Newspaper Page Text
October 37. 1967
TfU MERCER CLUSTER
by Tom Cauthorn
Student participation in the recent Dul-
cimc elections was something short of amaz
ing. Student confidence and loyalty to the
democratic system at Mercer makes one feel
that perhaps dictatorships are the most
effective forms of government.
A little over 500 students voted in the
election when at least 800 were needed to
make the amendment valid for passage. If
us think that a literary magazine is not
: then they have effectively made
•. . . -r sum when less than 30 per cent voted.
Wi.si someone tells us that the cafeteria
, are too long or that the women’s restric-
j;„ n , are too stringent and archaic, then the
, ..date turns and fails to respond to some-
jkkig as simple as filing a ballot then perhaps
the dictatorship of the deans is the most
effective form of government. But if you
want to stop the dictatorship of the deans the
starting place is at the polls and the logical
beginning in over simple issues such as a
literary magazine editor.
Mercer students love to rally to the cause
like the cafeteria but when something a little
less extreme is in the fore then the support
melts into the complacent cacoons called
dormitories and fraternity lodges and the
only talk is of the past. The past is a wonder
ful tool if appllied as a guide to the future
but if the electorate becomes sleepy then the
dictatorship of the deans must take over and
perhaps appoint a new editor.
Are we stupid or are we lazy? Perhaps it is
both or perhaps we are waiting on another
Civil war to trot out our whipping boys and
play hell with the great old cause. /
■P'S?!
/
c
The Case Agdinst Political Parties
by Russ Drummond
(from The FURMAN PALADIN)
Rat week hazing, fun, etc. It was rat week at Furman
University. An annual event in which the upperclassmen harass
the unorientated freshmen men. The blast of a ctierry bomb
and it was no longer fun. At first it was fruits, vegetables and
water balloons. After the bomb, it was rocks and brick bats.
This event has caused much controversy to come over Furman’s
Rat week.
(from The FLORIDA ALLIGATOR)
A young UF student has called for his classmates to stage
a mass boycott against ROTC. At UF, as at many other
schools, ROTC is mandatory. The student charged his class
mates with the following statement:
“The boycott will have to include all lower division males
— yes all you secure little b will have to find enough
guts to refuse indoctrination by the military establishment:
To Boycott.”
U. S. MILITARY OBJECTIVES IN PANAMA
(from GRAMMA: the central organ of the central committee
of the Communist Party of Cuba.)
While we are listening to our “FLOWERS” in one ear, lei
us listen to our neighbors in the other.
Cotntnunwt propaganda tells the people of Cuba that the
U. S. objectives in Panama are: “A base for aggressive war
against the peoples of America and the other peoples of the
world — Panama is being used in the counter-guerrilla struggle
(in South America) and in aggression against Vietnam — More
Panamanian land is being bitten off for Yankee military bases
for the training of imperialistic troops.” What can I say?
By David Hudson
The reader of the last Cluster
was presented with two fine articles
by Larry Finklestein and Wright
Davis, advocating the reestablish
ment of political parties at Mercer.
By comparing
their arguments
with the existing j;
situations, how
ever, one sees
how weak such
arguments really
are. They base l
their claims on David Hudson
rather vague generalizations mixed
with a scattering of myth concern
ing the effectiveness of those par
ties which they advocate.
Looking first at Larry’s article,
he points out that parties were eli
minated in 1959, to allow more than
just two candidates in each race
and to stop the domination of the
parties by single fraternities. Larry
says that without the help of par
ties, candidates must either flock
to the Greek organizations or un
dergo a great burden in financing
and staffing their campaigns.
In contradiction, however, one
already knows that the winner of
the presidency in the recent fresh
men elections was an independent.
The matter of finances is of indi
vidual concern. In three outings
in campus politics, my total bill
would come to less than forty dol
lars. And speaking of the burden
of staffing a campaign, this is one
of the challenges of politics. Tho
candidate that can best recruit as
sistance and keep winning through
the final run-off has already ex
hibited the potential of good leader
ship.
As far as the number of candi
dates is concerned, a large number
of contestants shows excellent spi
rit, concern, and enthusiasm. Li
beral qualification requirements are
especially helpful in freshman elec
tions where the candidates are rela
tive strangers to the electorate. In
comparison, in upper class elections,
the qualifications and relative
strengths and weaknesses of the
aspirants are better known
there is a voluntary decrease in the
number of candidates.
Larry was also critical of the pre
sent system for being dominated by
different Greek organizations. As
upper classmen, we know this type
of domination is a short lived thing,
and as such, passes back and forth
between the different groups tnclu-
JLaat ^sL — — —
i nurpnineius. r tinnenmrp,
what would stop this type of teas-
tElje ^‘Hercev fllluster
October 27, 1867
Volume XLIX, No. 5
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Tom Cauthom
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Wright Davis
BUSINESS MANAGER MANAGING EDITOR
Bob Lanier Steve Wright
Copy Editor - Claudia Young
Contributing Editors . Becky Sims, Ed Beckwith
Business Specialist Christy Tyler
Exchange Editor Russ Drummond
Executive Editors Bill Dayton, Bobby Phillips
Sports Editor .... Art Ilapner
Feature Editor Dan Newell
Feature Staff Karen Rivers, Milton Moore, Clyde Hoover,
Judy White, Stove Darby, Roger Bell, Reid Banks
Social Editors 1 Leonard Bone, Carol Bruce
Cartoons Roger Poston
Photographer Bob Johnson
Staff , Wardlyn Mills, Dori Ripley, Chris Greis,
Susan Scott, Pom Warwick, Claudia Wheeler, Carolyn Hamil
ton, Cathy Goren, Dianne Downer, Charles Goolsby, Sharon
Young, Cornelia Bennett, Ginny Scherer, Lois Schcller, Anna
Rougman, Linda Poe, Ed Ward
Special Correspondents t Bill Wchunt, Ed Bacon
Faculty Advisors ... .... Prof. Anthony Stansfeld, J. O. Pains
Wright advocates, we would not
desire it Opr jeprosentative# are
required to often stand in our steed
and organize our activities; both of
which are assignments that require
more than a knowledge of
theory and ficticious
in national politics, personalities
assume greater importance than the
issues which are represented in
little used plaftorms.
Wright next tries to pereesde us
to believe that a party system
would negate powerful Greek in
terests; but he should realise^
Larry, that this influe
and should not bejdestxoyed. They
must remember that uncontrnttod
fraternity influence was the asata
fault of the party system to whisk
they mow advocate a return. Undse
the status quo, each group on OMS*
pus, social or otherwise, has an
(Continued on page 6, CoL 2)
Rebuttal In Kind
parties? Was this not one of the
reasons for abolishing parties in the
first place?
The charge was also leveled that
the run-offs resulting from a multi
candidate system tend to cause a
drop in enthusiasm for the run
offs build anticipation and excite
ment in addition to being a demo
cratic necessity. In the party syS-
tions. Personally, I believe that nm-
tem, would not the real election be
the nqminatiOn in the dominant
party? IikUus case, the campus
wide election would just be a mat
ter of this strong party getting its
members to ilie polls^The real
election would have taken place in
the party, another step away from
direct participation by all the stu-
dents.
Turning to Wright’s article, let’s
look at his different points in the
order that he presonts them. Wright
first charges that Mercer has i
"sterility” of issue-oriented poll
tics. This is quit# true for there are
no great splits in student opinion.
We have no proposed tax hike, open
housing bill, or escalation in Viet
nam to create such .divisions. We
are all in general unity in the ef
fort to safeguard student interests,
to obtain more autonomy, and to
have interesting and entertaining
campus wide activities Even if it
were possible to have politics void
of personality and popularity, as
By Wright Davis
Let us consider Mr.
gumentation in light of our original
contentions. You will recall that the
first question under consideration
was the apparent lack of issues in
recent campaigns at Mercer. Mr.
Hudson’s reply was simple —
"there are no great splits in student
opinion”. "Ws are all in general
unity in the effort to safeguard
student interests . . .".
Indeed we can think of no more
ideal situation than the political
panacea described by our president
Just think what a utopia Mercer
could be if there were no issues to
divide student opinion. True wa
have no proposed tax hike, open
housing bill, or escalation in Viet
nam, sd absurdum, to deed with,
but there are the issues at the cafe
teria, the college store, th* co-op,
the post office, the Library, the
dormitories, the chspal. a.cademic
freedom, parking, woaaems rules,
drinking, and so many othiers with
which we shall not oonceirn our
selves herein.
Yes, we will agree with Mir. Hud
son in that all Msroerimns
equally concerned with the* resolu
tion of problems threatening the
student body, just os Americcans are
in general agreement upon the ne
cessity of safeguarding our ; national
interests. But is this not to :*ay that
there exists no dissention dunongst
Mercenans upon the best nneans of
resolving these issues? Meircerians
should think not.
If the primary issues which con
cern us students are to be circum
vented by leaders who only' seek to
interesting l
campus wide activities then hire a
social director. We would need no
student government
We went on to point out in our
second contention that students do
not have an effective voice in cam
pus politics. History has recorded
time and time again that only
through organization can t group
of people assert their influence
upon wliat course that history shall
follow. In other words, only through
effective organization, can we make
a collective evaluation of issues
prior to tho consideration of chruli
dates. Under the present structure
the student body votes on the can
didates’ self-claimed ability to re
solve issues rather than the candi
dates' stand on particular issues.
The issues themselves therefore be
come of secondary concern.
Our third contention is that the
formation of a party system, tran
scendent of fraternal lines would
provide the student body with
choice of the best leadership of all
groups. The concept of campus
parties is not intended to destroy
the Greek influence, but rather to
broaden the political base whereby
the other 51% of the student body
will have the opportunity to be
heard in a more highly organised
manner ie.—political parties.
It is interesting to note that
after reviewing the editions of the
Cluster over die past yean that
political parties did not stifle com-
petition as Mr. Hudson would lead
na to believe. In fact Just the oppo
site was true. In 1960 (parties who
abolished in 1956) four major ad*
fices were unopposed including fha
Vice-President of the SGA. la
1964 ten major offices were un
opposed including the President,
and Vice-President of the SGA la
1965, five major offices were un
opposed including the SGA Vice-
president, Secretary, Treasurer,
and Town Representatives. Tire
1963 records are unfortunately lost.
It would also be interesting to
check the record of that year. It
has been this apathetic lack of
keen competition since parties were
abolished that numerous major of
fices have gone unopposed.
Let us move on to our lourtk
contention that Student Go vest
ment members would be more
sponsible to student opinioa
concrete form. The traditional
paigning techniques of poetess,
speeches, and handshaking cannot
be neglected, true, but, a political
party system provides a much more
mature approach whereby students
can decide on how a candidate
stands on the issues formulated by
his party before he is elected in
stead of how he resolves issues af
ter election. This has been the nor
mal procedure in democratic elec
tions.
If candidates of political parties
campaign on issues which are vital
to students of Mercer University,
is this a detraction from the mJfcx.
purposes of student government?
We know that Mercer students do
not look at their student govern
ment in this light Mr. Hudson
states that political parties do not
have a control over its
—T
re fa
in /in
Icton-
owo their allegiance only to toe
constituencies. Arc not members ef
a student political party to be con
sidered constituencies? What con
trol do “real” citizens have over
“real” elected state and national
leaders? The relationship is parallel
for both cases.
We would hope that students do
not consider student politics of
Mercer as games to play. If Mer
cer campus politics is a game to
play, then what is the status of onr
student government leaders? We
also are electing “real” presidents,
vice-presidents, senators, and ap
propriation committee members
here at Mercer. We take our par
ties more seriously than just games
to be played.
Mr. Hudson asserts that “the
student activists position is mass
subject to criticises—a matter of in
tolerance versus too much toler
ance”. No one need be reminded
that it was those intolerant activists
who staged a sit-in in the library—
the hours were changed; it was
those intolerant activists who boy
cotted the cafeteria—the situation
was improved somewhat; and it
was those over 1000 intolerant ac
tivists who signed petitions in tap*
port of the Dean of ChapeL
These are not political games of
issue hunting or needless political
speculation. These are the issues
that would be given a complete air
ing by those “evil" political parties
during a campaign.