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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 1950)
Next Meeting on Monday At last it happened. The student Executive Council met, and the meeting room, a rather large one, was overcrowded with interested students. And they WERE interested. Some of the over 100 who came into the room before 8 p.m. stayed until the meeting was over at midnight. And all it took to bring out these 100 people was a blast by high ranking members of the USA, and by the Emerald edi torial page, against the AGS policy of prohibiting more than two persons from their party to apply for council positions. And the AGS helped step up attendance immensely by re versing their original decision on the number of candidates they would endorse, and allowing any AGS member to apply for the Council positions. Twenty three students were interviewed by the Council for the representative positions. Fifteen of these were members of AGS; the other eight were from the USA. None of the candidates selected were the ones originally en dorsed by the AGS; but they were the ones that the Council members felt were most qualified to hold positions on the Council. The interview session was long; but we are sure Council members felt the time was well spent. Many of the candidates were well-qualified to hold rep positions. Deciding on one par ticular person was not always an easy job. Certainly the Council members are more fully aware of stu dent thought; and better equipped with suggestions as to the workings of student government, than they would have been had the interview session been limited to two persons from each party. It is also interesting to note that the Council did not once, either by coincident or intent, split on party lines. There was one time when the Council deadlocked, four for, four against a motion to appoint a member. But it was not four AGS vs. four USA. The Council being deadlocked, opened up the discussion to include pertinent comments from those students attending the meeting. With the aid of the opinions expressed by the members of the audience, the Council was able to reach a de cision. Open meetings of this type—which students actually at tend—may be a great boon to bringing an awareness of the highest student governing body to the individual students. Meetings of this type give students a valid ground on which to judge the Council. Students may see what the Council is doing; and what it is not doing. And they may criticize and suggest accordingly. The next Council meeting is Monday evening. The discussion will, perhaps, not have as much personal meaning to as many individuals; but then, the business under taken will undoubtedly have an effect on the students, if not immediate, then long-range. The attendance at next Monday’s meeting may help deter mine whether last Monday’s was a flash-in-the-pan affair, or whether it was an indication of an upward trend in the stu dents’ interest in their government. Wind and Rain in the Firs We think that we shall never see, A poem lovely as a tree. But if the wind is let go free, We may not ever see a tree. In the words of the immortal bard, “It is an ill wind that blows no good.” And in the words of the Oregon Daily Emer ald the 48-mile wind that hit the campus last Friday noon blew no good plenty. I. I. Wright, director of the physical plant, is now anticipat ing a recommendation to have a tree expert examine the trees on the old campus. Most of the 177 trees are rotting at the base and definitely present a danger. And rumors are flying concerning the fate of our evergreens. A prominent student of forestry said that he had dreamt that all of the trees would be cut down and that lower campus would be completely cemented. He was considering packing his bags and beginning a search for a campus with a natural setting. The Eugene weather bureau could only say that gales are infrequent in this area. They obtained equipment to record gusts of wind only a month ago. Considering that such weather is most infrequent, we hope that only sweet zephyrs will blow here in the future.—H.S. r Sofdv&mosie tyJudcMn Anyone Wanta Cuppa Coffee? by Hob fyunh. By all that is high and idealistic, this col umn ought to take some sort of stand in the current misunderstanding between Student Government, personified by Lou Weston and Art Johnson, and Let’s-Junk-All-This-Stuff And-Go-Out-For-Coffee, championed by Emerald Columnist Jo Gilbert. Mrs. Gilbert recently (via her column) cast a rather cynical eye on campus politics—from far above. Johnson and Miss Weston replied with a long list of things that we, the stu dents of the University of Oregon, DO. Lots of things are being DONE, it seems. This leaves us pleasantly becalmed on a political fence. Student government is a nec essary and valuable part of college life. It serves a basic practical purpose: the do ing of THINGS is taken off the shoulder of the faculty. It serves a patriotic purpose; students are given practical experience in elections, meet ings, and administration. Student government gives leaders an op portunity to develop their abilities—persons having gained experience in student govern ment will be more effective leaders after grad uation. We feel that in this Johnson and Miss Weston are correct in their stand; they are persons who have explored the advantages of leadership to a great degree, and used the authority which they gained with singular intelligence and discretion. However, Mrs. Gilbert threw most of her wormy apples not at student government, but at campus politics. Johnson and Miss Weston did not defend campus politics to any great extent. Probably they are not much in terested in politics as such—Miss Weston once told us that she is not a politician, and we have always had the happy conviction •that she is not. However, Jo Gilbert made an attack on campus politics, and we think her attack was justified. Two years ago a coalition party crawled out of the Greek mud-puddle to find clearer waters. Today they seem to have stirred up some mud from the bottom of their puddle, too—certainly they are not slinging bouquets of roses. Meanwhile, the Greeks are reform ing, we hear. Their reform seems to be in planting a lilac hedge around the garbage dump. The pleasant smell is only skin deep, perhaps. Now this all sounds fairly bitter. Actually, “we are much better off,” as Johnson and Weston (we do not mean to make them sound like a musical-comedy team) said. Both parties have done some constructive things, both have produced some good lead ers. But both of them are, at times, a little ridiculous, and deserve Mrs. Gilbert’s Thurs day-morning blast. We feel that the current controversies sur rounding politics and government are defi nitely healthy. They also provide an endless source of copy for the editorial page. And Mrs. Gilbert, Miss Weston, and John son ought to meet over a cup of coffee soon to discuss the Executive Council’s stand on Mrs. Gilbert’s pregnant proposal—beer in the Student Union. So this is imbecilic? Well, we’re only going to be young once. 9*t the Bcuj, Our Own Little Grantland Rice Jlettesii, To the Editor: Is John Barton the pen name of a member of the Em erald staff, or is it possible that John could really be sports editor of the All-Amer ican Emerald? ’Tis hard to imagine a person foolhardy enough to sign his own name to such slush as “Duck Tracks" of Jan. 16. In the event that John is really John I gotta give him credit for lossa guts. Ilis high-schoolish column bristling with such astute ob servations as “Oregon State does not have a team of good basketball players. For this reason, the Beavers will get the dickens beat out of them when they play Oregon” shows fine spirit and little else. The only point at which agreement with John can be reached is on his strong state ment, “Enough of this—” The tragic thing is that the phrase didn’t appear earlier in his article. It is difficult to realize how John with all his four terms of college could at one time resell such depths of percep tion and yet rise to such heights in predictions. 'Old’ John really outdoes himself in his shrewd char acterization of the ‘boy’ Bal lantyne. John confides, “ . . he has the idea he is another Cliff Crandall.” Who does sophomore John think he is—Grantland Rice? " Ken Hansen Bus Green (For other observations on Barton’s Duck Trax read to day’s sports column, page 5, —Editor.) Ik 1950 By Sister Mary Gilbert Recent fanfare over the passage of a half century draws attention to a long history of milestone marking. Six and a half centuries ago, the first Holy Year was proclaimed as a kind of centennial commemoration of the birth of Christ. Pope Boniface YIII, who introduced it, decreed that it should be kept every hundred years. Two hundred thousand pilgrims traveled to Rome in the first Holy Year. An estimated three million will make the journev during 1950. The year is intended to be a time when, through prayer and penance, extraordinary spiritual favors may be received. Catholics who were born too late to enjoy the privileges of the first year of jubilee and who didn't expect to live until 1400, persuad ed Clement VI to arrange a Holy Year for 1350. A new precedent was introduced when Ur ban VI proclaimed a Holy Year for 1390. He gave as his reason that the intervals between jubilees might be made to coincide with the number of years Christ spent on earth. These two precedents—the centennial and the thirty-three year interval—operated by turns until 1-164. In that year, Paul II decreed that the jubilee be held routinely every 25 3’ears. °nly formal Holy Year out of turn since that time was in 1933 when Pius XI pro claimed one to commemorate the nineteen hundredth anniversary of our redemption. I his H0I3" \ ear is the twenty-fourth to be observed since the first jubilee in 1300. *