HAPPINESS 15 HAVlNS Page 2 EDITORIAL Monday, April 29, 1963 The Weekend Ahead IgfiWiKl if ' r I? t t f V. 6 WHAT MAKES a University great? Immediately, one considers an institu tion's research programs, it's national prestige, distinguished alumni, outstand ing professors the criteria go on and on. HOWEVER, ONE component, tradition, is seldom listed among the "musts" for a great university. But, a meaningful tra dition contributes much to an institution's existence in that it gives the students a pride and interest in their school. Without this, a school cannot be great. And, we at Nebraska are still holding on to one of our remaining traditions . . . Spring Day-Ivy Day week end. At this time, each year, former students return to relive their college days or to watch a son or daughter be recognized for out standing achievements. Students partici Just Can't Wait . . . EMT0E8 NOTE: TlM Mlmrh atary I printed wMa the ermliitra T w SUNDAY JOIRNAIST.. Ac article caat'erm Greek letter Batienal rue. By SID MOODY, AP Few campus characters are more loved and loathed than that endearing Greek American institution, the college fraternity. To its foes, the Greek letter fraternity is a relic hopelessly overgrown with ivy, featuring orgies on every floor and supported by snobbery, bigotry and beery-eyed alumni who never quite outgrew the sophomore year. To its friends, it is an in valuable teacher of self-reliance, the social graces, democracy and scholarship all welded together by that mystical bond called broth erhood. Last year, Williams Col . lege gave the Greeks one of their sharpest setbacks. Williams, a genteel men's school rich in fraternity tradition, liberal arts and conservative alumni, de cided its 15 fraternities would have to go by 1966. Williams' action comes at a time when fraternities (and their sisters, sorori ties) are present in record numbers on American cam puses. There are 262 na tional collegiate Greek let ter societies. They have 16,006 chapters and a mem bership of grads and under grade of 6,773,253. There are fraternities for Jews, Filipinos, engineering stu dents, Poles, Negroes and soon. Challenged by Times Yet while at a numerical and fiscally prosperous peak, fraternities are be ing increasingly challenged to justify themselves in an age that has seen soldiers marching to integrate a university ant 'n a country sensitive to the egalitarian mood of the world's new nations. At a time when the na tion cries for brains, the hand-wringers see fraterni ties as anti-intellectual playgrounds where the bonds of brotherhood tie louts of conformity and the climb to the social graces too often stumbles into a trap of hooch, hazing and well, the Greeks have a word for it Is this a valid profife of flie Greeks? To find out the SEVENTY-SECOND YEAR OF PUBLICATION Telephone 477-8711, ext. 2588, 2589, 2550 14tb L R Member Associated Collegiate Press, International Press Representative, Na tional Advertising Service, Incorporated. Published at: Room 51, Student L'uion, Lincoln 8, Nebraska. fmtiwm U eaamr tlmilMlM Mr AtiVnc Snaar ...... Aarfataal Btac Mmm .- iaara EdHar hf mrt Mnar tlMt Hnorta aVMar Ac New, tiilur Cwr IUn4Mr mil. Wvfctra Jttntar fttff Writers rMtnViepMT Baaartaf R.F.I.C College Associated Press polled 150 campuses across the na tion. The fraternity emerges as particularly strong in the Midwest and South, un der fire in the Northeast but everywhere being re formed in varying degree either from within or with out. On one coast, at Oregon State, they are "welcome, not just tolerated, for their generally wholesome en vironment and valuable housing." On the other coast, Boston University Dean Staton R. Curtis says, "Time is running out, I fear," citing fraternities' "fiscal mismanagement, low academic achievement and failure to choose a rep resentative membership." The average fraternity house (they can be worth as much as $300,000) may have 50 or 60 members, half of whom live in, a drinking room lined with irreverent cartoons of the brothers, a secret meeting or "goat" room, perhaps with a skull or other cere monial equipment. If the house is lucky enough to have a good cook, living can be easy. And the living can inspire lyrical praise: "Brotherhood isnt just a 50-50 deal. It's a 60-60. It's that extra 20 that really counts." Fraternity hand book at Arizona State. ... Or scorn: "(Greeks) are colorless, personality-less men who feel confident, wearing a pin. The University is pa ternalistic enough but the Greeks want to go further and find their childhood" a German exchange stu dent at Michigan State. ... Or indifference: "M alumnus owes loy alty first to his college, then to his class and lastly to his fraternity if he can remember the name of it" a Dartmouth graduate. Flame Out? If the ancient Greeks in vented democracy, some say their latter day fra ternal namesakes have let the flame go out. "I do not see how a fraternity can be truly democratic. They are selective by nature, but his tory, by tradition and by necessity," says Dr. J. Earl Moreland, president of Randolph-Macon. Daily Nbbraskan Baton aa aeewal aaaf fflre la UiMsala Naarata Tae OmUr Nrfcrmkm mj anMhaxrf Maaaa. Wataeala, Taaraojr aa4 PrMa aarhtc the aitkHl fear, axeeat aartaf Tr,Hi antf ma arrlaar ana mm aarfaaj Aamajt, ar arateata af Ike tlnrrmtt, af N.Krk aaanr Ot anUwrtaa ttaa 1 tka (MnmiUse aa MnornM affair, m aa amala af ataftnrt wtnte. litHrtfa andor taa tartMlrtt at taa wtmnamluee ja Maae Fimifm arall a frae flfHM dik90all Aa9fMfHWp 9M Ike ftrt 4a? Ifcfc MwbWHallHAWI ar aa aj ptrt af tm aenea aalniat Mw Oatneialti. Tm aimben af tka Dull? Nrakaa atari an aaraaa lr retamlMe tar val laar far. ar a, ar nan la ka artaiai. rearasnr S. lata. EMTOBIAL (TT AFT I pate in Spring Day and feel a renewed identification with their university and the campus community, and student leaders and scholars relinquish or accept respon sibilities which parallel their achieve ments. THUS, THESE traditions are ones of purpose, and we must support them in or der to insure our continued greatness. The activities which lead up to the tra ditional week end are varied the mystic spooks spook, the jittery juniors jitter, the singers practice singing, the race predic tors predict, the tug-of-warers tug. All add up to an enthusiasm which is unmatched at any other time of the year. THIS WEEK END has been set aside for the students. On Ivy Day. on Spring Day, our university campus reflects the great ness which it truly possesses. . . . and soon! Froeniflffes; Mrs. Joseph Davis, execu tive secretary of alumni of Omaha University, sums up succinctly for the contrary minded: "The Greek system is a democratic process un der the constitution. Volun tary association is a right." While the fraternities in sist on their right to pick and choose their brethren, the AP survey shows a definite trend to more liberal values in selection. That's a striking recur rence in the AP survey: That much of the leadership in liberalizing fraternity mem bership comes from the stu dents themselves. At Stanford the local Sigma Nu chapter quit the national parent organization last fan because of its discrimina tory clauses. Stanford Chap ter President Thomas Grey explained, "It is becoming increasingly difficult to find a good pledge class which is willing to accept mem bership in an organization which denies admittance on purely racial grounds." But what of fraternity se lectivity per se, based not on any racial or religious basis but just on whether or not the brothers like your looks? On a large Big Ten cam pus, where rarely more than 30 of the undergraduates are Greeks, the non-Greek can have 4 pleasant, produc tive years uncaring whatev er Hellenic pleasures may have been denied him. But on a small campus, with a high percentage of Greeks, rejection can wound, deeply. 'Bitter Truth' But adult life, say frater nity supporters, is one long process of rejection and ac ceptance in promotion on the job, joining a country club, picking one's friends. W'hy not begin adjusting to the bitter truth in college? Because it's wasteful. It distracts the real purpose of a college to educate. And, anti-Greeks argue, the fra ternities by selectivity too often overlook the more re tiring blossom, the very one their camaraderie could best nurture. Aware of these imperfec tions in varying degrees, a significant number of col leges, fraternities and under graduates have tried re forms of the system. On some campuses rush ing has been postponed to sophomore year so as not to add to the freshman's bur den of academic adjustment. Bowdoin, on the other hand, rushed freshmen before fall classes begin so students can buckle down to class without concerning them selves with the "deceptive aim atattar, amaaa aaM. at 9m J ilia Eetttnaer Mike Maelaa OajaMa. Ba OaaabMhaa. Fer Laa . try Oratfc timrr Law ........................... . Tarty aaarMa MMi Ut M In wm Caroma. flatfe Matter, Wena nrra Am Hovlk. Httsaa Hmttarrrr Jaka LeaaaaiM. ttaUe tefrtM, Oarr Miller . ., ...Dlaar Oetrker, Jaa taut pimHMifflMimimiiiitomi Greek Greek systems at the two universities located in Lincoln enjoy friendly relations with the schools' administrations. Dean Robert Ross at the University of Nebraska has this comment: "The University of Nebraska and its Greek system have a long tradition of being concerned about, interested in, and sup ported by each other. "The Greek system here has been an expanding program, and we have right now the strongest leadership and best scholarship in several years." Nebraska Wesleyan University's Dean Milton Evans says, "Wesleyan feels that Greeks make a definite contribution to the campus program. Tjhey encourage scholarship and they add to the social experience of the students." I i University of Wesleyan Nebraska University Total Women's Enrollment . 2,696 CIO Sorority Enrollment 1,021 280 Alt-Women's Average $.836 3.03 Ad-Sorority Average S 912 2.0 Nebraska Wesleyan University uses a 1 to 6 point grading scale with 1 being high; University of Ne braska uses a I to 9 point scale with 9 being high. 5imilllllllllllliMI!lll!IIIIIIINIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIta.rflli courtship" of prolonged rush ing. University of Maine fra ternities have raised the grade requirement for pledges twice in the last 8 years. Many other colleges insist students have a cer tain scholastic average be fore they may pledge. Scholastic Discipline Fraternities hold their own study hours for backsliding brothers. The National Inter fraternity Conference eager ly cites studies that show: 1 Fifty per cent of all fraternities are above the over-all average of their campuses. (Ten years ago only 40 were.) 2 The rate of dropout an alarming development in contemporary higher educa tionis more than twice as high among men at a non fraternity campus as among members of national frater nities. While the Greeks are get ting better marks on their report cards, their behaviour, too, appears to be Improv ing. There is fierce competi tion today to get into col lege, to stay in and to get high enough marks for graduate school. Academic pressures have had their sobering effect on the Olym pian highjinks of Greek Row. "The Mickey Mouse stuff is dying out," comments campus editor Jeff Green field of Wisconsin of the de cline of fraternity ritual and hazing. "Help Weeks" have replaced most of the bar barities of the old initiation "Hell Weeks." Some incidents persist. At Texas Christian an electric "hotshot" used to prod cat tle at stockyards was turned on pledges during initiatkst;. The president of the Ore gon University Interfrater nity Council quit in protest of initiation abuses. Hi Ho Life Yet some oases still hold out the pleasure of forbid den fruit. Alpha Tau Omega beckonb prospective broth ers in the Stanford Frater nity handbook with the lure of a "full and varied social program highlighted by the winter Sewer Party and the spring Hog Wallow." If it is fashionable in in tellectual circles to knock fraternities, perhaps the most fashionable thing of all to say against them is that they force conformity. "They are an extension of the family," said a bearded student at Rutgers. "They tell you how to dress, what to eat, whom to associate with." "By living with your broth TAW6 MUCH ) ' ESra f&NHtHs) . I I ( UH HUH ) 5 i.i r System Esteemed at NU, Nebraska ers," says the fraternity handbook at the University of Cincinnati, "you will learn to express your own opinion and when to subordinate yourself to the will of others." There are those who feel such control of the individ ually the group is tragical ly unfortunate, coming as it does at a time when the student is as free as he will ever be to explore and to learn, to be himself. Yet their group-centered way of life brings the Greeks their best deserved laurel campus leadership. At Ohio State 20 of the students are Greeks, yet of 200 leaders of extracurricu lar organizations, only 5 or so are non-Greeks. This dis proportion is repeated on campus after campus. They are joiners. "They want involvement," said one educator. In some colleges, however, they are also prod ded by fraternity rules that require members to go out for campus organizations and award points for doing so. The house with the most points get a trophy. Appalls Individualist This appalls the bearded . nonconformist but there are serious educators who think i it may be beneficial. "You might say the fra ternity is the training ground in college for the organiza-i tional man," ?tys President! John Millett ol Ohio's Miami University. "I happen to think that this ... is useful j rather than harmful." . Certainly 7 million Greeks can't all be snobbish, 3-but-j ton suit, no-padded-shoulder j copies of each other. They are probably as diverse as 7 million plumbers or bank vice presidents. WTiat wor ries some of their critics is , that despite their diversity they too often speak in one voice or not at all As a group they seem to havei surprisingly little to say pub-1 licly on national issues, one' way or another. Yet this silence can some-1 times be deceptive. When! the University of Georgia In- j tegrated two years ago, the. fraternities did nothing oth-, er than Increase study hall hours. This was not, as might be viewed from cer tain northern points, failure to speak out but an effort to avoid the violence that came later to Oxford, Miss. Despite the heckling of the anti-Greek chorus, fraterni ties are not unwanted. On the contrary. A national sur vey of college deans showed they would like to have 500 more fraternity chapters University of Nebraska Total Men's Enrollment 5,697 Fraternity Enrollment 1,483 All-Men's Average 5.232 All-Fraternity Average 5.320 added in the next 5 years. A building boom is already under way. This means desperately needed housing usually at private expense for colleges facing the swift swelling of enrollment. And the enroll ment itself means more members for the fraternities to help meet their own rising costs. But new houses will not be the saving of the fraternity system. The growing chal lenge before them today is to prove they are a desirable adjunct to the educational process, a challenge the Greeks are beginning to re spond to. Social Units "Once the classes are out, we feel we've lost the stu dents," said a Williams pro fessor. "I think there are some Chi Psis who don't ever leave the house except for classes. They're so happy just be Chi Psis." It was to break down this insularity, primarily, that Williams decided to replace fraternities with social units of 100 students which will house and feed their resi dents and provide social fa LITTLE MAN . Hr5 major p&f..t wxaLwm. piasw Muzitxx CURRENT EVENTS FORUM rhursdey, April SO, et 4:C0 p.m. a Current Events Forum will bt held in the small auditorium of the Union. i The purpose of the forum is to bring the students up to dote on domestic and international affairs. Too often students do not find the time to reod the newspaper thoroughly enough to be well in formed on the important issues of the day. Various topics will be discussed, such os politics, economics, foreign relations, and science. Professors in the respective areas will ieod the discussion. The pro fessors speaking this Thursday are: Bourne, Trask, Hyde, and Shannon. At the conclusion of the forum, students will hove the opportunity to ask questions. CURRENT EVENTS FORUM NWU 1 I s 2 i Nebraska Wesleyan University 558 223 3.41 3.3 cilities for beer, cheer and culture. A unit, for instance, might have a chamber music recital after dinner or a professor living in the building or an art exhibition in the com mons room. Bowdoin, still pro-frater-tiity, nonetheless thinks its seniors would do better to live away from the fraterni ties in a more academic at mosphere and is building a 14-story univory tower to ac commodate them. These scattered reforms do not indicate the fraternity on the whole hasn't done well. They indicate some educa tors want it to do better. They feel the fraternities' potential is great: to expand their philosophy of brother-help-brother from the social to the academic realm, to add lectures by visiting speakers, good library facili ties and even resident pro fessors to stimulate thought and conversation in a unique ly relaxed atmosphere. "We are almost yearning for them to succeed," said an administrator at Michigan. Wrhile it is under pressure, the decline and fall of the Greek empire is not yet. ON CAMPUS