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MERCER CLUSTER The Pacesetter of the Seventies Volume LI MERCER UNIVERSITY, MACON. GEORGIA, FEBRUARY 3, 1970 Number 12 m Tr ^ ]r i_ m .' • v. ^ r I Ue*‘-" A , -1 / ‘ ' 1 mi 1 9 Ralph Nader, speaking in the Insight ’70 Lecture Series last Tuesday, January 27, talked of bridge bouncers, hot dogs, and a river of fire. For a summary of his speech see the lead story on this page Bears Improving As Frosh Gain Confidence “They have finally decided they can play better ■- anymore.” That was the reaction of coach Bob Wilder as he watched his players drill in a practice session after winning the night before for their second win of the season. The Bears defeated the Belmont Abbey Crusaders, 67-56 for their first winning string of the season, improving their re cord to 4-10. The win came after a week end series in Florida where the Bears split a pair of games. Mercer lost to Rollins College, a team that surprised the college basketball world with a victory over Louisville, University. Rollins defeated Mercer 96-84, but the Bears and they bounced back the next night with a 74-71 win over Florida Presbyterian “We've played two teams as young as we are," said assi stant coach Donnie Veal, “and we’ve beat both of them So, that can give you a good indi cation of just where we stand ” The men’s intramural bas ketball season is in full swing, with this being the second are They are not playing afraid “We’re taking better shots though,” said Wilder, “and not as many as we did earlier in the season.” However, the Bears shooting percentage is far from impressive, Wilder admitted. Figures after the Belmont (Continued on Page 1) week of play for the guys who are taking a little time off from cheering the varsity players and recovering from thp Super Bowl to display a few moves of their own on the hardwood And moving off in the di rection is a new Unaffiliate team that is sharing the lead in League 1 with Sigma Nu. Davis — the new UA team initiated the new season with a convincing 52-40 win over Kappa Sig Team manager Conner Davis led his chargers with 22 points in the win, with Hicks getting 10 points. Weich was the leading scorer for Kappa Sig with 12 points, followed by Mike Shaw with 11 points In their second game, Davis proved the first win was no fluke as they trounced Phi Delta, 48-28. Pigott scored 14 for Davis and Fernandez Olivenciz shipped in with 13 points. Kerr had 6 and Rich ard Jordan and Fox had 5 for the Phi Dells, who were plagu ed by night classes on the same night games are played. t Continued on Page 41 Intramurals Open Up, Davis Leads The Way Imight 70 by Chuck Jackson Ralph Nader Speaks On Consumer Protection Jerry Lee, Financial Aid Officer for the university, conducted the APO Faculty SUve Auction in the Co-op on Tuesday. January 27. during chapel break Above, the bidding is opened for the sale of slave Kenneth Krakow, Director of Food Servic's. Ralph Nader, champion of the consumer, speaking in the second lecture of the Insight '70 series brought to the student body his concern for what he termed Consumer Protection and Corporate Responsibility Nader saw the necessity for this as arising from consumer abuse and corporate irresponsibility, and in order to erradicate this situation he said we must trace back to its cause Nader said that consumer problems have arisen in two areas, 1) the integrity of in come or the value of the dol lar. and 2) the hazard to life and limb The problem of Consumer Protection, he said, is one of teceiving the advances of modern science and tech nology and not the abuses. As an example of this, Nader cited the computer as having been used to exploit the con sumer Nader spoke on three major Consumer Protection problems; 1) automobile safety, 2) quality of food sup plies, 3) and the problem of environmental pollution, which illustrate this basic theme. In the area of automobile safet>, Nader spoke of the in creasing waste to property and in human lives. He said the method to decrease automo bile accidents and thus the waste is to shift all the em phasis from the driver as being the cause of the accident and to set up second lines of de fenses. He said the automobile itself offers the greatest occa sion for protection; it could be the driver’s ‘‘suit of honor.” Nader also said that we have had the technology' to construct safer automobiles since the early 1900’s, but only in this decade has it been implemented. He said the thrust of the auto-safety movement is to bring techno logy to bear on human needs and protection: Talking on the necessity for protection in the quality of our food supply, Nader said the problem was four fold: 1) to what extent do modern methods of processing remove nutrknts, 2) to what extent is dirt, filth, and pollu tion found in our food. 3) to what extent are antibiotics used in animal feed found in our food, 4) and to what ex tent are harmful colorings, chemicals, and artificial addi tives found The answers to these ques tions have not come, as was thought for years, from the government agencies which are more receptive to producers than consumers. Nader also re marked that the quality of sanitation in food processing plants is horrible. The major problem in the area of food quality, however, is one of nutrition, he said. We produce more food and get less nutrition. The adver tising and the subsequent sale of foodstuffs is based on its texture, taste, and visual ap pearance, not its nutritional value Nader described the grow ing problem of pollution as a form of environmental vio lence. This vio’ence affects us now and also decades from now genetically. It threatens the very existence of society. For many years industry and municipalities have used free air and water and pollu ted both freely. Nader said a turning point is coming and the critical generation is aris ing which will stop this. He said the problem was one of curbing municipal and indus trial wastes and eliminating the double standard in the law which prosecutes the in dividual for pollution but not industry. Nader ended his speech with an appeal to students to help continue the fight t for consumer protection. He' said students were in an excellent position to choose a problem and then go after it. News Briefs”! At the end of Fall Quarter the Student Government ap pointed a committee to inves tigate the infirmary because of numerous complaints voiced. For several weeks the commit tee gathered specific objec tions and shortly afterwards the chairman discussed them with the head nurse Mrs. Law son. She was very cooperative — explaining reasons behind many of the dissatisfactions - and said that she and the other nurses were sincerely- trying to satisfy the students. If there are any questions about infirmary procedures or further eompiaints please write them dcwn indicating the time of day. date, and nurse on duty and give them to Mrs. Lawson Infirmary complaints have been one of the “rumblings of discontent" here on campus so perhaps this opportunity to voice them will be a method of eli minating one aspect of this phenomenon. Dr Ben W Griffith. Chair man of the Department of English, has been named to an evaluation committee of the Southern Association of Col leges and Schools. He will be a part of the committee investigating Methodist ' College, Fayette ville. North Carolina, for ac creditation February 8-11 Dr Griffith will study the col leges faculty standards, its ad missions. and its English de partmenl.