THE RECORD
Page 3
If Students Are Appeased St. John'sfy/ill BePleased
By Mark Jantzer
There is an intrinsic difficulty to deal with in judging the worth of and student reactions to improvements still resplendent in their newness. > Ironically, it is that very newness which typically prompts some tally of reactions.
It is unfortunate that the range of student reactions is narrow indeed. The majority of students are simply and temporarily pleased that something has been altered. Superficially, for instance, any apartments are better than none, regardless of the somewhat crowded condition of their tenants. The bus "Y" is convenient, and leads directly to "Mary Union" which is "very nice/' complete with dual juke boxes, pocket billiards, and a 5CTs ice cream parlor assortment of cones. There certainly are a lot of exposed bricks in the refectory, and the bookstore now has a shopping center-like atmosphere.
Only when pressed, or perhaps when winter days have erased the former state of things from memory.
turning life at SJU into a preoccupation with routine, conducted in the same all too familiar environment, will students appreciate the University's concern for the rate at which improvements pay themselves off. Perhaps then they will wonder what the 55 increase in parking fees bought them this year. How many will remember that last year, during a heavy inflation, an egg sandwich could be purchased at Mary Cafe for a quarter, but that this year's "Mary Union" egg sandwich is going for 39 cents. Somebody might start to wonder then, whether red brick is, indeed, less tiresome than painted plaster, once one has been exposed to it three times a day for several months.
There is plenty of time for these thoughts to develop on their own, however. Student attitude will again turn critical and restless, while other means are devised to satisfy the restlessness, and ultimately, turn a handsome profit. For now, let us appreciate newness.
New, Student Security Force
x\.but We'll. i£T if We. FiNP SOME-
Agents Nab Hoods, Not Heads
By John Thavis
At an opening Head Resident workshopjtwo weeks ago, Security Officer Frank Warwick unmasked St. John's latest scheme in its increasing efforts to curb disorder, this year's wild card in the Fight Against Crime. As originally explained, the plan would involve about ten students working as undercover observers—both within and without the dorms. These agents, accountable to nobody but Security, would assume the main task of. patrolling possible theft areas, but would be free to patrol possible dope areas as a sideline activity.
I later talked with Mr. Warwick and found that the project had undergone an amazing metamorphosis within a five day period. Purged of its most sinister aspects, the Student Security operation will now involve three or four students trained to observe parking lots and dormitories for thefts, break-ins, and other crimes committed against the student at St. John's. "It's not that big a job," Mr. Warwick pointed out. "They'll simply be a pair of eyes and ears for us."
Warwick also explained that the system was enacted not because of student activities here, but rather as a result of looting by outsiders. He told me of an incident this summer, when several complete strangers walked into Frank House and stole the T.V. set—while the students were watching it. "The sooner students start questioning strangers,'*
he said, "the better we can do our job." The conservative estimate of personal loss by this kind of theft has been set at $20,000 for last year alone. Theoretically, the new Security Students will be better able to recognize these outsiders before the pillaging is completed.
As far as campus recreation is concerned, it looks like everyone will be toking easier again, as Officer Warwick rejected outright the notion that the students would be used to gather information on dope and alcohol. "If we went sniffing for marijuana around here," he exclaimed, "we'd have to wear gas masks!" Claiming that "we already have all the information we want" about campus drug use, Warwick noted the folly of making students do the work "for which there is plenty of professional help available."
The Security Office has always maintained that the success of the Student Security Force will depend almost exclusively on "student reaction." And, despite the fact that no one asked the students what they thought about the whole idea before it was adopted, Warwick remains optimistic that, eventually, the students will see that it's for their own good. He also conceded that rumors and misinformation about the true nature of the new jobs might have set off some immediate resentment among the community. Perhaps this could have been avoided by more accuracy from the Security Office in the first place.
Scattered Thoughts . . . Death ... So if goes
By Pat Hirigoyen
"Scattered thoughts" is a heading -often viewed as one indicating a lack of purpose and a failure to truly write about one subject. Yet, though we try to dye our surroundings with the colors and markings of categories, classes and types, our environment consists only of disparate and scattered impressions. What we see are only projections, shadows presented to us like the ads of a newsmagazine, which are read one day, ignored the next.
We try to rationalize existences, and make some sense out of what happens in the world. This pursuit might have the makings of some proper and productive occupations, but, as far as any "reality" or "system" is concerned, our own observ-
ing and reacting is absurd; all is nonsense.
* * *
While attending the recent memorial service held in the Abbey Church for the slain Israeli athletes, I was not only moved by the overwhelming tragedy of the act, but was also struck by its unreality. Father Kilian McDonnell, in remarks delivered at the service, expressed it most effectively when he said that once again we are "dumb..." in the face of another attempt to "make the irrational rational."
I think that Father spoke not only of the deed itself, but also of our own part in it, and our curiously automatic reactions. How many memorial services have you been to in, say, the last ten years? In some form or another, perhaps too many. While we
No Bubblegum To 'Gag' On At 1972 Homecoming Concert
Shawn Phillips, singer and acoustical guitarist, will perform at this year's homecoming concert on Sept. 29. The show will begin at 8 p.m. in the Benedicta Arts Center.
Phillips, besides being virtually unknown in top-40 circles, is an excellent choice for other reasons: he has been known to give his audience more "concert time" for their money, his S2,5OO price tag is reasonable, and his contract contains a minimum of stipulation clauses. Finally, though Phillips may not be a big name, he is definitely a big talent.
There was a possibility of booking the Who for $1,500 during their late-September tour through Minne-. apolis, but the tour fell through and so, also, the Who. Chuck Berry, be-
sides asking for three times Phillips' fee, stipulated that St. John's provide, among other sundries, three backup musicians.
Jack Muhar, St. John's Homecoming Committee Chairman, marvels at Phillips' technique of tempo and volume variation. Says Muhar, "He is able to play soft ballads, and later, come back with foot-stomping rock."
Phillips has released three albums. On these he is accompanied by such artists as Jim Capaldi, Caleb Quaye and Steve Winwood.
Says Phillips of his own music, "I believe every bit of the music I play is already within each individual. It takes a musician to translate it from the mind to the mechanical."
Cenfrex System Installed
The Centrex Telephone System will be in operation at St. John's by late January barring complications. According to Miscellaneous Enterprises Director Everett Weber, the pre-installation work of making components and laying cable lines is now underway.
Prior to room registration last spring, it was announced that the rooms in Patrick Hall, Third Mary, Second and Fourth Bernard, and the long wings of Tommy Hall would be equipped with Centrex. Thus, any pair of prospective roommates could have, by their room reservation, either settled for the conventional campus floor phone, or instead accepted the convenience of a personal room phone along with a monthly bill from Bell to the tinkle of $9.
Weber likens the Centrex unit to
a "regular home phone." With it, in addition to making inter-campus calls, students can dial directly off campus.
Centrex was installed on all but a few of St. Benedict's dormitory floors during vacation and is presently in use there. The college is a semester ahead of St. John's in the Centrex race mainly because it signed the contract sooner than SJU.
Von Concert Tonight
At 8 p.m. tonight, Jeffery Van, classical guitar instructor from the University of Minnesota, will present a concert in the main auditorium.
Van's concert which will include works by Bach, Roncalli, and Villa-Lobos, is open and free to the public.
time and again call such far-reaching acts of violence "bestial" or "insane," we have begun to accept them as familiar.
Perhaps indicative of this new familiarity was the lack of concern, the lack of interest, exhibited by various members of this community. As if resigned to the possibility that this was "just another news event," most students said that it was horrible, and went on with their business. Oh, many thought that the killings might have some after-effects; "perhaps," they said, "the Olympics should be ended in disgust." Yet, only those who heard the words of Rabbi Schulman at the memorial service, as he choked back tears of anguish, could feel, at that moment, how man is fighting desperately with the demon within him for the possession of his very soul.
Kurt Vonnegut, in Slaughterhouse-Five, frequently follows a sentence with the simple declaration "So it goes." Eleven athletes are killed at an Olympics of brotherhood and harmony, and the world's mad state of affairs continues in earnest.
Memorial services become relatively frequent occurrences. The nightly reports from Vietnam continue, but we don't listen anymore. A presidential candidate is shot down and paralyzed during his campaign, and the American public seems to say that it is normal for such an act to happen in this country. So it goes.
* * *
This "resignation to a fate" is also being exhibited, at least on this campus, in a new attitude taken towards the candidacy of George McGovern. As if the television commentators and newspaper analysts have become the shapers of political opinion, there seems to be a sentiment, especially among so-called McGovern supporters, that Richard Nixon is assured of reelection, and any gestures made to help the opposition party are futile.
This point of view baffles me, for when I hear someone who last spring was full of buoyant enthusiasm say "Well, I'm not so sure anymore," I wonder if that person was ever truly a part of a "cause."
There surely are causes and issues involved in this campaign, and they are sharply drawn. Nixon still must be seen in opposition to the true causes of peace, human rights, and governmental honesty, and George McGovern, despite his so-called "fumbling the ball within his own five-yard line," stands as the one man who must carry those causes to the Presidency.
If McGovern does lose, it will only happen because a "grass-roots" organization failed to find persons at the "grass-roots," you and I, who truly believed in theircause.
So it goes.
