424
heterodox in form. There is no
board of trustees, no president or
other head with constitutional
power to hire and fire, no donor
with a controlling interest in col–
lege policies. A constitution places
all decisive power in the hands of
the faculty. Business is discussed
and transacted by elected boards
and committees on which the stu–
dent body is represented. Though
the superior numbers of the stu–
dents do not give them a control–
ling voice in college affairs, the
fact that they are on all important
governing bodies does mean that
every issue, except the academic
progress of the students themselves,
is discussed and passed on by
them. Within this scheme of gov–
ernment Black Mountain worked
out a 'way of life' which has much
to commencJ. it, especially in its
omissions. There are no organized
sports, no fraternities or sororities,
none of those institutions or
mores
which on so many campuses serve
to prolong adolescence and fortify
Philistinism. Black Mountain's
well-known fondness for lame
ducks has its partial justification in
the fact that its students are im–
mune from the philistine pressures
which elsewhere make life hell for
the sensitive and the weak. Black
Mountain knows few hard-drink–
ing, hard-whoring, jaloppy-driving
hearties and even fewer giggling,
over-painted, movie-starrish, jitter–
bugging girls who spend the week
waiting for Saturday night. The
Bla.ck Mountain 'way of life' is a
way of endless activity scheduled
morning, afternoon, and evening,
weekday and week-end. Instead of
PARTISAN REVIEW
sports there is farmwork, mainten–
ance work, building, typing, enter–
taining. These things go on every
afternoon, and in the evenings a
steady stream of lectures, concerts,
and meetings takes place.
The achievements of an educa–
tional program not dictated by
footballers, rotarians, and oil mag–
nates are considerable. Education
is run by educationists. Further–
more the smallness of the experi–
mental college is a tremendous as–
set. Where, as at Black lVIountain,
there is a teacher to every three
students the advantage is evident:
intimacy between student and
teacher can be the means to the
most concentrated and lively inter–
change that any education could
afford . Where the faculty are a
separate world the students con–
tinue their high-school habit of
avoiding study, boasting of idleness,
and the like; at Black Mountain,
on the other hand, diligence is
de
rigueur.
The good taste of the art
and music teachers permeates the
community. Walk through the
campus any afternoon and you
will
hear a good deal of music from
student rooms, but no musical
trash. Look into the rooms and you
will see a good many pictures, but
no pin-up girls or signed portraits
of Clark Gable. At Black Moun–
tain quite ordinary students acquire
a certain taste in the visual and
auditory
arts.
For the place has always had its
quota of highly gifted and zealous
teachers. Perhaps Rice himself was
the most brilliant; even his enemies
granted that he was an extra-
