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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1968)
f UNIVERSITY OF N , LIBRARY i - 'r.8 21 .Pledgeship: "You will learn what a fraternity is and its f unc oil a college campus. You will benefit from frequent constructive criticism. You will learn to accept it and profit from it. You will always be a gentleman while associated with this fraternity." from a pledge manual of a campus fraternity. by Jim Evinger Senior Staff Writer "The first morning of our Hell Week we did 1400 push-ups," a University freshman said in relat ing his life as a pledge of a cam pus fraternity. "I cannot think of a more mis erable six months than the way I have spent my last six as a pledge," he added. Yet this same young man voices no dislike or hatred toward the men of his frater nity. To him they are "a good group of men." Traditional concepts The enigma of University fra ternities pledgeship contin ues. Although some houses have programs, the traditional concept of fraternity pledgeship remains in varying degrees within many University chapters. This traditional concept, charac terized by mental and physical Wednesday, February 21, 1968 ! X I ITi' "'til I I ill l ' f JSSffSS )' , ? I ' one . I - David and Gloria Myklebust man the Peace Corps recruiting station in the Nebraska Union. They are two of the Corps volunteer returnees who are on the University campus this week. Peace Corps volunteer gains perspective on status society by Janet Maxwell Junior Staff Writer One good way to really see America is to leave the country, according to David Myklebust, re turned Peace Corps volunteer lrom Cameroon. Myklebust, who is visiting the University for Peace Corps re cruitment week, said he entered the Peace Corps to gain a better perspective of America by getting away from Americans and a so ciety which he believed was be coming marked with too many status symbols. Stationed in the small Cameroon town of Batibo from 1965 to 1966, instructed students ranging from 13 to 65 years old at a teacher training college. Marries another volunteer In 1966 Myklebust married Peace Corps worker Gloria Wil liams, who was stationed in a neighboring Cameroon town. The Myklcbusts had previously com pleted the t h r e e-month Peace Corps training period together in New York. Before her marriage Mrs. My klebust taught English grammar and literature and basic Latin grammar at a Catholic secondary school for boys. Cameroon is a 1 1 1 1 1 e Africa, ac cording to the Myklebusts. It con tains many different elements of Africa from the forest to the grassland and from the gorilla to the pygmy, they said. An agrarian society Cameroon is an agrarian society, Myklebust Raid. Cameroonians live In mud brick houses with grass roofs, but they are not poor by hazing, is coming under increas ing attack by freshmen as more and more demands are made up on their time by the University. Pledges caught in a conflict between fraternalism and com mon sense respect the men of their house, but not their pledge ship. Monday night dinner "Monday night dinners are lit erally hell," one freshman said, describing how individual pledges stand during dinner to answer lore and history questions about their fraternity. Each is asked questions until he reaches the inevitable point where he no longer knows the .right answers. Then the conse quences of failing as a pledge be fall the individual and hence, his pledge class "If one of you screws up, then you all have screwed up." (T n (01 """V . Wfc. ... -'.v"1 "-'-iim their standards and they will not starve, he said. The Myklebusts were active in extracurricular activities in order to show the students that they were willing to talk to them and give them extra help. Before departing from Ca meroon the Myklebusts were re warded for their efforts with gifts signifying their acceptance into the Cameroon society. Mrs. My i . six i s- ' 7,1 4,., NSA to provide aid in open house case? by Juhn Dvorak Junior Staff Writer Affiliation of the University with the National Student Association (NSA) could aid students in re solving the current open house controversy, a NSA spokesman said Monday. "In the case of the conflict over your open house policy, NSA offi cials could talk with the students and help them define the prob lem," said Miss Janet Berenson. Miss Berenson is a campus liai son officer from the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Nation al Student Association (NSA). "After NSA officials had con ferred with students regarding the open house conflict, we could of fer Information on what other school with this same situation have done. Finally we could offer some tactical solutions," she hypo thesized. She came to the University for ;urn on Another freshman described his year as a pledge as "essentially based on a psychology of fear." Not for one, for all' His pledge class's primary mo tiviation was that "if we didn't do something right, there'd be bad consequences not just for the person who failed, but for all of us." This negative system of punish ment, as opposed to a positive system of rewards, does not achieve the goals it sets out to do, he said. In listing its failures, he said there was a lack of respect by the pledges for the actives as in dividuals. He had also developed little respect for himself as a member of the house. Trivia required Although that house's pledge ship program has moved recent ly toward progressive pledgeship, he said there is still a tremen dous amount of trivia required of pledges. All responsibilities and duties in the house, including running er rands for individual actives, fall to the pledges, he said. Fear and fraternalism mutual- University -i ft f v ' If , in 1 1 in air-- i klebust received a marriage bracelet and Myklebust was giv en a horn of a dwarf cow, tradi tionally used only by the chief for drinking palm wine. Speaking of his entire volunteer experience, Myklebust said, "I gave more than I expected to give and 1 received more than 1 gave. This was because there was only one of me and one thousand of them," he explained. a day because of campus interest in affiliating with NSA. Senate proposes bills Two bills were introduced in the Student Senate last week that would propose and endorse NU's affiliation with NSA. If the bills are passed, they will be submitted to the students on the spring gen eral election ballot. NSA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan university student governments representing over 1.7 million .stu dents. The National Student Associa tion advocates a volunteer army and negotiation in Vietnam, Miss Berenson said. The student association also be lieves students should have total determining power concerning so cial regulations in living units, 'she continued. Cont. on Page 4, Col. 1 vf JL'"' Ml lm,mm& J drop ly exclude each other, he said. He desires a pledgeship based on friendship and pride a psychol ogy of fraternalism. Initiates apathetic' The effects of simply working as a pledge to get things done and never doing more than re quired carry, over after initiation. Because there is no way to threat en an active, he said a large num ber of initiates are consequent ly spathetic about the house and campus. He attributed this symptom of a negative pledge program to the fact that the pledge is merely be ing conditioned to react, mental ly and physicially, to constant situations. He objected to the lack of crea P:!!iuBi!ii!B;iB!iBiniijiaii:iH I EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is the first of a three-part 1 series on pledgeship programs of University fraternities. The first I part was based solely on interviews with pledges this is pledge- I ship through their eyes. Thursday's article will deal with progressive alternatives as g proposed and practiced within several houses. This will be pledge- ship from an active member's point of view. And a pledgeship f which offers an alternative to traditional concepts. Friday's article will deal with the efforts of the IFC toward L pledgeship and opinions of administrators will be included. (D) MJ7 IUJ U of Nebraska Faculty Senate AS UN advisor moves to change open door policy by Mark Gordon Senior Staff Writer The Faculty Senate Committee on Student Affairs voted late Tues day afternoon to recall the sub committee on student affairs to consider a motion altering the open door policy of the new open housing regulations. The motipn. introduced by Dr. Paul Byerly, ASUN advisor, states that only students actually parti cipating in the open house shall be required to register their in tent and students not participating in the open house are not required to keep their doors open. G. Robert Ross, vice chancellor and dean of student affairs, who chaired the full committee, said it was the job of the sub-committee which established the new regula tions last December to sludy the resolution. "They can recommend that it may or may not be brought be fore the full committee at a later date," he said. Presented request The motion, which passed by a 14-1 count, culminated efforts by Bruce Bailey, Inter-Dormitory As sociation (IDA) president-elect and Richard Page, Abel-Sandoz presi dent, who presented the request for a reconsideration of article five. Article five, the controversial open door ruling 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 responsible officer. Bailey said the committee's de cision to reopen discission on the open door policy Indicated the committee was open-minded by recommending the reconsideration. 'Work with students' "They felt there was a desire on their part to work with stu dents," he said, in explaining it was essential further work on the motionbe kept in legal channels. Byerly said the motion is essen tially backing up the students by Student to rule on A final decision on the resolu tion transferring the authority over the Model United Nations from the ASUN to the Nebraska Union will be made by the Stu dent Senate Wednesday. The Senate will also hold dis cussion on Government bills fif teen and sixteen concerning Uni versity affiliation with the Nation al Students Association. The discussion will center around Information gathered from recent talks with Janet Berenson, an NSA representative, who visited the University on Monday. The Ad Hoc Committee on Stu own; pusii; np tivity fostered by the pledge pro gram. Instead, individual creativ ity is suppressed. Yet he has found times in the pledge program where a true es sence of fraternalism has existed. It is the building up and tear ing down, the highpoints and let down, and the pattern of incon sistencies of his pledgeship to which he objects. One sophomore pledge said his fraternity imposed informal sanc tions regarding dress of the pledges. Although no rules are set down in writing, pressure from the actives gets all the pledges to conform to "Greek standards" of dress, he said. These informal sanctions and the established rules for pledges suppress individual iniative within 0 ... placing article five in inverse or der as it puts the regulations on the participating residents rather than the entire residence hall. "I'd just as soon they didn't have article five, but this is a good temporary position." he added. Committee members Although three sub-committee members were absent from the Tuesday meeting, two sub-committee representatives said they felt the motion was an appropriate place to begin further reconsidera tion. "This is a molion which should guide out thinking and not lead it." said Miss Patricia Theimer, a fa culty senate representative. Gary Grahnquist, one of two stu dent members on the committee said the proposal opens the door for the committee to consider the needs of the students "in an at mosphere which will be more rea listic than it has appeared in the past." Substitute rules The lone dissenter among the 15 member committee said the pro posal was merely a substitution of one rule for another rule. "The students don't like the en forcement of the rule now, so why will they like the enforcement of another rule," questioned Royce Knapp, a Regents professor of edu cation. He added that he also rejected the motion since ttie sub-committee spent a considerable amount of time studying the im plications of the policy before they established it late first sem ester. Declined further action The full committee's action re sulted from a request by Bailey after the sub-committee recon vened Feb. 2 but declined to take further action on the open door rule. At that time, Helen Snyder, as sociate dean of student affairs, who chaired the sub-committee said the open door rule was the Senate Model UN dent Disiplinary Procedures headed by Sen. Robert Weaver will present a report and the first round of debate will open on the report. A resolution will be introduced concerning government bill seven teen, which would establish an Office of Curriculum Evaluation. This resolution is in the form of a recommendation to the Uni versity to set up an office to con tinually evaluate the curriculum. The office would exist separate from, but comparable to, the exist ing Office of Institutional Research directed by Harry S. Allen. the house that leads to creativity, he said. One freshman said his house based its program on a reputa tion and tradition of a tough pledgeship. Tart of this is a week ly work session in the house, in volving house cleaning and push ups. "I was more scared of not know ing my pledge lesson than not be ing prepared for an hour exam," he said. Rather than developing an appreciation for the frater nity's history and lore, he simply memorized it from week to week, forgetting what he crammed for after the exam. "There was never any regard for doing something good. We had to accept constant criticism and ridicule. It was not a learning process that could help me de velop and mature. They made me a complete mental and physical wreck," he said. In line with "tough and tradi tional pledgeships" based on repu tation, the unique and most mys terious aspect of many pledge programs is the period prior to iniation known as "Hell Week." It is often described as an ex perience the initiate would never want to go through again, though he was very glad he had done it once. Continued on Page 3, Col. 6 Li VLL Vol. 91, No. 65 simple stipulation in the new pol icy which distinguished an open house from the coed-visitation in principle. The coed visitation . idea was given to the University Board of Regents last April after it had been approved by the Faculty Sen ate Committee on Student Affairs. Since then the article has come under heavy criticism from dor mitory leaders, the IDA and Har per Hall, which defied the rule in a Feb. 4 open house after tiie llarpe Senate openly announced its intentions to violate the rule in a motion passed the preceding week. The motion which the sub-com-mitfee will study further reads: "All students who intend to invite or expect visitors from outside the participating group, shall legister this intent prior to the open house. These students shall then keep their doors open during the entire open house. For those cases of un expected visitors, the student shall, during the open house immediately register this fact and then follow the above open door policy. Rooms of persons not registered as par ticipants in the open house shall be inaccessible to visitors." Professor honored at concert Organist to play music by Roberts Compositions by Myron J. Rob erts, professor of organ and theory at the University, will be featured at a concert Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Cathedral of the Risen Christ. Michael Veak, former pupil of Roberts and now organist at the Cathedral, will present the pro gram entitled "tribute to the Or gan and Choral Works of Myron J. Roberts." Veak explained that Robert's work has been noted on the na tional and international scale as we'l as throughout the state of Nebraska. One of his most recent pieces, commissioned for the 900th anni versary of Westminster Abbey, London, has been selected for pub lication by the Oxford University Press. It will be included in an album of international church music and is the only contribution by an American composer. Sunday's concert will Include compositions for organ performed by Veak. such as "Improvisation on the Agincourt Hymn," "Lit any," "Homage to Perotin." and "Improvisation on God Rest Ye Merry." The Cathedral choir under the direction of John P. Moran will present "Te Deum" and "Allelu ia," which was written for this recital. I r