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THE DAILY TAR HEEL AGE TWO he Coming Debate Over A Revised Constitution THE GREAT AMERICAN Pll.EMNA n ng The Color B arr 1bi" At UN v. With harac teristic optimism, student legislators' have endorsed some major revisions to the stu dent Constitution. And, although the revisions seem sound from a student viewpoint, a long student debate with South Building a n d the faculty is ( ertain to begin soon. The" most sweeping-' change the' constitutional revisionists have come up 'with is the merger of all appellate jurisdiction into one court composed of students and farultv. That will mean, if the stu dent plan is accepted, that students offenders-of the Honor System and Campus 'Code will be tried by a student court; then, all appeals must be made to the new Faculty Student Judicial Council. It sounds like a workable idea, a venture into student-h culty .part nership. lut the faculty has a .re spon.sihilitv, and that is where the debate will begin. Currently. mi major student government action is subject to re view bv the faculty and administra - tion. l hcii reason for this is ap parently valid and logichl: Since they are ultimately responsible for student discipline, they must have a voice in major student ac tions. This means that offenders of campus laws can 'now appeal to the faculty even" if student courts have pronounced them guilty. But students ste" things another w.iv because their belief in stu dent government isone of absolute government. They are faced, on oifc hand, with administrators who speak in idealistic terms about stu dent self-government. Then, after a crucial act, students are remind ed of faculty responsibility' to re view sttjdent action. Kven the students who seek a revised Constitution have readily recognied this higher authority, because they seek trustee approval of the new document and that means they must first have local approval. - We hope student leaders obtain the approval they seek, but it is evident already that there is going to be considerable debate first. Some of the faculty has already in dicated that it can't accept sitting on a student-faculty appeal court as their final responsibility. Before 'this great debaters finish ed, we suspect some students will wonder why they even sought trustee approval of their Consti tution in the first place. Student government has moved along, with varied progress, under an unap proved old, document. . Trustee approval of a piece of paper will not necessarily stimulate better government. But perhaps student thinking in the coming de bate will. By Bill Woestendtek In Newsday A V p t J ?' Quarterly Distinguished But Financial Limp Shows As usual, The Carolina Quarterly, now out for the spring and winter, rep resents a variety of accomplishment some excellent, somv sj-wd, some quite bad. , . x. . , , In the "excelleht&ea, Editor ' Bill Scarborough - and hi staff have given us an a'icle' on "'Tragedy and Free dom," bv Dr. William H. Poteat of the Phil 3opiiy Department. The ground covered in Dr. Poteat's article is hardly terra incognita, this reviewer having" been a witness to the initial shaping of at least part of its content. "Tragedy and Freedom" draws a contrast between tragedy growing out of the Greek ethos, the pre-Christian frame of reference, and the post-Christian, or what Dr. Poteat calls the "post Incarnation" period of tragedy. Dr. Po teat has thought profoundly and origi nally alTout man's tragic situation for him man's existence itself is a tragic situation as it relates to his options for action and attitude. No doubt, Dr. Poteat's attitudes toward tragedy had fi,n evolutionary growth; but they were partly developed in 'his course, Philos ophy 104 "Philosophy in Literature." The challenging substance of the article itself would be interesting -to go into' here, were there space. But I am limit-, ed to a brief examination of the article's structure as an essay form. I experienced certain hardships in reading the article, which I believe due to elementary faults in its construction. Considering even that a philosophic essay, unlike the critical or personal reminiscence essay, must force some elements of form upon the writer, hav ing to read an "introduction" .setting forth the intents, purposes, and pre-sup- The Daily Tar Heel The official student publication of the Publications Board of the University of North Carolina, where it is published daily except Monday and examination and vacation periods and summer terms. - Entered as second class matter in the post office in Chapel Hill, N. C, under the Act of March 8. 187?. Subscription rates: mailed, $4 per year, $2.50 a se mester; delivered. $6 a year, $3.50 a se-me-ter . Editors ..... LOUIS KRAAR. ED YODER Managing Editor CHARLIE JOHNSON Business Manager .BILL BOB PEEL Sports Editor : WAYNE BISHOP Advertising Manager Dick Sirkin Coed Editor ..Peg Humphrey Subscription Manager.,.. Jim Chamblee Staff Artist.-..:. Charlie Daniel BUSINESS STAFF Fred Katzin, StaD Dershaw, Rosa Moore, Charlotte Lilly, Ted Wainer, Daryl Chasen, Johnny Wi taker. Kighi Editor Dan Fowler positions of the author is trying. With a bit mpre consideration for form, these might be worked into the fabric of the article at later points; and the article it self might begin in medias res or at least where the writer begins.' to set forth his own thesis. 1 ' - The reader's interest comes liveliest when the meat of particulars is offered first,, and the general conclusions from those particulars follow. In substance and in literary dash, "Tragedy and Freedom" has more merit than the rest of the Quarterly's prose put together. The short story offerings I think, show a marked plunge from the fall issue's short stories by Doris Betts and J A.C. Dunn. Dean Cadle's "Cry In The Wilder ness," with some stylistic grace, has none as a short tory. Mr. Cadle writes here a contiived, pseudo-backwoods story of religious revival, involving an alcoholic with a peg-leg named Birdie Walker. Birdie is the focal point; but oddly enough, I couldn't decide what he had to do with the episode other than that he was an incovertible repro bate which is not enough for a story. The climax comes as Birdie spits a mouthful of water at a tomato plant and his narrative companion says ". . . It'll be the end of the world when you, get Religion." I was a bit amused, a bit disappointed.... Actually, The Quarterly has two episodes; Ralph E. Grimes' "Fast Flight" is the other. "Fast Flight" is a brief dialogue between a windy old father and a bored son. It begins as the old man contemplates a weather vane and thinks of Heraclitus and flux; it ends as a B47 flies overhead, the old man looks again at the weathervane, and the son announces that he has millions of cigarettes. - Ona C.. Every "I think That I Shall Never See is about neurotics in Car mel, California. It is a short story, not an episode, since it involves conflict and makes the reader wonder how it wHl end. It is weak. Ah, the authors will say, what a capricious reviewer! That is true and so much the worse for them. I am the reader. And I have the typewriter. The poetry is good particularly , John Mahoney's translation froth ' The Black Book of Carmarthen entitled "Winter." 'The book review section is distinguished. Overall, the efforts add up to a fine Quarterly. But The Quarterly, while as good as its editors can make it within their budget, needs the stimulus of a bit more of the folding stuff. The Writer's Digest designated The Carolina Quarterly right at the top with Atlantic, Hudson, Partisan, Harper's as one of 25 distinguished reviews in the .United States. The Quarterly has won recognition in quarters outside the campus, and it is unfortunate that we at close range don't see that and choose to give it a financial leg pegged and wooden like that of its short-story character Birdie Walker. EY "I did not undergo a single unpleasant experience insofar as the student body was concerned and I am certain these boys will meet with the same treat ment . . the bark of integration is worse than its Segregation has ended quietly and painlessly on bite. . the campus of the University of North Carolina. Like the graduate students before them, this ear s Five years ago some of the university's more vocal Negro students at Chapel Hill also have found the trustees sounded the usual warning that the admis sion of one Negro to the traditionally white campus in Chapel Hill would "break down white supremacy -in North Carolina" and "cause bloolshed in the" state." Despite these warnings, the admission of Negroes to the University of North Carolina has caused noth ing more than talk. In the words of one student lea der: "It may have exploded in Alabama, but as an issue here it's pretty much of a dud." , His sentiments are shared by the majority of his fellow students on this historic, naturally-beautiful campus. Chapel Hill is a friendly little college town whose onlyVeal business is education. There are no grand or fancy buildings on the campus, but there are many big trees and green grass. The feeling one gets in Chapel Hill was aptly expressed by . a recent visitor who said coming to Chapel Hill from else where was "just like getting out of a pair of patent leather shoes and being able to wiggle your toesV' The presence of Negro students on the campus has made no noticeable difference in this "toe wig gling" . atmosphre. There is no tenseness, no feeling of anything unusual going on. And the Tar Heel stu dents are proud of this. . "We sure don't want to be like those fellows in Alabama," they say. "We're right proud of the way things are going here." The "way things are going" has been good. North Carolina broke its undergraduate color line last Sep tember, broke it so quietly that even some of the people in the state were unaware of it until the in terest generated by the Lucy incident focused the spotlight on a school where integration is an ac complished fact. . , Three Negro freshmen the first at any South ern state university undergraduate school have been accepted as part of the 6,500 member student body with no more violent reaction than a few turn ed heads, raised eyebrows and guarded whispers. The three undergraduate Negroes are Leroy,'' 17, and Ralph Frasier, 18, brothers, and John Lewis Brandon, 18. All are from a Negro high school in Durham only 12 miles away. COURT ACTION - But it took the boys a long time to travel those 12 short miles. Integration has been accomplished at North Carolina, but not because the university ad ministration wanted it. Like other schools in the South, North Carolina rejected the first applications from the three Negroes and the case went to the courts. A special three-judge Fedral Court ordered the university to process the boys' application pa: pers SeptrlO, 1955.--'----'-:--"'--;- "- s Once the court announced its decision, however, the university immediately "proceeded to admit" the three youths opening its doors, if not its arms. The university is still fighting the decision and has appealed it to the Supreme Court. The appeal, which asks the Supreme Court to reverse its 1954 decision, is certain to be rejected and is regarded by many as having been made only because it was the politically feasible thing to do. The university acted fast. The boys met all en trance requirements and the same week the three young Negroes, well-groomed, neatly dressed and slightly nervous, began attending classes at the uni versity. Like administration officials, student leaders and people everywhere, the youths weren't sure what would happen. They soon had the answer. noth ing. They were just three confused and happy freshmen starting their college lives on a strange campus. , The way had been paved for the three freshmen by a slow but steady flow of graduate students at the university. Today, including the undergraduates, there are 10 Negroes on the campus. North Carolina first opened its doors to Negroes in 1951 after its board of trustees voted to do so by a 61-to-14 margin. Although the university includes a college for women in Greensboro and an engineer ing and agricultural college (North Carolina State) in Raleigh, the Negroes have come only to Chapel Hill. -X t ' FIRST GRADUATE J. Kenneth Lee of Greeiisboro, the first Negro to be graduated from the university law school, had this advice lor the three Durham freshmen: "The big thing is that they (the Negroes) are here and accepted. There is no point in fussing over com paratively little things while progress is being made." The people who have guided the university through this difficult phase of its history are cap able administrators who have been able to ignore YMCA - SECRETARY Claude hotls counsels student Eraiser. The University's other two Negro undergraduates are Leroy Eraiser and John Lewis Brandon. Fred Powlcde photo bark of integration to be much worse than its bite. What has it beeivlike to come from an all-Negro school to a suddenly desegregated campus? "I hadn't expected any conflict," said Ralph Fra sier, a wiry, good-looking boy, "but I didn't expect things to be as easy as they have been. The friendli ness of all the students has been the big thing that impressed me." .-.',.' His brother; Leroy, said: "You don't feel it unless you make yourself feel it. You have to look at it po sitively." Ralph and Leroy Frasier are studying business administration. Brandon is majoring in chemistry. The Frasiers went out for the freshman swimming team ("the coach and everybody was wonderful") but dropped Qutw because of schedule conflicts. All - the? Negro-students participate in' intramural sports. .And without incident. 'jThe other students go out of their way to be nice," Rudolph Flythe, first-year law student said. "They let me play the whole game, never substitute for me and throw me the ball all the time. I get kind of tired." RECEPTION x Daid Stephens, another law student, added: "Anrt when they foul you, they slap you on the back and say" sorry and all that. I expected a much less cor dial atmosphere and thought I'd be shunned and the, professors might be antagonistic. But we drink coffee and have bull sessions with other students. It's beginnings to feel just like a Negro college.". The Negroes use the college swimming pool, eat iri the dining hall, attend performances at Memorial Hall, the college auditorium, ahd sit in the student section at sporting events. .The one thing the uni yersity has not permitted is mixed social functions on university property. In several cases, however, white students, have voted to hold their dances off campus so the Negroes could attend. , The one spot where. segregation continues on the campus is in the dormitory. TheTrasier brothers commute from Durham, but Brandon and the gradu ate 'students all live on one floor of one section of Steele Dormitory. This is not an accident. Both the boys and university officials realize this, know that it probably would not stand up in court and hope to do away with it eventually. ' SLOW PROGRESS But the temper of the times is such that progress,' ; of necessity,, has to be slow. In the words of one faculty member: i 1 I 4 rt J t i A t t 8 ' ' t r it T ' r s 5 i i i i ( A V . - : V; - - t ; f ' " " if ' V.... :-.. any personal prejudices .or feelings and do what is best for the university. Although some of them are inwardly disturbed by integration, they are outward ly carrying out the law of the land. Chancellor Robert House best sums up the official attitude: "We have not discriminated for or against these boys since they enrolled at the university." Acting President Villiam Friday says: "They came here as4 students and we shall treat them as students." Dean of Students Fred Weaver is a serious, in tense young man who works closely with student leaders and organizations on campus and is close to the campus pulse. But Weaver, when asked" recently by a visiting committee how many Negries'.were on the campus, did not know. He had to find out. This shows the relative unconcern with which the officials have handled the situation. NO NAACP William Carmichael Jr., vice president and con troller of the university, admits that the Negro students are of good quality, "even if they are all yoyo tops of the NAACP." (The boys all deny being handpickea by the NAACP. They claim the NAACP came to their aid during the legal fight.). "The court told us to admit them and we admit ted them," says Carmichael. "No sense putting snakes in their beds or anything like that." The university has made mistakes, naturally. Probably the biggest was back in 1951 when the first five Negro law students failed to receive regu lar student passbooks to football games and were given tickets in the "colored" section. White campus leaders from 14 different student organizations led the cry of protest at this action. The student legislature passed a resolution con demning it. The, university changed its policy. The white students saw to it that the Negro students sat with them in the student section. This does not mean that all has been peaches and cream on the North Carolina integration front. There has been nothing resembling an incident on the campus, but parents and politicians outside the campus have made a lot of noise. There are some who claim the admission of Negroes will lower the standard of the university, but President Friday emphasized that admission standards will remain high and students Negro or white will have to meet them to gain admittance. . What about the white students? Most of them have accepted or ignored the situation. A few of them are bitter, but it's difficult to find anyone who will voice any'opcn opposition. Typical comments are: SOUTHERNER . "I'm a Southerner, born and bred and ,1 don't like the idea, but if that's what the cdirt orders us to do, that's what we have to do." And from a coed: "Coeds don't like the social im plications, but we don't think much about it. It's the people at home who get all excited about the No-, groes on the campus. And we hear so much about it, we can't help'it." If any definite evidence was needed that the Tar Heel students are not too concerned about integra tion, it presented itself this winter. After a series of disastrous football campaigns, the university hired a new coach, Jim Tatum, a man with a reputation for turning out big-time football teams at any cost. The student editors of The Daily Tar Heel protested the appointment of Tatum. Win hungry football fans demanded the recall of the editors.- The campus was in an uproar. For the past few months, at least, Jim Tatum COLOR IS no barrier as Lerov Eraiser. Xen, , r r..;,.,;..,.-,.. analme. ootbaI1 have been a bier " s c isiiy, juiiia ivuiic coniroversiai issue on the campus than the Necrops G0p(; V WASHING. "k as far 3S the are Actually they,, " the returns wiJ, or thee returns 7 lyeaI,y son due';; voter. fe ant ing booth, fee!s of President COurse, the dent- should the v,;: ; to bo something lt,s J ing, it can be clai ';' ; validity that thj, . apathy in the faee t thing. c- FALLING OFF Nevertheless, jv 1 falling off in Eisenhower was so years aSo will eall'fX nation. The compara-; of the two parties. the primaries, mi V meaning. The pMmaries nr-v ; that the Eisenhower' magic. This would b? ... possible news for ylttf Iliciard M. Nix-.n. r' about h'm in his pi-; prrsonal; they are c rather, that he "; ticket in a dos? elw.,:. : That is all a Viftl normally means to s ticket. Nobody vote., !;: because he loves and the candidate for Vic-?: except the candidate's c ily and friends. But it is J believed at least that a ' versial candidate in ;:, slot can lose votes f;-r; IMPRESSIONS These impressions, v politicians share, es;';; they are so casual Vice-Presidency other : avoid controversy a:.: . some geographical year the GOP picture is: because of the Pre-ir condition and Nirs'i : sonality. There is not machy do about the pnrc-r to urge his suppir'.' states concerned it':: vote there for the f The Vice-President hl in an anomalous pc3. President's admii'n ' have asked him to ch own course." There are no posts to voter reacti ident who says cani:. ; would be "idle to ?' enjoys his former , health but that he ": the job another fo: . is willing to do soil - ; wants him. ESTEEM The great P-; him personally is he can win all t contests. Tiic qu much more than attach to the W Within the 1 ft', the office has boen . hanced. People cn ton. including wej tive, to do more t They have much from the-,: governors frankl) J ,ress has incre;;; its pnwr3 l' foreign rf'y the Presidency dized. Most eM,f" to the nature 1 4 the 0- world and W 1 ,, lenge. Those w want the trend J- hind ti-o Bf;:.. which i, b:uk form. studenJs in water polo.. Fred Powlcdge photo . who now walk, live and study on it have ever been. CAMPAIGN ,- The canii'--)(i of the i il ; . times. Majhf l-e ' to it: maybe .,f the r Because oi . tiev are tones. t.u , a lot about it. the nniH'rJlv,.n That is -pkcpub!ican ( iv W. Hall. clues, incite; prii.arie3. trt fi the unu:Uii v
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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March 17, 1956, edition 1
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