Occidental College - La Encina Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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have taken over a room in Erdman Hall. Their big moment was a share of the Co-ed Hop, celebrated in the Union-. Chairman: Frances Grotthouse. One last group, the lower class women's organizations, attends to the little niceties about the school such as the arranging of bouquets, decoration of tables, lighting of candles, and straightening ofneckties. They have officers too: Florence Williams was president of sophomore, and Ruth Babcock of freshman women. The men students, though organized, do not present as elaborate a program for the year as do the women. Two major events split the year. The first semester fea- tured the stag dinner, and a controversial lecture by Dr. Ira Cross, of Berkeley, on the collapse of Capitalism. It took an earthquake to postpone the annual Men's Day from March 24th to April ZISE, at which time Iudge Harold B. Landreth spoke to a group of awed high school seniors. The invited guests gained their first impression of the school by paying a small sum for their dinner. Aside from these spectacular functions, the A. M. S. is a fairly quiet body. Problems of interest to the men are aired once a week at the Wednesday chapel. Publications make a further division of student activity. Une of the most vital, of course, is the yearbook. This year's annual, as may have been noticed by this time, is one of innovations, Editor-in-chief Helen Dallas has gently shooed away the sacred cows feeding under las encinas. Though it is customary for an annual to Pat itself on the back, it is unnecessary to call attention to the new ideas. Suffice it to say that the book is at bottom individualistic and a departure from the rut, and that should excuse everything. Credit is desired for the various slavies on the staff who did the pick and shovel work. Assistant-editor Marjorie Adams found her red hair of value as supervisor of studio photographs, her task was to scare camera- shy students and professors toward the Martiiu studios. If your face is on straight, all credit goes to assistant-editor Gordon Goodhart and I-lelen Webei', who spent hours cementing photos to baseboard. Iohn Maclnnes, not an assistant-editor, snared the advertising. All writing for the book was done by Virginia Ayars and Paul Iohnson, except for certain obscene portions which were written by the jani- tor who takes in the flag every afternoon. A glance at the annual staff page will show ,many interesting, earnest faces too numerous to record here. Alone more important than the annual, The Occidental appeared once a week throughout the year under the guidance of Ruth Pfeifer, the first semester, and Burns Lee, the second. News, both sport and prosaic, was capably handled by the stafs of both editors, and emphasis on the Big Campus idea was well sustained. 29

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graciously list the committees. Occidental's boasted honor spirit is entrusted to the Honor Court whose duty it is to be suspicious of everyone and so checks up on the honor system every year. Clumsy cheaters are exiled. The selection of chapel speakers is left to a committee which, oddly enough, was instrumental in securing a series of excellent speakers for the Thursday chapels, notably, Harry Carr, William Woolet,t, Dr. Henry Weiinan, Kirby Page, and Clayton Hamil- ton. Talks ranged from the advisability of breaking good habits to a faintly be- wildering exposition on radiation and matter. No one, incidentally, who heard it should forget Clayton Hamilton's talk on the theatre. Une further committee supervises elections and cares for the upkeep and stuffing of ballot boxes. That impulse which makes the men eat at one end of the Commons and the women at the other, accounts for further stratification: men and women are or- ganized into separate groups, subservient, but somewhat independent of the Stu- dent Body. Every woman belongs to the Associated Woiimeim Students, an organi- zation which combines activity with infrequent meetings and no dues. Affairs of exclusively feminine interest make up the year's program. New students were welcomed at the Dove Reception and fashion show, and were subsequently edu- cated as to the functions of the hundred-odd campus organizations at the Proces- sion of Lanterns. The Spring Festival closes the year with a gay flourish, timed to assert the presence of spring, tra la, and to lure prospective students to the col- lege, high school seniors being the guests of the day. The folk dancing and home- grown playlet took place this year before Shirley Haynes, May Queen. Officers in charge of these mad affairs were Gertrude Reeves, Shirley Haynes, Ruth Mac- Cluer, Dorothy Hoile, and Mavis Campbell. The A. W. S., furthermore, takes it upon itself to orient the little freshman to the ways of the campus. This year, their memories -were frightened into a grip on the school songs and Io Triumphe by the Tribunal headed by Barbara Nlorris and Anna jane Chapman. A shade less terrifying, the Sponsors assort the newcomers and provide each with a big sister who tenderly reveals the secrets of Occidental life. There are too many sponsors to permit a list of names at this pointg a glance at their picture, however, shows that they are a select group. Two more women's organizations and we can get on to things of less impor- tance. The off-campus women, suspecting that they were somewhat outside cam- pus life, banded together to assert their right to a share of the college swirl. They have met infrequently throughout the year, principally for quilting bees, and 28

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A difference in the tone of the editorial pages of che respective editors was notice- able. The shift was from right to left. Miss Pfeifer's editorial staff tended toward conservatism while Mr. Lee mustered a parcel of radicals who pondered great problems and hoped, somewhat Wistfully, to pick an occasional fight. The editors ask laurel wreaths for patient Charles Iennings, Ed McNeill, Ierome Hull, Muriel Cuoodhart, Willard Williams, and Allen Daily. The annual embalms the events of a year and the school paper reports immedi- ate happenings, but they are not quite suflicientg for a student desiring quick in- formation on school affairs needs something more detailed and less cumbersome than either. For this purpose, the two handbooks: Frosh Bible edited by Burns Lee and Kenneth White and the A. W. S. Handbook compiled by Vivian Iay. A student who knows everything about the school but still needs information finds her address and phone number in the Campus Directory, published this year by Meb Schroeder and Iohn Mclnnis. Print, however, is not the only means for student expression: quite a large num- ber ofpupils favor the voice. Of these, those who like to sing find the glee clubs a refuge and those who merely like to talk, perhaps with gestures, cluster around dramatics and forensics. Despite the generally curtailed expenses which prevented ambitious trips, the combined glee clubs managed to stray off the campus and confront perhaps more audiences than any previous club. The most noteworthy activity of the music department was the producing, in conjunction with che dramatics department, of Offenbach's parody on classical opera, Drpheus in the Underworld. Neither Mr. Baer nor Mr. Hartley will accept full credit for the presentation, each blaming the other, but it is safe to assume that, except in matters purely musical, Kurt Baer had the more responsibility. Mr. Hartley supervised the singing and directed the orchestra, Mr. Baer acted as the general producer. The performance in the Greek Bowl on May 19th might possibly have been the first in this country. Ar least, considerable difficulty was encountered in securing an English version of the operetta, there being only two copies in the United States. Miich of the play was translated by Baer, who was familiar with it, having assisted Max Rheinhart with its presentation in Ger- many. The cast of seventeen was headed by the versatile leads, Mary Bustos, Fleetwood Jefferson, Charles Hirt, Arthur Buell, Ethel Phillips, and Kenneth White. The costumes were gay in the Baer manner. The season, brought to a dramatic close by Drpheus in the Underworld, go