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UNIVERSITY OF N
, LIBRARY
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.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
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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."
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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