Newspaper Page Text
March 19, 1968
THE MERCER CLUSTER
Backwardism at Mercer
A Guest Editorial By
The President of SGA
4 . ..y L ]
f by David Hudson
Recently this writer came, by chance, upon a situation
that unfortunately may represent a general condition at Mer
cer. There is a small department in the college that has recently
grown very popular. Blessed with two capable professors who
are bright stars in an old building that is often marked by a
lack of luster, the department has exhibited a relevant response
in a critical discipline.
The problem arises because the young professor has been
given a cold shoulder in his attempts to expand his department,
revamp the cirriculum, and in general meet the increased de
mand in this area of study. It is easy to invision the disappoint
ment of a young man just setting out on his teaching career
and coming to a '‘liberal” arts college and there finding short
sighted “conservatism.”
On other occasions questions have been raised about up
dating and expanding other cirriculums. These queries are an
swered by the stock statement that such action would not be in
line with the liberal arts — it would be too technical and thus
out of the scope of the arts.
One recognizes that there are well advised limits to the
field of liberal arts and that there are many problems in revising
cirriculums, but we can operate on “19th Century standards”
for only so long. This is especially true when it causes us to
lose or to fail to obtain much needed faculty members — Lord
knows we got disadvantages enough in that area.
It is a contradiction for a school to try to exhibit its “li
beralism” in the Chapel, in integration, in its Christianity de
partment, in desiring Wonderful Wednesday, and in its removal
of social barriers and then deny all its departments a chanc^to
move forward and offer the most up-to-date scholarship avail
able. Eventually students will enforce consistency for they will
go elsewhere to find the most recent and applicable course
schedules. The Liberal Arts School is supposed to develop gene
ral knowledge and its more than evident that this range has ex
panded in recent years. Will Mercer meet this expansion?
Surely, we will not fail because of lack of finances — we’re
wealthy enough to have underground wires!
Were We Double Crossed?
Sometime ago the Mercer Cafe
teria was changed into a restaurant
with cafeteria linee; or so we were
told. The proper administrative
authorities said at Waverley Confer
ence last June that meal tickets
will be required the first quarter
to insure patronage and that if the
system was liked then it would be
kept. This was when we thought
u national food service like
S.A.G.A. or S.L.A.T.E.R. or Cam
pus Chiefs would come in. This did
not happen.
Instead Mercer hired Mr. Kra
kow io take over the Mercer food
service. The required meal tickets
were still used because of the phy
sical improvements and the trial
run on a new plan. This plan has
been tried and it has worked better
than last year’s; but only better
than last year.
The meal tickets remain. Why?
Everyone knows that the food ser
vice is here, why require meal tie
kets? If the food is as appetizing
as some have said then drop the re
quired tickets and see what hap
pens. The rather disagreeable idea
of requiring meal tickets does not
square with the new idea of the
quality of the Mercer food. If the
food is so good why require meal
tickets? Everyone would surely
buy one anyway.
It is only interesting to note that
although Mercer has a food service
they do not have a linen service,
nor a garbage service, nor a laun
dry service of their own.
It is again late in the year and
we do not presume to say the food
is good or bad we only presume to
say that meal tickets should not be
required. We do not presume to
A Psychological View of Mercer Panty Raids
It has not been long since I took
over my self-appointed duties as
guardian of Mercer’s mental
health. (Not that I think Mrs.
Hooper doesn't do an excellent job.
She tries. But even she could be
helped by someone who really
knows what's going on.) One
problem that has come to my at
tention is that of the students’
abortive panty raids.
Now, the exact nature of their
motivation and/or drives is this
event—obviously grown out of a
search for a mother-image and
their attraction to the house
mothers, never out of any thing
such as a sexual drive — I
shan't go into for the sake of
brevity. ("Brevity,” Dorothy Kil-
gallen—I think it was—once said,
“is the soul of lingerie.”)
But what really upsets me is
their frustration in this matter.
“Frustration,” my psychology 61
book tells me (this is the source
from which 1 get my information
and the authority with which I
write) “is an event in which goal-
directed activity is blocked, slowed
up, or otherwise interfered with.”
“Frustration as an emotion,” Dr.
Hendricks adds, "is annoyance,
confusion, or anger.” Now frustra
ting events—the cause of frustrated
emotions—are of three types: "ob
stacles, deficiencies, and conflicts.”
The obstacle involved is evident:
Dean Hendricks. There are secur
ity police of course, and rules, and
housemothers, and W.S.G.A. All
bearing out Hilgard’s statement
that they are “present both in the
physical and in the social environ
ment.”
Then there is the lack. Deficien
cies are found in both environment
and individuals. There is the lack
of proper planning, the inability to
keep the mouth shut and not des
troy the surprise, the lack of cour
age on the part of both the boys
outside and the girls within, an
insufficient sense of hi^mor in the
faculty.
And finally conflict Dean Hen
dricks again, and housemothers,
and W.S.G.A., and security police.
Now you have three kinds of con
flicts: approach-approach, avoid
ance-avoidance, and approach-
avoidance. This is obviously ap
proach-avoidance. There is no need
to explain the incentive for ap
proach—or necessity of avoidance
of arrest. Naturally there arises
ambivalence and vacillation.
First of all there is restlessness
and tension. This is evident in the
volume of coop sales after each
attempt, the number of groups
wandering around cumpus, and the
students of both sexes staying up
all night, too tense and expectant
to study—and having wasted so
much time they must study now.
Singing Christmas carols is no real
solution. And who can study when
they are so tense? Honestly, Dean
Hendricks, wouldn't it be better
just to let them go ahead and get
it out of their systems? Catharsis,
we psychologists call it.
Next most common is destruc
tiveness. There are two manners in
which such aggression is expressed:
direct and displaced. In the latter,
the individual attacks some inno
cent bystander or un-related object
because there is too much danger
involved in hitting the obstacle or
source of conflict. Dean Hendricks
is safe, of course, but I under
stand there have been some re
markable replicas made of him to
serve as fuel for fires, receptacles
for pins, or just to be hung for
display; several roommates were
badly beaten by boys and girls
“just letting off steam” (frustra
tion id the better word, my dear)
and Christmas carols aren’t too
irapular any more.
Then third there's apathy. Sure
ly I don’t need to explain that,
or to point out that we have it al
ready and that is what the raids
are meant to fight Nor need I
mention the danger we shall soon
sink back into apathy. I just might
quote it happens: “When resist
ance is futile” and "often indicates
that aggressive tendencies are being
held in check or inhibited, but they
may express themselves indirectly.
Just thought 1 would bring these
things out, since I am so concerned
with our campus mental health,
and I fear Mercer is becoming a
textbook caBe.
Yours truthfully,
Ama Fraud
■ay that the students were double
crossed on the issue of a national
food service, we only presume to
say that there is no national food
service. We do not presume to Bay
that Mercer should not provide a
food service and be in the food
business. We only say that Mercer
is not in the garbage or laundry
business which could be very logi
cal extentions from the food busi
ness. And we do not presume to say
that the University makes money
on the students stomach. We only
presume to say that if the Univer
sity is not making a good healthy
profit off the students stomach
then why object to an outside foo
service? j,
But we hardly assert that if Mai
cer food is bad, and if the student
were double crossed, and if th
University should not provide
food service, and if there is a heal
thy profit made on the student
stomach then no meal tickets shout
be required.
We do not assert the above to I*
true, we only state that if it
true, that we would much raths
patronize an establishment ths
openly avows the profit motive bs
cause there we will be servedi
pleased not ordered and forced.
Pro Greek
by Wright Davis
The college fraternity system as
we know it today had its inception
with the birth of the Republic. Its
beginning can be traced back to the
second oldest college in the United
States — The College of William
and Mary, founded at Williams
burg, Virginia in 1603. The Flat
Hat Club appeared in 1760. It was
secret, literary, and social in cha
racter. Many of the South's great
men of the period belonged to it
including Thomas Jefferson, the
author of the Declaration of Inde
pendence and a founding father of
this nation.
On December 5, 1776, five Wil
liam and Mary students established
Phi Beta Kappa, the first society to
use the Greek letters. Members
read essays they had written, deba
ted issues of freedom and taxation,
penalized failure to attend or late
ness at meetings and intoxication,
and contributed to local families in
need. Phi Beta Kappa became a
safe place for free discussion of sub
jects not publically talked about on
campus and in the classroom.
Why is it necessary to relate all
the preceding? Because there are
those in our present egalitarian
conscious society who would like
to see the fraternal system destroy
ed. These critics, whose cause is
not new by any means, claim that
the fraternity system destroys in
dividuality, stifles personal initia
tive creates unhealthy competition,
promotes snobbery and unhealthy
social practices, causes psychologi
cal distortions, develops class con
sciousness .and supports discrimi
nation.
Misguided critics both outside
and inside the Greek-letter world,
crusading for their pseudo equali-
tarian concepts, would destroy the
same system which this nation was
founded upon — freedom of choice
guaranteed both in the Declara
tion of Independence and the Con
stitution of the United States. This
freedom of choice also includes the
right not to join those organizations
which an individual does not care
to associate himself with.
What does the fraternity systeni
have to offer the young college man
and woman? The National Interfra
ternity Conference gives five basic
4®tercer Cluster
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Tom Cautborn
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Wright Davis
Cartoons Roger Poston, Haywood Turner
Photographer 1 Bob Jo
N«ws Editor
COPY EDITOR
Paul Kirk
—— —- Wardlyn Milk, Dori Ripley,
Gary Johnson, Mary Riddle,
Carolyn HandMon, Carolyn Braun, Anna Dfason.
BUSINESS MANAGER MANAGING EDITOR
Bob Lanier Stove Darby
Contributing Editors Becky Sima, Ed Beckwith
Business Specialist ,. Christie Tyier
M>nr
David
advantages, stated substantially
follows:
"First, human beings natural)
seek the friendship and companies
ship of others of their own
whom they find congenial. Secooi
the college of university empha
sizes mental and intellectual trail
ing, while the fraternity suppk
ments that instruction with
experience and the practical use
knowledge. Third, the symbolism
fraternities has a universal appa
to the idealism of youth and mold
together in the bonds of brothi
hood young men from every
tion, every economic level,
every stratum of society. Fouril
the intimate friendship of colls|
days constitute one of the most
luable possessions of man, and
aid and counsel of older broths
to younger members and their
sociation in fraternity membersk
have proved mutually benefit
and enjoyable. Fifth, a propetl
organized and operated f rate mi
serves as a useful adjunct to cs
lege discipline and organization.'
Being a member of one of tho
so called “most traditionalist min
ed fraternities” this writer hop
that the day will never come whi
any agency, government, or insl
tution can decide for free indh
duals whom they can or cannot
sociate with. If the day ever con
when a person's associates are oh
sen for him, the lowest ebb will
reached and the light of f reeds
will flicker out
If the fraternity system promo*
competition among rival gros
then more power to it. This nati
got where it is today by gron
striving to top rival groups. Ca
petition is a healthy thing. It fifl
apathy and stagnation. Fra term*
do not destroy individuality or pi
sonal initiative. They promote
If these qualities were stifled
fraternities, then the fraternity •]
tem would have died long
Those fraternities which promt
snobbery cannot survive long
inevitably destroy themselves
Critics claim that Greeks dos
nate colleges and universities a
attempt to control all organizatiot
If Greek lettered organizations
not exist, the same group of is
viduals would predominate. This
because Greek organizations
vide a large share of campus h ad
ship.
Those who seek the death of
fraternity system by their i
guided concepts of an equilitari
egalitarian society, drive aw
nail against ths forces of it
dualism and freedom.
i
Don’t Forget To
Vote
April 3rd
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