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THE DAILY NEBRASKAN Editorial? Commentary Thursday, February 1, 1968 Page 2 liifanticid The infant Faculty Evaluation Book is as sured a premature death or a retarded matur ation period unless Senate acts immediately to es tablish definite guidelines to promote the book's growth. After a painful two-month deliberation, Sen ate yesterday finally voted to have the executives appoint a chairman to head the Faculty Evalua tion Committee and promised to organize another committee to work with the new, unguided chair man. Thus Senate insured a leader for the Commit tee but it has not insured that the evaluation book will continue in future years under a set of guide lines which will insure the book's continued growth and improvement. When the Faculty Evaluation Book appeared last fall it was superior to the first book which appeared the year before, if only by the enlarged number of evaluations. The Senate realized that vast improvements should be made in the publication and verbally evaluated and criticized the book. Then the matter was brushed aside. No definite decisions were made as to a new format or improved methods for securing student questionnaires. Nor was it decided whether to attempt valuations of all professors or the possi bility of incorporating a new writing style for the book. So, the new committee chairman will not only face a fearsome time schedule because of the delay in his appointment, but he also will not have any basic guidelines from which to construct a better evaluation book. The publication of such a book is an expensive undertaking and when the project loses money, as was the case last semester, it is obvious the program should be re-evaluated. Long range guidelines should have been estab lished last semester, but because they were not, immediate Senate action on the matter is required before the Faculty Evaluation Book becomes anoth er victim of the Senate's infamous "broken chain of continuity." Cheryl Tritt Mediocre syndrome by Mick Lowe Dear Thomasina, I am twenty, and a junior in college, which means among other things, that I am beginning my thirtieth semester in the halls of academe. Thirty count 'em 30. And for the part, I've hated, or at least mildly disliked, every one. But up until now, I've played pretty much ac cording to the rules. That is, up until the very end of last semester. When I decided to experiment. Letters to Thomasina Lowe The experiment began by skipping three fin als, and, I suppose flunking three courses. You ask me why and I tell you that I was sleepy didn't want to get up at 8:30 and that is as explanatory as I care to get. Don't get me wrong it's the school and not the academic life I object to. College seems to be mellowing with age. With age, the beer is flowing freer. With age and keys, and experience, the girls flow free and so on. The part-time jobs I hold to pay for part of school provide an endless and varied stream of hu manity to talk to, to get to know. But as I was saying about experimenting, it occurred to me that I would never achieve, and didn't much want, a bachelor's degree. That was the first broken rule a shift in ob jective. From the conventional a B.A., to the for gotten knowledge. Then I neglected to send in my white registra tion copy didn't like the language in the mailed direction form letter with italicized do's and Don't's and all. Which, another completely italicized form let ter informed me, meant that I would be out of school. Heaven Forbid. So I began school on Monday by writing a list of tentative courses, ranging from Speech 12 to History on the Frontier. (Always have had a perchant for smutty theatre and western movies.) Then I proceeded to attend every one. So I got at least a sneak preview of every prospec tive professor. The drones, (who are still living in their father's world), were ruled out. Teachers were accepted in mad rush through drop and add. After this squeezing of the pedagogical grape fruit, I have fifteen hours of good professors who have something to say, or better yet. think the students may even have something to say. Where else but in college would you spend $500 for a product when you have never kicked the tires, fiddled with knobs, or checked warran ties? But we all do it, right? And every time we have professors with all the charismatic qualities of Calvin Coolidge with a stutter. Remember we're talking about education. Ed ucation, the transfer of understanding of man's previous four thousand years of experience, from one who knows to one who doesn't. The Lyceum comes through wilh all the ex citement of Forest Lawn Cemetery. They start with Elke Sommer and wind up with Twiggy. Part of it is my own failure, without a doubt. But if teachers could only apply the diligence and enthusiasm they muster for obtaining their degrees, to the classroom . . . It grows late, and I must still gaze on Utopia with Thomas More, stagger through the tragedy of morally fatal recognition with Oedipus. And, on the morrow, reinvigorated and re freshed I will trudge warily into tne classroom. College is so broadening. Love, Mick I'm VtoTRk urz-. J UUMV il It HI KCJ . Commission I t""AC Mftic Af-T&(lcM&M 'A" S7 .I ssfflign i . - Joseph Alsop Lowering the boom on Fidel Ed. Note: Joseph Alsop, half of .the . famous Alsop . brothers' team has been writing a snydicated column for 21 years. Specializing in foreign affairs commen tary, Mr. Alsop draws from a legal and military back ground for his contribu tions. Washington Time was when Fidel Castro could hard ly sneeze without causing a hurricane of talk in this coun try. But today no one has even noticed the signs that the Soviets are probably low ering the boom on their troublesome Cuban allies. When our own troubles are so numerous, it is downright enjoyable to contemplate the proof that other people have grave troubles, too. It has always been easy for the Soviets to lower the boom on Cuba. Ever since the mis sile crisis of 1962, moreover, the Cubans have openly and repeatedly blackguarded and defied Russia. Yet for the sake of Communist good ap pearances, the men in the Kremlin have gone on sub sidizing Cuba to the tune of nearly $1 million a day. Lowering easy Lowering the boom has al ways been easy for the So viets, simply because the huge subsidy to Cuba has always taken the form of payments for needlessly large quantities of Cuban sugar at three times the world price. Just this kind of concealed but important reduction in the Cuban subsidy is now beginning to be wisely sus pected. The signs of some such coming trouble for Cuba began to appear as long ago as last October, when Prav da published two severe, in deed cruel, commentaries on Eresto (Che) Guevara's fail ure and death in Bolivia. In these articles "adven turism" was equated with "Maoism," and "sad results" were predicted for all "revo lutionally adventurists" who forget "the true principles ... of proletarian interna tionalism." To drive home the point, the articles were signed by the Argentine and Chilean party secretaries, Rudolfo Ghiolido and Luis Corvalan, two Latin-American Commu nists who had been bitterly attacked by the Cubans for their "orthodox" stodginess. The sign that the trouble would be located where it would hurt Castro the most followed shortly after these two articles appeared. In No vember the Cuban trade mis sion, headed by Matcello Fernandez, bounced out of Moscow and headed home ward in an obvious huff. Significantly, Fernandez paused in Paris, obviously hoping for a French alterna tive to Moscow's money; but the bill was apparently too big for Gen. De Gaulle. Deep trouble The sign that the trouble was very deep indeed then followed, when the Cuban delegation to the Soviets' 50th anniversary celebration turned out to be headed by the lowly minister of health, Jose Machado, instead of President Osvaldo Dorticos, as originally promised. Dur ing the whole course of the Moscow rally, the Soviets and the Cubans alternated snub and countersnub. A fi nal break seemed possible. At another moment, more recently, Castro mournfully warned his people that they would thereafter have virtual ly no gasoline for their own use, because the Soviets could not supply enough. Whereupon the Soviets re plied, a bit snappishly, that Cuba could have as much gasoline as Cuba wished to pay for. Now, however, the signs are that Cuba's "maximum leader" has concluded he Daily Nebraskan Fab. 1, 1968 Vol. 91. No. Si Second-clan postage paid at Lincoln, Neb. IbLLrnUnL: 472-2588, 472-Z588, 472-2590. Subscription rates arc $4 per aemealer or $6 for the academic year. Published Monday, Wednesday. Thursday and Friday during the school year, for what they cause to be printed. except during; vacations and exam periods, by the students of the University of Nebraska under the jurisdiction of the Faculty Subcommittee on Student Publications. Publications shsll be free from censorship by the Subcommittee or any person outside the University. Members of the Mebrasku are responsible for what they cause to be printed. Member Associated Collegiate Press. National Advertising Service, Incorpo Edtfor Cheryl Tritt; Managing Editor Jack Todd; Mew Editor Ed Icenogle; EDITORIAL STAFF Editor Cheryl Tritt; Managing Editor Jack Todd; News Editor Ed Icenogle; Night News Editor J. L. Schmidt; Editorial Page Assistant June Wagoner; Assistant Night New Editor Wilbur Gentry; Sports Editor George' Kaufman; Assistant Sports Editor Bonnie Bonneau: News Assistant Lynn Ptacek: Staff Writers: Jim Evinger, Barb Martin, Mark Gordon, Jan Parks. Joan UcCullough, Janet Maxweil, Andy Cunningham, Jim Pedersen, Monica Pokorny, PhytJI- Adkisson, Kent Cockson, Brent Skinner, Nancy Wood, John Dvorak, Keitb Williams; Senior Copy Editor Lynn Gottschalk; Copy Editors: Befoy Fenimore, Dave Filipi, Jane Ike a, Moliy Murrell, Lou Mary Russell; Photog rapher Mike Hayman and Dan Ladely. BUSINESS STAFF Bnsiness Manager Ciena Friendt; National Ad Manager Leets Hurirh: Book keeper and classified ads manager Gary Holllngsworth; Business Secretary Jan Boatman; Production Manager Charles Baxter; Subscription Manager Jane Ross; Salesmen Dan Cronk, Dan Looker, Kathy Dreith, Todd Slaughter, Debbie Mitchelb Joel Davis. Lynn Womacque. To drive home the point, the articles were signed by had better bite whatever bul let the Soviets have been ask ing him to bite, while none theless maintaining his pos ture of political independ ence. The interrupted trade negotiations are at last re s u m e d, with a reportedly high-level Soviet economic delegation going to Havan na. Senior diplomat As ambassador to Havan na, the Soviets have also just named a very senior diplomat, A. A. Soldatov. Meanwhile, some of the old line Cuban Communists have been dusted off and trotted out for public inspection, while the real Moscow hundred-percenters, like Escal ants, have been prepared for trial. A question remains con cerning the bullet's dimen sions. The place to look for guid ance is almost certainly the Cuban armaments program. Over a six-year period the Soviets completely re equipped Castro's armed forces at a total cost of $2 billion, or around $300 mil lion plus per year. Replace ment equipment is now being shipped to Cuba, but this should hardly cost more than $100 million a year. If the old concealed subsidy were to continue, that would leave Castro with a margin of around $200 million to spend on further Guevara style external adventures, which the Soviets detest, or else to spend at home, in or der to bolster Cuba's slowly but remorselessly declining internal economy. Castro's gasoline speech instead pointed to belt-tightening at home. Clear indications Since Guevara's failure and death, moreover, there has been no sign of any in tensification of Cuban subver sive effort in Latin America. There are clear indications to be sure, that the Cubans will do everything they can, both with money and agents, to stir trouble In the American cities this summer. But this should be covered by the for mer cost of the Bolivian ven ture. Maybe the Soviet Econom ic delegation now going to Ha vana will end by announcing an even more inflated sugar price than was formerly paid. But the foregoing are the contrary signs, riot report to be given , Washington (CPS) -The Presidential commission stu dying last summer's riots will deliver its final report several months ahead of its original deadline, with much of its re search incomplete, because its researchers' findings didn't jibe with the kind of report the Administration wanted. As Is, a newsletter on civil rights and community action edited by Dave Steinberg of the National Student Associa tion, says the commission's administrative staff supressed much of what the researchers had found. As an example, As Is says the researchers found in one city that "there was no question that the police not Negroes were the rioters, bringing a bloodbath to an in nocent Negro community." Reasoning behind supresslon As Is says that, faced with these reports, the Administra tive staff of the commission, in consultation with the White House, decided that this in formation had to be supressed because: "It would embarrass too many people in an election year." "There would be too few kind words for local police, or for local political leaders." The report "could only support an outcry for radical ly increased federal expendi ture," while the President is cutting domestic programs to meet the expenses of the Viet nam war. So the final deadline for the commission report was moved up. This is what happened ac cording to As Is. Presidential request "The executive director (of the commission), presumably in consultation with Governor Otto Kerner of Illinois, chair man of the Commission, in formed Commission members that they were to reach their conclusion sooner than ex. pected, to meet the Presi dent's wishes. With the appar ent assurance that research would continue beyond the date of the Commission's initi al report, the members agreed to the President's re quest. "The administrative staff immediately requested a fin al document from the re searchers in a matter of a few days. They produced a docu ment of nearly 200 pages only to be told that it was to tally unacceptable. A new ver sion was to be written around the President's specific re quests for information on four teen points. When the modi tied report of the research staff still proved unaccepta ble, all documents were chan neled through the administra tive staff lawyers who were to describe the research find ings in politically acceptable document which would then be presented to the Commission members." As Is also said that New York Mayor John Lindsay "was reportedly more than a little upset when he discov ered that the Commission's work had been throttled be hind the backs of its mem bers." Others Interested Other organizations, such as a group at Johns Hopkins Uni versity, which had been doing some of the work for the com mission on contract, have tak en over larger portions of the study on their own. And Rob ert Conot, author of a detailed and critical account of the Watts riot, has been asked to analyze the riots for the com mission. The major question is how much Information will be available to other researchers. As Is says some of the most damning information may go into the National Archives for five years, where it will be available only to selected re searchers. The commission staff may make information available to some other groups, such as the American Sociological Association, but observers have speculated that this merely means there will be two sets of reports. .niiiiiiiiiiiiniii iiHiiuiuiiniiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii I perspective on prose! Editor's Note: Ruben Ardlla is a graduate stu dent In experimental psychology from Bogota, Co lumbia. An author himself, he has had published an historical Spanish novel, Neferdltl, and papers In several educational journals In Spain, Mexico and Columbia. When I last went to a literary circle everyone was talking about Garcia Marquez. I don't remem ber whether it was in Paris, in Bogota, or in Mexi co City. I am almost sure it wasn't in Lincoln, although it could have been. In any case, in that literary circle they were discussing Garcia Mar quez' latest book, Clen Anos de Soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude), Editorial Surameri cana, Buenos Aires, 1967. So I decided to read the book. The book is strange and fascinating, set in a "paradise of humidity and silence anterior to the original sin." This paradise is a tiny town of 300 people called Macondo, quite isolated from the world. Here are intelligent men who study demono logical science, try to discover the philosophical stone of the Middle Ages, discuss the predic tions of Nostradamus, study Sanskrit, English, some Latin and Greek, and devote their spare time to reading Milton. Another man collects rare insects to send to his professor of Natural His tory at the University of Lieja. The book is a skillful exercise in free fantasy and aesthetic sophistication. Suddenly the children of the town ride on flying carpets that gypsies have brought, a man mysteriously disappears into the air, an epidemic disease rages through the town and people become sleepless and slowly lose their memory. They even forget what a cow is and how to prepare coffee with milk. After the epidemic has subsided, and everything is normal, one of the heroes becomes neurotically obsessed with the construction of a memory machine. This man also discovers, after thinking it over, and using mathematics, that the earth is . . . round! Their spot on this round earth is the tropics, In which people melt of heat, in which there are gigantic macaws, monkeys and snakes. Our he roes discuss at length methods used in the Middle Ages to kill cockroaches. Gabriel Garcia Marques is a Colombian who lives in Mexico. He was born in 1928, and grew up in the "zona bananera" where he learned many ghost-stories and tales. He went to Bogota to study law, although he didn't care about the ten thousand complicatons of our Constitutional Order (that is what I usually call the Establishment, you know). Therefore Gar cia Marquez didn't study much but he read Joyce and Kafka, and was impressed with the books of Faulkner. He then decided to become a writer himself. But none, of course, becomes a professional author overnight. So, Garcia Marques became a journalist. In 1946 he published his first short stor ies in El Espectador, the most liberal of our news papers. El Espectador sent him to work in Europe, first to Rome and later to Paris. I have been told that Paris is the capital of Latin America be cause it is the intellectual center, the meeting place for all young people who are searching for their place under the sun. Paris is the place of their hopes and dreams, their failures and tears. For Garcia Marques it was a place of starvation. This is a very important chapter in the life of all writers; you have to starve at least one year in order to become a real writer. In 1955, back In Latin America, he published his first best-seller, La Hojarasca ( The Folidage) He became an overnight celebrity. Everyone read , his book and considered it one of the best books written in the language of Cervantes. Garcia Marquez is an unconventional man who wears blue-jeans and an ugly moustache in the style of Nietzsche. He lives with his charm ing wife, Mercedes, who waited four years in Co lombia while he was traveling, writing, and star ving in Europe. In his Mexican home he works on experimen tal movies and literature. In Clen Anos de Soledad he writes that "literature is the best toy ever in vented to make fun of people . . . ". However, I don't think that this book is only a big good joke. On the contrary, this book is a sensitive and sophiticated work of art. I recom mend it to sensitive and sophisticated readers. Troubled Left needs a purpose byAlSpangler The trouble with the New Left, it used to be said, is simply this: purposelessness. That is to say, the radical activist can wax eloquently about what's wrong with our society, but stands mute when asked for a positive suggestion, a cure. He is like a doctor who hasn't finished medical school. What was written in the Port Huron Statement, the first official statement of Students for a Demo cratic Society (SDS), was said to be "not concrete enough" . . . "We seek the establishment of a de mocracy of individual participation governed by two central aims: that the individual share in those social decisions determining the quality and direction of his life; that society be organized to encourage independence in men and provide the media for their common participation ... "This was called "a radical's pipe dream" (and we all know what they put in their pipes). Carl Oglesby, a former president of SDS, speaking at the March on Washington in 1965, said: "Revolutions do not take place in velvet boxes. They never have. It is only the poets who make them lovely." The poets have, alas, left the ranks of the New Left for Flower Power, the Port Huron State ment has all but been rejected and finally, the activists are getting down to the nitty gritty. One doesn't, after all, wax eloquently about society's ills when one has been sprayed In the face with Chemical Mace, or clubbed on the head by a U.S. Marshall's billy. Oglesby has said "... if your committment to human values is unconditional, then disabuse yourselves of the notion that statements will bring change, if only the right statements can be writ ten, or that interviews with the mighty will bring change if only we can make them massive enough, or that policy proposals will bring change if only we can make them responsible enough." Disabused, for the most part, of these ancient notions, the New Left is newer still, and smaller. But it is more "committed" and a great deal more "activist." In the coming issues, I will try . to tell, to use the current argot, where it's at.