Northeastern Greeks the changing system
By RANDOLPH SEALEY
In the midst of an age of social change, colleges, particularly in the Northeast, have been changing and seem bent upon changing fraternities in the process.
The trend has been toward greater overall planning of the social and academic objectives of the college community. Such planning will have significant consequences for fraternities.
IT WAS FOR this reason the trustees of Williams College decided to have the college take over the fraternity houses and provide students with living accommodations itself. Thus the college decided to integrate the former fraternity houses into a social plan under their own auspices.
Just as the fraternities' critics are maintaining fraternities have outlived their social usefulness because of the need for integrating both the social and academic aspects of student living, colleges are re-evaluating the role of fraternities.
has decided that, while giving "moral support" to fraternities, they are not going to give much financial support, favoring, instead, some other living plan.
Columbia, for instance, is considering organizing dormitories into smaller units, each with its own eating and study facilities. The philosophy behind the proposal is to provide students with smaller units for developing interpersonal social and intellectual relationships. The college
THE QUESTION of the social role of fraternities inevitably raises charges that fraternities are "anti-intellectual." Fraternities, it is argued, are social clubs which encourage members to overlook their academic role. Social conformity is demanded at the cost of intellectuality.
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What are the fraternities' answers to these charges?
There are some answers. Fraternities are not perfect, as their problems and lack of complete acceptance attest. Yet they do have some justifications for their existence.
FIRST, WHILE DISCRIMINATION remains a problem, fraternities ought not be forbidden to be selective—that is base their membership criteria upon compatibility with a chapter's members—provided chapters are not required to
discriminate on the basis of race or religion. Basically, then, selection by a chapter should be unanimous but its requirements should be its own and not imposed from without.
Second, anti-intellectualism is something of a false issue. If one assumes that a college has fraternity men who are anti-intellectual, then those persons had no business being admitted to a selective school in the first place. Furthermore, a fraternity house is not necessarily non-conducive to intellectual discussion. In fact, house "bull sessions" can result in the exchange of valuable ideas.
Finally, can a college-sponsored house plan really improve on the fraternity system? Both systems are based on small units but fraternities have the advantage of being self-operated, providing valuable experience in cooperative effort in a group sharing common goals.
UNFORTUNATELY not all college administrators and students are persuaded of these advantages of fraternities. Many administrators are fraternity men but also are acutely aware of the pressures toward altering the fraternities' role.
What all this points to is a diminishing of fraternities' influence at northeastern campuses. Fraternities will continue to exist because some people do want them. These people enjoy the advantages of belonging to a social group and working with others to run a fraternity. But college administrations will do less to encourage fraternities; instead they will leave fraternities to justify themselves.
One may ask what relevance this has for fraternities at a Midwestern school such as KU.
THE POINT IS THIS: social changes developing in the Northeast tend to work their way westward, eventually affecting institutions elsewhere (of course, these influences will be felt last—and quite belatedly—in the South.)
So what Northeastern fraternities do will have a great deal of relevance elsewhere.
Just as fraternities were challenged to justify themselves when they began, so today they must meet their obligation to utilize their merits and make the most of their diminished influence to become a service to themselves and their schools. By doing so, they may show the way for their brethren across the country.
The people say...
A small boy was playing peacefully when a larger fellow next door decided to go over into his yard, beat him up, and take his toys. The little boy could not get away and he did not intend to hand over his property, so he fought back as hard as he could.
Being too small to defend himself, he was being badly mauled when a friend across the street observed the situation and went to help him. The struggle continued and soon some friends of the bully came by and began to taunt the defender of the little boy, and some of them helped the attacker
by throwing in a few licks now and then.
"Why don't you go back across the street where you belong?" they jeared. "This isn't your yard."
THE DEFENDER, being conscientious, hesitated momentarily to consider, which gave the assailant a greater advantage. The boy wanted very much to go home, but he decided it would be cowardly to leave the little boy who was by this time severely cut and bleeding. Instead of running he shouted to the attacker, "Stop! Please stop and let's talk about
this!" The bully responded to these repeated pleas by stronger attacks, so it was necessary for the helper to stay by the side of his friend.
The observers, who mostly watched from a safe distance, were soon joined by a group who had little idea of the nature of the situation. These onlookers conducted a noisy discussion on the side.
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"That unfortunate big boy attacked his neighbor because he was afraid of him! Now that the boy across the street is helping the little one, the attacker is even more afraid. If the one who is interfering will go home, the assailant will then leave the little boy alone," they rationalized. The defender was very tired of the whole mess, but he remembered what had happened to other small neighbors of the bully for he had observed a few of these battles from the sidelines already. Eut not this time! He continued fighting to drive off the attacker. The onlookers continued making distracting remarks and shouting, "We want peace!"
Linda Sieffel, Robert Stevens
Enery Good, Steve Russell
City Editor Will Hardesty Advertising Manager Ken Hickerson
Wire Editor Betsy Wright Manager Nat'l Adv Manager Pankratz K
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Executive Reporters: Eric Morgenthaler, Judy Faust, Jack Harrington
Catherine Weinaug Lawrence
2
Daily Kansan editorial page Wednesday, March 22, 1967
"Fellow Members Of The Party In Power: Despite Recent Reverses, Your Leader——”
UDK Movie Review—Doctor Zhivago
Sharif, Christie— unforgettable team
By SCOTT NUNLEY
Director David Lean and Egyptian actor Omar Sharif first worked together in the beautiful "Lawrence of Arabia." Relegated to a secondary role in that movie, Sharif proves in "Dr. Zhivago" that he is a sensitive actor who can carry a complex starring part.
If you recall the Academy Awards presentation when half a dozen of the top prizes went to "Doctor Zhivago," it is hardly necessary to suggest to you that this is one of the great motion pictures. However, if you also recall watching The Academy hand awards to something called "Mary Poppins," perhaps a closer look at "Zhivago" is needed to reassure you.
As the young poet Zhivago, Sharif manages the difficult task of convincing an audience that a gentle man may in fact be blazing within himself. Director Lean cheese to attempt a cinematic "War and Peace" instead of restricting his film more closely to Zhivago, regrettably limiting the depth of Sharif's performance. Just at Peter O'Toole's Lawrence seemed on the verge of making cinematic history, so Sharif's Zhivago constantly teases the audience with what is not quite accomplished.
It is unfortunate that "Doctor Zhivago" sprawls across the screen the way it does. What can be accomplished in a lengthy novel cannot be captured with equal intensity in a relatively brief motion picture
"Doctor Zhivago" is not a documentary of the 1917 revolutions, however much footage of war and rebellion is run. The success of the film lies in its focus upon a poetic mind trapped in a horrifyingly prosaic era. The early scene when the child Zhivago attends the funeral of his father is magnificently concentrated upon the personal perception of the poet.
Although other scenes return to this powerful study of Zhivago himself, the movie as a whole sweeps away into events and panoramas so vast that no concentration is possible. Only the shadow, the mere outline of Russia-1917 can be evoked.
This is an emphasis on the major flaw in the picture, and not a judgment of its total success. Although several stars such as Alec Guinness and Rita Tushingham appear to waste their talents in the film, other stars such as Rod Steiger, Julie Christie, and Geraldine Chaplin present memorable performances.
Chaplin's role as Zhivago's wife could only be outshone by an actress with the apparently effortless genius of Julie Christie. In Christie's hands, Zhivago's mistress Laura becomes perhaps the most marvelously alive and central figure of the cast. When Christie and Sharif play to one another, "Zhivago" attains its greatest moments.
"Doctor Zhivago" is not a perfect motion picture. In many small ways—for example, in its repetitive and syrupy soundtrack—it is an expensive failure. Given the opportunity to focus within the poetic vision of one sensitive man, it attempts instead to capture an age. But cinematography, acting, and script combine above these flaws to make "Zhivago" a magnificent motion picture.