College News, 1937-10-06, Vol. 24, No. 01

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The Colllge News
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VOL. XXIV, No. 1
BRYN MAWR AND WAYNE, PA., WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, \WtvgfffigSi^SSSEU%m      PRICE 10 CENTS
Doris  Humphrey
To Conduct Series
Of Classes Here
Weil-Known   Dancer's   Coming
Arranged Through Efforts
Of Dancer's Club
PLANS BEING STARTED
FOR DANCE SYMPOSIUM^
Beginning its second year, the
Dancer's Club has been fortunate in
arranging for a series of classes to be
given, by the well-known modern
dancer, Miss Doris Humphrey. The
group meets this Thursday at 4.45.
Miss Humphrey is one of the three
leading American dancers, and a lead-
ing choreographer of the couptry.
She is a member of the faculty of
the Bennington Summer School, now
recognized as the center of the modern
dance during the summer. John
Martin, prominent authority on the
dance, says of Miss Humphrey's work
in his book, � "America Dancing";
"Her New Trilogy is of epic propor-
tions . ... it is the most important
composition yet produced in the
American dance." Her classes here
mark a radical change in the dance
policy of the college, as previously,
only Duncan technique has been
taught.                          f
The class is an extra-curricular ac-
tivity, and a part of the attempt by
the Dancer's Club to bring various
types of dancing to the campus. Plans
for a symposium on the dance are
already under way. Lectures and
demonstrations will constitute part of
the club's ambitious program. Much
later in the year, they will present
their work to the college.
With the club as its nucleus the
Humphrey group has been thrown
open to the college at large. An
amazing and gratifying number of
students have applied. To date, there
are forty members. It is hoped that
enough students will apply to warrant
the formation of two groups,, a be-
ginners and an advanced.
A fee of fifteen dollars a semester
is being charged all members of the
group. This sum is necessary to
cover the expenses of bringing Miss
Humphrey to the college. Once the
required quota is passed, there is the
possibility of giving dancing scholar-
ships to those who otherwise could
not join the class.
Self-Government Gives    �
Square   Dance    Party
C.     Sanderson's     Music     Enlivens
Reception for 1941
Gymnasium, October. 2.�A valiant
upheaval in the tradition of Self-Gov-
ernment parties occurred Friday night
when the gym resounded with mingled
strains of rural rhythm and German
Gesdnge. A medley of peasant
dirndls and dungarees swirled around
the room to the steps of Pop Goes the
Weasel, Comin thru' the Rye, the Vir-
ginia Reel, and the morecompanionate
form of Emphasize which seemed to
be a rather alarming combination of
an Indian war dance and ring-around-
a-rosy. The Big Apple was an-
nounced, anticipated, awaited, and
finally arrived in a small area in
the center of the floor, bringing with
it a savage desire in the uninitiated
to master the art of "trucking" and
to acquire rhythm at any cost.
Misinformation concerning names
and. addresses of orchestras led to
some difficulties. It was only after
innumerable communications that the
following conversation occurred:
"I want to speak to Mr. Christian-
son of Chadds Ford."
There is an ominous silence fol-
lowed by much clicking on the other
end. The operator begins asking per-
tinent questions.
"Is this Mr. Christianson?"
"No, this is  Christian  Sanderson."
The Bryn  Mawftyr gasps, for she
has overheard the conversation. It
continues unabated.
"Who's calling?"
"Bryn Mawr."
"Oh, do they want an orchestra?"
At this point poor Bryn Mawrtyr
i�, practically frantic. She shrieks
"yes" into the mouthpiece* and waits.
All is well. She is talking to an or-
chestra leader.
"Can you play for a square dance1
to-night?"
"To-night!" he echoes.
"Yes."
"Well, I was going to Southern
Maryland for the week-end."
There is an awkward pause. "Ah,
about the money." He clears his voice
significantly. "I usually get 17 dol-
lars." There is another pause. "But
do you suppose I could have 19 if 1
stayed home for theweek-end?"
Bryn Mawrtyr burbles vaguely in-
to the 'phone, "You can have 20, if
you'll only come."
Sympathetic Survey of Freshman Facts
Reveals a Preponderantly Pigtailed '41
\�'
This Year's Class Busy  Doing
"Big Apple" and Wrestling
Philosophically
From a close observation of those
featherless bipeds, the Freshmen, and
from certain revealing self-analyses
which they have made, we have been
enabled to compile Advanced Statis-
tics,* or a Sympathetic Survey. We
cannot reveal the names of the eleven
with predicted scores of ninety and
above, but we can say confidently that
if they were stood one above the other
they would only reach the third floor
of Taylor, which proves again the
triumph of matter over^n\Jid.
In general, the FrefhmerNare tall
and fair, or perhaps short and dark,
with a preponderance of long hair
wound coil-like about their heads.
Interestingly enough, Freshmen pig-
tails, and some of them have two,
could be used as a rope for Taylor
bell, extending to a convenient point
somewhere on Senior Steps.
But fair coiled hair does not prove
Nordic descent.    Nobody can be sure
(until   the   Statistics   appear)   what
the percentage of Southerners is, only
that   their   influence   is   dan^"           >N|3ib*aH of the Freshmen became
i�i>llJffM>p            DlIIMfMi      V> n n       �*       t ~U it t       nil      �            11      ' __      '      .-ut aifinkl^     fllttlHlt If IAO      Nil
Aside from having a poorly-hidden
yearning for the "Big Apple," the
Freshmen are a questioning lot. Most
of their mots or boners, as the case
may be, are couched in the interroga-
tive, and are curiously philosophical,
ranging from, "Don't you think phil-
osophy is getting more and more im-
partial all the time?" (a naive search
for truth of the class or lecture
variety), to the confidential statement,
probably tendered on the other bench
where we make our friends, "The
dean said philosophy would stretch
my mind." Then there is the un-
mentionable pun on Aristotle, which
we will not mention.
Here is something truly pithy, al-
most New Yorkerish, from a written
effort entitled Phrases Fraught with
Finesse for Freshmen. Contributed
by a member of the class of '41:
"I forgot sneakers, too. (You can
read in 'soap,' 'socks,' 'sun-glasses' or
'hockey sticks' for 'sneakers.') Will
you please call Whittaker? My win-
dow is stuck.. (This may be varied to
read, 'my trunk-key got lost,' or 'we
have no bottle-opener.')"
From this we gather that some, or
insidious. Rumor has it that all
twenty-six of the Merion freshmen
"truck" twenty-four hours a day, and
rumor certainly had it right at the
Square Dance, where there was a
large ring, not of upperclassmen,
"shining" with' the agility of hard,
covert practice.
\
involved in inextricable difficulties. No
sneakers, no trunks, no hockey-sticks;
Freshman week must have been an
orgy of lending by the unfortunate
few. At the moment, however, we see
them well provided. Short and fair,
and tall and dark, they pursue their
Continued on Page Four
a*
T*arade Night Bonfire
Miss  Park Opens
College Year With
Unusual  Optimism
��  .    �    ^
Additions Justified in College's
Aim to Serve American
Institutions
CHANGES IN FACULTY
REHEARSED IN CHAPEL
COLLEGE CALENDAR
Monday, October 11.�Non-
resident Tea. Common Room,
4.30. First Flexner Lecture.
Goodhart, 8.20.
Fi iday, October 15.�Lantern
Night.
Friday, Octoimr 15, Sunday,
October 17.�Alumnae Weekend.
Wednesday, October 19.�In-
ternational   Club Tea.
Varied Work is Planned
By Bryn Mawr League
Maids' Classes, Union Contacts
And Americanization Work
Among Interests
CARDS NOW DISTRIBUTED
(Especially contributed by Mary
Whalen, '38, president of the Bryn
Mawr League.)
The Bryn Mawr League has dis-
tributed interest cards to all graduate
and undergraduate students and hopes
sincerely that it will receive active-
support in all its objectives. These
are intentionally varied, so that
everyone may take a working interest
in the league. Although Freshmen
are not allowed to participate in ex-
tra-currigular actfyyS until after
ThanksgivhigT we-aR them to sign.
soSthat we majr know what their
interests are.
The plans for Sunday services have
been largely guided by the results of
the questionnaire taken last year, a
detailed account of which will appear
in the next issue of the News. We
hope to appeal to a wide circle of
students by inviting ministers of
various denominations to come. Alison
Raymond, '38, who is chairman of
this branch of the League also prom-
ises to make more attractive the room
where the services are held, and she
also hopes to get suggestions for. new
hymns. A box will be placed outside
the Music Room-for hymn requests.
Those who are interested in the
place of women in industry should
look   to   the - Industrial   Group   and
Summer School.   The ?--------"^S^^^*-
make contacts this year witn CCTxairf �fcr si
of the important unions, and to have
members of the student body go with
union girls to union meetings. These
will be reported by the individuals
who attended, and discussed by the
whole group. Supper is served be-
Contlnued on Page Three
Freshman Song Found
By Sophomore Sleuths
Hockey Field, September t�7.�The
Class of 1940 retrenched its defeat of
last yeaf by capturing the freshman
.Parade Night song. Gathered around
the bonfire on the hockey field, they
chanted a tell-tale parody at the Class
of '41, who were escorted down from
Pembroke Arch by their sister class
and the Bryn Mawr Firemen's Band.
The freshman song, to the tune of
The Caissons Go Rolling Along, is as
follows:
"From the east, from the west, north
and south and all the rest,
We have come  to develop our minds.
Hut we've lost all our wits, and we'iv
suffering from fits "of a hundred
and forty-four kinds.
Goodhart, 'September 28.�Miss
Park assumed her position as the offi-
cial opener of the fifty-third, academic
year of the College with an admit-
tedly rare optimism. "No .speech this
morning," she said, "however feebly
put, can be dull. It must reflect the
almost universal stir and change on
the campus, the increased current
turned on at all switches, the break-
ing through of old limits, the advance
in many directions at once."
A rehearsal of the recent develop-^__
ments in the physical aspect of the
campus finds the science building peer-
ing over its green fence, and the new
dormitory spreading over the slope
southwest of the Deanery in a "maze
of pegs and string." The hall will
be ready to hold 113 students by Sep-
tember, 1938., Although the addition
of the Quka Woodward wing to the
library has been postponed until the
residence hall is under way and per-
haps until we acquire 100,000 dollars,
there has been a significant contribu-
tion to that same house of learning.
"You have probably all seen," said
Miss Park| "that across the front of
the library has been cut this summer
the inscription promisgfilfo President
Thomas at the ceremonies of the Fif-
tieth Anniversary, connecting forever
her great name with the treasure
house of books which she thought of
as the heart of the college."
' AloAg with Mr. Nahm and Mr. Wat-
son, who return from leaves of ab-
sence,* comes a new Assistant Profes-
sor of Biology, William Lewis Doyle,
Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins University
and General Educational Board Fellow
at Cambridge University in 1935-3G
and at the Carlsberg Laboratory, Co-
penhagen, in 1936-37. Mr. W. Cabell
Greet, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of
English at Barnard, replaces Samuel
Arthur King as non-resident lecturer
in English Diction, and Professor
Henry Bradford Smith, reinforcing
Continued on Page Four
"But   the   year   will   come   nineteen
hundred forty-one,
When we'll no longer be at sea.
Then we'll all crow, and say we told
you so�
When we've climbed to the top of the
tree."                   **
The sophomores discovered the song
by the same ruse used by the Class of
'39.last year. One of their number
pretended to be a freshman. The
result:
Continued on Page Three
CUT COMMITTEE CALLS
ATTENTION  TO RULES
News Reel Documents
%         Opening Week Events
Grinding   Cameras    Interrupt    Life
On Bryn Mawr Campus
(Especially contributed by Eleanor
Taft, '39, chairman of the Cut Com-
mittee.)
The Cut Committee feels that
while explaining the* cut system to
the Freshmen, it should bring it again
to the attention of the whole college.
The rules are the same as last year
with the exception of the new diction
ruling. No student may cut diction
without special permission from the
dean, and no cut allowance is given.
Each student is allowed as many
cuts per semester as she has regular
hours of recitation per week. This
is ,an average of fourteen cuts
semester. Unit courses give fh"ree
cuts, as they meet thr^e times a week,
and half unit courses meeting twice,
give two cuts. First an(* second year
science courses, such as chemistry and
biology, give five cuts as each labo-
ratory hour counts as one-third of a
Continued  on Page Three
The activities of the first week, and
the drama of the return of the classes
to Bryn Mawr, were immortalized in
celluloid this year, when Metro-Gold-
wyn-Mayer made a record of-two days'
incidents last week for Hearst-Metr�
tone News. This sequence, symboliz-
ing the reopening of schools and col-
leges all over the country, will be
released in the vicinity of New York
and Philadelphia Friday, October 8.
Bryn Mawr was the only college phu-
togra plied.
Two seniors reported their sensa-
tions to us somewhat as follows: En-
tering^tJie Pembroke dining-room we
founff ourselves compelled to look nat-
ural, aijd wall! to our seats in a blaze
of glorious light. Only seven maids
tripped on the wires, only one senior
got any lunch. The candid camera
continued to catch life as it wasn't,
forcing us to take down our curtains
hung with much pains freshman year,
and to be photographed putting them
up. Strange trunks were brought
down from the attic and two girls im-
ported to pack and then unpack, look-
ing neither righ^ nor left, to carry
books across the room, and the same
books, arranged differently, back
again. We took. doj*r *^-\ ~*~t*if}Q
and put them up once more, this time
for close-ups.________._________��
All day long,, girls,-taking notes,
walking, playing hockey, measuring
refractions were interrupted by, "Hold
it please," and a long tjme later,
"O. �."