ALUMNI NEWS - Frederick D. Hill Archives

Indiana Central to Seek
Top High School Seniors
Indiana Central College has an-
nounced plans for a program which
would invite superior Indianapolis
area high school seniors to take a
course at the college as a form of
“educational stimulation.”
Although the college-credit pro-
gram would be open to seniors from
all city high schools, it could be ex-
pected to draw mostly from Short-
ridge High School because of the high-
standard academic curriculum the
school assumes in the fall, ICC offi-
cials said.
ICC President Esch said the crea-
tion of an all-city college prepara-
tory program at Shortridge stimulated
the proposal.
Harry A. McGuff, president of the
Indianapolis Board of School Com-
missioners and head of the ICC
Evening Division, said an informal
poll of School Board members dis-
closed approval of such a program.
No formal action would be taken by
the board, however, until complete
details of the program, such as quali-
fications, schedules and fees are ar-
ranged, McGuff said.
“This could not start before the
fall of 1967, and probably not even
then, because of the great amount of
planning needed,” Dr. Esch pointed
out.
Dr. Esch said the pupils, probably
100 to 200 a semester, would have to
pay their expenses, approximately
$85 a course. However, a partial
scholarship arrangement will be dis-
cussed in the planning, he added.
The high school pupils could attend
classes with college freshmen, or be
enrolled in several groups of excep-
tional seniors. This would depend on
the schedule worked out, Dr. Esch
continued.
The seniors would attend classes on
the college campus. “This has the
two-fold advantage of providing the
campus atmosphere, intellectual and
social, and making college facilities,
such as the library, available,” Dr.
Esch said. The pupils would get
credit and perhaps have a semester of
college attendance later, he noted.
He added that this type of program
has an advantage over programs in
which superior pupils enter college
full-time after the junior year of
high school.
Too often, he said, the senior year
for the bright pupil is boring and
little more than a repetition of ma-
terial from the first three years.
This new way, they would get the
college experience and still do not
miss the important adventures every
high school pupil looks forward to as
a senior, Dr. Esch said.
George F. Ostheimer, superintend-
ent of city schools, said the college
would set the requirements for attend-
ance, as well as fees and schedules.
Thought Provoking Drama
Given
On three nights, March 10, 11, and
12, an unusual thought provokihg
drama was presented in Ransburg
Auditorium. The best criticism can be
given by quoting the column from
Charles Staff, the theater critic of
the INDIANAPOLIS NEWS, written
after the first performance:
“Theater, like love and gold, is
where you find it.
“Tonight and tomorrow evening, it
can be found at Indiana Central with
Professor Lawrence Fisher’s produc-
tion of Samuel Beckett’s startling
“Waiting for Godot,” which opened
in Ransburg Auditorium last night.
“The two-act “tragi-comedy” is one
of the most discussed and least un-
derstood plays of the last decade or
so. Like a complex abstract painting
or a piece of music by Pierre Boulez,
one cannot hope to get it all the first
time around.
“While Beckett undoubtedly plant-
ed concrete ideas and concepts in
every word, action and reaction, the
play, nevertheless, can engage the
viewer on whatever level he chooses,
or not at all. The over-all theme,
however, appears to be man’s un-
happy but ridiculous state. He waits,
filling up the hours with trivia, unable
to get too close to the others around
him who are also waiting, all the
while vaguely clinging to a hope that
the answer will come, if, indeed, there
is one.
“Fisher’s black-and-white set, sense
of movement, cinematic character
touches, feel for the fantastic and the
handling of his students are brilliant.
“Except for a certain stridency in
delivery and forced quality in pacing,
only occasionally, the four young
men, Lynn Kinkade, James Ellars,
Jack Caster and Thomas Tozer, per-
form as if they not only understood
precisely what their director wanted
but also exactly what Beckett meant.
A talented youngster, Gary Burris,
rounds out the cast.’’
1935 Alumnus
Commencement Speaker
Wayne E. Babler, a 1935 alumnus
of Indiana Central, will be the speaker
for the sixty-first annual commence-
ment June 5. Mr. Babler, a University
of Michigan Law School graduate,
1938, attended Otterbein College one
year before coming to Indiana Central
in 1933. While attending the Univer-
sity of Michigan he was a member of
the Order of the Coif and editor of the
Michigan Law Review. After several
years of private practice and teaching
of law, he joined the legal staff of
American Telephone and Telegraph
Company, New York City, where he
worked principally on the first
Federal Communication cases relating
to the development of television. In
1955 he was appointed General Solici-
tor of Southwestern Bell Telephone
Company, in 1963 was elected Vice
President and General Counselor of
Wisconsin Telephone Company, Mil-
waukee, Wis., and in 1955 was elected
Vice President and General Counselor
of Southwestern Bell Telephone Com-
pany in St. Louis, a position which
he now holds.
He is a member of Missouri, Michi-
gan, New York and Wisconsin Bars,
a member of the Board of Directors
of St. Louis Society for Crippled
Children and a member of St. Peters
Episcopal Church. Wayne’s wife is the
former Mary Blome. They have three
children.