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)