College News, 1931-02-11, Vol. 17, No. 11

              The College News 3>
Vol. XVII, No. 11
WAYNE AND BRYN MAWR,   PA., WEDNESDAY,   FEBRUARY 11, 1931
Price: 10 Cents
Class of 1934 Makes Debut
(Specially Contributed by B. Ush, 1934)
This year the  Freshmen are presenting as their annual
show a musical comedy in two acts, more or less, entitled "The
'Road to Mars." The Freshmen being unable to get hold of
Donald Ogden Stuart to write the book, enlisted the services
of Maria M. Coxe. The music, in the absence of George Gersh-
win, was composed by his new rival, Miriam Cornish. Miss
Cornish�Bryn Mawr, point with pride! has George beaten
because she dances and teaches others how to dance as you
will see in this show. .Another matter of interest as regards
music is that the Freshmen have thrown tradition to the winds;
they are not having an orchestra, and Miss E. Snyder is goin^
to play the piano.
By the way, don't be disturbed by the make-up or scenery
'of "The Road to Mars." The time of the play is a hundred
years from now, the place, Mars, queerly enough. Scenery-
designer Connie Robinson and Costuine-designer Margery Lee
had ideas of what such a time and place mean�the stage effects
have been planned accordingly.
You will find out all the rest of interesting data about this
show on the big night itself, Februarv*44.
Curriculum Committee
Announces Alterations
Required Subjects Are Reduced
in Number and Given a
Wider Field of Choice.
FIFTEEN  UNITS FOR  A.B.
?uartet and Tenor
in Concert Monday
Strauss and N. Y. String Quar
tet Give Fourth Concert in
3ryn Mawr Series.
INTERPRETATION    GOOD
Tin- tourtn concert of the Bryn
Mawr series-'was held on Monday eve-
ning. The New York String Quartet
and Laurence Strauss, tenor, were the
performers; and as such showed them-
selves to be very capable. The work
of the individual members of an en-
semble is distinguishable, paradoxically
enough, as contributing to the desired
unity i'i the whole, and this unity com-
bined with solidarity, the quartet has
certainly achieved. Milton Prinz, the
'celloist, is especially to be commended,
as he has been with the quartet only
a year, whereas the other members
have been together for ten. Unfortu-
nately, however, interpretation is but
half the performance, and in this, case
the program has kept the latter from
realizing the possibilities which the
skilLof the performers might lead one
to expect. The Dvorak "American"
Quartet (F ^lajor) was the most for-
tunate selection. Not only is the syn-
copated modal lullaby of its second
movement very beautiful, but the com-
bination of negro and Bohemian folk-
tunes is an interesting one. Concern-
ing the "Invocation of the Toreador"
by a Mr. Turina, there is little to say,
as tHe work seems insignificant as well
Continued dn Pare  Four
Value of Conference in
Detroit Seem: Doubtful
The Cut Committee
(Specially contributed by Alice Rider,
Chairman)
The Cut Committee of the Under-
graduate Association is coniposed_Qj
the first junior member of the associa-
tion as chairman and four other mem-
bers, one elected by each class. The
members of the Cut Committee this
year are: Chairman: Alice Rider; 1931,
Elizabeth Doak; 1932, Emma Paxson;
1933. Ffsa B.assoe: 1934. Janet Eliza-
beth  Hannan.
The committee has beeU authorized
by the faculty to regulate all academic
cuts. It decides the number of un-
excused cuts to be allowed without
penalty, and for this purpose has taken
into consideration not only the condi-
tions here, but also the way similar
problems have been met in other col-
leger The committee ap^bints student
monitors to take the attendance in all
classes, sends out to every student at
the end of each month a record of the
number of cuts she has taken to date,
and penalizes overcutting.
Siticc the number of week-end-, a
student may take is unlimited, a system
limiting cuts is obviously necessary,
but the members of the Cut Committee.
a- in the case of every committee, are
rciircsentatives of the student body.^nd
always want suggestions with regard
E   to the cut system.
The two Bryn Mawr undergraduate
delegates to the Detroit Conference
of the National Federation of Christian
-_|-Associations. Harriet Moore and Ruth
Millikcn, '32. spoke in Chapel, Tuesday,
February  10.
"The problem." Miss Moore stated,-
"was the development of Christian
.character in colleges and universities."
As the most important point of this
was religious organizations, and the
afternoon debates were solely on re-
quired chapel, this phase was of little
interest to Bryn Mawr. The morn-
ing discussions proved of greater in-
terest. These came from the commis-
sions on administrative policy, the edu-
cational system, social and organized
campus life, morals in a flay of rela-
tivity, social attitudes and responsibil-
ity, and students' counsels.
Miss Moore found the commission
of "Higher Education" very frank in
its discussion of the plans in various
colleges, and the general problems of
education. Among the questions raised
was that of grading and promotion,
and the consensus of opinion seemed
to be in favour of onlv two marks,
passed and failed, with a possible mark
for superlative work.
Half the students worked on "moti-
vation," and advocated presenting
work in- a more pleasing manner, and
getting away � from the formal lecture
system, which means something like
the Chicago plan where no time limit
is set. and the courses are broad. The
other half, working on examinations,
'Suggested that they be on a two-fold
basis, that is: fact examinations which
should be frequent, and only to test
for the facts absorbed; and a report or
thesis on one general phase, to see
how a problem of the course could be
> Required subjects: One unit of coin-
position��formal instruction in writing
with �special consideration of the needs
of the various departments in the prep-
aration of material for reports and
papers.
In addition, the student is required
to take English diction, reckoned "as a
half-hour weekly for one year but not
included in the total number of units
required for the degree.
One unit of Laboratory Science: A
student majoring in science may sub-
stitute for the science requirement a
unit of Psychology, or Mathematics,-or
Economics, or Politics, or History, or
History of Art.
One unit of First Year Greek or
First Year Latin or First Year Eng-
lish: A student majoring in English
must offer for the third unit of required
work First Year Latin, or First Year
Greek, or Elementary Greek.
A student majoring in Latin must
offer either First Year English or First
Year Greek, or Elementary Greek.
A student majoring in Greek must
offer either First Year Latin or First
Year English.
One unit of Philosophy: A student
majoring in Philosophy may offer a
unit of Psychology for the fourth unit
of required work.
Courses counted as a part of the
major subject with allied subjects may
not also be counted in fulfilment of the
requirement   under   Required   Subjects.
Furthermore the number of units re-
quired for the degree will be reduced
from 16 to 15. If the unit is taken as
the exact equivalent of a four-hour
course the 15 units will correspond to
the 120 hours previously required for
the degree. This change would permit
a student to carry three and a half
units instead of four units of work for
two years. It would also allow of
greater flexibility in the arrangement
of courses where students elect half-
unit of one-and-a-half unit courses. In
calculating the honors credits, the en-
tire work of the sixteen units would be
considered, in the case of those stu-
dents who have completed sixteen
unit.-..
handled. For the latter, specfal time,
as in examinations, was to be given.
This double/form was thought to get
away from the present-day evils char-
acterized in the conundrum: "Why is
a college professor correcting exami-
nations like a dog eating sausage? He
is devouring his own substance thrown
back at  him  in  mangled form."
Miss .Millikcn went to the Coinmis-
Curriculum   Questionnaire
At the end of this Week, a
printed form will be given to
each girl in college-. Everyone
is urgently requested to co-op-
erate with the Curriculum Com-
mittee by filling out the blank,
giving the approximate time
spent on each course during the
week beginning Monday, Febru-
ary 16, and ending Sunday,
February 22. The Faculty Cur-
riculum Committee expects, by
means of several of these sur-
veys, to be able to apportion the
work of the various departments
more equally. This is only pos-
sible, however, if the records are
carefully kept by a large majority
of the undergraduates.
Princeton Glee Club
in Successful Concert
Presentation Shows in Tone and
Shading Marked Improve-
ment Over Last Year.
DIRECTING IS EXCELLENT
is also done in
>ut   that   of   our
sion on "Social Attitudes and RespoV   ''art     Hall    on    Wednesday    evening.
,1."  -F
sibilities Centering on the Methods
of Social Change." "It wuis interest-
ing." she declared, "that of all the
inquiries submitted, only three were
on curriculum changes" (this was Miss
Milliken's topic). This was interpreted
not as a sign of satisfaction with the
existing curricula, but. rather that stu-
dents did not consider this their busi-
ness.
The results of the inquiries showed
the most frequently recurring problems
to be: moral difhculties, e. g� cheating,
which seems to be a very real problem
in an astonishing number of colleges;
religious differences, student-faculty
frictions, racial problems, social life,
R. O. T. C, andjhv relations of stu-
dents to industry. "In discussing these
problems, we tried to evaluate the dif-
ferent possible methods and arrive at
one method which would be applicable
< oiitinuril  on   1'iir.-  Thro-
Scenery Must Be Frame
Work, Not Background
Monsieur    Maricheau � Beaupre
Traces Evolution of French
Stage Settings.
MODERN     SETS     SIMPLE
Monsieur Charles Maricheau-Bcau-
pre Spoke on "La Decoration Theatrale
Francaise du Dix-septicme Siecle a nos
Jours'"  in   the   Music   Room  of Good;
February 4. Although the emphasis
of the lecture lay upon more modern
times. Monsieur Beauprc began by
tracing the development of the art of
scenery from classical antiquity to the
present day.
The most primitive of all scenery is
the background chosen by the street
vendor. He backs up to a building so
that he will not be in the middle of the
group he is talking to. The next step
is the platform on wheels brought into
the market place with a simple curtain
anil perhaps a chair to denote an in-
terior. Finally a place is set apart for
the presentation of plays and the the-
atre   proper  conies into existence.
In the theatre, scenery becomes more
and more complicated. It attempts to
give an illusion of reality thai will en-
hance the \*ords of the actor. It has
evolved  from  simplest background  to
< ciiitlmit'il   on   V*gr   Four
Miss Park Speaks on the
Changes in 'Requireds'
On Thursday morning. February
filth. Miss I'ark spoke on the change
in. required subjects. Inc required
work has now been reduced to four
units.
The course in writing, i. e� Fresh-
man English ha* been left unchanged,
f One coUfsfc�tTr literature has been
dropped. The science requirement is
the same. Psychology has been
dropped while Philosophy has been
amplified and kept.
She then contrasted the American
system of education with thaU 6f
Eufopc. Abroad thcr"e t- no institu-
tion which coincides with the Ameri-
can Vollegc. Tlie work which we do
in our last two years
foreign Universities I
first two years is done in the Gym-
nasium. Therefore when a foreign Stu-
dent arrives at a University he is two
years ahead of the American, student.
Because of this American colleges imist
in their first two years deal with a
kind of work which is both in content
and attack akin to work done in school.
Therefore our first courses, requireds,
first-year courses and electives which
may be taken without any foundation
in the subject, are elementary and gen-
eral to a degree. It is only in our
last two years that we connect our-
selves with professional work. While
our University work is not genuine
research it teaches US the -methods of
research.
Education is the actual teaching of
the process of thinking. We must be
able to guess and gamble. We must
learn what a genuine opinion is and
what- correctness  in   opinion  is.
Our generation is going into difficult
problems and therefore needs educa-
tion in the power of thinking. For
this reason a laboratory science must
be an important part of our curriculum.
For this reason the course in Philoso-
phy has been amplified and kept.
Psychology was dropped for two rea-
sons. It is more closely akin to science
and therefore not so necessary. Sec-
ondly, it is hoped by file faculty that
it will be one of the best and most
generally chosen courses in college.,
Sometime it is hoped that it will be
allowed as a science. The literature
has  been   for  its  connection   with, the
I i>iitiiiiu-il  on  I'HKf  Thiw
The concert by the Princeton Glee
Club in Goodhart Auditorium Saturday
night. February 7. was a very enjoyable
event, and. it may be said, a great im-
provement over their offering of last
year.
Despite a certain preliminary ncrvous-
IWS8, evidenced in the tenors, the* Glee
Club got oil to a good start in Henschel's
Morning Hymn. The first part was
marked by. an increasing smoothness of
tone, coupled with finer shading and
subtlety, owing in large measure to the
excellent conducting and sympathetic in-
terpretation of Mr. Knox. The musical
version of Lewis Carroll's well-known
Jabberwocky, in the second part, was re-
ceived with great and justifiable enthusi-
asm.'
The soloist had an exceptionally fine
voice, effortless, and of a beautiful qual-
ity It is to be regretted that he never
once let us havTTts" full volume. -The
piano duet showed good technique, if no
particular feeling, and the octette, who
last year scored the hit of the perform-
ance, measured up to their previous
standard. Mr. James Giddings. Prince-
ton. '.?(), returned to direct The Group*
and the Black, and the Step Song, to the
great pleasure of the large part in" the
audience who remembered Ml work of
old.
The program was as follows:
Part   I
Glee  Club:
la I   Nottingham  Hunt             Bullard
(b)  Minstrel Song     .....DcLa Halle
(el   Morning   Hymn              llenschcl
Si'In  Group:
Continuril  on  P*M  Three
1.
Miss Ayscough Tells
of Chinese Courts
iv
Magnificent T'ang Dynasty and
Its Collapse Illustrated by
Tu Fu's Poetry..
SLIDES HEIGHTEN EFFECT
Prof. Dinsmoor Describes
Hellenistic Athens
�Dr. William Bell Dinsmoor, Profes
sor of Architecture at Columbia Uni-
versity and lecturer in Classical Archi-
tecture at Bryn Mawr College, spoke
on Hellenistic Athens in the Common!
Room of Goodhart Hall, Friday eve-
ning. February 6. Dr. Dinsmoor
traced the development of Athenian
architecture in the 4th century B. C.
its later decline into purely utilitarian
art, the coming in of Pergainean types
in the 2d century B. C. and the Roman
influences from the age of Augustus
down lo the 5th century A. D. The
lecture was illustrated by lantern
slides showing modern discoveries and
reproducing 18th century drawings of
ancient  buildings  since destroyed.
Court Life in the T"ang Dynasty in
China as shown by the Poems of Tu Fu
was the subject of a lecture illustrated
by lantern slides given by Florence
Ayscough under the auspices of the
Chinese Scholarship Committee in Good-
hart Hall last Tuesday night. February 1
Miss Ayscough collaborated with Amy
Lowell in the book. FtT'Flower Tablets,
translating the poems from the Chinese
for Miss Lowell. More recently she has
arranged and had published In r%, the
Autobiography of a Chinese Pott. In
this lx>ok, in the New Book Rodin, may
be found most of the material of her
lecture.
Tu Fu lived from /12-770 A. D. In
71.1 A. D. the emperor under whom he"
was to live. Ming Huang, came to the
throne. It is this |>criod of the T'ang
Dynasty with which Miss Ayscough con-
cerned herself Between the recitation
of poems, one in Chinese, the lecturer
told of Tu Fu's life, of the emperor and
his loves, of the magnificence of the
eastern capital, Chang An, and, finally,
of its overthrow by a reliel official, the
death of Vang-Kuei-fei. the Emperors
last favorite, and the flight of the em-
l>eror himself. Miss Ayscough told of
and showed among others, kautifully
colored, oM pictures ui he .uses and gar-
dens, courtly splendor and quiet hilltops,
immortals of poetry and "immortals of
the wiHC cup." She gave an excellent
picture of the wealth, wit, extravagance.
and poetry oi the latter half of Ming
Huang's reign as well as of the poet Tu
Fu. his precocity, his travels. Ins charm.
bis poetrv. and his inability to pass
examinations.