Page 2
by Bob Bonaker
During the Teach-In, panel
discussions concerning new ideas
in education were held on
Tuesday and Friday. The panel
held Friday afternoon in the
auditorium was of particular
interest.
The panel consisted of
Capitol Campus faculty and was
moderated by Dr. Ralph J.
Brown, Asst. Dean of Faculty.
The panel members were Drs.
Roger Saylor, Joseph Moore,
Elmer Lear, Robert Bresler,
John Patterson and Herb
Eisenstein and Mr. Melvin Haber.
Lear began the remarks by
continuing the points he was
making when Tuesday's session
ended in a shouting match ,
between Mr. Clem Gilpin and
himself. Lear stressed
importance of the calm, rational
thinking of intellectualism.
"Profanity reflects the abscence
of these traits." He also
Well, I Wanna Tell Ya...
Dear Editor
I read with regret Steve
Rosenzweig's account of an
incident New Year's Eve at the
Adolphus. I cannot understand
why anyone would behave in the
manner of the 30 individuals
you described. This is not
typical of University of Texas
students. We have 40,000
students and naturally there will
be those who are bent toward
violence or whatever, to express
their emotions. They do not
represent the students at the
University generally, as is
obvious from the fact that few
incidents of this sort ever occur.
Incidentally, I was at a pre-game
party at the Adolphus, and there
were about 30 people at it, but
about half of them were from
Penn State, including some of
your cheerleaders. If you check
with them, you will determine
that hostility is not typical, but
instead conviviality. In fact,
most Penn State students I came
across had a good time. I would
like to insert here, though, that
neither hospitality nor violence
fit regional stereotypes. By the
way, the chairman of our
Sportsmanship Committee is
from Pennsylvania. I deplore the
individuals' actions you
described, however, that action
cannot be imputed as typical of
the whole. To do so is
prejudicial stereotyping of the
sort that leads to bigotry, which
we all would like to see
eradicated. Furthermore, the
article refers to "proving
something to Texas" and other
such things, then you attribute a
John Wayne mentality to us. If
you will reflect a moment, you
will notice quite a John Wayne
mentality in parts of your article
referring to going out to prove
things, "crushing", and
stereotyping in general. It is
Staff of the
capitalist.
• CONTRIBUTORS:
Samantha Bower
Gregg Crescenzo
Jane McDonald
Steve Wesley
COPY EDITOR: Cheryl Boyes
Tom Hagan Don Lewis
MANAGING,EDITOR: Tom Black
Lee Nell Steve Rosenzweig
Michael Collins
Associate Editors:
Bob Bonaker
Mike Welliver PHOTOGRAPHERS:
Cliff Belson
Business Manager: Charlie Zitter
John Wolford
Paul Discussion
expressed the belief that, "This
nation is indebted to our
students, who are a mirror image
of society. Without them, we
probably would have been more
deeply involved in the conflect
in Vietnam."
Bresler espoused his views in
the form of the question, "What
is education? What is its focus,
what is it about? I think its
purpose is to produce thinkers,
not radicals, or not good little
boys and girls, either. Morals are
extremely important."
Dr. Thomas Knight, Assoc.
Prof. of Social Science believes
we have a basic "need to learn
how to learn, something that is
completely at odds with
technical programs." Dr. Joe
Moore, Prof. of Engineering
pointed to the evident need for
highly advanced training to suit
the demands of future society.
Eisenstein responded to
somewhat sophomoric to impute
football winning or individual'
football fans' conduct to all the
students.
in closing, I detest the
abominable actions of the
individuals you described. To
the extent that they represent
the University of Texas, you
have my apologies. However,
they do not represent the
students at UT. Should you have
some folks venturing to Austin
soon, have them contact me, and
I will be glad to show them
around, perhaps to broaden their
exposure to the students at the
University of Texas.
Sincerely,
Bob Binder
President
Student Association
University of Texas
Ed. Note: To see what
reactions we'd get Steve Wesley
sent several copies of the
January 27 article "Bum Steers"
to the University of Texas.
Instead of sending an armed
phalanx via chartered jet, the
Student Association President
sent the following letter.
In addition to the apology,
however, Mr. Binder makes a
few pertinent points. Although
we haven't spoken to Steve or
Cal about it, we're sure that
most of us do not feel that all
Texans are violent. In fact, Mr.
Binder seems to be a very likable
gentleman.
We intend to respond to this
letter and, with the approval of
the Social Committee heads,
Mike Bauer and Don Lewis, to
invite the Texas students to the
rock festival this spring.
If any Capitol students plan
to go to the Austin area, please
contact Mr. Binder and let us
hear another side of the
university.
THE CAPITOLIST
Teach—ln
earlier remarks made by Lear by
saying, "A radical is a person
who questions with reason. He is
not one who reacts with gut
emotional responses or
violence." He pointed to the
apparent basic issue being
discussed; the one of
intellectualism vs. emotionalsim.
"The two can't be separated,
they must be successfully
developed to their mutual
benefits, " asserted Eisenstein.
The audience and the panel
seemed to be divided into two
main camps, with very few
people taking a neutral stance.
One team advocated revision in
the educational process at the
University. They said that in the
final two years of college,
students should be learning how
to apply their skills to their
future lives. The other camp
believed the "skills" to be
imcomplete and in need of
further development.
11 1110 Capitol
comma:
Contained within the article
"This Week In The SGA" which
appeared in the 10 Feb 72 issue
of THE CAPITOLIST were a
few remarks which I supposedly
made but unfortunately are
somewhat erroneous. It is my
hope that this letter will answer
any questions members of the
Capitol community have raised
pertaining to these remarks.
The fast dealty specifically
with building priorities here at
Capitol. There was no meeting
of the Faculty Senate at
Univeristy Park to consider
Capitol building projects as was
stated in the article. What was
held however was a joint
meeting of the Capitol Faculty
Committee's on the Library and
Physical Plant. Not only were
building priorities discussed, but
possible expansion plans for the
current Library plant were also
mentioned.
The second dealt with my last
statement on 'this school
becoming paranoid over
autonomy and accredidation.' It
is at this point that I feel I was
misquoted. What I said was that
Capitol and themembers of the
Capitol community are
becoming more and more
concerned about the whole
autonomy and upcoming
accredidation question. I
honestly feel however that we
are becoming too concerned
with the problem at hand. The
statement that 'Capitol is losing
faculty and courses because of
paranoia' is totally false. I did
however state my personal
concern pertaining to the
uniqueness of Capitol and what
could happen if this uniqueness
is ever lost.
The staff of THE
CAPITOLIST is not totally at
fault when problems arise similar
to this. Being under-staffed
causes pressure which, is turn,
causes mistakes. I appreciate the
opportunity to clarify my
remarks.
Terry K. Wimmer
President
S.G.A.
Ed. Note: Our CAPTIOLIST
reporter asserts that Mr. Wimmer
was quoted correctly. Perhaps
the President should have
worded his statements
differently so that what he
meant to say and what he
actually did my were NOT two
differentlltings.
by Bob Bonaker
One of the more interesting
facets of last week's immenseley
successful Teach-hi was the
opening session. A panel
discussed the topic, "The
Meaning of dealth-property
destruction; or what the
Harrisburg• Conspiracy Trial is all
about."
The panel was held Monday,
February 7th in the auditorium.
The members included: Jane
Kennedy, one of the Beaver 55,
a group convicted of destroying
Selective Service files in
Indianapolis, Inc. and computer
tapes from the Dow Chemical,
Co. in Midland, Mich.; Joann
Malone, also a member of the
Beaver 55; Frank Callahan, one
of the Flower City Conspiracy, a
group convicted of destroying
Selective Service, FBI and U.S.
Attorney files in Rochester,
N.Y.; and Jane Meyerding, also a
member of the Flower City
Conspiracy. The panel was
introduced by Capitol's Dr.
Robert Colman.
The discussion served as a
forum for the panel to espouse
their views on oppression and to
explain why they committed
criminal acts to protest
government policy.
Joanne Malone, who served a
prison term because of her role
in destroying draft records
explained her actions. "This
nation has adopted an
inhumane attitude. There is too
much value placed on property.
To protect it, human lives
become expendable." Malone
continued: "I destroyed
death-property (Dow Chemical
napalm records) because it
destroys or forever maims."
Graim AI MINI
Last Friday, a faculty panel
was held to discuss the
educational process at Capitol
Campus. Faculty members with
varied opinions concerning this
broad issue were asked to
participate. One of the primary
objectives was for students and
faculty to exchange ideas
concerning what Capitol Campus
was originally designed to be,
what it actually is, and its
direction in the future.
Of the many issues discussed
the most important was the
matter of grading and
evaluation. Many of the students
and certain of the faculty agree
as to the inequity of grades.
Among the more devious faults
of the present system is that a
mere A,B,C, etc. does not testify
to the knowledge a student may
have on a particular subject.
Further, where knowledge and
individual accomplishment
should be of prime importance it
becomes secondary, for the
student works, in most cases,
not for the knowledge or
accomplishment but for the
grade.
While recognizing the current
option of Pass/Fail as a good and
necessary reform in the grading
structure, it should be
remembered that the actual
number and type of courses
which this option could be
applied to is extremely limited.
Perhaps further reforms are
necessary. Or, should Pass/Fail
be limited still further? What
alternatives are available in order
to evaluate a student more
equitably? This issue affects
you, have you thought about it?
Judy Jennings
. ftosemarie Pallett
Owing Sessin
Callahan, recently released
from federal prison after service
10 months for draft board raids,
is a man dedicated to,
protest of government
oppression. He points to the FBI
and its concentration on
recruiting informants to spy on
radicals, while it seems to not be
making as good as effort to
infiltrate the "Cosa Nostra",
"The fact that a majority of
people on the FBl's ten most
wanted list are political radicals
proves my point."
Callahan asks, "What is the
government doing FOR us or TO
us?" He believes there is an
answer to many of our country's
problems. "If we could take 2
per cent of the annual Gross
National Product and
redistribute among the populus,
it would bring everyone above
the poverty level."
The auditorium was half
filled with people, attentive to
the statements made by the
panel. To the left of the
participants sat a coffin,
allegedly filled with destroyed
draft records. The coffm was
emblematic of the death-dealing
pr oper t y of involuntary
induction notices, napalm
formulas, and weapons systems.
Jane Kennedy is a career
nurse, "concerned about the
alleviation andprevention of
pain—placing an enormous value
on human life." She served 14
months in prison for her
"crimes" in the Detroit Home of
Correction. She is currently on
appeal bond for anouther
incident.
The former vice-president of
the Medical Committee for
Human Rights related the
immediate incident which
caused her to join in active
protest: "When Dow Chemical
produced napalm to 'kill faster
to end the war faster, caused me
to closely examine the moral
principles of the United States.
The military teacher our men to
kill."
After these remarks, the
panel fielded numerous
questions from the audience.
Callahan answered one question
by giving some information
about a newly developed
anti-personnel bomb. "It
explodes like shrapnel, only the
pieces are jagged plastic instead
of lead. The plastic enters the
body and causes intense pain.
Because the particles are plastic,
they can't be detected by X-ray.
In order for the pieces to be
found, the surgeon must cut into
the body and probe, resulting in
further unbearable pain. How
can such a weapon be
defensive?"
When asked why they were
involved in violent actions, the
panel responded that they were
retaliating against the
government in the name of
human dignity. They advocated
grass roots action to put into use
the true principles of freedom.
"We have no map, but we do
know that the first step is for
people to take control of their
own lives."
Miss Kennedy added, "Not
only that, the war must be
resisted. There are no clear
answers. We can't leave it up to a
charismatic leader, it is our
responsibility." Kennedy
summed up the feeling of the
panel: "We can make a
difference, if we find a way that
is life affirming then we must
find a way to. resist."