Towson University - Tower Echoes Yearbook (Towson, MD)

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THE TOWER LIGHT Two Leaders Is it true that our president is retiring this year? So the rumor passed from one to another of the student body last year before Dr. Tall's retirement was officially announced. Everyone seemed to feel the same regret at lo-sing one who had ever been a source of inspiration and help, but another sentiment quickly replaced the deep sense of loss. May she enjoy that leisure which she has so certainly earned through years of self- sacrificing labor in the field of education. Dr. Tall, a native of Dorchester county, was graduated from West- ern High School in 1891 and took her degree of bachelor of science in education at Teachers College, Columbia University, after having taken the normal extension courses at Johns Hopkins. In 1926 Dr. Tall received her degree of doctor of literature, an honorary title conferred upon her by the University of Maryland. Doctor Tall's position as president of the college was not her first connection with the college, for, from 1904 to 1908, she was an instructor at the Teachers Training School in Baltimore from which she was pro- moted to assistant superintendent of Baltimore County schools. Then she returned as the president of State Normal School. With the exception of the years 1919 and 1920, when she was principal of the Elementary School of the Lincoln School of Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, Dr. Tall has worked untiringly in the services of her own state. The students here at State Teachers College consider it a privilege to have studied under the direction of one who had such sympathetic under- standing and such national recognition as had Dr. Tall. We are grateful for that privilege, and we wish only the best for her future. She is at present living at Cambridge Arms Apartments in Baltimore. In Dr. Tall's place has come Dr. M. Theresa Wiedefeld. For three years she was assistant primary supervisor in Baltimore County. From 1914 to 1919 she served as principal of our Campus Elementary School and then became elementary supervisor of Anne Arundel County. In 1924 Dr. Wiedefeld entered the State Department of Maryland as State supervisor of elementary schools. In 1937 Miss Wiedefeld received her degree of doctor of education from Johns Hopkins University. The sub- ject for her thesis was An experimental study in developing history read- ing readiness with fourth grade children. Our new president comes highly recommended by prominent educational authorities of the state, and she is backed by the confidence of those who have worked with her. She comes to us with awareness of the elementary school problems of Maryland. She has seen us as others see us.', She can help us grow, but only with our 7

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THE TOWER LIGHT What does it matter if you do take your car away from the south parking lot and put it somewhere nearer to the soccer field? You play until nearly dark. You have little enough time in which to reach home for dinner. You are too tired to walk the distance back to the parking lot. Your car does no harm to the grass on which you park it. Other people park there. Why should you leave it where it is inconvenient for you? What does it matter what companions you choose, what groups you join? You like them, you say. They know how to have a good time and they have been kind to you. They can't harm you because you already know good from bad, right from wrong. You needn't do just as they do, particularly when you are not with them. Why shouldn't you choose the friends you like? None of these things really matter much of themselves. The per- sons, individuals and groups whose orders are disobeyed are not hurt, they do not care very much, the persons who pick up and clean up after you do not really mind, they may as well do that as something else, the per- sons Whom you inconvenience may not blame you and they gain op- portunities for exercising such virtues as patience, self-denial, self-restraint, the regulations which you ignore or violate may not be very important in the whole range of human values. But these explanations are not the answer. The true answer lies in the fact that daily, hourly, you are making the patterns by which your own personality is being molded. Each act, each decision, each choice, drops into a permanent place in your nervous system and is woven at once into that great seamless web of human experiences which constitutes your culture. Then you are bound, held tight in the grip of the con- ditioning which takes place as a part of this acculturation. You will be conditioned, that is inevitable. The nature of that conditioning lies in your own hands. The experiences which make YOU and make you dif- ferent from every other individual are spread out before you to choose or to reject. What does it matter? you ask. No stone mason would ask that if he were selecting stones for a wall, no weaver would question the need for a flawless warp, no builder would risk a doubtful timber, no breeder would harbor stock that bore a taint, and so we might run on and on. Each individual is his own builder and the kind of structure he erects depends upon the decisions which he makes when he asks, What does it matter? f 6

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THIS TOWER LIGHT cooperation. Students, let's give Dr. Xviedefeld and our college the best that we have so that her stay here may be counted among the happiest and the most successful years of her life. 35935 Enrollment - September 1938 REBECCA C. TANSIL One needs only to look at the assembled student body on Monday or the cafeteria waiting line at the noon hour to realize that there is a material increase in the number of students in the college this year. A count at the end of the registration period shows that five hundred and fifty students have enrolled for the present year. This is approximately one hundred more than the number registered a year ago. The present student body is divided by classes as follows: Freshmen -- ...................... 213 Sophomores ,..... ...... 1 40 Juniors ,. ,... - ..,.. .131 Seniors -. .- 30 Specials .................,.......... 36 The freshman students have entered from the various public and pri- vate high schools of the State and among the special students will be found transfers from the following colleges: Goucher, Gettysburg, Mount St. Agnes, University of Maryland, Juniata College, State Teachers Col- lege, Farmville, Virginia, Hood College and Western Maryland. Among the freshman students are many brothers and sisters of former graduates as well as several daughters of graduates. These students know something of the traditions of the college and can carry back to their families news of the present college and its activities. Pall f , Z 'iss' , M I g hu' , i Al ' Egg s ,I ' 3