Brown and White Vol. 80 no. 35

              brown and white vol 80 no 35 bethlehem pa march 4 1969 866-0331 area schools examine frats by jim m<-gee the fraternity systems at lafayette and muhlenberg have been under scrutiny froa various angles at their respective campuses at lafayette the faculty committee on student affairs ie investigating fraternity selection processes including admissions practices end clauses and their relationship to possible discrimination at muhlenberg the campus newspaper the muhlen oerg weekly dedicated a three pa«a suppiaiuaw tv con sideration of the role of fraternities on the m-mesbers campus the muhlenberg weekly exa mi ned the overall relevancy of toe fraternity system along with an analysts of pledging and admissions policies rick swansea president of alpha tau omega fraternity at muhlenberg considered the outlook for fraternities dim he said on the whole i contend that fraternities ere anarchronistic beceuse today's college students tend to be more serious about scholarship scoff at pretensions to status consider secret rituals rather immature resist togetherness and assaaud all moves toward eqoeiity the emphasis on conformity is flying tad with the infiltration of this trend the fraternity system is also dy ing ulatfßlllll-hagßffi this opinion contrasted with the majority of tea fra ternity leeders at muhlenberg who considered the future of fraternities on their campus to be very bright two reasons most often cited for this were toe social lift and the advantages of living with a small group of friends a number of people emphasized the teed of the fra ternity system to chant in order u keep j»»c with to aew student pkaods as malcolm paiat s£or tn attof of the muhlenberg weekly wrote i would contend that tot concept of communal living with shared activities work and problems ie avante garde in ite beet sense " but fraternities need a breath or better yet a gale of fresh air to end the complacent stewing in their own jutces theta xi at lafayette did not find the idea of change so easy to put into practice within toe framework of their interfraternlty council as a result they announced their decision to withdraw from the ifc lafayette's theta xi tha unanimous decision cams only after numerou att*mpts at internal reform had the failure of the ipc to reform rushing sad niedfin muuedwee or id eaferee existing policies aaa aa important motive in theta xi*s action the ku-jen-ert weekly lip-rud thai the piedte policies of the different fraterniues diflor greatly troth actual practices au of the houses stated that they ii bill m^mmemmmm^e^'m policy but th paper a rim l__r^---___l___b_________i ll-tljiirda rf__l-%_b ■___■_____ a muhlenberg's ipc unanimo-sly passed a tssotnttoa last emmgesbeji expressing disapproval of any discrimina tion on th basis of race color creed or national origin however many of tha fraternities have a blackball system which allows on or two brothers to veto someone up for membership wmle most of the houses seem to espouse a doctrine of non-discrimination it appears that most of tha hoasoa do in tact oractice it m--u — v ... a n>*a asa si-.a-trv ••• moravian students boycott mandatory attendance rule hundreds of moravian students boycotted a college convocation last satur day to dramatize their opposition to the mandatory attendance rule about 350 students ignored the call to boycott and heard dr robert helm of wake forest college speak on •• natural man and civil society in johnston hall normal attendance at such convocations reportedly runs between 600 and 900 indicating up to 500 students chose to stay away from the lecture several dozen moravian collegians stood in front of johnston hall and distributed papers con taining their own policy on convocation attendance the student's policy paper said that mandatory convocation attendance is unacceptable and asked for the abolition of convocation probation and improvement of the convocation program john pappas captain of the wrestling team and one of 24 signers of the student protest paper said that many of the convocation speakers were not worthwhile and suggested the elimination of a few of the compulsory convocations so that more money end better people could be gotten for the assemblies there was no unanimity among the protesting students and turney grata president of the student government urged abolition of all compulsory attendance just as a " matter of free choice the boycott action was carried out even though wheels were set in motion wednesday to set up a searching review of the convocation program and the atten dance regulation if the review proposal is adopted by college officials the standing student faculty convocation committee will study the issues jointly with the college president chaplain and student government president the convocation committee is charged by . dr raymond s haupert , president with considering the convocation issue and with submitting a recommendation no later than april 1 b*w photo by thompson the grassroots were left all alone in grace mail saturday when ai haft f-isod to appear and responded fay n a two-part rhc concert rhc will refund si par ticket to everyone who attended at a time and place to ha announced f lafayette officials rebut coed rumor robert w smith director of public in formation at lafayette college rebutted statements last friday that dr k ronald bergethon college president bad ap proved of plans to make the school coedu cational smith also said that statements made by student leaders at last thursday's rally concerning alumni participation in decis ion-making were untrue according to one of the student leaders who spoke at the rally an alumni poll is being conducted to determine their views on the issue he said that if the poll indicated opposition by the alumni they would withhold funds on the grounds that the issue would be stalemated smith denied that such a poll was being conducted but added that " members of the staff of lafayette are meeting with alumni groups around the country to merely gauge the general reaction to the plan he also said that parts of the speech which said that alumni donations were being used as threats are untrue at the half-hour rally rick ewald a lafayette senior urged that constructive moderation be the tone of the coed move ment he called for all students interested in promoting the move to get to work to bring it about t dr albert w gendeblen chairman of the history department refuted the state ment that lafayette will not be the same if it admits women lafayette won't be lafayette if it doesn't admit women senior bill chase urged the formation of a coeducation week like the one held by princeton end called cooperation among campus fraternities in attaining the goal the decision to go eoed now rests in the hands of the trustees who are expect ed to b»ma owfl t ml in on the issue this spring uhuru aided in recruiting black frosh wishing to attract blach students to the university uhuru has taken the initiative in recruiting them the university has transfered 500 from the president's contingency fund to offset uhuru s costs to the admissions office where uhuru has access to the funds the money will be need in two general ways first the money can he used by individual students visiting the campus to the economically disadvantaged pay ment of the price of the bus fare to the campus plus the expenses of the day may mean the difference between applying to the university or not the second general use of the money will be to reimburse uhuru for expenses incurred for entertainment that may be needed in encouraging a group of visiting black students to attend the university for example uhuru brought a number sea uhuru page 8 j applications available | applications for student : membership on the university 1 i board of publications are now f i available at the student activities § desk no student connected with m university sponsored publics §| tions or with the lehigh radio g [ network is eligible applications § can be returned to the student § activities desk