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PAGE 2 THE GOLD BUG SEPTEMBER 17, t 970 New officers. big plans; chance for S.G.A. The Student Government Association started its year of Treasurer Bryson Popham. Popham said, "student enough to do anything about it" governing with an executive session held yesterday, support is necessary if we are going to have a dynamic Hopple is more eptimistic about the prospects for im- Wednesday, September 16. SGA. If students don't care, then they will probably get proving the SGA's image. "I don't think that we have Tne officers discussed plans for the coming year. the kind of lackluster leadership they deserve. " According to Jerry Hopple, the new president Qf the reached the point where we need to provoke a crisis SGA, they have been working all summer to make the situation by abolishing the SGA. The problems are ad- SGA a better organization. mittedly formidable, but not insurmountable." "The Student Government Association is the most In addition to the executive council and the Senate the important student organization on campus. The scope of structure of the SGA includes a committee system. The the SGA ranges from entertainment to the cafeteria. The Academic affairs committee is headed by junior Craig SGA is concerned with every facet of student life on Schulze. This committee is responsible for the tutorial campus," explained Hopple. service and the course evaluation program. Two of its According to the student government constitution, each major goals this year will be to study the examination student is automatically a member of the SGA. An elected system and try to secure academic credit for the editors of executive council and the senate function as the the newspaper and yearbook. Action committee chairman executive and legislative branches of the SGA. The men's Richard Anderson is a senior economics major. The council and the women's council are judicial agencies Action Committee has varied functions. It serves as a responsible for student discipline and-regulations. clearing house for ideas and proposals and acts as an This year the SGA officers are Jerry Hopple, pres.; Dan ombudsman for students. The committee will also the SGA committee and make system Wiles, vice pres.; Sarah Snodgrass, corresponding sec.; supervise evaluation of the SGA's effectiveness periodic critical Gloria Phillips, recording secretary; Bryson Popham, Sophomore Max Zimmerman and senior Charlie Moore treasurer, and Bill McCormick, parlimentarian. are co-chairing the Building and Grounds committee. This According to Hopple, the SGA has been plagued by two committee is involved in everything from the rail to the major problems in the past. The first problem he says is grille to campus beautification. Tentative goals for this campus disunity. year include a student operated grille and inter campus "Regardless of what the catalogue says about a close mail box and phone systems. knit student body," Hopple asserts, "the fact is that the Senior Political Science major Alan McCoy is chairman campus community has been seriously fragmented for of the cafeteria committee. The cafeteria is a perennial years. Students are divided into factions and cliques and consequently, it has been difficult for the SGA to represent problem, according to Hopple, and the purpose of this is to defend student student interests and provide overall direction of student committee Mike Mock, a sophomore, interests in this important is publicity chairman. area. activities." The SGA President feels that the second problem is The publicity committee keeps the students informed about upcoming events and what the SGA is doing. Senior what he called "the traditionally restricted scope of the pre-med. student Mike Weinblatt, who has extensive SGA's self image." He feels that the SGA should expand its role as a part of the campus decision making process. experience with the SGA in the fields of publicity and "TheSGA has often been unwilling to seek the initiative Hopple noted that at least two former SGA officers, both social affairs, is responsible for entertainment. The or assure the responsibility necessary to an effective of whom have graduated, felt that the SGA was a "farce" student Regulations committee is chaired by Senior of lack of student student government. We seem to have been lost in the because complained that trying interest. One of them, Hopple SCience Major George Shellem. One of the committee's for students to work will be the open house policy. said, concerns main was shuffle and the problem right- now is to find a way out," "like beating your head against a brick wall." This for- said Hopple. .Student Government Senate meetings are held at least The essential quality for an active, effective SGA is an mer officer was so disgusted with student apathy, ac- twice a month on Mondays. The meetings are open and informed, concerned student body, according to cording to Hopple, that she thought it would be a good idea students are encouraged to attend. The first meeting date to abolish the SGA, "just to see if students would care will be announced soon. An analysis. crucial year for the S.O.A. ByJerryHopple But the fact is that, in the last few years, Western similar concern on the part of the administration. After who Students, according to Theodore White, the chronicler Maryland has been experiencing a revolution. The nature all, students are more than transient commodities This con- belt for four years. pass through the conveyor of presidential elections, now constitute the largest single of the revolution is incremental and imperceptible, but the cept of "here today, gone tomorrow" should be discarded interest group in the United States. During the 1970's, it is net effect is undeniably revolutionary. Two years ago, a in fa vor of an approach which recognizes that students are expected that fifty per cent of all people in the college age group of concerned students successfully campaigned for affected group will actually be attending college. This increased the abolition of mandatory ROTC. This past year, over immediately represent an by most decisions. Furthermore, the investment students for important enrollment signals the demise of the American myth that two hundred students and faculty members marched in future, and the graduates today are the alumni tomorrow. college graduates are the leaders of tomorrow (unless you the October moratorium. Last spring, over three hundred assume that one half of the population can lead the other students and faculty members marched in protest of the The functions of the SGA can be divided into three half, a one-to-one ratio that sounds like an Orwellian Kent State killings and in defense of the right to assembly. categories. The first is service-the draft counseling vision of some kind). (Even THE HILL MAGAZINE, the official voice of the service, the tutorial program, the coffee house, the This increased numerical strength has intensified the administration party line, gave the Kent State march Homecoming concert, the film series. Secondly, the SGA actual power level of college students. College students, publicity, including a cover pictu~e which probably should reflect student opinion and represent student in- however, are far from a monolithic power bloc. Types shocked some 1954 graduate in Lorain, Ohio) terests. This would be especially applicable to the range from nihilists and anarchists in certain segments of cafeteria. The third function of the SGA is as an iniator of the New Left to flag-waving jocks in certain segments of Stud~nts at Western Maryland have not been proposals and ideas. The failure of the SGA is most ob- the Irrelevent Right. In some cases, the only similarity radicalized, and have fortunately avoided the tactics of vious in the case of the last two functions. between New Leftists and Old Jocks (a traditional type) polarization used by some antl-lntelleetual.Talienated, may be that they both have experimented with pot. authoritarian elements of the New Left (some of whom, In the past, the SGA has suffered from a number of (Studies show, surprisingly, that the length of a person's ironically, use' tactics which .would be ass.ociated with rnalaises.-Iaek of direction and purpose, student apathy, hair does not determine if he will try LSD. A frat member facists, their favorite epithet). Our revolution has been frustrated leaders who confront the apathy, the with a crew cut who's majoring in Business Ad- milder and less explosive, with roots which date back to fragmentation of the student body. These obstacles are ministration is as likely a candidate as a radical with a the fraternity abolition cotroversy of 1965 and 1966. not insurmountable. But their elimination is a sine qua beard who's immersed in Marcuse, Che and Mao.) non of an effective student government. American college students are part of the pattern of There have been other noteworthy examples of P and R· "revolution" that analysts claim is altering American -which could represent Puerto Rico or Progressive Labor, When I ran for SGA president last year, I criticized the society. In-depth (usually a code word for "at length") but actually represents Progress and Reform. The in- SGA as a "glorified debating society" which seems to do studies reveal that we are undergoing a drug revolution, a novative changes in curriculum include a Black Drama little more than plan GIGIF's. Now that the SGA has sex revolution, a communications revolution and various Course, a "second track" interdsiciplinary course for abandoned the GIGIF business, we'd better find some other revolutionary trends. We also have the "New selected freshmen and January term. The open house other Interests-or your SGA officers will be joining a lot of Politics"(which is really a lot of the "Old Politics" in policy has been liberalized. There have been changes in California technicians and engineers in the unem- terms of tactics but entails an emphasis on youth and the the women's curfew policy and the adoption of a key ployment compensation lines. increased use of mass communications media), sym- system. bolized by New York Congressman Allard Lowenstein and Connecticut Democratic Senate primary candidate Rev. Proceeding from the general to the specific to the in- Committee openings Joseph Duffey. Partisans of "Radical Politics" have been significant, we come to the Student Government prchferating recently. Those with a penchant for numbers Association. The SGA has a tremendous power potential, In the past, is unrealized. will easily recall the Chicago Seven and the Catonsville but most of this potential to an institution with a prestigious the SGA has been reduced Nine, in addition to Black Panthers, Progressive Any student interested ih being on faculty-student government has failed to Laborites, Weathermen and other meteorological name and little else. The student opinion. Consequently, the committees should turn in a written request to Jerry student or represent mobilize ohenomena. Hvpple, Dan Wiles, Bryson Popham, Gloria Phillips or SGA's reputation with students has been damaged. Sarah Snodgrass. The committees are: Admissions (2 seniors, 1.5 The foregoing discussion brings us to Western Maryland, This will be the crucial year for the SGA. Self- index); Atheletic Council (I male jr.L; Calendar and "Concert which has had no riots and doesIYt even have an SDS government can be an educational and meaningful ex- Schedule (sophomore 1.0 index); (1 jr}; chapter. In fact, William F. Buckley's National Review perience, if we take the initiative. If the fear of adverse Curriculum (I [r.): Examination (I jr. 1.5 index); included WMC as an example of a "safe" college reactions from alumni and other financial contributors Lecture (I jr.); Library (1 jr.); and the Financial Aid (presumably with such other "safe" colleges as Bob can cause the administration to forbid liquor ads in the Committee (2 seniors). Jones U., which is safe from two "evils"-student dissent GOLD BUG- on at least three different Occasions-then a and discussion of various viewpoints). concern with student interests and needs should produce a nn