Haverford College - Record Yearbook (Haverford, PA)

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Personal interaction . . . recorded with electronic computation : Professor Hare tries to repair Ira Reid ' s TV set. ANTHROPOLOGY-SOCIOLOGY Despite the multiplicity of variegated socio- political complexes existent in the world today, the Sociology department was able to cast valuable insights into the resolution of societal difficulties and to provide a conceptual framework in which to envision life. The leader and master of abstracting generality from specifity and couching it in a proper per- spective was the sagacious and erudite Ira ,Reid. An advocate of informal seminar courses, Ira was well-known for his facility with sociological jrfgon and for his startling ability to recall seminal biblio- graphical material. Sociology majors will also re- member the repeated excursions with isiting experts to the Viking Inn and Ma erford Hotel. When the billowing clouds from Smitty ' s pipe cleared away, Haverford had gained a new sociolog- ist. A. Paul Hare, formerly of lesser known Har- vard, brought a rigid and well disciplined neo- positi istic approach and talent for neologisms as a ready source of t|uantitati e method and research design. With his arri al, Haverford attained leadership in yet another area, that of the one-vvav mirror. With the installation in Chase of the largest one-wav mirror in the nation. Dr. Hare created a social laboratory in which he could validate the old adage, seeing is believing. Per- sonal interaction could be scientifically recorded with electronic computation and programming and eventually could be analyzed for predictive and research purposes. Assisting the Haverfordian pedagogues were the scholars from Bryn Mawr. Ably led by Fred- erica de Laguna, their program featured anthrop- ological emphases on cultural development and germane patterns and processes. Among this group was Edward B. Harper, noted expert on preliterates and their religions, e olutionary processes and hu- man paleontology, and the peoples of India and the prevalent caste dynamics. The two anthropologists were joined by Eugene V. Schneider, who deftly revealed the basic sociological perspectives and attended to anv resultant or dysfunctional problems of our dynamic industrial complex. His classes were noteworthv in that they were marked by the aromatic scent of Old Briar, in which environmental conditions only truth could persist. With truth, so went sociology, ' ! Page 13

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. . . the student soon is forced to realize . . . sensed in the mood of an exciting lecture, a re- warding lab experiment, a lively seminar dis- cussion. But often on the other end of the scholastic spectrum is the figure of a student seeking his own special form of Nirvana at Roach and O ' - Brien ' s as he braces himself into a booth with a glass of beer and a well-worn copy of The Abo- lition of Mail before him. Or his good friend who sits at breakfast with an uncut grammar book propped against a pitcher of milk and franticallv mutters German verb conjugations between mouth- fuls of scrambled eggs. The placid front of the ivy-draped ivory tower could lull one into a false sense of security if one were not aware of the world of repeating challenges, impossible deadlines, and overfilled schedules which lies directly behind it. Having made it into Haverford on the basis of some sort of mental prowess, the student soon is forced to realize hitherto untapped sources of cerebral activity within himself. The discovery made, the refining process can move in several directions. It can be channeled into sophisticated bull, or occasionally express itself in genuinely creative productivity. The transformation may change our man at Haverford into an idealist, a cynic, or even a smooth-talking fence-straddler. Whatever the re- sult, the effect will have been felt and will con- tinue to be felt long after he leaves the College. . . . hitherto untapped sources of cerebral activity ' within him- self.

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HISTORY OF ART On a campus dedicated to the inner light, one man remains in the dark and prefers it so. Whene er he appears in a classroom, bearing brief- cases and exotic wooden containers, shades are drawn and lights immediately extinguished: It ' s time, friends, for another illustrated lecture by Dr. James Fowle and his trusty slide machine. The topic for exposition, on or off the subject of cur- rent consideration, may include a look at the art of any time, any place from Cano ' a to cartoons, pylons to Picasso. For Mr. Fowle, things seen are things to be explored. His range of interest is as wide as his field of ision. A modernist by in- clination, he collects colonial antiques, such as his own home. Steeped in the traditions of Euro- pean Art History, a carload of color slides from the Carnegie Foundation converted him to a study of American architecture and painting. Remaining objective in an aesthetic field in which subjectivism is an occupational disease, he has dc eloped a unique ocabulary which be- speaks, diplomatically, explication rather than judgment. When he does e ' aluate the image be- I rom Canova to cartoons, pylons to Picasso . fore you, Mr. Fowle reveals himself as something of a New Critic who judges not the artist ' s personality or his tradition but the individual ohjet d ' art itself as it works on the eye. His sympathetic and open, although disconnected, approach to the art world leads one not to a sense of continuous art history, but to the realization that art is where vou find it. The Biblical Literature department! Few stu- dents make the leap of faith into this depart- ment but those who do look to the authority of two professors: Mr. Flight, who reveals to the remnant his understanding of the prophets and apostles; and Mr. Horn, whose wisdom reveals the myriad problems of religion to pious students (which revelation causes them to squirm in their Mid shrieking drills, and sounds of Horn. BIBLICAL LITERATURE seats and to doubt, spout and bout.) Mr. Flight produces his wisdom from within the bounds of our campus; Mr. Horn weekly spans the infinite distance between New York and Haverford, brief- case bulging with metaphysical paradoxes, ac- coustical illusions, and absolute ideas. These are carefully laid out before his bright-eyed stu- dents to be resolved or accepted as such; seldom are they resolved and seldom are they accepted as such. Mr. Flight meets his students in a cata- comb deep in the heart of engineering territory; three times a week his ' oice can be heard above whining band-saws and shrieking drills. Mr. Horn meets his disciples in a library catacomb, where once weekly his doubting, spouting and bouting students (the only source of heat) can be heard. Occasionally one confident voice is heard. It is that of Mr. Florn calmly and clearly revealing to his bewildered students where they got lost in their own arguments. The knowledge gained bv a Biblical Literature major ? A knowledge of manv nrorilcms bk