Viking_Yearbook_69

"I think there is a great dea l of discontent among the students," says Gary Waller, assistant sociology pro– fessor, a speaker at the counter-convo– cation and a member of the new University Group. "But there has been no attempt to define or understand that discontent in anything other than sheerly personal terms." " The ferment is going on here," agrees Bob Summers, activator of most PSU film programs, a speaker on Time Out Day panels. "Some of us get a little more pissed off than others and we see where we can do some little thing toward changing what we think unjust. At PSU there are a lot of stu– dents concerned but so far they've been quietly going about their sepa– rate ways to accomplish general ends without banding together." "It's the same few people trying to work on everything because the rest of the student body doesn't give a damn," declares Sarah Edelson, Arts and Letter senator, Review fiction editor, initiator of the Sit Down for Sofa demonstration. *** *** Time Out Day, a day of panel discus– sions-audience participation, flopped in November because less than one percent of the student body took interest. "The Times," a student newspaper, served with debated "honesty and integrity" for five issues, then pro– claimed itself a success and folded. The Black Student Union held a rally in the Park Blocks in support of the Black student walk-out at the University of Oregon. And Arabs and Israelis rallied and counter-rallied be– neath the trees in support of their respective nations. But the issues were distant and quietly dismissed. It was the Year of the Turtle in student government. *** *** "One problem is the prevailing American ideology that if you feel un– happy it's your fault. Another problem, is that the students of this campus , and som e of the fac ult y, feel put-down about being here- that they are at PSU because they failed to make it some– where else ," Waller claims. " 1 think a bigger factor is that over half of the students work and live oft campus . When people li ve on campus they have more time to be theoretical . They're more removed from the sys– tem as s uch, not caught up in getting a job," notes Bill Nygren, SDS and Re– sistance member-organizer. "A large part of the student body is recruited from the working class and marginal middle class, and those aren't the kids who are revolting anywhere," adds Waller . ·