Newspapers / Meredith College Student Newspaper / Nov. 17, 1976, edition 1 / Page 2
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i PAGE 2 THE TWIG NOVEMBER 17, 1976 THE MEREVJTH TWIG LettersLettersLetters COLLEGE Dishonorable enforcement One week it’s hundreds of students singing “Beer, beer for old Senior Class,” and -the next it’s a member of the Executive Committee in your room saying, “This is a check for alcohol.” Who wanted the dorm check? What brought on the “show of force,” as one member of the Executive Committee called it? What good did the check do? If one were hcmest, one would have to conclude that last week’s dormitory dieck for alcohol showed the weakness Of our judicial system rather than its strength. One of the primary weaknesses of the system is that it bowed to the guilty ones in granting the search. Twelve freshmen were caught having a party on their hall. When th^ were turned in for interdormitory boanl action, they complained that they were not the only ones violating the regulation. They assured the interdorm board chairman that if a check were made, atleast a hundred more offenders would be found. Well, that may have been true, but when was it ever decided that the guilty ones could establish their terms of trial? We may know that hundreds of other students are violating the alcohol policy, but we are obligated to punish only those who are caught. This condition oi justice is not unique to enforcing social regulations at Meredith. Ask any policeman: he will tell you he catches only a fraction of drivers who are guilty oi breaking the speed limit. Such inefficiency is not a weakness but a strength, for it protects the innocent from undue harrassment. Another weakness of the dorm check is that it violated all rules of fairness. If the committee’s concern had been merely the removal of alcohol from the dorms instead of catching offenders, then another means of action could have been found. For example,a special mandatory hall meetingcouldhave been called to alert all students to impeding action by the interdormitory authorities. Such notification would be a gracious way of allowing offending students to reform honorably while also alerting all studentssimultaneously of the legality of dorm inspection. Such a procedure would have corrected the grossly unfair condition oi last week’s check, when those who were checked first did not have the time to dispose of their booze like those who were checked later. Another violation of the rules of fairness occurred when the committee checked every person’s room, regardless of whether she was suspected of having alcohol or not. Such behavior is unconscionable: no student should have to undergo a room search unless she is suspected, beyond the shadow of a doubt, to have stolen or prohibited goods in her room. If room checks must be used, the SGA must devise a system of requesting warrants for such checks. A third weakness of the system was in the necessity of having a dorm check at all. Before social regulations were removed from the jurisdiction of the Honor Code, it was assumed that students would be honorable enough not to have alcohol in their rooms. Now that it is clear that the SGA will enforce the alcohol policy, it is also clear that the SGA feels it can no longer rely on the honor of the students. Clear also is the fact that the SGA will have to use dishonorable means to enforce such a policy. If dorm checks such as the one conducted last week continue, every student will be considered dishonorable until a check of her drawers, closets, and trash can proves otherwise. In a college which prides its student government on integrity and maturity, such a lack of honor on the part of its officers is sad indeed. MSO THE MEREVITH TWIGi COLLEGE Editor Maggie Odell >:■ Assistant Editor Kim Fariow ij^CoInmnist Phyilis Burnett !:•: Reporters Kristie Beattie, Rosie Bowers, Nancy ^ Gendenin, Kim Daie, Debbie Doss, Nancy Newton,:^ Darlene Smith, Miriam Victorian, Marty Hollins bed, Carolyn Morton, Vicki Jayne Photographer Sandy Godwin Advertising Carol Fitch Business Manager Susan Moore ijf; Circuiation Manager Emiiy Sodieii Member Associtated CoUege Press. Published weekiy except during hoiidays and exams. THE TWIG is served by the Nationai Educational Advertising Service, 18 Cast Street, •:$New York. Subscription rates: 83.70. Dear Editor, One Meredith? Big! Meredith? Beautiful! Meredith’s faculty? Black token Meredith’s Black students? Tokens Meredith holds one big office for Blacks in one aspect and that is in its employment- employment of maintenance wooers, maids, and coAs, that is. Meredith may have its door open, but it is not letting enough Blacks in. Being a prestigious school, Meredith has to fulfill co^n things. These things are; (1) Satisfying the parents which support the school (majority white). (2) Having a few tokens to keep everybody happy. The things that Meredith has done just aren’t enough, l^y should this school be happy about its historical background when all of the other prestigious white schools have their token FRANKLY SPEAKING... .by phil frank Blacks, too? I commend that (me faculty member who stood up for the Blacks on the issue of the church. There are a lot of Blacks here receiving aid from Meredith, but I do not feel this should be an issue as to why more Blacks are not accepted. And I do not feel that the ones receiving aid should sit ba(* and be satisfied. I say this because a lot oi white girls are getting aid, too. Many white students who refuse to take on the responsibility of working in the Black community and with Black children are suffering from a lack rf knowledge about the problems and ways of the Black people. Not knowing about Blacks and their ways and needs is a fault of the parent. Being taught as children to shy away from Blacks causes a blank in the mind when it comes down to getting along. The only solution to this problem is to stop trying to make us believe that we should be ha^Jy with the situation as it stands. If we could have an open mind and work together, not against each other, things would work. I do not want to be treated as a token, but as a student who has the potential to do the work put before me, to enjoy college life on campus and graduate, to say I really en joyed my years at Meredith, instead of saying that Meredith was a disap pointment. S.V.H. Jimmy €arter’s game plan by Jack Anderson with Joe Spear O^ATight. 197Bl Unileri Feature SNiYikale. Inc. WASHINGTON - We’ve checked with sources close to Jimmy Carter to find out what to expect after he takes over the White House. They say he’ll give urgent priority to developing new energy sources. He is worried about our dependence on over seas oil. He is also nervous about nuclear energy. He’s afraid of radioactive leakage. He’ll put immediate emphasis, therefore, on coal produdion. But for the long term, he will develop solar energy, shale oil, hydrogen power and other energy possibilites. As President, Carter will also press for tax reforms next year. We talked to House Ways and Means Chairman A1 Oilman, who is in charge of writing tax legislation. He said he’ll move at once to strip the corporations of their special tax privileges. Our sources say Carter is also determined to cut military spending. He believes this can be done without impairing America’s power. He will most likely cut back B-1 bombers, fly ing command posts and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Another of Carter’s top priorities is government reorganization. This may not turn out to be as easy as he had hoped. Some private studies by the Brookings Institution indi cate that the President’s authority to restructure the ex ecutive branch may have ex pired. This could mean a battle on Capitol Hill just to get his authority’ back. Carter won’t find Congress easy to manage . Their common Democratic bond won’t necessarily unite them. For ex ample, he won’t have House Speaker Carl Albert and Senate leader Mike Mansfield. They have been pleasant, placid leaders who would rather ac commodate than fight. Their places are likely to be taken by Rep. Thomas “Tip” O’Neill in the House and Sen. Robert Byrd in the Senate. They’ll be more difficult to get along with. Sen. Hubert Humphrey, a power in the Senate, ato told us that he in tends to bring pressure on Carter to consider Humphrey’s views. On the House side. Rep. Mo Udall, who gave Carter a close race in the presidential prim aries, told us the same thing. Udall said he’ll pressure Carter to break up the Big Oil com panies and other conglomerates. As Udall put it. “I’m going to use all the influence I have in the Carter Administration.” Our sources say that Carter won’t forget his debt to the blacks who voted so heavily for him. He’ll definitely appoint blacks to his cabinet. The two most likely possibilities are Rep. Barbara Jordan of Texas and Rep. Andy Young of Georgia. But Andy Young said he’d prefer to stay in the House. Meanwhile, “Bellowing” Bella Abzug, the Congresswoman from New York, has let it be known she wants to be Secretary of Transportation. But she prob ably won’t get the job. She’s con sidered too abrasive for the Carter people. PESTICIDE PERIL: There are 45,000 pesticide products now on the market. Most of them effecitvely kill insects. But scien tific studies have also linked some commercial pesticides to cancer, birth defects and gene mutation. Yet the government has relied on the chemical industr>’’s own tests to determine the skety of pesticide products. Some of these tests have turned out to be inac curate and unsound. This has disturbed Congress, which has now called for a thorough re registration of pesticides. It will take trained pathologists to analyze the effects of these chemical com pounds on animal tissue. There are more than 200 employes in the Pesticide Division of the &- vironmental Protection Agency. Yet only two of them are pathologists, and one will soon be leaving. PLAIN JERRY: President Ford will exit the White House as unaffected by power as the day he entered it. A good illustration is the day his dog made a mess on the Executive Mansion floor. During a Christmas dinner, the Presidential pooch. Liberty, had an accident on the White House rug. A dozen stewards rushed to clean up the mess. But Ford waved them aside. He said no one should have to clean up after another man’s dog. Then the President of the United States got up from his Chri.stmas dinner and cleaned up the mess him.selt.
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