Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Moral ROvo "Morality is a private and costly luxury." Thus spoke Henry Brooks Adams. Was this statement true then? Is it now? During the past few years there has been widespread discussion concerning sexual morality professed and practiced by many college students. This code, currently in the process of a distinct revolution, may not be held by all college students, but the per centage who do is seemingly on the rise. Although the new morality finds its most extensive expression in northern and mid eastern universities (including the Ivy League institutions), its effect will undoubt edly appear with more frequent and en compassing influen-. Surveys and reports made of the USC student body show a definite position of conservatism on the cam pus. The purpose of this editorial is neither to condemn nor condone. However, it is hoped that it will provoke rational thought on this subject which has been labeled the "pre monition of the total dissolution of our so ciety and the harbinger of a more sensible and rational ethic." In approaching the issue it must be real ized that promoters of the moral revolution are not the colleges themselves. When a stu dent first enters college, lie is not immedi ately changed into a moral degenerate, but rather he brings to the college the analyzed knowledge and concepts he has acquired dur ing the first 18 years of his experience with society. The college merely inherits these problems from the society of which it is a part. As is generally accepted, the norms of so ciety are basically conservative - they change at a slower rate than do actual prac tices. Thus an individual may be taught such ethics as pre - marital chastity and post marital fidelity. Yet, he looks around and fvd. a world uhin, lvnr% er s.ppor. these ethics. Here begins the conflict. Once one becomes aware of these con flicting values, he determines his own in dividual code of ethics. Ile becomes tolerant of others, though they do not practice his code. The basis of this new college morality seems to be the belief that a boy and a girl who have established a "meaningful rela tionship" have the moral right, and are completely justified, in engaging in pre marital activities. This "relationship" aspect was well stated by Miami Psychologist Granville Fisher in the January 24, 1964 issue of Time maga zine. "Sex is not a moral question. For an swers you don't turn to a bodly of absolutes. The criterion should not be, 'Is it morally right or wvrong,' hut, 'Is it socially feasible, Ae 6A4GCd CROWING FOR A GREATER UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROL Member of Associated Collegiate Prei Funded January 30, 1908. with Robert Elliott Gonsal Editor, "The Gamecock" is published by and for the it University of South Carolina weekly, on Fridays. durn year except on holidays and during examinations. The opinions expressed by columnists and letter wr necessarliy those of "The Gamecock." "The Gamiecock Letters to the Editor, but alU Letters must be signed. P. not constitute an endorsement. The right to edit or publication any letter is reserved. "The Gamecock" is represenited naittinally by Nationi Service, Inc. The publication as a smemsber oft the Associal Press, The National College Prvess Service, .and the interco Subscription rates, are $3.00 per year. EDITOR DONI MANAGING EDITOR SHElL BUSINESS MANAGER LARRl Assistant Managing Editor H Advertising Manager Assistant Advertising Manager News Editor Copy Editor Campus Editor Feature Editor C Assistant Feature Editor Society Editor. Sports Editor Circulation Manager Exchange Editor Chief Photographer Business Secretary .Rut Chief Reporter. PHOTOGRAPHERS: Ralph Jarrells, Henry R Gaskins. COLUMNISTS: Todd Wilson, Dave Henry, Carl I Narrow, Bill Savage, Julia Drake, Zazel Wi] STAFF MEMBERSt Kay Hughey, Virgisua Maxwell, Harry EW.ott, Henry Elchel, Eddie Hoffmeyer, Jame Smith, Marci C1sttenn Betty Cesrton, Em Heins, inda Martin, iJsa la Edwards, Susan Lndaen, EfrId KCeisler, Mike Camp. Kathle', Tal Harriet LaBorde, iJnda Cordell, Carol Price, Joyce Bresr ee Jee Carrett, Barbara Moore, Eva Edleehurg,( ses, Des Preste. Deb w4atkds,. Isabell Secreet. iJnda Shasple ma,mea. *e aeq Va.s me.la WasMa.. lutlon No. 2? is it personally healthy and rewarding, will it enrich human life?'" Dr. Fisher further commented that many Protestant church men are beginning to feel the same way. "They are no longer shaking their finger because the boys and girls give in to natural biological urges and experiment a bit. They don't say, 'Stop, you're wrong,' but, 'Is it meaningful?'" A recently published book, "Sex and the College Girl," written by Gael Greene, con tained several points of significance con cerning this new moral revolution. The in formation was accumulated from interviews of 614 students from 102 colleges and uni versities across the nation. Some of Miss Greene's findings are: 1) The most powerful influence on the campus today is the cool coed, "calmly, cas ually, matter-of-factly erotic." 2) Traditional moral codes are meaning less to both the "cool" coed and the more conservative college girl of the sixties. 3) Sexual candor has increased to the point of exhibitionism, breeding an atmos phere where sexual freedom - and sexual panic - can flourish. 4) The gap is widening between the in creasingly emancipated college girl and the steadfastly - double-standard male under graduate. 5) The collapse of traditional morality, the breakdown of parental authority and adult control, is making way for the new sex ethic - sex with affection or "it's right if you 're engaged, pinned, lavaliered, going steady or - 'in love.'" The permissive society today has granted its offspring the wherewithal, e.g., money and freedom of action, to foster its sophis tication and knowledge, and thus to start this revolution snowballing. On many campuses defiance of traditional moral ethics has become an academic pur suit - something to be studied, analyzed and inevitably rationaized. The challenge of "intellect ualizing" one into promiscuous activities is becoming an admirable under taking. The currei "innovations" in morality, while -.-initely revolutionary in nature, are a direct result of an earlier moral change in mankind's history - the Roaring 20's. This was a period when youth swept aside the Victorian era and ushered in what it termed the Jazz Age. Young people had something against which to revolt - the strict Victorian stindards set down by forceful parents. The youth of today are the offspring of those rebels, who now remember only bits and pieces of that code they buried. Modern young people thus find themselves living an unrestrained life, but one in which there are no concrete or definite guide Posts. Victorians orientatedl themselves toward love andI away from sex. Seemingly, history and the peop)le who make it have formulated a practice completely opposite in nature. As an afterthought: Kahlil Gibran once saidl, "lie who wears his morality lbut as his best garment were better naked." -Russell I cExchung Tulaune oU,iversity: ABob Hope appeared in person on March 20, 1964. 8 1~ niaversi.ty ofr C:,ooado: d,as othe S t u d(e t 5 chargedI of using the collese marijuana. iters are not [iniversity of Virginia.: iIlihn doso~ard1 of visitors orders1 the ithhol fron acceptance of college females -- I Advetisingno less thani 600 each class b)e edCleite ginning this September. T mLe giniverress. JA RUSSELL D)r. Grip discusses problem of A REARDON purse-snatching. lHe says that it Y BARRETT is "not as urgent as reported." arriet Holland 1/niverdt:y of Florida,: Bill Savage Albert, the alligator mascot o,f Wayne Weible the university was gator-nappe.d, Pat Roessle but was soon returned. Susan Lindau Food service "OK's serving of Sara Elliott booze" - w h i s k y sours and arol Robinson vodka collins for lunch; Bloody Precious Zurlo M a r y s and screwd rivers for Reba Hutto breakfast. - April Fool. Tom Hunter Kansas %- ifniversity: Carter Crew. K. S. U. has a new stude(nt this Winkie Young semester. She is taking feature Leon Bridge writ,ing courses. This amazing hie Henderson student graduated from college Sig Huitt in 1890, and is 93 -- as they abertson, Bob say - you're ne'ver too 01(1. C:hapel lill: lendricks., Ted The "Da,ily Tar Heel" de(fines de. a hanker as "a pawntbroker with waldrop Ickie a manicure." a Dalzief, Jackie 'Staniford I !nive'rsity: rnnos, Nancy Jo Higgins. Cwen G uesat s p eak er, Henry A. Hol land, Andy :aro Fripe. Ann K iss(inger) to speak on arms ngful Us nships? E R S call reference to the barrage of "indignant criticisms" that the "black blight" editorial of March 13 received. Yes, Sir, it warms my heart at the realization of so many a] truists among our Carolina stu dents. I would deem it an honor and a great privilege to be able to address my sincere gratitude to all the "do-gooders" individu ally, but for sake of brevity, I am forced to direct my attention to one circe who very modestly refers to herself as a "Yankee 'nirger lover'." (I'm curious as to whether her e o n s c i e n c e prompted her to make this honor able confession - Miss Carlson, you're much too naive.) Miss Carlson's unselfish letter of March 20th was "violently op posed to irrational, illogical, ir responsible, and uneducated opin ions." Admirable! (And one may assume that all opinions oppos ing hers must inevitably fall into this category.) In Miss Carlson's great haste to correct all of the white's in justices toward the "oppressed," she obviously overlooked com mending the Negroid race on its outstanding achievements on the continent of Africa, in spite of white men exploiting and forcing them to relinquish their ties to an "ancient and advanced civili zation," such as theirs, and "go back to the bush." Our "y o u n g e r civilization" should emulate them and observe their many cultural advantages, realizing, of course, that the so called .ignorance, cannibalism, vulgarism, abject p)overty, "witch dloctors," diseases, and the gen erlal vegetation and lethargy of the nrasses is merely jealous propaganda on the part of the whites and never really' existed; that they would have attained their m illenniunm had not the ''white blight'' s h a m e fuly ''stunted their growth.'' No one can qjuestion such su preme logic as embhod ied in Miss (Carison 's footnote, however, i.e., "'to encou rage in tegrat ion and( in terma rriag(' (in 0 r' d e r ) to (elinminate the race problem b)y having one big race." There's certa.inly nothing '"irrational, i r responsible', a n d uneducated"l' about that! While we're at it we could( go) a ste'p further and (eradicate mankind, thus, el imi - nating ou r biggest problemi. (CHARLES HLEVIN A Suggestion lEditor T heG mecock /)v'ar .l/iss IRussell: This is ini resp5jonse to the letters wriitten by Mr. Crangle an Mr1 I s. (Ca raai cS(Once rin g the editoriail of March 13. I have' a suggest.ion for them ...erhaps th(ey would like to spendl a few days in .J ack sonvi lle. .JOIIN FEASTlEli TIhe G'amecock is intended primarily as a voice for stu dent opinion and news. We welcome letters from any student or member ot the f aculty under the tollowing provisions. Letters must be signed with the writer's mailing ad dress. We will withhold the writer's name if the letter requests it. flowever, we will print no letter that is Meam Relatio [L E T1 The Political Truth Editor The Gamecock Dear Miss Russell: I wish to congratulate you on the e x c e l I e n t editorial of the thirteenth. The editorial exempli fies fabulous penmanship and word play, to say nothing of the political truth. We have certainly reached the point where a minority, goaded by agitators, is dictating to the unwilling majority. I read of an instance in a northern city where a policeman caught a Negro boy robbing a candy store. With a knife, the Negro attacked the policeman. In pure self-defense, the police man shot the boy. The NAACP demanded that the policeman be fired, or the NAACP would order a general riot. Naturally the policeman was fired! Is this just? Is it wrong for a man to defend himself? When will the American people get the back bone to suppress this autocracy? The government has restric tions on the KKK, but none on the Black Muslims. As it stands today, the white man is the one who should be demanding equal rights. Thanks for speaking up. JAMIE ii. COCKFIELD 0 0 0 USC 'Altruists' TEditor The Gamecock I)oar Miss Russell: I feel that I am among the un fortunate majority of students who, with mixed emotions, read The Ga~mecock 's controversial ed torials, b\it, instead of writing a letter to the editor, 1 simply rationalize and endl up g,iving little more than lip service to the supercil.iousness of others. Well, "these are the times that try men's souls. ' I would like to IInlir-Rhy~ne College: D)efines happiness: Ilappi ness is a~ po)stponed test you weren't prepa red for. llappiness is 1-1 minutes of extra II apinesi(s is a professor who a r rives 11 minutes late. 11 appi ness is thaut check from hiom e. II appi ness is hiavi ng one girl at home andl one (on campJus. IIhappiness is a textbook costing less than $5. Ihappiness is typing "'The End"' onl a ter I1 papeMr. 11 appi ness is avoiding the drta ft without get tinug ma rriedl. hlappiness is slee'pinlg in classes and not missing anything. hlappiness is findling hot water on a cold morning. happine.ss is seeing movies "For Adults Only." llappiness is being ignoredl by the D)ean of Students. hlappiness is a park ing p 1 a e e within walking dIi s t a n e e of cl ass. Ilappiness is a soft bed at 1 :00 A.M. TIhet ouItcomTe oif the Daitrtmiouth Winter Carnival's ski meet wa.s as follows: F'irst Place was Mid dIeury with a 588.1 ; S e e o n d P 1 a e e was D)artmnouth with a 581.7; and Third Place was Wil linma with a KAA6. TODD Fa IN this column let me give a final review of the n e w I y proposed Student Body Constitu tion. Since our last reports we have held two constitutional con ventions, and several sli g h t changes have been made. The basic framework, however, re mains the same. Let me remind you that the basic change of this constitution from the one under which we now serve is a reorganization so that s t u d e n t government can properly function. As I stated earlier, student government as it now exists rests solely in the hands of the Student Body Presi dent. A strong president pro duces a strong student govern nient while the weak president weakens the entire student gov ernment framework. This should not be. U NDER the new proposal the Student 1B o d y President is taken from the Senate and made an executive officer - exactly where he should be. This, of course, opens the way for the vice president to move into the presiding office within the Sen ate. The president will have the veto power, but the veto may be overridden by two-thirds major ity of the Senate. This is merely part of the system of checks and balances. The Senate is thus left to do that for which it was first con stituted - pass legislation. This should actually he the sole pur pose of the Student Senate. The Senate will, of course, have its own officers, committees, etc. These will then be able to devote all of their time to work of the Senate, thus making for a more --Carl Hei Attendance Regulations 'Antiquated' O N page 13, 141 and 15 of the 1963 - 6.1 Car-olina Commun - ity, the attendance regulations for undergr-aduates at the Uni ver-sity are specified. Briefly the regulations are: "In regular session, a maxi mum of four- unexcused absences is permitted in each course for which a studlent is enrolledl. For any course offered in a summer terni a student is permitted a max,imum of three unexcused absences." In all courses students arec expectedI to attend 75 per cenit of all meetings. " IN the occurrence of an ad ~ditional unexcused absence, a studlent is dlroppedl fr-om a e o u r s e with the grade FA enteredl upon his a e a dI e' m i e record."l Voluntar-y attendance is thus a pr-ivilege for those students who in the previous regular se mester- stai ned a grade point ratio) of not less than 4.00 out of ax possible 6.00. However, the 75 per cent attendance r-egula tion must he met ;in the sum mer session voluntary attend ance- is not allowed at all. OUrR contention is that these all-inclusive regulations are somewhat arbitrary, antiquated, andl Victor-ian. One might well ask what the purpjose of attendl ing the University might be. Is is to get ani education in the brioadest possible terms, or is it to he re-gulatedl tn the point that life is completely circum sc-rib)ed by arbitrar-y and com pulsor-y rules? We admnit that there is a definite trendl, not only at USC but in other schools, andi in the national government itself, towardl centralization of powe r. We do not contendl that put ting everyone. at USC on volun tary attendance is going to solve all the proble.ms, because the-r" will always be some studlents who will take more than the twelve maximum. We do believe that the atudent. a Carlin - VILSON - Revised Constitution ces Student Vote efficient and better run organi zation. T HE other area which we have constantly 4 t r e s e d is the judicial. This is actually the first attempt on the part of students to have any voice in the judiciary matters on campus. What we have instituted, or wish to in. sbitute, is not a ruling body, but r a t h e r a body which makes recommendations to the proper Dean of Men or Women. They will hear only minor cases with all of the major cases, as al ways, going straight to the Faculty Disciplinary Committee. Elections procedures, qualifi cations, etc., are also defined and explained on a general basis to insure that elections will not be handled in a haphazard way and to insure that all students are informed of the various times which are important in elections. T HERE are a number of other small changes and improve ments incorporated within the proposed constitution, but they are of less significance so I will not comment further on them. In conclusion, let me say that Student Government here at Car olina has never really func tioned; it has not been possible. Now we have the opportunity to move ahead and make consider able progress. This next year will, however, be the one which will most decide the future of Student Government if the new proposal is adopted by the stu dent body and approved by the faculty. VOTE yes tor the students of Carolina; vote yes for a greater Carolin.i; vote yes for the new constitution. mdricks serve a better deal as far as at tendance regulations are con cernedl. J UST what purpose is served by giving a student an FA in a course which conceivably he might have passed if allowed to continue? Is the University so eager to be "tough" that it will dleny a student the chance to pass a course if he has taken frive or more cuts? Is that demo cratic and consistent with the American ideal of fair play? We say, No! E realize that this subject is somewhat controversial and throughout the campus areas of agreement are limited. Our plan as submitted below is not perfect, but we do feel it is worthy of consideration by the powers thatW be. For freshmen and sophomores in courses regarded as basic, we feel that a total of six un e'xcusedl absences be allowed, and that seventy-five per cent at tendance of classes be required biefore' one is allowed to take a final examination. More absences in aither category should be sub ject to dismissal from the course -hbut without the grade "FA." I N short, a student who cuts out of a class is punishing him self and his parents enough in terms of dlelayedl academic prog ress and wasted1 money. Juniors and sen.iors in upper class c'ourses shouldl be on voluntary attendance as presently practiced by the "II" arnd better students What to do with the students in academic probation is indeed a problem but not -,e which rannot be surmoun.ted. Instead of limiting their absences, why not treat them as any other stu dlent. It is their redl wagon if they cannot (10 pr-oper work and1 do not attend classes regularly. Chances are they won't make it on the "OuItsideC" either. Psy* chiatric help is probably what they need more than arbitrary