Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 1963)
Freedom of Information Students Hate a Right To Hear Full Debate The University faculty will vote Wednes day on the elimination of the compulsory athletic fee. The faculty’s recommendation will go to the State Board of Higher Educa tion for further consideration. The issue is clearly one involving student life, yet stu dents have had no part in the debate. Un der the rules of the faculty, the debate Wednesday will be secret. Students will not even have access to the major points of discussion after the meeting is over. Theoretically the culmination of the best debate on any given campus issue should come in the meeting of the full faculty. It seems to us that keeping this debate cloaked in secrecy is inconsistent with the University’s belief in the free flow of ideas and the pursuit of truth. We are aware of the heritage of open debate in faculty meet ings and would deplore any attempts to stymie this kind of free exchange. For this reason we would oppose attempts to make the meetings of the faculty open sessions for all students to attend. On the other hand students have the right to freedom of information. On several occa sions in the past student leaders have taken positions on important issues without knowledge of faculty debate. At times the student community has the opportunity to influence University policy. On at least one occasion student groups have taken posi tions in opposition to faculty recommenda tions without full knowledge and would have not taken those positions if they had been fully informed. Students have a right to be fully in formed about every aspect of current issues of importance. The University can not af ford to pay lip service to academic freedom and freedom of information on one hand and deny students the same basic rights on the other. The faculty’s main opposition centers around a fear that direct quotation in the Emerald would weaken the present debate. They believe that issues would appear on a personality level if the student press cov ered the meetings. We sympathize with this position. The University faculty is not in a legal sense an official (final) policy making body and the meetings are of internal con cern to the University family. We suggest for informational purposes the president of the student body and the editor of the Emerald be admitted to the meetings. An understanding should be re solved in order to protect the faculty from leaks through these students. The informa tion which these students would learn at the meetings should be used in the formu lation of student opinion. These students should never at any time reveal the name of a faculty member or identify him with a position which he took in the privacy of faculty meetings. We want to protect free debate but at the same time we feel that students have a right to full information particularly regarding issues of direct con cern to students. We are hopeful that the faculty will give this matter full considera tion. Stockholders And October 15 From an editorial in the University alum ni magazine, Old Oregon regarding the Oct. 15 tax referral election: “Most alumni, we think, will concede that their University of Oregon stock has increased in prestige during the past dec ade as the institution becomes one of the nation’s “emerging” universities. Any ac tion that might substantially arrest the development of our corporation merits prompt and careful attention by the stock holders. As educated men and women, we have a clear obligation to extend our hori zons beyond the expediency of pocketbook thinking. We must not create an exclusion act that would lock the door of education to deserving youth. They are watching us.” iiiii’.tmuu!imiwuuumuiHHiiinniu STUDENT—A Study of Political Activity Increased Awareness, Activism Relates Cal to Mass Society STUDENT, Political Activities of Berkeley Students, is carefully scrutinized here by Bill Koons, senior in history. STUDENT, by David Horowitz, was published by Ballantine Books, Inc., N.Y. in 1962. It is now available in paper back for 50c. * * * By BILL KOONS Emerald Reviewer There is little that interests college students more than other college students. For many, the university is a world apart, with its own routine, its own challenges and heroes. Yet there are some campuses (Oregon not among them) where the cloistered life is fast disappearing. STUDENT chronicles the political activities of students on one of the campuses: the University of Califor nia at Berkeley. David Horowitz is a teaching assistant in Eng lish at Cal who, together with a handful of fel low Cal graduates (including Burton White who spoke at the University last Spring) has set out to tell the world what the politically-enlightened college student is doing. IT IS AN ambitious task—too ambitious for this little polemic. Still, one must not judge Horowitz effort too harshly, for in his attempt he strikes occasional sparks. “Politically,” he writes, “our ideas were in flux . . . We studied society, spec ulated about its nature, and waited. It did not occur to us then that our ideas would affect the world . . . Where, before, generations like us had reached into politics, we remained, for the time being, academic, detached, silent.” A description of pre-1960 California strongly resembles this University today. Horowitz is con vinced that the California experience will soon be duplicated on other campuses, and it is here that his argument is weakest. THE VALUE of STUDENT, however, lies not in its speculation about future student political behavior, but rather in its interpretation of events at Berkeley over the past three years. Horowitz is more than a sympathizer, he both indicts and defends the student cause. “We watch ed our national leaders abdicate their responsi bility . . . We watched as the university was turned into an amoral institution, even as the political and social institutions had become amoral before . . . And then one fine May before the courthouse in San Francisco, we came in such numbers as to put a stop to the process and to turn it the other way.” In 1960, Cal student formed SLATE, a politi cal party intent on bringing national issues to the university. Although never a large group, SLATE’s outspoken liberalism made it the most controversial and influential group on campus (in sharp contrast to Oregon’s fraternity-dominated political system). With SLATE acting as catalyst, Cal students soon found themselves demonstrat ing against compulsory ROTC, the execution of Caryl Chessman, and the House Un-American Activities Committee meeting in San Francisco. FROM SLATE to San Francisco, Horowitz serves his reader large helpings of emotion and near hysteria. Pictures of police brutality (“a girl was hauled to her feet and thrown back to the floor on her face”), hypocracy (“Do you think we can think of Hungary and not remember Cuba?”) and official stupidity are intended to make even the (Continued on pa</c 3) Herblock 1111 r/lfc KJt*.L f**-k. i**r tui. “Don’t Think I Stand Idly By-1 Keep Asking Them Not To Do This" Firesides, Discussions Cal Poly Program Features Environment for Academics To many freshmen and new students New Student Week was disappointing this year Instead of receiving an orientation to the academic life, they were ori ented to IBM cards, shots, tests, and lines of people They had little contact with members of the faculty. California State Polytechnic College has made its first at tempt at a "live-in" program aimed at introducing new stu dents to the collegiate experi ence. During the three day freshman orientation “The Freshman in Today's World." new students were presented with much written and verbal material. Objectives of the program arc “College is first and foremost an intellectual experience ... a place for young people to find their personal identity, bring about better self-understanding, and develop self-confidence . . . and a time of inquiry—when many of our assumptions and prejudices are challenged ” Through this program, Cal Poly believes that concern for the individual student will not be lost. Students and staff mem bers will try and maintain a close relationship. In its objectives to the pro gram, Cal Poly realized that col lege isn’t necessarily the best years of a person’s life. “There are bound to be mistakes, frus trations, and adjustments; but with a lot of work, a lot of help, and a positive, constructive out look, every freshman should profit from the experience and have fun in the process.” On one of the days informal chats with two faculty members were held in residence hall lounges. The purpose of the “Faculty Firesides” was to re assure the freshmen that the problems now facing them in growing up were once common to the faculty members when they were the same age Discus sions centered around college environment, choosing a major, and other problems pertaining to the new student's life at the college. During the summer students ware sent lists of books to read, and when the students arrived on the campus panel discussions were held where faculty mem bers and students could get to gether and discuss the ideas and concepts presented in the books One panel discussion focused on the status seekers For this discussion students were asked to read books such as The Col lege Experience, by Bellman; The Status Seekers, by Vance Packard; The lonely Crowd, by Keisman; and The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D Salinger Another panel discussion dealt with our place in world afTairs. Students were asked to read the books Goals for Americans, by McWriston; The Great Crash, by Galbraith; The Origins of Modern Man, by Butterfield; and The Status Seekers, by Packard Also during the three days there was a lecture on Latin America and interpretative reading sessions Each depart ment of the college held meet ings for majors enrolled in its department to introduce stu dents to the program offered in the department and to the staff members. Freshmen were also introduced by department spon sors to members of the admin istration. Time was left, however, for social and sports activities and for registration, but during the three day orientation period new students were oriented to the intellectual life of the cam pus and prepared for the aca demic year ahead. Letters To the Editor Duck Goes On . . . Emerald Editor: The recent controversy con cerning the duck representation on the University parking stick ers deserves some comment on several points. Some people have criticized the faculty members who have cut off the objectionable portion of their stickers as being “child ish” and superficial, but it would appear to this observer that this is a case which has more gen eral implications. It can be seen as a form of protest against “the system,” the great “They” of the University. Resentment against “Emerald Hall” always seems to come to the fore ground during registration as the rigors of bureaucratic life are forcefully displayed. As an organization becomes larger and bureaucratic forms of command are necessary to engender efficient operation of the formal group, the individual may come to feel alienated from the organization, i.c., the Uni versity of Oregon, and may dis (Con tinned oh pti</c 3)
