Newspaper Page Text
Page Two
THE MERCER CLUSTER
Sept 28,1966
Something Must Be Done
About Bookstore Lines
Once a quarter, every quarter, hapless
Mercer students are forced to take an en
durance test. This test of stamina and per-
sistance is known as the “book line”. For
quarter after quarter on the first day of
classes, lines of sweltering, grumbling
Mercerians can be seen stretching from
the Co-op to the tennis courts. The wait is
long and tiring and is made less pleasant by
the people who break in line or ask others
to buy their books. The Cluster feels that
there should be a better way to transact
the sale of books.
People are always complaining about
the exhausting methods of registration and
much has been done to speed up this ac
tivity but many students were forced to
spend more time waiting for books than
they spent in registration.
Many freshmen complained that teach
ers gave out heavy assignments on the
first day of class and that they stood in line
all afternoon knowing that they had to
have the books only to find the lines were
closing or that the books were gone. Some
thing should lx* done to stop this waste of
time.
One of the main causes of this quarter
ly bottleneck is lack of space and lack of
employees in the book-store. The Cluster
feels that if there were more windows and
a few part-time employees the situation
would be eased considerably.
If, for instance, the bookH could be
moved to the gym for thia one day and the
number of lines could be increased to six
the length of the wait could be cut a great
deal.
Even if the moving of the books to the
gymnasium proved impractical the book
store could hire several students to help
for these three days out of the year. We
would still have the long lines but the part-
time help could leave the book-store and
take some of the orders and fill them,
thereby cutting the wait in half.
Still another method would be to have
the teachers decide what books are going
to be used in their courses and post this
data on a bulletin board in the Co-op. If
this were done before registration the
students who register early, Freshmen,
sophomores, etc. would have several ad
ditional days to purchase their books. If
this method were employed, the first class
to register could check the bulletin board,
and buy their books that day. The next
class could do the same, etc.
Certainly these are not the only ways
that this problem fan be solved. There are
probably many more efficient and practical
ways to ease this situation but during the
past years no new methods have been tried.
The Cluster would like to suggest that the
procedure be changed in some way. It
couldn’t be worse. B. S.
MU Post Office Needs
Student Cooperation
The staff of the University post office
is confronted with a grave and trying prob
lem every fall quarter. With a little help
from the students the problem could be
solved very easily. The post office is
swamped with mail and some students wait
days and sometimes weeks to check their
boxes and pick up their letters.
Packages are also another problem
that the post office people must contend
with. The first three or four weeks of every
fall quarter finds the office knee-deep with
packages for Mercer students. These bund
les contain clothes, forgotten items, cakes
for gluttonous freshmen, etc. The pack-
Ad Building Gets
“What’s happened?” everyone is ask
ing. “The Ad building looks like new in
side.” And amazement fills the eyes of
everyone. Yet should it? Is traditional nec
essarily synonymous with dilapidated?
We, as students at Mercer, are all
proud of our Administration building with
its historic tradition and its “halls of ivy”
ages are received, stacked, and posted on
the bulletin board outside the office, but
many times the packages remain in the of
fice and in the way because students do not
bother to check the list daily.
The situation in the campus post of
fice is bad but there is little that the of
fice employees can do to improve it. They
have just so much help and just so much
space and must “do the best they can with
what they have.” If the students want
quicker and more efficient service they
must do their part by checking and empty
ing their post office boxes and picking up
all packages as soon as possible. B. S.
Face Lifting
look. Yet, too, we are just as proud of its
new tile and painted walls. We realize that
only as the traditional is practical can it
serve mankind.
The Cluster wishes to commend the ad
ministration for this progress and to say
a sincere “thank vou’’ in appreciation.
J. W.
9lift Mtrttt Cluster
MERC£R UNIVERSITY. MACON. GEORGIA
SEPTEMBER 2*. 1956 VOLUME 17. NUMBER 1
Bob Steed
Editor-In-Chief
Cynthia Mee«
Managing Editor
tom Ceapfcell
lituineee Manager
New* Editor John Kaufman Aaeociat* Sports Editor ..Marty LayfUid
Aeeociate Editor - Jackie Walters Aaeociate Sports Editor 1 I-eery BriahtweH
Executive Editor Jim Mekraey Circulation and Rxchange .... John WUeon
Society Editor* Kharoc Drake. Anne Girardot Financial Secretary . Jim Meiooey
Editorialist—Bill Nash
Sports writer*—Alice Porter. Martha Ana Abbott. Ruth Bridgm
New* writer*—Norman Burn**, Morten Boyette, Tom Johnson, Lucy Borden, Jay Freeman, Cliff Hendrix. Baddy Hurt
Feature writers—Betty Langford. Emily Hughe*
Th« Mercer Clatter ie published weakly, e&eept daring holiday aad examination period*, by the
etodeat body of Mercer UnlveruKy. Macon, Georgia, under the authority of tha Htodaat Govern-
meat Aaoociation. It io written, edited, and pabliahed by the undergraduate atndent body of
Mercer University. All nncroditod opinions in it arc the opinions of the atndent editors, and
not necessarily the University'* view-point. AO letters to the editor most be signed; eaaaee will
be withheld on reqneot. Letters do not necessarily reflect the policy of tbs neper er the opin
ions of the editors. Letters should not bo longer than MO words. Address all letters to: BdMar,
The Mercer Cluster, Box K, Manor University, Macon. Georgia.
STEED'S
Cluster
Comments
Well here we are back at the old grind again. Thought for o while
we weren't going to make It. Had a little trouble rounding up the old
aloft, digging up news and finding the Cluster office under the lunUBWi
dirt and debris, (dee-bree). Our barefoot managing editor Cynthia Muse
has returned from a jaunt to Europe and abe la going to let us know
how things were on the Continent.
Thia year’s omnes Ignoramus, (latiu for freshmen) seem to be re
sponding to the ratting program very nicely. I hope that this year the
freshmen and sophomores will schedule a pushball game between
the claeses. That should bring something new to the Tatnall Tecb campll
and It would also help our pre-med students as the game would pro
duce some cadavers. Many other schools have games along a similar
line and they provoke quite a bit of spirit and competition between
the classes
Not too long ago on the Mercer Campus the sophomores used to
pnt a rat cap In the top of a tree and then the entire class would gather
around the trunk and Invite the frosh to try to get the cap. We lost
several trees before the administration put an end to that caper.
The high school principal in my home-town, Mr. E. G. Wilson, had
the misfortune to be an underclassman during the years of the sopho
more-held purges. He tells me that the freshmen were given such deli
cate jobs as luxing the socks of the upperclassmen in Sherwood Hall.
For the freshmen who chose not to do this dainty little chore, there
was an loe cold dip In the Tatnall Square fountain. On a good night the
frosh class could get up a quorum for a class meeting right there In
the fountain. It became sort of a home away from home for the lads.
In spite of the dunking, paddling, and shaved heads I think the
ratting programs back then were much more successful than the
watered-down versions of today. They generated a little school spirit,
that’s for sure.
One thing about this freshman class they have some good-looking
co-eds. I overheard one say in the co-op, "My father and mother were
first cousins," then as an afterthought she added. “I guess that's why
I look so much alike." I don't know what to tell you.
• • • » •
We want to welcome a new member to the staff, Willard Klutcb-
myer. Willard Is a transfer student from Abraham Baldwin and he
Is here on a journalism scholarship. For his first column lie has written
a loVe story, a poignant love story.
Until next week at this same time (Ills is Rapid Robert saying one
thing about “rushing"—the back-slapping does not stop after the boys
are pledged, it Just moves farther down, selali
Bewitched,
Bothered
Bewildered
WILLARD
WRITES
This Is a lote story. Only the dame, hare been malaed to protect
the Indiana.
Cranny was an animal husbandry major. Flora was studying to be
a chiopractor. They met on the fourth floor of the Administration Build
ing and it was love at first sight
For years Cranny's only ambition had been a burning desire to draw
a free hand circle like Mr. Plymale, but the moment he saw Flora he
forgot everything and llve*d for the day when he would summon the
courage to speak to her. For weeks he sought some excuse to draw
a word from her ruby-red lips. It was 10:05 Wednesday morning and
Cranny was In the Co-op. (He had skipped chapel) when he saw the
loreiy Flora acrapelng gum from beneath one of the Ubles. Aa ahe
adroitly flipped the gum in her mouth Cranny noticed a small, brown
dimple on her double chin.
Bureka, ’ he said to himself. And he skipped over to her booth
to speak his first words to her. He pointed to the small, brown dimple
on her bottom chin,
"Beauty mark. 1 11 beL"
She smiled and from them on all could sec that it was love. Things
went smoothly for several weeks but fickle fate almost ended this
perfect love.
If vaa on a fraternity blanket party and while the two ware roast
ing stool pigeons over an open fire Cranny began to whisper sweet
nothings in Flora's ear
"Hasan 8aka," he whispered In his best sweet-nothing style, “ia
the prime minister of Turkey.
Babe Ruth carried a derringer when he was 14 and played pitch
for a dime a game, nlckle a set," he murmured.
Then Cranny leaped to his feet and ripped off his blue-auede shirt.
"8HAZAM,” he said. And he turned into a large bull-frog with
muscles that were bands of atael. "I had to tell you", he croaked. "I’m
bewitched. My Chemistry 11 teacher was an alchemist In chemist's
clothing."
"Think nothing of it," aha hollared down to him. Pressing her
right armpit, ahe disappeared Into the night air. “I'm Bewitched too,”
a voice beuide him whispered. And. for a truth, ahe waa.
“It waa my speech teacher,” ahe explained. "What a witch.”
So lova conquered all, and all was bliss aa tha two aat basking
before the fire aa the stool pigeon turned slowly oa the spit—Finis.