Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 13, 1965)
Not Just a Uniform Class Honoraries Should Offer Some Benefits to Tlxyir Members The University’s six class honoraries pose an interesting question to members of the academic community. These groups supposedly select outstanding members of each class in terms of academic records and activities, and single these individuals out for the honor of membership in Kwama, Druids, or the other groups. The conflict is the type of activity with which these or ganizations generally choose to concern themselves. Take many of the outstanding students in each class, let them wear uniforms once a week, let them sell candy coated apples and usher at special attractions and the re sulting benefit to the participating students and to the campus in general is nill. The fund-raising activities of these groups are important since most of them offer schol arship aid to University students from the funds raised during the year. Yet it is un fortunate that in most cases these fund raising activities are virtually the only in terest of the group. Granted, students who are selected for membership in the six honoraries are al ready involved in other activities and don’t have a great deal of time to donate to an other major organization. Yet it seems that students designated as outstanding academ ically could find time for some activity a little more stimulating than ushering for a Peter, Paul and Mary concert. Each group has faculty and, or adminis trative aavisors. It would seem logical to assume that one reason for the stipulation that such advisors be appointed would be to stimulate some sort of rapport between faculty and students. Yet it has been a long, dark day since any honorary other than Friars held a coffee hour or informal dis cussion with their advisors or other faculty members. Contact is usually limited to per sonal conversations squeezed in during business meetings called to discuss dues, membership selection, or a fund raising drive. One of the faculty rating forms circulat ed at the University in the past was drawn up and administered by Mortar Board, yet Mortar Board as well as all of the other honoraries has remained silent during the current discussion of faculty evalua tions. If the membership of each of these six groups is actually made up of students who have good academic records and who are active in campus affairs, these students should logically be among those to join into the dialogue of issues effecting the academ ic community and could possibly add their weight -as a group to such discussions. Even without planning special activities, honorary groups could take advantage of academic retreats, lecture series and other cultural or academic events on campus by encouraging participation as a group. The realm of possible activities extends far be yond the usual framework of being able to wear a uniform once a week, to list mem bership in one honorary as a major activity when applying for membership in another one, and earning money for scholarship aid. Although membership in such groups should be seen primarily as an honor and not as an activity requiring a great deal of time and effort, it seems only logical to as sume that the participants would expect to gain some benefit from membership. A new group of participants will be tap ped for membership during Mothers’ Week end. In organizing their groups we hope that they will consider the broader scope of activities possible and keep an eye to offering their members some benefits as well as the honor of belonging. Good Program Last week the School of Architecture and Allied Arts brought a remarkable visitor to the campus. He was Nicklaus Morgen thaler, a Swiss architect who is one of the Atelier Five, an enterprising group of archi tects who created the Halen housing devel opment near Berne. A perceptive critic of environment and architecture, he challenged much of the status quo that seems to regulate the Amer ican environment, questioning whether we should build our life and environment around the automobile. He believes rather that the design of our environment should be based on human needs. He argues that we ought to re-examine our total environ ment so that a new emphasis can be placed on the search for satisfactory answers to human needs in an industrial age of com plex metropolitan areas. The Halen development was planned, built, financed and sold by the Atelier Five. Recognizing the need for new concepts in urban living, several Swiss architects or ganized Atelier Five to implement their idea for a two and half million dollar urban community. The design was a complex of five buildings centered around a central piazza and enclosed street. Most controver sial was the proposal to sell the eighty-five living units separately with each owner having a share in the ownership of the sur rounding grounds. Having completed a period of residency as visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota, Mr. Morgenthaler is now visit ing across the United States. His phenom enal achievement is more impressive in that he received no formal architectural training. In light of President Johnson’s program to re-evaluate and beautify our environ ment, we hope that the School of Archi tecture and Allied Arts will continue to emphasize the problems of the American environmental scene by bringing more speakers of such exceptional caliber to the campus. One of the most meaningful student ac tivities seen at the University for some time is the ASUO’s Migrant Labor Project. The project offers college students the chance to use their brief summer vacation to try out a program which is somewhat compar able to the Peace Corps or several of the poverty programs which are currently at tracting large numbers of college graduates each June. Under the project last summer 15 Uni versity students worked with public health officials and county agents in several parts of Oregon attempting to improve conditions in migrant labor camps and to show some of the families basic health habits which may prevent disease fronv spreading in the future. The project funded by the federal gov ernment, is primarily a public service to the state of Oregon but also serves as a very good public relations medium for the Uni versity. Applications for this summer’s project are due in the Migrant Labor office on the third floor of the Student Union Wednesday. We hope that qualified stu dents will continue to participate in this program and to strengthen it. VON T?t •*'! ’If YOU INSItf ON VOTING (OUIWT YOU JfND IN AlHNTtE lAllOTS?" Letters to the Editor Symbolism? Emerald Editor: As many persons may already realize, the department of Eng lish has been very highly irrt tated by the new design of the letterheads for University sta tionery. In their minds, the University symbol resembles an upended toilet bowl seat, and is aesthetically distasteful. Regarding their preoccupation with the "hideous and vulgar" symbol that was adopted for the letterheads, the following information should be made public. The design for modern toilet bowls can be traced to a study done by Backwater and Clog (1927) wherein fifteen shapes were compared for function ra ther than aesthetic acceptabil ity The thesis of the study was that elliptical bowl designs where one semi-axis does not ex ceed .665 of the second semi axis ase of maximum functional worth in spite of their obvious inferior aesthetic value. In def erence to the desirability of brevity in this letter, it must only be stated that the thesis was substantiated as fact Another study of more recent vintage (Flush, 1942) demon strated that the horizontal depth of the water container should not exceed .751 of the smaller semi-axis of the bowl proper As a result of these studies, the American Plumbing Com pany, Ltd., designed (In 1954) a standard bowl of maximum' acceptability. This bowl pattern was selected from an original sample of well over 500 Unfortunately the symbol on the new stationery does not fit the recommended pattern of the American Plumbing Company. Neither does it conform to the standards established in the studies of Backwater and (’log or Hush. In a study conducted on this campus during the past quarter, bowls of the shape identified by the English department increas ed bathroom accidents U2 per cent for adults and proved to be completely disastrous for children. In light of this information it seems feasible that the symbol should be recognized merely as a yoke of suppression for the English department rather than a toilet bowl. I looked a little, I looked a lot, But I still can’t say it resembles a pot. Cordially, (i. M. Martin, Grad. Student. * * * Confucianism and Communism Emerald Editor: The warm and pleasant per sonality of Iir. Chan, who spoke on Confucianism in Communist China Tuesday night, won al most every heart (luring his ler ture When we think about the let ture contents, it seems that a lot of evidences about the red hot concerns about Confucianism in Mainland China were given, though they were not quite con crete in nature The sources were only vaguely presented if the evidences were not possible to be clearly stated and be pub licly observed, why they ap peared in the lecture at all"’ Were the examples given sup posed to bring light or to lay a mysterious and foggy overcast upon the ideas? Were half known facts more valuable than complete ignor ance? Was ignorance ironically put as worthiness or were our probable ignorance about Confu cianism being taken advantage of later on in the lecture’ Was the lecture Implying that com munism might appear bad', yet it did possess certain 'good' points especially in Communist China? In the lecture, we were told that Communist China stressed one side of the word 'jen,'* the society and the fam ily We were given an answer that politeness as well as Jhe relationships between parents and children were important elements of ’jen.' Before I came to the states, however, I asked my nine-year old cousin who visited Hong Kong from Mainland China what were taught in school. S h e proudly replied, "Love not your father; love not your mother, but love only your country." We may then be convinced that the Communist does stress the significance of the society. Nevertheless, how can wc be convinced that family relation ships will exist at all if the (Continued on paye 3) OREGON DAILY EMERALD The Oregon Daily Emerald n puh b died five tinted in September and five day* a week during the academic yc.tr, except during examination period*. i;y the Student I'tihlicitioni Hoard of the Cniversity of Oregon. Entered as second class matter at the post office, Eugene, Oregon. Subscription rate* $.S per year; $2 per term. Opinion* expressed on the editorial page are those of the Kmrrald and do not represent the opinions of the ASl’O or the University. Cathy Neville, Editor J. Craig Mathiesen, Business Manager Chink Hegg*> Managing Kditoi Kenneth 1C Kappel, Advertising Manager Stephen Green, New* Editor Dave Jordan, Associate Editor Joe Hoffmann, Sports Editor Phil Sernas. Associate News Editor Irma Dawn Moar, Associate Managing Editor Hob Carl, Assistant Managing Editor Steve Dirneo, Entertainment Editor Boh Derm is ton, Walt Biddle, Photo Editors Mary Stamp, Feature Editor Editorial Board: Pom Bladine. Pat Molt, Stephen (Ireen, Chuck Bcgg>, Dave Jordan, Phil Sernas, Karen Winn, Hob Carl, Mike Gannon.
