Page 9 - To Dragma January 1934

UNUARY, 1934
McCausland Cup
By ALICE CULLNANE
Beta Phi, Registrar
- + . " W H I C H C H A P T E R wins it?" Anne NichoU
had stopped her busy typing and \Vas
waiting, all attention.
"Psi, with an average of 92.5," I answered
We were delighted, both of us, that a chapter
which has been wo r kin gcacmopnusisstesnhtoluyldtohavpeu
itself to the top on its
by winning the McCausland Scholarship CUD
f o r its work in the year 1932-1933, this in-
centive and encouragement toward the at-
tainment of their goal.
"Lambda, Theta Eta, Tau Delta, and Epsi-
lon Alpha are runners-up, all being first on
their respective campuses," I continued, and
we fell to discussing how intelligent we were
becoming, or whether we were working hard-
er and more earnestly.
A l l of us congratulate Psi chapter at Penn-
sylvania f o r being the first to receive this hon-
or. The cup, graceful and glowing, stands
f o r excellence and attainment in scholarship
and will be their property until December
1934. Perpetuating the memory of Lillian'
MacQuillin McCausland, who gave to Alpha
Omicron Pi so much of her fineness, we hope
that it will inspire them to first place among
other phases of their college life. Two of
their members, Edna Diehl and Estella von
Hagen, are members of Pi Lambda Theta,
honorary educational fraternity, and Vivian
Falk, president of the chapter in 1932-1933,
was graduated with honors.
Certificates, given f o r highest scholastic
averages in each chapter, will be sent to Mary
Schoessler, Alpha Gamma; Esther Blake,
Alpha Phi; Mary Marjorie Carter, Alpha Pi;
Elizabeth Gabler, Alpha Rho; Jean Aiken,
Alpha Sigma; Martha Ann Shepardson,
Alpha T a u ; Grace Parkinson, Beta Kappa;
Yetive Browne, Beta P h i ; Mary Alice Burch,
Beta Theta; Helen C. Henry, Chi; Eleanor
Lloyd, Chi Delta; Geraldine Gothwaite, Delta;
Rosamond W. Kaines, Epsilon Alpha: Ma-
rian A. Douglass, Eta; Margaret Tallichet,
Kappa Omicron; Marjorie Gillmore, Kappa
Theta; Harriett Pillsbury, Lambda; Floellen
Feild, N u Kappa; Mary Eleanor Rodenhau-
ser, Nu Omicron; Isabelle Clark, Omega;
Marie Smith, Omicron; Patricia Woodward,
Omicron P i ; Oleta Markham, P h i ; Mary
Elba Marshall, P i ; Ruth Gilbert, Pi Delta;
Estella Von Hagen, Psi; Evalyn Gilpatrick,
Rho; W i n i f r e d McCargar, Sigma; Ruth
Brace, Tau; Alice Nelson Burton, Tau Delta;
Phyllis Dodds, Theta; John Alice Morris
(Continued on Page -->
Estella von Hagen had the highest average
in Psi chapter. She is associate editor of
"Bennett's News," H A G , and appeared in
"Midsummer Night's Dream."
15
This Bequest
"He a t e a"d drank the precious zvords,
B p His spirit grew robust;
f{e knew 'no more that he zvas poor,
Nor that his frame was dust.
He danced along the dingy days;
And this bequest of zuings
ty'as hut a book. What liberty
A loosen'd spirit brings!"
Emily Dickinson.
t i T H E R E S E E M S to be a rather general agree-
ment that an era in the history of our
country has definitely ended and that Amer-
ican democracy will march henceforth upon
a new highway. Most of the route ahead is
as yet uncharted, but a forward step already
has been made by the provision of more lei-
sure time f o r the average citizen with the
consequent opportunity f o r self-improvement.
* By F A Y M O R G A N , Omicron
Aside f r o m this revolutionary measure, f o r
the first time an experiment in national plan-
ning, affecting the social, economic, and spirit-
ual welfare of its citizenship is being made
by the government under the provisions of the
Norris bill. The Tennessee Valley region, em-
bracing seven states of the South—Tennessee,
Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Missis-
sippi, Alabama, and Georgia, has been desig-
nated as the gigantic laboratory of this experi-
ment, and it is hoped that the results obtained
will point the wray to a balanced civilization
of the future in which mankind may attain
the expression of its highest efforts. Along
with the projects of electrification, navigation,
reforestation, diffusion of agriculture and in-
dustry, regional planning, and various others
of tremendous significance to the entire coun-
try, a definite part of the Valley Program
includes the proper utilization of leisure on
the part of those who are to work in this
national proving ground.
Theoretically, the college s t u d e n t during
four years of travel along the "pleasant paths
of academe" acquires the ability of a trained
mind to make profitable use of his or her
tune. I n reality the opposite too frequently
is true. Off hours f r o m classes are spent in
catching up with sleep lost at some festivity
of the night before or in search of the stu-
dent who wrote an " A " theme the past week
m an attempt to borrow ideas f r o m the pos-
sessor of the " A . " Extra-curricular activities
absorb the time remaining after the daily ren-
dezvous at the drug store. The University
library with its thousands of rows of books
Is a place wdiere one goes on dragging feet
to glance through the most hopeful-sounding
title listed among parallel requirements.
- I f , then, the college student is to emerge
of Wings
at Commencement f r o m this m i c r o c o s m i c
world bounded by campus walls into a larger
universe where life is real and often grimly
earnest, a universe also where a premium is
being set upon the rightful use of leisure time
—in the phrase-of-the-month, "can he or she
take it?"
Any process designed f o r improvement, ei-
ther of the individual or the race, has as its
first requisite straight thinking with a pre-
requisite of accumulated knowledge as the
basis of thought. There would seem to be,
therefore, a dual advantage in learning to use
leisure periods wisely while in college: one
of the original aims of education would be
fulfilled and a better preparation would be
had f o r the business of living afterward in a
world beyond campus horizons—a world which
hails as a "new day" the opportunity f o r self-
improvement provided through lessened work-
ing hours.
And so, Alpha Omicron Pi, holding schol-
arship as one of its tenets, would point the
way toward the most natural employment of
leisure time among its members in college—
reading—not for a purpose but f o r what the
"liberty of a loosen'd spirit" can bring:
AAA"Funnnldddl tfuwgrrneoeiddalidgsieseu,hcnrtofeervdedeieasryewlesdsisetahcsaondudoenflitkrguiinhnegsitm,doaanmgdinsentdoewbblekisiswn, o."n,
The establishment of a library in every A O I I
chapter has been made a national project by
the fraternity and, though the work is still
in the initial stage, the cooperation and inter-
est of practically all groups has been pledged
to it. A few fortunate ones already have the
nucleus of a chapter library. The great major-
ity have none and the idea is new to them.