University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor

'Oh This Pig Committee'

I would like to supplement the
otherwise excellent coverage of the
ROTC committee meeting appearing
in The Cavalier Daily March 19.

As people arrived at the meeting
they were greeted with a sign over
the lectern reading "Off the Pig,
Off the War Machine, Off ROTC,"
and a large inscription chalked on
the board "Oh this Pig Committee."
As the meeting progressed,
speakers were frequently interrupted
by derisive applause,
laughter, and loud, sarcastic remarks.
Two of the most outspoken
present had no connection with the
university, but had come as students'
guests. But for the unflappability
and good humor of the
chairman a much worse situation
might easily have developed.

If this sort of behavior is
tolerated as the norm, it is small
wonder that so few students or
faculty (one or two per cent in this
case) bother to attend such meetings.
No one should blame
"apathy" or "Establishment plots"
as students and faculty increasingly
avoid serving on such committees
or attending meetings. No one likes
to give up an evening with his
friends or his work just to be
insulted.

It's gratifying to learn that the
IFC in interested in cleaning up our
environment, but frankly I don't
think it's their job.

I would like to say to every
student: You are attending what is
without question the most beautiful
university in this country and
one of the most beautiful in the
world, and it is your privilege and
responsibility to keep it that way.

It's true that the streets surrounding
the University are shabby,
but they have flowering shrubs,
trees, and song birds in abundance,
things which according to scientists
are fast disappearing from the
earth. You can't walk in any
direction without finding these
priceless additions to the enjoyment
of living. What a pity that
thoughtless and careless litter is
making a slum of the environs of
what Mr. Jefferson described as his
"beautiful and hopeful university."

I am in favor of more and bigger
trash cans in strategic spots, and of
every student in the University
doing his part to keep it beautiful.

I would like to comment on an
article in a recent (2-23-70) issue of
the Virginia Weekly, in which an
obscure separatist named Herman
Ferguson somewhat incoherently
advocated the establishment of an
independent New African Republic
in the southern U.S. That a frenetic
journal like the VW lends its usual
serious credulity to this absurdity is
no surprise, since absurdities are its
normal stock in trade. Articles like
this one provoke one to hilarity on
one hand, and to disgust on the
other. All of us students are
contributing to the furtherance of
this chaff through our student
activities fee, some of which goes to
the VW.

Reading the VW is like taking
Castor oil - you can stand only a
little at a time, and even then you
abhor it. Since the VW habitually
opens its columns to twitching
gasconaders like Ferguson, his antics
could easily pass unnoticed,
and so they will, except for the
observation that the traditional
come-on for conning the feeble minded
has apparently shifted from
sham-religion to sham-civil rights.
Bobby Seale has replaced Daddy
Grace; Father Divine has yielded to
Eldridge Cleaver. The number of
dupes ready and willing to swallow
any quackery seems to be as great
as ever, with the exception that
silly radical whites are now gladly
bamboozled by charismatic imposters
like Ferguson, as we all see
constantly in the Virginia Weekly.

I would like to inform the rest
of the student body of an incident
which happened March 19 at the
Noonday Bookstore. It appears that
certain sacrifices must be made to
have more than two bookstores on
the Corner. That sacrifice is the
respect for honor at the University.

Approximately one week ago I
bought a book for a course which I
thought would be used later in the
semester. I found out today this
book will not be used so I promptly
went back to Noonday to return
the book.

The man in charge there informed
me that it is not their
policy to make refunds since
anyone could buy a book, keep it a
week, return it, get another, read it,
return it, etc. (how absurd). I
informed him that I had not read
any of the book and that the rest of
the students at U.Va. were certainly
more honorable than to do such a
thing. He said I was certainly the
exception.

What can one say when his
honor — and that of the rest of
U.Va. students — has been so
openly questioned?

I propose a student boycott of
the Noonday Bookstore until such
"polices" are changed. I do not
think it consistent for students
under such an honor system to
patronize a store which denounced
the honor of U.Va. students.