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WEST GEORGIAN
©Editorial
Page
A Bad Scene
Washington, after the veterans and peace marchers
left, was a bad scene. The people intent on civil
disobedience harried motorists, disrupted work in
government buildings, and frustrated policemen. They
did the cause of peace no good.
One prominent senator, who is a hawk on the war
issue, was one of several drivers who had his tires
slashed as he waited in a traffic jam during the
demonstrations. He was outraged by the attack.
Certainly, this man will not look upon the immediate
withdrawal issue with any kind of clear thinking since
those who profess to want peace so badly have obviously
resorted to massive abuse of private and public
property.
Last week’s peaceful march by students, citizens,
hardhats, and businessmen against the war was
beautiful. It was effective, also. For once, it seemed
that, despite the unavailability of some government
officials, public opinion, as shown in anew poll, had
finally swung around in favor of a speedy end to the war.
But now that several thousand protestors are in
Washington annoying not only government officials but
harassing the average citizen, it seems that the new
hope for peace may be dimmed, lost again through
angry, ugly disturbances.
Public opinion is no longer focused on the issue of
peace or the moral implications of the Asian War. The
nation is once again conscious of uncontrollable youth
and the real issue is in danger of being forgotten.
Bomb
Bomb threats have become commonplace events on
many college campuses, including our own. What most
students have failed to realize in the past is that such
occurrences are annoying, troublesome, and fraught
with danger. West Georgia students, however, have
seen during the past week that bomb threats are not
merely a way to get out of classes, but are disturbing to
all those involved.
This week two bomb threats were made concerning
the Math-Physics building, many women’s residence
halls, and one concerning the Humanities building.
The malicious or deranged person who called in the
threats harrassed students, as well as faculty and police
personnel. Women were hurried out of dorms at all
hours of the night, and some of them got a maximum of
two hours sleep. Computer center staffers worked
frantically to save some of their million dollar
machines, in the event a bomb did go off, and faculty
cancelled classes and waited outside their offices during
the frustrating hour when no bomb was found.
The trouble is that the administration cannot dare
take a chance on even one threat. When a call comes in
they cannot ignore what may really take place, if
buildings aren’t evacuated and searched.
And all of this goes on because some person, maybe
not even connected with this college, is chancing stiff
fines and prison sentences to annoy other people. The
mere act of making a threatening call - even when it is a
false threat - is punishable under Federal law by im
prisonment for five years plus a $5,000.00 fine. The very
idea of a building with 500 people in it being blown up is a
chilling thought indeed.
We only ask that anyone who migh* know who our
threatening caller is make that information available to
college officials immediately. The time has come to put
a halt to such nonsense, and we need the help of the
students.
WEST GEORGIAN
HistorySurveyof Certain College
Shows Trouble With Townspeople
The following is one of a series of Campus Perspectives written by administrators, faculty members,
student leaders, and guest columnists. Tliis week’s contributor is Dr. Cecil Fox, associate professor of
biology.
High there Boys and Girls!
I am told that this column is
intended for people to tell more
about themselves and what their
interests are. Well, my interest is
history and I would like to tell you
about some of the things I have
been reading in history.
Just now, 1 am reading the
history of a college. This college
started as a very tir.y place only a
few miles from a very big city.
One day, the king became very
angry that so many of his best
students were going far away to
school, so he changed things so
that they went to the school close
at hand The college grew very
rapidly, and soon there were
almost as many students as there
were townspeople. Well, the
students were from many
faraway places, but the towns
people were only the ordinary
medieval bumpkins, so they
didn’t get on very well.
One of the things that caused
trouble was that the scholars at
the school wanted things to be
clean and smell nice, while the
townspeople wanted to continue
to dump their garbage and
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FOX
chamber pots in the streets, and
to slaughter animals and leave
the refuse for the flies to take
care of. Things got so bad that the
king finally passed laws that
forced the townspeople to keep
things clean, but they didn’t like
this, and whenever they could,
they continued to dump their
wastes in the nearest street or
stream.
AFOUL OF THE LAW
The scholars of the college ran
afoul of the law, and there was
much persecution of them by the
local magistrates. Finally, things
became so bad that ail of the
scholars and teachers picked up
their books and went to another
town to start a college there.
When the people of the town
realized that so much of their
income was cut off (for they
charged much more than other
towns for the simplest things)
they ran after the scholars and
promised them that they could
handle their own discipline
problems, except when a student
was charged with really serious
crimes such as burglary or
assult.
At this time in the history of the
world, the Church ruled almost
everything. In order to teach, a
scholar had to have the approval
of the Church. It wasn’t long
before the friars were able to
dictate who would be teachers.
Naturally, the friars thought they
knew more about the subject than
anybody else, so they set
themselves up as the prime
authorities.
The friars were simple people,
believing in the strictest or
thodoxy, even though they
didn’t seem to know very much
about anything else. They had
H
power though, and power gave
them many, many students,
which gave them the right to say
just what their students would
learn.
ELIMINATED ALL
REQUIREMENTS
Soon, they had eliminated all of
the requirements the other
students had to fulfill and ob
taining a degree literally became
an act of faith. Curiously enough,
a degree from the friars also
meant a teaching job. I won’t
bore you with how this system
was finally changed by a
courageous professor named
Wyclif, but it took many years,
and Wyclif was tried for heresy.
The college suffered, and for
almost 200 years it survived by
the skin of its teeth.
The professors in this college
were very proud men. While
frequently underpaid, many of
them became wealthy from their
outside interests. Unfortunately,
their outside interests frequently
so occupied their time that they
lost contact with their students.
Other colleges developed an
interesting system.
ELECTED PROFESSORS
They elected their professors.
Vv i :s rGeorgian
JEANNE MATHEWS LISA HUGHES
Editor-in-Chief News Editor
Feature Editor Audrey Bledsoe
Assistant News Editor Alice Payne
Circulation Manager Neal Smith
Sports Editor Dan Minish
Copy Editor Linda Russell
Typists Margenia Dorsey, Jose Rodriguez
Photographer Randy Pavlu
KENT WALTON
Business Manager
Reporters: David Brown, Penny Calhoun, Patricia Coker, Martha
Gamble, Martha Gillham, Perry Johnson, Julian McCuller, Michael
Nellans, , Mark Perry, J. Ross Willis, Sarah Shields, Bill Groover,
Tyrone Copeland.
The WEST GEORGIAN welcomes letters from students,
faculty, administrators, alumni, and other interested readers
on topics of general and campus interest.
We usually receive a large number of letters. We would like
to print all letters, but we simply cannot do so because of
space limitations.
Therefore, letters which exceed 14 column inches in length
(500 words of regular type or 700 words of small type) may
not be printed due to lack of space or may need to be edited.
All letters should be typed and double-spaced. The editor
reserves the right to edit to meet space and taste requirements
and to guard against libel.
Letters must be signed, but names will be withheld on
request. Under no circumstances will the identity of the
writer-student, faculty, or administrator be revealed without
the expresses consent of the writer.
MAY 7, 1971
Since the professors were in the
colleges as instructors of the
people, the people had the
ultimate say in who taught them.
Other colleges paid the
professors by the numbers of
students they attracted, or the
students paid the professor
directly for his lessons.
By now, you may have guessed
two things. First, that I am really
not as serious as I should be, and
second, that I am describing the
early (1200-1400 AD) history of
Oxford. There is a principle here,
though. The university system in
the Western world was developed
over a long period of time. Many
of the things we still do have lost
their significance in our modern
world; others are as true now as
they were in the times of Bacon,
Wyclif and Grossetete.
What remains, is the im
portance of establishing an in
tellectual community, where
students join the college, where
all sides of issues are debated and
explored, where free inquiry is
still the basis of the system.
DEVELOPMENT
The story of the development of
the universities reveals that
there is little new in our modern
college. Student apathy, rioting,
debauchery and scholarship has
been the concern of the in
tellectual community since the
time of Boethius. Somehow, in
spite of assaults of barbarians of
all stripes, of wars and
pestilence, of carefully cherished
ignorance, the university has
survived.
If you are dissatisfied,
hopeless, unable to see the reason
for the system, join us. We can
work it out. Remember the im
mortal words of, of . . . well,
remember that those ignorant erf
history are doomed to repeat it!