WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1970
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
PAGE 5
ASUN--not where it's at
by STEVE TIWALD
The ASUN Student Senate,
with its regular Wednesday
meeting this afternoon, had
better come to life soon or it
will find its already fading
stature has completely
vanished.
Of the Student Senate story
so far this school year, only
one thing can be said for sure:
Senate is not where it's at.
This observer sees that the
senators themselves are finally
realizing that fact; lack of a
quorum at the last two
meetings has canceled any
potential action. ,
Other student government
groups have been responsible
for the short list of ASUN
accomplishments this year.
The new Council on Student
Life is handling policy, and it
can take the credit for
abolishing women's hours.
The ASUN Faculty
Evaluation Committee has
been hard at work and its
product will soon be available
to aid the masses of students
in future registrations.
The ASUN Service Com
mittee has been attempting to
set up a student co-op record
store; the outfitting of a Union
room is all that's left to do,
but this job is now ensnared
in University-brand red tape
Young Lords reflect
by DICK GREGORY
The recent ten-day oc
cupation of the First Spanish
United Methodist Church in
New York City's East Harlem
by a group of young Puerto
Ricans known as the Young
Lords is just one more
example of what is in store
for the institutional church
during the 1970's. Some time
back a Young Lords group in
Chicago pulled off the same
maneuver, curiously also at a
Methodist Church.
The Young Lords of East
Harlem reflected the rhetoric
of the church in action much
better than most churches
themselves are doing. They
conducted a free breakfast
program for hungry children
of the East Harlem com
munity. They provided free
clothing for those In need.
They provided volunteer
medical service, both
highlighting and meeting the
need for health services in
communities of the poor. They
did all those things churches
talk about doing but somehow
seldom get around to putting
into practice.
Of course, the institutional
church hierarchy and the local
congregation put an end to the
takeover of the church after
awhile. An injunction was
obtained to have the Young
Lords removed. Now the laws
of man are deciding what
future form the world of the
Lord (and the Lords) will
take.
The institutional church Is In
real trouble, unless, of course,
it is really able to hear the
instruction of Jesus about
losing one's life in order to
find it. An earlier attack upon
the institutional church came
from James Forman and the
National Black Economic
Development Conference.
Forman focused hl3 attack
and only slowly being un
tangled. The ASUN Education
Committee has seen the ac
ceptance of suggestions for an
integrated studies major,
changes in the Arts and
Sciences College science
requirements, and new non-lab
science courses.
All this work has been done
oblivious of ASUN Senate
except for the senate's
ratification of the budget early
in the year. What are the
reasons for the ineffectiveness
of ASUN Senate? In the past
it has always been able to at
least limp along.
While some feel that partisan
politics, especially early in the
year, were responsible for an
initial devisiveness that has
crippled the Senate ever since,
this observer sees that as only
a small part of the senate's
problem.
A much larger factor is the
senate's structure itself. The
large size, 35 members, is
unwieldy and the individual
seldom gets to know very
many other senators outside
his own group.
It's hard to work with people
you don't know. And because
the senators are apportioned
by college rather than chosen
from geographical living units,
upon the institution itself,
confronting the hierarchy
denominational executives,
mission boards, trustees and
the like with the demand
for reparations to the black
community.
Forman challenged the in
stitution to recognize and
admit the wealth it holds and
to give over a realistic portion
of that wealth to the have-nots
of our society. Forman took
the institutional church burea
ucracy seriously, recognized
who was really in control of
church resources, and focused
his attack upon that power
structure.
There is a rising cry coming
from some of those white
churchmen who have long been
identified with the church
renewal movement (Steve
Rose, Harvey Cox, Will
Campbell, Malcolm Boyd and
others) which speaks of
disestablishing the Institutional
church; becoming poor with
the poor Jesus in the name
of God so that church rhetoric
is not continually blasphemed
by investment records.
One cannot help wondering
what Jesus would say to
church bureaucrats seeking his
counsel today. After all, he told
the rich young ruler to go and
sell all that he had, distribute
It among the poor, and then
come back and talk to him.
As community sentiment
solidifies and institutional
forms existing in a community
which are not there for the
benefit of that community are
no longer tolerated, the
churches cannot expect to be
exempt as they are in the tax
realm.
Churches have too long
identified with the aspirations
of people rather than with their
condition. Whether the
aspiration is salvation on the
other side or a vicarious
Identification with the
there is no effective feedback
from their constituencies. The
ordinary student does not know
his senators, and the senator
does not feel pressure to be
active.
These factors, coupled with
a lack of leadership both
within senate and from the
ASUN executives have
brought Senate to its present
low point.
v
Talk of structural change is
in the air. Besides people
planning to run for ASUN
office in the spring election,
who traditionally have big
plans, the execs have seen the
problem that grew up under
them. Ideas range from having
a bicameral legislative branch
of ASUN to disbanding the
Student Senate in favor of a
student-faculty joint senate.
Reapportionment, which lost
in a special referendum last
year because of inadequate
voter turn-out, is again being
debated in some student
government circles.
Which direction ASUN goes
will be determined by several
key people present and
potential officers and senators.
If these people fail to act,
student government at NU will
lose even more stature than
it has already lost among
students and administrators.
church in
preacher's new Cadillac, the
result is the same.
The church is not enacting
the healing word here and now.
In increasing numbers, young
blacks and Puerto Ricans are
becoming terribly concerned
with their own aspirations and
those of their people. They
realize, however, thai those
'I understood he's next In Itno for the U.S. Supreme Court
a - i i s if wo rum down Carswell . , I
Notes from the oven
by KEN WALD
It is time for a really
frivolous column. Aside from
the ham and eggs investiture of
Chancellor Varner, which has
all sorts of grave teleological
implications, nothing really
exciting has happened.
It has become a campus fad
of late for the multitude of
seers in our midst to predict
the ultimate demise of the
fraternity and sorority system.
These wonderfully perceptive
people argue that such socially
oriented organisms are
becoming anachronistic in a
student world increasingly
dominated by concern over
war, racism, freedom.
The sustaining characteristic
of the Greek system since its
origin at Harvard in 1775 has
been uniqueness a fraternity
chapter's difference from both
the rest of the world and, more
importantly, its competitor
chapters.
Toward maintaining this
distinctiveness there have
arisen a plethora of names,
traditions, rituals and images.
Each house projects its own
aura and only through the
maintenance of individuality
can the Greeks expect con
tinued existence.
At first glance, all would
seem to be well for there is
available a literally infinite
number of possibilities for
name combinations,
action
aspirations are best met by
doing something now about
existing conditions. And, as
Jesus taught, they begin by
feeding their sheep.
I would venture a guess that
that act alone has more value
in the eyes of the Almighty
than all the denominational
budgets to date.
ceremonies, images and other
Pagan rites. But stop for a
moment and think about the
key to uniqueness: each
house's very own handshake.
. If you've looked at your hand
lately you're aware that it
possesses only five fingers. If
you are reasonable about the
whole thing, grant that the
number of remaining
handshake possibilities i s
small.
Note that some chapters have
reached the crisis point of us
ing another chapter's "grip"
and you see the truth: The col
lapse of social fraternities has
nothing to do with pledgeship
or philosophical turmoil but is
due solely to the inherent
limitation of five fingers.
Ah, but is it actually in
herent? Of course you could
begin to selectively mate six
fingered men and women, but
genetics would work against
you. So put your right-hand
palm-down on a flat surface
and look. There is only one
logical place for a new digit to
sprout and that is along the
right edge of your hand, next to
the little finger with the dirty
fingernail.
If you want to save the Greek
alphabet from complete
obsolescence, get your family
and friends together. And start
pulling that flabby skin up and
away.
Think of the possibilities!
Aside from multiplying the
possible handshake combina
tions, you will probably
eliminate war. After all, you
can't fight without using your
hands . .,. at least not with
style.
And more than that, friends,
a new finger raises some in
teresting prospects for the
proliferation of obscene
gestures. Don't think about it,
just pull!
I told you this was going to
be frivolous.
