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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 1963)
‘Duck Preview’ New Program Offers a Chance To Raise Quality of Student Body “Duck Preview” will take place this Sat urday. For the first time, it will not be an overnight program. More than 750 fresh men and their parents will be on the cam pus from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The initiation of this new program, one directed at recruiting the serious high school student, is a significant step for the University. Change comes hard on this campus, par ticularly change in a progressive direction. For a long time Duck Preview has been a two-day social, a chance for fraternities and sororities to do some rushing. The empha sis has been on the ball game, the dance, and anything but the classroom. The reputation of a University has a lot to do with the type of student it at tracts. The University has long had a rep utation of being a party school, a country club. Previous orientation days have done nothing to change this image. The University is in a position where any real progress awaits a more serious, scholarly student body. There are those who somewhat justifiably claim that this “more serious student body” will not ar rive on this campus until a change in ad mission standard takes place. Until the State has built a Community college system, capable of taking the pres sure off the state universities, they say, the quality of our student body will not rise. There is no hope for a more progres sive Greek system, for a more realistic dormitory policy, for an improved and aca demically-oriented student government, un til the 2.0 high school students are weeded out before they arrive. A real academic community hinges on this factor, they claim. This new Duck Preview program is a par tial answer to these pessimists. By holding it on a day without a ball game, by taking away the overnight stay, the Greater Ore gon committee seems to be moving in the right direction. Our suggestion for the fu ture is to create more such opportunities for high school students to visit, but to or ganize these on a departmental level, much like what is already done in many schools and departments. We noticed that the Oregon State Baro meter criticized a similar program started at OSU this year. We hope that those in volved with the program here, and any one else coming into contact with high school students this Saturday, will make an attempt to give the innovation an op portunity to prove itself by keeping the activities on a serious academic level. Duck Preview' could become an oppor tunity to increase significantly the level of academic ability in the University student body. Dead Issue We run the following editorial from the Eugene Register-Guard because we believe it makes some very telling points. It ap peared Monday, Jan. 21. Ben Musa, president of the State Senate, asks a good question, one that has occurred to manj as the Legislature begins looking at budgets. Why, he asks, in a state which has increased in population 5 per cent, must the higher edu cation budget go up 20 per cent? Like most good questions, this one has a good answer. The higher education establishment serves directly not the whole state but the peo pie of the state who are, roughly, in the 17 to 22 year old age bracket. In the next biennium these will be the people who were born between about 1941 and 1948. Next year’s college freshman, at 17, was born in 1946, the year daddy got home from the war; or if daddy got home early, he was born in 1945 and will be 18 when school opens next fall. His little brother or sister was born in 1947 or 1958 and will be showing up on the campus be fore the 1963-1965 budget period has expired. There were a lot of those “war babies.” They are the ones for whom we built grade schools, junior highs and high schools in the ’50s and early ’60s. Now they are planning on college, and in increasing percentages as they seek to ac quire the skills they will need for tomorrow. In 1957, public higher education in Oregon was serving 19,494 students. By 1962, the can; puses were getting the baby crop of the early war years, and were educating 29,993 In the next biennium, the one for which this Legislature is budgeting, enrollments will go up to 34,671. it is likely that there will be more students at tending summer school next summer than there were attending regular sessions on the campuses in 1954. That accounts for part of the 20 per cent that Senator Musa wonders about. Also, the tax payer and legislator are invited to recall the events of the past two years. The 1961 Legisla ture adopted a bare-bones higher education budget. Implicit in that budget was a certain level of service that the Legislature intended the institutions to maintain. It was estimated that enrollments in 1961 would be 24,196, or an increase of 11.5 per cent. The estimates were, as usual, conservative. When 26,835 students showed up, there just wasn’t enough money to provide education at the level the Legislature had di rected. The service level was reduced, as it had to be. Part of the request that Senator Musa finds so baffling is accounted for by the fact that this level of service, as fixed by the Legisla ture, ought to be restored. Unfortunately, the Senate president is given to the inept analogy. He told a reporter, “I don’t accuse them (the educational establishment) of padding the budget, but you can take a skinny man when he dies and fry him and still get fat out.” True, true. But the man is dead. Letters to the Editor Against Controversy Emerald Editor: Please do not invite Harry Bridges to the University of Oregon. He is controversial. Controversial people are not good. We should not have peo ple like that near us. It would be much nicer if he did not come. Thank you. Michael Scott, Philosophy Junior Burgess Hall. About the ‘O’ Emrald <sic) Editor: The missing “0” on the Skin ner Butte knoll at the foot of Willamette Street is being missed even if the students haven’t marched in mass to the Corvallis campus. The attribut ed cost .of the “O” was stated as $500; now if this isn’t con sidered grand theft maybe some one should abscound (sic) with Emrald (sic) Hall or even the Student Union, then the fac ulty and campus superiors could utter again “when the students express a desire to see it returned then we’ll attempt to recover it” or “there’s a better one in Missoula.” The law enforcement agency of this vacinity (sic) is pretty adept at recovering past-due parking meter fines. Accepting the fact of nonre covery, a number of possible al ternatives could be carried out for replacement of the “O.” 1) Take contributions of jewelry and other gold items, melt them down, and cast a solid gold “O” of some value; 2) Make the “O” from paper mache’ (sic) so that its loss could be tolerated finantially, (sic) or 3) Place the new “O” behind charged barb wire and in a mine field which possesses a secret path . . . but its (sic) clear the “O” needs replacing otherwise the fresh men will have nothing to paint . . . and the farmers nothing to steal. M. J. Lokken, Senior in Psy-Mth. A/W>' iNf) First Fraternity Column Discusses Pre-initiation Week Sometime last Spring, the Emerald promised the Inter Fraternity Council space for a column giving news and views on the Greeks system. The column will appear every other week. This first one is by Kd Ileal ton, chairman of the IFC Greek Newspaper committee, and was submitted Wednes day. With this edition of the Ore gon Greek, a new tradition is being initiated Hereafter, at regular intervals in the Etner aid, a Greek column will be pub lished in which topics of tunelj interest and importance to the Greek system will be discussed and analyzed in their relation to the University as a whole The purpose of this column is not to enumerate the achieve ments of the Greeks nor to re dundantly praise them either in dividually or collectively, hath er, the reason for the existence of this column is to stimulate constructive thinking not only on the part of the fraternity man but the non Greek as well, to insure the publication of both sides of various controversies, and in general to emphasize the fact that the fraternity system on this campus is able to step back and make a detailed, dis cerning analysis of itself, its problems and its future In the past several weeks, a great deal of criticism has been directed toward the fraternity system The generating factors for a large part of this criticism are the activities carried on by some fraternities during their initiations Therefore, as one of the most controversial fraterni ty issues, the value of some phases of fraternity initiations is a suitable topic for this edi tion of the Oregon Greek. Initiation procedures for the most part are divided into two separate phases, the informal or pre-initiation and the formal. It is in the informal part that the criticized activities occur, and thus it is this phase whose value is under analysis. There is no doubt that, as one portion of pro-initiation week activities, some fraternities en gage in practices which are de grading both to the individual and to the fraternity as a whole; i.e., those practices referred to collectively as hazing. Such ac tions are indefensible, purpose less, and have not part ir, initia tion proceedings. They are grounded and perpetuated in traditions which at one time were accepted by society, but they must now be rejected for they are functionless relics from an era which has now come to a close. In short, they constitute the undesirable aspect of frater nity initiations. On the other hand, however, there is also no doubt that many beneficial activities are carried on during pre initiation week. The purposes of informal initia tion are in brief the following: to acquaint the initiate with the history of his fraternity and to bring about a clearer under standing and deeoer apprecia tion of its goals and ideals, i e . to make the initiate's member ship more meaningful and pur poseful. to instill in the initiate respect for and responsibility toward his fraternity, the com munity, and the University, in general, to cause »he initiate to analyze and re-evaluate himself and his personal attitudes in re lation to his environment, there b y stimulating constructive ideas and high standards These objectives are not merely ideals, but are incorporated into initia tion activities in the form of group discussion, instruction, and work projects Further, these objectives are not merely localized thoughts but can be found in the "Principles of Ac tion" published by the National Inter-Fraternity Conference To be sure, fraternity members do lose sight of these goals: it is then that the good to be derived from initiation is nullified How ever, the proper application of the above purposes constitutes the beneficial aspect of fraterni ty initiations. Some believe that informal in itiation should be eliminated en tirely, for they feel that this would be a perfect solution to the hazing problem Is such ac tion warranted'’ An equitable decision can be reached onlj af ter all aspects of the question are analyzed. OREGON DAILY EMERALD The Oreg<*ti Daily Emerald is published seven tune* in September and five day* a week during the school year, except dur ing examination and vacation period* by the Student Publication* Board of the University of Oregon. Entered a* second class matter at the post office*, Eugene, Oregon. Subscription rates: $5 per year; $2 per term. Opinions expressed on the editorial page ase those of The Emerald and do in t pre tend to represent the opinions of the ASUO or the University. RON ffUEL, Editor MARTY KKTEES, Business Manager TED MAHAR, Managing Editor EVERETTE DENNIS, New* Editor PH * L cocswell, Editorial Pafc Editor LARRY WILLIAMS. Advertising Manager LARKY CRAVES. Sports Editor DC LCY MORAN. Assistant Managing Ed tor DA VE SANDS, J I M F R AKK, JANET OOETZF. Assistant News Editors CEORCE HICHAM, Photo Editor LIN'D/ BRC WN, Entertaiun ent Editor RON COWAN, CATHY NE I LLE, EDITORIAL BOARD : Ron I uel, Phil Cogswell, fed Mahar E erette Dennis, l)nv< Sands I nicy Moran, Linda Iroun I al Carpenter, hob F jrsyth Cra it Ledger wood, Dot r Kagen Jan t C< etze, and I ill H Jtchison
