Wright State University CORE Scholar Wright State University Alternative Newspaper Collection University Archives 1-27-1969 Wright State University Alternative Newspaper: Phoenix, Week of Jan. 27, 1969 Wright State University Student Body Follow this and additional works at: https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/alternative_newspapers Part of the History Commons, and the Mass Communication Commons Repository Citation Wright State University Student Body (1969). Wright State University Alternative Newspaper: Phoenix, Week of Jan. 27, 1969. : University Archives; Wright State University Libraries . This Newsletter is brought to you for free and open access by the University Archives at CORE Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wright State University Alternative Newspaper Collection by an authorized administrator of CORE Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Professors Pete Staub and Don Wills, two good guys, two liberal guys, get axed by the Administration. They are a little too liberal for the Administration, a little too outspoken; so out they go. Hell, if somebody bugs you, and you got a big foot, kick his asst Sure a little band of the faculty gets excited about it, but you can kick their asses next year. Besides if you dont love Wright State, you should leave it-one way or the other. And anyway, its just a faculty hassle and doesnt buy students, right? Wrong. Get hip brothers and sinters, The real issue is us, us and our lives. Dig it? (1) You know the world aint sun or love and brother- hood; its not an easy world out there. And like if you think about it, you know youre not here because you really love it. I mean you might like school, you might even like Wright State more than other school. But face it, most of us are at Wright State because we cant afford to go elsewhere; most of us hardly like school, much less love it. The real thing is that we wnt any kind of a decent life, we gotta have an ed- ucation so we can make some money: The modern tech- nological economy demands an increasingly educated work force ;unskilled jobs are decreasing. So like we dont have a lot of choice of whether or not were going to go to school: its the choice of whether we are going to live decently or in poverty. -- Some choice. In effect weve already begun our working life -- were being trained, were being taught to think effectively enough to do the job. And its work: writing papers, taking tests, reading books, thinking trough problems. Its work -- except instead of getting paid, we pay. So here we are, man, and were paying and working and we dont really have much choice about it. (2) So here we are; this is our condition, this is our school, this is our thing, our life. So get the scene on Staub and Wills: Wills thinks that to spend his time working with students is more important then piling degree and thesis upon degree and thesis, Staub spends his time working for educational reform ( in our school), working to alleviate the race thing ( in our school with Wright Start), and in speaking out on stuff like the parking fee - like the old Golding wants to tax the only way weve got to get to school: taxation without representation. Both of them, and their faculty supporters, believe that if were all here at this school together, we ought to try to make it a decent place to be: free and open and with different ideas and with consideration for the students and relevancy to the students. Besides that, our society has got some problems and if we can solve some of Wright States problems maybe we can learn how to solve some of Americas problems in the process. And the administration shoots them down. (3) Now the administration starts talking its talk about "progress towards an academic degree" and "secrecy" and stuff. But like the students know whats up and they know that all these committees ( the AAUP, the English Dept., the Liberal Arts faculty) say that Staub and Wills should be rehired. All there committees, except one: the Faculty Affairs Committee -- a pro-administration biased committee. And the students know that there are all these other pro- fessors running around without enough degrees, but only two are singled out; and the students know how much a degree means anyway. So 600 students sign a petition demanding that Staub and Wills be rehired and protesting the way they were fired. (4) So some of the students and a trickle of faculty go to the Academic Council where theyre going to deal with the Faculty Affairs Committee report, the one that upholds the firings. And here the students get an eyefull theyre playing all these GAMES. And since Golding and his hacks make all the rules all the games come out the same way: Golding and Hacks win, Justice loses. Like one week a motion. to reject the FAC report is in order, the next week Golding rules it out of order. Like a vote is taken and i t goes for Justice, until Golding votes -- after everybody else, publicly with great flourish, and Justice is defeated. Like Golding kicks all non-students and non-faculty out of the meeting (at one time threatining to use physical force) even though Wright State is a public institution supported with taxpayers money. Like pro-Justice, Dr, Spetter, and the English Department are continually raked over the coals, but as soon as the fire gets under the administration, Golding cries,"Fire! Secrecy!" And the debate is cut off. So the students know its a game with one way rules and a cover-up for some very vicious and repressive actions on the part of Golding and his hacks-and if you dont believe it, go to an Academic Council Meeting. And so the pro-Justice faculty play the administrations game and god damn, they lose. The report is received. (5) Meanwhile, the students with the 600 signatures on the petition sit there. They know what game is being played. And they sit there. Their 600 signatures represent at least $100,000.00 per quarter. $300,000.00 per year. To the University in tuition alone. For four hours they sit. Finally, after it's all over, after it's decided, they are allowed to present their petition. And that's that. (6) Which all goes to show where everything and everybody is at. The nature of the Administration and the University should be obvious. Most of the faculty sat the fight out, being as how most of then don't care about a Real Education. An Open University, much less Justice. The few faculty that do care are prevented from really doing anything (they can't, having families and all)-they play by the administration's rules and continue to lose. If not the administration, then the faculty, or the liberal faculty, there's only the students: that's you and me, brothers and sisters, left. If we want to make this a decent University and get a decent education and make decent lives, then it's up to us. And it's or fight. We know the game, and we're the ones who are able to break through it, and lay the real cards on the table. We've got to get ourselves together: organize (and that don't mean the Student Senate, baby). If they want our minds to keep their system running, they we have the right to alter that system with ideas. If 600 students would got together, we'd do the job. They play the game, let's lay the truth up them: Student Power can remake this University. January 15, 1969 Editor, The PHOENIX Wright State University Dayton, Ohio Dear Sir: I have not been able to see the latest issue of the PHOENIX--where, I presume, there are references to this matter—-but I have come across the "hand-out" circular distributed yesterday by CODE. I wish to rectify certain errors made in this document, and, from what I have been told, in certain other statements or writings of CODE. The Faculty Affairs Committee is a regular standing committee of the Academic Council. The Academic Council contains twenty-four faculty members among its whole membership of thirty-four. The Faculty Affairs Committee is chaired by a faculty member selected by the Steering Commitee, and the full membership of the Faculty Affairs Committee (including the Chairmanship) was approved by the Academic Council, President Golding possesses only one vote out of five on the Steering Committee and but one vote out of thirty-four on the Acadmic Council. It would have been utterly impossible, therefore, for the membership of the Faculty Affairs Committee to have been "handpicked by Golding," as charged in the circular entitled "Hangman, Hangman." As Chairman of the Steering Committee, I assume a major share of the respons- ibility for the selection of the Faculty Affairs Committee; I interpret your charge that President Golding handpicked this committee as a reflection on my integrity; I view it also as a similar questioning of the independence and character of the other faculty members on the Steering Committee and on the Academic Council. If the authors of the circular must speak their opinions on these matters, let me suggest that they first get their facts straight. If they then wish to make the same charges, may I further suggest that they proceed to "shop" for some other school, one manned by adminis- trators and faculty that they feel they can trust? Sincerely yours, Edward F.