The Homecoming Job
Anti-Sophs
The A S U O senators are smiling this
w e e k. The demands of their consciences,
their constituents and the Emerald have
been met—they have acted on something.
The senate has arbitrarilly decreed that the
Sophomore class shall be assigned Home
coming as a “project,” in the tradition of
Junior Weekend activities being undertaken
by the Junior class. This would mean that
hereafter the Sophomore class president
would chair Homecoming weekend activi
ties and be responsible for staffing the week
end committees.
ONE OF THE main arguments support
ing the delegation of this weekend to the
Sophomore class is that the Junior class
successfully stages Junior Weekend, so why
couldn’t the Sophomore class successfully
handle a comparable weekend. This analogy
is almost a complete fallacy.
First, the juniors working during the
spring on Junior Weekend activities have
almost three full years of campus activities
behind them while the sophomores work
ing on this fall term activity would only
have one year of experience.
SECOND, the capabilities of the chair
man of an event is a strong indication of the
activity’s success. The chairman must be
familiar with the event; must be familiar
with the talents of students in campus act
ivities in making his committee appoint
ments; and must know campus channels.
Work on Homecoming begins in the pre
ceeding spring, and it would be nearly im
possible for the newly-elected Sophomore
class president, after only eight months on
campus, to be as enlightened in these areas
as he should be, and as the Junior class
president generally is.
THE CHAIRMEN and committee mem
bers, after two and one-half terms on cam
pus, cannot possibly be well acquainted
with campus channels and the intricate de
tails of Homecoming. A very limited num
ber of freshmen have a bigger part in Home
coming activities than selling buttons.
THIS WEEKEND was given to the
Sophomores for another reason; because
they sometimes lose money on their Soph
omore Swing which is held after Homecom
ing. The “'logic” here is hard to follow. If
they lose money on a small event, why give
them a larger event just so they can have a
class “project.” Let them find the answer
to their need for a “class” activity in some
area where there is more assurance of suc
cess, and where the stakes are not so high.
As Bill Landers, Acting-Alumni Director
has suggested, why not let the Sophomores
sponsor the Homecoming Dance and con
cert.
.BUT, CRY THE proponents of this
senate action, “the Sophomores gained ex
perience in their freshman dance, the Frosh
Sno-ball.” Arranging for this dance in the
SU Ballroom has only a little in common
with Homecoming Weekend activities. This
function gives them no experience in con
tacting and contracting the nation’s top per
formers: no experience in decorating Mc
Arthur Court; no experience in managing
state-wide publicity and promotions; no ex
perience in making arrangements to feed
several hundred people at a luncheon; no
experience in mass ticket selling; no experi
ence in planning a rally parade and bonfire;
no experience in staging two all-campus
queen elections; no experience in defining
and enforcing traditions; no experience in
establishing registration and hospitality ser
vices for alums; and no experience staging
half-time activities and after-game recep
tions.
One member of the Senate stated that he
could see “nothing too complicated” about
staging Homecoming, indicating the gener
al inability of anyone who has not worked
on the event to understand even what the
job entails. Placing an inexperienced soph
omore class, however dedicated, in charge
of these activities is like throwing an inex
perienced swimmer into a swift current; he
may manage to stay afloat, but only with a
lot of floundering and wasted energy.
And finally, Homecoming doesn’t belong
as a “class project.” If year after year
Homecoming emerges as the “unifying”
link of the Sophomore class, the actual func
tion of Homecoming will become secondary
to cohesiveness. Homecoming is not held
for the benefit of the students, but for the
thousands of alums who wish to attend an
organized and eventful reunion.
YES, THE ASUO senate has “unani
mously” acted; acted without actual fore
sight or insight. We wonder what the sena
tors were doing at their last meeting. We
are pretty sure they weren’t sleeping. Per
haps they were writing their campaign plat
forms.
Pro-Sophs
The proposal that the Homecoming
Weekend be delegated to the sophomore
class was given a unanimous vote of approv
al by the ASUO Senate. This is a true
measuring stick of the worth of this pro
posal.
THE PROPOSAL can really only be de
bated on one issue, that being whether or
not the sophomore class is capable of han
dling the affair. It would be extremely diffi
cult to judge that the sophomores are not
capable without first giving them a chance
to prove that they are.
In the opinion of SU Director A. L. “Si”
Kllingson, who has certainly seen enough
sophomores to judge them fairly, they are
capable of doing the job as well as anyone
else. He made the suggestion to Doug
Greer, and Greer, after further investigation,
made it to the Senate.
ALTHOUGH the sophomores will cer
tainly not have the experience of upper
classmen, it can be questioned whether this
experience is really necessary. Much of the
job of handling a Homecoming weekend is
busy work, and this certainly doesn’t take
much experience. In those areas which are
not busy work, the sophomore class will
be able to obtain all the advice needed from
the Student Union and the Alumni office.
It is a good wager that the alumni office
would not let any group destroy the effec
tiveness of Homecoming weekend.
Besides advice, the sophomore class has
some other things on its side which an all
campus Homecoming committee does not.
First, being under-classmen they are more
enthusiastic. This is indicated by the num
ber of people petitioning in all-campus elec
tions. Secondly, as a class, they have more
unity than does an organization picked out
of the wild blue. The sophomore class is al
ready organized and under way when Home
coming roiis arounci.
THERE ARE several other points that
caused Senate to give the proposal a unani
mous vote of approval. It will help the fi
nancial position of classes as they pass
through the University, sometimes making
possible the donation of a class memorial,
or a gift to the development fund. The
proposal will cut down on the campus so
cial calendar, limiting the spring sophomore
dance just to class members. It will add to
class unity, and will give the sophomores a
real job to do, as it requires much greater
participation than does the sophomore
dance. Finally, it will cement class relations
with the alumni.
With these things taken into considera
tion, it is quite easy to see why the ASUO
Senate made their decision UNANI
MOUSLY.
The Best of Bibler
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Symbolism: A New Game
For Solitary Intellectuals
From the general run of
published comments about to
day’s college student we can
find that we are a generally In
tellectual bunch at least com
pared to our forbears. In that
case, one might expect that our
games and hobbies would take
on a more intellectual bent than
simply collecting stamps and
building model ships. One might
expect that.
WHAT, then, are the games
that we can play ? Preoccupied
with matters of the mind as
we are. the games are likely to
be those that one can play.
That is, they will be some sort
of mental pastime. Since I
can't remember any right off
hand (or on hand, now that I've
looked), and I have made up one
of my own. It’s called Symbol
ism.
Symbolism is a game that
cannot be copyrighted, and is,
as one might expect coming
from a college student, econom
ically non-productive. The me
chanics of the game are such
that the game can be played
anywhere at all. You need only
watch something anything —
and think.
THE BASIC assumption of
the game is that everything is
something else, or stands for
something else. The player de
cides for himself what will
stand for what, or what will
symbolize what. Freud has pro
vided us with more than enough
symbols to play the game. I
would go into them here, but
you never can tell who might
read the paper. Just suffice it to
say that the most superficial
reading of Freudian symbolism
will tell you enough to play the
game.
Contrary to some lines of
thought, though, Freud did not
think of every single thing that
can ever be thought. There are
other areas outside the realm
of sex. This may not be imme
diately apparent, but if you
think about it long enough (and
go without food long enough)
you will come around.
HER55 is a little example of
how I play the game; maybe
it will give you a start in the
right direction.
As you all know, the Pioneer
Father directly face the Pio
neer Mother. If you stand be
hind him and look in the direc
tion in which he is striding
forthrightly, you can see
(through Johnson Hall’s glass
doors) the Pioneer Mother sit
ting on a chair looking up at
the Pioneer Father with a crafty
leer on her face. Now Just sup- .
pose, for the sake of the gam**,
that Pioneer Father has been
out In the woods pioneering for
several weeks, and that he
wants to do something affec
tionate, like buss the Pioneer
Mother on her cheek.
IIKT-I.. NKVKK make it. The
a
administration (building! is in
the way. True love will never
be fulfilled because the bureau
cracy stands between the lov
ers.
You might on the other hand
imagine that he is bringing .
home some nice freshly-killed
rabbit for supper. Again, he'll .
never make It. The Univer
sity prevents him from feeding -
the family. Married students
should get a kick out of the 4
latter.
Does your girl friend com
plain that she has too many -
freckles? Clearly she is dissatis
fied with more than that. She *
probably feels culturally, physic
ally, emotionally, and intellec
tually inadequate as well. It
follows.
Does your boy friend com- .
plain about your hair style? He
is really criticizing everything
about you, including your par
ents’ social-economic status.
As you can see, just anything
at all will do for a symbol —
traffic lights, sports cars, foun
tain pens, bowls of soup, those
little circular pins that girls
wear on their blouses, record
shops, actions, procedures, ad
infinitum. You can make your
own. And they can stand for
anything you want—political
(Continued on page 3)
OREGON DAILY EMERALD
The Oregon Daily Emerald is published
(our timca in September and five days a
week during the school year, excrpt dur
ing examination and vacation pcrioda, by
the Student Publications Hoard oi the
University oi Oregon. Entered as second *
class matter at the post office, Eugene,
Oregon. Subscription rates: $5 per year, *
$2 per term.
Opinions expressed on the editorial page
are those of The Eme rald and do not pre
tend to represent the opinion of the ASUO
or the University. „
JIM IlOYI), Editor
STEVE MILLIKIN, Husiness Manager *
LARKY LYNCH, Managing Editor
RON BUEL, News Editor *
TED MAHAR, Editorial Editor
DAN PFAFK, Asf,t. Managing Editor —
KEITH POWELL, Associate Editor
PETE DOWNS, AL IIYNDING,
LARRY KURTZ, Triumvirate
EDITORIAL BOARD:
Jim Boyd, I-arry Lynch, Ron Buel,
Teel Mahar, Keith Powell, Gayle Charles,
Sue Hunter, Gayle Osburn, Dan Pfaff,
Phil Cogswell, Virginia Anderson, Nic
Nicholseu, Arlene Saunders, and Jim *
Fields,