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PAGE TWO
THE WEST GEORGIAN
"A NEWSPAPER OF DISTINCTION"
Janette Witcher Editor
Jean Jackson, James Cook Associate Editors
Mary Bishop Women’s Sports Editor
J. C. Johnston _ \ __ Men’s Sports Editor
Mary Ruth Pulliam Columnist
Donna Wendorf Columnist
Elizabeth Hayes Circulation Manager
Rose Craton, Blanche Rutland Circulation Assistants
Peggy Clarke ... ... * t Business IVJanager
Henry Bailey Advertising Manager
Carolyn Milner Asst. Advertising Manager
Nancy Armstrong Fashion Editor
Kliiolt Hill - Photographer
Thomas Sewell Asst. Photographer
Leigh Bryant — T Art
Joy Putnam Secretary
Typists: Charlotte Niblack, Mary Lou Cagle, Glopa
Ogletree, Peggy Sosobee.
Sports Staff: Mary Bishop, Beverly Bryant, Nelva
Garrett, J. C. Johnston, Buddy Jones, Dan Childers.
Reporters: Rebecca Lee, Tommy Lewis, Jerry Reeves,
Barbara Hall, Jo Hudism, Zelda
Duke, Mary Ann King, Billy Copeland.
Miss Marie Campbell Faculty Advisor
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Pissocioted CoOefticte Press
IF YOU'LL COME, WE'LL PROMISE FUN
UNTIL THE FINAL GAME.
Eisenhower's Term Not Easy One
On November the fourth, the people of America went to the
polls to decide who would be the President of their country. That
man was Dwight D. Eisenhower. To the many people who voted
for him, he represented the leadership, the alertness and the power
that America is so in need of.
His term will not be an easy one. Above the usual ills that a
nation usually suffers from, there is the war in Korea, and a pro
bable split in Congress. Only by a rare combination of leadership
and good luck can he convert his party into a unifying factor in
government.
On January the twentieth, he will be inaugurated. The swearing
in will take place at noon and the entire program, including Ike’s
speech will take but forty-five minutes. However the “simple, digni
fied inaugural” which Ike said in mid-November he would like, has
grown into a grand and complex ceremony. The appointed comi
mittees have sub-committees and the sub-committees have sub
committees. There will be at least one hundred and fifty loud speak
blaring in the Capital around and along the parade route and all
the inaugural ceremonies, the parade, and the Inaugural Ball will be
televised. So it has been the biggest problem of all to keep it a
“simple, dignified affair.”
After the pomp and ceremony are over, the toughest job in the
country will be waiting for Mr. Eisenhower. During the next four
years he SlPill be criticized and plagued with searing accusations —
but he is at liberty both in law and conscious to be as big a man
as he can.
THE WEST GEORGIAN
=== Cditor Say,£:
How does it look? I’m talking about that
old 1952 we left behind. Did we make it what
we, back in 1951, had hoped it would be? It’s
been fun, I know, but what about all that work
we planned? If you were a dignified senior in
your old Alma Mater and were looking for
ward to college with eagerness, and misgivings
at leaving your family; not to mention leaving
that “one and only” that put stars in your eyes
and kept you walking on clouds; if you were one
of those, has college lived up to your expecta
tions, and have you lived up to your own expec
tations? I know you can’t even remember the
name of that old flame and perhaps you don’t
get such a lump in your throat upon leaving
home these days, but outside of changing that,
how much have you grown, and how much have
you learned? And we who were green freshmen
and rather naive about that life usually termed
as campus living, how much have we gotten
from the new year? How much have you and
I grown spiritually and mentally? How much
has 1952 done for us?
But since we can’t very well turn back the
M fa
hand of time, there isn’t too much that can
bed one except to profit by mistakes and tuck
away memories of those precious moments that
we would like to keep forever.
You have heard all about that new leaf
that comes with the new year and that clean
slate just made to order so there’s no need to
talk about that.
The year of 1953 is ours, may it be the
best ever. I have a feeling that it will be, be
cause we will make it so.
Friendliness Pays
By DONNA WENDORF
Several weeks ago a boy in a Georgia high
school took a rifle and shot himself. You can
imagine the whispering confusion in that school
the next day. His classmates and faculty were
both silently asking themselves the same ques
tion. Why? Why had this seemingly normal boy
deliberately killed himself?
One of the students realized the truth and
was honest enough to admit that he was as guilty
as the next person. The school had killed that
boy as surely as if they had taken the gun and
shot him themselves. It wasn’t what they had
done so much as what they had left undone.
The boy was from the country and the school
was a big one. Why go out of your way to be
nice to a fellow you don’t know? So no one made
any particular effort to be a friend and the boy
killed himself. Not a pretty picture.
Yet those high school students were no dif
ferent than the rest of us. They, like us, were
so busy that they didn’t have the time to bother
being a friend.
But if you have ever felt lonely, ever longed
for someone to say a friendly “hello” or give you
a pat on the back, then you know what it means
to have someone come along at the right time
to give you that extra lift. West Georgia is
lucky that it has such a friendly campus. Here,
I think, everyone has a friend, whether he’s
the fellow next door or the girl down the hall,
and these friendships are what make life worth
while.
Someone has said, “A smile costs nothing,
but creates much. A friendly greeting cannot be
bought, borrowed nor stolen, but is of no good
until it is given away.” So if in the hustle and
bustle of your school day, you meet someone who
is too weary to give you a smile, leave one of
yours, for no one needs it quite as much as the
one who has none left to give.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1953
Becoming College Adults
" By WILLIAM E. WARD
The subject of college spirit is much like
the weather. Much is said, but little is actu
ally done about it. The story is as old as college
itself—and certainly students soon tire of being
prodded by the administration to “back this, and
back that.”
This problem is not one which is ( unique
at West Georgia College. Indeed, al colleges
everywhere, fall heir to the situation, with
each incoming class of freshmen, uprooted, as it
were, from home ties. Oftentimes, this “uproot
ing” process is long and painful—sometimes it
never does occur, resulting in nothing but misery
for faculty and students alike. Why, then, should
students be unhappy at college, and seize every
opportunity to run to the welcoming arms of
home? There are at least two main reasons—
let us examine them.
The first source of unhappiness in college
can be traced to students themselves. When
a young person leaves high school and enters
college, he or she must realize that they are
leaving high school forever. There is no way
to return, and the sooner the student accepts this
as inevitable, the sooner he or she ceases to
be a child and begins to be an adult. If you
fight this natural process, students, you expose
yourselves to much unnecessary heartache. John
Milton said it very nicely, in Paradise Lost:
“The mind in its own place, and in itself,
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of
Heaven.”
The will and power to happiness lies in each
individual, whether student or teacher. The stu
dent who attempts to re-live the past is only
fooling himself. The wearing of high school
jackets and letters is certainly everyone’s pri
vilege, but it seems to indicate that those indi
viduals are not ready to assume their college
sports’ responsibilities. The frequent week-end
trips home are sometimes very stimulating, but
do not bring back days gone by, and only seem
to keep the student in a nervous state of flux.
Too often, faculty members are prone to
forget their own experiences as young people
entering the strange new world of college. Many
people who later become teachers are scholars—
very much absorbed in their own particular
field of interest. Their world is not the world
of their fellow students. They are apt to be im
patient with those who are not scholars. As they
mature and begin teaching, this outlook is car
ried with them, and reflected in the classroom.
It is therefore very important that the student
recognize this if it is present in the teacher. The
professor is not at fault if he is a scholar; how
ever, it is the responsibility of the student to
adjust to the scholar-teacher. Conversely, much
of the blame for the insecure unhappy feelings
of the student can be traced directly to the
teacher. The professor is at fault, scholar or not,
if he fails to appreciate and understand the im
portance of helping the student both personally
and scholastically. If teachers would only re
member that young people of college age are
like modeling clay—having great potentialities,
and yet plastic enough to be shaped—they might
realize the staggering responsibilities lying in
their hands, brains, and hearts!
West Georgia College, as a jounior college,
is designed to cushion the shock of breaking
away from home ties—a shock which would be
multiplied many times in the impersonal atmos
phere of a larger four year school.
The transition from childhood through
adolescence to adulthood is much like the wea
ther, also. In it we find reflected the happy days
of college life, which many times come to us
later, as memories; the clouds of, new responsi
bilities; the rains of unhappy adjustments; but,
shinging above all, the sunburst of youthful
courage which endures forever.