Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 29, 1938)
Will the University's Own Tom Mooney Win His Case? Connelly's Last Stand XjriTll spring of his fourth year rolling fast ¥ T away, Gordon M o n t g o in e r y Connelly's chances of escaping the educational gangplank fcccm better than they have for the past three years. Connelly is registered in the campus directory ps “soph; jour.” Translated, this means he is a journalism major who hasn’t received his junior certificate. No story of an athlete who couldn’t )) i,, six terms of gym lies behind Connelly’s failure . to attain the coveted certificate. On the directory’s classification hangs a story—a story which, read in the light of modern educational purposes, seems truly a tale told by an idiot. Connelly enrolled in and wont through his first year of military, receiving grades of “H”. At the beginning of his second year he refused to enroll, applied for exemption on grounds the course was ■not educational. rUls precipitated the famous test ease which saw military retained on a compulsory basis toy Oregon voters. Connelly became a chronic pro testor. The faculty committee on military educa tion repeatedly refused bis petitions for exemp tions. Connelly applied on various grounds, even offering to substitute a course, “Problems of War ■wild Peace,’' for his missing year of military. For the past two terms, Connelly’s chances of exemption and graduation have rested on his ability to convince the committee that he is a con scientious objector. (His first petition had chal lenged tlie educational content of the course alone. > Tiie committee has, without a doubt, been justi ft ■ d in its demurrings. If Connelly is a conscien tious objector, his original petition should have lie Mibmtitcd on those grounds, committee mem ber - believe. ' B 'III?EE years; of protest should, however, con vinee anyone that Connelly is a conscientious objector. The committee serves the faculty and at tempts to interpret faculty rulings as the faculty would, have them interpreted. There is every reason to believe Connelly's ori £'■ al objections to the course were justified. The gr nan is for keeping it compulsory are tenuous at the best. And the committee, apparently, is still working with tin antiquated Quaker’s definition of conscientious. The 'whole matter has been eliaraeterized by fcn .dlness of viewpoint. The military department h ’t been willing to end a difficult matter grace ft !;. b\ exempting Connelly perfunctorily—whieh it . \! hav.* done on at least two occasions. ■d.\X1'.!.1.V, originally crusading, lost the battle on his first grounds. Defeated, he advanced hi.> otli.T w*. apo::> to the firing lines. 11 is numerous hi a lengthy petitions have said or implied almost everything wni.di ea:: be set forth upon the subject of conscience and compulsory military. Whatever tin- wording of the technicality under V1 J 1 Connelly must apply for exemption, holding h n. to a requirement for a course of such doubtful vVrw certainly doesn’t constitute a policy of “Jib wal education." And the promise of such a p iiey, voiced or implied, had much to do with ) e o tiing l ompulsor;. military (which is. ineiden i i!', . able to lining funds to the Cniversity if the co ii'se enrollment is maintained.) l. s high time someone pushed through all this p ft jo's-,, that of tlie committee and that of Con nelly. Connelly is undeniably a pacifist. In these day of big navy propaganda and cries for a “strong America,'’ the position of the pacifist is indeed a difficult one. There is no use denying Gordon a diploma for honest intellectual achievement. His exemption now can scarcely endanger an appropriation from the war department for the maintenance of a course which is all very well for those who want it—but valueless for those who don’t. ■ y 'Shadiest Ventures .. / TPIIE shadiest educational ventures under re spectable auspices are the schools of journal ism.” This indictment was recently added to the growing list of charges against modern higher education by Robert M. Hutchins, youthful presi dent of the University of Chicago. While President Hutchins singled out schools of journalism for his vituperative attack, an ex planation of his statement in the last issue of Quill shows that he includes all modern “prac tical’’ course in his group of “shady educational ventures.” To be sure. Mr. Hutchins does have a point in holding out for the cultural education which lie summarizes as the “traditional know ledge of the race.” And his criticisms of courses in “character, personality, charm, vocational and matrimonial preparation” are valid to a certain extent. In arguing for the traditional knowledge, Mr. Hutchins seems to be adhering to the ancient idea of a university—the meeting place of thinkers and philosophers, who might talk the whole day on some fine ethical point. We would not scoff at philosophy, for certainly it has its place in the world and especially in the universities, but with the growth of the modern age of specialization, the colleges can do nothing more commendable than to recognize this development. # # /I MOXG the many outgrowths of the modern era have been schools of journalism. They have been subject to attacks by newspapermen and educators alike, but as they grow in experience the praise, and confidence in these now well-founded branches of higher education increases apace. No thoughtful educator would quarrel with Mr. Hutchins' thesis that journalists should have a wide background: but neither would a thoughtful edu cator advocate annihilation of schools of journal ism. To President Hutchins we might say that the world of today is not displeased if its young people are cultured philosophers—as a matter of fact it is necessary for them to be just that if they hope to get along. This fact is well recognized by schools of journalism, as may be seen here at the Univer sity of Oregon, where majors in journalism are found in every other school in the University, get ting that fund of well-rounded information lie calls the “traditional knowledge of the race.” s& & & T^UT, we add, neither in the actual worlds of jour nalism. business administration, social science, nor in any other of the professions would a person selecting new workers be willing to accept most young students who come to them with nothing more than the “traditional knowledge of the race." The world today is a practical world, and it re quires that as well as being philosophers, the young people be useful professionally or even vocation ally, if we may use the dreaded word. Education lias not fallen—it lias merely entered into new and unexplored territories. Perhaps some of these are wast lands, but journalism with its developments yet to come is perhaps one of the most fruitful of educational advances.—P.I). The Birth of the 'Little One' POR at least a portion of spring term The Emer ald will be printed in a new form. Although “tabloid” issues have been produced from time to time, the student daily has never, at least in recent years, been consistently offered in this manner. Despite the reduction in si'ze of pages, the con tent—or lack of content—of the paper Avill be the same, eight pages replacing the usual four. Al though greater brevity in stories is essential in the new format, these are chief changes. Because sensationalism has been the motto of the most famous papers using the tabloid makeup, an unwholesome connotation is sometimes given the term. This is not a necessary condition, how ever; the standards of a newspaper are not in fluenced by the size of its pages. The Emerald is, frankly, experimenting. The convenience in handling and the opportunity for greater departmentalization give the small, paper some advantages. As always, the daily desires comment from its readers—maybe the -new page size will make it easier to read in classes. PAGE THE LEAGUE It's a wonder someone hasn-'t suggested that the BA school is starting a new armament program for its annual battle with the barristers. They’re digging trenches around the commerce stronghold. } : Other\Editors Believe May Lowell Rebec (WESTERN TEACHERS COLLEGE HERALD) Word reached us last week from Eugene, Oregon, of the untimely death of Mary Lowell Rebec, one of the small group of instructors who laid the foundation of Western State Teachers College. Those of us who knew Mary Lowell in the earliest days of our college appreciate most deeply her contri bution to the school and community of that day. She was one of the most dynamic of the original staff of teachers brought to Kalamazoo by President Waldo: those men and women upon whom rested the responsi bility of laying the foundations of the new “Normal School” in Southwestern Michigan. From that year until her marriage in 1909 to Professor George Rebec, dean of the Graduate School of the University of Ore gon, she was head of the department of English, and a teacher who made a deep and lasting impression upon all her associates and students. Mary Lowell possessed a rare combination of deep and broad scholarliness with a vivid, forceful, stimulat ing personality and a genuine interest in people, which made her a great teacher, a devoted friend and a woman of wide and varied interests. Her fine sense of dis crimination and appreciation, rare gift of language, and vital, original thinking found expression, then and later, in occasional creative writing, and many of her poems have been published. The tributes published in the last few days in Eugene, where she has lived since leaving Michigan, show the high esteem in which she was held in that community. Those of us who knew her as colleague, teacher, or friend feel a deep sense of loss at her passing, and extend to George Rebec and his daughter our deepest sympathy. — ELIZABETH ZIMMERMAN. Campus Calendar C uujiiu Alpha ( hi meets at 4 t > i <y in the College Side. Fin Beta will meet tonight at *7 ' " in Gerlinger. CiiN interested in securing: po sitions of camp counsellors this . maimer may make appointments ih • morning to apply in person to -■ < i Mrs. Hillman Lueddemann. camp! chairman, and Mrs. Helen Leonard, local and camp director, at the dean of women's office today. Ap plications may be made from 10 o’clock to 5 o’clock today. House managers will meet at the Del Key cafe at 7:30 tonight. Kpiseopal student group com munion Wednesday morning at 7 o’clock in men’s lounge at Ger linger hall. YWCA publicity committee will have an important meeting at 4 p.m. at the bungalow. All staff members of the Y’s Co-Edition must be present—the publication will come out immediately. Any other members with journalistic trends are invited to attend. House librarians will meet at 4 o’clock today in the browsing room to hear Dr. Arthur Harder talk on current books on foreign affairs. The parents club of Phi Kappa Psi will meet Monday evening-, March 28, at the home of Dean and Mrs. R. W. Leighton. Send the Emerald to your par ents and let them read UO news. Oregon Musicians Honored at Medford The University of Oregon sym phony orchestra, 75 strong, and di rected by Rex Underwood, invad ed Medford to play in concert there Monday night. “Symphony day” was proclaimed by the city by way of honor and welcome to the musicians? The group was well-armed with a group of selections which have proved unusually successful at pre vious concerts. Among these were the Rimsky-Korsakow “Caprice Espagnole,” and Liszt’s “Les Pre ludes.” Dorothy Louise Johnson, violin student, gave the solo, “Zigeuner* weisen” by Sarasate. George Hopkins, Mrs. Jane Thacher, and Mrs. Aurora Potter Underwood, all members of the music school faculty, presented concerto numbers with the orches tra. The rondo from a Beethoven concerto was played by Mr. Hop kins, and a part of a Schumann concerto by Mrs. Thacher. Mrs. Underwood played a part of the , Liszt concerto.