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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1969)
Oregon daily Opinions expressed on the editorial page are those of the Emerald and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the ASUO or the University. However, the Emerald does present on this page column ists and letter writers whose opinions reflect those of our diverse readership and not those of the Emerald itself. RON EACHUS, Editor RICH JERNSTEDT Business Manager Associate Editors Cindy Boydstun Rick Fitch Stan Horton DOUG CRICHTON Advertising Manager Chris Houglum Gil Johnson Doug Onyon Sally Schippers Jaqi Thompson ELLEN EMRY National Advertising Manager University of Oregon. Eugene, Tuesday, January 21, 1969 Words of wisdom from the new President: Case of deception The Senate handled the situation quietly. Perhaps too quietly. ASUO vice-president Dan Allison announced that Randy Gragg had been dropped from the rolls of the Senate be cause he was not a student last term when he was re elected. The Senate accepted that and let the matter pass without discussion. That Gragg was elected Senator while acting as elec tions board chairman and that the fact that he was not a student was not discovered until he had voted in a full term of meetings should have been enough for the Senate to make a little noise. Several facts stand out. First, that Gragg was not a student. Second, he was allowed to be a senator, to file for re-election, and to serve after re-election. Third. Gragg, even though he was a candidate, was allowed to be chair man of the board which coordinates the elections. It was clear malicious deception on the part of Gragg. That Gragg was given every chance to pull it off is disturb ing. So is the fact that the Senate as a body has not even discussed taking steps to see that such flagrant violations do not occur again is also disturbing. We hope that in future meetings the Senate takes steps to see that the elegibilitv of every candidate is validated and that candidates do not serve on the elections board. Another good reason Another reason for the abolition of the University’s rule requiring freshmen to live in dormitories was added to the list last week. The Inter-Institutional Committee on Dormitories recommended a $50 increase in dormitory rates. One of the main arguments against the policy has been based upon financial grounds, based upon the predication that many freshmen, could, with parental consent, live off-campus and live cheaper. In fact, the current question ing of the policy got its impetus from a case involving a freshman girl who was living off-campus with parental consent because of financial troubles. The $50 increase isn’t official yet, but it’s likely the State Board of Higher Education will approve it. When it does it will put the University in a difficult position. The University will have to explain why it requires, in a ty ranny-like fashion, students to live in dorms while raising the “rent” at the same time. I!lllll[||[||lilll!lllllllll!lili!illillllllli!llllllllllilllllllllllllllillllillllllllllll!llillllllllt!lltll!lllllilfi Other editors say |!!IIHIIII|||!ll!l!i;ill!!lli!llllliilil!lilllllilllll!llli!!lll!!ll!l!l!llll!llll!!lll!!lll!llll]llllll!lllill!IIIIIU S. I. Hayakawa’s holy war Editor’s note: The following editorial first appeared in the Stanford Daily, student news paper at Stanford University. Political and economic wars are bad enough, but the bitterest and most destructive conflict is the holy war. Holy war is what we have at San Francisco State. “Colleges today are very much what the medie val Church was—all of that to which the hopes of human salvation are entrusted,” says Acting President S. I. (Don) Hayakawa. “I am seen as a man set out to protect this sacred institu tion.” Hayakawa's vision coincides with that of diplo mat and establishment scholar George Kennan. In a kind of Gregorian chant transcribed by Jan uary’s Readers Digest, Kennan describes the ideal environment for “learning.” It is based on “a certain remoteness from the contemporary scene —a certain detachment and seclusion, a volun tary withdrawal and renunciation of participation in contemporary life in the interests of the achievement of a better perspective when the period of withdrawal is over.” Ilayakawa and Kennan both assume that the role of institutions within a society should re main more or less the same over the years. Thus if universities and monestaries served to preserve our “intellectual treasure” (to quote a local administrator) during Europe’s dark ages, there is no reason why they should not do the same thing today. In fact there have been several advances in the science of information storage and retrieval during the past 1.500 years. It would seem that the role of educational in stitutions might change in response to new tech nology alone. But, surprisingly enough, society itself has also changed in the past 15 centuries. Not many people had time for scholarship dur ing the middle ages. They were involved with things like finding food, making clothes, get ting sick and going on crusades. Today in this country more than half of all young people pur sue their education after completing the basic 12 year course. In California, which is noted for ... its large public college and university systems, the percentage is probably higher. In an age when many important things were preserved in the heads of a few individuals, per haps there was more reason for a “voluntary with drawal and renunciation of participation in con temporary life. . . .” Today the academic ideal seems to be an excuse of disenfranchising, not to mention castrating, large numbers of energetic, socially concerned people. Finally there is the fact that, in the eyes of many students, the society of which they are a part is engaging in criminal acts. It is killing people in the name of some ideological and economic sys tem. In order to eliminate dissenters from the American dream, our nation is diverting resources from the needs of those who want to share that dream. In response to this kind of observation, Ken nan deplores the certainty of student leftists that they are "correct”. “Such convictions seem particularly out of place at just this time,” he says. It is a complex business. Study it, he tells us. But it is because we in the universities must study the world to understand it and to change it that the university has got to be involved in the communities around it and aware of their problems. To be sure a balance may have to be struck between involvement and detachment. But in the past, universities have too strenuously clung to detachment and the people and prob lems they ignored are forcing their way through the gates of the ivory tower. Kennan calls it arrogance. For Hayakawa it is “anti-intellectualism.” "Why is it that students and people in the liberal arts are so quick— quote—to lay their bodies on the line—unquote— rather than engage in strenuous intellectual dis cussion? Why is it that at Berkeley and San Francisco Stale College, for example, a person who supports the draft or sees a reason to sup port the war in Vietnam gets shouted down?” he asks. Can anyone tell him? Probably not. How many holy wars have been settled by negotiation? ■■111111111111 n ii mi i imuiiiiiimiiMiiiiiiiiin i ilium iitiimtiiiiitiiiiiniiiiiiiwi ■niiMinm Emerald Editor: All letters to the editor must be typewritten and triple spaced. Letters must not exceed 300 words and must be signed in ink, giving the class and major of the writer. Those dealing with one subject and pertaining to the University or Eugene community will be given preference. The Emer ald reserves the right to edit letters for style, grammar, punctuation and potentially libelous content. Letters not meeting these criteria and those which are mimeographed or other wise obvious duplicates will be re turned. Major guilt Emerald Editor: In man’s long history of in humanity to his fellow-man, three major atrocities stand out: 1. The extermination of 6, 000,000 Jews by Nazi Germany. 2. The selling into world slavery of 15,000,000 Africans by the warring kings of that continent. 3. The torturing, burning and life imprisonment of untold thousands of “heretics” by the medieval church. Now a fourth such atrocity looms on the horizon: the rape of lovely, primitive Vietnam. Left to work out their own destiny, these people would long ago have achieved unity and a stable government. The inter ference in their internal affairs by Russia, China and the U.S. with weapons and advisors, per petuates the agony. The U.S., by sending troops, must assume the major guilt. We have already napalmed, bombed and shot to death 1.000.000 of these pathetic little men, women and children. These are primitive farm folk who don’t know a Communist from a capitalist and care less. These are patriots fighting for their independence. They will never quit. Are we so far re moved from 1776 that we can not understand this? Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said. "This is my own, my native land"? O America, this evil, like slavery, shall forever dim thy lustre! Kenneth D. Tomkinson * * * Ambassador from beans? Emerald Editor: An article in today’s Emerald seems to make this the ideal time to educate your writers, proofreaders, and the general reading public about the differ ence between “Chile” and “chili”. “Chile” is a country on the west coast of South America. “Chili” is a seasoning made from the pod of a plant of the same name and also the name of an American dish made with beans and meat. I bring this to your attention in reference to the article in to day’s Emerald about Miss Lo reto Hermain, student govern ment ambassador from “Chili”. Your ignorance therefore does not welcome Miss Hermain so may this letter correct that mis take and welcome this exchange student from Chile. Anne Peterson, A Graduate Student's wife * * * Registration suggestions Emerald Editor: In response to Paul Brainerd's excellent article in the January ninth issue of the U of O Emer ald, may I recommend the fol lowing concrete steps to allevi ate some of the present head aches relative to the registration process: cate to the administrators stu dents’ desires and probable course loads during the fol lowing quarter. One of many additional bene fits from pre-registration is the informational advisory to the University Co-Op, permit ting this organization to bal ance its textual inventory and on-order position against an ticipated demand. (No more late books!) Another benefit is the possi bility to rejuggle the rooms assigned to various courses be cause of student load. Pre registration would enable the 1. Mailing registration packets for the following quarter to students with their grade cards. Direct labor savings alone— without considering students anguish — would more than justify this procedure. 2. Making the (or any) proposed “computer registration pro gram’’ more meaningful by using a voluntary pre-registra tion system that would indi administration to alter room (Continued on page 7) The Dark Side of the Dome
