The Stetson Reporter

E I I! I THE FLORIDA'S OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER STETSON REPORTER Vol. 79 Friday, March 10,1967 No. 15 AT STUDENT-FACULTY COFFEE HOUR. Students listen as Dr. Casserly and Dr. Eliot Allen dis- cuss their views. This Year's Test March 14 &16 Sophomores Score High In New Testing Program Sophomores will have -an op- tunity to compare their knowledge of general education with other second year college stu-- dents across thc nation when they participate in the sophomore testing program March 14 and 10. The tests will cover English and composition, fine arts and literature, math, natural science, and history and social sciences. They will be administered through the Stetson Counseling Center. "We are pleased to be able to give those tests without cost to all sophomores," commented Dr. George Hood. Director of Counseling Services. "They are on a par with College Boards and Graduate Record exams. Unlike the old sophomore tests, these can give us a better indication of ranking since they are s c orcd national norms based on college sophomores in all types of institutions." Approximately o n e-h a 1 f of last year's sophomores took the new tests and results howed they ranked near the 70th percentile in the composite score. In the subject breakdown, scores for the participants were as fallows: English- 72 percentile:; Humanities- 72 percentile; Math 67 percentile;; Natural Science- 74 percentile; and Social Science-History 77 percentile. Dr. Hood stressed that the tests "not only show how our sophomores rank with other schools but also how well we are doing our job in the classroom. In order to have a reading on the entire class, all sophomore student will be taked to participate in the testing programs." Hood added that explanatory letters would be mailed out shortly. Pierce And Casserly Debate In Spring Focus Should Christianity Be Relevant To Our Wealth-Seeking Society? By BILL STARR Joseph Pierce, a Methodist and member of the faculty of the Ecumenical Institute, said that we were now living in a which he termed "the sick sixties", in which, he says, the church is "not addressing the people in what they want to know ahout life We have refused again to relate ourselves as to what's going on in life" This was the very point of his talk Tuesday night in the Stetson Room. ADDED ON We are not really, living as Christians because "Christian faith is not something added on to life; it is the way life is. . . . Life is a matter of becoming a dead man on behalf of the rest of mankind As soon as you are dead to your illusions you begin to live." He went on to say that "you cannot face that fact until you come to terms with the word that it is all right to be who you are." He expanded this statement to the effect that being a Christian means receiving life as it actually is, to realize that everybody is utterly sustained and loved by God. TRUE CONCERN And when you come to understand this, then the Christian Gospel will set you free to generate true concern for the welfare of your neighbor, to love your neighbor rather than to be concerned over whether you are loved by your "neighbor. You have then become dead to concern of self, and "to die is to live." And, Joe Pierce emphasized, "to be a Christian is utterly a volunteer decision." SIMPLIFIED VIEW? In answer to Mr. Pierce, Dr. J. V. Langmead Casserly, Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, said that he agreed with many of the things his predicessor had said about the Christian faith, but that he thought "the speaker produced a very highly simplified view of Christianity," and that some of the criticisms of the church today are unfair He did agree that, as quoted from the letter of .an Hungarian Communist to a Dominican priest, the institutionality of the Church and the institutionality of the party offend our young people today Dr. Casserly went on to say that in the present age it is not possible, "nor is it desirable to make Christianity relevant, because we would be Live In 3 Worlds - Sign Of Maturity Build 'Sense Of Selfhood' Urges Spring Focus Guest THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS will appear in Orlando Civic Auditorium March 19. Stetson students will be admitted free. See story Page 2. By ANNE M. VITEK "Everything nailed down is coming loose." Dr. Charles Wellborn used this statement from tlie book Green Pastures to introduce his discussion of "The Morals Revolution on the University Campus." Dr. Carter Colwell inlruduced the speaker to his audience, in the Stetson Room at 7 p.m., Thursday evening for the second Focus Week lecture. Dr. Wellborn defined revolution "in terms of highly accelerated pace of change." He said that the traditional, formal codes of morality are going and almost gone, and they have been replaced by operative codes of patterned evasions. "Pragmatic, tentative, operative codes are -replacing the old codes." Life does not come in subjects and curriculm and discovering viable codes is difficult. Everyone lives in three worlds, the biological or natural universe, the social universe, and the moral universe. The ability to live in all three worlds is a true sign of maturity. The present generation, continued Dr. Wellborn, is living in a moral interregnum. The college campus is a distinctive sub-culture and a moral vanguard in American culture. All of the happenings on the campus, he reminded his audience, filter through to the world. Mechanization causes an assault on private identity and moral experimentation is often a search for this identity. In order to participate in the world yet retain their identity. Dr. Wellborn urged the students to be a part of their times and at the same time work hard at building a sense of selfhood Dr. Wellborn's discussion was followed by a brief comment from the Reverend J. V. Lang- mead Casserley and Joseph L. Pierce. making it relevant to the wrong thing s," to a mammonistic wealthseeking society. "Most of the things we want have nothing to c?o with the divine purpose of the welfare of man." Dr. Casserly proposed that the question of concern on the college campus today is "whether our Christianity has got anything to do with truth in significance at all?" This ques- (Continued on Page 2) I CHOIR OF STETSON U. I OFFERS PURE SOUNDS! Editor's Note: This review appeared in The New York Time's of February 8 following the performance of Stetson's Concert Choir in Lincoln Center's Philharmonic HaU. The Stetson University Concert Choir, a weatherproof organization of about 40 singers, gave a concert at Philharmonic Hall last, night. An audience of about double that size heard the young singers from De- Land, Fla. A full house was in order. Led by its director, Harold Giffin, the choir offered highly cultivated singing, groat purity of sound and an admirable program.- Early music by Telemann, Tallis, Schutz and Philips, sung a cappella, was given with balanced sound and careful enunciation. Polyphonic lines came through with case. The balance of the program was contemporary, with first performances of two works that had been commissioned by the university — Halsey Stevens's "A Testament of Life" and Richard Donovan's "Two Contemporary Hymns." "A Testament" is a large- scaled affair, absut 25 minutes long, in which the organ (played by Paul Jenkins) outweighs the chorus as a protagonist. More ferocious singing from the choir would have helped. Mr. Donovan's "Two ; Hymns" are short, simple, graceful and utterly lovely. In general, the Stetson is the type of choir that sacrifices verbal energy and text meaning to purity of tone. Works of John Pow«_', Joseph Goodman and Vincent Persichetti were also heard. THEODORE STRONG!.*. EEKLY CALENDAR) By MARY CURTIS UPSHAW FRIDAY, MARCH 10 SUB Movie "Honseboai" 7:30 p.m. Stetson Room Senior Recital: Burge Searing, Pianist 8:00 p.m. Elizabeth Hall SATURDAY. MARCH 11 Baseball home game: Stetson vs. St. Leo College 1:30 p.m. SUB Art Film Series: "Crime and Punishment" 7:00 p.m. Stetson Room Cellar Door "Discothesque Party" 8-12 p.m. TUESDAY, MARCH 14 Quiz Bowl 6:00 p.m. SUB, Room 204-205 Senior Recital: Ernest Murphy 8:00 p.m. Elizabeth Hall WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15 Quiz Bowl 6:00 p.m. SUB, Room 204-205 THURSDAY, MARCH 16 Quiz Bowl 6:00 p.m. SUB, Room 204-205