Principia College - Sheaf Yearbook (Elsah, IL)

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THE PERSONNEL DEANS Involvement in extra-curricular activities varies with the changing student body from year to year. To me, it has seemed fairly consistent as far as degree of interest though types of ac- tivity have varied. The emphasis right now seems to be moving away from thc dating game and the strictly social event, toward further- ing friendly relationships between men and wom- en resulting from interaction in academics, sports, and service areas as well as the usual social activites. just as other colleges around the nation, Prin- cipia has had its period of searching, evalua- tion, and change. However, having the guide- lines so carefully set up by its Purpose and Pol- icies, Principia has worked from the basis of always maintaining Mrs. Morgan's original con cept of education and its underlying reason for being--to serve the Cause of Christian Science. Mrs. Morgan states in EDUCATION AT PRIN- CIPIA: 'To be progressive, education must con- stantly adjust itself to meet. . . changing condi- tions. Yet it must be possible to establish some basis of operation that will offer an unchanging foundation. ' This year most colleges are feeling a settling in time, a peace of retrospection, quiet evalua- tion and more conservative action. We, too, find a new maturity in the students, an eager- ness to get on with their education, recognizing problems, but trying to analyze and find an- swers WITH the administrators and faculty--a friendly and positive attitude of working togeth- er. A realization that change is the result of progressive thought and action, not instantane- ous, is the prevailing attitude. Marian Wells Dean of Women 20

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'5 .vmvif 114, . .. ic. .iw 41 'NL .W '9 N-A, 4 Q ,pm-an lf We Were to adhere to this standard of striv- ing for excellence here, We would find that our graduates would be COMPETENT and CONFI- DENT in their respective fields: competent be- cause they would have had that demanding type of education which builds skills as Well as in- stills lmowledgeg confident because they would have successfully challenged themselves by ap- plying these skills in practical situations, shat tering self- imposed limitations. It is this type of graduate that Will find himself in the main- stream of civilization, not sitting passively on the periphery. He Will be making specific con- tributions to the development of humanity, learning what he needs to learn as a practicing Christian Scientist to be effective in Working out the world's problems. I would hope that in that way he would rub off hard on these problems and tackle those as a means for developing a spi- ritual toughness that is in fact demonstrated. This will be the course only so long as we strive for pre-eminent excellence.

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'efa-.QNXC mv' ,af if , A THE STUDENT PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT is concerned with student activity outside of the academic area. We are here to support students in any suitable manner as they face college life. We are also concerned with lovingly but firmly challenging student behavior when it is out of step with the community--counseling, disciplin- ing When necessary, and maintaining a continual interaction with quad leadership. It often appears that the student who is signifi- cantly out of step with the community takes up entirely too much of the time of the Student Per- sonnel Department while the 'average' student, who often has special needs that are very impor- tant to him, does not receive sufficient atten- tion. We are attempting to remedy this to some extent by earlier identification of those individu- als who are violating community expectations and by requiring prompter resolutions of their behavior. The majority of our effort should be directed in supporting the vast majority of the student body--those who are in concord with community expectations. Many people have commented that 1972-73 has seemed to be a more harmonious year at Prin than several previous years. Contributing to this, l think, is the recognition by many that confrontation may produce short-term gains but cooperation has better long-term effect, and the recognition that significant gains have been made in student oriented issues through cooper- ative, reasoned discussion - thus, reducing the lure of confrontation methods. Also contributo- ry, I think, is the realization by increasing numbers of students that wide-spread tolerance of actions in obvious violations of the expecta- tions of Principia undermines our collective effectiveness.