Newspaper Page Text
tEJje jHeror Cluster
December 9, 1965
Volume XLVI, No. 10, Page 2
SALUTING
AGNES JONES
BUSINE88 MANAGER
Lee O'Brien
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Sandy Harrison
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Susan Walker
NEWS EDITOR:
Wally McCollum
TECHNICAL EDITOR:
Rich VanBuskirk
FEATURES EDITOR:
Margie Single)
SOCIAL EDITOR:
Sarah June McRae
SPORTS EDITOR:
Tom Lang
CIRCULATION MANAGER:
Everett Coker
PHOTOGRAPHERS:
Tommy McGehee
STAFF ARTISTS:
John Wires
Heather Dailey
Barbara Gantt
ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER:
Nancy Barrett
EXECUTIVE EDITORS:
Diana Denton
Bill Dayton
NEWS STAFF: Mike Blizzard,
Sarah Freeman, Dale Freeney,
Judy Howell, Kay Eubank, Mar
ti el Babbitt, Becky Sims, Danny
Sheffield, Nancy Johnson, Billie
Useiton, Sally Heath, Reace
Stanford
FEATURES STAFF: Mila Lasal-
la, Lynda Clark*, Charles Lewie,
Adetyn Bailey, Peggy Kelly,
Bill Exum, Darolyn Carrels,
Frank Donnelly, Clyde Hoover
COPY STAFF: Judy Babcock.
Pam Norton, Sara Lifaey, Gail
Brown, Barbara Flake, Susan
Vemam, Nancy Willett Hope
Slaton
ADVERTISING STAFF: Fran
cisco Figueroa, Sherri Clarke
CIRCULATION STAFF: Kathy
Kennedy, Bonnie Lawrence
The Cluster, loud in its praise
of the creation of Mr. Wilcox’i
Student Union Board, now takes
time to honor an integral part of
this new University function, Mrs.
Agnes Jones, who pilots the desk
underneath the co op stairs.
Mrs. Jones, an old time favorite
to Mercer students, came to Mer
cer on Labor Day of 1961. She
served as secretary to the Dean of
Women for three years before
being moved downstairs this
quarter with the inauguration of
the Student Union.
Agnes, a part-time student and
full-time mother of five, serves as
secretary to both the Student
Union and the University Hostess
But her greatest pleasure, she says,
is simply working with the stu
dents.
Mrs. Jones, a native of Raleigh,
N. C., attended Peace College
there before her marriage. A third
year Latin major she spends her
lunch hour taking courses—this
quarter it’s music appreciation.
RANKS AND REWARDS
IN COLLEGE TEACHING
The surest thing about college is classes. And the
most important thing about a class is often the
professor.
A professor is really a teacher, but in college he
usually is called professor. ,
College professors are ranked in separate classes
in the professional scale. The prof at the bottom is
titled instructor, or lecturer, or perhaps teaching
assistant. His natural habitat is the laboratory or
introductory course.
He is young, only a year or two out of college
himself. (He may be sensitive about his youthful
appearance, so treat him with deference.) . . .
The next rank up the scale is a big one: the assist
ant professor of something-or-other. The title has
a ring of permanence about it, but the titleholder
must fight and struggle to rise or just to hold his
own on the academic ladder. Probably has his mas
ter’s already, and in some institutions even a doc
torate.
Quite often he will be so conscious of his erudition
and position that he will use difficult words and
complicated ideas simply to impress you. He probably
also uses such words and ideas among his faculty
colleagues, because he needs to impress them too.
The ASSISTANT PROFESSOR may work you
hard. He is determined to teach you something.
(He-doesn’t want you as a blot on his record, if you
muve into more advanced courses and reveal how
little you learned in his basics.)
Next is the associate professor. A man really on
his way, he has some years of exeprience, almost
certainly his doctorate, and a thorough grasp of his
subject.
The associate professor wants you to leam. He
feels it his responsibility when you don’t. Get your
work in on time. Don’t try any. excuses—he’s heard
them all.
And if you work well, you’ll earn a place in the
presence of the master: the full professor, Ph.D.,
perhaps chairman of the department With reverence
a student requests permission to enroll in one of his
classes. Possibly, the chosen few will gather around
a table and wait for gems of wisdom to fall from
the master’s lips.
Years ago, this great professor won fame with his
lectures on Chaucer, or his description of outer
space; so. rather than risk a fall, he still uses the
same lecture notes. Occasionally, you can pick up
a souvenir, as a piece of foolscap crumbles and falls
from the musty page.
There is one other man on the professional ladder.
He is the Professor Emeritus, a man retired with
the same title as he held in his active years. He may
be a living institution, the embodiment of the college
itself, the teacher of your teachers.
You may see him strolling about campus, check
ing books out of the library, or addressing an honor
society. Treat him with extreme respect. If possible,
quote him in a term paper.
The second category for understanding professors
is that of marital status. For most students, the
marital status of the professor is of no concern. On
rare occasion, however, that status may mean an
opportunity for fellowship or learning, an opportun
ity too good to pass up.
A young single man will often be quite approach
able, may spend some leisure time with students,
may even want to date one of the girls. A young
single woman professor is usually quite unapproach
able. For a married professor, the big issue is the
amount and nature of home responsibilities.
The third category cut* directly across all the
others. A professor, at any level on the scale, and
of whatever marital status, may be a woman instead
of a man.
THE WOMAN INSTUCTOR is apt to be tempo
rary. She is prohably a homemaker, or the wife of a
graduate student supporting him through school. If
so, she deserves sympathy, for it’s a hard life she
lives. Or she may be a graduate student herself.
The woman associate or full professor is com
mitted to the teaching task as' a life calling. Having
recognized the usual kinds of professional prejudice
against women, she may have studied beyond the
ordinary and thus achieved an unusual competence.
Some women professors have put all sentiment
out of their lives, thinking that sentimentality is
too feminine a trait. Watch out for these!
Others are rather susceptible to sentiment—may
favor a particular sorority pin, or even a fraternity
pin. One sharp girl, having learned that Miss So-
and-So favored Rho-Rho’s because she had loved
one once, went out and borrowed a Rho-Rho pin
for examination day, made a point of asking Miss
So-and-So a question so as to display the fraternity
pin, and got an A on what the sharpie thinks was
a B-paper.
NOW LET’S LOOK at the problems which pro
fessors have. They can be summarized in one word:
pressure. The most obvious pressure is that of time.
Away from the campus, the professor is subject to
two strong pressures—his family and its demands,
and the pressure of money.
Very few professors ever have enough money
Occasionally a professor depends on writing or
lecturing or even an unrelated second job in order
to support his family.
The pressures from within the campus are usually
the greatest. There is the pressure to know, to keep
up with one’s own field. In many fields, knowledge
is expanding so rapidly that a professor either reads
daily or loses touch with current thought.
There’s also the pressure to publish. The familiar
phrase for the faculty is "publish Or perish.” The
professor who publishes is usually studying, writing,
preparing, keeping alert in his field and subjecting
himself to the criticism of fellow scholars.
Other pressures come, too. Departmental meetings
and committees, extra-curricular activities on cam
pus, the striving for research grants and government-
sponsored projects, the special assignment from
industry or government agency, invitations from
church and civic groups, one's own sense of social
responsibility—the list is long.
THE OLD IMAGE of the serene professor, ambling
from the library to the quiet of his booklined study,
is a forgotten image on many campuses. Today's
professor is a powerhouse under pressure. To know
your professor, be alert to the pressures that shape
and challenge him.
As classes grow larger, and studenU increase in
number, you become part of the pressure. Yet, you
are the reason he teaches—never forget it!
What matters in education is example (the pro
fessor’s own competence, scholarship, discipline),
explanation (he understands those not good at ex
plaining and explains to those not very good at
understanding), and empathy (both student and
professor putting himself mentally in the other’s
place, feeling for him, reaching toward him, -under
standing with appreciation what each hopes to do).
Or, in the words of Heinrich PesUloxxi, "Educa
tion consists of example and love—nothing else."
Quoted by The Furman Paladin
From The Care and Choosing
of Professors" By Jamison James
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Dear Editor:
As a member of the cafeteria
staff, I would like to comment on
our position. We are obliged to take
about three hours a day to serve
the Mercer student body. For this
great honor we are paid $.60 an
hour (this may be raised).
There has been some comment
made upon the punctuality of the
opening of the serving lines. I do
not believe any Mercer student
will starve to death if he has to
wait five or ten minutes for us to
serve. There is a problem on Sun
days, because the line is supposed
to open at 12:00 and if a worker
goes to church, it is impossible to
be hack at 12:00. I realize that the
line would he shorter and one
would not have to stand in line for
forty-five minutes or more to g
their tray if we open at 12:00, V
if we open with only one or h
people serving, someone always h
something “witty” to say.
This brings up another coupls
complaints of mine. When we )gg
an ungodly number of vegetal^
and a choice of meats to serve
only two or three people to sen
some students find it near-b
possible to make a quick deed)
about what they want This )io|(
the line up and then we hear
griping. Also, the students seen
feel there is something wrong
the plates that are set up on
shelf. If we keep a variety of sei*
tions up there, the student si oU
make his choice quickly and It*
(Continued on page S)
Something Was Lacking
For many years, Mercer has helped illuminate the Chrii
Season by presenting Handel's Messiah, We were sorry that this y*
the Messiah was shrunk to the "Christmas portions” and severed In
its “Halleleujah Chorus" by a singing Christmas tree.
We do not mean to call "The Singing Christmas Tree” a
composition, for it is a very pleasant collection of religious Chrii
carols, brought together in an excellent manner. But we do think th
it is in no way an adequate replacement for the parts of the M<
which were missing last Sunday.
The songs collected in “The Singing Christmas Tree" are exoiln
religious carols, but the Messiah is among the greatest musical cos
positions of our civilization and an awesome testimonial to the cm
ness of GodUnd the Christian faith. "The Singing Christmas Tin
is a good composition worthy of presentation and attention. T)
Messiah is what Handel’s contemporaries called “sublime” and is word
of the singular token of respect given it by George II and every so
sequent audience in standing for the “Halleleujah Chorus.” In editi
and jumbling the two together as was done here last Sunday, justi
was done to neither composition.
—William Dayton
The Psychology of Giving
Psychologists have studied the act of giving and—ev«
more important—what it is like to receive a gift. Their finding!
reported by Shulton, furnish some helpful answers to the q
tion of what and how to give.
L A gift should be a symbol. According to Dr. Kurt Lewin. Ii
University psychologist, a gift should represent what you feel for so.
one. or what you'd like to do for that person. It ought to be a shorthsi
way of telling the loved one: “This is how beautiful you are” or “Yi
remind me of a desert flower.”
2. A gift should be a surprise. Useful and practical, yes, but ■
prosaic—it should have the spice of the unexpected. Dr. Rollo Ml
noted American psychologist, believes that the moment of giving shos
he clearly highlighted and set apart hy the gift; it must be a uniqi
moment in the ordinary routine of life. This can be accomplished
the surprise quality of the present: for example, a hardheaded bum
man giving his wife a book of her favorite poems—or a wife, who k
nothing about the stock market, taking the trouble to search out a
on the subject because it will please her mate.
3. A gift should not create anxiety. A fragile, hard-to-care-lor
easy-to-lose present may make the recipient anxious, and destroy
of his pleasure in the gift. An overly lavish present can also <,.
anxiety and embarrassment—if the recipient thinks that you expect
equally expensive gift in return.
4. A gift should be something the other person wants—not
thing you think he should hai'e. If you know a youngster who's .
dying for a new hasehall glove, by all means give it to him—even if
spelling grades indicate that a dictionary might be more in on er.
gift is not medicine, and should not he selected because it’s “goo'
someone. But what if you can't pick up any hints? Maybe you' e
listening hard enough. Psychologists have found that when a |«
talks about the things someone else has, he often gives away hi i
yearnings.
5. A gift is a sharing of yourself with someone else. To emp u
this quality of sharing, a gift should remind the recipient of ]
relationship with him or her. If you both love the scent of lit o
roses, give THE LADY a perfume like "Escapade” which coi ib.
these favorite fragrances. Or perhaps the gift or its wrappings « in
in a color the recipient associates with you.
6. A gift should say "quality." no matter what its price. A
made present of obviously high quality is very flattering—it say
as far as you're concerned, the recipient deserve* the best. No i i»U
what you’re buying, you can be assured of good quality if you bM
time-tested brands, and items which carry a simple, uncond its
guarantee.
7. A gift is an announcement. It should say Happy Birthday. ] In
You. Merry Christmas, or whatever you want to convey. Don
sight of this function, and don't fail to enclose a card that expr
the sentiments you want to convey. Don’t just sign your nam< -
printed card—a few sincere phrases of your own devising add an td
dimension to any gift.
8. A gift must have a proper setting. Psychologists say th..t .
act of giving must be a bit of make-believe, a little play-acting b» tw
two people. This holds true no matter how long you’ve knowi ts
other, or how unsentimental you believe you are. Never hurriedly f
something as you dash out the door, or as a peace offering afier
unpleasant moment. Be relaxed, establish a pleasant mood, talk uitu
the subject first: “I thought of you this afternoon ...” or “I saw <
most marvelous. ...”
A gift can be and say many things. But not if you give mo on
it will never perform any of the things a gift should do. Worse, it t
actually cause resentment—for the other person may t*«r* it to m
that he needs cash!
According to some experts, there is no really original gift—yo*
the giver make a gift original. The thought, the ipn«n*nt; the wr
—these create a memorable atmosphere and give your gift that
thing extra that makes it certain to be weU-rsosived.