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The Red and Black, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 1970
Editorials
Welcome Dean Rusk
STEVE STEWART
Another crisis of confidence
Dean Rusk is a welcome addition to
the University community
Rusk, a native Georgian, served for
eight years as Secretary of State un
der Presidents John Kennedy and
Lyndon Johnson In every important
foreign policy decision that confront
ed the United States during those
years, which covered most of the cru
cial decade of the '60s, he was inti
mately involved
His involvement, for one reason or
another, alienated many When his
appointment as professor of interna
tional law here came before tne
Board of Regents for consideration
last winter, there was opposition
(from both hawks and dovesi because
of his role in the Vietnam war. as well
as his identification with Johnson's
Great Society program Equally irrel
evant criticisms stemmed from his
daughter's marriage to a black man
and his lack of a formal law degree.
which some said made him unquali
fied
But the man's expertise is what's
important His background in high
government service, as well as his
reputation as a scholar, lead us to be
lieve he will be an invaluable addition
to the law school faculty. And he can
contribute greatly to the on-campus
dialogue on those issues with which he
has been concerned.
Significantly. Dean Lindsey Cowen
of the law school has said Rusk will
participate in large numbers of class
es outside the law school as a visitor
And a series of "afternoons with
Rusk" - public discussions with a
"Meet the Press" format -- are
planned to further increase his expo
sure to Universitv students and facul
ty.
We hope large numbers will take
the opportunity to get to know him.
It's a privilege to have him here.
The University faces two crises of con
fidence One. as President Fred Davison
said Thursday in his State of the Universi
ty address, is that of maintaining the
confidence of our sponsoring society "
The other, which he didn't mention,
calls for Davison to secure the confidence
of the faculty, students and administra
tors who make up the University
It is unfortunate that, while lamenting
the former crisis in his address. Davison
largely ignored the latter The speech
was. in fact, a rare opportunity to dispel
some of the misgivings a number of peo
ple on campus have about Davison's ad
ministration
Those misgivings are that, wrapped up
in its own concept of what the institution
ought to be. the admuustraUon has been
numb to criticisms coming from within
the University.
Large numbers of people here feel they
aren't being heard when they cry about
faults that seem to them more important
than the prioriUes Davison has set
They say that quabty teaching has been
subordinated to research in hiring and
promoUon of faculty members: that aca
demic advisement is woefully inadequate,
that minority group members are not giv
en a fair chance: that the curriculum
structure is undesirably rigid and at times
Football foul-up
The current controversy surrounding
the sale of guest tickets for several foot
ball games is a result of inefficiency on
the part of the athletic department.
The problem, briefly, is that last Thurs
day and Friday, guest tickets for this sea
son s home games were put on sale Tick
ets to the Ole Miss and Tech games are
now sold out. without most of the student
body even knowing the tickets were avail
able
The athletic department claims it pre
sented news releases to each local radio
station, the two Athens papers and The
Bed and Black Two of the radio stations
say they have never received such a re
lease and no one on The Red and Black
has been given one either The storv ap
peared in last Thursday's Athens papers
and was aired on WRFU
In addition to the obvious foul-up in the
distribution of the releases, it was ridicu
lous to be handing out news releases
Wednesday afternoon for a sale that was
starting Thursday morning. Even if The
Red and Black had received the release,
most students wouldn't have seen it until
Thursday afternoon The announcement
should have - and easily could have —
been in Tuesday's paper
The Red and Black wonders how spur-
of the-moment the decision was to put the
tickets on sale, that no notification was
ready until the afternoon before they were
to be sold
The athletic department printed up an
information pamphlet detailing the spe
cifics of tickets sales and noting the dead
line for coupon book sales The number of
guest tickets sold, the department ex
plains depends upon the number of cou
pon books sold Why then couldn't the
dates for selling the guest tickets have
been printed in the pamphlet too'’
This unnecessary fiasco simply adds to
student frustration with the athletic de
partment and further prompts doubts that
the athletic department is really con
cerned with accomodating the students
for whom the games are supposedly
played.
The real tragedy
Fourteen students were among 31 who
died in Ihe crash of a chartered plane last
week en route to a Wichita State Universi
ty football gain*' The next day. eight fed
eral investigators were to studv the crash
Last May. four students were shot to
death at Kent State University and two
more at Jackson State University. Nu
merous federal and state, public and pri
vate investigations have been made into
these tragedies
Thousands of young men. some younger
than the It football players and many with
the same misgivings as the protestors at
Kent Stale have been killed in recent
years in Vietnam No governmental inves
tigations have been proposed, much less
begun to study why these young inen died
Most Americans are quickly and sin-
cervlv grieved bv the tragic and seeming-
Action not rhetoric
Members of the academic world -
students and faculty alike - are fre
quently and often rightfully accused
of being good at spotting society's
problems but being slow at doing any
thing about them
Many complain about being unable
to do anything effective in curing so
cial ills
There's a program going in Athens
which provides an outlet for fruslral
ed and or inactive students and facul
ty to do something about the pi oblems
oi racism, poverty and general depri
vation which they recognize as exist
ing everywhere in our society — in
cluding in the Classic City.
OFFER is the name of the pro
gram The letters stand for Opportun
ities for Friendship. Education and
Recreation The effort sponsors six
different programs aimed at black
and white children and. somewhat, at
educating white adults about black
historv and culture
Winston Grady, a masters candi
date in social work, began the pro
gram last year with a great deal uf
work and a small amount of talk His
energy and leadership has sustained
the effort and stimulated its expan
sion
irrelevant: that registraUon procedures
are left over from the Dark Ages; and
other things
And they see little evidence that Davi
son is listening Or, when he answers, it is
with some generalized and unelaborated
statement that this year s freshmen in
clude 10 times as many blacks as last
year's, or lack of reward for good teach
ing is a myth (both of these from last
week sspeechi
Some find no alternative but to conclude
that Davison just doesn't care “bout these
things.
This conclusion may be completely
unjustified. The president may be working
quietly and effectively behind the scenes
to alleviate the problems Behind-the-
scenes work gets results, but it is slow
The results don't show immediately Ac
tivists want action now They holler when
they don't get it.
What they need is obvious. Davison
stated it in his address
"I ask." he said, "that this year we
start from a basis of trust in each other
and with the understanding that each per
son in his area of responsibility will do the
very best that he can with the good of the
total institution at heart: that we continue
to refine and to discover new ways in
which we can know and understand each
other better; that we determine that we
will manage our community in such a way
that disruptions and infringements on the
rights of others are not tolerated and that
fairness is always our goal
The feeling here is that Davison has not
gone far enough in trying to convince the
discontented that they can trust him He
has been so apparently aloof that he has
failed to express himself on those issues
they are vitally interested in.
I would expect the president to reply that
he must not take sides on controversial
issues; that he must study all the facts as
they are gathered and. in the end. make
the final decision lor the final recommen
dation to the Board of Regents, as the
case may be).
I do not suggest that he take sides Only
that he demonstrate that he is conversant
with the issues He can speak in more de
tail of the implications of those issues.
Ulus showing the complexity of the factors
he must weigh in deciding He can answer .
questions asked in good faith. He can ask
quesUons of his own He can. in short, es-
tabbsh a new dialogue with those who are
dissatisfied
It would be wrong even to imply that he
should acquiesce to any demand against
his considered judgment. But he should
show himself to be open to any suggesUon.
responsibly developed and presented
It was revealing to talk last spring to a
high-level administrator vitally involved
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in formulating the faculty promoUon pro
cedures that drew so much criticism The
man was totally convinced that the plan
was the best ever-and a major strength,
he said, was that it provided a way to eval
uate teaching and weigh it in determining
promotions
There was no doubt that he sincerely
felt his plan to be in the University's best
interest.
Yet this same administrator had im
pressed many vocal faculty and student
leaders as a personificaUon of research
orientation at the expense of teaching
He needed a chance to explain his posi
tion to the other side And he certainly
needed to hear their criticisms And both
needed to use a little diplomacy so they
could influence each other instead of
forming hostile camps.
President Davison has often said that
anyone with a grievance or suggesUon can
come to one of his subordinate adminis
trators lor a fair hearing. Indeed, several
administrators have been commendable
open They have not always agreed with
grievants. but they have listened and re
sponded
Now. in this crisis of confidence. Davi
son would do well to make himself more
open If he thinks he has gone far enough
already, he should remember that in such
times one who perceives the danger clear
ly is often required to go a little more than
halfway
Letters policy
The Editors encourage member* of the Un
iversity community to use Reader Reaction as a
forum for th expression of their opinions on vit
al issues. Any letters will be considered for
printing. All letters must be signed, olthouqh the
writer! name will be withheld on request.
letters should not , except in rare instances,
exceed 300 words. The Editor reserves the right
to edit all letters to conform to style and libel
laws.
Reader Reaction
MOOOMOOOa
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Exact fare bussing
Why compulsory P. E.?
ly fateful death of humans, especially
young humans, by some natural cata
strophe like a hurricane, or some human
catastrophe like Kent and Jackson State,
or some combination of the two like an
airplane crash
But thousands of countrymen can be
blown up or miserably maimed or psy
chologically crippled in an evil interven
tion in another nation s business while
nobody notices On television, over radio,
in the* newspapers and magazines. Ameri
cans are led the ulUmale tragedy of man
killing and being killed not for no reason,
but because of an admittedly wrong deci
sion
Hut the killing goes on. right or wrong
America cries over the fates of a few, but
is blind and deaf to the agony of thou
sands
TO THE EDITOR:
I would like to add another suggestion
to aid in relieving the ever growing cam
pus traffic problem
1 propose a policy of exact fares, that
is. the bus drivers would no longer make
change for passengers Giving change is
Ume consuming: to add this to long lines
of traffic means you. the passenger, are
late
The tools to institute this policy already
exist. An exact lare policy means, of
course, these tickets would need wider
distribution No doubt many, if not all of
Ihe buses are able to make their starting
and turning around points on lime, howev
er. this does not mean that the points
i stops i in between are reached on time
For instance, the married housing bus can
be three to six minutes late reaching some
of its in between stops and still reach its
turning around point on time because of a
long stretch of highway with no bus stops
These lew minutes usually mean the
difference between being on time and
being late to class
We would like to see this policy intro
duced . it not entirely, at least on a limited
scale preferably on the married housing
route
A. McGILL
TO THE EDITOR:
This is in regards to mandatory physi
cal education courses at the University It
is bad enxigh that physical education is a
non-credit course but to make it compul
sory also is defeating the purpose of the
right of the individual to pursue his own
interests
I have asthma Consequently my parti-
Drug infractions serious
TO THE EDITOR:
The increasing number of criminal
prosecutions involving the use. possession
or sale of marijuana and LSD in the Ath
ens area, particularly amung high school
and college students, is causing great
concern to the law enforcement officers
of this County
I want to point out to the public that the
possession or use of any amount of mari
juana is a felony carrying a minimum
He began the project because he
was tired of talk without action Now
OFFER is providing a chance for
many talkers to become doers
This University, like society,
abounds with armchair agonizers who
abstractly decry social problems
from the comfort of their living
rooms Many satisfy their social con
silences by such academic and inef
fective rhetoric. But some are
searching for an avenue for channel
ing their agony into action.
For these. OFFER awaits.
Echo police praise
TO THE EDITOR:
The members of Task Group Three of
DIALOGUE 70 would like to echo the
comments concerning the University Po
lice appearing in The Red and Black Sept
29
The compassion and efficiency which
characterizes the department should be
brought to the attenhon of students and
the Board of Regents In regard to the
demonstrations in May the police not only
operated as a buffer between the students
and the state patrol but among the stu
dents as well, in several cases quickly and
quietly dispersing confrontations before
serious trouble occurred The department
has demonstrated concern for student
welfare Recently a student was arrested
the reason is not important What is im
portant is that the department was con
cerned about getting him out of jail so
that he could register and attend class
Very special praise is due to both Mr
(Edward! Kassinger and Mr. (Paul)
Dumas for their very fine work
MARTIN YANUCK
TASK GROUP 3
DIALOGUE *7t
sentence of one year and a maximum
sentence of two years; and the possession
or use of LSD is a felony can-ving a mini
mum sentence of two years and maximum
sentence of five years
It is thus obvious that a violation of
these provisions of law carry extremely
serious consequences
I do not regard viuiauuos of these prov
isions of law as minor infractions They
will be punished upon conviction in ac
cordance with the terms of thw law. Spe
cial seventy will be attached to those who
are engaged in the sale or in the channel
of distribution of these drugs in the event
of their conviction
JAMES BARROW. JUDGE
cipation in physical activities is limited
extremely. Yet because of the requir-
ments set up by the University I am still
forced to participate in a recreational
program
The word of my doctor was not accept
able but I was not examined bv the staff at
the infirmary to clarify the nature of my
illness This is not to say that the Health
Service is not doing the job. but when a
student's physical health is at stake then a
thorough examination should be made and
final conclusions drawn from that exami
nation.
Now, in accordance with the University
requirements. I am enrolled in a "limited
or adapted physical education program,
recommending that strenous activities
requiring rapid breathing be excluded In
my opinion, the latter statement covers
an extreme variety of courses
I was told at orientation that the Uni
versity would look upon me as an individu
al but now that I am here this does not
seem to be the case. 1 am just a number
that must meet certain requirements 1
am sure that there are other students in a
similar situation who feel the same way
If ROTC can be made non-compulsory.
why not physical education'’
BARBARA JENKINS
$350 billion war
Rebecca Leet, Editor
Reprinted from Bragg Briefs, pub
lished by Gl's United Against the War
in Indochina, at Fort Bragg. N.C.
Those who believe that the additional
cost i in dollars alone) of the Vietnam war
ran easily be tolerated by a country as
nch as ours, might ponder the actual dol
lar costs of wars in general and the Viet
nam war in particular Once presenting
the figures I'll let the reader decide for
him or herself whether we have forgone
more than we should have
The Bureau of the Budget estimates the
cost of the Vietnam war since 1969 as
being some $106 f billion .Add to this the
cost of supporting .American personnel in
South Vietnam between 1964 and 1964 and
we come up with another billion and a half
dollars This brings an accurate dollar
estimate of the cost of our military in
volvement there to $110 billion as of June
30.1970
But this is only the beginning Past
experience indicates that the largest dol
lar cost of a particular war occurs after
the fighting stops The costs of veterans
benefits i resulting from wars fought in
the last century by this country) havz
ranged from an amount equal to the origi
nal cost of the war to fifteen times the
original cost of ’hat war
A safe estimate in this instance would
seem to be roughly double the original
cost The original cost of the Korean con
flict. for example, was roughly $64 billion.
veterans benefits for its veterans to date
total some $99 billion Assuming that
costs of veterans benef ts resulting from
Vietnam will run some $220 billion, we
now have an estimate of the total cost of
the Vietnam war as being some $330 bil
lion
Hold on. because we are not finished
yet. Using past wars as a guideline, we
can estimate the interest cost of increas
ing the national debt to finance part of the
war as between 20 and 40 per cent of the
original cost Using the more conserva
tive 20 per cent (of the $110 billiani. we
come up with a total cost of the war in
Vietnam as being more than $360 billion
as of June 30. 1970 And the war and its
dollar cost goes on
Jo Ann Rock,
Business Manager
Steve atewart,
Managing Editor
W. F. Toft, copy editor, Nancy Holl, newt editor; Cee Howe, feature editor;
^ MorYin trophic editor; Shoryn Kan.
ond Patrxt Walter*. a**ooate r*w* editor*
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