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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 1963)
Speech Platform, Free Still Not Gone But Forgotten Free speech is something like the weath er—everybody talks about it (sometimes) but nobody does anything about it. Remember the free speech platform? It’s that giant green orange crate-like thing in front of the Student Union. Well, three weeks ago a Senior Class Spokesman said the new one would be completed in three weeks. Just so you won’t have to make a special trip to the SU, we’ll tell you how much progress has been made: none. At this point many polemicists would take off on a tirade criticizing everyone from Chancellor Lieuallen to the lowliest freshman. But not we. Frankly, it doesn’t really matter if the newimproved-superdan dy - concretepermanent - $500 - freespeech platform gets built on time. If there were a big long line of speakers waiting to ex pound their views we would be concerned. But if no one is going to use the thing for another six months or years, then there really isn’t any hurry, is there? No, there isn’t. One other little point: so much rhetoric has been expended on the symbolic value of the platform that we’re wondering what they will do with the old plywood model. To burn a symbol of free speech would be almost as bad as burning books. But to throw it in the garbage would be almost a sacrilege. It should probably go into the Art Mu seum. They could put it in front of the lovely nude Indian girl. This would 1) cov er the Indian girl (alas) and satisfy those cautious parents who want to shield their innocent offspring from the pollutions of reality and 2) provide a topic for potential free speech platform users, namely, cau tious parents who want to shield their in nocent offspring from reality. Letters to the Editor On Election Drawbacks Emerald Editor: It is indeed comforting to know that someone outside the Elections Committee is aware of some of the problems of our present electoral system. 1 can not. however, bring myself to believe in your admission of blindness or in your stated naivety in the February 4 lead editorial. The Elections Committee has long recognized the various drawbacks mentioned in your editorial, and has already rem emied some of them temporar ily. For instance, Carson Hall was abandoned as a polling place last Spring term in favor of the heavily-tra diced walk leading from the Hamilton Bean- Walton area. The library was initiated as our sixth poll ing station also last spring. We grant that registrants must wait a certain amount of time to vote due to the valid and nec essary Poll book cross check system, but I hope, sir, that you shall be. more careful of exag gerations in exercising your power. The Deady-University Theatre area is useless, from our point of view, as is the Com monwealth station. Carson Hall has proved to be two to three times more valid than that area ever will. As to your precinct-type elec toral suggestion, may I suggest that you simply forget it. The students will not respond in that manner, since they vote now only as the mood strikes them. Also, in respect to more polling stations, it is just too difficult and unweildy a job to procure over 120 women now required to handle six polls in an orderly, basically efficient manner. That they have volun teered in the past is something for which I am grateful and for which I thank them. The two suggestions concerning vot ing booths and residence indi cations on student body cards are valid and are now being studied. Relative to the supposed thesis underlying this poorly re searched campaign against the Elections Committee, I have but this to say: the Oregon Daily Emerald is now, has been for the last half century, and, perhaps, will be for the next, the only effective means by which the principles, philos ophy, and proposals of any can didates for and office may be expounded to the student body, and explored by them for pur poses of voting. A three-minute interview, a fifteen-word statement of plat form, and a ready-made ticket of winners is not the way to “promote the return of substan tive issues in campus political campaigns”, just as the present electoral system is not the out standing, or even minor, deter rent to their revival. If the Oregon Daily Emerald must ini tiate a campaign on campus politics, let it at least be honest enough to start with one of the most outstanding stumbling blocks—take an honest and sin cere look at your own political activity, or inactivity, and then begin to relate. David S. Pelton President Alpha Phi Omega Alpha Phi Omega repres entative to Elections Committee * * # Married Student Housing Emerald Editor: Thank you for reporting the hearing held by the House of Representatives Committee on Taxation to consider self liqui dating higher education bonds for dormitories and married stu dent housing. The three members of the committee from university com munities have personal knowl edge of the many questions that arise in Campus-City relations incident to married student housing. As you know they have to do with city services, exemp tion from property taxes, public investment vs. private invest ment, to name a few. Discussion at this point of the hearing was intended to help put these prob lems into perspective. Apropos your quotation, what I intended to say and what I think I did say was that the families who occupy married student university housing are in the age group that have the highest birth rate and furnish pupils for the public schools but whose homes are not subject to property taxation, the source of major support of schools. Certainly there was no inten tion to compare the size of fam ilies of those students occupying university owned housing and those occupying privately own ed housing. I always have and expect to continue to support married student housing for the same reasons that I have sup ported dormitory construction. C. R. Hoyt State Representative Benton County <. # * Reply to Batson Emerald Editor: I Should like the following printed as an open letter to: Mr. Jack Battson (Junior, U of O), 812 S.E. 14th Ave., Eugene, Oregon. Dear Mr. Batson, I am writing in regard to your letter to the Editor which appeared in the February 4 edi tion of The Oregonian. I am writing not to take issue with your views concerning the Oregonian's reporting of frater nity "hazing” activities, but to take issue with some of your statements regarding the Greeks’ position on the campus. As a transfer student, and a Greek, I feel that the opinions enclosed are worth your notice. As a transfer, I have lived four terms among independent stu dents at the University; there fore, I have a perspective on both Greek and independent ac tivities and attitudes. The First Statement I wish to contest: “It is the only fac tion which is interested in man aging the student’s traditions, activities, and government.” Be fore making such a blanket gen eralization, I suggest you com pute the percentage of Inde pendents active in such activi ties as student publications, drama, music, and student body committees in general. Also the percentage of Independents at tending athletic events. I think you will be surprised by the amount of time, energy, and labor put into extra-curricular activities by Independents, even though more chairmanships and “splashes of publicity” seem to go to the Greeks involved. The Second Statement I Wish to Contest: “It is the only agen cy which assists the community in a number of projects.” It should be noted that University dormitories and other organi zations also undertake commun ity service projects. Take, as one example, the giving of food and other essential household items to needy Lane county families during the annual holi days. Perhaps you should state that Greeks do more in the way of service projects, but certain ly not that they are the only faction aiding the Eugene com munity. The Third Statement I Wish to Contest: “It is the only liv ing institution which teaches responsibility for property and, it I may say, even actions, which encourages scholastic achievement, and which offers its members security, friends, and a generally colorful college experience.” I regard the above as a slam against the entire University dormitory system. Dormitory counselors do an ex cellent job of teaching respect for others’ property, and set ting examples of good personal conduct. A review of the Dis cipline Code, AWS Rules for Women, and curfew system will also demonstrate that Greeks are not the only ones who fol low “house rules,” governing actions and the securing of aca demic excellence. It is also m^ personal opinion (Continued on page 3) K.l.P. <*>*<;*/VN*a )i^lO Jt,m C^(ou tier Summer Trip To Ethiopia Experience of a Lifetime Editor’s Note: In the fol lowing column Jim Cloutier, former ASL'O vice-president, discusses impressions he re ceived during a summer spent in Ethiopia. • • • “Expect the unexpected!’’ These were words which we had heard more than once during our five day orientation in Washington, DC., and which were finally beginning to as sume real significance. After one week in Ethiopia unexpect ed things were beginning to happen and only then could I begin to appreciate the remark made to someone preparing to leave for a similar project: "You’ll be doing things you’ve never done before.” Certainly, I had never ridden in a Wollo bus which bounced along a narrow, windy gravel road, traveling 700 miles in three days. Nor, had I ever seen women walking along the road carrying large jugs of water or heavy loads of firewood on their backs. Another new and unforgettable sight was the throng of blind and crippled beggars that met our bus each time it stopped in a village or town along the way. I never thought that I would spend the Fourth of July in a small Ethio pian town, singing ’’When the Saints Go Marching In” to an audience of curious and amazed Ethiopian townspeople, many of whom had never seen an Ameri can before. These were all un expected sights and occurances and they were all just the begin ning . . . the beginning of many new and unforgettable experi ences during my two months in Ethiopia with a private student work project-seminar, Opera tion Crossroads Africa. I FIRST learned about Cross roads when I was in New York two years ago attending a sem inar sponsored by the Methodist Student Movement. After listen ing to the director of Cross roads, Dr. James Robinson, de scribe this program, which is popular in the East but rela tively unknown here in the Northwest, I couldn’t help but feel that this was an experi ence well worth trying for. So, the following fall, 1 applied and was fortunate to be accepted as one of the 250 participants for the 1062 summer project. The only other problem facing me was that of saving, borrowing and raising $900 which each participant was expected to pay for taking part in the program. Somehow, 1 managed to obtain the money required and within two months, I was one of 250 Crosroaders at Idlewild Airport hoarding an Air France 707 jet for Africa Although Africa was our gen eral destination, most of my summer would be spent in Eth iopia with ten other American college students. Together, with our leadei, a junior high school teacher, we comprised Ethiopia Group I, which was assigned to Maymishiam village in Northern Ethiopia where we would live and work in the construction of three additional classrooms to the village school It was en route to this village from Addis Ababa, the capitol of Ethiopia that many of our unexpected oc currances and sights began to take place. MAYMISHIAM village is not really a village. It is a four classroom schoolbuilding built of rock with dirt floors, a church surrounded by a gi ove of sacred trees and a few “tukles" or huts scattered here and there. The nearest town is about 15 miles, six rivers and eight hours by mule away. It was in Maytnish iam that I became extremely aware of doing things 1 had never done before. Most of us in the group lived in the classrooms of the school, sleeping in sleeping bags on the hard mud floor A week after our arrival, 14 Ethiopian college students joined us. They all spoke English fluently, so very (Coniinui'd on page 3) OREGON DAILY EMERALD The Oregon Daily Emerald ix published •even times in September and five day* a week during the *ch«*d year, except dur ing examination and vacation period* by the Student Publication* Board of the University of Oregon. Entered ax second clan* matter at the pout offirt, Eugene, Oregon. Subscription ratex; $5 per year; $2 per term. Opinion* expressed on the editorial page ase those of The Kmrrald and do not pre tend to represent. the opinio 1* of the ASUO or the Univerxity. HON BUKL, Editor MARTY KETELS, Buxines* Manager TED MAHAK, Managing Editor EVERKTTK DENNIS, Ncwx Editor PHIL C OGSWELL, Editorial P i^c Editoi LARRY GRAVES, Sport* Editor LARRY WILLIAMS, Advertising; Manage* I)t LCY MORAN, Anxintant Mar a.{ing Ed tor DAVE SANDS, JIM FR \KR, JANET GOETZ!, Axxiatant News Editor GEORGE BIGHAM, Phot, Editor LINDA HRCWN, Entertains ent Editor RON COWAN, CATHY NE MLLE, TMORA WILLIAMS., Associate News Editoi» EDITORIAL BOARD: Ron Duel, Phil Cogswell, Ted Mahar E erette Dennis, Dave Sands I nicy Moran. Linda Irowit Hob Forsyth, Hal Snow, Gra it Ledger wool, Dot f Hagen Jan. t Gcet;e, and T ill H itchixon
