Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / April 13, 1952, edition 1 / Page 2
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if THE DAILY lAR HEEL uUCQTOt- 4na fed UCQtQG- There is great need in the consolidate university for a Dean of the Combined Faculties. This person should be given the rank of vice-president, and his function should be separate from the pure teaching problems of the greater university, now handled ably by Veep Logan Wilson of the consolidated university administration: - The creation of such an office would be an easier task than the choice of a-man to fill it. The individual would need to be an eminent soiiolar, an able teacher, and a competent ad ministrator accustomed to the handling of interdepartmental faculty problems. . ' Such a man is our present chancellor, Robert Burton House, whose 25th year with the university was recently commemor- Education At a recent panel discussion sponsored by Graham Memor ial and held in the G. M. Eounge, four of our ablest faculty members debated th meaning of education. We learned a few things that night. William Poteat of Philosophy and Frank Klinberg of History were lined up opposite 'Dean Tom Carroll of Business Administration, and Dean Guy Phillips of Education. But these men are not so opposite in their thinking as the casual observer would ex pect them jto .be. Having served for a time as Secretary of the joint student faculty committee named by Chancellor House to study the curriculum, we had perconceived and very' definite notions as to the purpose of the university. ; : - Some of those notions: The university must serve the state for which it exists. This means that any able North' Carolinian who wishes an education should be given it, wheth er he is wealthy or poor, and whether he wishes to spend four years learning classical literature or the fundamentals of accounting, or the rudiments of basket-weaving. The university must lead the state for which it exists. This means that the intellectual and knowledgeable leader ship of the state should emanate directly out of Chapel Hill, Greensboro, and Raleigh. The extension, division both serves and leads the people of this state, as do other "extra-curricular" programs such as public lecture series, the Institute of Government and the testing services. At the same time, leadership means that the , university must ever maintain freedom within to seek out the truth, and free methods of dispensing information. The University cannot bow to prevailing opinion in the state, lest the result ing situation be one of the uneducated leading the educated. It must instead fearlessly maintain the freedoms inherent in teaching, scholarship, and expression, in drder to retain its position at the top of intellectual and informative life of the State. , . : . .; -"' - This is not intellectual snobbery. It simply means that vthe community of interest between the "people of the state and the people of the university is such that the university be comes functionless when it becomes a mere agent of expres sion for a stagnant society, v , ... , ' ; This community x)f interest jalso demands that the univer sity consider even consult,. on occasion the prevailing opin ions of the state in all its' movements toward betterment of that society. y;' . ' . . Pragmatically,, service toward all fhe people of the state -is. not yet, and may never be, possible, but it is an ultimate goal to be reached for at all times. Also pragmatically, effective leadership of the state is hot now and may never be possible. It also is an ultimate goal. The very duality of purpose in the state, university should insure a freedom for its' individual members, within the bounds of possibility only, to individualism of a high degree. The thing which impressed us in the panel discussion is that individualism is very much alive in this university. On the one hand, scholars Poteat and Klinberg. presented a case for general education. On the other hand, administrators Phil lips and Carroll presented a case for specialized education. All four found a meeting ground in the desire for "the whole individual." : . " ' Both are obviously needed, if the university is to serve its purpose. The balance between the two will be found by in dividual reactitons to individuals, and 'by individual efforts in individual directions. . .. The official student newspaper of the Publications f the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where it is published daily at the Colonial Press, Inc except Monday, examination and vacation periods and during the offi cial" summer terms. Entered as second class matter at the Post Office of Chapel Hill, N. C. under the act of March 3, 1879. Subscription rates: mailed 4.00 per year, $1.50 per quarter; delivered 6.00 per year and $2.25 per Quarter. Glenn Harden, . David Buckner Rolfe Neill. Bill Peac6ck' Mary Nell Boddie Jody Levey Beverly Baylor Sue Burress Editor-in-chief -Managing 'Editor ; NeyS) (Edltor Sports Editor Society Editor Feature Editor Associate Editor . Associate Editor Ed Starnes Assoc. Sports Editor Nancy Burgess - Assoc. Society Editor Ruff in Woody Photographer O T. Watkins. Business Manager The problem of the curriculum shift toward specialization and away from general education has, prior to this time, been primarily one of balance. ' In, 1852, a student at the University of North Carolina could absorb in four years a general knowledge about his civilization, special interests designed for healthy employment of his leisure time, and as specific a skill as he needed to earn a living. . That is no longer true. The complexity of modern life is too much touted to be other than a cliche, but it is a fact which must be faced by the colleges and universities of our day. The traditional education will no longer suffice. In order to take a comparable place in modern society, a student must receive simultaneously a broader basis for his education, and a more specialized training for a. job. As a result of this need, the prevalence of graduate de grees has grown astonishingly. And this is the 'true solution to the problem. . . Such complex and special programs as that of the under graduate chemistry course and the business administration course on this campus cannot be adequate in two years. The recent trend here has been to push such essentially job training curses down into the general college, effectively ne gating the aims of a general college curriculum. The trend should rather be continued in another direction, pushing such higher skills up into graduate work. Students who wish only job training, and are not interested in a gen eral education should be in three- or four-year trade schools, not on a campus which is the heart of a state university. Such trade schools ought probably to be consolidated with the university, as the university owes such training to the people of the state. But the student who wishes only a special ized education ought not to be allowed to hinder the work of serious students of general knowledge. Such students current ly lower the standards of the general college to a considerable degree. For the student wHo wishes to be a "whole man," the pri mary program for a college degree should comprise largely the "core" . or general college curriculum. He should then, leaning heavily on this background, choose the special field in which he wishes to take graduate work. by David L Moose The Meaning Of Easter Veius Staff Grady Elmore, Wood Smethurst, Punchy- Grimes, Bob Colbert, Angelos Russos, Wanda Lou Philpott, Bill Scraborough, Octavia Beard, Betty, Jean Schoeppe. Jerry Reese, Eetty Ann Kirby, Barty Dunlop. Tom McDonald, JiniOglesby. On this Easter morning, it is appropriate that we examine our concepts of the meaning of Easter. In doing so there im mediately arrise two opposing sets of ideas that which is ih lended io be expressed, and that which actually is expressed by -Easter. First let us deal with that which is intended io be expres . sed. Jesus was a member of an oppressed and, to a large degree, an enslaved nationality. His father was a workingman a carpenter. He, Himself, served his apprenticeship at the trade. lii selecting His twelve deciples He did not go to the bank pres idents, the' White Houses, or the Wall Streets of His day no, to none of the slave drivers! He sought out the leaders of the oppressed. He minced no words about it being easier for a camel to go through the eye of .. a ' needle than for the rich to enter heaven. When the rich man ask ed how to get to heaven, Jesus -told him very straightforwardly to return his ill-gotten riches to the people from whom he had stolen them. The rich man turned and slowly walked away. Turning over their money'' tables, He lashed the money changers and drove them from , the church. These things can't be dis-1 missed as "mere Bible stories." , In his History of he Modern: World. R. R. Palmer says: i 1 "The Christian teaching spread " at first among the poor, the ' people at the bottom of society, those whom the Greek glories ' and Roman splendors had passed over or enslaved . It is im possible to exaggerate the im portance of the coming of Christianity. It brought with it an altogether ew sense of hu r man. life U L' 1 ' i the Christians sought out the diseased . ' They protested the massacre of prisoners of war, against the mis treatment and degradation of slaves, against the sending of gladiators to kill each other in the arena for another's plea sure . ...and in place of proud distinctions between high and low, slave and free, civilized and barbarian, they held that all men were brothers . . . - , "It was for their political ideas that the Christians were most often denounced and per secuted. "On an intellectual level Christianity also marked a re volution." Christianity became, among other things, a revolutionary movement. It sought to over throw the Roman Empire and bring about a society not based upon slavery. Palmer says, "The Christianizing of the Empire did nothing to impede its decline, (note) The , movement grew rapidly and the Roman Empire was shaken. The "White House" in Rome decreed, "Enough!" The word passed along; the witch hunt was on. Christianity became a "subversive" 'move-, ment. Jesus held his meetings in secret. Codes and . passwords were developed and precautions were taken to protect the Christ ians. But money talked. .Paid informers penetrated the move ment. Jesus fwas executed. i . To" the downtrodden all ho"pe for freedom was lost. 'A vast gloom settled over the people.? This must "be understood in order" to appreciate fully the joy which swept throughout the land as the word of the : resurrection spread. Thus, Easter was born. Thus, Easter embodied the as pirations of the common man for a better life, physical as Well as , spiritual. Thus, Easter gave es pression to all the teachings of Jesus, to, "man's humanity to man, to, "do unto others m you would have others do unto SUNDAY, APRIL 13, 1952 - ....... . . you," arid to, "to hell with iht rich.' Theso things compris our first set of concepts. We now arrive at our -second sphere of concepts that which 4 actually is expressed by Easte?, True, the church today, on Easter, commemorates the resur rection of Jesus, but He isn't the same Jesus at all. He and His 4eachings have been twisted and distorted almost into opposites by a clergy prostituted to the ruling classes. Not a single big church white clergyman in Chapel Hill will preach a forth right sermon on Jesus' encounter with the rich man and w&at Jesus told Peter upon the rich man's departure. They apologize for JesUs and say, "He meant ibis and not thai' and, "by 'the eye of the needle' He meani one thing and noi the other," and, "after all. He was only speaking in parables." It is now one of the Christian virtues to amass wealth at the expense of our fellow man. They speak of Him as the Carpenter of Naza reth; but if a man were to walk into well-nigh any church in Chapel Hill (excepting Negro churches) while wearing a pair of carpenter's overalls, he would be made to feel out of place. Instead of the "dignity of humanity" which Jesus taught, we now go to church and sing, "For such a worm as "I," and, instead of food for the people, which He taught,, we now sing, "Pie in the sky, by and by." In our Easter parades the old fashioned idea of rejoicing in the resurrection of tope and dig nity for humanity is conven iently set aside. We now rejoice in beifig more prosperous than the common folk- in being able to wear more expensive hats than they can afford. Instead of" Easter, morning's being a time for commemora tion of Jesus' teachings in regard to the liberation of .enslaved people, Easter morning now be comes the proper time, with the condonement of British "Christ ianity," for British imperialism's "Black and Tans" to conduct massacres of the Irish people. Instead of Jesus' Christianity, which struggled for the libera of enslaved and downtrodden humanity, we commemorate to day the empire builders' "Christ ianity" which accompanies them in their adventures in Africa, British Indies, Korea, and Puerto Rico. Supposedly, Christ ianity's role is to civilize," to "Christianize," and' to make "good people" of the "savages" who live in those "heathen" "lands. However, the diamond mine worker in Africa, the re latives of those whom the great 'Christians," MacArthur and Ridgeway, have slaughtered in Korea, and the plantation work ers in the British Indies and in Puerto Rico tell us different things about those "noble" mo tives of the empire builders' "Christianity" in "their" do mains. The profiteers, lashed arid driven from the church y Jesus, now become the master of "Christianity" and of Easter, They have regulated and com t partmentalized "Christianity and all its holidays, along with fnost . other phases of society, and have prostituted them to ; their own selfish ends. i We haven't come to the happy ' ending, but we have come to a truthful one a shameful one. v;, '.; . Note: The Roman Empire fell; trpbn -its ashes, in Europe, Christianity contrusted . Feuda lism, history's first complex social order not based upon outright slavery. Christianity; played an immensely progres sive historic role during its first
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 13, 1952, edition 1
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