SCARLET AND BLACK

Friday. December ii. in

 

Scarlet and Black

GRINNELL COLLEGE
Grinnell. low:

A weekly newspaper published each Friday or the col-
lege year by (he Grinnell comnimce on srudenr Publica-
lions. Laird u. Barber, chairmen. Represented {or
natlonal advertising by Nallonal Advenlsing service. Inc.,
College Publishers Representative, la East 50in sireei,
New York 22, N31. Second cluss postage paid it Grinnell.
Iowa. siiuscripuon rule $4.50 per school year.

.llnl ncrzou
Conmd Dnum
. Dave Buetz
. John wall
ren Adkinson

EDITOR ..
BUSINESS MANAGER
MANAGING :anon .
NEWS EDI-mu ..
FEATURE EDITOR

On the basis of an extensive report submitted by
the SGA committee appointed to examine the automo«
bile rule section of the Council on Student Life’s 1963
report, the Student Senate, Wednesday night passed a
motor vehicle regulation which includes two key pro-
visions: (a) “Students of Junior and Senior class status
are permitted to maintain and operate motor vehicles”
and (b) ”Students of sophomore, junior and senior
class status may drive cars maintained and operated by
other students for social purposes with the permission
of the owner.”

The ,SGA committee’s five page report included
detailed objections to all five of the principal reasons
that were cited by the Faculty Council on Student
Life “to justify continuation of the present rule, (Only
students who are members of the senior class are per-
mitted to maintain and operate motor vehicles while in
attendance at Grinnell College).” -

The committee report also listed a number of
"positive advantages” that they felt would accompany
the liberalization of the automobile rule. Some of these
advantages are:

1. The presence of more automobiles on cam- -

pus would help minimize the disadvantages of
Grinnell’s cultural isolation.

2. An automobile would establish at least one
means for a student to obtain privacy.

3. More automobiles would facilitate and
make more economical transportation to House-
parties and other events involving the moving of
large numbers of students.

4. More automobiles at Grinnell would result
in significant decrease in the cost of transportation
to and from Grinnell for many students.

In support of the Motor Vehicle regulation as
passed by the Student Senate, we would like to make
a few additions to the SGA committee's list of “positive
Advantages” accruing to the change.

1. With the continual shift in college academic
policy toward more academic freedom for the student
through increased opportunities for independent study
in his or her major field, the greater availability of an»
tomobiles would broaden considerably the possible
scope of any such study. It should make readily avail-
table the extensive library facilities of nearby univer-
sities (SUI, Iowa State, Drake) and provide an oppor-
tunity for Grinnell students to attend lectures at these
and othervnearby schools, Other academic benefits of
a liberalized car rule would include increased oppor-
tunities for personal interviews with prominent people
in the area and direct observation of educational events
by interested students

2. Due primarily to Iowa climate conditions during
the months of December through the middle of April,
student travel, even within the confines of the campus,
is severely restricted. Students tend to become semi-
hermits, venturing out of their dormitory rooms, for
the most part, only when it is absolutely necessary.
The greater availability of cars throughout the winter
months would allow for greater student movement
and a healthier campus atmosphere.

We applaud the work of Cal Collier’s SGA com—
mittee for the fine job done on its report, as well as the
Student Senate for its speedy passage of the new
Motor Vehicle regulation. We hope to be able, in the
near future, to add our kudos to the popular acclaim
that would greet passage of this new regulation by the
Faculty Committee on Student Affairs, the President.
und the Board of Trustees.

Memorial Fund
Reaches $259 5

Grinnell students have do<
hated $259 to the Ralph Ogan,
Jrr, Memorial Fund, student
leaders have announced.

The money, collected in the
men’s and Women's cafeteria
lines, has been presented to
Mrs. Ogan,

Jeffrey B. Burnham, sopho-
more from Falls Church, Va.,
and Jon Larson, senior from
Grand Island, Neb., spearhead-
ed the effort.

They said the contribution
was made as an expresSlon of
student appreciation of the late
Mr. Ogan and of the whole
Grinnell police Iorcc.

Russian visitors flunk a University of Chicago translator in

an informal session held last Saturday in the Loose Lounge.

The Candy Man has noted
that TEXAS has become the
first team in Southwest Confer-
ence history to go undefeated
in conference play. The Long-
horns will appear in the Cotton
Bowl on New Year’s Day. ,

The Russians who visited Grinnell College aver the weekend
included Alexander Krivopulnv. a member of the editorial
board of Kamsomolskuyu Pravda; Alexander Chuhurion.
secretary of the Historical institute of the Academy of
Sciences of the USSR: and Eliseyev Genniny Pavlovich.
mechanical engineer.

 

,Phil Johnson

Radicals Blur Political Picture

Extremists seem to dominate American
politics today. They have not captured all
of the votes and offices as yet, but extrem—
ist groups make so much noise with their
screaming that it is sometimes difficult to
hear anything else at all. The Bircllers ex-
pose half the government as “Communlst
dupes and sympathizers", While the far left
attributes all the World’s evil to Wall Street.
The right demands a withdrawal from
“dangerous internationalism" While the lelt
condemns the waste and injustice of a free
enterprlse economy. The Americans for
Democratic Action and the Americans for
Constitutional Action trade insults. The
National Review and the Fair Play for
Cuba Committee call each other ”sinister
conspiracies."

It is comforting to View these radical
groups as the creations of small minds.
They are dismissed as lairly ignorant
groups with simplistic answers, cater-
ing to the uneducated All that is needed
is a little education, and then the radi<
cal cannot stand.

Ii we accept this premise, it should follow
that a student at an institution of higher
learning should be fairly impervious to the
attractlon of their neat answers and com
spiracy theories. Theoretically he has more
knowledge than the average man, and has
more tools of analysis at his disposal. And
of course, he can always ask the opinion
of hls faculty, who are even higher on the
scale of enlightenment and judiciousness.
He should be safe.

The unpleasant fact, however, is that
radical student groups of all kinds are
rapidly spreadlng across the country.
There have always been student groups
with extreme political vlews, but never be~
fore have they managed to grow so large,
so well organized. and so well financed.

The in lelt is represented by many
groups. The Students For a Democratic So-
ciety, which started in June 01 1962, is prl<
nlarily an Eastern group, but is rapidly
spreading across the Country The Campus
Americans For Democratic Action is much
lurlher to the left than its parent organlza»
llon, the ADA. The Young Socialist Alli-
ance has a number of growing chapters
across the country. New York City has ”.5
own local group, Advance, which has now
been indicted under the Smith Act as a
CDmmlmlSerl‘Ont organization.

The right wing has only one major stu-
dent organization, the Young Americans
for Freedom, but it is the largest and best-
tlnanced of all of the racial groups, The
YAF was set up In 1960 on the private es-
tate of William Buckley, of National Re-
view iame. It now has more than 20,000
members across the country, as well as a
slate of full-time officers. Juniors and sen<
lors here will remember Fulton Lewis III,
the YAF representative who Came to GX‘m‘
hell in 1962 to delend the House UnaAmerh
can ActiVllles Committee and the film “op-
eration Abolition".

Even more disturbing is the extent to
which extremist groups have been able to
capture the natlonal conventlons ot/ the
Young Republicans and Young Democrats.
Last June's YR Conventlon in San Fran-
cisco came out with an unbelievable plat-
form, closely parallellng the views of the
John Birch Society. in September in San
Diego. the Young Democrats set ionh an
ultra~llberal platform which led several
prominent Democratic leaders, including
Governor Brown, to publicly repudiate the
whole affair.

There is probably a hlgher percentage
of students in extremist organizations toe
day than from any other age or occupa-
tional group. The question of why is large-
ly unanswered (and largely unasked). My
own hypothesis is the following:

3. Students DO have more political
information than the man on the street,
theoretical and rather superficial.
but this information is in most cases
There is lime real political insighr on
today’s campus.

11. There is a certain excitement in
challenging accepted values and ways
of doing things.

1:. There is no real responsibility for
which most student groups are held ac-
countable, ,such as running a govern-
ment. These groups are not unlike pro-
fessors in this regard.

d, There is real disillusionment‘with
the present system which allows dis-
criminalion, poverty, and violence on
the scale u-lat they exist. in this country.
These students want in change the sys-
tem, and lind the substitution of a new
system easier than muddling through
the complexities of the one that actually
exists.

 

