Editorials
February 22,1996
2
Viewpoint
SGA? What’s that?
TTiere are many organizations on this campus. ITiere are also
many people on this campus. Why is it then, that there is lack of
communication among these organizations and the student body. Is
it completely the organization’s fault? Or is it lack of caring on the
part of the student body.
For instance, how many students know when SGA elections
are? How many even know what SGA stands for? It means Student
Government Association. The key word is student. Not everyone
is a senator; however, every student on this campus is a member of
the SGA. TTie entire purpose of the organization is to hear students’
ideas and make them known to administration.
How can SGA make the students’ ideas known, when they
can’t get any feedback from them. The SGA held a forum on the
quality of residence halls last week. The forum was open to any
student, but only a handful showed up.
It’s disappointing to know the students ’ don’t care as much as
they should.
SGA elections are coming up on Tuesday and Wednesday.
How many students will actually vote? Last spring, 929 out of
about 3,000 people voted.
The amazing thing is, it was the largest voting turnout for an
SGA election in the past four years. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see
2,000 out of about 3,500 students turn out to vote.
If the majority of the student body voted, it would show SGA
that they care. It would show that they do read the articles in The
Pendulum. ^
Instead of complaining how bad the food is, tell your SGA
representative. Let them know. That’s what they are here for.
Off The Record
“I’ve learned not to say never or else
I’ll seem the fool.”
-Gin Blossoms
1I29*»
THE
Pendulum
Informing the Elon College Community
Editor in Chief
Stacey Ward
Managing Editor
Tracey Stark
Asst. Manag. Editor
Jeff Wirick
A & E Editor
Andrea Schmidt
Sports Editor
Colleen Herndon
Photo Editor
Andrew Brickey
News Reporters
Tony Carrick
Adam Kriss
Tricia Ziegler
Sports Reporters
Bob Grimmie
Allison Rinck
Steve Lucatuorto
A & E Reporters
Eric McCnckard
Chris Adams
Jon Campbell
Jeff Haniewich
Giselle Pole
Warren Brannon
Letters Editor Photographers
Michelle Cater Jenny Jamecke
Terri Culbertson
Layout Consultant
Rob Mancuso Columnists
Karyn Howard
Advertising Joe Mattem
Michelle Riley Tonya Hubart
Advisor
Deborah Durkee
The Pendulum,
founded in 1974, is
published by Elon
students.
Single copies of The
Pendulum are free. If
extra copies are
needed, they can be
purchased at The
Pendulum office in
Moseley Center.
Office: 2800 Campus
Box, Elon College, N.C.
27244. 584-2331
Speech: our greatest freedom
In recent weeks, The Pendulum
has printed the ideas of people with
opposing views. A man named
Darden Nicks wrote a letter protest
ing the celebration of the M. L. King
holiday on the basis of the winter
semester being too short to have any
days off and the fact that he saw
King as a man who had made errors
in his life too great to warrant a
holiday. “We did not need a day
off... to celebrate a person who
cheated his way to his doctoral dis
sertation....,” Nicks said.
This stirred up a whole hornet’s
nest of debate, which we also pub
lished in our “Letters” section.
In one letter in particular, the
author, Rob Bagwell stated that the
letter was published “to create a bit
of controversy” and that he was “sur
prised it was allowed to be printed.”
Let me educate those who may share
in this opinion on a great thing called
the First Amendment. It is as fol
lows:
“Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of reli
gion, or prohibiting the free exer
cise thereof; or abridging the free
dom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to as
semble, and to petition the Govern
ment for a redress of grievances:”
When this was written, the
words were considered absolute.
This prevents the total sanitizing of
Tracey
Stark
Manag.
Editor
society, where those germs
known as ideas cannot grow. As
a journalist, writer, columnist,
editor, or whatever I may be clas
sified as, I could not live without
the right to express and share my
ideas freely. And by using that
right as often as I do, I have a
strong respect for it.
This is not to say that I agree
with everything that Nicks said
or that I disaggree with every
thing that Bagwell wrote. I re
spect and appreciate where they
both may be coming from. The
writings of Nietzche, Plato,
Socrates, Hitler, Lenin, Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John all offer us
a variety of opinions and ideas to
learn from. Without such diverse
thoughts, we would never have
made the social and technologi
cal progress that we’ve made to
this point.
It is the basis of every insti
tution of higher learning; the ex
pression of ideas and the devel
oping of minds. With suppres
sion of ideas comes a stunting of.
society’s growth and an inability to
adjust to change. If one may not
share his views because they are radi
cal, we are then saying that the First
Ammendment applies only to some
members of society.
Thurgood Marshall, an African-
American Supreme Court justice re
spected the First Amendment. He
wrote “... the right to receive infor
mation and ideas, regardless of their
social worth, is fundamental to our,
free society.” Marshall ruled in fa
vor of this ammendment often, even
when the ruling threatened to pro
voke violence. Marshall saw the
broad picture where the First Amend
ment was involved. If these rights
were threatened or even removed in
one state, city or school, then noth
ing could prevent them from being
removed anywhere else in this great
country.
If free speech provokes thought
or causes offense, the best thing to
combat it with is more free speech.
I would like to applaud all of
those who have written and exer
cised their First Amendment rights.
Voltaire once said, “I may
not _ - e with what you say, but I
will defend to the death your right to
say it.”
e>mail:
start4s0@numen.elon.edu
This Week:
Rush
How do you feel about rush?
Heather Lablacki, Freshman: “I
think it’s fun. You meet a lot of
people. I don’t think it’s anything
I would want to do because I would
have too much on my mind with
college to spend my time trying to
get into a group of people.”
Tami Hearle, Junior: “I think it
should be a longer process than a
week. You don’t get to know the
girls as well as you would like. I
think we should have an informal
and formal rush.”
Ryan Pliss, Freshman: “It’s a
good way to meet a lot of people
and to get out. If you get a bid
you get to go to things like mix
ers, parties and community ac
tivities.”
Emily Bell, Sophomore: “I think
it needs to be more relaxed, I
think we should be able to have
open house parties over a longer
period of time with less struc
ture, rules and regulations.”
Cpmpiled by Tonya Hubart
Tamara LaMassa, Sophomore: “I
didn’t like it. It was too formal.
Everything was so planned out and
timed. It’s crazy and really exhaust
ing.
Stan Zeigler, Senior: “It’s tedious.
I think when you want to be a part of
an organization you should be able
to join any organization despite the
number of people an organization
can lake or if someone doesn’t like
you. If you like what an organiza
tion stands for you should be able to
join if ypv Ji.aye the quajijfi cat ions.’’ ^