Vanderbilt University - Commodore Yearbook (Nashville, TN)

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UNIVERSITY FOOD SERVICES Richard Deckbar, Director It's 5:15 a.m. when the key is first turned and 12:30 a.m. before the doors are finally locked and we can call it a day at university food services. It requires the skills and efforts of approximately 160 Vanderbilt employees to perform the services and prepare the food for the students, faculty and staff. The three cafeterias and the Commodore Room serve their patronage over 7000 meals each day. The ordering, preparation, serving and sanita- tion programs present new challenges daily in today's unstable food and labor market. Three times a day, seven days a week these people show their dedication and display their skills to our university community. Our only purpose is to supply this community of students, faculty and staff with nutritious, economical and appetizing foods in pleasant, sanitary surroundings. We will endeavor: to purchase only quality items on a bid base, to maintain an interesting varied menu, to absorb as much as 5-1076 of the current spiraling raw food cost of some popular items, delete those items which are considered premium and unreasonable, to increase the selling price only when the purchase price dictates it and to decrease the selling prices as purchase prices decrease. We are hopeful of countering our own high food costs with good operational management since we anticipate greater participation in the university dining halls with no additional staiiing and due to our constant concern for good purchasing and fair pricing methods. We encourage students to get into the habit of eating a daily breakfast. Considered nutritionally to be the most important meal, breakfast is by far the most eco- nomical. Items are intentionally priced lower by com- parison to other meals in order to induce participation. Luncheon items include a selection of entrees and cooked vegetables, however, check menu boards for stu- dent-budget-specials-the cafeterias will have one fast foods line, e.g. hamburgers, low priced homemade soups, other sandwiches, etc. Fresh fruits are also available at all meals, although not cheap, they are a much wiser buy than potato chips, candy bars etc. for snacking between meals. The evening meal, in addition to roast beef, steaks, chops, ham, chicken Qwhole meat itemsj has a selection of prepared garden vegetables, a wide choice of fruit and vegetable salads, many homemade pastries and breads, ice cream and beverages to choose from, will feature A-Meal-On-A-Bun w!Fries , one-dish entrees, e.g., Ita- lian spaghetti, stews, pan-pies, chili etc. These items along with a salad selection, homemade breads and beverage will not only adequately satisfy the normal appetite but are nutritionally sound. V.U. cafeteria patrons come from all walks of life and from all over the world. We intend to satisfy everyone with a varied, interesting, nutritious and economical offering of food services. However, we have built our operation on employee and customer ideas, constructive criticism and student opinions. The meal book was designed and priced approximately six months ago offering a student the opportunity to assure himself of approximately 75'Zn coverage of the meals served on campus during the semester. I-OOD SLIIVILILS 13

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liz' 3 ll Q' ,W 1 SOME OBSERVATIONS ON STUDENT LIFE AND THE NORMALCY OF CHANGE by Sidney F. Boutwell Dean for Student Life The sixties were exciting years on most campuses and convulsive ones on some but all campuses experienced not only new levels of activity but new styles of action, as well. At Vanderbilt, student government gained new respect fto the sur- prise of somel as it emerged as the most effective means of student influence and action. Student government proposals, based on careful committee work, resulted in numerous modifications of traditional policies concerning, for example, alcoholic beverages and visitation and closing hours for residence halls. On some other campuses, similar changes were brought about not through the orderly processes of student government but through mass violation of existing campus regulations. Because students adopted new styles of action in the sixties, adminis- trative offices found it necessary to change their manner of dealing with students and visitors to the campus. This new style was based more on rational persuasion than on the simple exercise of authority. It was essential for most students to learn by doing, even if it meant making mistakes. Better to make a mistake, in fact, than to do some- thing simply because you were told to do it in a particular way. It was important for students of the sixties and is important for the I2 I STUDENT LIFE students of the seventies to do things their way. There are, however, some important differences about which one can make some general comments. While some students still employ the styles of the sixties, many have developed other styles. For example, I mentioned earlier that students want to do things their way. To many students of the sixties, this meant doing it differently from the way it had been done traditionally. Today's students often prefer a more traditional way of doing things. Students of the sixties tended to seek advice on that aspect of a matter which most interested them and then they would develop their own game plan , sometimes with a little attention to related factors. Happily, group discussion could and did sometimes lead to the adoption of a more comprehensive game plan which usually led to success. However, those students who pursued a game plan based on a narrow view of a subject often experienced disappointment and frustration. On the other hand, students of the seventies increasingly ask what your game plan would be. They may then reject it, modify it or take it as their own, they are, in short, just as determined to do things in a manner which is palatable to them but they are less anxious to risk making mistakes and therefore seek to profit from the experiences of others. Although I make no attempt to be encyclopedic in my treatment of this subject, there are some other observations I would like to share, space permitting. For example, the American withdrawal from the war in Viet Nam has had a significant impact on the lives of college-age men and women, particularly of the men. Required military service ended at a time unfortunately when the job market became tight and graduate fellowship money began to dry up. Deprived of the period of military service in which to make up their minds about a career, many students found themselves facing graduation without a job. Some subsequently took jobs as waiters or as laborers. Having witnessed the plights of some of their older friends, many students today are voicing concem about jobs and for graduatefprofessional school. They say they don't have time to participate in campus and community activities because they must study more to improve their records. In addition, they increasingly ask about job placement procedures and ask why the University doesn't do more to help them know how to handle themselves in interviews. When students do participate in campus programs, increasingly it is those with a quick pay-off. Many students simply don't want to make what they consider to be long-term commitments to campus organizations and programs. At the same time, one is struck by the fact that business in the Good Woman is at an all time high, as are social registrations in Betty King's office. All of these developments simply mean that once again we are being called upon to adapt to changing priorities. In an effort to add intel- lectual foci to the student's new emphasis on grades, departments, such as philosophy, are being asked to have an association with a particular residence hall. By establishing a regular pattern of seminars, discussion groups, sherry hours, etc., it is hoped that members of that department will make significant contributions to the development of a distinctive character for that particular residence hall. Initial interest is high and if this program catches on next year as we believe it will, then student life will take on a new vibrancy and vitality. This development and others like it lead me to suggest that the campus will not be paralyzed by apathy, as some persons now fear. Rather programs with new appeal must be provided and will be pro- vided because Vanderbilt will endure.

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is' THE FUTURE OF RELIGION Beverly A. Asbury Everybody has a scenario for religion's future in the next generation. Theodore Roszak has given one in Where the Wasteland Ends. Another has been given by William Irwin Thompson in The Edge of History. There are countless others, from the one of G. Ted Armstrong to those of the numerous other Jesus groups of the day. Well, I have one of my owng actually, several of my own, and I'll lay them out for your consideration. But, first you'll have to consider what leads me to forth-tell such a future for religion in America. In 1968, C. P. Snow gave a remarkable address entitled The State of Siege . He stated that only extreme measures, taken at once, could forestall famine and starvation. Snow emphasized that such measures required a radical decrease in military expenditures and a drop in the living standards of the West. He added that concerted action would have to be taken by the United States, the Soviet Union, and Western Europe. Six years later . . . well, you know . . . plus self-sudiciency in energy by 198O . Snow was not to be surprised. In 1968, he said: Does anyone believe that that will happen? We are all selfish . . . to stint ourselves to avoid a disaster in twenty years-what body of people would ever do it? Right, When sensible persons ask me any of those questions-does anyone believe that that will happen-the answer is, of course not. Now, asks Snow, what will happen to life, with money continuing to go for arms instead of bread? He gives three models. The Hrst is the gloomiest and the most likely. It reads: The relations between the super-powers will not alter much. They will still co-exist, in the sense of avoiding major war. They will spend increasing sums on armaments, anti-ballistic missiles and so on: There will be no greater security for either, and probably not much less. lntemally, they will change less than many who live in other countries would expect. This will disappoint both their friends and their enemies. The U.S.S.R. is a very stable society. So,despite all surface appearances, is the U.S.A. 14 I CAMPUS MINISTRY Both the American and Soviet societies will get richer. In many ways, the U.S.A. will get richer faster than the U.S.S.R.: in places the U.S.S.R. will concentrate its priorities effectively, and will keep up. The rest of the advanced world will polarise, as now, towards one or the other of the super-powers. The increase of population all over the rich world may get a little less. In the poor world it wou't, except in one or two pockets. Despite local successes, as in India, the food-population collision will duly occur. The attempts to prevent it, or meliorate it, will be too feeble. Famine will take charge in many countries. It may become, by the end of the period, endemic famine. There will be suffering and desperation on a scale as yet unknown. This suffering will be witnessed- since our communications will be even better-by the advanced countries, where populations will be living better than they are today. It is hard to imagine the psychological and political conditions which will be created by such a gap. Some of us are lucky who won't have to live in them. Without question, the rich populations will feel they are in a state of siege, sometimes in a literal sense: and it may be that our present unease is a shadow thrown backwards from the future. Snow's second model is a more optimistic revision of the first one. It amumes the production of more food via improved technology. Snow's last model is the most unlikely. It called for breaking out of the state of siege, or at least, attempting to. And despite detente, we see little evidence that this model will be enacted. And so, in this light, consider what our world may be like within 20 or 30 years. Millions will be starving. There will be a state of siege. Hungry millions of people, fellow human beings, will want our food, in exchange for their oil, minerals, etc. We shall want and need justifications for being among those with enough to eat. We shall need rationalizations for our life within a fortress America . In this setting, fundamentalist, literalistic religion will in all likeli- hood enjoy astonishing success. Revivals will pack 'em in . People will find comfort and reassurance in church. As either Marx or Freud would have known, a state of siege can only be bom behind the walls of religion. As Sinclair Lewis allegedly said, The only two places where you find stained glass windows are bars and churchesg both are escapes from realityf' The revival of revivalism and personaljstic pietism is already with us, and it is only the beginning. In my view, such religion is parody, sham, and hypocrisy, and it will be exposed as a house of demonic cards and as an opium den. Such religion may produce the psychotic illusion that we are safe, that we are God's people while other human beings die. Such religion may work with society and its media to abstract and obscure the realities. However, it cannot in any sense be pronounced as anything other than heresy and perversion in the light of the historic Jewish and Christian traditions and commitments. Ah, well, I won't argue that. You either know that or you don't. Let me give you anotherrscenario. Scenario-endebted both to Will D. Campbell and Jacques Ellul The year is 1985. The scene is the state of siege . America itself now knows shortages that were first hinted at in 1973 as belonging to our future. The planet's endemic famine has deeply affected our own land. Many of our own poorest citizens are now suffering severe protein and vitamin deficiencies and significant numbers are dying- starving, really, although the weekly body count in the media doesn't list causes. White Town and Black Town have now become reality. Passage between the two has been restricted and passes for blacks to enter White Town are issued for work only. fWhites simply do not enter Black Town.l In Black Town, there is great hunger, surpassing that of isolated enclaves of poor whites. There simply is not enough food, and the government is concemed about freeloaders . A roundup of welfare recipients is held to determine eligibility for being on the government's food rolls. It becomes clear that some will be fed, but only some, in what Washington describes as a humane policy.