Page Two First In Freedom? The Equal Rights Amendments will be going before the N.C. Legislature within the next three weeks. Four more states must ratify the Equal Rights Amendment before it becomes a part of the United States Constitution. N.C. legislators in Raleigh need to know that you favor passing the ERA. At a press conference last month in Raleigh, David Cohen, vice-president of Common Cause said, “The Equal Rights Amendment is a citizen’s amendment that helps the eight-year-old child as well as the 80-year-old retiree. It helps men as well as women. It helps provide individual choices for people. It belongs in our Constitution.” It is imperative that all legislators know how constituents stand on this issue. Write your representatives today and urge them to consider the ERA fairly, and rep»ort it to the House floor for a vote. A. Hartwell Campbell is chairman of the ERA committee, and W.S. Harris, representative for Alamance County, is on the committee. Write to them at: Legislative Building, Raleigh, North Carolina 27611. Write on! Elon Grade Point Averages Rise The Pendulum ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL-MARCH 4 A group of students who hope to deal with excessive waste of paper and heat, establish a newspapers, and look into a clean-up progr^ to the will toh an awareness campaign to awaken people to the for Environmental Con-^ met for the first time Feb. 18 to discuss possible pl^ ^d suggestions for future goals. The next meetmg is ^areh 4 « 6:30 p.m. in 206 Long Student Center and is open to all concerned persons. crvr Hoping to make this environmental control a succe , will limit its initial efforts to the primary problems °n College campus before expanding its work to mclu surrounding area. Despite its name, SCEC invites faculty and community support. Members encourage any suggestions, even i you o not wish to make a personal commitment. Lectures On Marriage By Mildred B. Lynch Does “everyone win and everyone receive a prize” on graduation day as Prof. Steven Cahn, author of The Eclipse of Excellence, stated recently in the New York Times.? The Stanford University student paper has reported a grade point average (GPA) of 3.5 plus. At Yale 46 percent of the spring 1974 class graduated with honors. At American University, 75 percent of all grades during that same period were A’s and B’s. The University of Pittsburgh report ed an average grade of B where five years ago the average was C. The Feb. 17 Greensboro Daily News reported that Duke University has resisted the pressures of students, parents and others to devise a more lenient grading system. UNC-G however, allows a pass-fail option to the traditional grading system, and NCSU started a system last fall of recording only A, B, C and No Credit on student transcripts. The No Credit grade carries the same penalty as the old F in computing the GPA. How does academic excell ence at Elon rank with these larger institutions across the nation? Recent figures from the registrar's office reveal the following GPA’s for the spring 1974 graduating class: Percent of Average Range Total 2.0 to 2.5(D) 38.36% 2.5 to 3.0 (C) 34.76% 3.0 to 3.5 IB) 20.43% 3.5 to 4.0 (A) 6.45% These figures indicate a slight increase in GPA when compared with the following By A1 Mann A seminar directed toward the needs of students preparing tabulation from the 1969 class; Percent of Average Range Total 2.0 to 2.5(D) 51.10% 2.5 to 3.0(C) 32.31% 3.0to3.5(B) 11.35% 3.5 to 4.0 (A) 5.‘24% The most significant diff erences appear in the B and D grade range. In 1974 there were 12.74% fewer D’s awarded and 9.08% more B’s. An all-out effort to establish another N.C. Public Interest Research Group on the Elon Campus is underwaV. Students met with Peter Brown, PIRG research associ ate, February 28 to organize needed committees to secure the interest group on campus. The coordinating, petition and publicity committees were set up to give those students interested a chance to sign the petitions, then approach the administration, and let other members of the community be aware of PIRG. "PIRG could be a tremen dous step forward for Elon students. Giving the student a chance to get directly involved with cambatting such things as deceptive advertising, sale of dangerous commodities, and enviornmental . pollution, to mention a few, would have infinite benefits for the students,” said Political Sci ence Prof. Rudy Zarzar. Prof. Zarzar has met with the students at their various meetings to offer advice on how to get the students and faculty involved. “The individual is offered the opportunity to enrich and develop himself intellectually, experientially, and humanistically through PIRG. For example, by engaging in various field experiments he can acquire a more sophisticated and intelli gent perspective into the methods of field research, the strengths and weaknesses of the social, economic and for marriage will be held here March 21 and 22. It will deal with the major needs of those nearing their wedding date. Dr. Swan Haworth will conduct the seminar. At present he is the director of pastoral counselin at North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston- Salem. He has a wide spectrum of experience in the counseling field, ranging from professor of psychology and religion and pastoral care to being a consultant for the Veterans Administration. The seminar will consist of lectures and small group workshops on Friday night and Saturday morning. political systems, and the complexity of human prob lems,” stated Zarzar. “One of the prirnary objectives of establishing PIRG was to revitalize and rejuvenate grass roots democracy. Mem bers have the opportunity to investigate auto repair prac tices, use of energy by major commerical firms, their pricing policies, sale of dangerous commodities on the market (toys, drugs), the incidence of brown lung disease in N.C. textile mills, corruption in government, the administration of justice in criminal courts and much more,” Zarzar empha sized. Students at Duke, St. Andrew’s, Wake Forest, and UNC-G are PIRG members. “PIRG has been a tremendous success on these campuses and could be equedly so for Elon,” stated Peter Brown. The Elon committees have written an explanation of PIRG and why it should be on the campus to be read and signed by the students and then submitted to the administra tion. The student petitioning date is Thursday, March 13, and Friday, March 14, will be given to the administration for consideration. “We have really put a lot of time and effort into establishing PIRG at Elon. I hope that when the students do read the petition they will give it ample consideration,’’ said Elena Scott. “PIRG could be the answer to much of the apathy at Elon College.” March 4,1975 | Letter To The Editor What will Elon do to discourage rape on campus? Any college campus is the prime target for rape. Students can easily be cornered studying alone or returning from the library or evening classes on deserted, unlit paths. All over the U.S.. colleges have been awakened to the crime of rape. Many colleges are fighting the crime. Northwestern spent $140,000 to light up dark areas of its surburban Chicago campus. A rape late last fall triggered a sit-in of 600 students at the administration building of N.C. ^ Central University in Durham. The university president vowed to increase security and to ask the State Bureau of Investi gation for help. He also asked “all young ladies walking on the campus to do so in groups whenever possible.” After the rape of a student in a New York University apartment, a sign-in-out rule was instituted. Visitors to housing must now leave some form of identification at the security desk in the lobby. After a student was raped and kidnapped at the University of Florida, funding was provided for an escort service and a student auxiliary night patrol. Self-defense techniques such as karate, judo and Tae Kwon Do are being taught for P.E, credit at Reed College in Oregon, Howard University in Washington, and at NYU. Extra lighting, a shuttle bus, emergency telephones to sum mon the police, and escort services were all introduced at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Mass., last year. What will Elon do to prevent sexual assault on the women of our campus? Pam Bradley Dr. Williams ! Leaves Elon I By Lanna K. Peavy ' Dr. Benjamin F. Williams, professor of psychology, is no longer teaching at Elon College. He has taken a position as director of the children's | Service Division at the Alamance Mental Health Cen- I ter. Dr. Williams began | working at the health center on Feb. 3. He is primarily involved with administrative work, and he says that he misses the classroom. As for his educational background, Dr. Williams | received his A.B. fro’” Davidson in 1957, M.S. from NCSU in 1961, B.D. from Union Theological Seminary in Rich mond in 1961, and his Ed.D. from University of Tennessee in 1967. He taught at Elon College , from 1968 to 1975. Dr. Williams j said he had “mixed feelings ■ about the change in his career, j nevertheless, he finds his new position challenging. Students have expressed their regrets about this leaving and wish him well in his new job at the hea center. STAFF Debbie Cochran Editor Vicki Moeser Assistant Editor Page Garriques News Editor Pam Bradley Feature Editor Lance Latane Columnist Gary Spitler Sports Editor Janie McGann Women’s Sports Ron Perkins Sports Bill Dawkins Sports David Nichols Sports Wesley Bennett Layout Dave Shuford Photographer Reed Alexander Circulation REPORTERS Lanna Peavy Diane Costa Gib Buie Jayne Freeman Doug Durante Mildred B. Lynch Adviser, Dr. Mary Ellen Priestley Published by the Communications Media Board of Elon College in conjunction with the Student Government Association. All correspondence and articles: Box 5272, Elon College. Public Interest Research Group To Begin Campus Petition On March 13