Closet
Case
Page 2 Thursday, January 14, 1965
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Curtains Or Courage?
The drama began last spring when a young man, a
University student, was denied a haircut in a Lincoln bar
ber shop. The curtain has fallen with the passage of a
resolution by Student Council urging the removal of white
clauses from fraternities and sororities.
The question now is: "Was that the final curtain or
just the end of act one?"
The young man was a Negro. The Student Council,
eager to prove that it had a reason for existing, immedi
ately pounced on the situation and sent it to a committee
especially created to study that naughty and knotty ma
lady called discrimination.
Immediately the situation was forgotten by most Coun
cil members, their consciences soothed now that they had
made some move. That was last spring. For a while there
was fear that the committee, too, had forgotten the situ
ation; but not so. The study was handed over to the Public
Issues Committee, under the able leadership of Larry Fro
lik. and yesterday the climax of at least this part of the
drama was reached.
It was a small bomb and was predicted to be a dud.
It actually packed little power, only urging, not demand
ing; action on the part of sororities and fraternities with
white clauses. The chance of getting it past the reluctant
Greeks was small. While the Innocents Society as a group
took no stand, many of the members were conspicuous,
in their presence; three spoke against it. The juniors on
Council with a chance to become Innocents were sure to
oppose it.
But somewhere along the line, the potential of the
little bomb was underestimated by moral megatons. Some
where along the line minds were changed.
The Daily Nebraskan applauds the Student Council for
its far-sighted action, and Larry Frolik for his ability to
bring the situation into the proper scope. The resolution in
sures action on white clauses by students, postponing pos
sible administrative interference into the matter. For stu
dents to rid their groups of these offending clauses is
far better than to have administrative hands reach in to
grab them out. or to send the fraternities off campus, as
has happened at many other universities.
It emphasized the students' concern in having the
University condone discrimination. By approving constitu
tions of organizations with white clauses, the Board of
Regents is forced to give a reluctant nod to segregation.
It showed student support of the actions already taken
by Sigma Nu, the one offending fraternity, in attempting
to rid its group of the white clause. It is indeed unfor
tunate that a national Panhellenic ruling bars the Student
"ouncil from knowing how sororities stand. Hopefully,
e sororities themselves will, in the near future, release
lis information.
A Daily Nebraskan survey taken last year despite the
national Panhellenic ruling showed that li sororities have
no ruling. The same survey showed that four sororities de
clined comment.
Most important, it shows that the members of Student
Council were able, for a moment, to forget their special
interests and to act in the interest of the University and
humanity as a whole.
Frolik assured the Council that this was not the end
of his study, that discrimination in Lincoln would be put
to the test in the next semester and another report would
be made.
This cannot be the end; Council cannot haul the cur
tain down here.
This resolution has evaporated only one drop in an
ocean of trouble. As one Council member put it, "We have
taken half a loaf, because we were afraid we couldn't
get the whole loaf." Half a loaf is something but now is
the time for Council to bite into the other half and come
up with some constructive legislation.
Rich Brown, representing himself as a University stu
dent and as a Negro, said, "Nebraska is the worst "place
in the world. They pass the buck; they are narrow mind
ed." Earlier he had said to a few persons, "It would be
more fun to live in Georgia."
The Daily Nebraskan contends that Brown underesti
mates the State of Nebraska. The surprise action yester
day by Student Council may prove this contention.
However, a challenge such as this cannot be ignored.
As Brown pointed out, sitting by a Negro in class does
not entitle one to think of himself as a rabid integration
ist, to run to Mommy and say, "What an integrationist
am I! I sat by a Negro today."
The Council cannot sit by another semester and wait
for another report. They must act now.
On this campus the Negro is not persecuted, he is
merely insulted.
' SUSAN SMITHBERGER
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President To Be Popularly Elected
By Cuz Guenzel
To carry through the three
branch system, the presi
dent and vice president in
the new constitution will be
elected by a popular vote of
the students.
The reasoning behind this
change is that both officials
will then represent and be
responsible to the entire As
sociation. This new sphere
of responsibility to a large
number of constituents is
significant in several obvi
ous ways.
For instance, the arrange
ment will promote more ac
tive political campaigns be
cause the presidential and
vice presidential candidates
will have to win the support
of his constitutents, the stu
dents, to carry the election.
The only way a candidate
will be able to win student
support will be to present
them with a platform or
program showing the areas
where he proposes to guide
the Senate's work and in
vestigation. Students will
then indicate which areas
they feel need work by vot
ing for the candidate with
the platform they favor.
Thus these two office hold
ers will represent the stu
dents in two ways. First,
democratically because they
were voted upon by the stu
dent body as a whole.
They will also represent
the students politically be
cause in winning the election
they will know most stu
dents want work done in the
areas outlined in their plat
form. Both officials can be held
responsible for their plat
forms because they will play
a significant role in appoint
ing committee chairmen
within the Senate. They
should select Senators who
agree with their platform
so work can be accomplished
in the areas the students
have favored.
It will not be difficult in
a community the size of the
University to detect if work
is being done.
After the president of the
? ij X
i
Association is in office, Tiis
new sphere of responsibility
will become most important
because he has the veto
power. The president must
be able to act in the name
of the students when he
challenges an ordinance or
regulation passed by the
Senate.
The veto power, which can
be overriden by a two-thirds
vote of the Senate, was giv
en to the president only aft
er we decided that he would
not hold the influential pow
er of presiding over the Sen
ate. As long as he stays within
the bounds of his capacity
and does not act as a leg
islative whip, he cannot ex
ceed his intended powers.
However, a legislative
whip is a necessity.
This thought is part of the
reasoning behind the execu
tive committee which will be
the motivating force or leg
islative whip for the ASUN
Senate.
The committee will be
composed of the president
and vice president with
three senators elected by the
senate, so there will be both
executive and legislative in
fluences. The committee
will work in such areas as
appointing committee chair
men and setting the agenda
for Senate meetings.
With these duties and pow
ers, the executive commit
tee will be most influential
Its members will be in the
middle of ASUN functions
so they will be able to
prompt the Senate to action
in areas that need work.
But it is most important to
remember that the Sena
tors will be responsible to
the Senate and the presi
dent and vice president will
remain responsible to the
executive branch.
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The committee is signifi
cant because these five peo
ple will have the duty and
responsibility to discern stu
dent problems and interests
with the sphere of influence
and power to initiate and
promote action.
In addition to presiding
over this committee, the
president will also head the
cabinet. Positions on this
body will be filled by rep
resentatives of campus or
ganizations. Although there is not a
definite plan to divide or
ganizations into different
areas yet, it is probably that
such areas as service, spe
cial interests, professionals
and others will be outlined.
Every organization will
placed in a fitting division
and the ASUN president will
select a representative from
each area to serve on his
cabinet.
In this way. organizations
on campus will have a direct
line to the president of stu
dent government. The cabin
et can meet with the presi
dent and introduce legisla
tion through him to the Sen
ate. The cabinet will provide a
permanent meeting ground
for organizations if there is
some dispute. Most prob
lems of organizations will
be solved on the cabinet lev
el to avoid taking action to
the Judiciary.
The cabinet will be a place
where better coordination
can be developed between
campus organizations and
between these groups and
student government. It also
provides a setting where
Senate legislation can be ex
plained and enforced
Most important, the cabin
et will give campus organs
izations a direct voice to and
from student government.
are
By Frank Partsch
A column in m.tmoriam
to Student Council on the
day after it destroyed itself
would be an unpleasant and
distasteful task.
An elegy to Larry Frolik
on the day after he willing- .
ly committed political sui
cide would be even more
heartrending.
Thanks to 27 Student Coun
cil members, however, who
voted yesterday in favor of
a resolution against "white
clauses" in organization
constitutions, neither of
these is necessary at this
time.
Whether or not Frolik has
become extinct won't be
known for sure until May.
But Student Council, acting in
the final days of operation
under its obsolete constitu
tion, has salvaged its hon
or. By approving Frolik's res
olution, the Council can hope
to gather but little tangible
evidence of its effectiveness;
by rejecting it the Council
would have betrayed the
student body and all con
nected with the University.
Political suicide. I can do
no more for Frolik than to
remove my hat to his cour
age and to wish him luck in
the future.
Political suicide is a
strange animal. The very
words imply the perfor
mance of duty at the ex
pense of glory. They imply
a one-man uphill battle,
which in this case was pre
dicted by many observers
but seen by few.
I wonder about this uphill
battle. Were the C o u n c i 1
members won during the
debate? Did they bring their
votes to the meeting with
them? Why were they drawn
away from their passionate
arguments against the mo
tion? Listen to some of the argu
ments and try to decide.
"The Council is not
against integration. We are
really rabid integration
ists:" Mike Barton.
"This motion should not
be passed: the Negro is
apathetic. The report quotes
one Negro as saying he
doesn't mind if we dislike
the color of his skin as long
as we don't say so to his
rftny Curtis
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face. They have no Interest
in this problem:" Bob Ker
rey. "Nebraska is the most narrow-minded
place in the
world:" Rich Brown.
I think Brown said it right
there. Nebraska, Nebraska,
Nebraska. How can we pur
port to know anything about
the problems of the Negro?
The problems of the Negro
should not be least among
the considerations here. We
did hear about moral issues,
we heard about consistency
with the Civil Rights Law
and we heard about the sol
idarity of the fraternity.
We forgot about the prob
lems of the Negro.
Withholding a right or
courtesy , from a Negro be
cause he 'is apathetic is like
depriving a cripple a crutch
because he cannot walk over
to get it.
Voting against this resolu
tion is telling a Negro to
his face that we don't like
his color.
These were some of the arg
uments heard at the Student
Council meeting yesterday.
The battle need not be re
fought here. The report on,
discrimination in off-campus
housing, which Frolik prom
ises for next semester, will
be another and larger step
in this program. Yesterday's
report was good, even
though some Council mem
bers were disappointed be
cause it lacked the nature
of a poll.
Those of us who earlier
saw no reason for Council
to study discrimination are
now happily surprised. The
possibilities for progress in
this area are unlimited. If
this be political suicide, we
want more of the same.
This might not even be
half a loaf; it might be no
more than a few crumbs.
But we were starving and it
tasted good.
Daily Nebraskan
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Natalie laod"""""
iauren Baca!!
o Kiel Ferrer 0
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.COUN T BASIE and HIS ORCHESTRA
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