THE LANCE
VOL. 14 NO. 10
ff Publication of the Student Body of St. Andrews Presbyterian College
ST. ANDREWS PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE, LAURINBURG, N. C. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5,1974
Gregory Tells of ‘‘Eastern Elitist Control”
“It’s up to you, young
America, but you haven’t got
much time.” This was the
central theme of Dick
Gregory’s two hour lecture
before a standing-room rally
crowd in Avinger Auditorium
on November 21. Mr.
Gregory, a noted author,
recording artist, comedian
and lecturer, used a comical
approach to discuss, and
make real in the minds of his
audience, the social problems
that face America and the
world today.
Opening with satirical
remarks about former
president Nixon and them
moving on to his successor,
Gerald Ford, Gregory filled
the audience with laughter,
only to suddenly chill them
with a recital of uncovered
corruption which, he claimed,
runs rampant in the
American political system.
He noted that no democracy
in the history of the worid has
lasted more than two hundred
years; yet, as America ap
proaches its Bicentennial, we
are the onlv rtemocracv with
a president-and soon, a vice
preadent-who were not elec
ted by the people.
Gregory went on to declare
that the American govern
ment is essentially being run
by a handful of “super-rich,
East coast” Americans. Much
of his subject matter reflected
this premise. The world food
problem, he believes, is part
of a systematic setup of con
trived Portages organized by
this super-rich elite to create
panic among the people and
aid them in their seizure of
the government. Just prior to
his St. Andrews appearance,
he said, he was a member of
the United States delegation
to the World Food Conference
in Rome, which had beem
called by the United Nations
at the urging of Secretary of
State Hairy Kissinger. There,
the delegates discussed the
current food crisis and tried
to devise solutions to the
problem of providing food for
the half-billion starving
people in the world today.
Gregory criticized the U.S.
government for refusing to
make a commitment of its
Student Advisory
Board Selected
Under New Plan
Confirming unofficial repw-
ts floating around campus sin
ce before Thanksgiving break
Student Association President
Phil Bradley acknowledged
this week that the student ad
visors to the Presidential
Search Committee have
already been chosen.
The student advisory com-
®ttee, along with a similar
l^ty committee headed by
George Melton, is to ad
vise the “Search Committee,”
^ it has come to be known, in
efforts to secure a suc-
cessor for retiring college
president Donald J. Hart.
^dley had previously told
Lance that the students
wodd be chosen by the
MUdent AssodaUon Calrinet
the self-nomination
procedure employed in filling
"“er committee posts. “That
my plan at the time of Dr.
jrt’s announcement,” he
* ’’ *hen asked about the
^ new Library hours for
kends beginning winter
«nnsare
Changed from
: 30pm Saturday
Dm-io: SOom Sunday
To
Saturday
[^•"Opm-ii: 30pm Sunday
change. However, an alter
native plan designed “to be
more representative of the
student body and to take less
time in fonnatirai” was sub
sequently proposed by Dean
Victor Arnold, Bradley noted,
and was recently put into ef
fect.
Under the new plan, two
Cabinet members, two Senate
members, and the four class
representatives on the Student
Life Committee will serve as
the student committee mem
bers. Representing the
Cabinet will be Phil Bradley,
who will serve as chairman of
the student committee and
Keith Gribble, vice president
of the Student Association.
The Senate chose from its
ranks Terry Clark and Steve
Chassqn, and the four SLC
members are Bill Allen, Sally
Beatty,15teve Elkins, and Nat
Rackett.
While details concerning the
duties of the newly appointed
students have not been
finalized, it is known that they
will be active in drawing up a
presidential profile again^
which candidates for the j(^
will .be measured. TTiey wU
also participant in the in
terviewing and selection of a
new president. The actual
search committee, made up o^
members of St.
Board of Trustees, is expects
to begin its meetings early
next year.
resources at the Conference,
and the described his recent
run from Chicago to
Washington to dramatize the
seriousness of the food
problem. Commending the
students who participated
that day in a fast to help
provide food for countries in
need, he said ‘one half of the
potential farmland in this
country is not being used to
produce anything. We
Americans waste entirely too
much.” “These problems,”
he said, “are the kind young
Americans will be constantly
faced with in the days ahead,
and time is running out faster
than you think.”
Continuing his remarks on
the wasteful ways of the
American people, Gregory
said that “collapsing morals
are closing in on us on the one
hand and ecology is closing in
on the otho-.” As an example
of the moral situatioi in
America, he outlined a theory
linking the Central In
telligence Agency with the
murders of President Ken
nedy and his brother Robert,
as well as the kidnapping of
newspaper heiress I^tricia
Hearst. All of these, he said
are a part of the changing
moral dimate in this country,
but said they are secondary in
iirpirtance to the problem of
what we are doing to our en
vironment.
As a black American,
Gregory said, he had grown
up in circumstances quite dif
ferent from that of most
people, a theme that frequen
tly appeared in his remarks.
He hailed integration as a
great achievement, par
ticularly for blacks; black
schools and their curriculum,
he said, have improved
tremendously as a result.
In proposing solutions to the
myriad problems he
described, Gregory made
special reference to his recent
books on how to cope with
shortages of some food items
and the high prices of nearly
all of them. A related point
was his idea that institutions
of higher learning “need to
spend less time trying to
educate people and more time
on teaching them how to live.
He conceded, however, that
he did not have answers to all
the world’s difficulties.” One
of the big sources of solutions
for these problems,” he
dedared, referring to his
youthful audience, “is you.
He dosed by remarking that
“inner spirit’ is what peo^e
exist upon, and that by
keeping themselves well-
young Amencans
can be better prepared to
make decisions on the
problems they wiU inherit
from their dders. They muj
be ready to start right m,
though, for as he said
ten, “There isn’t much tune.
DICK GREGORY, with a colorful speaking style, is seen here
telling a packed audience in Avinger of the elitest establishment
of the East. His speech was both entertaining and somehow
profound. Fw responses to what he said, see page 2.
Students to Visit
Commune
Twenty freshman SAS
students, members of Whit
ney Jones’s “Walden Seven”
tutorial, will leave tomorrow
for a weekend visit to Twin
Oaks Community, a commune
in Louisa, Virginia.
Interest in the trip was
spurred by several books the
group read for their course
about Utopian communities-
theoretical communities in
which the inhabitants’
lifestyle and philosophy are
such that the moral, social
and political problems of
society at large are done
away with. The most in
fluential of the books, which
induded Plato’s “Republic”
and St. Thomas More’s
“Utopia”, was “Walden
Two,” by the famed
behavioral scientist B.F.
Skinner. His book, a novel
about life in a twentieth cen
tury Utopian community,
was the model after which
Twin Oaks was patterned
when it was organized in 1967.
Twin Oaks was founded by
Kathleen Kinkade, who
discovered “Walden Two” in
an extension course in
philosophy in 1965. A 34-year
old divorcee “working at of
fice jobs,” Ms. Kinkade first
participated in an un
successful attempt to
establish a Walden-type com
mune in Washington, D.C.
before she and seven other
persons influenced by Skin
ner’s book started Twin Oaks
on a farm about 100 acres
near Charolttesvllle, Virginia.
Initially, membership was
open to anyone who paid a
$200 fee, which was frequently
waived and eventually drop
ped. Continually in danger of
failing for lack of people, the
commune allowed anyone at
all to join for well over a year.
By the middle of 1971,
however, a waiting list had
develop^, and an application
form was devised to enable
the community to chose from
their applicants those who
would make the best mem
bers. Presently, membership
is below the 100, but the goal
of the Twin Oate residents is
to have a settlement with a
population of 1000. 'Rie next
issue of the “Lance” will
carry a report on the trip to
Twin Oaks and what com
munal life is like.