~Page Two Friday. February 9. I962 ' ‘ n c In opp051+lon The controversial proposal now bet'ore the Student Senate provides for the campus-wide election 01' a SGA president and vice-president on a ticket1 Tile vicenpl'esident would sel ‘c as leader of the Speaker. Senate replacing the present loth men would be Executive Cabinet members 1nd both 1'. ould liavevveto powers. We '1 11 o oppose tlle proposal. ticket" idea is an attempt to ploinote party pol- itics on campus Party politics is a full tme 11011 Any stu— cent who “Quid consider lunning' 101' office under the new proposal might as well change his major to campus al'fa s. That part of the proposal which would give president and his running—mate botll executive veto power is all at tempt to establish greater coordination between the Cab- inet and the Senate. We think there‘s been enough coordn ination i too much; The original idea it' 1113 Xide tlle Senate with capable, none in fact. rccall cor 'ectly, was to pro- 111 lcadci'ship. 'lhe SGA piesident vas to be the maior source of e\ecutive legislation That is not the way it has worked. Last year the Senate elected a Speakcl' who was and i: ex l'emely capable. But that Speaker was not and is not 1,01Ppal'tismi. Whether it is Do tempei'nlent suits him to sei lelnental'ian. we don’t know. 'ible to find a person whose only as a moderator. a par- It is quite obvious that, with his gavel, and with his power to appoint committee heads, the Speaker is in a position to contlmol or at least belid tlle Senate. \1 e_ feel it would be 1'1 mistake to grant the man in such a pos ion the power of e\ecutive Veto too. This is no personal attack 011 Cam IIendersllot. We '13 just viewing the facts. He holds strong political views. It seems a bit unrealistic for anyone to expect him to trade them for a gavel 7 uhich is exactly what the Speaker must do if he is to guide 1111 Senate and campus fairly. factions and interests of the_ , The soil; tion, as we see it, is not to pass the ploposal which is 11011 lief-me the Senate (and, should it pass there, ir will be beioie the enti1e campus because it is 11 constitu- tional amendment and requires campus appro1'al)1 Let us, instead, kill it and proceed with the present ,system with this admonition to the Senate: keep ill mind ' 1e demands of the position you are filling when you select a Speaker. 'young One portion 01' the proposal which we have 'el', worthy of adoption with only to scuttle above is, 1101' talen’r' attempted slight alte'i tions. This is the suggestion to open the pro- posed rice-presidency to second semester sophomores ill order to tap “young talent." tempt to bring underclassmen into contention for We entirely support this at- hig'h campus office he think there ai'e students here who are, after only three semesters at Gl'innell, completely capable of filling any student office on campus ' 'lilll"l‘ 111111 - l FORUM by Cameron Hendershot There has been much discus- on this year about the grouu g disinterest of students in running lor the major campus government ofiices. Last year‘s elections brim-ca a case in pomt. a total of nine pebple ran for the top five positions. The consensus seems to be that, as the academic pressures increase with the resulting de- mands on time, there will be even less interest in assuming ihe burdens :0; leadership. Two alternatives present them- selves. One would be to return lo the administration some of the responsibilities p r e s e 1i t l y held by student government. Tlehher the administration nor the student body seems to want lhis. The other alternative then would be to strive toward, pro- (edurai changes which would lessen the work load or the top ofiicers while still maintaining an eflective and responsible government. One such prohosnl inward this end of greater executive efficiency will be voted upon by the Senate next week. This ccuStitutional uni endinl cut would in effect creme inc ol- fice oi vice-president ahd drop the present position 111 Speak- er or the Senate. The SGA vicerpresident. as an allrcam- pus ele‘cted ufiiriiil, would he- comc n member at the excel» tivc cabinet, “is primary 11“- ties woulli'be to assist the president and to preside over the Student Senate. The SGA President is pri- 11131in a co-ordinatoi' of the various branches of government, a representative of the Grinnell students in faculty and adminis- tl'ation. and an originator of legislative 'ograms HIS co- ordinating and representative Starlet anh Ifilark Grinnell, Iowa GRINNELL COLLEGE A wcckiy newslmper published each year in the Andicw 131mm llic ml or mm 1113. pnzss A111. n1 1111111 1.11.11": I 5mm Llllloi‘s ' 11.111 12111111 0 cf P11111011. ciicubiuan 11111.1. 1111111111 Mn uer n11 skiesmgn , Bunncis Assistants Grinnall oummnicr an Stu cn chulimnii, by Nniiunnl 11111111151111; Scrvice, icseiilnuic. 120 Madison [\14. 1 1111.11.11 class In 191- 1.1 they-Post oak-c 1n Giinncll 15' Renrescnted lor nntlolml iidvrir 1111., College Pnhllshns 111,1. New York N ‘1 1211111111115 lo11'n,undel siiiidri-iuiiuii min also 1121' school Jim 11111111111 (:1 11111111- 11111111111 . r1111» 111. 11111111 , .luhn Harlan 111m ’A'ulnel . Terrai- Levine , Sue Yilunce 11111 i1.i 111111), A column 01' opinion open to contribution by Scarlet & Black readers. SCARLET AND BLAGK fifhunghts nut niS A PLAY: DIALOGUE OUT OF SEASON Sinucke!‘ (Cast) Fclla 7 a talker Roscoe Pooi-licld 7 Who and tries to Crack. eggs Rasscl 7 A paniicr 11101. 1110111 7 Willi definite ideas Bradley 7 A coffee-hour cubinci lilcr Graham llpsworth 7 A boy The characters are Situated within their individual library carouscls along a blank wall. They are studying. Fella (To a nameless dent): “Sno Queen race looks sweaty. The Cleveland (lollies are unbelievably fired for Teri Tripp and she'll be hard to beat or course, there's always Susie Slilepp, Great girl . . . what more can ya say about 511511; Shlepp. Semester is getting on to a big start. Hardly enough time to book and sack. Ya know what Saturday's toboggan race reminds me 01"? Yukon King... remember." (Does imitation ot sled dog) Roscoe Paoriield (Intensely, to Rassel) “Those shlepps! (Worldr weary shake of head). You know, this is . . such a mater- ialist and Conformist world. No- body wants to do the things that really coum. Things like 1 1 . 1 used to run in the fields a lot . and someday everyone 01' these collfol‘mists . 1 . will wake up with SnoADaze stamped in gray flannel letters on . . . on their foreheads." Russel (Seeming serious, gaz— ing into Roscoe's eyes): “You’ve got something there. Good in— sight, Rosiroe.n (Then throwing his head back and thrusting eyes distantly upwartd) lays, functions, both quite lime—cum sumiilg, are rclzlivcly fixed. His last role, um of legislative in- novator. depends upon the in. _ clination and convictions of the President. 1 uiarly rclevnni is lhc way in which the spcukcrship has evolved, Originally cun- rcivcd, perhaps somewhat un— realistically. as only :1 purliu— mentary one, lhc office has emerged us the lockrpill ol the legislative branch of gov- ernment. 1n add-man to his delegated prwcrs (e.g1, presid- ing oilicer, appointment oi committees). the speaker has gradually assumed certain others, such :1: formation at the agenda and legislative propnsul in order to expedite the working oi the 4S-member group. Though some might consider this increase in hincliun linde- sirable, it must be viewed as a logical and even necessary extension of the office. in ad- dition the speaker is new electe ed by only uie Senate on the basis of a short Speech. He unis becomes tree to exercise his civn judgment. From this perspective the ad- vantages that would accrue {rain the proposed change become up. parent. First the presiding or. ficer or the Senate as a member of the Executive ciibinci, would better undelstand the problems of the Cubincl, and the Cabinet the desil or the Senate. Secr .onaiy, his campus ividc election would allow all the students in select! lho viccpresideni on uie basis of his slated views Last- ly, and most importantly, lhe fact that the President and Vice- president 11ill run together as a team will help in ensurcra general consensus between the. two key bfiicers. in addition, the creation or the ouicc will allow the president to delegate some responsibility to the VICEV president, and vice versa. As of conli. _ . ETISUII By Larry Smucker “8110»Daze, SnorDaze Good old Golden . . " Bradley (To Roscoe and Ras- sel): “The student's imagination has got to hc freed from the pettiness oi 811043820. The larger world issues. it seems to me, dc- rnand his time, thought and ac— tion," r1011 Mohl (Observes students. walks off muttering: "1) College is knowledge, 2) College is 51.117 dents. Therefore, college is stun (lent-knowledge” (J. Mchlmsey Bungle “Conception ol :1 College,’ lsil, p. 4391) Graham Epwortli: "Thcrc is something to be said for ami- able dissipation" Rassel: " . Good old Golden 1 yep, Roscoe.” Rnscoe: " . People . . . medir ocrc . . , regimented . . . culture.’ Braille. “Kahn's sluir may not be right, but it’s certainly essential to understanding the larger issues. Naturally, it is “Marx. Milton, Mcndelsnhn. r1111. 11111111. (To himself); Marcus Aurelius. Maritan, Morgenthau, Mendel and Moliere" Fella: “A leg contest . right!" (Roscoe and Rassel get up to leave, Bassel trips over Fella'l foot) Rassel: me." Roscoe: “Ngrphz!” (Signs, ~cxiti with Russel) Bradley: (To Fella): docs Politics c47 look." Fella: “Shouldn't be too bad.’ Bradle “Going to the cof- rccaiou Fella. “What is it?" Braille - "The topic is in Loco Adultis: the role 01' the adult in a children's society'; sounds in. tel‘esting," Fella: ”Guess I‘ll have to pass it up." Bradley: “0K, see ya." (Fella begins to read. Prof. Mohl is busy translating Andre Gide into ancient Sanskrit.) Graham Epwm‘tli: “Spectator spoizs will'never replace bad» lnlnton . all (To Fella) “Excuss “How how, each office is so constitul» ed as to preclude any 1 ch sharing of the work load. What are the Objections that might be raised to such a pro- posal-l That such u Change might lead to the formation of politi— cal parties on campus has often been Cited. The causal relation seems rather tenuous. Political parties are not 11l’ltlen into the constitution; they must evolve out of popular illtci’e . The real key to the formation of parties lies in the legislative and not the executive branch. AS long a: the senators are elected by halls and not campus- wide, such all evolvemont is highly unlikely. A second argument might be that this change breaks down the separation 01 powers and gives too much influence to the executive. The farmer part of the argument .is amply refuted by the legal prece- dents existing in both national and state governmenLS. The latter part needs careful defl— nltion. The kind and degree of influence must. he noted. The major change would be flint the Executive Cabinet and particularly the Presi- dent would be guaranteed full access to the Senate. “'vitll their general consensus the Speaker would no longer :be an alwaysmtential roadblock. One last argument should be dismissed, It is that the Campus will not be able to select the most qualified Candidate be- cause he :‘uns with the presi- dential candidate in :1 “package deal" Although lior both po- lltical and administrative rear sons the presidential Candidate is unlikely to Select all obvious- ly incapable running—mate, the reservation does remain valid. It can only be nutcd that on balance the [5am in administra- tive efficiency will outweigh the pos ible losses in freedom oi choice. agile“ To the editor: in his letter last week Denton Fox sccmcd to segregate life into two spheres which he iccls 1111 not belong together: action and thought. His implications were that the college years are those when a student selects a philosophical. economic, and pi» litlcal position, and the other years of his litc are those in which he acts on those views to which he commits himself. c P. siiuiv, in “Two Cultures," points to this view as a procure ions trend among intellectuals tar day and suggests that the solu— tion lies not in assigning only :1 few years pl life for the study 01 art, literature, history, philosophy and science, but rather giving these areas and thought to the questions aiising in theln, Unlike the scllolastics of me- dieval Europe, we cannot absorb all there is to be learned today. Our world demands specializa- tion. Yet I would suggest that it" a liberal arts education is to be meaningful in our lives, we must integrate this breadth of thought into our Specialization and our daily llVlng. Educators recommend the student approach his subject matter with questions in order to gain the greatest vuluc from it, and the men wbuse books we read and whose ideas we analyze are attempting to ans- wer questions which arose from lheir experience. Certainly this is the case with Aristotle, Machievelli, Burke, Marx, Freud, and Sartre. justrta mention a few. The student who struggles with the relationship between thought and action and who discovers at a significant level ihe frustratlons of commun- ity living is most likely to ap- proach his study with some of the same questions. in the "Public Philosophy‘ Walter Lipnlann comments on this relationship between ideas and the “existential world. “Wily do men make mistakes? Because an iniporiani part of hu- man behavior 5 reaction to the pictures in their heads. “Human behavior takes place in relation to a pseudo-envirorr me'nt — a representation. which is not quite the same for any two individuals, of what they suppose to be 7not what is — the real- ity of things. "This mummade ,ihis cultural environment, which hds its be- ing in the minds of men, is inlei» posed between man as a biolog~ icdl organism and the external reality. It is in this realm that ideas are eiiicacious . . . The airy nothings in the realm of essence are efficacious in the existential world when a man ,believing it to be true or good. treats the idea as if it were the reality.” I would contend, then, that college is not n' place im- “thinking” alone, but an oppor— tunity ‘for the student to test these ideas of other men as well as his own, mid when he has made mistakes to eval- unte his action wilh intelli- gencc. The ability to ariiculule ideas is not dependent upon uic ideas alone, but derives from many nnsuccesslul attempts to express them. Just because the student has listened to and read many critical analyses of literary works. he is not able in make 1 critical evaluation of a war}: himself: usually it requlres many trials on his own part. The stu- dent making the lrip to Wash- ingion had given considerable thought and study to the ideas they were purporting, but it was necessary for them to make the trip to prove or disprove the eliicacy. oi their ideas, This point of view would mean that life at college should be an organic whole, not merely 11 Utopia of thought, in which the student may estabish pat- terns oi thinking and living which will continue :hmughcui his his, ci-iig ncndeison