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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 1968)
Packard questions American mores . . exual renaissance or anarchy - V i . 7 o Vance Packard FEB 0 i Almost violation of by Mark Gordon Senior Staff Writer More than 95 per cent of Harp er Han residents admitted violat ing the open housing regulations during last Sunday's open house, an informed source told the Daily Nebraskan ThuYsday. The source said 332 of Harper's 348 male residents admitted vio lating the policy when contacted by Harper student assistants Tues day night G. Robert Ross, vice chancellor and dean of student affairs, had requested the violator's names af ter the open house was prompted by a motion passed the preced ing Thursday by the Harper Hall Student Senate. The strongly - worded motion openly announced the dormitory's intentions to disregard the new open house policy when conducting its open house. The source added that the 16 Harper residents not admitting al ledged violations either denied vio lating the policy or were unable to be contacted. The violater's names and other Information concerning the open house were submitted in a report to Ross by Harper residence direc tor Allen Olsen Wednesday morn ing. The action came after the Harp er Senate voted to ignore section five (the controversial open door policy) of the new open housing regulations at last Sunday's three hour open house. pilllllllllllllllllll IIIIII!IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIH On Campus . . . 1 I Today I s The film "The War Game" will be shown Friday at 8 p.m. in Selleck Cafeteria, and Saturday and Sunday at 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. in Sheldon Auditorium. It is sponsored by the Association of Campus Pastors and the campus religious houses. & a Hlllel Sabbath candlelighting service will resume this Friday afternoon, according to Vita Si mon, president of the Jewish stu dent group. The services will be held weekly at 4:45 p.m. at the Nebraska School of Religion. 6 The comedy "I'll Take Sweden starring Bob Hope and Tuesday Weld will be shown Friday at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. in the Union au ditorium. The Kansas State Wildcats, tied with Nebraska and Iowa State for the Big Eight basketball lead, will Invade the Coliseum Saturday night at 7:30. The two clubs have split In two games so far this season, and the Huskers are al ready assured of another SRO audi ence for the game. it it The Nebraska International As sociation will hold a meeting Fri day in the Union at 7:30 p.m. Two movies about Japan will be shown. All potential members are urged to attend, according to Sam Bioka. by Jan Parks Senior Staff Writer Today's great changes In male female relationships are the cause of much sexual confusion and be wilderment, Vance Packard told about 900 University students and( instructors Thursday. Packard, whose appearance at the Nebraska Union is part of the Speaker-Artist series, has written such best-selling novels as "The Hidden Persuaders" and "The Status Seekers." Referring to changes occurring, Packard said, "Everything that's fastened down is coming loose." "Among young people there is a great deal of sophistication about sex," he said, "but also confusion." Packard accredited much of young people's confusion to the O all Harper residents The clause states that all doors except those of residents absent from the floor during the open house must remain open and those residents leaving the floor must register their absence with the re sponsible officer. When contacted by the Daily Nebraskan Thursday afternoon, Harper Hall student assistant and ASUN Senator Jim Ludwig called the ASUN Senators "uninformed" for rejecting two motions support ing Harper Hall at Wednesday's Senate meeting. The motions, introduced by Lud wig, who was asked by the Sen ate to work as a liason between the ASUN and the, open house situation, requested the Senate "to support action by Harper Hall in .efforts to promote the change" ASUN proposes change for NU passfail system by Susie Jenkins Junior Staff Writer Student Senate is currently con sidering proposed changes in pass fail grading that would expand and alter- the current system. The University's present pass fail system is due for change, ac cording to Craig Dreeszen, chair man of ASUN Education Commit tee. Wednesday, Dreeszen presented to Student Senate a bill that would enlarge the present grading poli cy in six areas. The bill will be w-sidered at the Senate meeting next Wednesday. Proposed changes Included in the proposed chang es are: The rass-fail option may be applied to any course outside the major field. Present policy states that a pass-fail course may not count as a minor or for a group requirement. The pass-fail option is avail able to all students, regardless of class standing. Students must presently have accumulated 53 or more hours to qualify for pass fail. A student may take a course on the pass-fail basis in his major field with the permission of his major department. Present policy states that a pass-fail course may, not count toward major field re quirements. There is no limit to the num ber of hours or courses that may be accumulated with a pass-fail grade. Students now may take no more than 12 hours of pass-fail courses per semester. With approval of his depart ment, an instructor may elect to assign pass-fail grades to all stu dents in a course There is no such stipulation in the present policy. Students may take any num ber of courses on the pass-fail bas is in any one department. No more than two courses in total American adult society. "One so ciologist says we are approaching a sexual renaissance, "while an other says we are approaching sex ual anarchy." The speaker noted changes in the characteristic roles of the sexes today. Both sexes are tak ing on some of the characteris tics and appearances of the oth er. "Many women are becoming the bread winners for their fam ilies," he said, "and men often have such domestic duties as feeding and .burping the baby." Rapid social change brought about by modern science is one of the main forces affecting our new sexual environment, he said. Man's discovery of how to con trol conception has led us into the era of the wanted child, he said, which is one of the biggest ad vances of the 20th century. Packard also cited war and in ternational tension as factors in University housing regulation and to directly support Harper's decision to ignore the open door clause. "They (the senators) don't re alize the implications and ramifi cations of the policy," Ludwig said in explaining that many senators lacked information making it dif ficult for them to reach a deci sion. He said if a student was watch ing television in the floor lounge, items could be stolen or practi cal jokes could be pLiyed in the student's room while fJ.s door re mained open. "The Harper Hall government has taken the responsibility, and rightly so, to protect their con stituents from this happening," he said in condemning the policy. He called the Harper's Senate may now be taken from any de partment. The education committee based the proposed changes on the re sults of a questionnaire distributed at random to 370 full-time stu dents, as well as extended dia logue with administration person nel and professors, Dreeszen said. The questionnaire attempted to analyze the success of the pres ent pass-fail policy through ques tions asking the students' opinions of the system. "We found that over 80 per cent of the students who took pass-fail courses approved of the system," Dreeszen said, "Yet over half were not planning to take any more pass-fail courses because re quirements would not allow them to do so. The poll also showed that of the students who had not taken a pass-fail course, over half had not done so because of group require ments. Nearly half were not plan ning to participate in the future for the same reason. Wish changes In program Of the total number of students taking the poll, nearly three fourths wished to see a change in the present program. "If the courses are so well ac cepted, it definitely appears that a change is in order," he comment ed. "Students should have the op portunity to use the system with out ' fear of a lowered grade av erage." Present figures show that dur ing first semester this year, 105 students participated in the pass fail grading system. According to Barb Doerr, member of the edu cation committee, this may be due to ignorance of the students con cerning the workings of the sys tem, as well as to the problem of (having to fulfill group require-iments. the change of male-female rela tionships. "Fear of war and the bomb produce more of an environ ment for sexual intimacy," he said. Much of our American philoso phy seems to follow the hedonis tic idea of living for today, he said, and endeavoring in all plea sures of the flesh. Too often sex is thought of as a way to instant gratification, he said. Packard also mentioned some of the gains that male-female re lationships are making. There are more and more marriages being based on a desire for companion ship as well as love, he said, as he noted the great increase in college marriages. "People with the same academ ic interests are marrying and working together," he said. "In many cases a woman may be a man's best friend." 0 V4J7 of Nebraska action extremely appropriate to the circumstance. Ludwig added that if disciplin ary action would be taken against the Harper students, it would undoubtedly be appealed to the Faculty Committee on Disciplin ary Appeals. He said Dean Ross has person ally told him and other residence hall staff members that the. full committee on social affairs and activities would reconsider the open door policy if asked by the Inter-Dormitory Association (IDA). The full committee supersedes the subcommittee which passed the regulations and refused to re consider the open door rule when it reconvened last Friday. Ludwig added that a statement of position might be drawn up Learn without grades Dreeszen is interested in the ex pansion of th pass-fail concept as a help to the students who want to learn without the hindrance of low grades. "The whole question of motiva tion is involved here," Dreeszen said. "Many educators argue that grade-motivated students often do not develop their own motivation for learning. "Therefore, when they graduate and the grading stops, they do not have the continuing desire to learn. Yet our educational insti tutions maintain that they instill this desire." Further arguments In the education committee re port, Dreeszen cited further ar guments for and against the sys tem. The report stated that ad visors who question whether a grade of "P" is a good indication of a student progress need only ask the student, who usually has a good idea of his progress. The report further states that employers should be satidfied to use grades in the major fields as a criterion for determing the ac ceptability of applicants. "The argument will probably arise that without grades, students will sleep later and spend more time at the tavern," Dreeszen said. "There will always be people who try to do just enough to get by. The cost of designing an ob solutely 'goof-off proof program is too high in terms of the vast ma jority of students that are consci entious. "One of the objectives of an edu cation is to deprive students of their crutches and make them walk by themselves," he said. "I see the expanded pass-fail system as a tangible chance for the Uni versity to give students a real op portunity to learn under their own impetus. Packard said that the rush of young people to marry is now more pronounced than ever. "Mar riage looms as a much more im portant goal in the life of a young woman than in a young man," he said. He cited statistics showing that less than five per cent of women who have reached age 40 are un married. "But, surveys have also shown that more men than wom en are content after marriage," he said. A study has shown that bache lors are the least happy people in our society, he said, while unmar ried women seem to be very satis fied with their position in life. Acknowledging that male-female relationships have never been easy, Packard said, "Men and women have always looked at each other with alarm and curios ity. It has always been easier for m admit and submitted for reconsideration to the Chanoellor's Student Aca demic Freedom Committee (SAF). The SAF is currently drawing up a statement describing the re lationships between the adminis tration, faculty and student body, which is expected to be completed by mid-March. The ASUN senator said the Harper Hall action has prompted Ross to ask campus dormitory residence directors for their opin ions this week on recent open housing developments. Before the subcommittee passed the six-clause open house stipula tions in December. Ludwig said communication between residence hall staff members and policy making personnel was requested by the dormitory officials and did not receive consideration. "The residence hall staff com munication apparently was not an important part of the policy-making decision," he said. Nuclear laboratory locale investigated AEC team inspects campus; talks to University officials A federal government agency inspected the campus Thursday to determine if a suitable site is available for establishing a medium-scale nuclear research lab oratory at the University. Dr. George Schrader, state di rector of industrial research, said the facility would be used to study energy. An Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) team checked campus fa cilities and also talked to Univer sity officials. Dr. John Cusak of the Brookhaven National Labora tories in Long Island, N.Y. heads the team, which will submit a re port to AEC officials in Washing ton. Evaluation determines choice Schrader said the government's decision largely depends on the team's evaluation. He did not com ment on the number of other schools in competition or the Uni versity's chances in being named as the selected site. Application for the labortory was submitted to the AEC through Nebraska Sen. Carl Curtis, a mem ber of the joint Senate-House Atomic Energy Committee. Schrader said the state asked the AEC for assistance in gather ing and preparing information on why Nebraska should be selected for the project. The result of the request was the assignment of the AEC team's them to adore one another than to like each other." Packard said that young rebels and hippies have contributed something to our society by ques tioning our sexual mores. "The hippies are asking why love leads to marriage, and marriage to parenthood," he continued. The novelist pointed out that American churches are tak ing more of a stand on sexual Issues than ever before. "Ameri can churches are beginning to recognize the necessity of sex ual intimacy for successful mar riages," he said. A problem with great underly ing effects is the widening gulf between the generations, he said. Today there is a reduction of the ratio between mature and re sponsible adults to the rebellious ness of much of our young population. Vol. 91, No. 59 Jim Ludwig, Harper Hall student assistant: "Student Senators are uninformed and lack information making it difficult for them to reach a decision." ASUN's rejection of his two motions which called for support of a Harper Hall Senate resolution prompted his comment. study, Schrader said. State matches funds He estimated it would take them two or three months to draft a report on the Nebraska applica tion. A request for federal funds would follow if conditions turn out favorably. Should the AEC select the Uni versity, the state will be required to put up matching money to aid the project. Schrader said Governor Norbert Tiemann plans to ask the 1969 Legislature to establish a revolv ing fund within the state Econom ic Development Department to help finance facilities and pilot plants. Concentration on preservation Initially, the laboratory would concentrate on studying possible industrial uses of radio-active iso topes for fresh meat preservation. Other potential benefits are desa linization of sea water, killing in sects in stored grain and more efficient vulcanization of rubber. Schrader calls it virtually im portant to the future economic growth of Nebraska that research facilities be established at the Uni versity. He added the state does not now have the research capability to attract many types of new industry.