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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1950)
daily MERAID Anita Holmes, Editor Don Thompson, Business Manager Lorna Larson, Managing Editor Barbara Williams, Advertising Manager Tom King, Ken Metzler, Don Smith, Associate Editors Voices Behind the Speaker Sure, you’ve heard it all before. All those things they’ll say tonight in the formal Student Union dedication speeches. But you won’t be thinking the same thing as the f ellow stand ing next to you. You who are a senior, or an alumnus, a profes sor, a secretary, a freshman, a student body officer, a janitor, a house historian, a rah rah kid, or a four-point student—you’ll have your own thoughts while you listen to the formal speeches. “Fifty bucks of that is mine,” the senior candidly thinks, when he catches a two million dollar phrase from a speaker. “Gerlinger was tiny for all those student body meetings,” the alum recalls, remembering when the hall was the center of activities. “I guess I went to college 15 years too soon.” “It is a nice place for a cup of coffee,” the department secre tary agrees, when she catches a speaker’s comment on the food service. And even a professor will admit that the Union is “a little more modern than the faculty club.” “One more place to have a booth,” the Kwama complains, when she hears about the student traffic that goes through the union each day. “The floors take a nice wax,” the janitor notes, seeing the ;spot where the speakers stand. “You mean they used to hold meetings somewhere beside the Student Union?” one freshman asks another with disbelief as a speaker tells of the building as a central meeting place. “It saves me running all around the campus,” the campus wheel says, thinking of the third floor offices of the BMOC’s. “Just one more reason for coming to Oregon when I go to college,” a high school senior, who just dropped in to play ping pong and unknowingly got trapped in the dedication ceremon ies, tells his pal. Sure, you’ve heard the speeches before. But have you heard what the guy next to you thinks about his Student Union?— D.S. One Bad Turn Deserves... Add to the “Hallowe’en l’affaire” the “Howe Field incident” of Wednesday night. If Oregon had one black eye before, it now has two. That much is evident. But let’s not allow the matters to drop here. It’s up to the student body to take the initiative in prevent ing similar disturbances in the future ; in fact, it’s an obligation and duty. The Executive Council in cooperation with the In terfraternity and Interdormitory Council are the proper medi ums. It’s their responsibility to take the matters into hand and straigten out a very fouled up set of circumstances. Student action may well prevent the University from cre ating a ghost in its own closet; particularly in the case of the Oct. 31 pranks it may forestall putting a basically student prob lem into the hands of the administration. This doesn’t mean these groups should institute rules which will deprive college of its “college life.” Rules would not pre vent it—nor should they. It does mean that the students should he made aware and conscious of their obligations as members of the University. We do not believe it is asking too much of college students to consider the differences between pranks and vandalism, be tween fun and damaging of property. Better this than have no fun or pranks in the future through more severe restrictions. What do you think ?—T.K. THE DAILY 'JT' . . . to Chairman Tom Barry. Assistant Joe Labadie, and all their Homecoming committees for a whale of a lot of work to build a weekend. THE OREGON LEMON... to the culprits who stole the top of the PiKap Dreamgirl trophy. We understand it now looks more like a beer mug than a trophy. & Is Football King or is He Only a Puppet? ■ Just mention that magic word “football.” We’ve been told that collegiate football is now running our schools of higher education, but never before have we seen such jumping to attention for a ballplayer or two. Or is the football boy to blame ? Coach Aiken and other members of the athletic department have met with Interfratemlty and In terdormitory to tell them that at least two fresh man athletes have left school and more are threat ening because the campus isn’t friendly. Early in the meeting with the dormitory group, Coach Aiken said the trouble wasn’t that the fel lows couldn’t pledge—it was the extreme coldness of many of the men. And this coldness came as a result of the hands off policy instituted by Interfraternity Council. So, logically, this hands-off policy should be changed. Not changed to complete open rushing, which would be prohibitive in time and money, the fraternities say. But Why not try a middle policy —one was suggested last spring by Stan Pierson and Fred Van Horn. Fraternity men hestitate about this, because they think houses would be cutting each others throats and regulations couldn’t be enforced. So, IFC says it will have rushing right away— and end this unfriendliness—if IDC will agree. “ For the good of the University” was the argu ment used to persuade dormitory men to agree to immediate rushing and pledging. Those who talk of IDC stubontness should remember that the dorm men originally wanted no pledging until spring Of the freshman year. In other words, when you belong to a fraternity, live in the house, and when in the dormitory, be a dorm resident. And, as the situation stood Thursday afternoon, basically because of a few freshman athletes, eight days of rushing will cut into this crowded last half of the term, working a hardship on both upperclass men and freshmen. Which brings to mind an interesting remark made by a freshman at the dormitory-Aiken meet ing. He said most of the frosh he had talked to would rather wait until winter term to rush. And what about the more honest fraternities which haven’t been illegally rushing all term? They’ll fall behind those houses which have quietly —and not so quietly—been lining the boys up. And what about the fact that approximately 12 of the 18 freshmen charged with violating the hands-off policy (having social contact with fra ternity men) were athletes? Somebody must have been a bit friendly to them ... $50 Worth of friend liness. And one more “what about.” Knowing full well that Greek houses strongly favor fall term pledging over the winter term program which was a frater nity-dormitory compromise, we’d like to ask if any one seriously considered a plan halfway betwHpn the hands-off policy and wide open rushing. | Re: | Hash j • I i By Bob Funk I Tomorrow you will see us re volving in a Homecoming sign. We are going to be what the sign committee at the place-we-live calls a "moving part.” At first it was thought that we could prob ably do our own moving, so the committee strengthened us with raw eggs and parsnip mash. After a time, however, the committee lost heart, and we are now happy to announce that a small motor will be attached to us to do the moving. This all sounds pretty silly—at least that is what we told the sign committee. However, they seem to think that what the sign needs this year is more realism. For realism they are using us. We suppose we should be flat tered that the committee thinks we’re real real—but even this is not enough to compensate for our being alternately eaten and dis gorged by a cougar for hours on end. . There are going to be added at tractions. In addition to a realis tic us, there will be colored lights, revolving hither and yon; bucket lights, which will add a theatrical effect; and several persons rolling on the lawn and laughing like mad. ***** We are piously indignant about what the freshmen did Wednes day night. Shocking, we call it, that they should treat with such utter abandon a serious and thought-provoking thing—guard ing the bonfire. When we were freshmen guard ing the bonfire things were en tirely different. Everyone sat around meditating. Recesses were called periodically for hand-shak ing and a hearty good fellowship. After a while someone read some poetry by Emily Dickinson. We ended our guarding shift with cookies and tea, and a rendition of “Keep the Home Fires Burn ing.’’ To think that things have de generated so greatly in two years. To think that the sacred trust no longer impresses the callous frosh heart. Tch, tch, tch. ■ -n -Letters- • — The Campus Answers Homecoming Hello Emerald Editor: It’s a wonderful feeling to be proud of the university you at tend—proud of its teams, its buildings, its faculty, its record, its achievements and its adminis tration. But it is truly amazing how easily a person can get soured about the whole thing. And it is truly amazing how many people have been soured by the administration and its de ferred living plan. Here we have an absolutely un workable plan being forced upon us by a completely thoughtless administration. We were not con sulted beforehand, our opinions and ideas were not sought, but yet here we are saddled with this unmanageable Ogre. Why? Well, let’s not kid ourselves. The administration is paying off its housing projects through the misery of Oregon students. Just who is it that likes the plan ? The President of the Universi ty, the business office, and a few administration stooges. How can they sit back and see our Univer sity splitting into belligerent, hos title factions, perhaps irrepar ably, over a problem that could be so easily dissolved. It might be different if the plan had had some concrete and encouraging results. But nothing has resulted save bitterness, strife, and confusion. It’s time for deferred living to go. This is the beginning of Home coming Weekend. Alums will be down in drbves. Nobody wants to ruin their fun or their Homecom ing, but if it means that the Uni versity can be brought cut of this awful mess, then present them with the facts. Let them know how miserable deferred living at Oregon really is. Signed, Merv Hampton It Could Be Oregon • “Hey, Worthal, here’s a letter for you from the dean of men. It’s edged . in black.”