PAGE FOUR Published Tuesday throcffh Sat urday mornings inclusive during the University year by the staff of The Daily Collegian of the Pennsylvania State University. Entered as second-class matter DAVE JONES. Editor Managing Ed., Marshall O. Donley; City Ed., Chock Asst. Bus. Mgr., Mark Christ; Local Advertising Mgr., Obertancc; Copy Ed., Chiz Mathias; Sports Ed., Sam Pro- Robert National - Adv. Mgr., Dave ' Burke; copio; Edit. Dir., Dick Rsu; Wire-Radio Ed., Bill Jost; Circulation Co-Mgrs., Prank Cressman, Diane Miller: Photo Ed., Bruce Schroeder; Soe. Ed. Lynn Kahanowitz; Promotion Mgr., Ruth Israel; Personnel Mgr., Patience Asst. Sports Ed., Dick McDowell; Asst. Soc. Ed., Lis Newell; Ltagethuem: * Office Mgr.. Gail Shaver: Classified Adv. Feature Ed., Nancy Meyers; Exchange Ed., Gus Vollraer: Mgr., Jean Geiger; Sec.. , Carol Schwing: Research and Librarian, Lorraine Gladua. Records Mgrs., Virginia Bowman, Francis Crawford. STAFF THIS ISSUE: Night editor, Nancy Ward; Copy editors, A'l Munri, Phil Austin; Assistants, Annie Campbell, Ted Serrill, Bill Snyder, Margie Pearce and Bobbe Weinberg. Ad staff, Steve Wy man, Pat Dickinson. Vacation Quiz Plan: Regrettable Proposal A regrettable proposal designed to limit pre vacation class cutting will go before the College Senate in December. If the Senate carefully considers all ramifications of the proposal, the only recourse will be to defeat it. The proposal would request the faculty to give a quiz in each final class session within 24 hours before each vacation. The quizzes, to be-effective, must have some effect on the final course grade. Such a policy for giving quizzes is unsound. In its haste to reduce pre-vacation cutting, the committee presenting this proposal has obviously overlooked many glaring faults: 1. Such a policy might easily result in every student having five or six quizzes just before a vacation. These, coupled with regular class assignments and perhaps a bluebook, could re sult in detriment to the student’s grades, merely to keep him on campus until vacation of ficially begins. 2. Quizzes are lo test a student's knowledge of the course, not to make him attend class. When a quiz beepme an attendance mechanism, the philosophy of education needs a thorough review. 3. The minority of students classes at vacation time, yet the entire student body is being penalized with this quiz procedure. 4. It is poor policy for the University or any group to ask a faculty member to give a quiz when he may not wish to. This plan, of course, could be voluntary. But that does not remove the point that a faculty member should be al lowed to run his classes largely as he sees fit. 5. It would be quite a gigantic quiz that would weigh heavily on the course final grade. In fact, in some cases it might be a minor bluebook. Six minor bluebooks in 24 hours? The idea of instituting quizzes in these classes proceeds from the proposition that class attend ance is necessary for proper education. And Shot in the Arm Charles Laughton, undeniably one of the out standing personalities in the entertainment world, will be on campus this evening in the second Community Forum, “An Evening With Charles Laughton.” The presentation of people such as Laughton and his wife, Elsa Lanchester, who appeared in last year's forum series, shows the high quality of entertainment that can be brought to Penn State through the Community Forum, Laughton’s talk has stirred considerable com ment through the campus. Many people who have become acquainted with the noted British actor, through the medium of’ television, are anxious to see him in person. He will present a program of readings from American litera ture. In previous years. Community Forum has lacked the support it deserves. This may be due to the fact that the talent presented has not interested the general public. The appearance of such people as Laughton may be the shot in the arm the forum needs. Safety Valve •.. On Changing Lyrics TO THE EDITOR: I noticed in .. . the change of this institution there was some question as to the propriety or necessity of changing the texts of several of our songs. ... I would say that changes are completely unnecessary. As an example, the first line of the "Nittany Lion" was cited where it says—" Every college has a legend—." The word "college" here is not capitalized and ... is simply_ a generic term for institutions of higher learning. Other refer ences to the "college" would have the same interpretation ... There will probably be enough minor details to work out without tampering with our lyrics. —Hummel Fishburn Head of Departments of Music and Music Education • Letter cut Junior Prom Refunds Will End Tomorrow Tomorrow is the deadline for persons to exchange dance pro grams for Junior Prom refunds of $1.50 at the Student Union desk in Old Main. I Hatly Culltgt&tt . S'SEdsTZ'hIHPS I * . ! newspaper. Unsigned editorials arc by the editor. Snccts&or to THE TREE LANCE* eat. 188? inly 5, 1934 ftt the State College, Pa. Post Office under the act of March 3. 1879. —Don Shoemaker Chapel Choir to Meet Tonight in Carnegie The Chapel Choir will meet at 6:30 tonight in 117 Carnegie, instead of 7:30 as previously announced. THE DATLY COLLEGIAN. STATE COLLEGE. PENNSYLVANIA VINCE DRAYNE. Business Mgr. although this may be a widely-accepted educa tional principle, it could be wrong. Few are disillusioned enough to ■ believe all Penn State students are seeking a real educa tion. This is the basis many use for arguing class attendance is not really necessary, since class attendance contributes to the education we all desire. But there is also a realistic side to the attendance question. A student either finds class attendance neces sary to pass the course, or unnecessary to pass the course. If he finds it unnecessary—finds he can pass the course without class attendance— there is not much reason for him to attend. If he cannot pass without he will at tend or flunk. For that student, attendance regulations are not needed. Some will say a student may be able to pass a course without attending class, but could gain more if he attended. This is true. The solu tion to that, however, is twofold: . 1. The faculty member should make his class es interesting enough so the student will want to attend, or 2. The faculty member should make the course so hard that the student would be forced to attend it to pass. There is a minimum for passing, as there must be. If a student can reach that minimum without attending class, why should he be penalized because another student must attend class to meet that minimum? It appears, then, that the whole basis for the vacation absences proposal may be wrong. But even if it is not—even if mandatory attendance is desirable—the plan is still bad. We have become so worried about class at tendance that we appear to be sacrificing some highly important principles. In our haste to keep the student in class, let us try to improve the class quality rather than use a quiz—or other device—as an attendance mechanism. Gazette... Today AMERICAN FOUNBRYMEN’S SOCIETY, . 7:30 p.m. NEW AND VIEWS STAFF AND CANDIDATES, 6:30 p.m., 14 Home Economics Bldg. PENN STATE FENCING CLUB, 7:30 " p.m., North Corridor Rec Hall. RADIO STATION CONTINUITY CANDI DATES, 7 p.m., 312 Sparks. WRA OFFICIALS CLUB, 6:30 p.m., 2 White Hall. STUDENT EMPLOYMENT Students from the Altoona, Greensburg, and Jeanette areas interested in working at home during the Christmas holidays. William Appleton, Donald Bailey, George Biemesderfer, Frances Black, Patricia Collins, Ruth L. Davis, William Detterer, Fred Ernest, David Friedenberg, Marcia Goldberg, Lois Helms, Edmund Lutes, Dean Moyer, Richard Rau, David Schuster, Allene Seltzer, John Shel ly, Merle Umstead, Ruth Wagner, and Edward Yarosz. PLACEMENT SERVICE The companies listed below will conduct interviews oa campus. Schedule interviews now in IX2 Old Main. STANDARD OIL DEVELOPMENT CO. will interview Jan. B.S. graduates, M.S. and Ph.D. Candidates in Com mercial Chem. on Nov, 19. THE YOUNG WOMAN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION will visit the campus on Nov. 19 to discuss opportunities in the organization with interested students. * UNITED AIRCRAFT CORP. will interview Jan. B.S. graduates in Aero. E and ME on Nov. 19. UNITED AIRCRAFT CORPORATION (RESEARCH DEPT.) will interview M.S. and Ph.D. candidates in Aero. E and ME on Nov. 19. TIMKEN ROLLER BEARING CO. will interview Jan. B.S. graduates in ME and Mining E. on Nov. 20. U.S. NAVAL ORDNANCE LABS, will interview Jan. B.S. graduates in EE and ME on Nov. 20. U.S. STEEL CORP. will interview Jan. B.S. graduates in all engineering curricula on Nov. 23. OHIO DEPT. OF HIGHWAYS will interview Jan. B.S. graduates in CE on Nov. 23. THE ATLANTIC REFINING CO., CRUDE PROD. DIV.; DALLAS. TEX. will interview Jan. B.S. and * graduate’ students in CE, EE, ME, ChE, and P.N.G.E. interested in production, research and -field work on seismograph crews, on Nov. 23 and 24. PROCTOR AND GAMBLE will interview_Jan. graduates in Bus. Adm., Liberal Arts and Psychology on Nov. 23. U.S. RUBBER CO. will interview Jan. B.S. and B.A. graduates in lE, ME, EE, ChE, Chem., Bus. Mngt. and Acctg. on Nov. 24. FIDELITY MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE will interview Jan. B.S. and B.A. graduates interested in life insurance selling. Interviews should be scheduled by Nov. 24. Amherson Gets Post Dr. Jean D. Amberson, head of the Home Economics Education department, has been appointed home economics representative from Pennsylvania to the Nation al Education Association for 1953- 54. HOSPITAL an on Campus I tie twdn pwrfe?sow^>^^^ i — ■— _ Great White Way Whispering Gallery i Npt having trodden down the Great. White Way for almost two years, we couldn’t resist when we saw in the New York Times that Jose Ferrer was opening an eight-week drama festival at the New York City Center. The timeless “Cyrano de Bergerac” was to be the first offering. The secret got out and soon we had conscribed a motley crew of Daily Collegian staff members and stray drama enthusiasts to make the trip to the Big Town. Leaving campus Friday night we got caught in an unexplained fog along the way and kept circ ling around a pivot point near Berwick. Finally we got off .our orbit and camped down at the rambling and palatial retreat of our party in Stroudsburg. We stole into New York City the next day in time for lunch and the famous cheese cake dessert at Lindy’s. Deciding we had enough time to catch a Saturday matinee, we forked., out $4.20 apiece to. the scalpers for plain old $3 seats, last minute cancel lations to “Guys and Dolls.” After three years of loud and hoary humor, the play is getting sadly shop worn and struck me as being amazinly unfunny. Iva Withers does a fair job as the brassy dancer at the Hoi Box who's been engaged for 14 years and tells her tale- of woe in "Adelaide's Lament," first pop ularized by Vivian Blaine. Rob ert Alda and Isabel Bigley ("Me and Juliet") have long gone on to something bigger. Norwood Smith and Sandra Hight try hard to be successful replace-' ments. Damon Runyon’s so called char acters of the big city—the mission dolls, nightclub babes, gamblers, and drifters symbolized just so much stereotyped nothing. If one can forget all sense of plausibility and accept “Guys and Dolls” for what it is, a rough, tongue-in cheek musical comedy, it might still prove enjoyable. It is with, none of our own laments that we discovered it will close in two weeks. Nothing irritated us so much as the obviously forced humor, gs in the case of the police lieu tenant who discovers the gamb lers had a crap game in the Save a Soul Mission and replies, “May be that’s what’s meant by holy rollers.” Walking down Broadway and Times Square and soaking in all the bright lights, and cardboard, the penny arcades, and the strange mixture of people pushing to and fro is still an education in itself, but we got tired of crawling through the solid phalanx sweep ing down from 50th street, and couldn’t help wishing that every one would just go home. That evening we trotted off to THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1953 , J | \ c T ct 1 cfa* zr: Am falfar if® IP J-« v - .By CHIZ MATHIAS. dinner at the Russian Tea Room on 56th street, where we became thoroughly indoctrinated with cold borscht, shish-kabob, and even a Moscow Mule—served in a copper mug because it might have dissolved the glass! On our way to. the theater we .discovered a fascinating book store, one of those little holes in. the wall, where all kinds of good literature, is on sale for less, than the list price. Fine reproductions of Cezanne and colorful facsimilies of Toulouse- Lautrec posters hung from the ceiling and could be purchased for a mere $2.98. We spent so much lime browsing that we were almost late for the cur tain. .At the City Center we found ourselves seated in the orchestra about' halfway down the aisle. More than,.3ooo people jammed the theater, but we lost all con sciousness of them as soon as the curtain went up. Mr, Ferrer, who doubles as di rector and star, has produced near perfection in Brian Hooker’s ver sion of the Edmond Rostand po etic drama. From the opening scenes at the. Theater de Bour gogne in Paris where Cyrano fights a delightful, if finally gory, duel, to the final convent scene where he lies dying, “Cyrano” is an absorbing theater piece doused with wry comedy. Ferrer is always the masterful actor as the long-nosed Cyrano. He captivates the audience with out even trying and they follow him humbly from wit to sarcasm to tragic desire without being aware of each step. As the beautiful Roxane, film queen Arlene Dahl is highly decorative, but not quite so emotional as we . pictured the mourning cousin who, learning it was Cyrano she really loved utters at his death, "1 have never loved but one man in my life, and I have lost him twice." Richard Whorf has designed five complete and stunning sets for the City Center production. We were especially impressed with the garden scene where Rox ane appears on the balcony to hear her lover Christian’s roman tic song told by the hidden Cy rano. The highly imaginative set is complete with electric stars,, ar tificial roses, and a pond of water reflecting the moonlight. , By BiMer
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