Page 80 - TheGoldBug1970-71

THE GOLD BUG ~ARCli8, 1971 WMC - microcosm of life Gym uniforms by William S. Candee Western Maryland College is a microcosim of It is an old story about how grades are related to To the Editor: real society and many societies roles are acted out salary and job status as a measure of human worth. I must begin, unfortunately, with an apology. here on campus. This is not what a stereotyped This seems to be an area where wonme's lib is Here you willnot find one of those vital issues which campus ought to be because there is no more making an impression. In society women are student publications are fond of surrounding with a radicalism or "Youth Culture" here than there is in asking why can't they have the same job grand, or perhaps grandiose, aura. My subject a regular cross section of society. . . opportunities and salaries as men. Here on campus possesses a somewhat narrow scope; indeed, it The SGA for instance, does not act like a they question male academic leadership and why it barely qualifies as an issue. Nonetheless, it is spokesman for the "Youth Movement" it acts more is not appropriate for women to major in such fields important in that it concerns if not all or even most like a state or local government with a frustrated as economics or political science. In varying of the student body, at least a reasonable executive, an ineffectual Senate, and a confusing degrees men are frightened and opposed to this percentage. bogged down committee system. It does not deal challenge. The fraternities seem to resemble the The question at hand deals with the Physical with burning "Youth issues" in a decisive unified social and civic organizations that are found in society and are attached to some of the values of Education Department, and specifically its j~:~~~ requirements! As we all know from our handy ~~,~:~~~~ ~~~u~:~~~h::ae:l~~n~~re corporate life. These values are excellence in WMC catalogues, four of our one hundred twenty any state government would. It harkens to the sports, piss and vinegar, the hail be well good time four hours required for graduation must be in Youth movement the same way a state government socializing, and for reaching social prestige. The physical education. Omitting physical disabilities, would harken to morality or patriotism for these individual is pressured into conforming to a self this in itself poses no special problem. Only when are used as political rationalizations and perpetuating traditional image and nonconformity one discovers that official WMC attire is required motivations. is very much frowned upon. for class, does one's ire become aroused. The Church here on campus closely resembles The economic priorities of this campus are not Furthermore, it appears that unless this edict is the practices and attitudes of churches throughout dissimilar to those of general society either. There followed, class attendance counts not at all. society. Last Sunday the "church" represented by has been a freeze on the hiring of new professors Make no mistake, I am not trying to subvert the the Chapel Committee took a stand on the various and because of this a reduction in the number of college or the physed Dept., or attempting to problems of this campus and called for a meeting course offerings. The cafeteria food is provoke the violent passions which I know lie Sunday afternoon of all concerned citizens, we were deteriorating as are the college owned houses of dormant in the student body's collective breast. I really going to do something this time so it seemed. Union Street. When concerned students question even have a certain nostalgia when I hear that old Well; true to any type of situation the problems of this they are given stories about "hard times" and Beach Boy's refrain, "Be True to Your School". the campus boiled down to dicontent with the open inflation being responsible for these conditions as However, it goes against the grain not only of the house policies and all other problems were glossed well as for the necessity of a tuition increase. Yet individual but also of common sense to be forced to over. As a few prominently interested people took there seems to be all kinds of money available for wear a uniform which neither aids nor hinders one over the meeting and quarreled over the details of the construction of new athletic fields. This is like in the performance of his task. Fortunately when this problem public interest flagged and people left. with the national scene where our cities are we came to Western Maryland College we left the Liberal members of the Chapel Committee saw neglected in favor of an ABM or on a local level dress code behind. Most high schools today have most of the campus problems as amounting to the where there is a freeze on hiring social workers in dispensed with it, and it is rapidly collecting the denial of the right of students to govern their own Baltimore despite their needs. Yet work proceeds well deserved dust of an archaism. As usual at lives and like radical church leaders like Father on the second Bay Bridge despite the opposition of WMC, with this code in our Physed Dept. we are Berrigan, they wanted to do something radical to the people of Maryland. Therefore it seems that behind the times. bring justice into society. Like in society, most this college is motivated, in its spending policies, by But let us not be too hasty to judge. Perhaps there members of this cam pus would not defy the the same forces that motivate society in general. is some utility to the notion, some method to the administration in any meaningful way but would It would be a mistake to think that because we are apparent madness. After all, does not every rule either "go through the system" or "Love it or young and in college we are exempt from the have a purpose? Maybe the vertical lines on our Leave it." mistakes and hangups of the rest of society because bathing suits help us to swim faster and farther. The role of the Pentagon in American it is not true. In many ways we are as old as our Obviously these uniforms provide us with a government would be easier to understand if one parents and our environment is the same as theirs. discipline unheard of outside military circles. And studies the relation of the athletic department to the There is no real such thing as a generation gap for who fails to feel a thrill of pride when his college administration. Like the Pentagon the much of that is just bickering over small things like shuttlecock floats across the badminton net to settle athletic department gets a large budget and in very dress styles; there seems to be very few value down on the racquet of an opponent clad in a green autonomus. Nobody knows what extent it is able to differences between students here and middle aged and. white T shirt with WMC emblazoned on his influence general administration policies, long people in the rest of society. When we realize this chest. range planning, scholarship assistance, or the like. then I believe we will be on the road to anything we More practically, the financial aspect of the' Also like the Pentagon the athletic department want. We will be able to run our own lives only situation arises. All of us are acutely aware, some seems very defensive and concerned about its self when we see them as they are and our environment painfully so, of the soaring costs of matriculation at image which is why it is overly concernd with for what it is. Only then will realistic choices this institution. Textbook prices are unaccounted relatively small things like hair length or bathing become available and concrete action of any kind for in the official figures; however, they rise suit color. possible. correspondingly. For this reason alone it seems foolish to make a demand which contradicts common sense. Why should we be forced to buy something which we don't need, or already have? Bryson Popham review: Subtle humor of Hesse Beneath the Wheel Hermann Hesse by Bob Miller Hans Giebenrath had a thousand things to do. At least until' the local schoolmaster discovered he was gifted. Then, at the urging of his father and the whole town, Hans swallowed their dreams of success and spent all his time studying for a scholarship. Passing the exam easily, he found himself studying even more furiously at school. Then he met Hermann his antithesis-a free poetic soul-and their friendship destroyed him. This novel has been called Hermann Hesse's "spiritual autobiography". In t~~ing the story of a boy's inability to cope with ambition, Hesse sharply lashes out at our educational systems. To Hesse, education lacks emotion, soul, and free involvement. It destroys what is wild and free in man and replaces it with only driving ambition, and dry intellect. The book reads fast, is subtly Caught in the shadow of last year's spring or in the sunshine of coming summers. hwnorous at times, and should be provocative to students as well as professors.