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Che Battalion
Page 2
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, May 17, 1966
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One-Man One-Vote
Misinterpreted
CADET SLOUCH
by Jim Earle
Sound Off
The Republic of Vietnam is
shaped on the map somewhat
like California, although only
half as large.
The “One-man one-vote” edict of the Supreme Court
has taken a strange interpretation at A&M, and it’s not
the one intended.
One man receives one vote in an election and wins.
This happened in Thursday’s Student Senate election in
the College of Geosciences, as an all-time low was rec
orded at Aggie polls.
Another position was filled when a man received
three votes, another won with seven, and so on it went,
with 453 students voting in five colleges.
This figure represents five per cent of the total en
rollment, and eclipsed a previous low of 11 per cent rec
orded in the last election. At that time, an editorial ap
peared in The Battalion deploring the condition and call
ing for greater student interest in their government or
it could be lost.
This is still the position of The Battalion.
Last year, in this same election, 23 per cent of the
students voted, and most of us were shocked at the
small turnout. Since then we’ve seen the numbers dwindle.
How valid is an election with such a poor turnout?
Very valid, because it shows how little the students
care about their affairs. Aggie clamor for improved
student government, write letters demanding action on
this or that issue, and just generally complain about how
“they” run the government.
These complaints are totally UNJUSTIFIED!
No matter how inefficient the government, no one is
to blame in a democracy except the voters. If they fail
to exercise their voting power over their government, they
deserve whatever that government turns out.
The Battalion offers its best wishes to the newly-
elected Senators, and hopes they can well serve even a
student body with so little concern.
Editor,
The Battalion:
Judging from the turnout at
last week’s election something,
academic excellence, permitting,
needs to be done to increase stu
dent interest in our campus gov
ernment. Why aren’t the voting
booths put where most students
would see and hopefully use
them, like in the Academic Build
ing rotunda or in front of Sbisa
and Duncan Dining Halls? Why
are they hidden in the basement
of the MSC ? This may at first
seem radical but there is nothing
wrong with students openly prac
ticing democracy a few times a
year.
Hye Brown ’68
★ ★ ★
“We’d like your signature! It’s a petition to flip th’ best
two outa three to see which team represents th’ confer
ence!”
Editor,
The Battalion:
As I near the end of my under
graduate career at A&M (I
hope), there are several things I’d
like to get said before I leave.
I’ve been accused of being a
gung-ho Ag who can’t really see
the faults of A&M because the
Aggie Spirit is clouding my vi
sion.
I’ll gladly admit to all except
the last accusation. Working in
Houston two years stretched my
ten semesters at A&M over seven
years so I think my experience,
both in and out of the Corps,
gives me an insight that doesn’t
come to all.
So, I’ll just mention a few prob
lems that I hope a few dedicated
individuals will continue to work
on until a solution to each is fin
ally found.
First and foremost is the politi
cal club issue. Right behind that
is the now being discussed faculty
evaluation by students. Another
not quite so popular issue is the
elimination or centralization of
quiz files to keep some students
from having an unfair advantage
over others.
Sure, there are other problems,
but these are those I consider the
most important. Please remem
ber, I am a gung-ho Ag and am
for the school AND the students
all the way.
Jerry C. Cooper, 63
• • • •
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Wanderin ’
Students Not Radicals
By LARRY R. JERDEN
I mentioned in a column not
long ago that what this country
really don’t need was another ex
amination of American youth, or
American women, or American
basket-weavers.
Well, another one has been
done, and despite my earlier opin
ion, this one was needed. It pic
tures, I believe, what most of us
secretly believed all along:
American college students to
day, while they are seeking
changes for a better way of life,
are not the radicals and revolu
tionaries some would have us be
lieve.
Samuel Lubell, writing for
United Features Syndicate, re
ports that five out of every six
collegians today still share the
same basic political and eco
nomic views as their parents.
Taking a random survey at 36
colleges across the nation, Lubell
found that while most students
wanted change, few desired the
kind of “campus revolution” pic
tured by the majority of popular
writers treating the subject.
I believe these writers, like the
general public, concentrate on
this very vocal minority for so
long that their perspective is dis
torted.
Lubell disclosed that, in rela
tion to their politics, one of every
11 students from Democratic
families is turning more con
servative and Republican, while
one of seven from Republican
families has either turned Demo
cratic, Socialist or anarchist.
One of the primary forces pres
ent on the campus is the attitude
of questioning accepted ideas on
all fronts, and seeking change
where it will definitely bring im
provement of the situation.
Students are taking a look at
their parent’s religion, and nearly
half admitted they were “less re
ligious” than their parents. Al
most an equal number said they
were “about as religious” and 11
per cent thought they were “more
religious.”
Drugs, both the standard nar
cotics and the new “mind drugs”,
have recently been in the news,
and the religious beliefs of the
students seem to form a correla
tion with drug use in this survey.
One in seven interviewed had
used either marijuana or LSD,
but a third said they would never
use it again after one trial. The
repetitive users usually fancy
themselves as writers or artists,
and describe their faith with, “I
have no religion.”
Those who avoid the use of
these drugs run the whole range
of occupational preference and
have much stronger religious con
victions than the users.
One of the outstanding char
acteristics uncovered by this 17-
state sampling of students was
that beatle haircuts, sloppy
clothes and guitar strumming are
no real measures of rebellion.
Lubell found a student at
UCLA that looked like the model
beatnik, only to find that he was
a timid boy that neither smoked
or drank, still lived at home, and
that his costume was about as
“rebellious” as he got.
Another finding, usually borne
out in most of my personal con
tacts, was that there was a lot
more talking about action than
acting. Researchers have been
writing about the “Campus Sex
ual Revolution” for about ten
years now, and what college st\i-
dents themselves know about it
still stems largely from what
they read in the magazines!
Morality, it was found, has be
come a very personal thing to stu
dents. Their criteria for an ac
tion is not “what does some au
thority say about this,” but “is it
right for me?”
In sexual action, they ask if
their action is right for the cou
ple involved, but the emphasis is
still on the “me”.
Lubell did find the small “reb
el” faction, and said that four
faces stand out in this group. One
is the face of the rebel’s off
spring. This is the group made
up of sons and daughters of one
time Communists and Socialists,
those that have been going to
demonstrations since they were
children.
Another face is that of the
“Christian radicals,” those
brought up in deeply religious
homes, but who have broken
away and said that government
can do what God could not.
A third face is the “career”
rebels, those who reject money
making for a life of working with
people in universities or public
employment.
The last face is that of the
beatnik, undoubtedly the least in
fluential or important. About all
they add, said Lubell, are theatri
cal effects.
But even these four faces were
but different aspects of a min
ority.
The mainstream ?
College students that are try
ing to receive an education so
that they may better make their
way in life. A group not too un
like their parents, interested, like
all of us, in building a better
world.
Lubell’s conclusion: “Today’s
new college generation should lift
the quality of American life.”
The Sports Illustrated Book of Diving
now at
THE WORLD OF BOOKS SHOPPE
207 S. Main 823-8366
THE BATTALION
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