Oberlin Review (Oberlin, Ohio), 1958-04-29

              Tuesday April 29 Page 2 THE OBERLIN REVIEW 1958 Cfje Bbtxlin Betteto Published by the students of Obetlin College every Tuesday nd Friday during the winter and spring semesters excepting holidays and examination periods Subscriptions 5 or the full year 3 a semester ten cents a copy Entered assecond class matter at the Obetlin Ohio post office April 2 1911 Office 60 South Pleasant Street Telephone 44271 VOL 86 TUESDAY APRIL 29 1958 NO 50 Richard S Page Ken Lange Carolyn Swisher Bill Hickman Richard Steiner Caroline outrun 1 im Thomas Mi iI MiciiKl Likv Aim Warren Sara Whitney Kay Woodruff Mark Furstenheri Barry Phillips Dave Lcssm Art Uosmo Editor Business Manager Associate Editor Assistant Editors Issue Editors News Editor City Editors Sports Editor Forum Director Assistant Sports Editors Harry Patterson Steve Swaim Advertising Manage Ron Giere Photography Editor Charles Delaplaine Assistant Photography Editor Mark Israel Ron Sweet Circulation Managers TIM THOMAS ISSUE EDITOR Editorial policy is determined bv an editorial hoard composed of Caroline Cowman Mark Furstenberg Ron Giere Bill Hickman Mark Israel Ken Lange Don Menu Dick Page Harry Patterson Barry Phillips Dave Sigman Richard Steiner Steve Swaim Ron Sweet Carolyn Swisher and Tim Thomas Opinions expressed in editorials are the collective responsibility of the Boardmembers Initials at the end of editorials are given for the sole purpose of indicating the writer They do not indicate that the writer is in any way more or less responsible for the opinions expressed than other members of the board In a Big Way Following on the heels of the pronouncement that Oberlin is enjoying a literary renaissance and coming in the midst of generally more artistically active andconscious campus life the Coop Creative Arts Festival is a a timely arrival on the College scene this year But for such things as a Creative Arts FestivalOberlin couldnt take very much pride in the bigness of her big weekends In terms of amount of money spent size of band degree of campus participation and enthusiasmquantities of liquor consumed were not very big compared to a lot of campuses We wonder though how many schools offer as great a variety of worthwhile events in their SpringweekendsWe wonder whether members of the Tommy Dorsey Band have an opportunity to attend a performance of Carmen or two student variety shows or a Symphony Band concert or an exhibit of student art at other college weekends for which they play Our ponderings contain an obviously rhetoricalelement Oberlin will be Oberlin and if it insists on being big about once a semester it cannot but be big in its own worthwhile way The Creative Arts Festival is we feel a characteristic and worthwhile part of this years bigness As has been the case for many years now the Festival is offering display space for the art work of any student on campus Theparlors of Pyle Inn and Grey Gables and if necessary the dining rooms and kitchens too will be turned into galleries for the weekend Evening programs will bring literary and musical student creative talents to the forefront The Festival as a whole promises to be veryenjoyable nothing exceptional perhaps as Oberlin goes but the sort of thing that makes Oberlin go the sort of thing that makes our Big Weekends significantly big bh bp Thimk Last Tuesday the Oberlin faculty voted to suspend the vote on the proposed car rule change until furtherindication of student opinion could be presented We trust there will be some It is hoped that the new rule will bring newresponsibility to mature students But responsibility andmaturity are words that must be used warily for they cannot be used impassionately When used by some they usually accompany moralistic pietistic dissertations on why we shouldnt urinate on the radiators When we use themourselves they are qualities we assume we possess Indiscussion of the car rule they are particularly difficult to usebecause we hear that people four and five years our juniors are operating vehicles denied to Phi Beta Kappas However within three days after the facultymeeting last week there were two serious motorcycle accidents involving college students The accidents accent the areas that must be squarely faced by any who favor the plan The proponents of the change must answer to thefacultys satisfaction that the students feel sufficient obligation to the Oberlin community to use cars in such a way that it will be of benefit to the whole community We cannot favor the change and still expect that status quo Therefore the burden those who favor the proposal is to show 1 That students feel sure that they can demonstrate more personal responsibility than was shown with three college station wagons last year to say nothing of last weeks two motorcycles 2 That the community as a whole including the town will gain from the change The proposed change is a trial one Let usemphasize again what that means To those who favor the change it means abandonment of a gleeful foot in the doorattitude in that student drivers must demonstrate maturebehavior in the experimental two year period To those who oppose the change it means that this new thing can be eliminated after those two years This must be understood Everybody knows that we are old enough to drive even if some of us couldnt outdrag the high school kids But discussion is most important in the next two weeks about whether we are going to smashup and what will happen to the Oberlin which has sought to be liberal and openminded to lead in those types of change whichrepresent true growth and yet hold fast the essential spiritual values The Faculty vote may largely depend on the amount of student interest shown in favor of the change against the change or the amount of interest not shown at all ss By GERALD HEARD Is God Evident 300 A Preface to Prayer 250 Is God in History 300 Morals Since 1900 300 and other titles Specialists sis Raiigioui Book The Book Shop 21 South Main ssfstaars Very latest looks the greatest LEE strapback Ivys POWERS DAWLEY 17 WEST COLLEGE Insist on h LEEntr label FREE Winter Garments Summer Storage for OBERLIN LAUNDRY 51151 5153 S Main Climate for Inspiration I The most valuable thing that professors have to offer students is themselves not theirknowledge or their analysis or their experiences but rather their personalities Factsinterpretation the most penetratinginsights are all available in books more durable and more usable than a professors lecture But the mere fact that the teaching profession is going strong after centuries indicates that libraries are not enough Books along with their most modern audiovisualcounterparts fail to provide adequate motivation and inspiration And it is at this point that theteacher plays a crucial role it is here the human element enterseducation The source of the unique kind of motivation andinspiration that a teacher provides is not to be found in a particular methodology or body of facts but it is in the personality of the teacher Among the students this idea is reflected unconsciously in many attitudes and actions For instance it is a rare student who by his sophomore or junior year does not choose his coursesaccording to the professors rather than according to subjectmatter Nor is this simply a matter of selecting the bestprofessor The best professor for one student may be the worst for another The enthusiasm of the students for independent work is at least as much motivated by the opportunity it provides for close contact with a professor as it is by the desire to workbeyond the bounds of theclassroom curriculum Two Communities But if personal inspiration is the greatest asset that professors have to offer students atOberlin at least it is the least used This is because Oberlin is not one community but two that of the students and that of theprofessors Perhaps the most significant aspect about this dualcommunity is that it is not anybodys fault It is the result of attitudes perpetrated in the Collegesocial situation and is not theresult of any one persons action or attitude but rather theresult of many years responses to the situation The Faculty Tabic The evidence that there are two communities is everywhere The faculty table in the snack bar is perhaps symbolic The professor who makes it clear that he is available duringoffice hours only reflects it The student who strongly insists that all discussion of the car rule should be on the basis of how the faculty will respond to it rather than on how the greatest amount of student thought may Dave Mathiasen be stimulated reflects it The professor who says that he is against the car rule in principle but for it in practice reflects it The student who accepts aninvitation to a professors house but never shows up reflects it They reflect it but are notresponsible for it For what is at question is not a rule or anorganization It is a climate of opinion and as such cannot be legislated The alternative to the two communities is not onecompletely homogeneous group with the professors having no life outside the College and thestudents having no autonomy in conducting their affairs It is rather a community in which both the professors and thestudents have their particular roles but which is still unified by common objectives ideals and most important freedom ofassociation among its members The crux of the problem in forming such a unifiedcommunity is the social climate It is not possible to change thepersonalities of individuals in the College society but hopefully it is possible to change the social climate in which we findourselves This is a difficult job and necessarily a slow one In this space on Friday I will try to outline some of the problems involved and some steps that might lead to their solution The First Fifty Years The fiftieth anniversarycelebration of the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association is over It began on a cloudy Sunday and ended on a rainy one a full week of varied activitiesaddresses by outside speakers Gerald Heard and John KFairbank a community church service a ceremony ofrededication an Anniversary banquet a Chinese dinner attended by over 150 people In retrospect while theAssociation has often had to change its course considerable progress nevertheless has been achieved Out of nothing but an idea a vision in the minds of a handful of people came a school later a college in Shansi Province West China a school dedicated to the promotion of international respect andunderstanding through ChristianEducation Warfare forced changes in location and wrought untold hardships for the schoolculminating in a complete severing of communication with andsupport from the motherinstitution OberlininAmerica Continued Work Yet the work of theAssociation has not been stopped Since 1950 in cooperation with other organizations projects of asimilar educational nature have been initiated in other faraway places with strangesounding names at American and Lady Doak Colleges in Madurai South India and a few years later at Hislop College in the north central area of that vast Asian peninsula at ObirinGakuen an elementary andsecondary school combined with a junior college beyond theoutskirts of Tokyo at Chang Jung Junior and Senior High Schools in Tainan the old capital city of Formosa in the days before the SinoJapanese War and on the same 225milelong island off the eastern coast of China at Tunghai University near the city of Taichung Not all the projects haveproved workable so far as the aims of the Association have been concerned and those soconsidered have been dropped Yet despite numerous changes in plans and occasional setbacks work has gone on and shall continue What of the Future But what of the future the next 50 years one might say Should Mainland China again become accessible to Americans a return to Shansi Province is Mark Thelin to be expected Until thencontinued cooperation with those institutions with which theAssociation is now affiliated will be forthcoming barringunforseen circumstances One thing is certain the farflunginternational and service interests of the entire Oberlin community faculty administrationstudents alumni and townspeople must remain steadfast if the aims of the Association are to continue their existence The idea which emerged here more than 50 years ago has achieved fruition if not in the complete sense first intended as a flower whose blossom turned out somewhat differently than that anticipated by the planter Yet the roots of this same flower must remain in the ground which first gave itnourishment if life and growth aie to remain In the uncertain years which lie ahead our continuedinterest is essential if at theconclusion of the next halfcentury the tradition of the OberlinMemorial Association is to possess even greater vitality than it has today All Kinds of COOKIES BROWNIES and OTHER GOOD THINGS k Just ask any one who has tasted iheml k PettiforcTs Bakery 18 South Main pf ONLY THE BEST WILL DO I MOTHERS DAY CARDS Mother deserves the bestalways thats why youll want to remember her with a Hallmark Mothers Day Card created especially for her Choose your cards and gift wraps at COMINGS WE HAVE EVERYTHING TO GO WITH THE smartest After Six Formats Drest Hats Dress Shirts Suspenders Link and Stud Sets Dress Socks Cummerbund Tie Sets Power Dawley GFRVAISE Tuc Fri Afteif the disappointing Karamazov brothers marred chiefly by poor performances and incredibly lurid lighting Gervaise moves into the Apollo with considerableadvance notice It is all richly de served Here is a film that is not able in every respect ReneClements direction of the Zola story about life and death in Second Empire France is constantly m suired as he projects and creates mood with the simplest means a shifting camera the cutting from scene to scene the composition ol a setshot In the leading role Maria Schell not being asked here to smile all the time delivers a warmsympathetic comprehendingperformance around which the excellent supporting cast moves with ease resulting in a framework of char acterizations that make the prob lems and events of these people disturbingly real There are indi vidual scenes worthy of note but their power derives lrom their On the Local Screen ROBERT KREIS rlltnlilnt i m rTwt eci on one annti as the film unwinds her Do not miss GelUn orable and rewardin em achievement niaiic MERRY ANDREW Starts By making only a limits of films over the v Z TT Kaye maintains a h TV u LKR vehicle in which he can best utilije many and unique talents Whn wasthelast time he mailc a The present sispliuer k posed to be very funny DR tun nels his way into a circus accord mg to wcknowwho plural I guess it is but I havent seen t Radio City again After reseeing To Catch A Thief along with many others I wonder if Jerry Steel might be fore the end of the year bring hack other llitchcck opus yA Rear Window nope or Stagefright If yu would like a particular film just mention it to Jerry the next time you pas the Apollo The Bald Soprano JULIE CURTIS This last winter New York Martin Mary Ja audiences have chuckled over two Kronen comedies The Chairs and The Lesson by a Rumanian play wright Eugene Ionesco Last week the Oberlin campus was equally delighted with another or Ionescos absurd oneacts The Bald Soprano was excellentlyperformed by Prof StantonMcLaughlins Theatre Arts class The Bald Soprano defiesintelectual probings for messages or metaphysical inner meanings It is a parody on language and bourgeois drawingroom conversa tion and a burlesque on marital relations London Fire Chiefs and doorbells The curtain opens with Mrs ine KUs diastirs her fish dinner while Mr Martin Stephan Gabalao chicks behind his paper After a spat about the Bobby Watsons they leave and another couple enter This couple discover that not only did they ride on the same train together sleep in the same bed the night before but that they are man and wife They embrace at thispleasant reuniting They are named Mr and Mrs Martin Richard Thayer and Jean Highland The Fire Chief Jerry Vandel appears to give a dissertation on The Headcold amor51 other things and the maid Brer ia Moscarella delivers a poem i ntitlod The Continued on Fage 4 Letters to the Editor Thm Rrview welcomes Ultert from rfulen on any subject TUr rifht ii tmmi u limit Ulteri to 300 uorJ ani to rrfuw puMicuiion to bttrri of qufiiionul i mih Inflow cotltmt or for which llicrt is itisficwt space Letlcrl must be iuhmiilJ o Ou fimr offiw two oars before publication Anonymaut letters cannot be jmlmiheJ kmwf l sufficient reason names will b wilhliolj upon request Not more than tin pgmm will b printed with any Utter Taylor Criticizes Review Columns on Cummings questions To Debby Nash Art Cohen and Dick Page Carol Anderson and PaulAdler have already taken Review writers to task for their inept and unwarranted criticism of the audience for E E Cummings reading of poetry April 17 I could add a page or two of my own on this subject but in the interests of saving time and space I should simply like to point out two other areas in which those writers are at fault So far as not granting student interviews is concerned MrCummings had some very good reasons which they should have at least inquired into before griping in print Cummings suffers from a rather serious case of arthritis which prevents him from getting around as much as he might like to Secondly interviews withliterary figures often prove to be of little or no value because of the rcpetitiousness of the asked Instead of being pleased that a literary figure had erne thewriters could do nothing but complain that he granted no studentinterviews as if they had beenpersonally snubbed The title Lo What Has Been Sprung On Us in April is an extremely rude way criticizing a campus visitor Art Cohen certainly ha the rifiht lo criticize Cummings or theaiuence or anyone he pleases but to An it this wav is in very taste The Review and its writer long been critical of organizations and institutions on this cmpu and this is their right andprerogative as a student newspaper and as student writers Inkeeping with this spirit it is high time they cast a critical eye in their own direction Geoffrey Tayor More Letters on rage 4 bad ers have SHOWS BEGIN EACH EVENING At 7 U pm apollq Always A Good Show GET MORE OUT OF UFB GO TO A GOOD MOVE OFTEN TON1TE thru FRIDAY MAY 2 The Best Foreign Film of the Year mm mma mnmuu i si 1 7 w r I a INF HP TMF REST THE SCREEN HAS OFFERED THIS YEAH It is one of great quality and power Perfection o close approximation almost always exerts a s appeal Crowther S Y Times Plus NEWS EVENTS ond GOOD CARTOON Features Begin ot 725 940 pm No Advance in rce STARTS SATURDAY n MERRV AND