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Show Page 4 SIGNPOST Friday, March 26, 1971 Geography prof sounds the alarm to 17SC Janet replies to standards Editor, Signpost (Weber State College): Concern has recently been voiced about the possibility that Weber State might somehow not meet the standards for accrditation when the inspectors make their tour several months hence. Little has been said to the point that accreditation is the very minimum needed for academic "respectability." To have a really good reputation, one which enables students to proceed with out hitch into graduate school, for instance, a college needs not only enough books in its library, not only enough points to pass inspection, but also certain intangibles: sincere devotion to intellectual effort, tolerance for a wide variety of views, concern for pressing social problems, and so forth. These qualities are not measurable by inspectors making brief stopovers. How well a college lives up to them Is known, however, and this knowledge is gradually spread around the academic world, by those who have been at the college and then move else where. One criterion which does much to determine the reputation of a college is its attitude towards racial prejudice. It is widely realized today that civilized tolerance for all people. regardless of skin color, is essential to the functioning of an effective intellectual community, as also of an effective society. At least, those societies which are tolerant of all races have an edge on others in achieving the adap-tibility and breadth of understanding necessary for survival. This means more than the mere yielding to pressure, the hiring of a few token black professors, or the instituting of a Black Studies program. No such step in itself is nearly as vital as the actual prevalence of genuine tolerance, equal opportunity, and meaningful social reform aimed at overcoming the effects of past intolerance. Do we have such genuine racial tolerance here at Weber? Let us examine, as a case in point, the results of the recent faculty honors lecture contest which resulted in a "winner" selected by influential administrators and faculty from among ten or eleven entries. The subject of this "winning" lecture was "the race war myth in black theatre." The astounded audience which heard this paper being delivered -- mercifully small because of the well-ingrained apathy of local students towards all convocations -- found that the implication contained in the title was not misleading. The author did indeed believe that violent racial animosity is a "myth", and did indeed spend all her time in a highly partial, negative blast at "black theatre." No observant white man needs to be told that black militants have gone off the deep end of unproductive hatred. We have all felt that icy sneer aimed at some over-generalized "whitey," regardless of whether we ourselves have ever hated blacks or not. But intelligence and simple Christian concern indicate that in order to mollify this anti-white racism, the black man must be shown that he does have friends among the whites, who are indeed willing to go out of their way to try to correct the social inequalities under which minority groups suffer. Instead of taking this view, the "instructor" who "won" this contest chose the very words and ideas which would most infuriate the black man, most surely drive him even further away from reconciliation, and thus most likely create or intensify the very "race war" whose existence she denied. Our "winning" author stated, speaking of the conditions of the Negro's life in the U.S. in past generations, that "his early rustic life style is essentially poetic." She suggested that he turn to this "Life style" for literary themes, rather than concentrating on angry protest. In other words: please, Mr. Negro, kindly bring out the poetry of your former existence in the slave barracks and the sharecropper's hut, so that we can have some fine art instead of this nasty, humorless emphasis on radical social change. . The author deals only with "black theatre." Let us suppose, just for the sake of argument, that all black theatre is just as nasty and humorless as she claims. Then what about black novels? What about Black Boy, by Richard Wright, which dramatized the inequities of racial prejudice in the South and won wide critical acclaim not too many years ago? What about black humor? It does exist, you know, as anyone who heard Dick Gregory here in February can attest ... or Bill Cosby, or Godfrey Cambridge, or any of a score of others whose comedy is nearly always jovial, and occasionally even artistically superior. What about black music? It seems to me that American jazz is supposed to be our greatest contribution to musical culture, and that it derives mainly from black sources. Our "winner" chose to ignore all these aspects of black culture entirely, just as if she had ignored a well-designed and soundly-built house for the sake of proceding directly to the inevitable garbage can, so as to report on its contents to the neighbors, and thus try to convince them that the occupants were too sloppy and ill-mannered to be considered good neighbors. Suppose we consider the house to be not that of black culture, but of social protest writing in general. In this case our winner ignores a great proportion, perhaps most, of the truly significant literature of the past two centuries. She tells us that "revolutionary" movements do not produce great literature. Where was she when her classmates were reading Charles Dickens? Or any of the great Russian novelists, from Gogol and Turgenev to Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn? Or the American muckraking novelists, or our "Social Gospel" writers, or John Steinbeck? Or, if she prefers drama, the German playwright Gerhart Hauptmann? Such works are brim full of revolutionary implications and attacks at outdate social structures; it is difficult to avoid the charge of professional incompetence against anyone who, even indirectly, disocciates such masterpieces from the concept of literary quality. It was not necessary that such a negative paper be presented as the supposed best contribution in a faculty competition. I saw another paper that was entered, on the subject of industrialization in Utah; in its over-all positive attitude and validity of purpose, it compared to the actual "winner" about like a Lincoln Continental compares to a Schwinn bicycle. This industrialization paper was more appropriate for a convocation audience than the paper I entered, which would be beside the point here, except that it points up still another unusual feature of this "contest: " its short tolerance of pro-Christian viewpoints. My paper discussed the fundamental importance of religious zeal as a creative force in the lives of great theoretical scientists. It seems, from this and other evidence as well, that our campus is beset not only be an inordinate amount of suspicion of people of non-white skin color, but also, most unusually for a Mormon community, by a heavy and disproportionately influential -iose of atheistic philosophy. Atheism is a fashionable pose on many campuses, for shallow intellectuals who do not understand the real bases of civilized life; but seldom is it found in close association with anti-black sentiment. Yet there is much logic in the pairing. Christ did command us, after all, to treat all men like brothers. His Word was anti-discrimination. Only the most hypocritical and superficial applications of Christian doctrine claim that black men should be excluded from full rights as human beings and children of God. The supposed racism of the Mormon Church has, I think, been blown way out of proportion; no mere rule about membership in the priesthood can take precedence over the basic message of Christ himself. Whether the issue is religion or whether it is racial discrimination, it does concern all students here, not u: t the blacks, and not just the Mormons either. Mr. Gregory was right on the beam when he told p-' :-e today's "Indians" are the average white students who display a healthy interest in iissent ;.. st the many evils that permeate American society today. Yes, "Indian," you are the olood brouicr of the innocents who were killed at Kent State a year ago, who were just a little more involved than you are, just a little more curious about all this needless violence - violence which began with our professional warmakers and demagogic politicians, and then spread like a blinding reflection to the campuses of the land. Many in our nation's most influential positions are devoted to pretending that this violence began with you, the students, and not with them. They have put a long, subtly designed article in the current Reader's Digest promoting this foul slander; even the nation's second highest office is devoted mainly to spreading it abroad and thus feeding the flames of hate and violence. - The lecture I discussed above was appropriately called the Cortez Honors Lecture. There is much appropriate symbolism here. You, dear students, are the Aztecs. It is now high time for you to wake up to what is happening in Montezuma's palace. John E. Chappell, Jr. Assistant Professor of Geography Dear Editor - If there was some question concerning part of the article titled, "Be A 'River Rat'," advertising the river trip planned for June 7-8-9-10, this article should clarify any misunderstanding. All information about the exciting trip is correct except the following: The River Trip Standards were printed not realizing that they 1) were from an out of date children's parental permission form, and 2) that the standards are different for adults. They expect you to be involved with the group as much as possible, and act like an adult. Courtesy of very close quarters asks that you will smoke apart from the group when you desire to do so. Coffee and tea can be used by anyone, just bring your own. Liquor use of any kind is prohibited on any of these kinds of trips because other people's lives are in your hands, and you've got to be dependable at all times. Further information can be obtained from me. Thank you, Janet Crystal FACULTY J'ih"" By Daniel L. Martlno As provided by state law - "The object of (Weber State College) shall be to teach branches of learning in the fields of the sciences and arts as may promote the liberal and practical education of students attending."Among the major objectives of the college is the following: "To provide general education in the broadest sense for all students." The 1970-1971 Catalog states on pages 25 and 26 that "The College strives, through general education, to develop the following attributes in its graduates : An understanding and appreciation of literature, art, music, and other cultural activities ..." The Catalog further states on page 26 that "The College implements these objectives through a broad program of in-class instruction, and extensive out-of-class or extra-curricular program of activities . . . ." The contributions of a college to the academic community in which it flourishes may be made in a variety of ways: Through the education of that community's future leaders; through its research-inspired additions to the store of human knowledge; and through what could be termed its programs of cultural enrichment. As an institution of higher learning, the Weber State College remains ever conscious of its responsibilities to each of the above areas. In connection with the latter, in particular, the College has propitiously developed and advanced a program of cultural activities in harmony with her stated objectives. The activities represent a selective and diversified sampling of the peak of society's cultural attainments. It is believed the cultural program serves the whole college in providing opportunities for stimulation, growth, development and intellectual excitement. The program is designed to foster and create an awareness of time and value, great ideas, a consciousness of meaning and intent, and a self-identification with the times and environment.One of the College's programs is the CONVOCATION SERIES. This particular series has been geared to pommel and sharpen the senses-visually, verbally and aurally. The convocation programs have been aimed at the furtherance and expansion of knowledge. They have been and continue to be intended to enhance, complement, supplement and enrich the extant instructional program. Indeed, there are those who have felt the convocations have been prestigious and have thus had a beneficial influence on the academic life of the campus and community. It is believed the weekly CONVOCATIONS are natural and reasonable extensions of the classroom learning process and as such add an important dimension to the academic-cultural life of the campus-community. By means of an increasingly significant series of diversified CONVOCATIONS, the College hopes to build a campus climate in which going to college can be an exciting, intellectual experience - one that hopefully may inspire a cultural consciousness, curiosity and " commitment. As liberal learning experiences, CON be opportunities for continual refinemc and affective domains, opportunities 1 sitivity, and opportunities for active volvement with speakers, scholars anc The College hopes, also, through such CONVOCATIONS, to be of service to those students, faculty, staff and citizens of the greater Ogden area who look to the College for academic and cultural leadership in advanced explorations of the arts, humanities, sciences and public affairs. Woodrow Wilson in his inaugural address at Princeton in 1902 said: "The college should seek to make the man whom it receives something more than an excellent servant of a trade or a skilled practitioner of a profession. It should give him elasticity of faculty and a breath of vision, so that he will have a surplus of mind to expend not upon bis profession only, but on the broader interests which lie about him." 'CATIONS are intended to of perceptions in cognitive jr constant growth in sen-vesponsiveness to and in- rtists of distinction. |