Conference Studies Academic Reform, Racism in South
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Conference studies academic reform, racism in South By RON BOZMAN Educational innovation in the form of courts of Alabama, however, have con- forecast a summer and year of violence . and I am waiting campus against anything and even for sistently upheld the rights of students and rioting, a reaction of the young for the deepest South "student power" is slowly spreading in against such injustice and overruled black to the oppression imposed by the to stop Reconstructing itself the deep South, but in some schools the some decisions of the state system. white man over several hundred years. in its own image. problems are more basic and complicated Pass-Fail The young South, raised for the most —Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "A by the political structure of the state It is difficult to discuss academic in- part in the traditional racist environ- Coney Island of the Mind" systems. novation until students in these schools ment, responded to and respected this A group of students from the univer- Louisiana state universities' students have the more basic rights of due process message which predicted possible des- sities and colleges of the South recently are prohibited from inviting atheistic or and a voice in their affairs. truction of their cities. tssembled in Atlanta to discuss the awe- Communist speakers to campus. Students Orangeburg Riot some topic of "Educational Reform in at the University of Alabama have been However, in some of the private the South," at a conference sponsored dismissed from school for such offenses schools and a few state universities stu- The most moving and depressing as- 1 y the National Student Association. as criticizing the governor or state of- dents do have a voice and changes are pect of the conference came on the last Discussion, however, ranged fro m ficials in newspapers, demonstrating off coming. Several schools, such as Emory morning of the meeting, as the story topics such as pass-fail to women's hours campus against anything, and even for University, Duke, and the University of of the recent "incident" at Orangeburg, i.nd finally centered upon the problem of supporting the president of the univer- North Carolina have adopted limited South Carolina, was related by two wit- civil rights in the South. sity, who was under criticism by state pass-fail systems. nesses to the situation. Before long it became evident that the officials for allowing certain speakers on The University of North Carolina has Following a week of tension and dem- South was indeed rising again in the campus. a very successful experimental college, onstrations against the town's segregat- hands of its youth, but this time against Few students who were dismissed for offering non-credit courses ranging from ed bowling alley, students at the all- the tradition of bigotry and ignorance such offenses were even allowed heal- sex education to a course called "Let It Negro South Carolina State College that has too often been its legacy. ings or discussion of their cases. The All Hang Out," which has "uninhibited- were milling around on the edge of the ness" as its only prerequisite. campus where two fires had been start- Rice seems to he, unique in giving ed by Molotov cocktails. A group of credit for student organized courses, state troopers lined up around a fire an ail-student which are similar to the experimental truck panicked as one of their group colleges. Emory has abolished Wednes- was felled by a projectile and opened newspaper day classes and established the popular fire on the students immediately. Three institution of "Wonderful Wednesday." students were killed and twenty-five were injured. for Racist Nation the Discussion of academic affairs con- Two of the three killed were shot in 52 years tinued until the speech of Dick Gregory, the back, as were fourteen of the others. Negro comedian, civil rights leader and No evidence has been found to show t hat presidential candidate, whose powerful any of the Negro students were armed. message touched both black and white No warning shots were fired by the alike and turned all discussion to the troopers. civil rights situation and the potential Students left Atlanta filled with an H"Dce dangers of the coming summer. awareness of the injustice that many of Gregory's mesage was one of forebod- their fellows were faced with and the ing and warning to the "white racist unanswered questions of how to combat nation." A non-violent man himself, it. Gregory asked only that the white man The South may rise again, but onh vol. 55, no 20 houston, texas tluirsday, march 7, 1968 "understand" what was to come, as he against itself. New department chairmen named Rice will officially have a ton as chairman of the Depart- replacing Dr. Virgil lopazio. new librarian and four new de- merit of Philosophy. Kolenda is Topazio will resign as chair- thresherpartmen t heads at the begin- a 1950 Rice graduate, and a man to devote full time to duties ning of July. specialist in the field of ethics as Dean of Humanities and. Soc- Richard O'Keeffe, now as- and epistemology. He received ial Sciences. Wadsworth re- sociate librarian, will assume a Fulbright Grant in 1959-60 ceived his degrees from Yale the post of librarian, replacing to serve as a visiting professor University, and lias taught at Hardin Craig. Craig will return at the University of Heidelberg. Yale, Northwestern, and the to full-time duties in the De- Dr. Philip Wadsworth will as- University of Illinois. He spe- partment of History. sume duties as Acting Chair- cializes in ,17th Century French O'Keeffe is the current direc- man of the French Department, literature and poetry. tor of the Regional Information and Communication Exchange which provides area business and industry with information through a network linking- col- Wiess labors to give Barth lege and university libraries. By LEE HORSTMAN Dr. Joseph Ward will become Th res h e r R opo r t e r chairman of the English De- John Barth, novelist, will visit Rice on Friday, April in partment, succeeding Wilfred a one-day campus Symposium sponsored by Wiess College. Dowden. An authority on 19th Available background on the man is as tenuous as the reality Century American literature in his novels. It, is generally known, however, that he grew and Henry James, Ward joined up in eastern Maryland and attended John Hopkins University. the Rice faculty in 1964. He Barth taught literature at Penn State, .before taking his agaaggswnMwi*is — received his advanced degrees present position as instructor in literature and creative writ- from Tulane University, and ing on the Buffalo campus of SL'NY. has studied under a Guggen- Barth's literary garden of delights apparently does not heim Fellowship at Harvard come from his own life, but from his copious library reading. University. A widely traveled mind is apparent in his novels. Chronological- Dr. Frank Yandiver will re- ly, Barth's four major works have been "The Floating Opera" place Dr. John Rath as chair- (1956), "The End of the Road" (1958). "The Sotweed Factor" man of the Department of His- (1960), and "Giles Goat-Boy" (1.96(5). — Ken Strauss tory. A noted Southern histor- All have met with broad critical acclaim, but "Giles Goat- MAYBE IT'S HIS BREATH? ian and president of the Jeffer- Boy" received a standing ovation from America's literati. At Joseph Surface, a love-starved libertine, makes a play for the son Davis Association, Yandiver least twenty-three articles have discussed his work, by critics hand of the lissome lass Maria, in this scene from R. I>. Sheridan's currently holds the Harris Mas- ranging from Leslie Fiedler to Time's groupthinkers. eighteenth century comedy-of-manners, "The School for Scan- terson. Jr. Professorship of Barth himself has made some interesting remarks, llis dal." Shirley Revis and George Greanias highlight the star- History. first three "nihilistic amusing novels" were ones where "I had studded cast for the Players production, which will run during Dr. Konstantin Kolenda will thought I was writing about values and it turned out I was the week of March 11-16. Joe Caruthers previews the play on p. 5 succeed Dr. James Street Ful- writing about innocence". of the Thresher. The following statement reveals his last novel's intent: "What I really wanted to write after "The Sotweed Factor" was a new Old Testament, a comic Old Testament. I guess that's Social sciences receive Ford grant In the Thresher what this new novel "Giles Goat-Boy" is going to be. A souped- % An ill wind continues to up Bible". as addition to $33 million campaignblo w no good, and in the mass In one interview, Barth touched on his literary outlook. "I A recent Ford Foundation dergraduates in the South and of "hot air" from Washington can't in fiction get very interested in such things (social criti- grant to Rice for development Southwest, and the stimulation these days, an increasing num- cism). My argument is with the facts of life, not the conditions of the social science depart- of research projects in the so- ber of students are feeling the of it". ments will result in the addi- cial sciences. draft. Senator Ted Kennedy As far as students go ("I like cocky students"), he advised tion of 15 faculty members, 70 New faculty research pro- proposes one set of alternatives, "I think it is a useful thing for young people who are learning graduate fellowships, and the jects would be conducted while Davis Phillips ponders to write (like me) to spend a lot of time with the old tales.