College News, 1933-10-18, Vol. 20, No. 02

              The College News
VOL. XX, No. 2
BRYN MAWR AND WAYNE, PA., WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1933
Copyright  BRYN  MAWR
COLLEGE NEWS.   1933
PRICE 10 CENTS
College Must Educate
for Changing World
Students Should Develop Men-
tal Elasticity, President
Park Declares
TOLERANCE    IS    NEEDED
'The following is a continuation of
of Miss Park's speech at the opening
of college:
a
In our corner relative peace and
rising courage seem at the moment
possible; we may cautiously, eye on
barometer, unreef our sails again and
hope to make some headway. That is
true and heartening and unexpected.
But around and before us lie the
anxious problems and uncertainties
of the economic, political, and finan-
cial world to which we are each of us
connected by so many personal
threads. Your father's business ties
you to them, your mother's purchases,
the hole that the bill for your tuition
makes in the common purse. I am
out of the college office and in Wash-
ington or New York every hour�
the ups and downs of college invest-
ments, the discussion of NRA policy
as applied to college employees, my
weekly afternoon at the county-seat
listening to discussion of this win-
ter's relief problem�all these take
me there. In the end, and a not re-
mote end, as the world careens and
rights itself or sinks, so Bryn Mawr
College will careen, right itself, or
sink.
It is not then a time when we can
think of ourselves as a compact, smug
little crowd gathering in this brisk,
blue morning, carried on the momen-
tum of a social class or a family, or
a distinguished academic past, pretty
sure to be on the winning side in the
future. No such pretty picture. We
don't even know what the alternative
is: only that a current not on the
surface, but strong, from deep below,
a force neither entirely understand-
able or controllable, is taking us from
a past in which you, like your moth-
ers *nd grandmothers have lived,
into a future in which you must live,
make your friends or enemies, earn
your livings, marry, plan the lives of
children, grow old, but whose eco-
(Continued  on   Page  Two)
College Council Reports
Topics of Discussion
At the first meeting of the College
Council, Wednesday, October 11, the
following matters, among others, were
discussed: The status of transfer
students, Freshman Week, the Col-
lege Inn, and Deanery rules for the
undergraduate body.
It was decided that transfer stu-
dents, whose academic status is not
definite until they have passed their
examinations at the end of a year at
Bryn Mawr, should be allowed, nev-
ertheless, to enter the class to which
they belong socially. It was thought
that the classes could arrange to re-
ceive them and formally enroll their
names on the class list.
In regard to Freshman Week, it
was recommended that it be cut short
half a day. That will mean that the
halls will be open at 8 A. M. Thurs-
day instead of 3 P. M. Wednesday
as always before. The first formal
meeting will take place at 8 P. M.
Thursday, but there will be inter-
views -all -day Thursday so that no'
time will be lost for the real business
of Freshman  Week.-                *        *
A new function has been assigned
to the Council, that of acting as a
consulting committee for the College
Book Shop and the Tea Room. It is
thought that by their advice' these
two new enterprises may be kept in
close touch with what the college
wants.                                                   I
Mrs. Chadwick-Collins reported
that several undergraduates, appar-
ently ignorant of the Deanery rules,
had come in, unaccompanied by alum-
nae, and signed slips. The Deanery
is not an annex of the Inn and tea
cannot be served there, after the first
of this week, when there was open
house  for  undergraduates.
CALENDAR
Sat. Oct. 21. Opehing qjj the
Djeanery. Tea in honor of
President - Emeritus Thomas.
4.00 to 7.00  P.  M.
Sun., Oct. 22r Chapel. The
Reverend Frank Gavin will pre-
sent the address. Music Room
at 7.30 P. M.
Students and Faculty
Have Close Contacts
President    Park   Gives   Chapel
Talk on Four Channels
of Communication
New Policy at College Inn
Appreciated by Students
Students may now view with de-
cided joy rather than alarm the atti-
tude of' the College Inn. Like so
many institutions, both collegiate and
otherwise, it has suffered or rather
enjoyed some important changes dur-
ing the summer. The college should
appreciate the fact that it now has
become a part of the campus in every
sense, and the Tea Room, which, of
course, concerns students most, is be-
ing managed for them.
Club breakfasts are served for
thirty or forty cents, and students re-
port that they can enjoy the meal and
still make their morning class. Serv-
ice is the welcome word. Then there
are luncheons and a dinner with both
nalate and purse appeal. Tea, the
perennial afternoon sport at Bryn
Mawr, is served for a quarter. One's
first glance into the tea room this
fall reveals a new atmosphere of
light and speed. The attitude of the
managers is even more cheering.
They asked for any special sugges-
tions and said that they would do
all they could to get what the stu-
dents want. That deserves three
happy cheers.
The Inn proper has been turned into
apartments, but there are still a few
rooms for visiting relatives and
friends. All in all, it is quite chang-
ed,  but  everyone  seems   to  like  it.
Lantern Ceremony is
Tableau of Beauty
Singing   is   Memorable   for   Its
Freshness and Full Vib-
rant Quality
CLOISTERS    AID    EFFECT
The traditional Lantern Night
ceremonies were held with impressive
solemnity despite the vagaries of
the weather and the casualties inci-
dent to the proverbially unlucky Fri-
day the thirteenth. Nothing can
really mar the serene beauty of the
cloisters thrown into even blacker
lijrht by the flickering, swaying lines
f lanterns. All the audience can do
s to peer down from the balcony into
the shadowy depths and appreciate
the beauty of Lantern Night. For
't is distinctly' not a performance put
>n for the delectation and subject to
the dogmatic criticism of the watch-
srs, who are busily clutching the ivy
on the upper edge of the balcony and
�nattering with cold and martyred
atience during the lengthy pauses of
the ceremony.
These intervals of waiting, slightly
�w� for the audience, threatened to
break the atmosphere of breathless
suspense several times. And yet the
�limax of the evening succeeded one
of them: the high moment of the
ceremony came when the green lan-
terns at the side started swinging
and the first notes of Sophias broke
the ominous silence. The freshmen
sang particularly well and their
singing was sustained far better th^an
the sophomores' as the red line of
lanterns swung through and beyond
the cloisters. The new arrangement
for a group of freshmen to cluster
just outside the exit on either side to
reinforce the singing of the last few
freshmen in line may account to some
degree for the contrast between the
two classes' singing in procession. At
best, the sophomores have difficulty
co-ordinating at the start of their
procession into the cloisters, but their
lack of seriousness prevented even
the final singing of Pallas from be-
ing other than weak and uneven.
This marked difference in the sing-
(Contlnued   on   F�k�   Four)
B. M. SYSTEM IS UNIQUE
"Bryn Mawr College prides itself
on the fact that there is direct com-
munication between the Administra-
tion and the students on matters con-
cerning the students," said Miss Park
in Chapel last Tuesday morning*
when she talked to the student body
as a whole, but especially to the
freshmen, on "Channels <Jf*"Commun-
ication." This plan, however, which
provides that the Administration
shall talk directly to the stuflents,
and they in turn to the Administra-
tion, through certain formal chan-
nels, while irreproachable in theory,
i� often a failure in practice. The
President and Dean often get wrong
impressions of student thought and
make wrong opinions which must be
corrected. Moreover, the students
frequently get distorted ideas of the
thought of the Faculty. For this rea-
son it is necessary each year to de-
scribe to the freshmen the formal
channels of communication between
the students and the Faculty in the
hope of eliminating these mistakes.
First, of all, students have a di-
rect point of contact with the Admin-
istration through appointments with
the President and the Dean, who hold
definite, and what they hope are ade-
quate, office hours. Miss Park is in
her office in Taylor from eleven-thir-
ty to twelve-thirty on Wednesday and
Friday mornings, and at home from
three to five Tuesday afternoons. In
sase of emergency both Miss Park
md Mrs. Manning can be quickly
reached.
The wardens of the various halls
are the second channel of communi-
cation. Miss M. Carey Thomas work-
ed out the present system of wardens
for she realized that a college back-
ground would be of great value to a
warden in helping her meet the prob-
lems which the students would be
likely to bring before her. The war-
dens today are college graduates,
some of whom are doing work in their
field here at Bryn Mawr, or are read-
ers for undergraduate courses. They
are in a position to be useful to every
student, and hold themselves ready
'or any emergency.
The third channel of communica-
tion is the College Council, which is
a more thorough-going organization
here than elsewhere. It was begun
(lining the War with the intention
of making it easier for students to
take extra-curricular activities, and
was made permanent when it had
proved its efficiency. It is composed
of representatives of the various un-"
dergraduate organizations, and of
such Faculty members as Miss Park,
Mrs. Manning, Miss Petts, and Mrs.
Chadwick-Collins, there being eight-
een in all. The Council has no pow-
er at all; its duty is merely to dis-
cuss frankly and completely any mat-
ter connected with college life, such
as the budget, courses, management
of the halls, and so forth, and to re-
fer it afterward to the person or
persons rightly in charge of it. Be-
cause of the nature of matters dis-
cussed, the Council is often unable
to publish a definite report, but the
topics brought up in each meeting
are usually mentioned in the News.
The fourth channel of communica-
(Contlnuea  on   Page   Four)
Jane Ad dams
Due to the prolonged illness
of Miss Jane Addams, who was
to have delivered the first two
lectures of the Anna Howard
Shaw Memorial Foundation
series, the chronological order
of the lectures has been rear-
ranged. The new order is
printed  below:
Monday, October 30. Mrs.
Dean will speak on "Fascism
or Democracy iff Europe."
Monday, November 6. Mrs.
Dean will speak on "The New
European Balance of Power."
Monday, November 13. Mrs.
Dean and Miss Fairchild will
speak on "The Soviet Union At
the End of the First Five Year
Plan."
Monday, November 20. Mrs.
Slade will speak on "The Far
East."
Monday, November 27. Miss
. Addams will speak on "The
Hopes We Inherit."
Monday, December 4. Miss
Addams will speak on "Oppor-
tunities of the New Day."
All the lectures will be given
in the auditorium of Goodhart
Hall and will begin promptly
at 8 20 P. M.
Deanery Will Open as
Alumnae House Oct. 21
Alumnae at Last  Have Strong-
hold on Bryn Mawr
Campus
MISS THOMAS TO RECEIVE
Bates House
The Bryn Mawr Leagfle is
conducting a drive this week
for the benefit of Bates House,
the seashore home for poor
children, which is run during
the summer by Bryn Mawr un-
dergraduates. Since the main-
tenance depends entirely on
funds contributed by the stu-
dent body during the college
year, the support of every stu-
dent  is earnestly  solicited.
Pre:ident-Emeritus     Thomas     and
the Deanery Committee will officially
open   the   Deanery   as   the   Alumnae
House on  Saturday  afternoon,  Octo-
ber  twenty-first.    In  order  that  the
Deanery may look exactly as the Alum-
nae remember it,  Miss  Thomas has
presented it to them intact, with all
its paintings and etchings, its  furni
ture collected from all parts  of th
world,   its   entire   library,   its   hand
some and valuable rugs, and  its  in
numerable sets of china.    Miss. Tho-
mas  has  also  offered  continual  and
most helpful suggestions to the com-
mittee in a sincere attempt to make
the   Deanery .as   attractive   and   a--
w 11 fitted-out as pos'ible.
The great sitting room on the first
floor, which is a copy of Dorothy Ver-
non's Gallery in Haddon Hall, Ches-
hire, the large hall, the dining room
and the libraries will be used for col-
'ege attd alumnae entertaining, offi-
cial and private. The blue study,
where Miss Thomas usually worked,
will be reserved for committee meet-
ings and general conferences. The
other rooms will be for general use.
On the second floor is Miss Tho-
mas' own library, a large, comfort-
able, and extremely beautiful room,
covering the entire front of the house
and reached by its own spiral stair-
case. It is to be reserved for Alum-
nae only, and tea will be served there
informally every afternoon. The use
of the bedrooms is confined to grad-
uates, And former graduate and un
dergraduate students of Bryn Mawr
College. Distinguished guests of the
college will also live at the Deanery.
The presence of an Alumnae House
on the campus will satisfy a long-felt
want, and that this Alumnae House
sh<>ii_ dually be-m^*: ..;.-earns
almost too good to be true. The pos-
sibility of staying in such an utter-
ly beautiful place should in itself be
enough to bring crowds of Alumnae
trooping back to Bryn Mawr at the
first opportunity.
Duncan Rediscovered
Secret of Movement
Ideal   Was  Interdependence  of
Arts; Dancer Must Try to
Aid    Composer
GOAL WAS NATURALNESS
Social
Marriage
Sylvia Cornish, '33, to Robert
Allen, of Boston.
Engagements
Nancy Knapp, '36, to Benja-
min Belcher, University of Vir-
ginia.
Priscilla   Totten,   ex-'34,    to
Brown  Temple.
The following is a continuation of
J. Barber's article on the dance:
And now for the more specific ques-
tion of how Isadora's dancing is dif-
ferent from that of her imitators.
In the first place it is not "Nat-
ural" dancing. It invokes a difficult
and long training, a cutting away of
insignificant gesture, an intellectual
de-intellectualizing. Unfortunately we
must he taught skillfully how to be
natural.
SfcC .i ,ry, it is not "Interpretive"
(lanc..iri. Isadora was a good Wag-
nerian; the "Birth of Tragedy Out of
the Spirit of Music" was her Bible
and, unlike Nietzche, she never re-
canted. The ideal for her was a mu-
tual interdependence of the arts,
i here is in her theory of thel rela-
tion of inu.iic and dancing a sugges-
tion of her pantheistic beliefs: "The
great composer combines the abso-
lute perfection of terrestrial and hu-
man rhythms." But the' dancer
should aid the composer; the ideal
is a mutual improvisation. If that
is now impossible, at least instead of
the arrogance of "interpretation"
there can be a more fruitful surren-
der to the greater personality of the
musician. But symphonic music over-
whelms the single dancer; Beethov-
en's "men of tone" of the Ninth Sym-
phony are many, the music of Gluck
is written for the chorus. Poor Isa-
dora never danced a solo, but always
peopled the stage imaginatively
with the dancers she hoped to train.
But the particular connection of mu-
sic and dancing is based, I believe,
largely upon consideration of social
convenience; the temporal element is
constant for dancer and audience. But
one might as well dance to a Persian
carpet.
Thirdly, the dancing is' not
"Greek." The costumes mislead; they
arc not Greek, but only the least arbi-
trary, least inhibiting costume. It
is silly to expect a dancer to account
for the vagaries of costumes whose
counterpoints very > often have only a
confusing relation to his own move-
ments. Only , the supreme dancer
could be asked to do that, and then
what would be the advantage, when
western costume has lost its religious
and social significance? Until the re-
crystallization of the symbol in MS-
tume, the nude alone can be simply
expressive. It is a sad paradox that
although the nude is recognized as
the most significant subject of the
other aMs, "only the dancer has for-
gotten, wUjo should most remember."
The dancing itself is not-a Greek
derivative, even though Mr. Kirstein
(Continued   on   race  Four)
Sunday Chapel
The Evening Service next Sunday,
October 22, promises to be interest-
ing and well ordered. It will be con-
ducted by the Rev./Frank Gavin,
Ph.D., Th.D., LL.D.Jof the General
Theological Seminary in New York
City, who will be in Philadelphia for
the Oxford Movement Centenary. Dr.
Gavin will talk on the Oxford Move-
meatpwwr" � necial reference to its
place in the world today and fts at-
titude toward the problems of modern
life. He will briefly discuss its his-
tory, personalities, and then attempt
to interpret its religious, theological
and social content.
Mr. Willoughby is co-operating
with Dr. Gavin in choosing hymns by
those associated with*'the Movement.
The Processional will be the one by
Vaughn Williams, a favorite of the
Bryn Mawr Choir, that is to be used
at the Centenary-
It will surely be a privilege to have
Dr. Gavin at Bryn Mawr, and it will
be interesting to hear him explain
the Oxford Movement and show that
there is more than a little difference
between it and the Oxford Group.