Summer School Weekly
FRIDAY, JULY 22, 1955
WHAT'S GOING ON
Friday, July 22
8:15 Square Dance on the Terrace
beside Woollen Gym.
8:30 "A Trip to Saturn," Morehead
Planetarium.
Saturday, July 23
11, 3, 4, & 8:30 "A Trip to Saturn,"
Morehead Planetarium.
Sunday, July 24
Regular Church Services (see page 2)
8:00 "Music Under the Stars," For
est Theatre.
C:00 Student Church Programs.
3. 4, & 8:30 "A Trip to Saturn,"
Morehead Planetarium.
Monday, July 25
7:00 Ballroom Dance Class, Terrace
of Woollen Gym.
7:00 Summer School Chorus Re
hearsal, Hill Hall.
7:00 Variety Show Rehearsal, APO
Room, Graham Memorial.
Tuesday, July 26
5:00 Summer Activities Council
Meeting, Roland Parker No. 1,
Graham Memorial.
8:00 School of Education Colloqui
um, Forest Theatre (Carroll Hall
in case of rain).
8:00 Piano Recital by Milous Ferlik
(American - Czech pianist), Hill
Hall.
Wednesday, July 27
7:00 Bridge Instruction for Begin
ners, Rendezvous Room of Graham
Memorial.
7:00 Ballroom Dance Class, Terrace
of Woollen Gym.
8:00 Dr. Franz Polgar, Hypnotist,
Memorial Hall.
Thursday, July 28
3:00 Advanced Bridge Instruction,
Rendezvous Room, Graham Memo
rial. 7:00 Summer School Chorus Re
hearsal, Hill Hall.
7:15 Children's Movies. "Fur Trap
per," "Out of the Heart," "Americi
for Me," Carroll Hall.
8:30 F'ilm Festival, "Grandma Mo
ses," "Painting Trees With Eliot
O'Hara" and "Rhythm in Paint,"
Carroll Hall.
IRC Announces Open
House Friday, July 29
The International Relations Club,
an organization of American ani
foreign students here at Carolina,
will sponsor an International Opei.
House next Friday, July 29. The
Open House, which will be held at
the Graham Memorial Student Union
Building, will begin at seven o'clock
in the evening and will last till nine
o'clock.
According to Bob Harrington, IRC
Chairman, final plans are being made
for the Open House which will be
the second program sponsored by the
IRC this summer. At the end of June
the IRC presented a program of film
slides on Ceylon and India which was
attended by over a hundred towns
people and students.
The International Open House wilt
feature displays of ai tides from for
eign lands, an International Stu
dents' talent show, music, and re
freshments. The Open House will also
offer an opportunity to meet students
from other countries.
All students, faculty members, and
townspeople are invited to attend the
Open House. Anyone who would like
to help plan the program for the
Open House is urged to attend the
last planning meeting of the IRC
which will be held next Wednesday
afternoon at five o'clock in the Grail
Room of Graham Memorial.
Dr. Franz Polgar To
Present Performance
Dr. Franz Polgar, "America's
Greatest One Man Show," will ap
pear in Memorial Hall on Wednesday,
July 27th at 8 o'clock.
With his fascinating hypnotic feats
and uncanny memory stunts, Dr. Pol
gar has packed Memorial Hall for
the last fifteen visits to the campus.
In his show "Miracles of the Mind,"
he tries mass hypnosis, takes those
under his control on a plane trip,
puts glasses on some of them that
have the amazing quality of allowing
the person to see through cloth and
many other items.
He has also been known to find his
check by mental process after it has
been given to someone in the audi
ence. For an evening of fun, plan to see
this mental wizard Wednesday night.
The program is sponsored by the
Summer Activities Council. Admis
sion is tree.
Purks Named Acting- Prexy
In Gordon Gray's Absence
By Bob Colbert
Dr. James Harris Purks, Jr. be
came the acting president of the Con
solidated University on July 15, fol
lowing the appointment of President
Gordon Gray as assistant secretary
of defense for international security
affairs. Dr. Purks has been Provost
of the University since January 1954.
The Board of Trustees refused to
accept Mr Gray's resignation at their
meeting last month, and instead
granted him a leave of absence, ap
pointing Dr. Purks acting president.
Born in Bartow, Georgia, Dr.
Purks attended high school in Madi
son, Georgia, before entering Emory
University, where he was awarded
his B.S. degree in 1923. He received
his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in physics
at Columbia University in 1925 and
1928 respectively.
CAMPUS CHATS
By Woody Sears
(Editor's note: This is the first of
a series of articles based on intei
views with foreign students attend
ing school here in Chapel Hill.)
Helen Carapetian, a native of Teh
ran, Iran, is one of the many foreign
students here on the campus. Armen
ian by blood. Iranian (Persian) by
birth, Helen is a singularly attractive,
olive-skinned young lady whose vi
vacity immediately draws you to her,
and though she has been here but a
scant nine months, her command and
pronunciation of the English lan
guage is amazing.
An old hand at being interviewed
and quizzed by new friends. Helei
quickly warmed up to the interview
and spoke quite frankly and candidly
about ail the questions asked of her.
When asked that old standby, what
m t . - - i
imp
"... I just like it here so
very much . .
she thought of her new surroundings,
she smiitd and said that there were
just so many things she liked that
it would be practically impossible to
pick out any one thing that she liked
best. Then she added. "I just like it
here so very much . . .", and that
seemed to sum it up. But put on the
spot when asked if there were any
thing in particular that she did noc
like, she parried tactfully by replying
that there were so many things that
were completely new to her that she
hesitated to make any adverse com
ment. She had noticed, however, as do
many newcomers to our country,
that our young people seem to grow
up faster than they do in other coun
tries, though this growth is not neces
sarily accompanied by maturity. She
noted further that many of our
"trashy" magazines of the "true
love" variety and some of our movies
Dr. Purks taught mathematics one
year at Georgia Tech, and later re
turned to Emory as assistant profes
sor of physics, rising to full profe.s-
V
were turning many people outside
our shores against the United States,
and that this adverse publicity is
being used with some degree of effec
tiveness by the Communist propa
gandists. Helen also said that many
of her people had gotten a bad im
pression of our youth from some of
our young soldiers wrho were in their
country. She said that she was so
j young herself at that time her recol-
lection was more than slightly fuzzy,
i She added, however, that the Iran
; ians come closer to being pro-U. S.
: than they do to any other country.
School life here at Carolina is not j
i completely strange to Helen since
: she attended Flora Macdonald College i
i on a scholarship before coming here, j
I where she is enrolled as a sophomore j
: in the School of Medical Technology.
Though mathematics is her first love,
she was encouraged by her father,
who is an interpreter with this gov
ernment's embassy in Tehran, to
study something of a more practical
nature, and since there is such an
acute shortage of trained medical
personnel in her country, med tech
was a logical and worthy choice.
Helen does not consider herself an
exceptional student, but, due to the
rigorous nature of the Iranian sys
tem of education, she must be amaz
ingly well prepared to handle col-iege-level
work. Before entering
school in this country she had had six
years each of math, chemistry, and
physics. And she is only nineteen
: years old. While their school system
' has twelve years of primary and
j secondary education even as ours, it
: is different in the course load that
! the students must carry, an average
i of twenty courses per year (twenty
! three her senior year). This does not
; leave the time for folly t?iat our sys
' tern does, for not only are the sched
; ules much heavier, but if a student
' fails only one of the twenty courses
he must repeat the whole year, not
just the one course. On the college
' level the students are a very select
: group, for the government gives en
j trance exams that oniiy one out of
j ten prospective students pass.
Those students here who are hav
j ing a hard time with French or Span
j ish might be interested in knowing
that in Helen's home four languages
are spoken: Armenian. Persian,
Turkish, and Russian.
Upon arriving in this country,
Helen said, she spent her first fifteen
days at Flora Macdonald in the in
firmary because she couldn't get used
to the food. When asked if she had
(Continued on page 3)
Dr. J. Harris Purks, Jr.
sorship by 1938, when he was named
dean of the College of Arts and
Sciences. He was acting dean of the
Graduate School from 1943-47 and
Director of the University Center in
Georgia from 1948 to 1950.
In 1950, he joined the General Edu
cation Board of the Rockefeller
Foundation which was started by J.
D. Rockefeller, Sr. in 1902.
He is presently holding down two
positions, that of acting president and
provost, but expects to distribute the
job of provost to personnel of the
three divisions of the University.
When asked if he had any guide
posts which he followed, he replied,
"Avoid the big rocks in the road :
don't swerve into the ditch in order
to miss the small ones; steer along
charted course with firm but relaxed
hands on the wheel ; try to take dif
ficulties in stride."
In discussing the scope of his new
position, Dr. Purks commented, "I
spent a number of happy years teach
ing freshmen and sophomores, and
when acting as dean of a college of
Arts and Sciences. I've always re
spected North Carolina for its leader
ship in things educational, and now
have come to love the state and its
people."
Dr. Purks was married to the for
mer Mary Pearce Brown of Gaines
ville. Georgia, in 1932. They have one
son, Jimmy, 18, who entered the Uni
versity as a freshman this summer.
Dr. Purks is a member of Phi
Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi scientific so
ciety, American Physical Society,
Chi Phi social fraternity, and the
Xew York Southern Society.
The closing question of the inte. -view
with Dr. Purks was, "What do
you think the University has the
greatest need for this summer?" Dr.
Purks' reply was. "What do you want
me to say, 'Air Conditioning?' "
First Square Dance
To Be Held Tonight
The first Square Dance of the
Second Session will be held to
night at 8:15 p.m. on the Terrace
f Woollen Gym.
Beth Okun will be the caller.
Ed Wharehime is in charge of ar
rangements. Sponsored by the
Summer Activities Council, the
event is open to any and all who
'ike to participate in this form
( recreation. There is no charge.