Newspaper Page Text
Pag* 4
Th* Red and Block
Tuesday, February 3, 1970
Cf)e ftrti anti IB lack
Sandra Scaramucci
Business Manager
Michael Howell
Editor
Tom Giffen
Managing Editor
Howell Medders
Associate Editor
Realistic approach
Among the topics in the news
which are so frequently yet superfi
cially discussed the issue of drug
abuse ranks high. It is no secret
that this problem exists in varying
proportions on virtually every col
lege campus in the nation and even
in most high schools Theologians,
politicians, psychiatrists, physi
cians. moralists and lawmen are
all quick to offer their views on the
subject and the reoccuring con-
tradicitions emerging from their
frequent debates usually serve to
keep the issue submerged in waters
muddied by sensationalism, fear,
mysticism, speculation and even
politics. To say it is time the issue
is dealt with realistically is to utter
a cliche, but the triteness is only in
the familiarity of the phrase, not in
its relevance
We are reassured by the position
assumed by the University Division
of Student Affairs stating that they
will work to provide information to
students concerning drugs We only
hope they will be able to dissemi
nate this information objectively
so students will have a base of fact
from which they will be able to dis
pel the myths and fabrications pro
jected by those who base their
views on emol'o.vaiism and special
interest
A more resounding note of opti
mism was sounded by the passage
of a U S. Senate bill last Wednes
day which will provide more realis
tic laws to deal with drug abusers
and those who profit from the ille
gal traffic of drugs We hope this
law will set a precedent for state
laws by awakening people to the
fact that the law can not relieve the
situation by punishing the victims
of drug abuse. This law as it stands
may not be the ultimate answer but
it is at least a move in the right
direction to direct the efforts of
law enforcement agencies toward
the drug pushers who are exploit
ing the curisotity of America's
youth
Michael Howell
One of the phenomenons on the Uni
versity campus is the student who is
committed This person runs from
chapter meeUng, to seminar to student
government meeting rarelv slowing
down enough to analyze where he is
going at this high rate of speed Many
of these people crash hard when they
find their desbnaUon can be summed
up in the title of the Fifth Dimension
song. Which Way to Nowhere 1
The opening stanza says, Which
way to nowhere, that s all I really need
to know 1 " Oddly this characterizes
'Which way to nowhere ? '
many people one meets in the upper
crust of University stduents Rarely is
the moUvaUon these people possess of
a purely selfish and vindictive nature:
still, the thing that makes them go be
lies the often mouthed remarks of
service and leaving a place better than
it was found Sometimes they are look
ing for the security of a world they left
in a huff Personal relationships fall
apart and someone leaves to find some
thing of what they had They run har
der and harder-right into a brick wall
of reality that the past is dead and that
their effort is a treadmill existence
rather than the upward progression
they would like to think it is.
This foregoing description is not an
across the board chacterization. but
rather is the sad truth about the way
interpersonal contention and dreams
crashed can drive a person beyond
endurance to prove a point which is
important only to that particular per
son
Many of the committed are of the
type who are seeking the answer to
their individual need for recognition
Their seeking of glory is not all bad
since it often results in progress and
beneficial change for the University
They are not the committed who are
possessed by the feverish drive to
prove an obscure point
So the search for nowhere goes on tv
many caught in the whirl of demands
ihev have placed on themselves They
continue to run in place seeking a
purging of their own mind and consci
ence They are the ones who are really
the lonely ones, they have nothing
more than lompulsion to run from the
nebulous ideals of the past which they
will not let go
Sieve Curry
Eulogy on the stars and stripes
Fund guidelines
If the maladies infecUng America
are indeed terminal, as some have
suggested, then perhaps a fictional
post mortem examination may shed
light on its unique medical case histo
ry
First, it is important to determine
the nature of the illness that afflicted
this once hardy patient, America
Many conservative members of the
medical profession invariably attribute
its death to external causes Usually
they find declining health a result of
invading hordes of foreign ideas bent
on the destruction of all sound capital-
istc systems Being of the old school,
they often referred to dusty books of
old cases, preferring not to examine
each case on its own merit These men
of established reputaUon prescribed
during their treatment massive doses
of military defense and imperialism
mixed with extracts of ABM. Southeast
Asian warfare, dictatorship, and Selec
tive Service reform The cost of the
treatment was inflationary of course,
but if it succeeded it was well worth the
price Alarming reactions and side ef
fects were noted in the patient These
were manifested in large scale anti
war movements, increased draft eva
sion. declining world respect, and the
outnvhi hatred of some political and
governmental organisms
More reactionary medical men
chose to ignore the origin of the var
ious symptomatic internal disorders
and concentrate on immediate reme
dy. Believing the patient close to
death, these practiUoners advocated
major surgery to remove dangerous
and offensive lih»»"»|* communists.
anarchists, demonstrators, objectors,
integratiomsts. and reporters As one
might suspect, the removal of so many
necessary parts left a gaping unheala-
ble cavity that prevented the govern
mental processes from functioning
normally
In this condition the patient stum
bled from the Establishment Medical
Clinic, drained of his financial and
Physical resources and feeling much
the worse for his harrowing experi
ence Being inclined toward the tradi
tional methods, the patient persisted in
his visits to his healers” (regular
appointments every four years with
minor checkups called the mid year
elections i
More and more he heard disturbing
medical reports from the Radical Phy
sicians Association warning him of
impending disaster if he continued to
rely on interns who used billy-clubs to
open skulls and mace to cure sinus dis
orders He could tell by the rumblings
within and by the polluted air he ex
pelled from liis lungs that all was not
well Still not willing to risk a change,
he decided to have those proponents of
dangerous reform barred from the
medical conventions in 1968. Unfortun
ately he was not completely success
ful A few leaked into the barbed-wire
enclosures and others shouted revolu
tionary medical theories on the out
side The well-established conservative
professionals won in the end through
muttered incantations and through
threats of black magic
Feeling utterly defeated in their ef
forts to save this deserving patient, the
liberal doctors issued their report in
the form of a death certificate or a eul
ogy It read something like this
The patient, America, died in the
sixth decade of the twentieth century-
after prolonged illness at the age of
193 Possessed with a great will to sur
vive. the subject surrendered only aft
er an intense struggle against over
whelming odds. Bled by patriots and
poisoned by industrialists, its resist
ance to undemocratic ideas was weak
ened With its strength expended on
foreign battlefields, it failed to pay
heed to its own domestic situation Its
poor and unemployed areas withered
and died because of malnutrition Fi
nally. all hope was destroyed by relie-
ance on quack' solutions to its severe
problems. No death blow was struck It
seems that the patient simply lost the
will to continue Its democratic spirit
has at last surrendered
Arrangements for cremation and
burial are now being made by the SDS.
the John Birch Society, the Black
Panthers, and the American Independ
ent Party, All are invited to the cere
mony
Put Him Behind Bars!
Pending before the Senate are
two additional guidelines which
will further define the criteria for
the allocation of Student Activities
monies to various campus activi
ties One of the proposed guidelines
authorizes allocation by the fiscal
year for organization travel,
while the other seeks the estabhs-
ment of a small clubs fund to fur
nish money (or many of the small
specialized groups on campus
The Hed and Black endorses both
guidelines and offers it support
especially to the idea of the small
organizations fund One of the most
often heard criticisms of the new
student administered system is the
inability of many of the specialized
groups to get allocations for their
various activities. As SGA Treas
urer Robert Fortson. administra
tor of the budget, stated in last
Thursday's Red and Black, the
people involved in the sum total of
the specialized clubs is more than
large enough to warrant the crea
tion of such a catagroy for their
funding
We urge the Senate to pass the
proposed guidelines since we feel
that the new rules will make the
allocation of the money more equi
table and remove some of the
chances of human error through
misinterpretation.
Confirmation
The results of a Senate foreign
relations committee investigation
of the administration's policy of
Vietnamization of the war released
yesterday adds credibility to the
belief that South Vietnam will nev
er be able to assume complete con
trol of the war effort.
The President has always ad
mitted in his various statements
and restatements of policy that the
assumption of eventual Vietnami-
zation was a gamble And the doves
have responded each time that the
stakes are too high to continue
playing the game. The results of
this report seemed to have raised
these stakes.
In view of these apparently
greater odds against breaking even
in the game the time for a reasses-
ment of just what our objectives in
Vietnam are is drawing closer
•Reader Reaction*
Questions pass-fail rationale
.Steve Stewart
Liberal bigotry and oversimplification
The terms conservative and rac
ist'' are not synonymous, although
many liberals, sbpping into the error of
oversimplification would have them
appear to be so
Their .attitude presents a real lundr
cap to sincere conservatives whose
opinions are written off as not worth
while simply because they come trom
supposedly closed minds
Such should not be the case. By la
beling am and all conservatives as rac
ists the liberals are destroying their
chance tor constructive dialogue
They, themselves are exercising a
bigotry that nullities the contribution
that could be made bv those whose con
servatism is as intellectually pure as
the liberals liberalism
Part ot the trouble here is that liber
als yield to the human temptation to
write oil anybody who disagrees with
them as worthless Since die goals ot
conservatives and racists, within the
particular area ot social action that
concerns us here are often identical
and since racists are generally de
spised i at least overt Iv > by evervbodv
the racist label is a convenient on' to
slap on conservatives
The rest ot the lault — and prohablv
the largest part - lies with racists
who lor want ot respectablitiv have
termed themselves conservatives
You will recall that when George
Wallace cast the gauntlet in the dust
before the feet of tyranny l Alabama
governor s inaugural address. 19631. he
decreed. Segregation today, segrega
tion tomorrow segregation lorever!
That was when racism, in the South at
least, was respectable
But recently Mr Wallace has been
playing to a larger audience — i e. a
national one - that requires a more
subtle approach Asked on one of the
national TV interview shows i "Meet
the Press.' maybel to clarify that
embarrassing statement ot 1963. the
presidential candidate ot 1968 said thy
statement might better be interpreted.
Slates rights today, states rights
tomorrow etc
Quite the contrary We would be
reading Mr Wallace s oratory more
accurately today if we substituted
segregation every time staes'
rights appears For that is the mes
sage he would like to convey to a sub
stantial portion of hs audience
Mr Wallace, ot course is onlv one
example One has trouble believing
people like Lester Maddox are true
conservatives when he notes that their
conservatism is one cl convenience
to be called on when needed to justifv
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what they want to do The real reason
for their actions, it often appears, is
personal preference or political expe
diency
Such people put real conservatives
— among whom I would classify Barry
Goldwater and William F Buckley —
in a sorry light The Maddoxes and
Wallaces are harming conservatism
immeasurably by providing reasons to
question its respectability
It is difficult, as a result, for liberals
to understand how anyone can truly
disagree with them on the basis ot prin
ciple There is a partial breakdown in
the checks-and-balances system ot the
most elementary form - free and open
debate - with the liberals coming out
on the winning side
Now. the liberals may be nght. but
their proposals should not go unchal
lenged If the opposition makes itself
unrcspectable they will do so So the
pseudoconservatives should not com
plain w hen they lose
Letters policy
The Editors welcome contributions
to Reader Reoction ot an eiompl* of
the student interest m th* University.
However, th* Editors reserve tti*
right to edit contributions to conform
to style, good tost*, decency and tbet
lows, letters slsould be typed doubted
space ond should not ercept m
instance exceed 300 words m length
It is with the greatest interest that I
listen to the current arguments about
the institution of a pass fail system of
grading Of almost as much interest
are those doing the most vehement
arguing
Apparently once all the rhetoric is
brushed aside the only substanUve is
sue left is whether or not the pass iail
concept will enhance intellectual de
velopment It would appear that it. and
associaUve research, are the sole
purposes of this or another instituUon
of higher education (That there are
some courses which one may well seri
ously question on grounds of relevance
is almost axiomatic: however, that
still leaves the central question unan
swered i Following are a few points
which I feel to be germane
First, it should be apparent to all
that real intellectual achievement las
opposed to development of unsupport
ed opinion i requires effort It should
also be apparent that, within limits,
intellectual development is directly
related to the effort. While it is not so
obvious, one is constrained to admit
that if the effort be directed by compe
tent persons the correlalionship is even
greater
Second, it is a purpose of grades oth
er than pass fail to recognize the effec
tiveness lor absence I of such effort
above the minimum necessary for
passing That the present grading sys
tem does not perfectly achieve that
goal goes without saying, but neither
should the imperfections be exaggerat
ed to its detriment I believe that, all
prejudices aside, one must agree that
'Empire building
A past issue of the "Red and Black
( thirteenth January! reported the
meeting of the Arts and Sciences Fac
ulty Committee, which has been revis
ing B A degree require
ments Unfortunately, the information
released on an area of such importance
to the students has been sparse
The stated purpose of ihe revision is
to reduce the number of required
courses and increase the number of
elecUves As the Red and Black' re
ported the Study Committee proposed
lowering the science requirement to 10
hours The Faculty Committee amend
ed this by raising it to 20 hours This is
typical of the empire building which is
earned on by bureaucratic department
heads A basis for this has been the
practice of assigning teaching assist
ants according to the number of stu
dents taking 101 courses The more
students a department head is able to
channel through his 101 course, the
more teaching assistants, money, and
power he controls
Further the introductory courses
which should be the best courses in a
department, are the worst because
they are taught by teaching assistants
who are generally disinterested and
poor instructors Not only are these
empire builders striving to increase
the number of mandatory courses, but
they will thereby increase the number
of poor teaching assistants
The student has not been considered
in this revision except as a number
The attitude of most faculty members
is that students know nothing about
curriculum reform This is a rather
discouraging attitude, curriculum by
its very nature implies taking the
needs and desires of students into ac
count These have obviously not been
considered Students are faced with an
increase in the number of mandatory
101 courses accompanied by a decrease
in the number of elective courses
What is the Faculty Committee s
definition of "university'? Is this to be
an institution where students are edu
cated according to their needs and de
sires 1 Or is this to be a place where
students are merely numbers in a vast,
unconcerned empire 1
LESTER EUGENE O'RILEY
the present system does in fact recog
nize superior effort and intellectual
achievement though admittedly imper
fectly But can one honestly say
that the Pass fail system would do
better 1
Third, one should not lose sight of
the fact that the present system con
tains pass fail concepts That is, D/F
for non-discipline and C/D for in-dis
cipline courses For the person who is
interested in grades and material with
in the course framework only for credit
this is exactly the same as the pro
posed pass fail cutoff point There is
absolutely nothing in educational sys
tem prohibiting or condemning one
from heading off on one's own tangent
Neither is there anything in the system
to reward such extraneous effort A
moments reflection will point out why
this should be so
Fourth, if one is intent only upon the
pursuit of knowledge for its own sake,
why be preoccupied with the recugm
tion accruing to others within the lor
mal educational structure 1 It dors
seem that any mature individual, espr
cially one mature enough to determine
what constitutes a desirable educaUon
would be undisturbed be drudge s"
hardwon grades Perhaps the problem
lies not in the grading system but in
what grades tell us about ourselves
Perhaps the problem lies elsewhere
Aside from the self-criticism forced
upon us by grades, do they not also
open us up to criticism from others,
especially parents 1 Is it not just pdbsi
ble some parents use grades as a basis
for determining effort and achieve
menl also and even criticize its absr
ence 1 Is it not just barely possible that
some students bitterly resent this or
am other form of parental lor otheri
supervision or criticism? Is it not just
barely possible that the question is not
really one of grades at all but one of
freedom from parental scrutiny and
criticism on the one hand and an ex
cuse to be disruptive on the other 1
Tlunk about it
RONALD E. SAWYER