By Maegan Clearwood
Editor-in-Chief
In case you haven’t noticed from our masthead every week, we’re an old newspaper. Back in 1930, we were a skimpy, biweekly four pages. We printed cigarette advertisements, used words like “pupil,” had a mostly male editorial staff and even covered football games (yes, we had a football team). We’ve come a long way since those golden years, but looking back at our online archives, we realized something: We’re proud of our old Elms. Even when our pages were more advertisements than copy and during those off years when typos littered the front page, we’ve had a tradition of, quite simply, doing our best.
So in honor of our Elm predecessors, we’re going to run a weekly feature column called Elm Roots. Read and enjoy as we dig back into the olden days of Washington College campus life.
80 years ago, Oct. 8, 1932
• The third mamouth Eastern Shore celebration of this year will be held in Cambridge on Armistice day, November 11th.
This celebration follows the George Washington Bi-Centennial and Washington College 150th anniversary celebration held on the college campus and also the city of Salisbury’s celebration of its 200th annivesary.
1932 being Bi-Centennial this year, floats showing important events int he life of George Washington will predominate in this number of the annual Cambridge Armistice celebration.
• The Maroon and Black of Washington College stack up against the Mutes of Galluadet College, this afternoon at Washington, D. C. This team will offer about the weakest opposition that the Shoremen will encounter this season, and nothing less than a victory is looked for.
Coaches Ekaitis and Kibler were greatly disappointed at the showing of their pupils in the early part of the Hopkins game last week. The week witnesses the efforts of the mentors to impress upon the football team the importance of getting the jump on the other team, rather than to realize that such is necessary only after too much damage has been done.
• Dancing lessons were began for the benefit of the Freshmen boys in the Gym at 12:30 P. M. Tuesday, Oct. 4, under the direction of Miss Bell, Physical Education Instructor for Women.
Every year the Cotillion Club sponsors these lessons and Miss Bell is put in charge with many of the girls as willing assistants.
• At last Monday’s Assembly, Mr. John E. Davis, who is a graduate of Washington College and Senior Athletic Director of the U. S. Veteran’s Hospital at Perry Point, gave a most interesting talk on insanity and the way it affects the human mind.
He described the common aspects of this dread disease saying an insane person lived for the most part in and by himself, and that he usually made no effort to come down to reality.
He told how it was often possible to get these poor people started on the road back to normalcy by coaxing them into playing some physical game where they get in touch with “things as they are,” and so often dispelled at least a certain degree of their delusions and elements.
45 years ago, Oct. 13, 1967
• Approval has been given by the Buildings and Grounds Committee of the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors plans for a proposed $1.3 million dollar library to be constructed on the present site of Cain Gymnasium. Formal proposal will be submitted to the governing board at a meeting to be held October 21 (sic).
The new library was designed by J. Russell Bailey, a famed library architect. The capacity of the new library will be 165,000 volumes, as opposed to the 85,000 volume capacity of the present Bunting Library. Seating will be provided for 300 readers, or 40 percent of the projected 750 student body.
… Other features of the new library, which will have three floors, include air conditioning throughout, indirect overhead fluorescent lighting, over 100 individual reading and study carrels, each by a window, and provisions for possible electronic connections with other libraries.
• This past week the 1967-1968 version of the Washington College Cheerleading squad was selected. This year, because of the scarcity of girls trying out, all of last year’s team who desired place were given automatic berths on the squad.
• Homecoming 1967 festivities will begin Friday night at 6:00 PM in Hodson Hall with a special Eastern Shore dinner. Fraternity pledges will serve the dinner; sorority pledges will decorate the dining hall.
The freshman class is preparing a bonfire for the pep rally to be held at 8:30 PM behind Russell Gymnasium. The coronation of the 1967 Homecoming Queen will also be held at this time. A torch-light procession will lead the crowds to The Elm where the Republican Club is sponsoring a Folk Concert.
30 years ago, Oct. 15, 1982
• At some time between 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 5th, and 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 5th, and 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 6th, two car stereos were stolen from two cars parked in the new dorm parking lot. On Sunday, October 3rd, a portable TV/radio/cassette player unit was stolen from 212 in Queen Anne’s House. These burglaries are unfortunate, but the problem has not been too serious at this school according to Jim Quinn, the Director of Campus Security. “In fact,” says Mr. Quinn, “this is the first major robbery from a car since I took the director’s position two years ago.”
• Although not officially sworn in as WC President, Douglass Cater has nevertheless been hard at work on new projects and proposals for the coming year. One of these, which he considers worthy of note is a new activity, currently known as the “President’s Forum.”
Tentatively slated to being in January of ‘83, this progrm (sic) is based on an idea initiated totally by Mr. Cater himself. Under it, a specially selected group of students will gather informally at Hynson Ringgold House on various Sunday evenings throughout the year. There they will have the opportunity to meet and talk with special guests of the president.
• Roy Strang, a commuter student at Washington College, has been teaching the martial art form of Taekwon do for about five years. On the world register he is ranked as a second degree black belt. This fall semester he and a local lawyer Jim Elder, are organizing a class for interested students on campus. Jim Elder is soon to take the test for his first degree black belt. Both men are competent trainers and martian art enthusiasts.
• The Sophie Kerr Committee of Washington College will present a lecture on Irish novelist James Joyce by Mr. Alf MacLaughlin, former Director of the National Library of Ireland, on Wednesday, October 20, at 4 p.m. in the Sophie Kerr Room. This is the second in a series of events in celebration of the Joyce centenary.
15 years ago, Oct. 17, 1997
• QVC, a televised shopping network that reaches 62 million homes, will come to Chestertown, Maryland, for a 3-hour broadcast, live from the campus of Washington College on Sunday, October 19, from 2 to 5 p.m. The broadcast will be open to the public with free admission and will feature Maryland businesses and their merchandise.
The station also plans to be present for the Legacy Weekend Parade, which will wind its way from the Benjamin A. Johnson Lifetime Fitness Center through campus, ending at Harford Hall. The filming of the parade will be considered for national broadcast on QVC.
• Due to the recent attention that race distinction has received on Washington College’s campus, the SGA held a structured discussion on Wednesday, October 15, to identify issues and concerns and to propose solutions. The gathering included a small group of student leaders and speakers as well as others who had concerns about the relationship between the different races that populate the college.
“Anyone who is here tonight who doesn’t know that there is a problem with race relations,” Johnson said, “is lucky not to have seen some of the things that have been happening.”
He related a scene that took place outside the SGA office in the Student Center in which a small group of white students saw a large group of black students using the equipment. According to Johnson, the white students turned on their heels and left the Student Center without even descending the steps.
“It could have been perceived as something other than racism at that point,” he said, “but then I watched it happen four more times with other white students.”
• If you happened to sense a lot of hostility in the air last Friday evening, you sensed correctly: the “Someone Hand Me A Loaded Gun” reading took place in the Lit House that evening.
The theme was left open to interpretation for those reading, but freshman Dustin Poms, the reading’s sponsor, generally got the same response. As Jon Shank, one of around 30 who attended the reading, commented, “Themes varied, but it seemed that some murderous intent lurked in each piece.”
• The Honor Board heard a case on October 2 involving an alleged breach of the Washington College Policy regarding unregistered parties and the Washington College Policy on Abuse of Alcohol. The student was found guilty on both counts.
The penalty consists of an Official College Warning, which is a formal notice given to a student whose conduct is below standards of good behavior. The next offense will cause the student to be placed on disciplinary probation or to be suspended from the College. Futhermore, in accordance with the Student Affairs Office, the student must organize and give a formal presentation on the dangers of alcohol and binge drinking.