Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Feb. 23, 1969, edition 1 / Page 2
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Page 2 THE DAILY TAR HEEL Sunday, February 23, 1969 Letters Scot 76 Yeari of Editorial Freedom Vayna Murder, Editor OHI State n, Business Manager H ayakawans, NAACP Meddle Dangerously At The UNC campus fortunately escaped any trouble on Friday when the black students and the Administration successfully worked out an understanding concerning three demands that the Black Student Movement had presented the Administration on Tuesday. This peaceful settlement was worked out despite the dangerous last minute meddling of two student organizations, the Hayakawa Society and the campus chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. At Thursday night's meeting of the Hayakawa Society a student got up and demanded to know why Student Government was not trying to do something to resolve the problem over the black student demands. The person made this foolish statement without even taking the trouble to check the facts, womething that could have been done simply by reading the lead story of that day's DTH, about Ken Day's statement concerning the BSM. This person's request was not ignored, as it should have been, but was acted on. President of the Hayakawa Society, Grainger Barrett, following the meeting, called up Day to ask him to serve as a mediator. After talking to him he called up the chancellor to try to get him to agree to work through a rnediator. Both attempts failed, fortunately, for the last thing that Avas needed at that&our was a,third person acting between Sitterson and the black leaders. What was needed was direct contact between them. Had the Hayakawans, who portray themselves as a force mediating between the blacks and the Administration, checked their facts they would have found for important things: First, that Ken Day and Student Government had acted the previous day when they made their statement concerning the Black Student Movement; Second, in that statement he says that University administrators must consult fully the black students to resolve the crisis at hand;" Third, Chancellor Sitterson in his reply of Wednesday night told the BSM over and over again that he wanted to work directly with them. Coeducational Dorms Would Make S. Campus Liveable Obscured somewhat by the tension of the past few days was an important announcement from the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Residential Colleges. This committee has submitted a recommendation to the Chancellor calling for him to make James a coeducational residence college beginning next year by placing coeds in the top two floors. The recommendation that they submitted also calls for making Craige, a graduate men's dorm, a coeducational graduate student dorm. The recommendation, if acted on by Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson, as we hope he will, will mean a major improvement in the lives of South Campus students. It will mean the end of South Campus as a desert which makes life very uncomfortable for the male residents of the area. Now, for the first time, if the recommendation is accepted, South Campus males will be able to interact with females on a normal Rebel Good, Managing Editor Jot Sanders, News Editor Harvey Elliott, Features Editor Owen Davis, Sports Editor Scott Goodfellow, Associate Editor Kermit Bucknor, Jr., Advertising Manager Crucial Point I expect to consult with representatives of the black students on matters of concern to them," he wrote. Forth, several Student Government leaders had spent most of Thursday afternoon trying to get the Chancellor to break away from his schedule to talk directly with the black students to explain several aspects of his Wednesday statement. The 'Hayakawa Society leaders with their last minute attempts to get a mediator were only adding to the problems and helping to create more channels of communication through which information could become distorted, lessening the possibility of the blacks and the administrators fully understanding each others position. The other group to endanger the precarious balance of relationships between the Black Student Movement and the Administration was the local chapter of the NAACP. On Thursday afternoon the executive committee of the NAACP issued a statement concerning the Black Student Movement's original 23 demands, some of which they said they favored, some of which they said they opposed. The effect of their statement at that late hour, or at any hour, for that matter, was to give the impression that the BSM did not represent most of the black students' on . campus. For. an; adminstrator who'nyghtbe trying to find a way out of dealing with the BSM the NAACP would leave him with an excuse for refusing to deal with them along. Fortunately, UNC's administrators are wise enough to recognize that the NAACP, which has about 10 members, does not speak for them. Their statement, however, created a dangerous possibility that the Administration might be deluded into thinking that the BSM is weak and unrepresentative of blacks. Such a delusion, had it occurred at such a critical moment, could have bred trouble on campus. We hope that in the future other campus organizations can learn from the mistakes of these organizations and not go meddling in crucial affairs in times of crisis. Both organizations no doubt meant well but more is needed than good intentions. basis, informally , and riot as if they were strange creatures, which is the case when they are separated from them by a mile. The arrangement offers potential benefits for the Administration too. University Food Service's Chase Cafeteria - has been a losing investment ever since it was built, despite its convenience to South Campus residents and its modernity. One of the main reasons was its sterile nature: no girls. Ask any of the many South Campus residents who trudge in to Lenoir from James or Craige and they'll tell you that food takes on additional pleasant qualities when it is eaten in a normal human social system, that is, where there is a sexually mixed crowd. We hope the Chancellor will realize the many benefits the University will gain from making James and Craige coeducational and will make this a reality beginning next fall. A plea to W.R.C.: I am a sophomore here and am "very" distressed to see the hopes of having an apartment next year diminish before my eyes. Before Carolina, I went to a prep. ; school for "four" years. That means SIX years in a dorm room, and you may say I am getting very sick of it. Remember ' those of us who don't belong to a sorority (and can't live there their junior year) and who want and need a change .... a chance to get away from the "female masses" and the absurdities, of dorm life. Here I am, twenty years old and it is as if I were sixteen, being told what I "can" do and what I can't do! How ridiculous in itself!" Girls are students just like everyone else. Why should we be treated differently with all these binding rules? The whole basic attitude of the administration "has got to change," that of Dean Carmichael included: "that a woman is fragile, small, and precious and I hope the University will always regard her so." Well, "I" certainly hope not! A woman must be a strong individual who makes her own moral guidelines. How are we ever going to defend ourselves once "we get out of this very protective community unless we start learning now how to live! WHY not apartments? I see no reasons which could hold you back. As for thinking about filling up the dorms, why were they eventhinking about building a high rise dorm.? It looks to me as if either you or "the administration" is just trying to find an excuse not to let Juniors have apartments. I expect you to pull out some other excuse any time now. Or if the majority of you "is" for having apartments, where's all the action. Here ; you have a whole semester to do this and ", to show you can represent the girls on campus. I really don't think you can find a sophomore who wouldn't be very happy if you were to pass this if not only to take advantage of it next semester, but also just for the principal of the matter just for our psychological freedom! There is also the argument of its being easier to study in an apartment. Of course' the validity of this argument depends on the individual .... for the girls concerned with their education. It would be a great, help not to have a phone constantly ringing at your ears, a call which could be -for about fifty other girls. There is also f .the,, girl who is forced to room with anothergirl whom she doesn't even know! and sometimes cannot stand. Surely that doesn't help her studying habits or help to make her daily life any easier to cope with. If she wants to room by herself somewhere, why not let her? Another argument is that concerning high food prices which we have to contend with in a dorm., as you are forced to eat in the cafeterias and restaurants in Chapel Hill. For those of us with financial strains, an apartment where one could cook for herself, would be a very welcome sight, and more money would be saved for education which is why we're here in the first place. r Since the deadline is March 17 for room sign-ups with a $25 deposit due at that time, there is little time to sit back and just think. You must act now, TODAY! I think "the proper channels", through which a proposal goes is lined with a disease called lethargy, and I would love to see that disease cured. It is up to each girl to be concerned and to act on this, but it is up to W.R.C. to Bland Simpson (Court Jesters This Week Are Some mighty big doings have been going on hereabouts lately. The. other day, for instance, student body president Ken Day confirmed the creeping suspicion that he is an able follower by jumping on the "back the blacks" band-wagon. Good for Ken. A lot of folks had forgotten that the boy even existed, and those that remembered him thought that he was really an inflatable balloon that administration flunkies blew up on occasion (for proper decor). Yes, ole Ken is so concerned about ''that black situation" that he took his mightiest non-stand of the year by co-authoring a "pro" BSM demand . statement last week. But he admitted (check Thursday's DTH), in assessing his ' comments, that he tried to disregard the -rhetoric and give the demands selective endorsement. Well it's been over two months since the BSM lodged those demands, and, apparently, the ufly-by-Day" boys thought they could get away without comment at all that was, of course, until the BSM started talking big-man-tough-stuff. The real Ken Day stood up, however, for it's easy to see that his statement was meant to imply committment without involving committment. Ken figured he'd better look partisan and progressive, lest he be swept under by the Afro-American Militia. Where have all the flowers and good old days gone? The days before Preston Dobbins grew his spade beard and wore prove it can work for the women students and not be just like another nameless committee that does nothing but spit out red tape and of which there are far too many on this campus as it is. So I ask you to work now on this and to represent what I feel is the opinion of the majority of women students here. Sincerely, Hillary White Statement Backs BSM We as students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill acknowledge the right to protest and support the demands and actions of the Afro-American Society at Duke and the Black Student Movement at Chapel Hill. These demands and subsequent commentaries by the faculty, the graduate student association, and the Southern Student Organizing Committee clearly demonstrate the institutional racism of our universities. In the present crisis we believe it imperative for our university to acknowledge this racism and to comply with the black demands. Our support is founded in the belief that the black students, in combating racism in the university, are fighting one manifestation of the repressive nature of the institutional. Virginia Carson Mickey Thigpen Alan Hirsch Terri Josephs Charles N. Jeffress Susan Bullington Robert C. Wilbur Peter Jones Mike Williams Edith M. Davis William M. Sowers Peggy Baggett Judy Block Bruce Page Kathleen Gurley Jane Montgomery Bill Smith Delegates to the NSA Southern Area Conference Vour Pres. . cnln ex. A rva i r jf sunglasses in his sleep, the days before he replaced the volume of Che Guevara's Diary that he used to carry with a ridiculous twig he seems to be married to nowadays. We saw the new Dobbins last spring when he courageously burned a confederate flag in front of the KA fra ternity house; way to go, Pres, that was live burn-baby-burn and you really shook those grits that watched through the windows. With revolutionaries like you, man, we don't need Guevaras. And we saw the new Ken Day just last week trying to get in the vanguard of the second wave of the local movement. You couldn't have really expected the first wave to rally 'round, Ken; after all, George Vlasits has been cultivating his "thinking man's radical" image for several years and you're still trying to prove the claim that you really are an "institutional radical". Institutional we believe; radical, well, we just laugh. But, frankly, we do see a lot of positive similarities between the recent performances of Day and Dobbins. We've been looking underneath the tripe they've been coming out with and in both cases there's nothing there. If the quality of the "verbal dung." has gone down, the volume, intensity, and amount have all gone up. We recall with affection, understanding, and a bit of nostalgia one of the less memorable confrontations between the forces of student ) -V- ".Ik The Great Surprising though it was, no one reported the takeover of South Building Friday morning. But it really happened. I saw it. Along about 9:30 a.m. the Administration massed outside the building. Then, on cue, they hurtled forward and seized it. The whole operation was really frightening. Oh, it had been expected for some time. Students had rumored the takeover, although they really weren't sure which building would be the first to go. Some thought it would be the Scuttlebutt, others suggested a South Campus bus might be the target. But South Building. They were more powerful than anyone had thought. Tremendous efforts had been made by the students to discover what the Administration was going to do. Everyone used the Duke conflict as a measuring stick. But the two situations really weren't comparable. The main reason the Blacks at Duke were forced out of the building after 10 hours was not the police. It was because there was no bathroom in the part of the building they had seized. Surely the Administration here wouldn't bungle that badly. A lot of undercover work was done by students in the hope that perhaps the administration's next step might be revealed. This work, however, was usually quashed by pSS t ji Mit , F ( A 5 k Tj ling "?or .Sucd e r t" O v government and the forces on the left. Late one afternoon when SSOC was trying to get on its feet (shortly before the day when its leaders discovered that SSOC was inherently lame), former vice-president and super-frat Charlie Mercer came into the DTH office to tell the SSOC boys that he was really on their side. LUDICROUS!!! It was one laugh to see the lefties hanging around trying to look "true-blue left"; it was another to see Mercer jigging in looking every bit the part of "poor-but-honest" Chollie Mercer. But when Mercer, with his tassels and tucked in sweater (pants up to armpits) painting him up to be the Sigma Nu he'll always be, ambled up to the SSOC block and claimed that student government had SSOC ideals at heart, it was clear that the whole world was represented right there the politician, the "cause-at-any cost" guys, and the generally no-mind. Thursday night, however, it all came out in the wash. The Hayakawa Society proved that it was washed up before it made its first move. It was finished before it started because its first move was that it couldn't move. A whole slew of former politicos showed up hoping to steer the Hayakawans down the sawdust trail into student government. No "moderate" ideology was brought to bear. Instead, the Hayakawans turned Goodfellow Takeover what one student called, "a gaggle of red tape." Furthermore, bugging devices planted in Dean Cathey's house' were appa'ently discovered. Every hour or two, those listening to the device would hear Dean Cathey say very clearly (and slowly), "Hello there. It's 9:15 Take-The-Building time, and now let's listen to the Boss Hit-Bound sound of Credence Clearwater." Then he'd play a, record for them. But it was a real surprise to everyone at 930 Friday morning when South Building fell so easily; to The Administration. Campus Safety Chief Arthur Beaumont was: seen on the steps of the building: about that time, totally exhausted. "I was rushing about the campus all night last night. They wouldn't tell me what they were going to seize, and yet they wanted to make sure there would be lots of innocent bystanders in case someone panicked and called the police." The Chief droned on, his bleary eyes barely open. "I tried to gather crowds around anything they might have wanted to take-everything from the Student Union to the coke machine in the basement of Ehringhaus." The Chief looked sadly upward at South Building. "I never would have dreamed the Administration could be so daring." 7 out to be the biggest bunch of reactionaries we've seen around here in some time. Everything that was discussed was built around a "moderate" reaction to "radical" actions and rhetoric. It seemed that even if the radicals were unbelievably ridiculous, the moderates were unbleievably and ridiculously worse. They even had a runner to hike around from the BSM meeting to the SSOC meeting and back to the Hayakawa meeting to keep the forces of moderation in touch with whatever it was the rads were doing. To those used to celebrating "Laugh-in" on Wednesday evenings, you missed your chance. The big "laugh-in this week was down at Gerrard Hall with the Hayakawans. It reminded us of a remark tendered towards the "Flintstones" cartoon series "they're so stupid, they're funny." The Flintstones and the Hayakawans must be related. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that the most difficult thing in the world to do was "to think". After listening to the campus "thinkers" we have to agree. With that in mind, our award for court jesters of the week goes to Grainger Barrett of Hayakawa Society, Preston Dobbins of the Afro-American Militia, and Ken Day of Student Government fame. Keep it up, fellows. We're laughing at you all the way to the Revolution.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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