In Brief ...
THE Great Issues Course this term is hearing a series of nine lectures on the general theme of "A Critique of Values in American Society." Charles A. Siepmann, professor and chairman of the Department of Communications in Education aUN.Y.U., opens the series with a talk on "Values in a Mass Culture." He will be followed by Max Lerner, professor of American civilization at Brandeis University, "Elan, Elite, Ethos"; Dean Fred Berthold Jr. '45 of the Tucker Foundation, "The Values of Reason and the Values of Faith"; Charles Frankel, professor of philosophy at Columbia University, "New Conceptions of Work and Play"; Dr. John Romano, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical School, "Is the Vogue for Psychiatry Affecting Our Values?"; Harold Taylor, former president of Sarah Lawrence College, "Art and the American Experience"; and Philip E. Jacob, professor of political science, University of Pennsylvania, "The Impact of American Values on Public Policy." The final two lecturers, whose subjects have not yet been announced, will be Martin Luther King and Robert Frost.
An oil painting of the famous Diamond A Ranch in New Mexico, done by Peter Hurd, has been given anonymously to the College for its permanent art collection. The 91,000-acre cattle ranch was bequeathed to the College in 1958 by the late Leon E. Williams '15 and was operated by the College for two years until sold last spring to the Hondo Oil and Gas Company of Roswell, N. M.
Mr. Hurd, one of the foremost members of the American realist school, specializes in Western subjects. His Diamond A painting looks down on the ranch from a nearby elevation and shows the headquarters building against a sweep of land. One of the three mesas in the distance is the Wagon Mound, which resembles a covered wagon and is one of the landmarks in northeastern New Mexico. In its early days the ranch was owned by Burton Mossman, frontiersman and founder of the Arizona Rangers.
In his annual Baker Library report for 1959-60, Richard W. Morin '24, librarian, disclosed that 17,000 volumes had been added, bringing Baker's total at the end of that year to 783,942 volumes. Total recorded circulation, exclusive of reserve books (used for class assignments), was 138,000 volumes, an increase of 6% over the previous year. Borrowings by students rose by more than 7%. The report noted that compared with figures of ten years ago, student circulation was up 62%. Also considerably higher than ten years ago was the cost of books, periodicals and binding - up from $57,000 to $120,000.
Mr. Morin reported that the space problem was relieved during the year by the construction of two stack levels in both the west court of Baker and the court separating Baker and Carpenter. These additions provided new space for the shelving of approximately 90,000 books. The pressure for seating space for students continues, however, and every effort is being made to increase the number of study spots "within the limitations imposed by the existing walls of the building."
