Queens College - Silhouette Yearbook (Queens, NY)

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Student Council Student Council elections, long thought a popularity contest by the majority of students, are in reality one of the most important aspects of democracy in action at Queens College. Self-government, for which the council is a symbol, is probably the most necessary requisite to a democratic society. That students take a stand on such major problems as Civil Liberties, that they realize the full import of a War in which democracy is the stake - all issues of this sort are vital to their future Worth as citizens. These and the minor problems of college life are the issues which the council discuss, on which they offer student opinion. Twenty-eight members, four from each class excluding lower Fresh- men, meet every two weeks to attempt their solution. Queens College has been lucky in that its popular students are also its capable and responsible ones, for were it not so, that gal with the pretty legs from the Upper Freshman class, or that guy with the plaid sport jackets elected by Upper Juniors might spend valuable time discussing the Apple Orchard and the advisability of holding classes in the Huddle. As it is they recognize important issues. Let's hope our luck holds out. I9

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bemvcrac In Nation! Democracy demands more than a diploma and a transcript of course credits of the college graduate. Merely attending classes and engaging in games of intellectual ping pong do not equip him with those quali- ties so essential in a system of self-government-leadership, fellowship, understanding. Determined by a faith in the will of the governed, these requi- sites were never more sharply defined than now when a conflict of ideolo- gies makes survival itself the stake. Dependent upon application of fact. upon taking learning out of a vacuum, upon profiting by actual experi- ence, Leadership, Fellowship, Understanding grow out of activities not confined to the curriculum. Principles are put into practice when council members organize student activities, when editors meet deadlines, when thespians produce their own dramas, when artists and musicians create their own composi- tions, when home economists run the cafeteria, when cadet teachers tutor the speech and hearing handicapped, when the sociologist volun- teers his services to community welfare agencies, when fraternities, sororities, and clubs become the Inter-Fraternity Council. It is the person who can do, and not the one who can say, who is needed now when our country is at war, and who will be even more necessary when peace is again attained and victory is ours. Someone, many someones, will be needed to bring order out of the chaos, and the college graduate should be one of those someones, he has the back- ground of facts and training which is so essential to the understanding and solving of those problems which confront us. Knowing the grammar rule, the chemistry formula, the mathematical theorem is not enoughg knowing and understanding their application is necessary before they can become anything more than mere words. It is this ability to trans- cribe theory into practice which will determine the citizen who can and will leadg who can and will continue to build toward a fuller democracy. l8

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PUBLIEATIU S Lens-Horizons A safety valve for Queens Colleges more insistent creative im- pulses is provided by the student publication Lens-Horizons, a tasty combination of literary, art, and photography work. Not that the magazine, published once each semester, veers toward the Marty. Among the purple soul searchings of earnest sophomores have appeared such signihcant articles as an essay on 'ANeo-Machievellianism-a Study in Power Politics, Mel Krantzler's Hjingoes over Hollywoodfl Dave Sinowitz's 'iAmerican Baseball, other student discussions of the po- litical and social issues that loom so large on contemporary horizons. Chiefly, however, the purpose is to bring to the college audience some of the better student efforts in the realm of fiction and poetry. There was, for instance, Gabby Fontrier's Excerpts from the Diary of Apathy Feneantf' Irving Stein's poem, Drizzly Dayl' and Athena Lemniaf' by Patrick Flynn. All this, incidentally, under the literary editorship of Martha Lorenz, with Al Wfalther handling the photog- raphy end of it as usual. 20