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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 17, 1944)
Oregon W Emerald ANNE CRAVEN Editor ROSEANN LECKIE Business Manager ELIZABETH HAUGEN Managing Editor FKAJNJNliS MAiliK Advertising Manager MARGUERITE WITTWER News Editor Bjorg Hansen, Executive Secretary Betty French Robertson, Women’s Editor Winifred Romtvedt, Assistant News Editor Darrell Boone, Photographer Flora Furrow, Assistant Managing Editor Betty Bennett, Music Editor Phyllis Amacher, World News Editor Gloria Campbell, Mary K. Minor Librarians PiAlifitttd daily daring the college year except Sundays, Mondays, and holidays and final examination periods by the Associated Students. University of Oregon. Bvtered as second-class matter at the postoffice, Eugene, Oregon. The gracious woman who so ably presided over the dean of women’s office is gone. It doesn’t seem possible that we wifi never again be able to take our problems to her, that we never again will chat with her in the little office in Gerlinger Her friendly attitude toward everyone is something we will cherish and remember long after we have left the campus and gone our separate ways. She had a faculty of being intensely interested in how each one of us was getting along, in the things we were doing, the progress w-e were making. As the confidante and adviser of all girls on the campus, she was ever ready' to listen to our problems, and her answers or suggestions helped to smooth the path of many a fresh man—or, for that matter, a girl of any year. She dealt fairly with the situations that arose through her office, thinking only of the general good. Her job was never an easy one. On occasion her decisions caused hard feelings among some of the students. But they were made with an eye to what our mothers called “the best thing for us.” And she usually turned out to be right. It was a pleasure to go through a reception line in which Dean Schwering stood, because she was such a charming hostess. Her wonderful appearance and poise was an example for all the women students. The University could he proud every time she represented it. for the impression she made meant a vote of confidence from those whose daughters attended the University. Her quick mind was ever concerned with improving the University. Soon after she became dean of women in 1930, Dean Schwering organized the house mothers into a University personnel group, and it was through her efforts that the heads of houses set up a self-governing unit. A woman who worked unceasingly for the Oregon coed, whose ability stood out head and shoulders about the crowd, who set an example in administration and hospitality which will he hard to maintain. The void left by her death is so deep that we who knew her well will always wish we had known her better. Mav von rest in the peaceful knowledge, Dean Schwering, that we will trv hard to remember the way of living you taught us! hall. /! l4Jai feosm . . . Almost two years ago llie Emerald carried an editorial bravely announcing that a new tradition had been started. 'That colit was the cause of a lot of comment since many stu dents and faculty members insisted that because a thing had been done once there was no reason to call it a tradition. Hut the editorial writer was correct. A tradition had been started because again we are looking forward to our annual Odeon. Hut perhaps an explanation is in order since Odeon is still a young tradition and may not be thoroughly understood. At present there is much discussion on the campus about the liberal arts student and bis place and importance in the University. This discussion is not new, it has been going on under the surface for many years and occasionally bubbles to the top. Often in the past the liberal arts student has been left quite entirely to himself with no direct outlet through •which he could express himself in a manner that would reach the majority of the students and faculty. While art students carried home paintings and pottery, business administration students attended conferences and managed student business affairs, education majors were gloried for their practice teach ing, journalists edited campus publications, and physical edu cation majors won letters for participation in sports, the liberal arts major was comparatively iuauditable in the din of campus activities unless he went outside his own field. The situation was not good and there was a definite realiza tion that a remedy was needed. Erom a small group of inter ested teachers and students came the solution. Tliev saw that a new medium of display of talents was needed here, and so they decided on a campus show. Hut still, it wasn't exactly just a show, and so they looked for a name that would be more fitting to the kind of display they wanted to present. Finally \Co*tCBSl4U4Uf. The Student of Liberal Arts By HUGH KING I suppose the smug though somewhat excusable attitude of the serious liberal arts major has been to ignore the absurdity of what feigns to be intelligence on the modern campus, and to find contentment within his own solipsismal haven of books and butterflies. And why not? The pedantry and superficial learning that parades itself in the form of “lit” majors and student of philosophy gives reason enough to withdraw for a breath of purer air. But herein lies the question of this inquiry: Is this state of “withdrawal” indicative of a healthy intellectualism ? Is there not a need for a Society of Believ ers in the Life of Reason—a group that might find a profound stimu lus in the exchange of sentiment and idea? Obviously it has become redicu lous to any longer suppose that a “love of wisdom" prevails on the campus. Let us grant that in the upper circles (circles which include the “intellectual snob” so justly damned in a recent editorial) a sort of puerile “culture” vegetates. Students, once entering this cir cle, begin to mumble a meaningless jargon of “epiphenomenalistic real ism,” “well, relatively speaking, and I quote Plato here—” or else a melancholy undergraduate, con vinced that knowledge is but a confused echo Wrought in uncer tain symbols, will dismiss the dis cipline of study, and then wander aimlessly amidst a mixture of cig arette smoke and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Both could have been saved from an intellectual and spiritual suicide had direction .been given their early mental awakening. Books shall ever remain the sacraments of education, the li brary shall continue to be the sanctuary of the scholar, and the student’s greatest moments shall be when he is bowed there alone in prayer and worship, but there is also need for a Sabbath of rest when he may gather with the “humble brethren’’ and there share and sing the praises of Wisdom. Oregon’s priests have not re membered the Sabbath, nor have they called the other children to repentance. There is a golden calf of shallow cliques and the social set builded by lax and misguided hands. About the idol a throng of shouting and unclean people press. Oregon worships ignorance. The true disciples of education have remained silent, content in their cloister. And again, why not ? Outside there is no fear of the gods, no love of the sacraments, no humble asceticism—in a word, out side there are no students. 1 am well aware that the anal ogy here is an exaggeration, and yet, the essence of the criticism, as I see it, seems only just. There is little mental and spiritual stir ring on the campus, and that which has appeared, in this paper and in discussion groups, has been but a thin scum, drawn from the surface of thought, dripping with pride and prejudice, and scarcely fit for consumption. The religious groups, who may at once be thanked for their inten tions, have often been supersti tious, their faith irrational rather than post-rational. The atheists have been ’no less dogmatic, and their scepticism has too ’oft been a product of ignorance rather than of intelligence. Philosophy has been “taken” as a course, but not read. Even the contemporary thinkers such as Dewey, Whitehead, and Santayana are only admired “from afar.” Few tears have been shed over the more noble themes of poetry and literature, and the ca pacity for what Bertrand Russell calls “abstract sympathy" is even more rare. The Aesthete is unfet tered, and the Scholar insensitive. Ideation fashions the gods, and man’s unique ability to create sep arates him from the beast, and thus renders him immortal. But the trail up Olympus is steep. The path is rugged and broken, and a thousand by-ways lead to medi ocrity and, hence, destruction. True, the road is strewn with signs, and a thousand maps may chart the course, but in this very abun dance of material lies the peril. Abundance of material demands assimilation and interpretation, and efficiency here demands vari ety of perspective, and variety of perspective means a society, how ever small. Thus far there has been no such “society” at Oregon, no body of young scholars who press the campus in search of knowledge and understanding. In conclusion, the mass of stu dents apparently dislike being called “ignorant,” and the hand ful of serious students who would graciously accept such a comple ment have been, in the less nega tive portions of the article, almost deified. But may I remind them that this essay is only a passing com ment, a youthful opinion, and hard ly expected to be taken too ser iously. It is, if anything, only an other expression, another voice as uncontrollable as the cry of the poet who would first lay curse upon curse and then turn hastily to weep over the city, knowing that only in this mass of unbeliev ers lay the hope of man, only here the Kingdom of God. they decided on Odeon. The word is pronounced O-day-on andj conies from the Greek language. It is derived from a word meaning open air theater which gives a better idea of what this display is like than the word show because it has a connotation of freedom and natural beauty in it. Odeon has been presented twice on this campus and has proven itself a success both times by giving an opportunity to every student to display talents which might otherwise never have been appreciated by other students. Now the third Odeon is on its way to reality, and although it is still several months away, many students are already thinking about it and pre paring' material for presentation so the whole campus can see the too often hidden reason for the existence of a liberal arts college. HEILIG "Meet Miss Bobby Sox" —PLUS— "Dead Man Eyes" "Atlantic City" with Constance Moore Brad Taylor ATTEND THE CHURCH OF YOUR CHOICE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 10th Ave. at Pearl Rev. Norman K. Tully, Pastor Soldiers, Students ad Visitors Cordially Welcome at Divine Worship 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH Broadway and High Dr. Vance H. Webster, Pastor University Group, 9:45 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Morning Worship 11:00 a.m. Evening Service 7:30 p.m. ST. MARY’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH 13th and Pearl Rev. E. S. Bartlam, Rector Services at 8 and 11 a.m. Canterbury Gub, 6 p.m. Service, Wednesday in Gerlinger, 7:50 a.m. FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH 1166 Oak Street Walter J. Fiscus, Pastor University Classes, 9:45 a.m. Dr. Victor P. Morris, teacher Youth Discussion Groups, 6:1s p.m. Fireside Meetings, 8:45 p.m. Worship Services, 11:00 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. FIRST y. CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 490 13th Ave. East Telephone 4192 Wesley Goodson Nicholson, Minister Morning Worship 11:00 a.m. University Group 7:00 p?m. ST. MARY’S CATHOLIC CHURCH W. 11th and Charnelton Sunday Masses—8, 9:30, 10 :30 a.m. Confessions—4:00 to 5 :00 and 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., Saturday Rev. Francis P. Liegzig, Pastor Phone 1859 Rev. L. H. Sohler, Director Student Activities CENTRAL LUTHERAN CHURCH 6th and Pearl—Phone 4623 Harold Aalbue, Pastor Morning Service 11:00 a.m. Holy Communion last Sunday each month L.S.A. Sundays, 7:00 FIRST METHODIST CHURCH 1165 Willamette St. Llewellyn O. Griffith, Minister University Trainee Group 9:45 a.m., 7:00 p.m. Morning Worship, 11:00 a.m. Wesley House, .258 Kincaid, Mrs. John Worthington, Student Director DRESSMAKING and TAILORING for STUDENTS only MRS. HINES 231 E. 12th DANCING Every Saturday Night 9 ’til 12 at the EUGENE HOTEL with ART HOLMAN AND HIS ORCHESTRA in the Persian Room