University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor

Education Outside The Classroom

Having read your editorial on
Newcomb Hall, I heartily agree.
The most significant contribution
that university has made to my life
is the exposure to viewpoints
radically different from my own.

After ten years of attendance at
several universities, I am convinced
that most of the student's
education occurs outside the
classroom in informal discussions or
work sessions with his fellow
students. It is my belief that it is of
primary importance for the
university to maximize contact
between different groups of
students and faculty. Although I
have been here only this year, it
appears to me that the university
community here is divided into a
number of groups which
communicate very little between
each other.

Social psychology tells us that
subgroup formation is inevitable in
any large organization, particularly
when it has extensive role
differentiation. However, I assert
that a university which does not
institutionalize these affinity
groups in its organizational and
physical structures will provide a
much better educational experience
from all of its members. Thus, I
assert that a major function of a
so-called "student union" should be
to provide a place where people
from all segments of the academic
community can interact on a
human, non-structured level. As far
as I can see, such a facility is
notably lacking here.

I do agree that the Newcomb
Hall staff is quite competent in
carrying out their role as prescribed
for them. In particular, the food is
the best I have had anywhere, I find
no fault with how the staff perform
their duties, but with the definition
of what services the student union
is to provide to both students and
faculty.

Your editorial of 11 November
70 hit on many of the problems of
Student Council elections at the
University. However, although
party leaders deserve some blame
for the lack of candidates in some
elections, I believe you have missed
a number of points which place the
onus elsewhere.

First, many of the good
candidates are members of
honoraries on the Grounds; and
whether consciously or not, these
honoraries have encouraged these
people to wait for the spring until
the Honor Committee elections.
This same problem plagues all party
officers who search for candidates.
In addition, too many potentially
good candidates are waiting for
positions in the IFC, the U. Union
and other organizations.

Regardless of how early these
people are approached, they rarely
deign to consider Student Council.
The end result is that both parties
have 4 or 5 people running for
nomination in the fall and 14 or 15
in the spring after the losers have
been weeded out of the other
organizations. The Jefferson Party
and the VPP both had this
experience last year. Perhaps the
answer is to make Student Council
more enticing by making it more
effective.

Or perhaps the answer is to
encourage those members of
societies and organizations to
pocket their "Higher Ambitions".
The answer is not, however, and has
never been to contact the
candidates earlier in the year for
their answer is always the same -
"I'm waiting."

* * *

After digesting your usual
portion of frivolous trivialities in
Thursday's edition of The Cavalier
Daily we were particularly
astonished by the editorial
regarding football etiquette. After
four years of attendance at UVa
football games what we have
noticed is not a preponderance of
"obnoxious" activity, but rather a
decided lack of any activity. It
therefore seems to us that the
creation of any crowd reaction
whatsoever is a marked
improvement over the apathy and
remorseful intoxication now
plaguing Scott Stadium.

It seems even stranger that a
self-righteous, repressive cadre of
fascists (the Student Stadium
Committee) is allowed to run
rampant through the stands
arbitrarily passing judgement on
obnoxious activity; while our
"cheerleaders" stand as silent
sentinels to the weekly fiasco in
Scott Stadium. The paradox is that
the raison d'etre of the cheerleading
squad in the first place is to initiate
raucous support for the team from
the fans.

We are by no means condoning
the performance of disruptive acts
in the stands which may interrupt
team play, whistle blowing, etc.; we
hasten to add the fact that the
disruption of our incredibly
simplistic offense would take much
more than crowd enthusiasm. What
we do suggest is that the Student
Stadium Committee occupy itself
with its walkie-talkies and leave the
fans to occupy themselves with
vibrant support of the team.

Despite the presence of the
offensive Student Committee we
will be actively supporting our
offensive genius this Saturday. We
will not be intimidated by the
pious, empty threats of your goons.

* * *

On the night of October 26, we
were approached by a girl living on
our hall who suggested that we
prove to two second year men that
Mary Munford girls were friendly
and willing to meet people. Not
wanting to appear snobbish, we
went down to the lobby to talk.
One of the lads immediately asked,
"Where do you want to go? Quite
taken aback, we explained that we
were just trying to be friendly and
wanted only to talk.

We then added that we were
writing papers and could not talk
for long. The two lads then became
somewhat disinterested (which they
showed by their lack of dynamic
conversation), so we decided to
resume our academic activities.
However, we told the lads that we
would see if there were any girls
that "wanted to go somewhere"
(with the somewhere still being left
vague).

These two lads, John Alexander
and Scot Landeman, then
proceeded to write to the CD and
refer to us as "ninth-grade
rednecks." We feel that their entire
letter grossly misrepresented the
situation at Mary Munford and the
attitudes of the girls living there.
They did not give us a chance to
even develop a conversation with
them; in fact after we explained our
"paper" dilemma they appeared
unwilling to even continue talking
with us.

Come on lads, there is more to a
Mary Munford girl than just "going
somewhere," and until you and
many others realize this, you will
be missing out on some intelligent
conversation and maybe even a
good friend!

* * *

The letter to the editor from
several women, which was
published in the November 12 CD,
is a little disconcerting to me.

Do they really believe that a
Jewish attitude would not also help
the situation they so graphically
deplore?