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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 1961)
Discrimination and tradition Discrimination has become traditional. In past generations, almost every national fra ternity and sorority has at one time or an other had a race clause in its charter. There are still fraternities and sororities, a num ber of them on this campus, that have never had a Negro or Oriental in their organiza tion. YET, IF IT WERE left up to the present generation to decide—the ones who are presently occupying the fraternity and sorority houses—many, if not all of the houses at Oregon, would by this time have some non-Caucasian membership. Without the amorphous ties with the past and the prejudices that were born with the Greek system in the Southern United States, there would lie decidedly less dis crimination in the fraternities and sororities on this campus. But the tradition of dis crimination lives on. And even as race clauses fall by the wayside, the practices they initiated continue. IT ALMOST GOES without saying that the Emerald is strongly in favor of the total destruction of any such impositions cur rently being placed on the membership of local organizations by persons on the out side. For this reason, we were pleased by the recent statement of the State Board of Higher Education that all fraternal organi zations with race clauses will he eliminated fr^m state university campuses by January 1963. And for the same reason we would like to see similar action taken against sororities with negative recommendation systems. These recommendation systems, although not as obvious, nor as binding, can and are used to discriminate against an individual, on the basis of race, color or creed. An alum more likely to be prejudiced than an ac tice, can keep an individual out of many sororities on this campus. This is not true of fraternities. They do not have alumni recommendation systems. Unlike sororities they do not require an alumni recommenda tion for pledging. Unlike sororities, an alum can't and doesn't hold an individual out. BECAUSE GREEK organizations are by nature selective, discrimination on the local level cannot be proven nor can it be fought outside of the minds of men. But something can be done to assure that sor orities will be left unhindered by outside forces. The abolition of the sorority rec ommendation system would be a step in that direction. Realistic approach With such a strong current emphasis on education, articles about higher education and its problems have become more and more prevalent in the last few years. Articles on sex, of course, however prevalent, are almost always well read; moreover, in many publications they have become increasingly intelligent in their viewpoints. The latest Harper’s magazine has included in its 12 article supplement on colleges in America an excellent piece concerning both colleges and sex and their relation to one another. The article is titled “Sex: The Problem Colleges Evade,” and was written by noted author Maya Pines and Milton I. Levine, M.D. The article, well worth reading in full, said in part: “When college girls by the dozen come to their childhood pediatricians desperate and in tears because they are pregnant, it is time to question what is being done in the colleges to protect them. “EVERY GENERATION, of course has had to deal with the problem of illegitimate pregnancies among young people, some on the college level. And as the Harvard Crim son put it in a recent article, ‘in sheer wild ness today's college students do not com pare with their fabled predecessors.’ Two factors, however, make the current crop different: (1) premarital sex in all its forms is much more widespread and openly dis cussed among students; and (2) in the midst of this apparent sophistication, at a time when highly reliable methods of birth con trol exist, the majority of students are near ---- -- ----- ly as ignorant of the facts as the poorest, illiterate Indian peasant. “ . .. colleges should face these facts real istically. Besides their primary purpose, edu cation, they cannot escape responsibility for the emotional and physical life of young people on their campuses. Since they know that a certain number of students will bas e premarital sexual relations despite official disapproval, the colleges should try to make sure that all students know how to avoid the most serious consequences.” THE ARTICLE GOES on to outline a number of ways in which college adminis trators can and have successfully done much to remedy in part at least this extremely dif ficult problem. It concludes: “Certainly the colleges could help students understand better the phychological, social and moral implica tions of their sexual maturity. To do this effectively, however, they should take into account the sexual activity that exists on campuses today and try to match their pol icies to deal with it as realistically as pos sible. As a practical matter, all the colleges in America are still a long way from this goal.” Of course we haven't any statistical data either to verify or discredit these state ments as they may apply here. But we can be reasonably certain that this school is not an exception. The solution which the authors outline is by no means a complete one. But, realistically, it may very well be the only one. Letters to the editor Millrace perspective Emerald Editor: It has been rumored that many of Oregon’s revered tra ditions have been dying out. However, we would like to as sure you that one of the oldest traditions is still firmly en trenched in the University’s way of life. We refer to “The Move ment to Restore and Beautify the Historic Scenic Millrace.” As timid matriculating fresh men in the fall of ’57 (current ly members of the 5-year pro gram) we were lead like lambs to the traditional “Frosh Pic nic” new student week. There the “Oregon Spirit” was instilled in us by the Yell King and the various student body officers. How well we remember some service-minded individual with a Jolly Roger on his chest point ing to the miasmic body of water referred to as “the race” and saying, “Did you know only two universities in the world have a millrace on their cam pus? Oregon and Cambridge!” Well, no! We didn’t realize (naive freshmen that we were) that we held such a distinction. (Neither did any of the sopho mores, juniors, or seniors we later ascertained.) He went on then to outline the numerous improvements “The Movement to Restore and Beautify the Historic—Scenic Millrace Committee" had planned, “Dredge the millrace” (cheers) “acquire more land ad jacent to the millrace for recre ational purposes," (more cheers) “open the locks for fresh flow ing water” (lour cheers) “land scaping and beautifying,” (more cheers) “a firm bottom laid on the race floor to facilitate swim (Continued on pai/e 3) Little man on campus I ^a net Cjoelze What everybody should know about Friday the 13th For all who are vitally inter ested. there Is a dearth of in formation on Friday the 13th. I FOUND that out one night at the library when I decided to investigate the topic for a bit of personal enlightenment. About all I found out was that certain savage tribes consid ered Fridays religious or holy days, and anybody who worked on Fridays was tempting fate, the gods, and other-wrath filled powers. The peoples of Europe apparently developed some apprehension about the day, too, and when Good Fri day came along their fears were not alleviated. Just how the number 13 works into the whole scheme of things is a little hazy, but the number has had signifi cance of some sort for quite a while. Thirteen was considered a lucky number at one time, and some people who were born on the 13th day of the month in years ending in 13 still think it’s pretty lucky. I suppose it's bet ter than not being born at all. HOTEL BUILDERS have found that there are enough people around who are suffici ently squeemish about 13 to warrant eliminating it from the numbering systems for rooms and floors. Other hotel men use the 13th floor for busi ness offices, apparently showing that they have no fear of the number jinxing their financial condition. And the French, true to form, have a word, or words, for it, that solves the problem pretty well for them. In fact, they have a whole plot that disguises the thing so well that you’re never really sure which floor you’re on. In the first place, they call the floor that comes after 12 ’’douzieme bis,” or 12 twice. But the clever French start their numbering with the second floor by calling it ‘‘pre mier etage,” which translates something like "first story,” so that by the time you get to the 13th floor you find that the French have labeled it the 12th story, and when you go to the 14 th floor the French are all sit ting around pretending that they are still on 12. But it doesn’t seem to bother anyone. 80 MUCH for the French. After them come the red heads. I’m not quite sure how they fit into Friday the 13th, but apparently the two of them have alwaya been with u*. I gucsM il'» all connected with luck one way or another, and if you are a redhead now you arc very lucky, becauae If you had been a redhead in the Middle Agea life would have been tor tuouH. Itcdheada of the Middle Ages were always being tor tured becauae they were sus pected of being witches, a pro fession frowned-upon at that time. In Italy redheads were held In 111 repute because legend had it that Judas Iscariot had red hair, and Judas has never been regarded as a national saint. ANYWAY, after they were tortured and tormented for a few years, the redheads of the Middle Ages were burned at the stake, which gave rise to another superstition: that all redheads are fiery tempered. But back to 13. Some people won’t sit at a table with 12 other people be cause It is supposed to be an omen that one of them will die within the year. A few local proponents of the scientific method have suggested that somebody make a point of go ing to large dinner parties, with 10 to 15 people in attendance, and taking note of the guests. Then the number of deaths oc curring among guests who at tended dinner parties of 13 could he compared with deaths among guests at parties of other sizes. The theory is that one (Continued on pat/c 3) ^ OREGON DAILY EMERALD The Oregon Daily KineraM in published seven (true* in Septernlicr ami five day* a week during the school year, except dur ing examination and vacation i>eriod* hy the Student Publication* Hoard of the University of Oregon. Entered a* second ciaaa matter at the post office. Eugene, Oregon. Subscription iatc*: $5 per year; $2 Per term. Opinion* expressed on the editorial page are those of The Emerald and do not pretend to represent the opinion of the ASUO or the University. DAN PFAPP. Editor STEVE Ml LUKIN. Business Mgr. RON HULL, Managing Editor LEE 11 ’R.\Bl ll, Advertiiinf Mgr. KEITH POWELL. News Editor TED MAHAR. Editorial Page Editor PHIL COGSWELL. Asst. New* Editor DIJLCY MORAN Asst. New* Editor YVONNE KGGKKS. Assistant Managing Editor DAVE SANDS, Photo Editor PETE DOWNS, Sport* Editor JOE HKRGER. CHRIS < 11UKCH, Assistant Suorth Editor! BARBARA CHANTRY, WctneVf Editor LINDA BROWN, Entertainment Editor JANET GOETZK, Feature Editor EDITORIAL HOARD: Dan Pfaff, Ron Hue!, Keith Powell, Ted Maliar, Phil Cogswell, Yvonne Kg* gers, Allison Blakely, Ga le Osburn, (Juentin B'»*en, Pete Downs, Virginia Anderson, Barbara Chantry.
