University of Virginia Library

Md. Barely Avoids Snack Riot

Reprinted from The Washington
Post.

The University of Maryland
narrowly escaped a
student-administration
confrontation last week.

The issue: the price of potato
chips.

Students have been upset for
some time by rising prices in the
student union cafeteria. When the
cost of a bag of potato chips went
up to 15 cents and cans of soda hit
20 cents, the Student government
Association threatened to set up its
own concession and urge a mass
boycott of the University-run
cafeteria.

The administration quickly
moved the price of potato chips
back to 10 cents and averted a
confrontation.

The Maryland issue of the week
was hardly in the same league as the
dissatisfactions that have brought
turmoil to Columbia University and
other campuses in the last year.

But its occurrence points up the
existence of these potentially
volatile forces on the campus this
fall:

A legacy of student protest
from last spring, when students
demanded an end to what they
called racism on the campus.

A University president, Wilson
H. Elkins, who has denounced
student activism and said that
members of Students for a
Democratic Society should not be
allowed on campuses.

A newly appointed vice
president for student affairs who
has announced his distaste for
confrontations with students.

A student-body president,
elected last spring as a moderate,
who has returned this fall willing to
plan demonstrations to get the
University to recognize the
concerns of the students.

The apathy of the majority of
students — a question endlessly
debated on primarily commuter
campuses of Maryland's size
(32,000 students in College Park) —
remains a factor at Maryland.

Some campus cynics have said
the potato-chip issue was raised to
gain the attention of the students
who do not participate actively in
campus life.

But the difference this year at
Maryland is in the attitude of the
Student Government Association.

Under the leadership of
president Jerry Fleischer, a senior
psychology major, SGA has committed itself to combating
what it calls racism at the
University. The ten delegates to the
National Student Association
convention last summer voluntarily
turned in their credentials upon
deciding that the delegation's
all-white membership showed the
"institutional racism" of the
University.

Black students through the
campus chapter of the Congress of
Racial Equality raised the issue of
racism last spring when they
demanded a number of changes —
including a new course in Negro
history. Some changes have bee
made, and a student-faculty-administration
on integration is
deliberating on others.

CORE met this week and
decided to call itself the Black
Student Union this year, but put
off immediate action on campus
issues, because officers have not
been elected and partly because the
new SGA stance seemed
encouraging to them.

The campus SDS group also met
this week, and, although one of its
leaders said the organization "has
been without a program too long,"
the consensus seemed to be to
support the SGA for the moment
and concentrate activities on
off-campus issues such as next
week's hearings by the House
Committee on Un-American
Activities.

SGA President Fleischer's hopes
for eliminating racism must have
received a jolt in the aftermath of
an incident that occurred at the
first football game of the season.
University cheerleaders performed a
number that featured prominent
waving and display of Confederate
flags. Many whites as well as blacks
were offended.

When the cheerleaders' budget
came up before SGA, Fleischer
suggested that approval of funds be
conditioned on an apology by the
cheerleaders to the student body.
The motion was defeated and the
cheerleaders received their $2100.

J. Winston Martin, the new vice
president for student affairs, hopes
to avoid confrontations by creating
opportunities for students and
administrators to talk over their
differences.

Enrollment at the University
increased far above this year's
projections and classes are
becoming more crowded. The
Board of Regents voted yesterday
to raise charges to students.

SGA complained to the Board
of Regents yesterday that students
were not consulted on the fee
increases and requested to be
included in future budget planning.