Florida Southern College - Interlachen Yearbook (Lakeland, FL)

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pa Florida Southern College basks in a warm sun the year ' round, and an orange-scented breeze drifts about its organic structures. This is a scene of the Deep South. But the campus of Florida Southern is not the Deep South. It is the South, the North, the West, and the Mid-West. It is the Caribbean and the Far East, the Pacific and Northern Europe. It is the world, united. Its voice is the soft and melodious drawl, the clipped and rapid vernacu- lar, the strong and ringing twang. Its words are youthful and eager, hesitant and stammering, learned and pompous. It is the voice of young anticipation, of bold confidence, of a sudden spirited awareness of the newness and fullness of life. It is the voice of the traveled veteran, of the bored resident, of the sojourner, or of a stranger in a bewildering new land. Florida Southern ' s culture is a living, moving, changing thing. It is not static, for it is nameless and numberless. It is the heritage of colonial plantations and covered wagons on the western plains, yet it is as new and vigorous as the sidewalks of New York and the scream of the jet plane. It is as hard as a New England hickory nut and softly pliable as a Georgia peach. From the rice paddies of China to the beaches of Key West it gathers its ideas and customs, slowly absorbing and slowly disregarding. At Florida Southern the ideal of one world is becoming a reality. Students from many nations, with many diverse mores, hopes, purposes, ideologies and goals are assembled here. We do not understand the ways of each culture and nationality represented here, but we are learning vo. They do not understand us, but they are learning to. They are becoming we. We are all becoming one. The Fisher Memorial Temple, an imported Hindu shrine topped with a cross, symbolizes our almost universally common characteristic. It stands in the Garden of Meditation as a reminder that we are one people under j God. The temple, given to the college by Dr. Frederick B. Fisher, is al symbol of his matured belief that whenever the spirit of Jesus Christ was ■ truly represented, it would magnetize all people and all religions. He spent most of his adult life among peoples of other races and religions, preach- ing tolerance and understanding in a world of confusion and conflict. On the eve of ' Polk County Brotherhood Night, Dr. Spivey, presidenj of Florida Southern College, uttered this appeal: At this annual affair, manifest our practical interest in an idea and ideal, without which tk world can never attain either the expressed will of God, nor the d p yearning of men of good-will. Unless we have a united nation, we riall never be able to have a United Nations and, beyond that, the universal regard of each notion for all nations, all nations for each, community for community and man for man. Only through action can we bringrfibout understanding between the races and creeds which make up our b»loved land. If we in the United States can set this example, we shall deserve the leadership we owe to a world now in a nightmare of upheaval. Dr. Spivey has taken direct steps to encourage students hod foreign lands to come to Florida Southern. The brotherhood or more than a dream and it is being proven here. It is a slow bt painful process. We are learning to be brothers of the world. Twenty-one flag poles line the J. Edgar Wall water dome on €he west campus. Twenty-one flags of different nations grace these poles orl special occasions, such as Founders Week. The flags fly as a salute to th many nations represented here. Florida Southern flies them in pride — ptde in being an instrument in the making of a world united in understanding ond brotherly love. ! I

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DEDICATION This 1953 Edition of THE INTERLACHEN Is Dedicated Affectionately to DR. SAMUEL GWYNNE COE Professor of History and Political Science who for twenty-seven consecutive years has shared his wisdom and the rich- ness of his experience with our College and Community. As an outstanding authority in the fields of History and Government, particularly of the United States, he has made the past live vividly, objectively and constructively for hosts of young minds seeking enlightenment and inspiration. His professional and patriotic qualities are symbolized appropriately by the names of the two great seats of learning where he, as a student, sought the enobling gifts of Minerva, the Universities of Washington and Lee, and Johns Hopkins.

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