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Wonderful Wednesday to go?
The weekend in the middle of
the week. The chance to mend
fences and catch up where
you’re behind. The midweek
binge that runs from Tuesday
PM to Thursday AM. The op
portunity to raR with your
teacher or faculty adviser (if
you can find him). What is
Wonderful Wednesday?
According to the original
moliou adopted by the Faculty
in 1968, “this program aims
both at enhancing the quality of
instruction and learning in the
four class days and in ex
panding the education of
students in the responsible use
of free time for self-education.”
For more specific standards of
what was to be permitted and
forbidden, both to students and
faculty, on this day, according
to the original resolution, see
elsewhere in this issue.
When the EFP takes 100
students on a Wednesday up to
Atlanta to see how integrated
public schools are working, is
that a violation? It all depends
on whether any of these 100
students was forced to go-or
thinks he was threatened if he
didn't go. The intent of Won
derful Wednesday is not that
everyone should sit around in
forced idleness. Where field
trips, opportunities for tutoring
and practice-teaching exist and
a student wants to use Wed
nesday for this purpose,
nobody's going to stop him. But
when a student feels forced into
doing any of these things on
Wednesday against his will, he
should have some recourse.
That's what the Wonderful
Wednesday Committee is for.
When the IFC wants to hold
rushing and pledging parties on
Wednesday night, is that a
violation of Wonderful Wed
nesday? Yes, it is, according to
the unanimous opinion of the
Committee.
Look hard at the terms of the
original resolution of 19*8, and
you’ll see that it leaves many
grey areas of doubt as to what
can and what can’t be done on
by William Lane.
Wednesday. Part of the Com
mittee’s job is to illuminate
these grey areas. But you can
see that there are two main
standards that can guide us.
first, whatever is done on
Wednesday must be voluntary
by students and faculty. Second,
tne time is designed for creative
activity, not for loafing. So,
neither students nor faculty can
be required to anything on
We<kiesday with the threat that
their, welfare will be iffected if
they don’t do it. Bjt just as
surely, the following types are
violating the spirit of Wonderful
Wednesday: the party-guy who
raises such hell in the dorm on
Tuesday night that no one can
study or sleep. The faculty
member who never makes
himself available to students or
advisees on Wednesday. The
student who persistently falls
behind in his work and fails to
make use of the facilities of
library, labs, and language lab
that are available to him o..
Wednesday. The student who
THE MERCER CUSTER
Volume UH- Mercer University, Macon, Georgia,-November 5, 1971 - No. 7
- ‘ "
Lamar Series is successful
With Dr. Rubin as speaker
Louis D. Rubin delivered the
fifteenth annual Lamar
Memorial lectures Monday and
Tuesday. The series, entitled
“The Writer in the South," was
given in the Ware Recital Hall.
The series concerned the
relationship of the Southern
writer to his society and the
changes in it. It was divided into
three parts.
The first part was called ‘Tell
about the Soikh," and con
sidered the total identification
of the ante-bellum Southern
writer with his community. The
second and thisd, divided into
similar time periods, were
called “You Would Have to Be
Born There,” and “Why Do You
Hate the South?’’
Dr. Rubin’s lectures consisted
of digressions which illustrated
the problem identified in each
lecture. Pr^haps the most _
academic and least germane —iverilou to ilie" pecular’ in"
by Charles Carter
alienation of the writer from the
defeated South is most clearly
seen in Clemens, and that
Clemens is the ouly writer of
note from' the region in the
period, all well taken.
The example used in the third
lecture . was the agrarian
symposium 111 Take My Stand.
The issue dealt with in this
lecture was the in
dustrialization of the South, and
the realization that in
dustrialization brought with it a
dehumanization of society.
Although a defense of the pre-
capitalistic structure of ante
bellum South, Rubin pointed out
the prophetic nature of the work
as “the first shot fired" in a new
familiar battle.
Rubin stressed the unfamiliar
nature of the Old South. He
devoted a large part of his first
lecture to modern man's
cuts classes on Tuesdays or
Thursdays to extend his mid
week weekend. The teacher who
refuses to hold review sessions
or do remedial work on Wed
nesday with students who
request it.
The Administration is deeply
concerned about the use and
misuse of Wonderful Wed
nesday. Asked for a statement.
President Harris said, "Won
derful Wednesday was ap
proved as a way to allow
students and faculty to make
some more creative use of their
time. I have observed in the
past year, that too many
students and faculty members
failed to make such use of it.
Wonderful Wednesday is by no
means a permanent fixture in
our academic calendar, and if
signs continue to show that too
many people are abusing it, the
University Council and trustees
will have to study the facts and
if the abuse is excessive we will
return to our former system of
five class days each week. Each
member of the Mercer com
munity should undertake firm
efforts to make Wonderful
Wednesday work."
The Wonderful Wednesday
committee \u» as its purpose to
help make the day a time of
voluntary creative activity and
to correct any abuses which it
finds among students and
faculty. The Committee is
presently made up of Julian
Gordy (President SGA), Tom
Gordy (Freshman Adviser),
Doris Walters, Rocky Wade,
Mr. Jerry Winfield
(Languages), Mr. TP. Haiuc*
(Biology), and Mr. William
Lane (English, Chairman).
Address all inquiries and
complaints about Wonderful
Wednesday to Box 117, and the
Committee will consider them.
It may be that some of the
rules adopted in 1968 need
altering. For instance, the
original rules outlaw "in
tramural sports” on Wed
nesday. Now we find, however.
(Coat'd. On Page 8)
Students Elected
to Committees
Force Up-Date
is the case, according to Rubin,
when one looks at an anthology
such as the Library of Southern
Literature (1907), in which
writers such as Poe and Cable
are grouped with “third rate’”
authors with no appreciation of
the gap between the quality of
writing of the two groups of
authors.
One remarkable feature of
the pre-Civil War writers was
(Coat’d. On Page 8)
Ten students were appointed
to five standing committees of
the faculty of the College of
Liberal Arts Tuesday.
The appointees, chosen by
secret ballot at the Tuesday
meeting, were announced late
yesterday by Dean Taylor’s
office.
Appointed were George
Henderson and John Lowery to
the Curriculum Committee,
Karen Hayes and Julie Miller to
the Admissions, Readmissions,
and Advanced Standing
Committee, Newton Moore and
George Tucker to the Athletics
committee, Rocky Wade and
Peggy Beiuiett to the Guidance
commitee, and Nina Brown and
Tom Gordy to the Teacher
Education committee.
Students hold non-voting
positions ou the Curriculum
Committee and the Athletic
cummiteee but may vote ou the
other committees to which they
were appointed.
Students members of the
Teacher effectiveness com
mittee will be elected at the
next faculty meeting because
one of the nominees did not
return to school tips “year.
Four students were
nominated last spring by the
SGA for the two position*
available on each committee.
In other business, the faculty
approved all of the curriculum
committee recommendation*
aiuiounced last week in the
Cluster, including changing the
name of the Sophomore Special
Studies program to Special
Studies and opening it up to all
undergraduates above the
Freshman level.
The Wonderful Wednesday
Committee, chaired by Mr.
Lane, reported that WW is being
reviewed.
disgression was the one of
which the second lecture con
sisted.
Dr. Rubin used Mark Twain’s
art to point out the alienation
felt in the South after the defeat
suffered in the Civil War and the
destruction of the old social
order, which played such an
important part in the lif%of the
ante-bellum Southern writers.
Even though Rubin’s defense of
Clemens as a Southern writer
war uot entirely convincing, his
points that the problem of
stitution as slavery, citiug.
difficulty in treating ninteenth
century Southern writers. He
also stressed the different
economic structure of the Old
South, stating that it was
precapitalist^, and at odds with
the structure imposed upon the
South after the war.
Rubin began the first lecture
by stating that most modem
Southern writers deplore the
quality of Southern literature,
but remain Southern writers.
There is little wonder that such
Approximately 175 men signed op for rush la Duncan Lounge oa Tuesday, November 2 according to
IFC President Rick Roberts.