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. *