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Cluster Forum My First Riot THE MF.KCKR C LUSTER INTERVIEW IS REGULARLY CONDUCTED BY POLITICAL EDITOR Sam Halpert is a South American student, bam and raised in the coffee growing plantation area around Medel lin, Colombia. Educated in South America, a graduate of South Broward High School in Hollywood, Florida, Sam hat come to Mercer to study at a pre-med student. CLUSTER: Coming to Mercer must mean quite a change for you, Sam. How does our campus compare with the system of higher education in Colombia? SAM HALPERT: In Colom bia, the schools, especially the high schools, are very strict. Therefore you are obligated to do much more studying. Some people say that if you finish high school in Colombia it’s like finishing your first year of college hen in the United States. Most of the high schools in Colombia don’t have a student government - there fore the faculty is the one that seta the rules and they are al ways very strict. And if I would go beck to Colombia, I would be spoiled by the system of the United States. CLUSTER: When you say spoiled, do you mean your ed ucation wouldn’t be as good or do you mean to say that the discipline would be too harsh? SAM HALPERT: First of all, I must say that the educa tion here in the United States is far superior to Colombia’s. Insofar as the discipline is con cerned, I have learned to think completely different here in the United States. If I were to go back to Colombia now I would not be able to stay there long ... because I like the United States that much more. CLUSTER: You speak with respecf of the discipline in Larry Finklestein and Sam Halpert discusss the differences of colleges and univenities in the United States and South America. 150 years ago, a new idea came to the college campus. In 1819, at what is now Norwich University, military instruction w as first offered in a civilian college. It tvas a natural development of our Country’s traditional concept of the citizen- soldier and of civilian control over our Defense Forces- Today, 150 years later, Army ROTC is carrying on that tradition and has become an important resource of leadership, not only for national defense, but for civilian enterprise as well. Army ROTC enables the college student to earn an officer’s commission as he earns his degree. It offers both 3-and 2-year scholarships to outstanding students. And it provides leadership experience that gives ROTC graduates an edge in any career they choose. When you add it all up, Army ROTC is vital to our American way of life. !■_"! ' ARMY ROTC 150th yoor of offkor training on ft* coMogo campus. Col. Jones Colombian school*, yet every week something is written •bout student riots in South American schools? Have you ever seen or participated in any student rebellions? SAM HALPERT: Yes, I did I have seen a lot And I did a lot. CLUSTER: Why did they start, how did they start, what did you do in them, how did they end, and what did they accomplish? SAM HALPERT: My first riot was just an accident. I was •bout 15 years old at the time. I was walking around in down town Medellin at about 6 o’clock in the evening when I heard a loud noise behind me — and there was a large^group of people coming at me. They were running towards me. At that moment I was the most scared man tn the whole world — Each of them were carrying a stick and running around breaking windows. The owner of a shop came out with a shot gun and started aiming it at me. I still couldn’t believe what was happening, but after the first bullet went by my head — missing by inches — I realized that things were getting worse and worfte. Immediately after this brilliant deduction, a de tachment of special army forces appeared a block and a half ahead of me. Rioters be hind me, a shopkeeper with a shot gun across the street from me, and a detachment of special combat forces directly in front of me. I was in real fine shape. Yes sir! At that moment I remembered some thing that an experienced friend had instructed me to do on such occasions as this. CLUSTER: And what was that? SAM HALPERT. if you New Choir Performs The new faculty choir en semble gave their first perfor mance of the year on Sept. 19 during the Faculty Worship Service. The group was origin ally conceived at the worship service in the fall of ’67 hut dissipated shortly after due to lack of interest. There has now been a strong response however to keep the 18 member group active. Ac cording to John Van Cura, musical director, some of the members of the ensemble are very talented and show great promise of future success. The group has plans to someday possibly form a choir guild or some type of perman ent choral society. Van Cura said that such a group would greatly benefit the relations of Mercer to the Macon com munity by helping people to know the Mercer staff and faculty. The faculty group plans to perform selected choral pieces and powibly even some com positions of the masters. can’t fight them, join them. So I joined the rioters. CLUSTER: Did you ever find out what? they were rioting about? SAM HALPERT: Not really. It was something about a University, but everyone seemed to have different idea about the exact cause. I had a lot of fun though. CLUSTER: What did you do that was so enjoyable? SAM HALPERT: You can’t begin to imagine. We ran circle around the soldiers, kicking them, throwing rocks at them. A soldier got me and was going to throw me in jail, but five or six rioters jumped on him, and I was free again. But the thing was getting serious when the soldiers sent for reinforce ments, so I got out of there. It was quite a crowd, one or two thousand people. The day after that I heard that four people got shot, and a policeman got killed. Other than that, it was a simple riot * CLUSTER: How do the riots in your country differ from those at American univer sities. Would you participate in a student rebellion here in the United States? SAM HALPERT: In Colom bia, the riots are more violent. Exchange Corner Nixon Passes On His Lessons By RICK FITCH There were no sit-ins, walk outs, or microphone takeovers at the Association of Student Governments (ASG) conference held in Washington September 19-22. the In fact, contrasting sharpiy with last month’s National Stu dent Association (NSA) con gress at which black students seized the podium to demand reparations from the whites, the ASG gathering was calm, untroubled, the picture of complacency. Five-hundred delegates re presenting nearly 300 colleges and universities, most of them small, were allowed to sit in the East Room of the White House and hear President Nixon voice concern. Urging the students — term ed “moderate student leaders" by the commercial press — to be tolerant, Nixon said his administration was "concerned about the same problems you’re concerned about, and we want to find the answers with you.” The President, who brought his daughter Tncia along to help greet the guests, noted he had been student body presi dent at Whittier College and the Duke University Law School in his day, but remark ed, “StudenLs today are more in tune with the problems of the world than we were. “We didn’t have nuclear weapons, but we did have the great depression,” he said. “Our problem was whether we could get a job. We tried to seek the answers, but not in as aggressive a way as the genera tion today.” Nixon passed on three lessons to the delegates which he said he had learned during his years as a politician: (1.) You learn more by listening than talking. (2.) The man who talks loudest usually has the least worthwhile message, and The leaders believe less in dis cussion; riot now and talk about it later is their philoso phy. Also, they do not remain at the university, they go into the city to have their riots. Here, rebellions are usually at the university itsplf. In Colom bia, there is always something to riot for; the schools are poorly run. The students’ wishes are ignored. Student dis sent is suppressed. Here things are different. Here there is no reason to riot. Here there is freedom. Here I would never think of doing such a thing. Those students who wish to re bel here in this country should be made to stay in Colombia for a week. I am sure that would cure them. Enough about riots. Let’s talk now about something else. •f CLUSTER: American High Schools was the first major ad justment you had to make. Hdw did you do there? SAM HALPERT: My first year, I didn’t speak a word of English. By the end of the year. I was just barely manag ing to get along. I was invited to do so many things, that I was too confused to do any thing. So for the first year 1 did nothing. My second year, I joined the swim team to get the sense of competition that everyone kept talking about. CLUSTER: Did you find a sense of competition to your liking? SAM HALPERT: No, unfor tunately, it was not the kind of competition I was searching for. So I decided to run for vice president of the SGA. (3.) One must respect opinions of others. Some of the others possess ing opinions at the conference were blacks who complained about the lack of federal aid for black colleges. They brought their pleas to Nixon, who referred them to White House staff members and to Health, Education, and Welfare Secretary Robert Finch. Finch, acknowledging their "very severe problem," said. “1 don't have the answer to that; I'm very troubled bv it.” After Finch finished his pre sentation at the conference banquet, several black students loudly challenged the relevance of the proceedings. Student Body President Leonard Tate (Continued on Page 7) CLUSTER: Did you win? SAM HALPERT: Yes, I won . . . because it was the kind of competition I wanted. It was something new for me. Something that we had not had in Colombia. CLUSTER How do you like Mercer so far"' SAM HALPERT: 1 consider Mercer one of the finest univer sities in the United States. I think I will enjoy myself here very much I intend to do well here and will w ork my hardest to do it. CLUSTER: I w ish you good luck in the forthcoming year, and hope you do as well as you are planning on. Vaya con Dios, amigo mio. A LOT OF ^ SPOOKS ANP GOBUNS ANP MONSTERS... ...CARRYING"' BLACK ANP ORANGE CARTONS. r .. AND I'LL smovn you SOME GREAT YOUNGSTERS COLLECTING.. HELP WANTED Earn $40-$60 a week 1 Showing new line of home care products. Call Roger Wall. 922-2503 108 Ridge land Drive Warner Robins, Georgia THE MERCER CLUSTER • Octobei 7. I<R,9 • 3