Michigan State University - Red Cedar Log Yearbook (East Lansing, MI)

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After a year of renewed national interest in the business of politics and public opinion, an election year complete with campaigns and TV coverage, a revived spirit seemed to stir on campus. Old Man Apathy loosened his hold more than once and by spring term seemed almost on his way out. Student elections, in direct contradiction to the prophets of indifference, drew over 5,000 voters to the polls in April, while such topics as ROTC, men's dorm dress regu- lations and student housing regulations were discussed and debated with renewed vigor. Spring had indeed sprung. But this atmosphere did not appear without priming. Student Government, the State News and student groups from IFC to MHA did much to bring home student interest during fall and winter term. TH URSDAY'S CHILD The 1958-59 Student Government, one of the best or- ganized and, canoe acts notwithstanding, one of the most effective of recent years, began with a legacy of confusion which left them a long way to go fall term. When viewed in retrospect, the elections for class ofli- cers, Student Congress and the AUSG president in spring of '58 seem almost ludicrous. The confusion demonstrated by Student Government over its own elections regulations was epic. Tensions rose and tempers flared hotly over minor technical points, until it was a wonder that there was any election at all. The big mix-up began three days before the primary, when Elections Commissioner Herb Harman resigned un- der pressure from Student Government President Marne Gleason after Dean Pappas violated the rules in his cam- paign for senior class president. Gleason claimed Harman was too liberal in his interpretation of the regulations, and Harman refused to continue without complete control over election procedures. Gleason then appointed Barrie Alley to replace Harman. Two days later, on the eve of the primary, two candi- dates for Student Government president disqualihed them- selves by campaigning over Brody radio without leaving comparable time for the third candidate. Then candidate three decided to use the radio too, but since this left the first two without time comparable to his, he too was dis- qualified. Result, no candidates . . . a cut and dried affair. But the plot thickened. The Elections Review Board decided the whole business had been mishandled and ruled all three candidates still eligible. This might have ended it, but the next day Glea- son stopped the primary when he discovered that one candidate's name had been left off the ballot, and held things up until the oversight could be corrected. Somehow, the final election was held without any notable complications the following week. When the dust finally settled, Chuck Walther was president, Gleason and Alley graduated, and, sure enough, Harman reappeared, this time as executive vice-president. By fall term, however, things had settled down, and the politicians stuck pretty much to business for the rest of the year. SPARTAN SPIRIT RE-VISITED Fall was relatively free of major controversy on campus, for football was upon us and everyone worked off steam in the stadium. Even such aroused public clamor as that of the Brody residents the previous spring over the big stinkf' from the Red Cedar sewage disposal plant faded in the cool fall air. But football brought its own problems in terms of unsuccessful Big l0 competition, Spartan Spirit for lack of ith and the philosophy of pep rallies. Pep rallies came under fire from several directions. If they were plain, old-fashioned shout sessions, they didn't attract enough student participation, but if they had pro- fessional entertainment, they were not pep rallies, but simply shows. All of this, coupled with a hard luck season for the team, seemed to create a feeling that State's foot- ball reputation was collapsing beyond repair. But the feeling was temporary. Kansas State was mauled in the last game 26 to 7, Sam Williams made All-Ameri- can, Biggie and Duffy stayed friends and football pep raliles were forgotten for another year. Borrowing from Mark Twain, Sparty could claim without much argument that rumors of his death were grossly exaggerated. NEWS AND REVIEWS It will be a long time before the State News can match its classic confusion of vets fmedicall with vets fmilitaryl, when two years ago they reported a tuition increase to 130-odd dollars for the vets instead of the vets. In fact, as a mirror and sounding board of student opinion as well as a reporter of facts, the S'News does an unusually accu- rate and competent job. There are, however, occasional slips. With the coming of the snows, campus controversies took on a more serious atmosphere, and the State News joined in. Dr. Stanley Idzerda, Director of the Honors College and more than an interested spectator, challenged conformity among students in general and the Greeks in particular at the IFC-Pan Hel convocation. The State News lent added drama to this already explosive attack by one small error. In their hurry to make their press dead- line they omitted the word f'intellectual from Dr. Idzerda's description of fraternities as an intellectual skid row. In contrast to this was the papers coverage of the com- pulsory ROTC question. Without identifying themselves with any person's or group's opinion on the matter, they printed nearly all such opinions which they felt were sub- mitted in good faith, canvassed the Board of Trustees on the question and over a period of several weeks, had cov- ered the problem in its broadest possible sense. Politics and opinion from canoes to the National Student Association, dormitory dress regulations to ROTC. amused, provoked and sometimes enlightened us through- out the year. The details will doubtless fade in time, but the spirit will be remembered as long as the year is. I1

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TI-IE GOOD LIFE Tan shoes and pink shoelaces, A polka dot vest and, man, oh man . . Oh, man! . . . And Elvis still in the army. But the good life, the life we will recall ten or twenty years from now, struggles on. We had hula hoops, a few of them, and frisbies, quite a few. We had the new Aga Khan at Harvard, Stagger Lee,,' Huckleberry Hound, Charlie Brown, Harry Truman, Paladin, and all such things to make life worth living. It was not a wild year. Alas, no panty raids, and alack, a pretty provincial attitude toward the Htogethernessw of phone booth stuf- fing, although AUSG came out for it Ctogetherness, not phone boothsj. And speaking of student government, this yearls Congress was about the most abused group on campus since 1946, when the veterans chucked their beanies and ran the seniors down the mountain. In an effort to maintain the traditional canoe on the Red Cedar, Congress came out against sin, but the jaded State News shouted Gestapo! and sat back to chortle as the Asso- ciated Press picked up the somewhat altered story, and the squawks rolled in .... But no panty raids. It may even have been a dull year. Wedged between the cold war and such unreasonable academic demands as learning to write complete sen- tences in term papers, MSU students took more of a 'Eno nonsense approach to life. In fact, some of them got downright stuffy, got married, and even voted in munici- pal elections. Still, much of the trivia from which legends grow was seeded in fertile soil, and the alums of twenty years hence will have their tales to tell. THE IMPROVEMENT WITH AGE True, there were no model T's around to be torn down and reassembled in a fourth floor dorm room, but we know of one fraternity man's Volkswagen that was buried in a man-made snow drift winter term, and almost had its owner walking until the spring thaw. No initiates appeared on Grand River in their underwear frantically seeking the nearest barrel, but one group of Greek actives charged off over twenty miles to rescue their abducted house mother, who was really calling from a phone booth a block away, while the pledges stifled their laughter in the background. The year was rich in such grist for reunion mills. Even Spartan Roundtable, which as a rule concerns itself with pretty serious business, made a few contribu- tions to the lore. A case in point concerns President Hannah's assistant, Mr. James H. Denison, and the Cowles House cuckoo clock at the second fall term meeting. Twice during the evening, once at seven and once at seven thirty, Mr. Denison was called upon to speak, and twice his words were punctuated by the song of the cuckoo. He somehow missed the eight o'clock call, and shortly afterwards the meeting was adjourned. But by 1980 we'll wager that eight o'clock has joined the rest, that the meet- ing has lasted until ten cuckoos, and that Mr. Denison has sent his secretary to all subsequent Cowles House meetings. Thus do the years embroider our stories and improve the good life. HAIL THE CONQUERING COHODES There is a fat file in the State News. It contains howls in the wilderness liberally seasoned with Mencken, Shake- speare and Chesterton. It contains amazing metaphors, artful cacophonies and probably most of Webster's un- abridged dictionary. lt is the file of Jerry Cohodes' letters. Consider his profundities: To believe that Jefferson and lzis cohorts would have anything to do with Nasser's goals is, to my mind, so much mush. It is as absurd as to believe that Ted Williams will play in the class D Kiddy League, next spring. tCohodes disdains Nasser.J I have also been accused of not controlling my state- ments by facts. To this charge, I retort that I 'II not soil deathless prose with another's lifeless facts. CCohodes disdains facts.J Governments spawned out of violent revolutions are like a virago of a woman. One never knows who they are going to wreak their wrath on next. CCohodes dis- dains '6whom. j Through his monumental missives, Cohodes has assured himself of a place in reunion recollections. His letters have created a campus character without competition. We may forget the class presidents, the editors and the chairman, but Cohodes, the character, has insinuated him- self into our good life. Actually only a few of his letters have been printed, but already the number seems greater, and time can only multiply it more. Such is the amplified buzz of our self-ordained gadlly. May his tribe endure, it is not likely to increase. Add, now, the beards and the Florida tans, some false I.D. and a few late minutes, and the planting is complete. We may have a few new realisms to attend to, but this will not disturb the good life, which we have enjoyed this year, and will enjoy the more for its aging. 13