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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (May 4, 1962)
Poge 2 Daily Nebroskon Election Edition Friday, May 4, 1962 Gage Raps False Prestige Grab By Steve Gage Student Council President I welcome this opportunity to give some of my views just prior to the General Spring Elections. When Editor Ferguson approached me with the proposal to prepare a page for this Special Election Supplement, I was both encouraged and apprehensive. Encouraged be cause someone was making a constructive effort to remedy the general student opinion on governments composed of their peers. Ap prehensive because I feared I would lapse into an assorted collection of cliches bound together with the vested interest of my ego. To attempt to examine sto dent government nnder new light means simply that a new light, or at least a new per spective is available. I do not claim to have a new light I would let stand the estab lished criteria against which anv governmental body most be' compared. They have served free aad democratic It, as fas as we tarn tell is thc itavc Rut it ic tM ner- cnH-lira that ic imnortanL It is where TOO are standing (or whether yon are standing at an). C M Gage It is hard to reiterate, in the relatively free society in which we find ourselves, the purposes toward which we strain ourselves without resorting to blinded chauvinistic dog mas, usually bandied about in passion and without mental exertion. We find this true on the national level. President Eisenhower felt compelled to establirh a commissi:: as signed to the task of determining our na tional purposes. The Student Council found it necessary last year: anyway President Tempera appointed a committee to decide on the purpose of the Student Council on the University campus. Cow Id Be Suspect While the results of any such committee could be held suspect (it must be remembered that the committee could have become the naive dupes of some sinister conspiracy), generally the consensus of such a group is a conscientious reappraisal of the govern ment's present position in light of justifica tions used by the founding nucleus to con vince the people that they should be gov erned. Or at least the nucleus convinces it self that its decision to govern is right and proper. The results, in any case, will ery probably be accepted or rejected by tne gov erned, usually in a bland and trepid response. This points toward the perspective that I w ish to discuss. Aad, tboagh m man com fortably wears a cloak of righteous indigna tion (this is a persoaal matter), here is where I begin to wrap myself ia the cloak's all too ample folds aad to asrame a bet ligereot attitode. Here begfas what may be trite, bat to me an indispensable viewpoint. We stedests are members of an academic commanity fundamentally, aad members of sororities, glee clsbs, footbaQ teams, bridge teams, and service groups secondarily. We are "citizens" to a semi-excuufve "commn nity, aad mast assame something ia the latere of a "cowunanal interest or else be satisfied wha existing aw9 'W-existiag' at the sane time. American stodeets, and most assaredly, Nebraska stodeats, have chosen the latter alternative. Now certainly there are restrictions to the applicability tt this claim; no general hypothesis would include all of the iadfridaals foand within the col legiate sphere of inflneare. Bat this con clusion that most "stodent citizens" shesld be at least passively interested ia the "af fairs of stale" is more generally applicable than most students would let themselves ad mit. I would suggest two reasons for the quality, or rather lack of quality, in the Student Council. One is the general campus attitude towards stodent leaders, student organiza tions, and the adnunistration and faculty. To analyze these facets separately, I would say that student leaders have .not helped to create a favorable image for themselves. Some of them become so "pushy" that the students can easily perceive their "lean and hungry looks." Some get involved in sub rosas, espouse the virtues of the "brother hood elite" one minute, and prove to be brother to no man the next. Their lot, of course, is infected with the grab for false prestige and is complicated by the arbitrary tackling of thirteen "leaders" every year by the Innocents and by the masking of any. female leaders by the Mortar Boards in some years. I should quit lest our local "Lady Macbeths" admonish thusly: "Thou wouldst be great; art not without ambition but without the illness should at tend it." Wears White Sneakers Student organizations have generally done little else besides establish a hierarchy of prestige levels and, I suppose, take up the idle time of busy workers who might other wise be studying or learning. As for atti tudes toward the administrators and faculty members, it could be said that the situa tion has somewhat improved. At least, not all of the fraternity pledges are instructed that the Dean of Student Affairs wears white sneakers so as to nab the well meaning seniors when they venture for an innocent beer. Credit goes to a constructively oriented In terfraternity Council for the long-needed straight thinking and talking on this account The second b the prevalent attitude of the Establishment ("committed campns lead ers). Reflecting the low caliber of Nebraska politicians on the date-wide level, the stsdest leader asaaOy reverses wha high regard a state-wide attitade: there isn't much to do and if we move slow enoagh we won't have to do anything. Stmctared as the Stodent Coaacfl is at the present time with too many representatives from stodent organi zations, it is the victim of the Establish ment's nse of Coaacfl positions to better the political advantage of members of their own organizations. The reasonings of the Estab lishment also pervade the Coencil thresgn the college representatives since many of these in dividual are "on their way p" ia the prestige organizations. - A cirenmstance owning its origin in part to the Establishment is the perennial btoe of IFC-slated candidates. While alignment on minor issnes asaaSy fol low the individual prejudices of the Council members, the cobesiveness of this bloe has been decisively demonstrated the last two years ia the major issues considered by each year's Council. Aa analysis of the votes on the election coercion issne and the NSA af filiation would prove that the IFC btoe was responsible for defeating both issnes. Maybe anknowMigty this segment of the Establish men! is committing mass fratricide. Cer tainly these are the type of men whom in dustry wants on the "management team." Sach dedication to a caase!? What is the perspective offered then? It is simply, and with the inherent difficulties, the assumption of a role within the expand ing student community by each student This is the theoretical solution to our j-xoblem interest would eventually lead to participa tion; participation would provide greater com petition and cooperation among the student leadership; the leadership might be meti . vated to undertaking more worthwhile proj ects, would prove their maturity and ability to administrators and the student body, and would riove the campus toward responsible and disciplined self-government The practi cal solution lies in each student's hands, or rather in his vote and personal involvement The practical solution lies with the emer gence of a more politically mature and posi tively oriented student leadership, positive ia the sense that the leaders efforts are ex pended for somewhat more altruistic ends than being tackled for membership ia Inno cents Society. Activity Jocks Now this sounds like a Hoe c&Uectivistie Ideal for irtegrating the diverse interests of "activity jocks" into a monolithic organiza tion structure. But actually the opposite is true. As the quality of Council members im prove, as campus leadership improves, the opportunity for individual development in creases tremendously. This has been happen ing on the Council the past two years. Better members mean a divergence of interests and the conflict to resolve these differences proves almost as stimulating as the individual inter ests. What I'm hitting at here is that the often-mouthed cliche that activity work is training for adult life should be given some truth. Activity work can be stimulating and maturing. It can be a complement to the in-class study. And with the slant of student government work tending toward considera tion of national and international issues, stu dent government and its associated activities can be co-curricular in nature. To the stodent reading this, it probably appears to be an apology for stodent govern ment or else the philosophic bases for the work undertaken by this year's Council. But I personally hope that a few stodeats will do some new thinking on their role in the aca demic commnnity. This re-thinking e o n 1 d have its effects in several years. I have not attempted to present specific programs for next year's Council in t h i s space. Actually the groundwork for most of next year's work has already been laid. The biggest task faced by next year's group will be unraveling the mysteries of programs set up this year. Several programs have been disappointing. This was expected. But the Council Associate program, the Public Rela tions area, and the Public Issues area need to be semi-formaJIy structured and their purpose needs to be set down in writing. A plan of action for next year should be es tablished yet this spring. And I certainly hope that these programs will not be aban doned in the swing back to a "conventional Council;" I feel these programs even in their initial year have proved their value to the campus. Ttont Bleck Vote What should you do in Monday's election? Actually only one thing remains that you can do. Vote and exercise your best judg ment in selecting good Council members for next year. Do not, and I repeat, do not vote a bloc as a bloc; pick out candidates who you feel would think independently and would vote independently. Before the IFC screams, I do not urge the defeat of their slate, or the slate of the SCBC for that matter. But I want yoa to vote for individuals who will not flock to the "cause of the Greeks" just because the IFC president happens to be of one mind on an issue. The IFC has its meet ing on Wednesday nights and there is no justification for it to hold its executive meet ings on Wednesday afternoons in the the Council meetings. The Council and the IFC are two separate organizations, contrary to appearance. The Daily Kebraskaa has been doing a good job in covering the campaign; you should refer to the platforms of the can didates before voting. They at feast indicate how much time the individuals have spent talking to upperclassmen. Even "handme down" ideas are of some value to the Coun cil's work. Again, vote and exerrise cssOa when yoa mark your ballot. Then plan to pay atten tion to what the CoancO is doing next year. Make Coencil members earn their prestige. Ask them to speak to yowr fcoese or yoar organization. Find oat nkat is going on. And when selfish motives begin dictating the de cisions of the CmwcO, step in and raise year pretest It is ep to yon. As for me, IH be gone. Graduate school or bust But my hopes will still be with the newly elected group. IH hope they prove themselves; 111 hope they accomplish some thing of their promises. Student Government has been a rewarding experience for me. I think it could be rewarding for any of yoa also. Why not find out for yourself?