University of Notre Dame - Dome Yearbook (Notre Dame, IN)

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rules from a personal freedom rather than just to be living in rebellion against them. I think this is part of the total education. My impression is that rules are much more relaxed today than they were ten years ago. What the picture will be ten years from now I have no way of knowing, but I think for example that we are probably one of three universities in the country that doesn ' t allow cars, but every university president that I know of that has cars on campus says they are the biggest cause of worry in causing trouble on the campus. I don ' t think because most have given in we have to. Personally I think it is a good idea not to have cars. Stalt. Father, we ' ve talked about academics this morn- ing quite a bit, and no doubt since we ' ve been here great strides have been noticeable, and everyone would admit this, but there are some areas of the University where academic progress hasn ' t been as great as in other areas. Now a frequent complaint is the Univer- sity ' s Religion Department. Others will talk about the Philosophy Department and several others, and I won- der what specific programs are in mind for these areas where we haven ' t advanced as quickly as we might have. Fr. Hesburgh: Since I began by teaching religion here I can tell you certainly that there have been great advances. I think there is a natural problem here. I think it requires a certain amount of maturity to dis- cuss and to understand and to become interested in philosophical questions because these are questions that only a mature man is concerned with. I think that in theology, many of the men who come to Notre Dame have had catechism or religion in grammar school and high school and they think they know it, and they don ' t think they know thermodynamics because they don ' t teach that in grammar school or high school, or they Vice-President, Academic Affairs: Rev. Chester A. Soleta, C.S.C.

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Executive Vice President: Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C. ing different teams from all over the country, and I think when its over, its over; I don ' t think you have to live on football the whole year round. At the same time I think football is does provide a dimension of an outlet of spirit here, and a dramatic evidence of our competitive spirit is a good thing, and I hope that it is with us in the future as it has been in the past, but at the same time I don ' t conceive for a moment that its being here is going to stop us in any way in proceeding full speed ahead toward our academic goals. Scheck. Father, in that relation, how important a factor do you think is football in recruitment, if I can put it that way, of students? Fr. Hesburgh: I don ' t think it is terribly important. Naught. To change the subject, Father, it seems a tragedy that at Notre Dame a majority of the students don ' t realize until they become juniors or seniors the necessity for a lot of our disciplinary rules. I was wondering if you would try to explain your own feel- ings on this matter as to the need for such things as morning checks and night check, no cars, anything of this nature. Fr. Hesburgh: Perhaps I should come in the back door by saying that the report of the first American students that studied in Russia last year evidenced that the greatest lack of all these students was the complete lack of discipline they didn ' t know how to live dis- ciplined lives and they came out quite badly in com- parison with the Russian students. I think once you understand that the purpose of rules is to learn to live your life in a given society under given conditions of that society, you learn to live with them and grow with them and be happy with them in order to follow these CONTINUED 17

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Vice-President, Business Affairs: Rev. Jerome J. Wilson, C.S.C. don ' t think they necessarily know literary criticism because they don ' t teach this in grammar school or high school, but somehow they think they know religion. I think the problem is to make the courses in theology as relevant as possible to bring the person to bear upon the problems with which we are faced today. Ideas regarding salvation and the Incarnation, ideas regarding God and human destiny and the place of man in relation to the world and the advance of science these are the burning questions of our day the common good, Church and State, many of these prob- lems concern everyone in America and in the world. Naught. Father, there ' s been a lot of discussion recent- ly about several changes in the freshman orientation program, and we were wondering just what the changes were going to be and whether or not the students would be able to play an active part in the attempt to orient the freshmen at Notre Dame. Fr. Hesburgh: I believe the thought now is to give the orientation more of an academic twist, and insofar as this is done, of course, it will involve more faculty, but there are other things that must come into orientation, and these other things I ' m sure will all be handled by the students. Bab. Father, in your years as President . . . people, students have been very gratified by your intense amount of interest in student organizations and partic- ularly student government as the coming-together of all these organizations. What ideally would you like to see the ultimate role of student government be as a force on this campus? Fr. Hesburgh: Well I would hope that in most of those things which are primarily in the area of student ac- tivities that students will take the responsibility for organizing them and for executing them. Scheck. Father, along that line then would you say that the main value of student government is not in the content of the program but in the training that people who run the programs receive? Fr. Hesburgh: I think this might be a fair statement, Bill. I wouldn ' t want to say one is essential and the other is unimportant they are both important, but the educative function is perhaps the most important in the long run. Stall. Father, there is always a lot of discussion about Notre Dame and St. Mary ' s contact, and especially as regards super-social contact. Now in this past week as you probably know, another area of St. Mary ' s- Notre Dame super-social contact has been shut off. (5:10 Mass at Sacred Heart Church on Notre Dame campus. Ed) Now I wonder exactly what your thoughts would be on this. Fr. Hesburgh: I think that the great problem that comes up and has come up is that the thing gets too frantic --it gets to a point where either the girls are out every night in the week, or our men are out every night in the week, and this, of course, begins to militate against the primary purpose of being here, which is to get educated in an academic sense. CONTINUED 19