Responsible idealism
Ken North, next year's sophomore class president, has undertaken to establish a Sophomore Class Congress to promote better communication between class members and officers, in hopes that "the students we represent will express their opinions in class actions."
Abc 60 delegates to a preliminary convention held Saturday voted that each living group will elect one representative to the Congress. It was decided that a constitution will be drafted early in the fall.
North has many excellent ideas for the organization of the sophomore class into a body which will function as something more than a one-shot, all-class party during the year. It has been proposed that the structure of the Congress be divided into four areas: service, financial, promotional and social.
MOST IMPORTANT of the areas will be service. North hopes that the class will undertake one project each month of the school year in service of the university, Lawrence and perhaps statewide, much as many living groups now do. Adoption of a foster child has been one of the ideas for this area.
A financial committee is planned to fill a double role. It will pass on appropriations from the class treasury for both social and service functions, a power not heretofore delegated to specific class officers. All questions of funds presently must be handled by the Board of Class Officers as a whole. Secondly, the financial committee will work on fund-raising for the class, another activity not previously taken up by individual classes on a large scale.
The other areas, social and promotional, will attempt to publicize the sophomores and their
activities, and to promote a more cohesive bond between the members of the class.
WE WOULD LIKE to believe that the day is past when the complete duties of freshman, sophomore and junior class officers consisted of having their pictures taken for the Jayhawker, but such is not the case—yet. Optional dues and parties for these classes have been adopted, but class governments have a long way to go toward becoming active, self-administered and participated in.
Hopefully, the Congress will be an answer to apathy and a lack of class unity, but which came first? Apathy is an old problem, and apathy within the sophomore class won't be the only obstacle. For example, 106 applications for delegates to last Saturday's conference were sent out to fraternities, sororites and dorm floors, asking the presidents to perform the very difficult task of handing the application to an interested freshman and returning it in the self-addressed, stamped envelope. A total of 60 were returned.
Apparently many students do not realize (or care about) the benefits to be had from such a body. A well-organized class with strong leaders could do a lot to enhance a student's sense of belonging, and could be invaluable as a source of contacts outside of class and living group. It is an excellent chance for service to others, for those who are interested, and it might (believe it or not) even be fun.
We congratulate Ken North for his enthusiasm and "idealism" as it has been called, and strongly urge next year's sophomores and the other underclasses to look into and support a more effective class government system.
By Jack Harrington
Other schools react to Stanford repeal of liquor regulations
Recent action at Stanford University suggests that college administrations are not entirely insensitive to truths on their campuses.
AS OF MAY 10, students at Stanford University who are 21 or older are allowed to drink in campus residence halls.
It is refreshing to see that the University, though not advocating drinking, at least realizes that it will go on, like it or not, and has
therefore decided to make it "legal."
Surely one would realize that as long as some rules are obviously broken by the administration, that other more important rules will lose the respect and compliance that they should receive.
SINCE THE DRINKING rule on our campus is not enforced, nor perhaps should it be, why not strike it and write realistic ones
that better reflect our campus and then enforce every letter.
This idea of having the rule "look good" on paper for the tax payers, or whatever the reason may be, is begging the question. And there is no question about what is happening.
The understanding in the residence halls is that, of course the rule says no liquor in the rooms . . . , but as long as you remain discrete and inside your room, then all is fine—21 or not.
"Can You Make Out Head Or Tail Or What It's Doing?"
THE JUDICIAL COUNCIL should serve precisely as a judicial body and not as a police force. They obviously are not interested in curbing drinking by members of legal age, or maybe even under.
The Interfraternity Judicial Council has the understanding that they will act on any drinking violation brought to their attention, but they will not go looking for the violators, and right so.
The questions evolves to this: Why is the University trying to demand abstinence from students, who, under state law, are of age to drink?
"THE UNIVERSITY believes that the development of self-discipline, individual responsibility and respect for the law will be enhanced by entrusting to the students a greater responsibility for compliance with state law and by the removal of complete prohibitions which are not enforceable in practice."
Unquestionably, "an answer" exists, but the President of Stanford best states our resume:
How unusual and shocking it might be if the University were to actually initiate an evolution—without there first being a student revolution. Oregon State Daily Barometer.
2 Daily Kansan
Tuesday, May 17, 1966
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
VEAL THEM CARDS FASTER GUNTHER — I GOT
A FINAL EXAM TO TAKE IN A FEW MINUTES. $
He fears liberality
"Youth and the Hazards of Affluence," Dr. Graham B. Blaine Jr., Harper & Row.
By permitting women to visit men's dormitories, many universities unwittingly have been putting pressure on their students to establish "love nests."
"IT SEEMS ironic that a college dormitory should be the only place where unmarried couples can legally share a bedroom. No hotel, motel or club and few private homes would allow this," writes Dr. Graham B. Blaine Jr., in a new book, "Youth and the Hazards of Affluence," published by Harper & Row.
This is the opinion of the Chief Psychiatrist of Harvard University who has served as adviser and counselor to hundreds of students.
Dr. Blaine believes that such liberality on the part of the college administration confuses rather than helps students.
"Generally speaking," he says, "the late adolescent is not psychologically mature enough for adult sexuality. The average college undergraduate, by nature, prefers an emotional and a physical relationship with the opposite sex which is intimate and private but not one which includes intercourse."
"They have sensed a pressure to engage in a type of sexual activity which felt inappropriate to them." he writes in his book.
DR. BLAINE points out that in coeducational colleges that have given their students free access to bedrooms, the students themselves have asked that restrictions be imposed.
Dr. Blaine feels that colleges should be careful not to push their students ahead of what is normal by present-day cultural and family standards, but instead should take a clear and firm stand in the middle of the continuum.
"Their responsibility of acting in place of parents and their humanitarian feeling for their students leave them no other choice." he says.
Dr. Blaine believes that our present state of affluence has given youth a lack of self-discipline, a tendency toward self-destructiveness, and a new kind of amorality regarding sex.
In his book he examines current patterns of drinking, sexual freedom, the use of drugs and rebellion.
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