Vol. 35, issue ] ~ SKANDALON November 18, 196L
"EDITORIAL
One of the many pressing problems confronting our university today is that
of communication between the var: branches of the university community. By
communication, we refer not only to notices posted or bulletin boards and mimeo-
graphed notes passed on via student mail, faculty mail, and dorm mail; rather,
we are referring to genuine interaction between faculty, administrators, and
students: an interaction that wil hopefully, lead to a lessening of the sus-
pieion (and hostility?) that now exists and an increase in understanding between
the various members of the community.
The problem can be approached, and must be approached, from three points of
view: student, faculty, and adminis ive, Skandalon, in coming weeks, expects
to consider each of these, to consider suggestions and ideas for improving the
rapport between each, with an eye to those questions relevant to determining the
role of each within our community. i :
Let us first, then, look at some of these problem: Most of us are aware of
student attitudes toward the administration, The university newspaper i
has proven an effective medium for conveying attitudes if not for discussing
issues. There is frequently a sensation, on the part of students, of some
demonic power hanging over them, always ready to cut then down ‘if they do wrong;
and this has not been true merely of cranks and newspaper editors, but of Senate
cabinet members and senators as well, The faculty, too, labors under some of
these fears, One professor, commenting on a not very radical article in Skanda-
on, by one of his fellow faculty members, asked rhetorically, "I wonder if
they'll let him get away with that?" Skandalon, however, believes it is both
fruitless and foolish to consider this as anything more than a symptom of the
problems involved--a symptom of the lack of real communication,
Some groups on this campus have had interaction, to a significant degree,
with administrators and faculty. Almost everyone of them has found his ex-
periences rewarding, But these individuals are unique--among them, we can
include student leaders, Myskania, the Student Association President, and
Be Me (and We) O. Ce ,
So, faculty members are alarmed by the vast numbers of freshmen who pass
through their classes, only to disappear from view; students are alarmed by the
vast numbers of classes they pass through, only to graduate unknown, without
professors who can recommend them or give. them references of any substance.
Faculty are discontent because they feel the advances ‘being made in other for-
ward looking universities are not receiving proper consideration here; students are
angry because they have not received the education they had hoped to get from a
university. And the administration, justifiably, when confronted with these
problems by an angry mob, asks innocently, "Why didn't someone tell us about
this, or come in and talk it overe-why, we've been thinking about this sort of
thing for months, but we didn't know anyone was interested," Ard then theytre
apt to add, somewhat disdainfully, "Of course, if anybody had bothered to eheck
this out, then there wouldn't have been anything to write aboute"
‘The question as we see it, then, is not simply one of "bettering student-
faculty relations," Rather, it is one of providing more epportunities for more
discussion on those issues that directly concern all of u Never has there been
greater opportunity for this kind of activity, A university in transition may be
@ chaotic place; it may have its disadvantages. But if it lacks complete organi=
zation, it also lacks a completed power structure. Today, Student Government is
planning a complete re-organization, The construction of a new campus allows us
to consider the various traps that might be built in to bring about discussion
on an informal level, Within the various councils that exist in our university,
there are multitudes of possibilities, Only in the Student Personnel Council do
students participate regularly. The Educational Policies Board, which is planning
the new curriculum for the new campus, has no student participation, even on an
ex-officio basis. We hope to consider the possibility of Senior and graduate
student participation in a future issue of Skandalon; for it seems, after a
cursory glance at the situation, that those about to leave the university could
make significant contributions to the future of our community through this Board,
We hope, too, ‘to consider the potential power of the Faculty Council, in initiating
events that would provide, on an informal basis, for more contact between our
community's people. We will consider, too, the feasibility of student participation
on the Undergraduate Council, at least in providing a thermometer of student
(continued on page two)
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“STUDENTS AND FACULTY
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ALL STUDENTS AND FACULTY CORDIALLY INVITED
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AYN RAND ~ CHAMPION OF EGOTISM AND SELF INTEREST
Ayn Rand is the most influential of our modern day philosophressese Her
books have been read by millions. and her Objectivist philosophy discussed by
hundreds of thousands, Ayn Rand, in my opinion, is a noxious nut. But let's
look at hér philosophy, at east on a superficial level.
Miss Rand is an individualist. Her hero, John G reflects her Pphilo~
sophy, we might, suppose, so let us consider him, at the height of his care
John retreats from the world, ‘establishing a small central control station on
the top of a mountain, to which he calls the few intelligent entrepren: urs left
in the world, rallying them er his banner = a $ sign. He then calmly waits”
the economy to collapse, because of short-sighted bureaucrats who haven!t
the intelligence to see beyond their ow short-term plans,
I'm not quite sure, I must c ifess, of the significance of all this. One
might point + that America's greatest problem to date asntt been due to the
collapse of production but, ri , to oversproduction, But it seems clear
that the setting is merely, pfeee it is the man and his philosophy that we
are to observe.
What does Galt believe in? Unfortunately, he has many opinions 3 one might
almost call him opinionated. For example, it is his opinion that "there are
‘two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the
middle is always evil, It strikes. me that a good many issues depend on whose
side youtre ons and while I might be attacked as a ‘milksop, ‘Itve never regarded
"peaceful coexistence! as ‘particularly evil, especially when confronted with. the
alternative of extermination, Of course, Miss Rand believes that man!ts 'm
obligation is to do what he wishes, provided his wish does not. depen:
upon other men, This includes the whole sphere of his creative faculty,
thinking, his work," ‘(The Fountainhead = italics hers) I must be exc’
regardi: i i ennae my social consciousness is probably
a bit overdevel: .on that mants greatest achievements are
made through cc ration oe cooreinton and Le tensile approach 5 while not
which would - not, Bonen Be a a terribly bad a if aia and af there
was any assurance that the problems that would arise under a system such as she
proposes could be any more effectively dealt with without establishing some kind
of dictatorship,
Men, either singly or in ‘groups, have always tried to dominates The justin
fications might be sound, but one never looks for an exp ation in an osteriori
y Miss ‘ant cal
argument for the supremacy of on
for the abandonment of the old way
11 tor fitting for bothe
- bad professors, stupid
the selfish demi-gods like Galt, and the rhetoric i
Miss Rand smashes into the problems of our world head-o:
bureaucrats, cancerous mysticism (re gion); but after splashing them all over
the landscape, she is noc s ing the problems that these were | meant to
resolve: poverty, crime, hunger, famine, fear, preju
humanity, war; lost in a fantas ie philosophy that cal: 2, the withdrawal Re
men from the world in which they fin themselves, Miss Rand contributes to those
problems. Perhaps I am a cynic; but I have known few omniscient men such as John
Galt. haps John Galt could save our world; but not when his name is
Geon~l-d=w-ast-e-r3 not when his approach is to attack civil : rights, Or P:
Fourteen, or Social Security, or national welfare, (ons medicare, without a single
constructive thought for the resolution of the problems they attempt to deal with,
Show me a man who can wipe out the hunger in a small child's stomach by granting
him absolute freedom from any bureaucratic interference, and I'l] show you Mr,
John Galt, next President of the United States,
pre _Guy MOB Ta Srcia ce oki ancl
ee
Skandalon is the biweekly journal of | TRANSPORTATION SCHEDULE FOR THE CHURCH
Campus Christian Council, Articles, OF THE UNEVERSIIY COMMUNITY SERVICE:
poems, essays, drawings, or short
stories are welcome, Welcome also are Cars leave ‘Sayles at 8:15 and the
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a@ion. Anyone interestedin sub- at 8: 720, A bus leaves:
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Guy McBride, Editor, via Student Mail, Thruway Motel 8:0
or leave materials at 501 State Street, New Dorms 8 25
the Office of the Campus Minister. State Cafeteria 8:55
wee meee HH At 10:00 the bus returns to Sayles
2 Lost and Found by way of the New Dorms and the
Anyone who ended up with the wrong coat Thruway Motel.
at The Golden Hye on November 6, can get “Ae dha Md iy ae
his own back from Mr. Wilson in the Art Te TTT TTT 3
Department, Draper 305, with his apologies
ee ee re es
9:0 asms, we conclude with
——
Then, at
a Service eee
AL
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