Page 2
The Quilfor&cm
The Guilfordian Is printed by the students of Guilford College, weekly except for examination
periods and vacations.
The office is in Cox Old North. The telephone number is 292-8709. Address: Guilford Col
lege, Greensboro, N. C. 27410. Subscription rates: $3.50 per year; $2.00 per semester.
Craig Chapman-—-—-Editor-in-Chief
Peter B. Ballonce... Business Manager
Bob Price News
Jean Parvin Managing
Nancy Mengebier Feature
Neil Whitlock, Stewart Sherman,
Jim Wilson Photographers
General Staff: Tori Potts, Jeanette Ebel, Clare Glore, Jef * B,oom ' Helen Macarof, Carlo McKinney,
Patty Lyman, Deanna Day, Liz Sparger, Carol Adams, Mary Lou Hinton, Minnette Coleman.
The Convo Dilemma
The landslide defeat at the
last Student Legislature meeting
of a proposal to outlaw required
convocations is a new landmark
in legislator irresponsibility.
Instead of attempting to
transmit the wishes and needs of
their constituents through sane
and sensitive representation
the legislators have smugly
chosen to coerce their elector
ate into attending programs
not of their liking.
Evidently most legislator
members consider their con
stituents so dumb and indif
ferent that they believe the leg
islature must tell them which
assemblies and meetings they
ought to attend.
While we readily admit that
Guilford's student body is
plagued by some shortcomings,
we do not believe that the vast
The Quiet Calamity
1968 was an ugly year for
Americans. Tragedy of
spectacular magnitude became
a frequent front page occur
rence. But a quieter national
calamity took its dreadful toll
on all the days before, during
and after theTet offensive in
Vietnam, the riots, the assass
inations.
It was "quiet" only because
it was not concentrated in a
single place at a single time.
There was no focus to put
this misery on the f-ront pages.
To the families and friends of
55,300 men, women and child
ren killed in auto accidents,
however, it was the ultimate
calamity. To the 4,400,000
Letter To Editor
CONVO MEDICINE NOT TOO STRONG
To The Editor:
Would you please print in THE
GUILFORDIAN somewhere that
the opposition to Convocations,
whether warranted or not, is ex
aggerating the true issue. I can
see the points against having re
quired convo with speakers but
Associate Editors
Ted Malick Sports
Mark Lessner Contributing
Phil Edgerton Contributing
Frann White, Ellen Turner.....Circulation
Janet Ghezzi Proofreader
majority of students are as
stupid as the actions of our leg
islators infer. In fact for the
most part they appear more in
quisitive and sensitive to the
needs of their fellow students
than their representatives who
hold them in such disdain.
Moreover we maintain that
coercing 1,000 students into an
auditorium for the purpose of
whistling at May Queen candi
dates or enduring the croak
ing of some student seeking a
powerless office is not a sound
method for uniting the student
body and promoting sincere
communication.
Once again we urge our
legislators to ban required con
vocations and offer sensible
proposals for problems of dis
unity and lack of communication
which currently plague our
campus.
victims of injury, it was hard
core agony. The economic loss,
about 13.5 billion dollars, was an
appalling waste.
The 1968 highway toll fol
lowed a year that saw a leveling
off in the number of highway
deaths and injuries. In 1967 ap
proximately 53,000 lives were
lost in motor vehicle mishaps--
4,200,000 persons were injured.
There are, perhaps, as many
reasons as there are people to
voice opinions. Whatever the
reasons, the tragedy remains.
More than 55,300 person were
killed and 4,400,000 injured.
Mr. Driver, it's up to you to
help make 1969 beautiful!
the proposal Is for only 4 or 5
convocations which would consist
of such things as May Court, Ele
ctions and other activities which
do concern the whole student
body. In view of all this I don't
think the medicine being given is
too strong for the students and
THE GUILFORDIAH
I am afraid many of those ob
jecting to required convo do not
realize that they will exist in this
way rather than the ones of the
past.
Thanks,
Jane Forbes
" AND TO THINK-THEY'VE JUST RUINED
THE BEST HANGING TREE ON CAMPUSI"
hrf 3iP
"Student Apathy?
Vote On Freedom"
To The Editor:
Last Monday the Student Leg
islature voted 31-5 to keep re
quired convocations. The main
justification for the program is
that students are "apathetic" a
bout their elections and govern
ment on campus and need to be in
formed about them. However, it
seems to me that to require stu
dents to attend convocations deal
ing with student elections and such
is simply an attempt to dictate
to the students their interests.
Such an attempt is an obvious de
nial of the basic ideals of this or
any liberal arts college. Now if
Guilford College wishes to deny
the right of each student to choose
what Interests him and what
doesn't, In direct violation of its
guiding principles, namely, re
spect for the worth of each in
dividual's worth and opinions, how
can we believe anything that
college says? How are we pre
paring students to make decisions
in future life? Certainly not by
denying them the opportunity.
And as for student apathy, it
Is plain that Guilford College stu
dents, as well as students gen
erally, are hardly apathetic about
what interests them. The student
Russian Studies?
To The Editor:
I was distressed, upon re
ceiving the 69 Quaker last May, to
find no references to Alma Mar
tin, the Russian professor who
passed away last March. I did not
expect an article in memory of
her, but I was angered not to see
her picture under Languages, a
field to which she gave so freely
of herself.
I was not moved to write this
letter until the events of the past
week took a turn for the tragic
and now force me to speak openly
and frankly. The tragic event was
the elimination of Russian lan
guage studies at Guilford College.
I understand with an open mind
that the college could not afford an
Friday, September 26, 1969
government certainly has no right
to command the students to be In
terested in student government if
they are not. The fact that there
is a supposed death of student in
terest in electing government
officials obviously indicates that
the students are not interested.
Why should they have to be in
terested in something that bores
them? If you force their bod? es to
attend convocations, there is no
assurance that their minds will
follow. If the programs that the
student government considers of
vital importance to the students
actually were considered so by the
students, I for one would hesitate
to suggest that such programs
would be ignored.
But there is one sure way to
find out whether the student body
actually wants required convos.
That is to have them all come to
the first one and after they see
what is to be in store for them,
after they have some indication of
how well the goals of the program
will be met, put the issue to a vote
then and there. The response will
perhaps show that students are not
apathetic about their freedom.
Stephen Wessells
instructor for a class of three.
Nevertheless, here it seems
that Guilford is making a dreadful
and fateful mistake. It is natural
that a class in Russian be small.
Russian is a language that re
quires an extremely high degree
of concentration in order to
master its complex and trouble
some grammar and vocabulary.
Once one surmounts this goal, one
receives intellectual satisfaction
and stimulation to study, for in
stance, the rich Russian litera
ture or other difficult languages.
The college also blundered in
cutting out First-year Russian
and also the first year of another
See Page 4