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Show Page 2 THE SIGNPOST October 28, 1969 CJeber tate b Fhil Frank Empty can rebuttal I1 mttmt Letter Our union building, a $2 million structure built and paid for with student money, is a beautiful and functional piece of architecture. BUT, why does it have to be only 80 per cent beautiful and functional? In the east wing of the union (commonly called the old section) there is an area known as the vending machine room (more commonly called the garbage room). The purpose of this room is obscure. It is not comfortable, neither does it offer any room to study because the tables are so small you can barely put your books down, let alone open them. This room is not only useless, it is also an eyesore. The vending machines are arranged in a modern abstract formation, some against the wall and some kitty corner or on 45 degree angle to each other and to the wall. The tables are scattered around the room amid the scraps of litter, crumbs, empty cups, freshman themes, rough drafts and scraps of paper. The garbage cans are giant size and arranged at strategic positions around the room. All in all, the place is very unattractive and detracts from the beauty of the rest of the building. The "old part" of the union building is having a bad time as it is in competition with the new addition without the stigma of the vending machine room. In solving this problem, a few suggestions could be made. First, boothes could be installed instead of those awkward and uninviting tables. The vending machines should be made secure into the wall and perhaps, more variety could be offered to the students in the selections of foods made available. Students could do well to keep their trash in the huge receptacles there in the room instead of yielding to the temptation of just throwing the garbage on the floor and thus adding to the mess. The cost of picking up trash all around the campus runs into the thousands of dollars each year, but this room tops all other areas at the school for accumulation of junk. Students who frequently use the room could make the situation better for themselves and the rest of the student body if they would cooperate in keeping the room fairly straight. Another wasted area of space in the union building is the faculty lounge. Yes, there is a faculty lounge in the union building. Surprised? So were the students who heard that the STUDENT union building was being used for faculty purposes. This, however, is not the most pertinent area of con-tension. The fact is, hardly any faculty use the room -- and this makes for space which is wasted for both faculty and students. One staff member who works close to the faculty lounge informed the Signpost that during one whole day from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. only 12 persons even entered the lounge. Of these the most time spent there by one person was 20 minutes. This room is one of the best looking in the building and should not be wasted in this manner. If the faculty are not interested in using the room, there are plenty of student activities which need the space. Letters to the editor Editor: A prominent member of one of the departments here on campus made a comment re. cently concerning the Signpost. By his . and he's not by himself, . actions to the present but short. lived trend of the pa. per he is I think exhibiting the very desired effect of its strat. egy. During the course of the last four weeks we've seen several rather controversial and appar-ently injurious articles written in the Sign Post. We've seen the classic "WS on the hill" der-rogatory comment. We've seen the Bookstore attacked again. We've seen campus organiza. tions and activities attacked and some nearly defaced. On Tuesday we saw an article by the editor indicating her dis. appointment in the apathy of the students. Did that make you an. gry? More than that, it and the other articles like it, inevitably also brought to light our cog. nizance of the activities and their perpetrators on campus. No doubt, but to a less apparent extent, this article and others like it have slowly but method, ically brought to life in us the human tendency to meet a chal. lenge. The articles have chal. lenged our campus, challenged our proficiency and our abilities. We can't help but respond. Those of us who've been here for a while have seen the var- ious strategies attempted by the campus publications to supplant campus apathy with enthusiasm. We've seen most of these fail, some have a little effect. But this year they've been fairly successful in arousing the in. nate animal emotion called hate and its accompanying aggressive attitude. Even if you haven't not. iced, take a look at Weber, and see if you can honestly say that it's been anything but bettered by the process. Now how about channeling that aggressive attitude into positive betterment of our campus? We have the po. tential to become even more Number One than we already are. You've seen some articles that you don't agree with, some that you do. We really don't have any right or authority to disagree or agree at all unless we do so actively and constructively. Our intramurals for both men and wo. men have been a real success this year. Our activities com-mittees already won the July 24th parade for Weber with their float. We had a record rush into the fraternities and sororities this year. We had a most commendable showing of both sides of the picture at our October 15th Viet-Nam rally. Already our student governments have begun such great programs as the tu. toring service that is soon to get into full swing. Some organizations on campus submit weekly commentaries and articles to WONT 6(SJ TW61R HANP5 ON! COLi-BAI JCTE 3rMCMATY Edtior; Realizing that I write a column for the SIGNPOST, neverthless I found that I had to submit a letter to the Editor in rebuttal to "Empty Can" Hunsaker be-cause I do not wish to waste my column. Hunsaker stated "that Ameri-ca has always stood up for freedom loving people's everywhere." Baloney! There is a military dictatorship in Vietnam which any intelligent . student knows won't yield power to a democratic regime, then there was and is the U.S. support of fascist Franco Spain, and the many U.S. spy missions have contributed to the peace of the world. In addition to these ex-amples, I must ask Empty Can Hunsaker if death,- killing, and dictatorship add UR-.tq,"free. dom"? i-1 .2n JOE HEINZMAN Column Aoiieric fer Afiaerfcans? BY JOE HEINZMAN There has arisen a set of terrible atti-hides in the America of the 1960's which are neither democratic or "American." In fact, so many Americans are preoccupied with be-ing Americans that they have lost sight of the democratic principles which have made this country what it is today. In the mid 1700's the founders of this nation decided that they had to act against tyran-ny because those rights which are inalien-able to the whole of mankind were being de-nied. The Anti-Federalists decided that these rights should be protected in the first ten amendments to the Constitution because what may have been understood to be inalienable and natural could be redefined at any time in history. These rights included the rights of speech, assembly, petition, and press. The major qualification on these rights was that of infringement i.e. one man could speak his mind as long as he did not infringe on the rights of another man. A violation of this right is known as slander. A speech denounc-ing the U.S. policies is not slanderous al. though it may penetrate your ears. A man yell-ing Are in. a theatre is in violation of his right to free speech. Having clarified one of these basic rights, I will now comment on the tragic transition in America from democratic liberalism i.e. the belief in these inherent rights, to chauvinistic conservatism i.e. "red bating" and a belief in a ficticious "America". Today these freedoms have come to mean "treason", they have come to mean perfidious extremism, and they have come to mean anti-democratic activity. All of you have contributed to this twisting of the democratic processes into a dirge of death from which they may not es-cape. Whenever you scoff at college protest or at any picky little thing with which you disagree as un-American, you are aiding and abetting the sinister transition which is oc-curring in this country. The only defense against tyranny is the pres. ervation of our basic inherent rights and, we can all do so by expressing our opinions openly in conversation and in open debate. When someone disagrees with you, think before you speak. If you say that America Is for Americans, think about it. If you tell some-one to "get out" if they do not like the way something is being done aren't you destroying the basic concepts behind America's govern, ment and aren't you the one who should get out? : ' I have personally heard several people on this campus express this idea of "America for Americans and if you r don't like it get out," these people should ' read the ' Bill of Rights, John Locke's SECOND TREATISE ON GOVERNMENT and the writings 'of ; Tn6mas Jefferson. If you Americans have1 eriojlgh' cour. age to read, to comprehend',1'' and iQ admit fault, then I will still considetfouas A-moricjins ' ' ' ' P.S. What is a MODERATES CLUB REALLY?? the Signpost, so why not all? We can't list all of the activ-ities that our nearly ten.thousand students engage in, nor can a staff cover them all. Neverthe-less, you out there who got your dander up can see and hear and speak as well as we. Write an article for the Signpost about whatever you please. Pormote the Esprit de Corps of Weber and channel your activated interest into the upbuilding of our Col-lege. Dan Yurth Opposed to letters Editor: I'm opposed to monogrammed mountains in the first place. Carving initials on scenery is impolite. Maintenance is beside the point; the question is one of aesthetics. I think every last school in the state should get their silly letters off the Moun. tains. BARBARA O'SHELL frtttttitT .'9ll 9i '9 ft r-i I I I HPlriNTtD FOR NATIONAL. A&VKRT1SIN1 BY 5 National Educational Advertising Service f a diviwon or ft MtHM Diaarr ialu amvieaa. mc 1J WLwIngWnAvt., Nw Yortc. N. Y. 1Q01J ... Published weekly by the Associated Students of Weber State College during fall, spring and winter quarters. Entered as second class mall at the Ogden, Utah, Post Office. Mailing address: Weber State College, 3750 Harrison Blvd., Ogden, Utah. The opinions expressed on the editorial pages of the Signpost do not necessarily represent those of thestudentbodyor the administration.Letters to the editor must not exceed 250 words and must be signed to be considered for publication. Marilyn Larsen Lyle Karras Editor-in-chief Business Manager Peggy Jo Parker Associate Editor Boyd Holdaway Sports Editor Darline Rogers Feature Editor Byron Warfield-Graham Academic Editor John Hart Student Govt. Editor Brad Q. Post Theatre Editor Jim Hodgson , Copy Editor Phil Morgan Photo Editor |