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MERCER UNIVERSITY, MACON, GEORGIA
November 11, 1960 VOLUME 41, NUMBER G
RALPH BASS, JR.
EDITOR
RITHIA McGLAUN
MANAGING EDITOR
Sports Editor
Associate Editor
Executive Editor
Staff Photographer
JANE LOVETT
BUSINESS MGR.
Charlie Etheridge
Nancy Minter
John Weatherly
Ward Lowrance
Editorial .Uff: Carolyn Arnold. Bud«i« Brunar. Faya Buah, Mary Jaiw Cajrtar. Jody
Clementa, Ellen Dillard. Bill Enyliah. Francea Forbaa. Amy Oarrlaon, Tim GUI, Jerry
Godwin. Pop. Hamrick, I.oalie Heineka. Lynn Holmaa Lynn Howard. Karen Kennedy.
Loy Knight. John Krueger. Betay Li*ingaton. EUlna McLeod. Hon Newberry. Pa* Nor
ton. J. M. Quinonee. Jimmy Rachela. Yvonne Ree.ee. Granger Rieka. Joe Sakall. Bill
Scarbrough. Marie Shaw. Dick Shi.er. Patricia Smith. Sybil Still. R*b*ec« TerT X-
Trawick. Cookie Wataon. MargretU Welle, Judy Williameon. Bonnie Bentley. Juanita Lae
Buaineaa ataff: Dan Bradley. Sandy Bridgaa. Linda Lowe. John P»rlm,
Fredonia Pattereon. Carole Khodenblaer. Jean Smith, Lynda Shaw. Holly Woodruff
Sport* staff : Jerry Johnson, J ere Key, Hugh Lawson, Linds Smith
The Cluster is published weekly during the regular academic year
by the students of Mercer University. The opinion expreseed within
does not necessarily reflect the policy or opinion of the faculty, the ad
ministration or the trustees.
Letters to the editor are published if signed. Signer’s name can be
withheld for legitimate reasons.
Stamp Honors Alumnus
The United States government has again taken recognition of a
Mercer alumnus. Last Saturday the first-day issues of the Walter F.
George stamps went on sale in Vienna, where the late Georgia senator
made his home for many years.
Mercerians have previously honored the long-time Georgia states
man. The name of the law school was titled to honor him. An honorary
doctorate was bestowed upon him posthumously.
Now the national government honors him in a special way. The post
office department has issued a stamp bearing his image. This is a par
ticular honor. Sen. George was one of three men who died in office who
have been so honored. Furthermore, he marks the 13th time that the
postal officials have commemorated a Georgian or a Georgia event with
a special stamp.
We, as Mercerians, take special pride in this stamp for none of our
family have been so honored before. Now the man who originally came
from southwest Georgia, who roomed in Sherwood Hall, who edited The
Mercerian, who went to law school where the infirmary is now, who re
presented his state in the United States Senate for more than 30 years
and who then became President Eisenhower’s personal ambassador to
NATO, is commemorated with a postage stamp.
Group Deserves Thanks
For Visiting Lecturers
The Faculty Christian Fellowship is to be congratulated for its
program of bringing Christian scholars to the campus.
The primary aim of a college is education but there are various
ways to approach the problem. The university program itself provides
several ways, e.g. the classroom lecturers. The student-faculty ap
propriations committee provides another by its artist series programs.
The Faculty Christian Fellowship provides still a third.
There is something appealing about the sort of education that can be
gotten from voluntarily attending discussion groups and lecturers and
from casually talking with scholars. We appreciate the opportunities
the Faculty Christian Fellowship have provided for us as students.
Square Doughnut Becomes
Heart of Student Activity
“What in the world's come over you?” was a popular song not too
long a go. This question might now be asked to the Mercer student center.
Have you walked through the square doughnut-shaped building any
night recently? There are no longer the closed doors, the huge black
rooms, the quiet meditation after seven o’clock. Now the student center
is alive.
The television is really working in the student lounge on the third
floor and the hi-fi room is in operation. Vespers meet in room 314
Monday through Thursday nights. The co-op is open until ten every
night.
The student center is alive. Its breath can be smelled in the warm
aroma of coffee at the nine-thirty study break; its eyes of light can
be seen breaking the darkness until ten; its voice can be heard in the
roar of the juke box and in the noisy talking of students sipping a Coke
with their dates or friends.
The student center is alive and is now beginning to prove the heart
of student campus activities.
Co-op Needs More Lights
During the summer the new administration made several im
provements. One of them was the rewiring of the campus out-door
lighting system. This was needed; previously it could have been easier
for someone to conceal himself on the campus or for a student to
miss a step.
The area in front of the student center facing Roberts Hall still
needs more light. Not only would that side of the student center be
better seen at night but the chances are less probable that a student
might stumble on the steps. Ha could aasily do this now in the night’s
darkness.
RALPH BASS, JR.
Re No Sack Lunch
I wish to register a voice of protest. 1 know
I won’t be read, for no one ever reads this sec
tion of the Cluster except perhaps the administra
tion which might fear that it is being criticised
and a few students who are desperate for some
thing to do other than listen to the chapel speaker.
Furthermore, I’m sure from what the ad
ministration tells me that no one really cares
for the subject on which I am writing. Neverthe
less the hunger that gripes my stomach every
Sunday night forces me to give vent to my feel
ings so far repressed.
Now in the days of former administrations
the Mercer University dining hall prepared a
“sack lunch” as we students used to call it. (Mr.
William T. Haywood, business manager, reminds
me that a more proper form of expression should
be "sack supper.”) This was a Mercer tradition.
Mrs. Ethel Reeves tells me that they’ve been
preparing them since the war—World War II,
that is.
What Sack Contains
This “Back supper” contains u few choice
selections of fruit, a package of peanuts usually
and a few sweet bits. Really I don't need too
much supper after the Sunday dinner and coupled
with any tid-bits 1 might pick up from social
activities of the Sunday evening church services,
fellowship, that is, my sack lunch tides me over
to Monday morning breakfast.
I can understand why a sack lunch is
a desired thing. Having worked in the din
ing hall, I can appreciate the relief that
comes from not working on Sunday nights.
Not serving supper on Sunday evenings is
a custom held by many schools—but there
are those that provide their students with
food to prevent their starving.
Well, the abolishing of the “sack supper” is
due to Mr. Haywood—and he has his "reasons” for
it. During the summer the Tulane gentleman
made several visits to Mercer, often dining on
Sundays in the refectory. He noticed that the
students each got a paper bag. He further
noticed, so he told me, that as soon as each stu
dent had seated himself, he peered into his paper
sack and "sneered.”
Quite naturally his curiosity was aroused—
as I'm sure mine would have been also. He then
proceeded to make an investigation to determine
the nature of the sack.
“80-90” Per Cent of Lunches Wasted
Conferring with certain authorities from
the girls' dormitory, he found out exactly what it
was. He also found out that an estimated “80-90”
per cent of the co-eds didn't eat their “sack sup
per", dumping them in the wastebaskets or leav
ing them outside their doors for the maids. Evi
dently he took the cases of the girls to be thj
of all students, for in my conference with hin
he made no mention of consulting authority
from the boys’ dormitories to determine hoi
they disposed of theirs.
Having worked in the so-called "slop-pit” o
the kitchen—where no students are present!
employed—I know students throw away a gr<>i
deal of food—but is this cause enough for no
serving any food that might bd thrown away?
Sack Lacks Dignity
But Mr. Haywood also attacked my belove
sack lunch on its lack of dignity. He said it ju
was not dignified for Mercer co-eds in their hig
heels, ear bobs and other bits of Sunday finei
to leave the refectory carrying a purse froi
a fashionable shop in one hand and a paper sac
in the other. I’m sure you see how degrading
sack is to one’s appearance.
Personally I have too much of an ag
rarian background in me to give a hoot
about his pseudoconception of dignity. When
it comes to a choice between dignity and food,
I stand for food. Maybe my senses aren’t
tuned to the finer things of life, but per
sonally I can’t see anything V> undignified
or tacky about carrying a paper aack. I’ve
even seen college presidents and their wives
carrying them. A few lean Mercer professors
are also guilty of this breech of dignity.
Conferring with the dining hall authority
Mr. Haywood presented three proposals. Om
to serve a meal on Sunday night; two, not to serv
a “sack supper”; three, to serve a “sack supper
in the dining hall at the regular hour. The tie
cision was not to serve any food for Sunda;
night, not even in sack lunch form, but the co-o
is kept open for students to go in and spend
fortune there. (Incidentally that same elemen
of Georgia Baptist which opposed dancing
the Mercer campus would probably condemi
the opening of the co-op on Sunday—if the;
knew about it.)
Well, Pcnny-pincher Bass doesn’t go int
the co-op often, but circumstances of a date force
me to spend a little money there recently. I wa
amazed. Coffee sells for 10c a cup. My friend
tell me you can get it for 7c at Chichesters
at Riverside for 10c for as many cups as y'
wish. Milk in the co-op is all of 12c. The nex
time I want milk I’m buying it from the dinini
hall. They sell it for 10c and it just costs then
Vic so I understand.
I'll just go hungry before shelling out thi
immense fortune made by the Cluster editor
for lusts of the flesh. And not only will I kei
my pennies, but I'll involuntarily keep my dignit;
—even though my stomach knots in pain ever]
Sunday night about 8.
After Thoughts
Now I've gotten the load off my chest. I’ve
railed against a decision which I thought was
formed on watery grounds and I’ve given my
reasons, such as they are, for my position.
Perhaps I’ve given an ill impression of the
business manager. Perhaps my readers think
he has offended me personally. Such is not the
case—but his decision has caused pain in my
stomach and I have, like some wild animal, re-
Most of us have opened a book and looked
upon a word only to have any meaningful con
tent vanish before our eyes. It stares up at you
blankly with an absurd countance, signifying
nothing.
So it might be with the other objects of our
experience if we took the time to really look
at them. If we placed our customs, institutions
and interpersonal relations all under the same
scrutiny.
"In becoming conscious,” says Jean-Paul
Sartre, “we take a leap beyond being and thus
cease to be anything.” Man might have been
created “a little lower than the angels,” he might
once have felt a deep sense of sin, but today the
sensitive man faels only insignificance, only emp
tiness, only loneliness.
We can blame it on the breakdown of insti
tutions whtre once we resisted them as stifling
restraints to man’s unconquerable song. We can
denounce an Individualism which causes men to
acted to it.
I’ve found Mr. Haywood courteous am
willing to hear my questions; at the same tins 1
he has been anxious that his position be under 11
stood. 1
I have tried to understand his reasoning and hii
position and even though I feel I know how hi 1'
feels, I cannot agree with him. It is this dis p
agreement that compelled me to write. *
JOHN WEATHERLY
Beyond Being
“escape from freedom” through conformity. W< li
can wish for an authentic sense of community li
among men.
The answer might lie in a new religious af
firmation. The Eastern faiths might point oul *
to Western man that his insecurity lies in hit
tendency to differentiate himself from nature »
They might tell him that it is nature that lovei n
him. Not that Yahweh did not love him; but thil
was a demanding love on the part of the bearded h
father figure. He demanded obedience whereas r
nature gives her love freely as a mother. n
If the seeds of a new Western faith does nol
lie here, perhaps the answer lies in a genuine re- fi
discovery of Christ. For when the Roman Empiri r
was breaking down, it waa Christianity that pre a
vailed where the cults offering salvation crum u
bled. ]
Perhaps. Perhaps not And because it is pain i
ful to look upon meaninglessness, we close oui i
book and walk away. c