PAGE FOUR
MARS HILL COLLEGE HILLTOP
FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1976
D€h
PlCk^
POLITIC9
by Ben
As I was stumbling
around the campus, an
anonymous source I
will term "Big Mouth','
told me to write a-
bout the faculty and
staff...
Well, in starting
the investigation, I
kept running into
more and more people
that wanted to talk.
It seems the faculty
"leaks like sieve"
and information is
easy to come by.
One very important
issue that came up
at the faculty's get-
together and social
hour was the lengthy
and heated debate o-
vet whether to term a
committee a select,
a standing, or to
simply leave it a
special committee.
After much debate,the
issue was tabled un
til the next meeting.
Now, is that not an
important issue?
The faculty meet
ings have people in
all the classic roles
of national politics.
It has a clerk (I
think) to keep track
of attendance, a head
counter who figures
out the outcome of
the vote before the
vote is taken, and a
presiding officer.
I have heard some
of the problems that
are facing the facul
ty meetings. One is
that the coalition
party of the music,
physical education,
and the education
professors are facing
leadership problems
.and are starting to
become disorganized.
Another problem is
that tardies and ab
sences are running
higher than those in
classes by students.
I have heard that
the Social Hour (fa
culty meeting) was
cancelled this week.
I have heard three
reasons and do not
know which is correct
1) lack of interest,
2) no place to meet—
the phone booth in
the library was full.
or 3) no business to
work on.
The president of
the college may not
have massive veto
powers and he may not
be of the minority
party, but he does
have his own chief of
staff (Ms. Snelson)
and his staff of
German assistants
(Hoffman, Knisley,and
Gehring). Soon he
will have a new Execu
tive office building
(Blackwell) in ad-
dition to the old one
(the ad. building) he
now has. Plans are
in the works to make
the Department of
Safety and Security
Franklin
into a President's
Honor Guard for cere
monial occassions. I
do not know if his
staff has bugged the
faculty lounge in
Cornwell yet or not,
but I have seen them
lurking in' question
able areas of the
campus (near the ca
feteria) .
The pull that one
of the members
(Gehring) has may
not be that ^ great,
but if he supports a
measure it will have
a lot of weight be
hind it.
"Tally Ho" Gehring
is also the supervi
sor of the candle
light or flashlight
operations headed by
the capable "Crash"
Faires, who is doing
well after his high
speed wreck in an
over-powered soap-box
racer. "Crash" Faires
is also the head of
C.R.E.E.P. (Committee
to Regulate and En
force Existing Park
ing) , and does a fine
job of walking the
parking lots.
I will try to vrrite
more soom if I can
find my phone and no
one steals . my pen,
but some of my sour
ces have been threat
ened to eat in the
cafeteria and to
sleep in the dorms .if
they 1 talk any more.
Baskin Chronicles Rural America
John Baskin, a for
mer Mars Hill Student,
has spent the last 4
years working on a
book about rural A-
merica. The book, en
titled New Burlington
and subtitled "The
Life and Death of an
American Village", is
slated for a May 24
publication date by
W. W. Norton and Co.
of New York City, one
of the Nation's fore
most book publishers.
Harrison Salisbury
says of the book,"New
Burlington is a dream-
a dream of a by—gone
country, a land we
thought existed but
could not be sure.
(Baskins) calls it
prose; I call it po
etry and I think a
better eulogy to real
American people has
never been written.
It reminds me of some
of those melancholy
strains of MacKinley
Kantor, some bltter-
sweetllnes in Wines-
burg, Ohio, a mood of
Robert Frost. But
most of all it has
the taste, the smell,
the sounds of a peo
ple which has vanish
ed'.
For almost two hun
dred years, the farm
ing village of New
Burlington stood in
south western Ohio,
between Dayton and
Cincinnati, where
Caesar's Creek and
Anderson's Fork came
together to form a
natural landscape for
settlement. But in
the early 1970's the
United States Corps of
Engineers began build
ing a dam and, be
hind it, a Lake to
cover New Burlington.
Now the village Is
deserted. Onjy its
sidewalks remain,
mutely waiting for
the waters of Caesai's
Creek to rise for the
last time.
In the final year
of New Burlington's
life, John Baskin
moved into an aban
doned farmhouse and
began recording the
voices of the resi
dents! Farmer,teach
er, blacksmith, car
penter,’ doctor,’ widow,
Quaker, Methodist.
The result Ls this
beautiful, unique,ec-
c’entric histro^ of
two hundred years in
rural America.
On its most observ
able level New Bur-
lington is a collec
tion of stories, dis
appearing voices, and
rural wisdom, a por
trait of past ways
and manners. But un
derneath this surface
the voices are darkly
ambivalent. If there
were h5mins to harvest
labor, there were al
so men who died work
ing in their fields.
If the village con
tained two churches
and every house a
Bible, it also con
tained thieves and
drunkardsAs surely
as the land gave, so
did drought, flood,
and spring cold des
troy.
New Burlington is
the village from
which most Americans
came. In our time the
self-contained Ameri
can village, like .New
Burlington itself, is
f.
part of a vanishing
geography. In its
destruction it offers
lessons we may learn
from things lost. New
Burlington and thours
sands of places like
it are, finally,
guidepost on our uni
versal quest; for
sense of place, for
work, and for the du
rable values in each.
Volunteer
Bureau
The official open
ing of a Volunteer
Service Bureau in
Madison County has
been announced. It
was established
through a contract
between United Way of
Asheville, Buncombe
County, and Land-of-
Sky Regional Council.
The Marshall office
is located in the Re
creational Center on
Skyline Drive. It is
open Monday-Thursday,
8:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
The telephone nuniber
is 649-2555.
The purpose of the
bureau is to recruit,
interview, and refer
volunteers to non
profit community
gencies. that utilize
volunteers.
Volunteers may also
be interviewed at the
library in Hot
Springs every Wednes
day from 9 a.m. to
noon, and at the
First Baptist Church
in Mars Hill Tuesday
and Wednesday from
2-4 p.m.
Mrs. Madelyn r.
Betts is director of
the Madison County
Vo 1 ion tee r Service Bu
reau. Ms. Lou Farrar
Mars Hill College so
cial work major in
field practicum with
the United Way of
Asheville,will inter
view volunteers in
the Mars Hill area
Tuesdays and Wednes
days, 2-4 p.m.
In cooperation with
the, Land-of-Sky Re
gional Council, the
Volunteer Service Bu
reau of Asheville and
Buncombe County is
developing a project
called PALS (Partners
and Love Services).
This project involves
the coordination of
both direct and indi
rect exchanges be
tween the partici
pants of the Nutri
tion Sites and Day
Care of Region B.
A pilot program was
begun in Buncombe Co.
with 'the Livingston
St. Day Care Center,
and Nutrition Site
and the Black Mo\an.-r
tain Day Care Center
and Nutrition Site.
In Black Mountain,
the younger PALS pro
vided entertainment
for a birthday cele
bration at the Nutri
tion Site in March. A
joint Easter Egg Hunt>
lunch and Easter pro
gram was shared at
the Nutrition Site
with the Day Care
children. Nutrition
Site participants,and
a Girl Scout troop
from the Juvenile E-
valuation Center. The
elder PALS at Living
ston St. provided old
clothing for the
younger PALS for the
dramatic play area.
An Easter Egg Hunt
was also held.
In Madison Co., the
PALS at the Mars Hill
continued on page 8
FRIDAY, N
Bonn
record
N
Two ne
chairmen
announce
Hill Co
are Dr.
of the
Business
tion an
R. Russ
Mathemat
Ics Depa
Df. R
native
Massachu
been a
Mathemat
ment si
received
lor's, 1
Ph.D.
Universi
graduate
the Soi
campus.
7(
Rep. Lis
of Marsh
George 1
Albermar;
honored
and AIud
during A)
tivities
College
May 15.
Rep.