bringing the Baccalaureate Sermon
on Sunday morning. May 29, is a
native of Ellenboro, N. C. He holds
the A.B. degree from Wake Forest
College and the Th.M. degree from
the Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary at Louisville, Ky.
During the First World War he
served as an enlisted man in the
30th Infantry Division in France.
At the conclusion of the war he re
mained for a year in France and
Germany as a member of the army
of occupation.
Dr. Blanton is a graduate of An
dover Newton Theological School,
from which he received the degree
of Master of Sacred Theology, From
1931-36 he served as pastor of the
Calvary Baptist Church in New
Haven, Conn. From New Haven he
went to Wilmington, N. C., where
he was pastor of the First Baptist
Church for ten years. In 1945 Wake
Forest conferred upon him the D.D.
degree. He has been active in a
number of educational and religious
institutions, has served on the Gen
eral Boards of both the North Caro
lina and the Coimecticut Baptist
Conventions, and as a trustee of
both Wake Forest College and
Meredith College.
Before becoming the fifth presi
dent of Crozer Theological Semi
nary in Chester, Pa., he was Dean
of the School of Religion of Wake
Forest College from 1946-50.
Delivering the Baccalaureate Ad
dress Monday, May 30, will be
Henry Steele Commager. Educated
at the University of Chicago and
the University of Copenhagen, Dr.
Commager received his A.B. at the
University of Chicago in 1923, his
M.A. degree in 1924, and his Ph.D.
in 1928. While active in various
phases of war life. Dr. Commager
was a member of the U. S. Army
War History Committee, and con
sultant U. S. Army attached to
S.H.A.E.F. in 1945. Although Dr.
Commager leads a busy life, he has
written a number of books such as
Theodore Parker, 1936; Growth of
the American Republic, 1930; Ma
jority Rule and Minority Rights,
1944; Story of the Second World
War, 1945; The Blue and the Gray,
2 vols. 1950; Living Ideas in
America, 1951; and Robert E. Lee^
1951. At the present Dr. Com
mager is the Professor of History
at Columbia University.
GLIMPSES OF FALL
Miss Virginia Highfill,
Alumnae Day Speaker
Osaka in a Baptist church which
has 140 members and a Japanese
pastor. In July of this year Miss
Highfill will return to Japan to
spend six years before returning to
America for another year at home.
The Alumnae Luncheon is
planned for 1:00 p.m. in the col
lege dining hall. Open house will be
held in the Alumnae House be
tween luncheon and Class Day
exercises which begin at 4:30 p.m.
All Class Day Dolls from 1902
through 1954 will be displayed in
the rotunda during commencement
week end. The Class of 1955 will
present their doll at the Alumnae
Luncheon.
CALENDAR
September 8-13—Orientation
Program
September 12 — Registration
of transfers and freshmen
September 13 — Registration
for upperclassmen
September 14—Classes begin
The members of these or
ganizations are expected to re
turn to school on September 6:
Student Government Council
Freshman and Transfer Coun
selors
B.S.U. Council
A.A. Board
Three Class Presidents
Society Presidents
Twig Editor
Acorn Editor
Oak Leaves Editor
Playhouse President