Newspaper Page Text
The Campus Mirror
5
Old Grads Get Together
Sam jive Fuller, '32
Louise: Why Ruth Kine! How are you?
I am so very glad to see you. Come in and
sit down; it seems like old times seeing you
after all these years.
Ruth: Yes, and you know I am more
than glad to see you; you are the same little
Louise Fulton. So you are hack at Spelman !
It must seem rather strange being here now
since there are so many wonderful changes?
Louise: You are right; it doesn’t seem
like the same place that you and 1 knew
when we were in the grades at Giles Hall and
in high school. It is great being here now.
Ruth: It must be! But you know we had
some good times during those days of
“Bible”, “rubbers", “bells”, and marching
in lines.
Louise: Indeed we did; don’t forget the
live o'clock laundry mornings, “letter in
spection", and twenty-minute social calls.
Ruth: Do you ever see Miss Howard?
Louise: Yes. She is the same dear Miss
Howard with her “Sliuh! slmh! I knew
that all the time” and “Cleanliness is next to
godliness." \ou know Miss Guest is still
here ?
Ruth: Is she? Wasn’t she nice with her
“Say, excuse me, Please remember, and
Eventually, why not now?” Where is Miss
Dickinson ?
Louise: She is here, too. Do you re
member how glad we were when she said
“That is sufficient; you may be seated”?
I hen there was Miss Parsons whom all the
girls loved. Can’t you hear her saying, “A
voice ever gentle, soft and low, is an ex
cellent quality in womanhood and Quietness
is the mark of a lady?"
Ruth: I wonder if you remember Miss
Suiter? She used to say “Have self-control.
He that controlleth himself is a greater gen
eral than he that taketh a city.”
Louise: But weren’t we glad when we
would hear Miss Tapley say, “The twenty-
first of May is Commencement day”?
Ruth: I should say we were glad. Those
were pleasant days, days that I shall never
forget. Well, I must go now, but I shall
be back in a few days. I am anxious to hear
about your present college life.
Louise: You must come back; there is so
much to tell you. I am looking forward to
your return. Good-bye.
Electrik Maid Bake Shop
Invites You Where Quality is the
Best and Prices are Right.
813 Gordon Street. S. W.
Economy Shoe Shop
Will half sole your shoes for
75 Cents
and put taps on free at
835 YORK AVENUE
Spelman College—To Grow
Or Not to Grow
Alpha Talley, '33
Who knows whether this date, April 11,
1931, is the half-way mark, the climax, or
the mere beginning of the work of a class A
college, as well as the fiftieth anniversary ?
During this season of the celebration of Spel-
man’s Golden Jubilee, it might be interesting
to consider such questions as these. Is Spel
man College an asset to society, or a liabil
ity, an understanding friend to young
women, or merely a peculiar discipline? Just
what does Spelman mean to the Negro race,
and what have been the fundamental ideas
and principles which she has fostered
throughout the years?
Students within the last decade have seen
innumerable changes—changes in social priv
ileges, in the curriculum, in the attitude of
both students and teachers toward each other
and toward the College, changes in external
appearance of the campus, in the dining
room, and, of course, changes in the manner
of dressing. In all these changes, one out
standing feature of the college remains the
same, the principle of training girls to lie
useful Christian, women in a great, growing-
civilization.
The manner in which this training is re
ceived is not mechanical, nor consciously rec
ognized. It becomes a part of the average
Spelman girl before she is aware of it. Some
one has said that it is not complimentary to
be pointed out as an alumna of any certain
institution. I know nothing of which a Spel
man girl should feel prouder than to hear
some one say, “I’ll wager that she is a Spel
man girl”. What daughter of A^assar or
Wellesley would feel ashamed to be pointed
out as an alumna of her particular college?
No, she would glory in the fact that she de
serves such a distinct recognition. Should we
not feel proud of a school that has turned
out many hundreds of graduates since 1881?
The majority of them have helped to uplift
society in some way, whether as missionaries,
social service workers, presidents or deans
of women’s colleges, teachers, demonstrators,
or good mothers, which is the noblest of all
careers. Each little corner into which a true
Spelman girl sheds a little light by her gentle
refinement, culture and high ideals has been
made brighter and more cheerful. Recently,
Mrs. White, Dean of Women of Virginia
State College, visited our campus and gave
an interesting account of how the impres
sions of Spelman College upon another per
son had affected her. She said she had im
ages of Spelman as an ideal College for
young women and that she had tried to create
a similar atmosphere in her school when she
became a teacher. Now, since she has seen
present-day Spelman, she is more determined
than ever to continue her purpose. Mrs.
White is only one example of people who
are not connected with the institution, but
who have received lasting impressions con
cerning the work of the school. She is not
ashamed of Spelman nor of any of its influ
ence that flowed to her, but marvels at its
accomplishments. Philanthropists and other
people who see the value of the work being
done at Spelman are not ashamed of it. Then
why should we blush to be spotted out ? The
training of a school which so stamps a girl
as to identify her, is desirable, because we go
to a good school to become moulded and
fitted for the emergencies of life. If we
apply ourselves, this training becomes ab
sorbed and it is thus a part of ourselves. To
break away would be uprooting and injuring
irreparably one’s personal self. A person
might as well take a college course through
the mail if he doesn’t intend to assimilate
college life.
The old debatable question might arise—
are women’s colleges more or less desirable
than co-ed colleges? There are good points
found on each side. Concerning the prefer
ence for women’s colleges, though, it seems
that a girl who desires to be neat and at
tractive, poised and refined, will practice
these qualities wherever she is, in the pres
ence of, or in the absence of the opposite
sex. She will have sex appeal if she tries
to make herself pleasant and attractive to
her friends, whether they be women or men.
Furthermore, sex should not be the sole mo
tive in life, for it is only one of the many
urges of man. It must be controlled and
guided into noble channels by the means of
correct thinking and acting. Some say that
there is a greater stimulus to excel in study
ing when the class is composed of both sexes.
Records of graduates from co-ed schools do
not show any higher score or greater achieve
ments than those of students of separate
schools.
A school like Spelman, provided for
women, affords special privileges and atten
tion to women which can not possibly be
attained in a mixed school. Some one has
said that women will always need women.
This seems practical, because there are prob
lems peculiar to women which can be solved
more easily among women. Spelman’s faculty
has always been composed of honest Chris
tian women who have labored hard to direct
girls in the right way. I have known hall
matrons and teachers who have wept bitterly
for a stubborn girl and who have sacrificed
pleasures and personal feelings for the im
provement and development of Negro girls.
Spelman rules were never intended to be
a discipline as some puritanical officer, deaf
to the spontaneous gaiety of youth, bent to
control with vise-like force, but they are
wholesome challenges, suggestions and de
vices. Each year greater opportunity is given
to the students for self expression through
the medium of organizations. The Student
Council is a fine representation of the inti
macy between faculty and student opinions.
President Read, herself, presides over these
meetings and there is heart-felt talk between
her and the girls. Increasing efforts are made
to reach a Spelman Utopia, that is, a time
when girls here will do right because they
will respect personality too much to infringe
upon the rights and happiness of others. Any
race should feel proud of a school that has
such aims in view, for what is the purpose
of all this college training but to enable one
to adjust himself in the crises of life and to
get along peacefully and agreeably with his
fellow man.
(Continued on Page 12)