Page Two
THE TWIG
March 6,1969
Mereditk College
March 6,1969
Ballot Power
The ballot box can be a powerful tool. Its potential rests upon the
quality of its implementation. And like any tool, when used effectively,
its worth in carving a well-designed, carefully planned structure is in
valuable.
As a tool, the ballot box at Meredith is not meeting its potential
strength. Registration records clearly indicate that many students ne
glected to register for the March 3rd primary, thus forfeiting their voting
privilege. Although apathy too is an imput of the election system, those
very students who failed to re^ster and vote are the ones whose chronic
complaints can be heard campus-wide. If students do not become involved
by exercising voting privileges, how can they expect to demand greater
freedom with its inherent responsibility from the administration?
The strength of the ballot as a tool for effective leadership is further
hindered under the filing system. It need not be. Whereas the method of
nominating officers resulted in competition for all offices it lacked the
freedom students demanded. With the potential to place oureelves in
nomination, the results, while satisfactory, are far from applaudable. The
atuation is familiar. The number of candidates for SGA President is com
mendable, those for MRA tolerable, and those for Judicial Board chair-
man and Twig editor deficient.
Excellence necessitates a competitive choice of candidates. Without com
petition, the ballot box is a completely sterile tool. If two of the most
influential jobs of campus are repeatedly non-competitive, this suggests
either a need to return to the former nomination method or a re-evaluation
of the natiure of these imdesired responsibilities. The latter is the only
feasible answer.
The ballot box on Meredith campus is potentially a powerful tool for
selecting competent campus leadership. Ilie importance of a forward-
looking group of student leaders can not be overemphasized, particularly
in light of the recent statement made by the Board of Trustees, indicating
a willingness to extend a spirit of trust to the student body and a
recognition of student ability to make many campus decisions.
MOC
After the Newness
After the newness wears off—what?
Chair cushions ripped; ink stains on the rugs; initials on the desks;
crumpled paper on the floor ... a dreadful fate for a library as beautiful
as the new one, isn’t it? Of course, the scene can be different.
The library which has been a dream so long is now a functional reality.
The countless swings of the front door indicate the wide use students are
already making of the facility, but, while the building is used, it also needs
care.
The physical plant of the Carlyle Campbell Library is not only con
ducive to study vsith its soft rugs and individual desks, it is also attractive
to the eye. Trash and defacement quickly mar the beauty, however. The
new library will become as worn as the old one too soon, imless students
are careful.
After the newness wears off—keep the library looking new anyway.
SAJ
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Leaders . . . Rising Senlon
Carries House Unpnimously
Meredith SSL Proposal Passes
By SUSAN HOUT
The North Carolina State Student
Legislature met Feb. 26-Mar. 1 at
Memorial Auditorium and Sir Wal
ter Hotel. Meredith had eight par
ticipants; Barbara Wall, Ann Henry,
Jo Ann Blackburn, Susan Hout,
delegates; Louise Watson, Elaine
McNeill, Kay Kennemur, alternates.
Nancy Hinson was elected secretary
of the Senate.
Wednesday was registration and
a reception that night with delegates
from all the colleges at Chancellor
Caldwell’s home. Thursday mor
ning presentation of the bills began
with East Carolina University’s bill
to set up regulations for trans
planting vital organs.
The Meredith bill to establish
the legal paternity of a child con
ceived by artifical insemination was
presented in the House Thursday
afternoon and the Senate Friday
morning. It passed both houses with
little opposition.
The legislation this year was
stimulating, including a bill to lega
lize liquor-by-the>drink and a bill to
hold presidental primaries in North
Carolina.
The black delegations were most
active this year. There was a new
insight and, at other times per
haps consternation as they found
grounds for racial bias in an enor
mous number of the bills. Their
votes were cast as “hello” (strong
affirmative) and “hell-no” (strong
negative) of which Meredith re
ceived 2 “hellos” in the Senate.
Working in the machinery of leg
islative politics was a fascinating
experience, but, just as much of a
leaming experience, was working
with students from so many other
colleges.
Wednesday reaction . . .
Dear Editor:
Having just come from the chapel program of the year I have two
strong feelings to express. First, I am a Senior who has struggled for three
years and a half to uphold rules I do not approve of—merely because
they are rules of the institution of which I am a part. I have seen undue
frustration caused by these rules, and I have watched as concerned student
leaders fought tooth and nail, literally giving their all to see these rules
changed—changed, of course, in recognition of a new spirit of love and
acceptance of one another—a school spirit that need not be upheld by
written rules. As such a Senior, then, I sympathize with the animosity and
frustration expressed in chapel today. I cannot see how student leaders
can say more\ it has all been said. I cannot see why these rules and
hopefully this spirit (which I believe has to follow rather than precede
change in the r^es) can not change now. I mean today, tomorrow, this
weekend.
However, I feel another emotion now. I feel, quite bluntly, that the
student body was too short sighted, too concerned with a relatively minor
matter to give thought to the tremendous significance of Dr. Heilman’s
message. We have waited three years to see these changes. Now we know
that in one semester they will definitely come about and perhaps—if
we respond maturely—in a matter of weeks. We have been granted a
tremendous concession, maturity. Can we not grant a small one and give
Dr. Heilman and others who work constructively a short time to preserve
what is good about this school and to insure tiiat, with the change, will
come what we all talk about but have not yet achieved, community?
Sincerely,
Carrie Frampton
Editor’s Note: We know the result of the subject of the first paragraph
of this letter. What about the second?
The opinions expressed in (he editorials and columns in the TWIG are
not necessarily those of the administration, student body, or the entire news
paper staff.
Enforced Chapel
Risks Emptiness
EDITOR’S NOTE:
In light of the current chapel con
troversy on our campus, we include
this editorial from the "Charlotte
Observer.” ^
It is axiomatic that worship can’t
be coerced, even though a require
ment for student attendance at chapel
may be enforced as a matter of '
school policy.
That is a truism where Queens '
College is concerned, but it is not
a complete definition of the problem
that prompted a large number of
students to stage a sitdown strike
last week against compulsory chapel ‘
attendance.
Queens, a church-related institu
tion, has maintained the chapel re
quirement out of the belief that it
is important as a function of the
collegiate community. The chapel
tradition speaks of the institution’s
Christian antecedents and draws the
student body together on what is
deemed to be common ground.
The argument for required chapel
attendance goes this way: that since
Queens is an institution grounded in
a particular religious faith, its char>
acter and nature are a matter which
involves every student, ergo every
unexcused student must be on hand
when the chapel doors open.
This is a high-sounding theory
but is it really Mthful to the idea
of community? In its realistic sense,
community stands or falls to the
degree that its citizens make enough
of the right choices from the multiple
choices av^lable.
Many parents send their children
to church-related institutions in the
hope and belief that religious values
will not only rub of! on them but
that the institutions will act in loco >
parentis.
But it’s not only becoming more
difficult to educate the likes of
Queens students in isolation from
what is permitted at other institu
tions of Ugher education. It also is
questionable whether a greater sense '
of community is being cultivated
when compulsory chapel becomes
—as it became at Davidson College
—a display of boredom, resentment
and disrespect.
In the long run, the tradition of
chapel belongs to Queens College,
but the conscience, the civic-minded
ness and the religious convictions of
the students do not. Authoritarian
ism can move a community and even
make it better in a mechanical sense.
But it can become a sterile commun
ity in the process.
In this instance. Queens students
chose to use their weapon of pro
test before they had exhausted other
means of satisfying a grievance
through channels. A student-faculty
committee reportedly has been slow
to recommend a solution to the ad
ministration, but perhaps the choice
of strike was made without all the
facts.
Queens trustees obviously will be
called upon to act on this problem
and possibly other non-academic
matters soon. With sound and in
formed counsel from students, fac
ulty and the able president. Dr. John
Smylie, these decisions should
strengthen rather than weaken the
Queens community.
The
Concert and Lectures Series
Announces
The Presentation of
Mitch Ryder
and (he Spirit Seel
Thursday, March 20
8:00 p.m.
V