United Colleges - Vox Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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A Message from the Honorary Editor THE VOICE OF UNITED COLLEGE By PROF. R. M. STINGLE TN a letter to his family in 1939, David Cotting- ham (United ’42) wrote: VOX comes out next week. I have a couple of poems in it. Beattie’s story that won the Chancellor’s Prize will be in it, also a storv by John D. Hamilton. . . . There is also an article by J. S. Woodsworth, who was senior stick of the college in 1896. . . . Surely this casual note defines the function of the college magazine, which unites the genera¬ tions of the College in the timeless world of creative exDression. This antiphon of the genera¬ tions was heard again in 1940, when Cotting- ham’s story, The World Is Waiting , appeared in the same issue with Dr. W. J. Rose’s article on Poland, in which some of the world problems awaiting Cottingham were analysed. Now, in this issue, Dr. Rose is speaking again through VOX, both as a graduate (Wesley ’05) and as a member of the faculty. And interweavin? these are many others, such as Gerry Riddell and Frank Pickersgill. It is fitting that yet another graduate, Dr. E. P. Scarlett (Wesley T6). should be renresented in this issue by a study of the central core of the Humanities, a fiery core that must have been the beacon for the man who came to be called “The Conscience of Canada”, for the young poet who was killed at Ortona in 1943, and for the distinguished scholar who has returned with so many gifts for his Alma Mater. I know how much that light meant to Gerry Riddell, who was senior tutor at Victoria College, before going on to become, so appropriately, Canada’s Ambas¬ sador to the United Nations. And I have shared, with many others, a renewal of faith in the values of the Arts College in reading Frank Pickersgill’s letters. Dr. Scarlett identifies the light relating these men together with the “invisible sun” of Sir Thomas Browne, that sun which Solomon saw burning in the soul of every believer, and which Christ described as proper to his own nature. Though ultimately of the soul, this sun is fed by reason, and thinkers like Plato, who preceded Christ in time, though not in Creation, help build the City of the Sun. Students presumable are striving to create that city, a city set apart from, though not with¬ out influence upon, that other world waiting outsaide, a world too often one of “telegrams and anger”, of incompletion. For make no mis¬ take, the real world is here; the other world is a fumbling attempt to realize in time and space the perfection of religion, art, literature, and philosophy. Then, if the students are doing their duty, and if VOX is truly the voice of United, this magazine will be a source of building material for the City of the Sun. With the platitudes of the guest speakers at my own graduation still clanging in my ears, I cannot, with any sense of comfort or of gravity, urge you to keep the faith with Dear Old Ivy College. Strident assertions of values and stand¬ ards are perhaps the shortest way to destroying them, and though the times may indeed be por- tentious, they do not excuse our being so. I feel especially vulnerable, therefore, in striking the theatrical pose now recognized as the charac¬ teristic stance for members of the English De¬ partment when they discuss VOX. But I am willing to be caught in the rather graceless pos¬ ture of daring to be a Daniel if it means stating yet once more that this magazine should be more than a Year Book; it should be the voice of creative thought, speaking from the past to the future of this College through its present. Without doubt the chronicle of physical activity, on the dance floor as on the basketbali floor, has a value, and such activity plays an integral, though subordinate, role in college life. If we could return to producing monthly issues, or even to the later practice of issuing three issues per year, and pay for them from student fees, we could devote the final copy to such a chronicle. But with only one issue, we should 7

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STUDENT COUNCIL Seated: Joan Black, Audrey Sampson, Dale Gibson, Joan Kergan, Betty Jean Neely, Audrey Backus. Second Row, standing: Barbara Warren, Bunny Seneki, Ruth Hambly, Lee Patterson, Janet Scott, Marilyn Townsend, Lilia Eyelands. Third Row: Glen Mackenzie, Bill Hickerson, Thom Murray, John Clarkes, Jim Strachen, Barry Day. Fourth Row: Roland Rivalin, John MacDonald, Paul Magel, John Klassen, Dave Blostein, Garth Nelson. STUDENT COUNCIL 1953.1954 Honorary President . Senior Stick . Lady Stick . Secretary . Treasurer . Assistant Treasurer . Sr. U.M.S.U. Rep . Jr. U.M.S.U. Rep . Brown and Gold Rep. .. Vox . Publicity . Debating ...... Current Affairs .. Building Fund . Athletics . Social . Theatre . St. Coed Council Rep. Jr. Coed Council Rep. . Men’s Club . Pres. Theology . Vice-Pres. Theology . Pres. Fourth Year . Vice-Pres. Fourth Year Pres. Third Year . Vice-Pres. Third Year .. Pres. Second Year . Vice-Pres. Second Year Pres. First Year . Vice-Pres. First year ... Pres. Collegiate . Vice-Pres. Collegiate .... Faculty Rep . .Dr. Pincock .Dale Gibson .Joan Kergan Betty Jean Neely .Bill Hickerson .Audrey Sampson .Jo Morgan .David Blostein .Gordon Thorp .Roland Rivalin .Diana Lucas .Ruth Hambly .Doug Lauchlan .Tom Murray .Ray Tulloch .Janet Scott .Barbara Warren Marilyn Townsend .Lila Eyelands ....John MacDonald .John Klassen .Garth Nelson .Glen Mackenzie .Lee Patterson .Barry Day .Joan Black .Jim Strachan .Audrey Backus .John Clarkes .Bunny Seneki .Paul Magel ...Betty Ann Lyons .Mr. G. Bedford 6

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be unwise to dedicate it entirely to pictures of row on row of academic gowns, formats and gym clothes surmounted by rows of tediously similar heads; in the future, you will not be inspired by such an issue, unless it be to the desultory game of guessing the identity of the curious looking people. Memories of ideas will not fade, however, nor will those ideas change in fashion, if they are basic ones. Those who had read Woodsworth’s early work, or had accompanied Dr. Rose and Gerry Riddell on the first stages of their intel¬ lectual way, or had felt through Cottingham’s and Pickersgill’s writing a deepening sense of the relevance of life, must read their old issues of VOX with a new dimension of experience. And even if our hardy enemies, Time and Death, seem to have triumphed so soon over Cotting- ham and Pickersgill, we know from a few issues of VOX that they had already subdued those foes, by seeing in them intelligible form. And though their deaths are no less tragic, they are neither stifled nor mute. For Shoes That Combine V COMFORT V FIT V FASHION VISIT THE EXPERTS AT MacDONALD 492-4 MAIN ST. Just South of the City Hall For . . . BIRD bring big-job CLEAN COAL know-how to small-job Filtered Fuel Oil building! Consult us before you bulid. DELIVERED IN THE BIG WHITE TRUCK Phone 92-8161 • BIRD CONSTRUCTION CO. LIMITED Sargent at Erin St. WINNIPEG 8