Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 26, 1964)
Curtain Call Theatre Freedom ami Academic Rights n Conflict The “Third Stream Theatre” played its entire run last weekend before small au diences of carefully screened patrons while the writers and producers declared they had been censored. Howard Richardson, the faculty member who ordered the pro duction cancellation just ten hours before it was scheduled to open, admits that his action was partially censorship but declares that the deciding factor in his decision was the quality, not content, of production. Even if Mr. Richardson’s act in cancelling the plays can be justified, a hazy problem at best, he deserves some criticism for waiting until virtually the last minute to voice his dissatisfaction with the produc tion. The “Third Stream Theater” was one of the student productions offered as a class room project in a course of play produc tion. The plays produced were selected by class participants from scripts written by students and placed on reserve in the lib rary during winter term by Mr. Richard son. Both Mr. Richardson and students participating in the seminar had been aware of the content of the plays for some time and the plays had been in production since the beginning of spring term. Can celling the show on the performance and without previous warning that the quality of rehearsals was not coming up to expec tations is unfair to all those connected with the production. Mr. Richardson seems to have had trou ble deciding whether the seminar was to be run like a class or on a professional theatrical basis. He observed the profes sional custom of not attending rehearsals unless invited by the producer or author and yet exercised his authority as a profes sor in cancelling the performance. He ex pected professional production quality and yet exercised his academic right as a pro fessor when this quality was not forthcom ing. The plays were not pornographic as some rumors circulating last week stated. One play, perhaps the most questionable of the three, had been produced in Portland earlier in the year and so was not unques tionably in bad taste. While Mr. Richardson’s decision is not indefensible, his timing in deciding to stop the productions was inconsiderate of the students involved and not above reproach within the tradition of the free theater. We cannot condemn the professor nor sup port the student complaint without reserva tions. The theater seminar is an experi ment this year. If it is continued, a definite procedure for faculty evaluation of pro duction standards and for the faculty’s role in censoring the plays should be es tablished with the consent of both students and professors before work on the plays begins. The Lemmings The extensive apartment house construc tion currently under way around the cam pus is indicative of a trend in student life which has become more prevalent, off campus quarters. Students have apparently become dissatisfied with group living units or can no longer afford them and are seek ing other abodes. Vernon Barkhurst, director of admis sions, reports total admission activity for fall term next year is up 13.7 per cent from last year at the same time. The number of applications for dormitories, however, had shown a 25 per cent decrease as of May 18 during the same period. The decrease in the number of women applying for dormi tory rooms is particularly notable, about 33 per cent as compared to 16 per cent for men. While the percentage of students liv ing in University on-campus housing has decreased in recent years, the off-campus sector has grown. During fall term 1963, 3,085 students lived in either private units or at home. Married students accounted for another 2,018, bringing the total off campus students to well over half the stu dent population. Several reasons are behind this emigra tion from the dormitories, co-ops, and Greek houses. One is the decision made last year to eliminate the apartment rule, and to allow all women students except freshmen to live off-campus. Administra tive postponement of more liberal women’s closing hours was also no encouragement for some students to remain in the regu lated living units. The dormitories are not the only living groups discovering empty rooms. The per centage of Greeks living in houses has de clined, and one fraternity house on campus with a capacity of 50 men is presently hous ing fewer than 10. With an anticipated enrollment of 10,525 for fall term, the University should have little difficulty filling the dormitories. But, while the application figures are still only incomplete, barometers of the final results, the decreases do indicate that fewer stu dents are interested in dormitory living. This is most true in the upperclass dorms, the residents of which are not required to live in on-campus housing. Students are notorious for their dislike of compulsory meetings and social func tions and for their antipathy toward regu lations of any type. The less control the better they cry with anarchist tones. Maybe the move from the dorms is an escape from the rules, the courts, the counselors and, partly, from the University. But whatever the reason, the off-campus students are becoming an increasingly larger sector of the campus population. Letters to the J UiUtU' IUI!!IUIIlll!!li)!IUill!liltUUllilUII Theatrical Performance Emerald Editor: As if enough damage had not been done to Thirdstream Thea tre, the production of three one act plays closed to the public by Dr. Howard Richardson, Dr. Richardson descended deus ex machina into the middle of Thirdstream’s performance be fore an invited audience Satur day evening to deliver an ex planation of his censorial ac tion. Richardson reiterated his claim that the plays were infer ior productions and did not merit public viewing. Dr. Richardson’s address rep resented a gross discourtesy to the members of Thirdstream’s staff. To take the stage and criticize a production to its au dience is not only rude but unfair, since the critic’s remarks could easily color audience re action to the drama. As a pro fessional playwright, Dr. Rich ardson must have been aware that his speech constituted a breach of theatrical ethics. Yet he persisted. Along with other members of the production, my first reaction to Dr. Richardson’s address was anger, for had his remarks been successful the production might have been sabotaged. As it turned out, however, should Thirdstream have another per formance of its evening of ab surd theatre I shall urge the producer to book Dr. Richard son for the finale. Robert LaRue Instructor, English Her block w ISUWSM fff(4.Cr)KNI'(3 WAUACC'i RCTKf AI 0 - J<reM. co«MPo»4fc* I WALLACE'S I HUMILIATION * t)|< ^«cr cob&wqw. POME*? mm m iwii' From AnotixT Campus Utah Teachers’ Dilemma The following is an editorial reprinted from the Daily Utah Chronicle during the recent teachers’ strike in that state. Teachers in the Utah public schools walked off their jobs in protest against Utah Governor Clyde who refused to call a spe cial meeting of the state legis lature to review education's fin ancial situation. The governor had promised earlier to call the meeting if it were deemed neces sary. The Utah education contro versy has raised some interest ing concepts and philosophies regarding the nature of the re lationship between the State as employer and teacher» as em ployees. The biggest question — and what seems to be at the crux of the issue — is: how much of a public trust is education, and where do employees take their grievances when they feel they are not working under satisfac tory conditions? The Constitution of course leaves education up to the states. Thus the peoples of those states become the employers of teach ers and are the ultimate deter miners ot salaries, Duuuing con struction, etc. A strike is then a strike against the peoples of the state for higher wages, better conditions, or whatever, and technically no different than a bus or plane or train strike But the problem legally and morally becomes increasingly complex when one looks at the particular problem: these are teachers, not truck drivers nor doctors on strike. The State of Utah is the employer, not Union Pacific or New York newspaper corporations. Every two years our legisla ture meets to consider the edu cation appropriation. It is of course never adequate, and prob ably never will be, but it is a de cision made by duly elected legislators — representatives of the people. The conservatives’ stand, represented adamantly, but not articulately by Gov. Clyde, is that if teachers want more money, they should take it to the people this summer and next fall and then to the next legislative session in January. The Utah Education Associa tion, prodded on by the dynamic and quite articulate John Evans, believes that Utah’s representa tives have not been fulfilling their obligations to the people for better education of the citi zenry. Teachers, says the UEA, have been continually put down by the Governor in attempts for a special session of the legisla ture. The breaking straw came when Clyde refused to follow the suggestions made by a com mittoe ho himself formed Thus the very complex ques tion regarding the concept of the State as an employer is raised: should the teachers wait for the next legislature and achieve their gains by lobbying, buttonholing legislators, and other so-called 1democratic” methods, or should teachers strike against the legislature— or the people—for another m-* sion and better conditions? The teacher’s moral issue has been raised, we are well aware of traditional image of teacher* as "true public ser vants and protector* of the American way of life and in stillers of knowledge and citi zenship in the nations chil dren.” The "Salt I.ake Tribune,” for example, has made a great deal out of the teacher’s "responsi bility to children," and how it is immoral to strike in this ’’cru cial" period during the last two weeks of school Observations are made by others of the sub.se quent recklessness of the chil dren when their teachers don't show up for class. We cannot help but wonder, however, whether this sort of activity is the result of a par ental ommlssion or commission, rather than the mere absence of teachers. If the question is a moral one, one centering around responsi bility to the children of our state, then it would seem that the people, the legislature, and possibly the governor arc the immoral persons—not the teach ers. They did not strike after all merely for higher wages for themselves, hut “better educa tional facilities” for Utah chi! dren. The walkout was a protest against a stubborn, conservative governor who has stuck to his "principles” of “lawful” methods of obtaining more money for education not by "threats” to the people of Utah. The teachers have thus sound ed the trumpet, aroused many Utahns from their usual apathy Perhaps they have threatened the legislature—but then, who doesn’t? Teachers across the nation (Continur/I on pane 3) OREGON DAILY EMERALD The Oregon Daily Emerald is published twice in September and five days a week during the academic year, except during examination and vacation period* by the Student Publication* Hoard of the Uni versity of Oregon Entered as second class matter at the post office, Eugene, Oregon. Subscription rate* per year; $2 per term. Opinions expre-sed on the editorial page are those of t'•* Emerald and do not pre tend to repiesero 'he opinions of the ASUO or tl" I 'o' .e-Uy CATHV NEVILLE, Editor J. CRAIG MATHIESEN, Business Manager