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Cditorialt
Library Librality Lauded
The Cluster wishes to take this opportunity to express to
the staff of the Stetson Memorial Library our appreciaton for
its recent decision to remain open until 10:30 p.m. on Sundays
for the remainder of the quarter. It has long been our conten
tion that the customary two and a half hours that the library
was open on Sundays was just not time enough for students
to complete the work they must do, and gave no opportunity
for library study to students returning late Sunday afternoon
from a week-end spent off campus.
We realize it is probably not possible for the library to
maintain such a Sunday schedule throughout the school year,
and commend their decision, however, to extend their hours
for the latter part of the quarter, when term papers and essays
are falling due, and students need a quite place to study for
their finals, or merely to begin the difficult task of catching
up on the quarter’s work.
THE COLLEGE STREET LIGHT
For over a year now, the Cluster has sporadically complained that
the meager caution blinker at the intersection of College and Elm
Streets was not sufficient warning for the safety of either Mercer stu
dents attempting to cross on their way to or from the girls’ dormitories,
or for motorist entering or leaving Elm Street or enteringg the college
parking lot.
The incident November 8, when a coed was struck as she stepped
from the curbing en route to the campus proper from the dorm brings
this question to the fore once again and illustrates only too well the
hazards of the area in discussion. Admittedly, Miss Lindsey was at
fault for failing to look both ways before crossing the street, but the
matter cannot be dismissed in this cavalier fashion.
The issue remains that the current blinker system is not sufficient
for the safety needs of either Mercer students or the driving public,
and the example is there that something must be done.
Prior to die summer of 1964, a standard red-yellow-gree signal con
trolled traffic at the designated crossing. The construction of a new
girl's dorm, however alleviated somewhat the number of students cross
ing College Street from Porter Hall in the direction of the Student
Center, library, sports areas, etc.—diverting part of the flow to cross
further down the street immediately in front of the freshmen girls’
dormitory.
Apparently the city of Macon felt this reduced flux justified the
removal of the traffic light, perhaps on the grounds that sufficient
numbers no longer used the comer crosswalk to necessitate the stopping
of traffic long enough for students to cross. The stop light was replaced
by the caution light now in service and parking restricted to one side of
the street so traffic could the safer whiz by the university. Later that
same year, a high school student visiting on the campus for the weekend,
stepped out into the street directly in from of Porter Hall and was
struck by a car. The city of Macon, responding to the inquiry and pro
test this produced, painted crosswalks from the curb immediately be
fore the dorm to the steps ascending to the campus proper. Students
continue to cross the street as they see fit, and motorists generally
yield the right-of-way.
Let’s face it: a college student is not the most safety-conscious
citizen abroad and feels some sort of natural title to being able to cross
from on# part of his campus to where he is going whenever he feels he
can get there. A girl who has just received a letter, magazine or paper
has to read it as she strolls back to the dorm (sometimes notes, etc. are
crammed on the way to class—at the risk of life and limb), or engaged
in conversation, as was the present case, may step into the street care
lessly. A student in a hurry to supper or somewhere else has no in
clination to let 40 cars go by in either direction and would just as soon
dart out, confidently assuming some, at least, will stop. Results? A
great deal of anxiety for both pedestrian and driver and no great deal of
love lost between the two. And sometimes needless and painful accidents
occur. Sometimes cars entering College Street from Elm collide with
others'in the on-going tide. Occasionally a car entering the parking lot
is hit from behind.
No, we don’t suggest that the former traffic light be restored. Ad
mittedly, it makes little sense to stop traffic—for however short a time—
when there is no one around to cross the street. The former light merely
blinked a warning during the hours from ll p.m. to 6 a m. when the
girls’ dorms were closed. But there is little need to tie up traffic when
students are in class. (A note of interest: During class hours, there is
little traffic to be stopped. It is the noon and supper rushes which
coincide with the peak of student crossing and poses a problem.)
The Cluster then suggests—nay, requests—that the city of Macon
consider that any one of the three following measures be taken, and
enforce its choice.
One: That it the comer of College and Elm there be installed a
traffic light of the genre that permits traffic to flow undisturbed (i.e.,
remains green) until such time as a pedestrial desires to cross. Such
a system might prove quite expensive, and if beyond the budget of
‘Macon on the Move’, perhaps Mercer might help out a bit in the
financing. This seems a worthy project for the investment of a portion
of our tuition.
Two: If such a light were not forthcoming. College street should
be dosed off to the general public for the three blocks from Coleman
Avenue and made one way running toward Coleman Avenue. This
would make the stretch a college street indeed, and free it of the city
commuters bound to or from Warner Robins.
Three: That a traffic light of the type which stops traffic from
all directions, allowing pedestrians to cross freely in all directions every
few minutes, be installed.
The Cluster this request to the City Commissioners of
Macon, the Mercer Board of Trustees and administration, and urges the
support of student body, alumni, and the parents of Mercerians
(particularly ooeds).
—Diana Deaton
Hip (JHertrr Cluster
November 18, 1966 Volume XLVII, No. 4
~ EDITOR IN CHIEF
Thomas W. Lang
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Diana Denton /
BUSINESS MANAGER
MEMBER Nancy Barrett
News Editor Bill Wehunt
Feature Editor Sue Walker
Social Editors David Wansley
Martha Wansley
Sports Editors Roger Britt
Sandra Clinton, Robert Sipe
Advertising Manager Sherri Clark
Circulation Manager Ann Vance
Bonnie Lawrence
Executive Editor Bill Dayton
News Staff Jimmy Hagler, Tom Cauthorn,
Don VanBuakirk, Shirley Mitchell, Sarah June McRae, Mary
Middlebrooks, Billie L use It on, Susan Smallwood, Walter
Beales, Ann Cooper
Features Staff John Guthrie, Peggy Geren,
B. J. Reams, Kaye Johnson, Jack Kasaewitz
Copy Staff Barbara Beauchamp, Brenda
West hers bee, Rick VanBuakirk, Cal Gough
Advertising Staff Chris Zorn, Reace Stanford
Photographer Paul Kirk
DEAR EDITOR:
Dear Editor:
Re: “A Sign of the Times’
the October Cluster. Mention migt
also be made of an Assistant to th
Dean of Women. What does thi
preposition entail, unless perhap
the fact that Mies Tabor is a bi
young and inexperienced for th
title which her duties merit hei
and which would no doubt hav
been given her attendant to h«
duties at any other school than hi
alma mater?? Perhaps once hi
former classmates have graduated
she will be accorded the full titl
of Assistant Dean of Women?
And, while I am about it, wh;
does the Dean of Women need a
assistant, when none is requi
for the Dean of Men? Or is thi
just another move to see thi
women students do not escape th
all-pervasive "Momism" alread
enforced by their housemohten
their special rules, and ow
separate student government?
Thank you for letting me voic
my opinions.
Name Withheld
ta
The Mercer Cluster has
been quite disappointed to see
the continuation of what we
feel to be ill-considered and
unrealistic thinking on the
part of the Georgia Baptist
Convention and, we are sorry
to say, certain trustees and
erstwhile friends of the uni
versity.
Christ commanded to ren
der unto Caesar that which
is Caesar’s. In the modern
world, education is a very
real and pressing concern of
the state; the Church errs in
depriving Caesar of the in
terests which are his.
Remember when Thanksgiving came before Christmas?
TOM CAUTHORN
A Possibility
The development of a new consciousness on
the part of American students has perhaps excited
the greatest reaction from many points of view
than any other awakening in modem history. The
gap between consciousness and existence was
bridged for the youth by the launching of a
political philosophy in the late 1950’s which was
thought by some to be new. Indeed the newness
of the philosophy was only a facade erected by
its progenitors to achieve the maximum public
effect.
puses have sprung up in an attempt to ahatti
this test tube life. The ethics of the new mov«
ments tend to be cold and calculating, givin
credence only to those things which deserve sai
exemplification. The theories are not of inhiliu
but rather of extreme aerating of ideals an
institutions. The problem with this scrutiny I
that the youth will again become over- zealot**’
and subject his new scrutiny to limitations, thi
creating a conforming non-conformity.
Thus ,to many people the emergence of con
sciousness as a necessary reaction to the com
placency which followed World War II and ex
tended into the 1960’s. When John Kennedy be
came President in 1961, he saw the protestations
of students as a manifestation of their dissatis
faction concerning the results in the West after
the surrender of the axis powers. Many were to
raise a moan and cry against these protestors to
the effect and the unrest was the form of bad
youth or of rather adverse international conditions.
It remains to be seen whether the youth i
today can take a lesson from their racooon-coi u
wearing forebears. It seems that an extras n
scrutiny is all that the individual is left with
a world of strict limitations. The student mu
examine his faiths and subject them to a questkx h
indeed he must subject his questions to qusstios n
ad infinitum. Is the education of the stude
harming him more than his unwitting tendon
to live life in. a test tube?
Indeed, it does seem from first glance that
these reactions were merely political or social
unrest spawned by a period of national com
placency, but one must look closer into the phy
sios of the youth. He is placed in a new world of
fast moving education with emphasis on the em
pirical approach. Because of the uncertainty of
his day to day existence the student grasps at
ideological institutions. The fraternity system
seems to be a primary answer for students seeking
a constant. The youth fails to realise that in his
grasp for constants he is erecting a field of stead
fast ideas. Because of the character of his ques
tioning mind he must lend to these steadfast ideas
the most extreme credence he can muster so as
not to open them to attack. Thus by the time the
student has become accustomed to his new exist
ence he has erected a wall around himself and his
steadfast ideas which the outside world cannot
penetrate. He is existing in a test tube when his
own line of vision is cut by the density of the
liquid in which he swims.
Franz Kafka ones wrote in his diary in 19]
“When I think about it, I must say that my
cation has done me great harm in some
He was not speaking of a university but of
great multitude of acquaintances which
shaped his various opinions, thoughts, and
TIm new left and new right on college
Indead, if one is doodad by hie inhibit
and can never effect a true reconciliation
one’s self, then the object of existence
meaningless. This is not to say that only
Tboreauvian view is valid but rather to menti
the essence of choice (not a Miltonian oont
because it was a limitation to two worlds),
would seem from the foregoing dieenmion that i
arguments tend to off-set one another but this I
not true. It ia dear that the future of the i
is an opan-endad affair, providing the student
be limited by his education of and by
Some may enjoy a laugh at the student in Ms 1
tube; but provided the student will
then both he and Ms lofty critics will begin
discern the limitations of their existence
education. The student creates Ma own
and through questions of the so-called
seder of tMnga he creates a succour for the I