Northeastern University - Cauldron Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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NATIONAL FLOWER rcV Campus Activities grow— Draft Resisters Burn Records Marine Memorial Service Battle of Dak To Nov. ' 67

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.- V 5 B V-, ■ Oct. :- ' 67: Con Thien i Car. jK Stokes wins! Louise Day Hicks loses!

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McLellan blasts apathetic council Student government at Northeastern University, specifically the Student Council, is sick, said Vincent B. McLellan. president of the Div. A council, in an interview with the NEWS, Wednesday. The council is apathetic. It reacts when it should act, quibbles when it should discuss, and it ' s not even producing results, he continued. The same few peo- ple are doing all the work and I ' m sick of it. The council has tremendous opportunities at Northeastern and should be Involved In dozens of projects. But the majority of the councillors during the past two terms have been lazy, apathetic, ir- responsible, and completely sterile of ideas. Council representatives, he said, are elected to work — to represent the interests and desires of the general student body. This Student Council, by and large, has completely neglected these responsibilities. Initiative and responsibility have been sadly lacking. The council has developed tremendously in the past five years, but, if it goes through another term like the last two, it ' ll ruin the great opportunity for the students to have a vital voice at Northeastern. By BOB MATORIN Responding to a question as to what the council can and should do to alleviate the problems he claims exist, McLellan- said, That ' s an easy ques- tion to answer. Each councillor should face up to the question, ' Am I willing to spend the time and effort to make student government the effective voice il should be at Northeastern. ' If the answer is yes. let them wake up and be- come activists. If the answer is no, let them get the hell off the council and make room for someone willing to shoulder the burden. It ' s about time these kids took a good look at themselves and the work they ' ve been doing. For most of them, there won ' t be much to look at. I ' d like to emphasize, he pointed out, that this isn ' t a blanket indictment Some kids have been work- ing long hours on projects such as setting up the faculty-course evaluation, hammering out a uniform and researching and formulating Uve up to their responsibilities. Student Council representatives should know the problems of the students they represent and should come up with solutions or at least be willing to make the effort They should have original ideas— something I haven ' t seen in the council for a long time— for projects and programs that will make this a better university for the students they represent Right now, he said, the council is not acting or producing as a student government should, but we have a half dozen genuine workers among the upper- classmen and a group of untried sophomores. If some of the other councillors honestly ask themselves, ' What have I done; what have I ac- complished? ' maybe the council can grow up and start acting like a college student government instead of a kindergarten discussion group. All American The NORTHEASITO NEWS Vol. L, No. 7 Northeastern University, Boston, Mass. November 10, 1967 There ' s always room for cello. The Pentagon pipers The Draft I o Answer to Dissent Jf there is one man who ought to know all there is to know about the Selective Ser- vice system, it is l,t. General Lewis B. Hershey, director of the draft since 1941. By his latest directive to local boards, though, the general seems to indicate that he has lost track of where the draft lils into ihe American constitutional system. Bothered bj campus anti-Vietnam war protests, Hershey has advised local boards to withdraw deferments and immediately draft students who interfere witli the draft or campus military recruiters. Hershey ' s outrage at the form some campus protests have taken is understandable. Bui his ill- considered suggestion that draft boards become, in effect, prosecutors and juries must be ruled out of order. The American Association of University Professors asked Hershey to rescind his directive, pointing out that it sets down such a vague standard that local boards may induct persons for the exercise of con- stitutional rights. The mere existence of this undefined power to use the draft as a punitive instrument mi a chilling effect upon and free speech and asi teed by the Fir A group of c shey ' s plan a flagrant denial of due pro- cess clearly designed to repress dissent against the war in Vietnam. A student does not lose bis right to dis- sent simply because his military service has been deferred. By the same token, a student is as liable as any other An to the penalties that apply to trespas! t therefore have ademic freedom mbly as guaran- Amendment. ngressmen branded Her- and disorders that overstep legal bounds. Whether or not General Hershey re- scinds his directive before it reaches a court test, he has done a disservice to the Selective Service system he helped found. The draft, with all its imperfections, is the best system we have yet been able to de- vise to choose those men who will repre- sent us all by serving when not all able- bodied men are needed. To use the draft as a form of punish- ment is to suggest to the men in Vietnam —where draftees make up 37% of the Army troops— that their units are also handy as penal battalions. The suggestion is demeaning to the armed services— even if some draftee veterans of Vietnam might understandably like to have a hand in the basic training of drafted dissenters.