ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE LiEiRARY

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REPORTER Volume I, Issue 2 April 1, 197 4

A watery moat, a swan for McDowell Hall?

Will McDowell Hall once more become a Maypole with ribbons cascading from the cupola to the ground?

Will it be surrounded by a water moat, as someone has proposed?

Or will it be changed, as it was last year, into a gigantic monopoly board, with huge dice downstairs and with players advancing at a whistle's blow to rooms where college events are enacted -don rags and seminars and dining hall meals - and to a place on the fire escape where the players deliver the Friday night lecture?

It's time for St. John's College students to think about these things.

April 1 may be April Fool's Day for younger brothers and sisters back home, but for St. John's students it marks the season to begin serious planning for the annual senior prank, generally staged about a month away.

Senior pranks began ten years ago when all the chai rs from all the classrooms vanished in the silence of the night. Word went out that they had been removed by " 550 Chinese coolies and Baby Eaton," Baby Eaton being the son of the then student college executive Tom Eaton.

The chairs were recovered some time later from a remote place under Mellon Hall.

Along with the Real Olympics, the annual senior antics wind up the year just before an early commencement on May 26. The tricks themselves are reported to have originated when President Weigle is said to have thrown down the gauntlet and challenged students to come up with a decent prank .

Since then the pranks have been as various as the minds which originated them. The dean's office was bricked up one time. An automobile show was held in the Key foyer on another. And one

(Continued on (J . 2)

That whale of a book is back

"Moby Dick," once the victim of excess ive popularity among St. John's College students, has been returned to the college's series of 130 great books.

The Herman Melville novel was drop­ped more than a decade ago because the faculty found too many students were writing their senior essays, papers required for graduation, about the American writer. Members of the college's Instruction Committee, which acts on academic matters, agreed that something had to be done to break the pattern.

This year the novel dealing with man facing a massive environment in a struggle which pits him against his destiny was returned to the list of readings required for the junior year.

" It was time," Samuel Kutler, a member of the Instruction Committee active in the decision, simply said .

He explained that during the interim students have been reading the shorter works of Melville, including " Billy Budd" and " Benito Cereno." The faculty now feels that it is a logical time to reinstitute the larger novel.

" We try when we can to read the major works of an author," he said. "Obviously 'Moby Dick' is a major. When we read Kant, we like to read his 'Critique of Pure

(ContimmJ on p. 3)

MICHAEL JORDAN is planning his doctorate in comparative literature. (photo by

Robin West)

Jordan to become Danforth Fellow

Michael Jordan , St. John 's College senior, has been awarded a Danforth Foundation Fellowship for graduate study, Provost Paul D. Newland announced today.

He is one of 96 young people chosen from among 1,750 nominations throughout the country to receive the honor, design­ed for training college teachers.

The son of Mr. and Mrs. Leon B. Jordan, of Media, Pa., Mr. Jordan hopes to begin work next fall toward a doctorate in comparative literature. He has applied for graduate study at both Prin ceton University and the University of North Carolina.

Mr. Jordan's interests thi s year have been Shakespeare oriented. He has been a leader of the Shakespeare reading sessions made up of a group of tutors and students who meet each Sunday afternoon on campus. Currently he is directing the Spring production of " The Merchant of Venice," one of the three Shakespearean plays upon which he wrote his senior thesis . The other two were "Twelfth Night" and "As You Like It."

During his sophomore year Mr. Jordan was one of three students selected to participate in a television show, " Dialogue of the Western World," which a Baltimore educational televi sion station produced in cooperation with St. John's.

Mr. Jordan is a 1970 graduate of Penncrest High School, where he edited the annual literary magazine, " Folio. "

He completed his elementary education at the Rose Tree Media Schools in Pennsylvania.

The Danforth Fellowship is a one-year grant renewable for three additional years.

'Merchant of Venice' to be given

Members of the cast of "The Merchant of Venice" are returning from the Spring vacation with their lines hopefully memor­ized "cold."

Confronted with a short period before production in late April or early May, Director Michael Jordan intends to make the best of rehearsa l time by having the cast, with books no longer necessary, con­centrate on movement on stage.

The play will be the second for the year for the King Will iam Players, which customarily does only one production annually.

Patricia Joyce, Huntington, N.Y., junior, will take the part of Portia, and a St. John 's tutor , Robert Williamson , will portray Shylock. Musrc for "Tell me where is fancy bred" will be composed by St. John's tutor Elliott Zuckerman and will be sung by M eg Clllingwood, Boston soph­omore. Sets are to be designed and constructed by Jack Ehn, Croton-on-Hud­son, N. Y., senior.

Mr. Jordan said the version to be staged will be uncut. In addition to requesting the cast to have their lines well under control, Mr. Jordan hopes to facilitate rehearsals and reduce time demands made

(Continued on p. 4)

Essays honor Jacob Klein

Jacob Klein is in the second month of his 75th year, a year which has begun with surprise festivities in which 20 scholars closely associated with St. John's paid him honor in the best way they know to express their gratitude: with their own scholarship.

At a Festschrift presentation on hi~ birthday March 3, the former St. John's dean was given an especially constructe mahogany box filled with papers and bearing a brass plaque, " Essays in Honor of Jacob Klein ."

The essays were written, President Richard D. Weigle told Mr. Klein, as a " means of conveying to you our admira­tion , our gratitude, and our affection ."

Al I of the contributors to the Festschrift are either closely associated with the faculty or graduates with the exception of the twenty-first, a c lose friend of Mr. Klein, Briti sh artist Ann Crosby, who flew here from London for the occasion . She contributed a portrait of Mr. Klein and eight sketches.

The presentation was made at a Sunday afternoon dinner party climaxing planning which had begun four years ago. St. John's tutors Sam Kutler and Elliott Zuckerman were in charge of the event with Mr. Kutl er making the formal presen­tation of the essays to Mr. Klein.

"AT ST. JOHN'S College, I have heard it sa id," Mr. Kutler said, " the dean should be the soul of the co llege. We have learn ed from your questions and your opinions, from your speech and your writing, both directly and indirect ly.

" Because of this, and because of our affection for you, we wanted to make a gesture to honor you on the occasion of your 75th birthday.

" Four years ago, I met with Eva Brann, Winfree Smith, Robert Williamson and Elliott Zuckerman to plan for a volume of 'Essays in Honor of Jacob Klein .' On April 20, 1970, letters were sent out that contained this sentence:

"'We would like to surprise Mr. Klein when the volume is presented to him, so please keep this matter confidential. "'

The essays remained a secret for the surpri ed and delighted Mr. Kl ein.

"I AM SO TOUCHED I cann ot speak," Mr. Klein said in responding to the presentation and to the remarks of Mr. Weigle and to those of the present dean, Curtis Wilson . Mr. Wilson read excerpts from his Festschrift preface, including titles of a long list of lectures which Mr. Klein has given .

Mr. Kutler said the essays are scheduled for publication within the next few months.

Contributors to the collection held the party at the home of President Weigle, toasting both Mr. and Mrs. Klein in a series of eulogies. Another former St. John's dean, John S. Kieffer, telephoned hi s congratulations from Johns Hopkins

Hospita l where he was preparing for su rgery.

A special guest was a friend of Mr. Klein 's youth, Professor Hans George Gadamer of the University of Heidelberg. They had known each other as students of Heidegger.

Both Mr. Weig le and Mr. Wilson paid tribute to Mr. Klein's leadership.

In a letter accompanying the essays which Mr. Weigle read, he said :

" IT WAS A happy and fortuitous circumstance for St. John's that you came

JACOB KLEIN

to Annapolis in 1938. Your tenure at the college has, therefore, almost exactly coincided with that of the restored liberal arts at St. John's.

" The nine years of your deanship, from 1949 to 1958, witnessed a significant molding and developing of the St. John's Program, a strengthening of the faculty , and a challenging of the student body. Your teaching in all parts of the program has been a memorable experience for hundreds of young men and women. "

In his preface, Mr. Wilson cited the stabilizing, strong leadership Mr. Klein has provided. He wrote:

" St. John's and the St. John's program had managed to su rvive the war, but the financial situation of the college remained precarious, and in some of its phases the operation of the program was notably questionable or chaotic .

" In the middle of the academic year 1948-49, there came an administrative crisis. Jacob Klein once more found his Platoni c stud ies interrupted; he was ca lled back to the college to become its acting dean on January 31, 1949.

" ACTING DEANSHIP turned into dean­ship in September of the same year, directly after Ri chard D. Weigle became

(Continued on (J. 4)

It's all in the family

at St. John's College The enrollment of Rachel McKay as a

January freshman is a reminder of a phenomenon new to St. John's in the past decade: the second generation New Program student.

Not only are the children of alumni here, but in other instances enrollment at St. John's is a family affair. Siblings, whose parents were not students, are enrolling by the family .

A case in point is the Anastaplo family, whose father, George Anastaplo, has been a long-time friend of St. John 's and a frequent lecturer here. Helen Anastaplo was graduated in 1971; George, Jr., is now a junior, and Sara is a freshman.

A check by Alumni Director Thomas Parran, Jr., also shows that a son of an Old Program graduate, the late C. Edwin Cockey, '22, is here. He is a senior, Geoffrey E. Cockey, of Queenstown, Md.,

(Continued on p. 4)

Campus offers summer use

The co llege is looking for ways to use the faci liti es of the campus in the summer months and needs your help.

There are many organizations that hold conferences in the summer, and we would like them to know that St. John's College is availab le for the purpose. We have meeting rooms and two dormitories accommodating 110 people that are air cond itioned. If meals are desired, they can be served in the college dining hall.

If you know any organization that is seeking a summer meeting place, please notify the treasurer, St. John's College, and we wi ll get in touch with it.

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Briefs Kieffer recuperates

Mr. John S. Kieffer is recuperating at his home in Cumberland Court following surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital . He

Marathon walkers Two St. John's tutors, along with a St.

John's wife, came through the Spring holidays with special distinction .

Mr. and Mrs. Steven Crockett and Jonathan Skinner walked 62 miles along the old Potomac River B&O Canal on March 16, a walk which began at 3 a.m. at the Watergate Apartments in Georgetown and ended when they trudged up 200 stone steps at Harper's Ferry at precisely 10:58 p.m. Along with a Washington resident, they were the first to finish . Only 10 of the original 23 walkers completed the Sierra Club hike.

Wearing ponchos against the rain, a drizzle which began half way through the hike, the Crocketts kept their pace to a steady three miles an hour, trailing the hikers for a long time and finally over­taking them and moving out front in a sort of tortoise and the hare stunt.

Skinner, who normally walks more rapidly with his long, steady stride, joined

expects to resume teaching later in the Spring.

them at the 45-niile point when they stayed together. Mrs. Skinner is a great walker, too, but because she is working on her doctorate in English didn't want to spare the time to go into training for such a long hike.

However, she joined her husband at Harper's Ferry Sunday morning when they walked an additional 15 miles along the canal to visit friends .

The Crocketts, along with a couple new blisters apiece, gained some great impres­sions of the Potomac River countryside.

" It was a human thing, not a super human thing to do," Crockett, who believes man was made for walking, said. " It was an amazing thing to come through as well as we did."

They•re for exercise In a less spectacular way, St. John's

tutors on the whole are much more exercise conscious thay they were a decade ago.

An early riser, Dean Curtis Wilson goes jogging at dawn. Winfree Smith swam daily at Sandy Point last year, including throughout the winter months. An illness interfered, and this year instead he is doing Canadian Royal Air Force exerc ises daily. Laurence Berns and Ray Willi amson both get in some of their exercise bicycling to the campus.

A number go regularly to the gym or tennis courts. Benjamin Milner won the tennis doubles tournament last year along with Athletic Director Bryce Jacobsen. Edward Sparrow goes to the gym several times a week, partly to jog. Michael Ham appears for a noonday workout.

Alfred Mollin and Nicholas Maistrellis play on student volleyball, basketball and softball teams. George Doskow and Geoffrey Comber appear once a week to play paddleball. Doskow also plays on the volleyball and softball teams. Michael Littleton plays superior pingpong there and

Schiess gives book Dr. Harold Schiess, Columbia University

professor and a recent lecturer here, has presented St. John's with a 1950 edition of Chaucer's "Nun's Priest's Tale," which once belonged to the novelist, E. M . Forster.

The copy, a particularly beautiful

Railing loses role The bannister of McDowell Hall may

have looked like a paper airp lane in the past, but no longer.

That's the place for years where students have looked for any changes in seminars or tutorials . When a co ld epidemic struck, it fluttered with the paper wings of taped announcements disclosing that "Mr. So­and-so will not meet with his class that day."

At times the bannister looked as if it

has won the last seven or eight pingpong tournaments.

Skinner comes daily, usually to play badminton or paddleball or to run . He also plays on student soccer and volleyball teams .

David Starr goes occasionally for karate . Sam Kutler sometimes plays pingpong, and Barbara Leonard plays pingpong or bad­minton .

Among softball players on campus are John Sarkissian and Leon Kass . When he isn' t on sabbatical, Robert Spaeth also appears to play badminton and pingpong.

Two retired tutors, Simon Kaplan and W . Kyle Smith, are among those involved in the most basic of all exercise, walking. They walk systematically y alk­ing also is what President Weigle does . What he misses in a variety of sports, Mr. Weigle makes up in speed, as anyone knows who has chased him down a St. John's corridor.

A number of tutors miss out on an important exercise - swimming - because the college stil l needs a swimming pool .

Christmas edition and one of a thousand issued at time of publication, was given to Forster as a present by the translator, Nevill Coghill, who also has lectured at St. John's. It can be seen in the library.

wou ld fly out the door. It was effective but not neat; and this is what bothered David W. Tucker, superintendent of buildings and grounds, along with some tutors .

" Is this really the way you want it to be?" Tucker confronted the dean one day.

With preliminary consultation over, Mr. Tucker installed a corkboard . Announce­ments of absent tutors now go there. It is neat, tidy, firmly affixed, and it won't fly away.

Smiths have anniversary The Rev. W. Kyle Smith, tutor emeritus

at St. John's, and Mrs . Smith celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in February at a reception at the Army-Navy Country Club in Arlington.

It was given by their children, Mrs. 0 . E. Bassett, of Arlington, and Dr. W . Kyle

April concerts Music, both very old and very new, will

be heard in two concerts schedul ed this month at St. John's.

New music will be presented by the Speculum Musicae - " Musical MirrOf" - at 8:15 p.m. Friday. This group, organized in 1971 and already highly successful, will be heard in Variations for Four Drums and Viola (1957) by Michael Colgrass, Schoen­berg's String Trio, Opus 45 (1946), and Lukas Foss' Echoi for Four Soloists

Smith, Jr., of Philadelphia and Richmond, along with Mrs. Smith and Mr. Bassett. The Smiths were married on February 24, 1924, at her home in Covington, Va. A former assistant dean here, Mr. Smith, who is also a Presbyterian clergyman, retired from St. John's on July 30, 1968.

(1960-63). The program will be in the Key Auditorium .

The second will be a program of 18th century clavichord and forte-piano music played at 8 :15 p.m. Sunday, April 21, in the Great Hall . The performer will be Joan Benson, internationally known musician and member of the music faculty at Stanford . Her program will include music of Haydn, Mozart and Bach .

Tzudiker directs Players ~or a person who can turn himself into

a snarling rhinocerus when the occasion dema~ds, Robert Tzudiker is a remarkably soft spoken, restra ined and self-disciplined student.

He is also an actor. As director of the King William Players' highly successfu l production of Mol iere's "The Precious Damse ls" earlier this year, Tzudiker in addition is founder of St. John's College's newest drama group on campus, a small, loosely organized group called the Dwarf Players. Last spring it staged its first one-act play, "A Pair of Lunatics."

" The Dwarf Players were organized for students who want to work in the theater

ROBERT TZU DIK~R

(photo by Robin West)

but who don't have the time or extra energy to take part in full scale produ tions ," Tzudiker exp lained.

" It was organized to present short, one-act plays, seen s from larger plays or for improvisation work and to serve as a form of re reation for students who want to be active in the theater but whose time is al o limited."

THIS SPRING the Dwarf Players tenta~

tiv ly are onsid ring a production but 11robably without Tzudiker, who has a part in " Tht- Merchant of Venice" and who also want to concentrate on his studies. He will probab ly turn to acting this summer, this time with a professional stock company.

During the spring holidays Tzudiker auditioned with the Mill Mountain Play House in Roanoke, Va., with which he performed last year in two roles : as a c lownish sto kbroker, Elijah J. Whitney, in the Cole Porter musi cal, "Anything Goes," and as the Iri sh, strong arm thug in Harold Pinter's " The Birthday Party."

A junior from Alexandria, Va., Tzudiker is considering becoming an actor follow­ing his graduation from St. John's, but he wants the choice to be a deliberate one . If he does become an actor, it will be a ca reer which will follow a miscellany of odd jobs he has filled during his student days.

(He has been a janitor, moving man, proof reader, and co unselor for an overnight summer camp for retarded children as we ll as done a little Head Start work plus fi lling student aid jobs on campus.)

" I'm consider ing - underline consideri ng becoming an actor and director,"

Tzud iker said. " I'm trying to be wary of just winding up just as an actor, which so many actors do. It should be something over which I make a deliberate decision . Acting is the hardest work I know, but it's the one I've loved the best. "

A National Merit Scholarship finalist, Tzudiker came to St. John's after a great deal of acting both at Mt. Vernon High School in Alexandria and earli er at Derryfield High School, a private school in Manchester, N. H.

ONE PLEASUREABLE aspect of "The Precious Damsels," besides the I ively acting and rapid pacing, was that the audience actually could hear beyond the first two rows, something not always possible in amateur theatrics . Tzudiker received the cred it.

St. John's offers no drama major. Its non-elective program, however, centered in the " great books," has aided him, Tzudiker feels .

" I learned to read at St. John's, that is to read more closely and more carefu lly, " he pointed out. "In interpreting script or a role or a play, the program has been of great help. The better the play, the more help St. John's has been ."

----ii Personal ·View---

Of books and balances

by the Rev. G. Harris Collingwood Rector, Church of the Advent

Boston, Mass.

A translation of the Latin motto of the college reads, " We make free men from boys by means of books and balan ces."

As a boy in the summer of '44 when I began the New Program under an accelerated wartime plan, I remember being acutely anxious. The anxiety result­ed from being treated not as a boy but as a free man. As a boy I wanted to please my elders and receive the reward of their praise. The elders of the college confused the boy because they did not wish to be pleased so much as they wished to invite the boy to grow into manhood in the pursuit of Truth . Truth is its own authority and is not easi ly pleased or flattered . Truth can only be sought by free men. It is beyond the grasp of those who seek to please the elders by their dependent conformity .

I wonder if this is not the essential tragedy of Watergate. The highest levels of elective and appointive government brought in boys - bright boys, attractive boys, but boys none the less. The boys w re not given books and balances and a chan e to grow up in pursuit of truth, but were in tead encouraged to conform and

dependently please their elders. Such boys will be boys and never free men. Equally tragic are the leaders who did not wish to deal with the imagination and creativity of free men, but were content with the dependent conformity of boys.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn makes abun­dantly clear the ri sk any government takes with a free man . Solzhenitsyn knows of books and balances and the insistent demands that come with a vision of truth . I do not wish to romanticize or sentimen­ta li ze this man. I am aware that Solzheritsyn is a lirt1ited, finite, mortal man, but it seems to me that his truth-illumined life shines hopefully in a darkened world .

I suppose that a Latin scholar will one day rewrite the co ll ege motto so that it includes girls as well as boys, but I hope profoundly that the books and balances remain along with the insistent demands of the search for Truth, for with these tools free human beings are developed. Such persons who will dare to live truth-illumined lives are our best hope against the dark f loods of the Watergates of this world.

Olympic torch . to soar agam !

tConei.nued f,om p. l}

SpF-ing-t~ flagpole near th college annon wa ncircled in rubber tires

extending half way to the top, where a bust of a woman had been placed. That wa the year five women graduated cum I au de.

The tires went up uncut. The grounds er w, qua l to the challenge, got them down that way.

There was one prank so beautiful that th dean and treasurer insisted it remain for the rest of the year.

That wa a splendiferous Gulley Jimson mural depicting creation on the window expansion of Key. It was executed, among others, by James R. Mensch, now a fa ulty member at the St. Johns Santa Fe campus.

There hasn't been a co llege variety show since "The Perils of St. John's" was produced in the mid-60's, but one musica l cla sified as the senior prank, "Trial by Johnny," harks back to them and is remembered as a particularly clever affair. Based upon Gilbert and Sullivan's oper­etta, it had music composed by Thomas R. Ascik and a libretto by J. Randolph Campbell and Marcia Ann Clemmitt.

Two weekends before commencement, Reality Weekend is held. A celebration of Spring, one student cal Is it, the weekend is marked by such events as a Sophistry Contest, a kind of debate, and a dance the first evening. The Rea l Olympics, mock games, are held the second day. After 24 exhausting hours, Reality Week­end customa rily comes to a close with a campus-wide, outdoor barbecue.

The debate concentrates on such topics as " Is truth a woman?" or " Is the one good for anything other than itself?" The winning team is determined by applause.

The Real O lympics themselves begin when the Olympic torch is carried from City Dock to the campus, sometimes to the accompaniment of guitar and banjo music of students crowded into the col lege truck . Usually so me of the part1c1pants running along beside the truck are in costume, Greek or in attire symbolic of Spring or otherwise, with flowers in their hair.

Once on campus the torch is placed in the tripod and lighted with the Rev. J. Winfree Smith, a St. John's tutor, making a brief speech in Greek, sometimes quoting from the Iliad or Herodotus' History.

Traditionally it does not rain . On one occasion it did, but an invocation to the gods to ca rry away the clouds by Former Dean John S. Kieffer worked, and the rain di ss ipated.

The games and contests are~

Miss Sophrosyne contest: Named for the god of Greek temperance and open to both sexes, this contest selects its title holder usually for being a great campus favorite or for characteristics intemperate in nature. Pulchritude is not a factor.

El lipsoid Hurling Contest : This is a contest in which partners line up in parallel lines, throwing eggs to each other. As teams successfully catch them, they move apart to greater distance and continue until it is determined which team has caught the most eggs.

Epicycle Race: A game borrowed from the Ptolemaic, earth-centered astronomy, this race is performed by teams of three students representing the earth, Venus and the center of a circle ca lled the epicyc le. The earth remains stationary, and the epicycle's center, to which the earth is attached by a rope, revolves eight times around the earth while Venus, at the end of another rope, revolves five times around the epicycle's center.

The winning team is the one complet­ing the revolutions in the shortest period of time.

Chariot Race: Students race in this one on bicycles, children's wagons or by other means.

Myth of Sisyphys: This game takes its name from a legendary king of Corinth condemned to roll a heavy stone up a steep hill in Hades only to have it roll back again as it nears the top. Students push balls up an embankment with their hands behind their back.

Liquid Slide: This is a slide performed in bathing suits on a piece of plastic which has been hosed down. Students attempt to slide as far as they can, but not so far that they ram into a waiting custard pie at the end of the plastic .

Salamis Water Battle: Taking its title from a battle recorded in Herodotus, this game involves students taking to College Creek in small boats. A greased water­melon is thrown into the water, which participants attempt to rescue and bring back to shore secretly without being caught in the act and having their boat overturned . The person who brings the watermelon to shore wins.

Spartan Madball: "This is considered the most brutal game played at St. John's," one alumnus, who takes part each year, said. "There is only one rule : no one is permitted to kill another player." A volleyball or soccer ball is thrown up and somehow it must be ca rried to a goal. It's parti cu larl y a man's game and has been known to involve as many as 120 persons.

I

APRIL 1974

Student aid seen facing gloomy future

by PAlJL D. NEW LAND Provost

When I was a college student at the beginning of the '40's, students from less affluent families could make it through college if they worked six days a week during the summer, worked at some part-time job during the academic year and got a few dollars for books from the family . This is impossible today. Such a student now must borrow thousands of dollars in federal loans to make up some of the difference between cash-in-hand and what is needed to be paid back after graduation . He also must rely on a substantial grant from the college. The ost of college now versus the early '40's

is ridiculously out of joint. We are presently hearing a lot about

shortages, but one less publicized short­age is the gradual depression in resources avai I able for student financial aid . Pub I ic­ity by state and federal agencies to the ontrary, there isn't plentifu l money for

students interested in higher education, especially in the private sector.

As the price of higher education rises -and rise it must (although the time may be soon coming when we have priced ourselves right into bankruptcy) - aid resources are not keeping pace. And guess who the peopl€ are who are being hurt most by this aid shortage? The hard-taxed, usually law-abiding, unloved, middle class.

A ridiculous example is the new Federal Basic Opportunity Grant program (BOG) . This program was to put $1,400 in the hands of any student who wanted post­secondary education, minus his parents' contribution . Some $122-million were appropriated by Congress, although the administration had asked for $980-million. The idea behind the program was to eliminate other federal aid programs and to put the money directly into the hands of the prospective student so he cou ld window shop freely for a college, public or private.

BlJT HOW HAS BOG actually operated? First of all, it is being administered by colleges without compensation . The maxi­mum award for freshmen only is $452 instead of $1 ,400. The student must be near the poverty line to qualify, and it appears that less than half of the $122-million will reach students th is year. Nevertheless, other Federal programs were cut drastically to fund BOG. St. John's received only 51 percent of its approved request for National Direct Student Loan Capital, and 47 percent of funds approved for Supplementa l Educational Opportunity Grants. As a result, 3 St. John's students received a total of $452 in BOG money, replacing the $4,925 cut from the SEOG request. This is some trade!

Federal funding gets more and more like Alice in Wonderland. Nixon's 1975 budget includes $1.3-billion in Basic Opportunity Grants for needy students. The administration says this would assist about 1.6 million students with grants up to $1,400, but it won't do anything for the student from the middle-income family. Further, the budget would eliminate such urrent aid programs as direct loans under

the National Defense Educational Act and Supplemental Opportunity Grants. The elimination of both programs would be a serious blow to St. John's.

Many states have adjusted state scho lar­ships downward for low income students this year in expectation of BOG replace­ment - and may we ll do the same again n xt year. We are fortunate in Maryland to have more enlightened government officials, and they are presently reviewing this whole situation . Hopefully there not only will be more funds made available to us shortly, but there will be no restriction on distribution .

A couple of interesting side effects hurt the middle-class students even more than the Federal cut-backs. The first is a omplete change during the last year in

the Federal ly sponsored student loan program run by each state. Formerly, any student whose family had a net taxable

income of $15,000 or less cou ld borrow up to $1,500 on top of all other aid, with a Federa l subsidy of the interest. The new system take off the income ceiling, theoretically making loans more avai lable, but limits the student to an amount no greater than his need as measu red by standard ana lysis after all other aid. As a resu lt, what was a loan of discretion fo r the fami ly to replace parents' contribu­tion, is now limited to a loan of unmet need as determined by someone other than the student's family .

ALSO, THE BANKS have quite reason­ably become conservative in granting these loans. After all, who wants to lend up to $6,000 to a 19 year old with no credit rating at 7 percent guaranteed interest for up to 20 years when the prime rate is over 9 percent and going up? Federal officia ls estimated in December that the student guaranteed loan program was down in volume by about 40 percent nationall y due to the new rules and the pressures of the economy. That, my friends, is troub le, trouble in that Federal and state funds are not keeping pace, the loan market is drying up, and it looks like a student aid depression is just around the corner.

The college has been reasonably suc­cessful to date in generating additional funds, thanks to the generosity of alumni, parents, friends, foundations and corpora­tions .

Most of the students at St. John' College are still making it, but only just barely . If you visit Annapolis for a few days and eat out, chances are tha on of the waiters or bartenders serving you wi ll be on of ou r students . But it is pretty difficult to earn in excess of $4,000 for a year of school just working during the summer and at odd jobs during the academic year. As a r suit more than 35 percent of the students at St. John's get some kind of financial aid at the present tim No student at St. John's College ever gets more aid than he needs, but many get less.

Nevertheless, although our students are making it now, there are rea l dangers in the future. The college wants to continue to attract the best students, regardl ss of their financial resources, from a cross section of society . But higher costs and stable or shrinking financial aid resources

ndanger the goal of a cosmopolitan student body, and particularly threaten the middle-class student.

Th re are many congressmen who are aware of this problem . Congressman O'Hara, chairman of the House Sub-Com­mitte on Higher Edu ation, is holding hearings to try to make Federa l legis lation more responsive to the needs of all . Also, the Co llege Scholarship Service, a national agen y which analyzes family need for most colleges, has recalculated the ex­pe ted parent's contribution tables for 1974-75 in a way which treats the midd le-class more equitably . But it is not enough .

ALL IN ALL, TH E financial aid "depres­sion" is as real as the increase in college costs . Up to now, with few exceptions, every student at St. John 's has had his full need met if he gets any kind of aid at all, and certain ly no student shou Id ·be discouraged from applying to the college because of cost considerations. But the future is fraught with prob lems un less the state and federal agencies are more realistic in legislating financial aid to students.

So, we ontinue to worry a lot, but with a large level of hope that the administration and Congress will see the tota l student aid problem and act accordingly.

We hope you wi ll be a persuasive voice in helping with this most urgent matter by writing to members of Congress and, for thos of you who live in Maryland, to your representatives in the General Assembly.

TH E REPORTER PAGE 3

Eva Brann: The broad plane

Meet Eva Brann, St. John's tutor, universal student, expert on the pottery of ancient Athens, who represents, as much as anyone, what teaching at St . John's is all about.

Miss Brann came to St. John's in 1957 as a full fledged and important archaeolo­gist and scho lar of classics. Since then, she has mastered, in the most I iteral sense of the word, two-thi rds of the St. John's teaching program as well as lectured and written extensively on such diverse mat­ters as

Kant, Sir Thomas More, Abraham Linco ln 's Gettysburg Address, Descartes' treatment on the problem of free fall, Newton's Principia, Plato's Republic, the philosophy of education, and the ele­ments of science.

This is in addition to her own handsomely produced, scholarly detailed book, " Late Geometric and Protoattic Pottery," dealing with the 7th and 8th centu ry potsherds of Athens' Agora, the city's mark tp lace.

And it is in addition to the t rans lation from th German of a book written by former Dean Jacob Klein , "Greek Math­ematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra ."

Mis Brann is much in demand in the "outside world," both as a consultant in education and as a lecturer. She helped advi e the staff of Old Westbury Co llege when it was fou nded as part of the State Univ rsity of New York system and last year represented the St. John's point of view at a Washington colloquium on humanistic education .

Sh le tured on Kant at Bo ton Univer ity in February and on the Odyssey at Marlboro College in January, to mention two of her most recent le tures . Because of her work on Lin coln , she has b en invit d to write a pamphl t dealing with the Getty burg Acldre s whi h the Nightingal Conant Corporation, a " human re'iourc s" orpordtion, will issue for one of it s a ett sets.

Thi~ ~pring a book, "Anthology on the Teaching of Philosophy," to which she has c.ontribut d a hapt r, will be published by th State Univers ity of New York .

Her preceptorials - the small tudy groups at St. John's which students elect to join in their junior and senior years -hav in luded those on the pre-Socratic ph ilo ophers, one on the metaphysics of morals of Kant and anoth r on Kant's metaphysical foundations of the natural ciences, one on the utopias, and another

on Thomas Mann's "Magic Mountain ."

MobyDick is on list again (Continut!d from·p. 1)

Reason ' rather than his 'Pro legomena,' and wh n we read Marx we read his 'Capital' rather than his small works."

A rec nt New York Times story reveals that more doctoral theses are written about Melvi lle than any other American writer. At St. John's Kut ler pointed out that seminar discussions of " Moby Dick" can result in radically different opinions.

" The problem in discussing Melvi ll e is whether discussions go off in all direc­tions or whether they settle down and is it possible for the seminar to make pro­gress and to improve during a two hour period ."

"Moby Dick" first was introduced to the great books I ist at the suggestion of the Rev. J. Winfree Smith soon after he joined the faculty in 1941.

" It is one of the most important American novels,'' Mr. Smith said, "first of all b cause it's a good story and second because it raises questions about good and evi l in a unique way."

George Doskow, another member of the Instruction Committee, bel ieves the book for s readers to think about certain questions "serious ly and hard." He said :

" 'Moby Dick' is a profound exp lorat ion of man's position in the universe, of his confrontation with evil, and of isolation and comradeship. It is a quest after meaning in a world which often seems indifferent or even malevolent. A lthough the book does not answer these questions, it raises them in a way which fo rces us all to think about them serious ly and hard, which is perhaps the most important thing books can do for us."

of learning is her domain

A FLUTIST since her graduate days, Miss Eva Brann practices dai ly at her home on Wagner Street. (photo by Robin West)

Miss Brann disclaims any sophistication in the things she studies. Rather, she likes to think of approaching them in the spirit of the college, in a solid but elementary way.

For the St. John's community, Miss Brann is responsible for a special footnote in the history of the New Program. She is the first woman to serve o n t he Instruction Committee, which she did for many years, finally refusing to be a candidate for another term in favor of mor tudy.

This year sh is a member of both the Appointments Committee and the Campus Development Committee. The skill with whi ch she d als with people is as impressiv to h r colleagues as her wide learning.

"She is a v ry, v ry good diplomat," ac ording to her friend and fellow tutor, Beate Ruhm von Oppen .

" Anyone who has s en her at commit­te and fa ulty m etings knows that, de pite h r hara teristic r ticence, she shows an in isivene oup led with a

r nity of mind and tact. And, of course, th r i a great deal of mutual respect -not to peak of love - between Eva and h r students. It takes a genuine interest in students and a genuine benevolence toward p ople to elicit that response."

The turn-about nature of Miss Brann's ar er impresses Miss Ruhm von Oppen . " The really startling and distinguish­

ing thing about Eva is that she has made a complete change from being a very highly regarded archaeologist - I know people at Princeton who are still shedding bitt er tears about her leaving that dis ipline - to come here and putting her should r to the wheel and becoming very

ff ctive." Miss Brann spent a year away from St.

John's in 1958-59 as a member of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Prince­ton getting her book on pottery of the Agora into publishab le form.

A special study currently reflects her great interest in Jane Austen, the 200th anniversary of whose birth in 1775 next year is something which Miss Brann feels, along with the bicentennial, the college should celebrate . Miss Brann seemingly has read everything Jane Austen ever wrote, including some pieces Jane Austen turned out at the age of 15.

" Some of her early work was exhube­rant and not at all lady-like," Miss Brann remarked, her own, mischievous blue eyes twinkling enjoyably.

So rich in friends that she believes that two spar rooms, not one, is the answer for guests at her Wagner Street house, Miss Brann has made a particular friend of th Key School, a private K-12 school in Annapolis, of which she is a member of the board . Not long ago she presented it with her 12-foot widgeon, a boat she gave up because of the extensive upkeep involved.

This does not stop her from sai ling all over the Chesapeake or to Onset, Mass., which she did with students and fellow tutor Bert Thoms last year and which she hopes to do again in June as soon as school is out.

Friends mean a great deal to her, including her neighbors on Wagner Street. (Sh p rsonally loathes the word, "intel-

lectua l," as a word which tends to separate. "A teacher should not belong to a special class. " )

More recent ly Miss Brann has begun to read widely and deeply in American history, in one sense a study which began with her great interest in Lincoln, a president of whom she has the "greatest possib le admiration" and a figure, like Sir Thomas More, who has been the subject of her special study.

" The distance between the two was not so great, " she observed. "Both were lovable on account of their goodness. "

But her interest in American history arose because, with t hree other St. John's families, she acquired a mountaintop in Virginia near Char lottesvil le.

" And I bought a house here," she explained, " and began to look around Anne Arundel County and go on some camping trips with some ch ii d re n I know. The flavor of Maryland and Virginia began to penetrate, and I began to read local h istory."

Her interest extended outward to state and national history and political theory, the latter receiving a major stimulus when Miss Brann sat glued to the Watergate h arings last summer.

Born in Berlin in 1929, Miss Brann came to the United States in 1941, where her family settled in Brooklyn . She w nt to Brooklyn College, " where I got a very good education, " and then to Yale, from which she received her doctorate in 1956, where he was less happy. She took up the flute "out of despair" and by way of onsolation, and she continues to practice

a little every day. Miss Brann taught Greek and archae­

ology at Stanford in 1956-57 and has pent numerous summers in Athens ,

including one summer as a fellow of the American Numismatic Society.

She was in Athens one year, in 1952-53, as a fellow of the American School of Classical Studies, and she also has been there as a member of the staf.f of the American Agora Excavations as a Sibley Fellow of Phi Beta Kappa.

One of the persons whom she met in Athens was a former St . John's tutor, Seth Benardete, who told her about the college.

Since coming here she has taught Greek, of course, all of the seminars, all of the math , the junior laboratory program twice, and next year she hopes to teach a senior laboratory. A lthough she is considered a very musical person, an opinion she does not hold for herself, she hasn't attempted the music. She has audited Douglas Allanbrook' s musical tutorial.

" Music strikes me as the one thing which requires previous training and special talents,'' she said. " Therefore I have hesitated."

One hope she has for St. John's is the start of a new, yearly journal of faculty writings, which frequently are of a cross­discipl inary nature, which would be similar to both the Kenyon and Sewanee Reviews.

When she is not cultivating her mind, Miss Brann spends some time cultivating a small and perfect garden which urrounds her patio .

l THE REPORTER Published ,by

I Development Off ice St. John's College Annapolis, Md. 21404

Nonprofit Org. U. S. POST AGE

PAID Permit No. 120

ANNAPOLIS, MD.

DATE DUE

THE REPORTER APRIL 1974 PAGE 4

Hedeman gives college large Churchill collection

The bulk of an extensive library dealing with Winston Churchill has been pre­sented to St. John's College by an alumnus and Annapolis physician, Dr. John L. Hedeman.

The collection represents some 125 volumes and pieces of memorabilia originally collected by J. F. Douty, of Towson, an authority on Churchill, who wrote reviews for both The Baltimore Sun and The New York Times.

Dr. Hedeman acquired the collection in September, 1972, and retained only three of the books for himself, adding them to his own extensive collection of about a

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ hundred volumes dealing with Churchill

Festschrift comes on 75th birthday

fContinued ff'om p. 1)

the new president of the college, under­taking first and foremost the arduous and necessary task of putting the finances of the college in order.

"For nine years thereafter, until July, 1958, Jacob Klein served as dean. It was a period of consolidation, of strong leader­ship. Nostalgia for a vanished past gave way to a new ethos. The community became aware of itself as having a shaping and stabilizing force at its center.

" In faculty meetings, in meetings of committees, in official statements of educational policy, above all, in lectures to the college community, Jacob Klein articulated in words that were at once arresting yet simple the meaning and aim of liberal education."

Two of the contributors to the essay co llection have died since planning for the Festschrift first began .

One is the late scholar-in-residence at St. John's, Leo Strauss, whose contribution, "On Plato' ~ Aplolgy of Socrates and Crito", was among the final articles he wrote. The other was a lecture by the late St. John's tutor, Richard Scofield, "The Christ­ian Phaedra, or Farewell to Tragedy," who died of cancer before he was able to write a new contribution.

Another contribution was a piece of music for the harpsichord, "Study in Black and White," by St. John's tutor Douglas Allan brook.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS were: Robert Bart, "The Shepherd and the

Wolf: On the First Book of Plato's Republic"; Seth Benardete, "Euripedes' Hippolytus"; Laurence Berns, " Rational Animal - Political Animal : Nature and Convention in Human Speech and Poli­ti cs" ; Eva Brann, " An Appreciation of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason : An Introduction for Students";

Robert A. Goldwin, " The State of Nature in Political Society"; Simon Kap­lan, " Plato in Herman Cohen's Philosophy of Judaism"; John S. Kieffer, "Mythos and Logos"; Samuel S. Kutler, "Selfhood and Self-Consciousness: An Inquiry into Kantian Themes";

Margaret W. Rottner, "Politics and the Constitution"; Seate Ruhm von Oppen, "Bach's Way with Words"; Robert Sachs, " Ptolemy as a Teacher"; Winfree Smith, " Watchman, What of the Night?";

Brother Robert Smith, " Lear and the Story of Eden"; Robert B. Williamson, "E idos and Agathon in Plato's Republic"; Curtis Wilson, "Newton and the Eotvos Experiment"; Elliott Zuckerman, " Four Sketches for a Study of Prosody".

The box holding the papers was constructed by an Annapolis senior, Michael Parks.

Born in 1899 in Libau, Russia, Mr. Klein began his P.ducation in Lipetsk and continued it from 1912 in Brussels and then in Berlin . After graduating in 1917 from the Friedrichs Realgymnasium in Berlin , he studied philosophy, physics and mathematics at the universities of Berlin and Marburg/ Lahn .

IN THE YEARS WHICH followed, he continued studying in Marburg and Berlin, principally physics, mathematics and ancient philosophy.

His extended work, "Die griechische Logistik und die Entstehung der Algebra," was published in two parts in the " Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Mathmatik, Astronomie und Physik" in 1934 and 1936.

The entire work has been translated

into English by Eva Brann and published by the MIT Press under the title, "Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra."

In 1934-35 he became a visiting lecturer in the history of mathematics at the University of Prague. Subsequently, from 1935-37, he was a fellow of the Moses Mendelssohn Stiftung zur Forderung der Geisteswissenschaften .

Exiled from Germany, Mr. Klein arrived in New York in 1938 and through Paul Weiss of the 1Bryn Mawr Col­lege and Mortimer Adler of the Law School, University of Chicago, was put in touch with Scott Buchanan, St. John's dean . He was appointed to the faculty in 1938. His last year of full-time teaching was 1968-69.

His retirement, after 31 years of service, has not been a complete one for he has continued to teach preceptorials and currently has been leading a freshman seminar while Mr. Kieffer is recuperating. He also heads a committee considering re.vision of the St. John's C4talogue.

2nd generation student is here (Continued from p. I)

whose brother, James A. Cockey, is a 1971 graduate.

Miss McKay is the daughter of Mrs. Joan Gilbert Martin, of Santa Cruz, California, and Hugh D. McKay, Jr., of Los Angeles, both of the class of '55.

Another February freshman is Steven Ross, of Alexandria, Va., whose sister, Deborah, is a member of this year's grad­uating class. Ross originally enrolled in September, but because of injuries sus­tained in an accident was forced to withdraw and re-enter at mid-year.

Without researching past years and just by thumbing his way through the campus telephone directory for the current year, Mr. Parran came up with these other family combinations:

Majorie J. Collingwood, sophomore, daughter of the Rev. t.; . Harris Colling­wood, Boston, Mass., '48; Sallie Dobreer, junior, daughter of Dr. David Dobreer, Alhambra, California, '44; Janet Hellner, freshman, sister of Maureen Hellner Rosenberg, New York City, '68; Susan Hollander, freshman, sister of Maureen Hollander, Cleveland, Ohio, '69; Erica Lerner, freshman, daughter of Charles S. Lerner, Bethesda, Md., '53; John Lincoln, senior, son of John L. Lincoln, IV, East Greenwich, R. I., '45, and nephew of C. Ranlet Lincoln, Chicago, Illinois, '50.

James Mackey, sophomore on leave, brother of Susan J. Mackey, '71; Edward Nelson, freshman , son of Charles A. Nelson, Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., '45, and brother of Chr istopher Nelson, 1970 graduate at Santa Fe, and sister of Janet Nelson, '72;

Jody Nesheim, freshman, niece of Wayne Brandow, of Venice, Calif., '65; Michael O'Mahoney, freshman, son of ., Mrs. Marcia Del Plain Reff, of Towson, Md., and Thomas M . O'Mahoney, of New York City, both of '57; Robin Streett, daughter of the Rev. David C. Streett, of Augusta, Ga., 'SO;

Jeffrey Victoroff, senior, brother of C. Michael Victoroff, '71, of Houston, Texas; Theodore Wolff, senior, son of Peter C. Wolff, '44, Lexington, Mass.; and Donna Demac, Annapoli s senior, whose brother, Kenneth , is a freshman from New York City.

which he has been accumulating since 1951 .

Mrs. Marcia Talley, cataloguer for the St. John's library, estimates that approxi­mately half the books are first editions.

Among them are his histories and biographies, including, "Marlborough, His Life and Times," Churchill's account of his ancestor, John. the first Duke of Marl­borough, upon which a recent BBC television series was based.

Along with it is a small paperback by a writer, Malcolm Hay, who takes exception to Churchill's portrayal of both the duke and James II.

" Hay felt the research w;is shoddy and that Churchill purposely had colored the biography in favor of his ancestor, " Mrs. Talley said.

"One of the most interesting is a first edition of 'Savrola,' the only novel written by Churchill," she continued. " He didn't care for it, and he urged his friends not to read it ."

An oddity is a book entit led " The Tragedy of Winston Churchill," published in 1939 after his party was defea ted, a viewpoint oon to be belied by the emergence of Churchi ll as perhaps the greatest leader of the war years.

At the other end of the spectrum is another volume acclaiming Churchill 's sue ess. Written by Cecil Roberts in 1941 , it is entitled "A M n Arose," which, d<'spite the admirab le sentiment it con­tains , was descr ibed by Mrs. Talley as an "awful pot>m."

Of parti cular intl'rP st is a record entitl ed "Churchill , H i~ Life in Photo­graphs," edit cl by his son, Randolph S. Churchill, and Helmut Gernsheim. It traces Chu rchill pictorially from his earli­est known portrait at the age of two to the eve of his 80th birthday on November 30, 1954, when he was photographed receivi ng an enthusiastic ovation from great crowds who awaited him all day outside 10 Downing Street.

One picture shows him laying bri cks, a favorite hobby. He erected a wall at Chartwell, his home, along with a cot tage and even joined a bricklayer's union , the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers, in 1928.

National group chooses Ham

Michael W. Ham, St. John 's College director of admissions and a tutor there, has been invited to become a member of the new, joint committee organized by the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America.

The committee has been set ·up to deal with the training of graduate students to teach. Ham has made a special study of the teaching of mathematics, some methods of which he describes in an article, "The Lecture Method in Mathema­tics : A Student's View. " It appeared in the February, 1973, issue of the American Mathematical Monthly.

Tutor receives her doctorate

Mrs. Wye Jamison Allanbrook, tutor at St. John's since 1969, will receive her doctorate in music history this month from Stanford University.

Mrs. Allanbrook is beginning work almost immediately to revise her disserta­tion , " Dance as Expression in Mozart Opera," with a view toward its publication as a book .

A graduate of Vassar College, where she received her bachelor's degree in 1964, Mrs. Allanbrook also received her master's from Stanford. She held a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship from 1964-65 and was a teaching assistant in music at Stanford from 1967-69.

MRS. MARCIA TALLEY, cata loguer with the I ibrary, goes over some of the books in th Churchill co llection with the collection 's donor, Dr. John L. Hedeman, '43.

(photo by Robin West)

From the Douty co llect ion Dr. Hedeman has retai ned a record of Churchill 's secret spee hes to Parliament during World War 11, a volume ca lled "The River War," and hi first book, "Malakond-Fie ld force."

The latter is an account of a small fight between northwestern Afri can tribesmen and a small outpost of the British Empire, an encounter whi ch originally drew Churchill as a journalist but one in which he personally became involved. His parti­cipation re ulted in his being publicly mentioned for the first time back home in England.

Some of the St. John 's books are in the Churchill co llection because he wrote a preface for them. Presented to the co llege by Dr. Hedeman in December, they are now being cata logued and shelved.

One rare piece which Mrs. Talley parti cularly enjoys is an early Churchill short sto ry, which appeared in the monthly maga zi ne , The Harm sworth MagaLine, in 1898-9. Churchill would have been 24 at the time.

Entitled "Man Overboard!", the story is an account of a man .who falls overboard while in the background a piano and voice are heard in " The Rowdy Dowdy Boys."

The brief story ends this way: " The physical death took hold of him,

and he began to drown. The pain of that savage grip recalled his anger. He fought with it furiously. Striking out with arms and legs he sought to get back to the air. It was a hard struggl e, but he escaped gasping and victorious to the surface. Despair awaited him. Feebly splashing with his hands he moaned in bitter misery

I can't - I must. 0 God' Let me die! "The moon, then in her third quarter,

pushed out from behind the concealing clouds and shed a pale, soft glitter upon the sea. Upright in the water, fifty yards away, was a black triangular object. It was a fin . It approached him slowly.

" His last appeal had been hea rd ."

Passez moi le chou d'Italie, s'il vous plait, Mademoiselle

A group of St. John's students interested in conversational French have organized a French speaking table which meets each Wednesday in the dining hall.

"Our vocabulary runs to food," accord­ing to Barbara Schmittel, Oak Park, Mich ., sophomore, who is reported to be the real energy behind the effort.

"Every week we are served broccoli, " she said. " I'm going to look up how to say it today so we can get on to other matters - mashed potatoes, for instance."

Janet Christhilf, Arlington , Va., senior, who took four years of French in high school and two here, explained how it began:

"At dinner one night Gretchen Berg began speaking French, starting to tell the plot of 'Vanity Fair.' It was so melodra­matic; it took an hour, and it was fun .

"It reminded me that I had forgotten a lot of conversational French and should try it more often . Barbara Schmittel, who is really the energy behind this, sent me a note to say if I were serious about a French table, we should start one."

Miss Schmittel had organized a similar table last spring. The present one is a loosely organized group, one member of which saves a table at 5 :30 p.m. Interested people are encouraged to join, and usually nine or ten students take part. The students hope to encourage tutors

who are fluent in French to join their weekly gatherings.

One side effect, Miss Christhilf said, is that members of the group meet people whom they had not known before. Th e freshman class appears this year to be producing the most French spea king · students, a number of whom have lived in France.

Patricia Joyce to portray Portia (Co·ntimud from p. 1)

upon the cast by hav ing scenes rehearsed individually with actors initially working together in small groups.

Besides Miss Joyce and Mr. Williamson, other members of the cast will be:

Adam Wasserman, Antonio; William Castner, Bassa nio ; Robert Tzudiker, Laun ce lot; Eric Vatikiotis, Lorenzo; Kasha Piotrzkowsk i , Jess i ca; Cynthia Nash , N erissa; Carl Dunn , Gratiana; Lester Silver, Salerio; Malcolm Handte, Solanio; Alfred Mallin, Morrocco; Steven Gray , Arragon; Justin Lee, Old Gobbo and Tubal ; Temple Wright, Duke of Venice; Jean Meiss, servant and mesenger; Peter Buck, Leonardo and messenger.

I