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Show Letters to You can't do Editor: I am very disappointed in the lack of support students show for the scholastic achievements of Weber State College faculty members. Here at WSC we have faculty members who written excellent articles and books; not to mention the incredible amounts of time and money (their own) that they have spent on sabbaticals and summer study sessions. We also have people who have the potential to be great scholars but are suffering from academic stagnation and one of the reasons for this is the lack of recognition they recieve for their efforts. The administration complains that a professor's job is to teach; not to do research. Unfortunately you can't do one without the Schlafly's activities belie Phyllis Schlafly i lecture d at Weber State Coll ege Thursday. Her appearance coincided with the Women's Conference, the theme of which is "Challenges and Changes." A glance at some of Schlafly's past activities should prepare her audience for the way in which she will challenge them to change. In the later 1940's, Phyllis worked as a researcher for an economic and political newsletter in St. Louis. One article, pointing out the "socialist" tendencies of Senator Paul Douglas, brought her to the attention of her future husband, Fred Schlafly, then president of the World Anit-Communist League. In 1952, when her first son, John, was an infant, Phyllis attempted to secure the Republican nomination for the 24th district House seat in, Illinois. She was defeated. During the McCarthy era (1950-54), Schlafly was reportedly a researcher for the infamous Senator, helping to "uncover" communists within the goven-ment. Phyllis has since denied any involvement with the late Senator. In the March, 1960 issue of the John Birch Society Bulletin, Robert Welch, president of that organization, described Schlafly as a "very loyal member of the John Birch Society." She has denied this affiliation as well. Schlafly was the subject of an"unauthorized" (and unsuccessful) write-in vote for Congress in 1960. In 1967 she ran for the presidency of the National Federation of Republican Women, but lost there, too. Phyllis, in fact, has never won an election that depended upon local support. In the 1967 election, here own chapter in Alton supported her opponent. Schlafly failed again in her 1970 congressional race, a campaign run when her youngest daughter, Anne, was 5. At that point she still was not noticibly aware of the women's movement, nor was she utilizing it as a focal point in her campaign speeches. In fact she told one campaign audience, "My opponents say a woman's place is in the home. But my husband replies that a woman's place is in the House - the United States House of Representatives." By 1971, after failing three times to win a congressional the editor : one without the other other. A professor who spends all of his time perfecting his teaching skills is worthless without the flow of fresh ideas that active research brings. We don't want to sit in class with someone who has memorized the textbook. We can read the book ourselves. What we need are instructors who can draw material from many sources combine it with their own ideas and then present it in a concise and interesting manner. The quality of a school isn't determined by the size of its buildings but by the people who inhabit them. WSC will never achieve the reputation it deserves unless the achievements of our faculty are recognized. If we, the students of Weber State College don't take election, she was known only to her right-wing political camp. Prior to that time, the main emphasis of her rhetoric, as well as the subject of eight of her nine books, was the "threat of atheistic communism." By latching onto the Equal Rights Amendment as a focal point, she soon vaulted herself into national prominence. The February, 1972 issue of the Phyllis Schlafly Report carried the headline, "What's Wrong with Equal Rights for Women?" Later that month she made personal appearance in three state legislatures (whose states had rejected ERA) and launched a national campaign to Stop ERA. In 1973, the same year in which she spoke at the Birch Society's 11th New England Rally, Schlafly participated in CBS's "Spectrum." There she found a nationwide format to expound the full range of her views from national defense to the sale of babies. ' 'On the black market, many couples; have paid $10,000 or more. The price in New York City is reported as high as $35,000. "What's wrong with that? If I hadn't been blessed with babies of my own, I would have been happy to have paid thousands of dollars for a baby." But it was Schlafly's capitalization of the ERA issue that brought her the most attention. The fact that she has used ERA solely to promote herself and her ideology, and not as , a cause of conviction, is evident in that she did not speak to the issue prior to 1971. According to Toni Carabillo in a report for the NOW Times, December, 1977, Phyllis did not testify at the Senate hearings on the ERA in May, 1970, nor in the the House hearings in 1971. Further, of the 120 Phyllis Schlafly Reports in the 1972-73 period when ERA activism was emerging, only 25 dealt with that topic. Though Schlafly's theme is new, the moral overtone of her philosophy is not. Eleven years ago, when her focus was basically communism, she wrote that only a society "caught in the clutches of atheistic communism could create pornography like Candy, a sequence of sex and incest, sandwiched with the straight Communist Partyline." Phyllis is currently exploiting the Signpost pride in the skill and dedication of our faculty, who will? Michelle A. Kunz Join the Signpost staff and try to communicate her words ERA issue to appeal to the emotions of her audiences through a "defense of the family" theme. Once people are aroused with moral indignation, she uses propaganda techniques that misrepresent the facts and border on the ridiculous. If ERA passes, she tells us, "ordinances that require women to have their breasts covered at public beaches will be thrown out," that ERA supporters "hate men, marriage, and children," and that "ERA is an attack on the legal and financial rights of the homemaker." Newsweek quoted Phyllis as saying "women find their greatest fulfillment at home with the family." Her lifestyle does not exemplify that statement. Last summer found Schlafly away from home part of every week, traveling and speaking on a circuit which took her from talk-shows to state legislatures. While at home she worked on her tenth book, attended law school, published and edited the Eagle Forum newsletter and the Phyllis Schlafly Report, and headed two national organizations, the Eagle Forum and Stop ERA. Carol Greensberg Felsentnal, in a 1978 Chicago article, wrote that she "Called several of Schlafly's neighbors, hoping for homey tidbits about car pooling or coffee Watching. Instead they told tales of the Schlafly children stranded at the ice rink, forced to brave blizzards because Mom didn't show us to drive them home. Schlafly's next-door neighbor, Gladys Levis, told me that her children and Liza Schlafly took piano lessons for the same teacher and that at annual recitals, Liza was always the only performer whose parents weren't in the audience." Is Phyllis Schlafly an honest "defender of the family" or simply an ambitious politician exploiting women's issues to promote her right-wing ideology and win a national platform in Congress? Perhaps those who sit in her audience at Weber State should reject her emotional appeals, listen to the meaning beneath her words, and demand to know where she really stands. Sandra Hollingsworth Campus speak out. . . Interviews by Bev DeeVoy-Taggart Photos by Ron Mann Students on campus were asked if the United States Government should re-enstate the draft? Sue Garcia, fr., dental hygeine: "No because it will only create more problems. We should stop everything, including war." r Maria Stegen, sr., economics: "Are they planning a war? If they are I suppose they should have a draft." Evie Fattah, fr., micro biology: "No, I don't think it's right." v. May 4, 1979 Kevin Anderson, jr., general education: "I don't know whether they should or not. They can't get people to join, but I feel that people who oppose war shouldn't have to go in and get themselves killed." Steven Johnson, jr., marketing; "If they reenstate it, I don't have to worry, but it will be the poor people who will have to go. I have mixed feelings. I hate war but the only information I have so far is nothing but propaganda." Ronald de Keyzen, fr., data processing: "I think it's a good thing, because most of the kids that age don't have too much to do and they get in trouble. In the army they would get discipline and they can also serve the country." . i - - , v , , |