Gadfly to Be Published by Di and Phi Societies

Chapel Hill Weekly, Sunday February 28, 1971

 

"Gadfly" a new periodical published by the Di and Phi Literary Societies at the University of North Carolina here, has established a forum for a wider exchange of views from students and faculty--and incidentally criticizes the regular newspaper, the daily tar Heel. Gadfly also offers critiques of attitudes of student government leaders in the University. Student Government and the Tar Heel stir up strife and promote confrontation under phony circumstances and conditions, Gadfly charges.

 

Bryan Cumming, a senior from Atlanta, Ga. And editor of the Gadfly, submits a list of "Nine Major Principles" on which publication of the latest UNC newspaper is based. The Di and Phi are the debating and literary societies formed at the University in 1795.

 

These principles, describing Di-Phi ideas of modern trends in higher education should be like, follow:

 

1. "The spirit of generalization should dominate the university." The world is overrun with specialists. Concrete facts have value, and the more the better. But as a means, not an end.

 

2. Democracy is inappropriate in the academic community. The members of the academic community are not equal. University people are here for different purposes--some to teach, some to learn. Making them equal partners in making decisions injured education.

 

3. Trends toward "relevant" functional courses may reduce education to the level of vocational training--promoting narrowness, intolerance, dullness.

 

4. Students and faculty can't altogether live in the "now" generation, Assuming that contemporary intellectual thoughts are valid is risky. There is need to study history of cultural thought--to knw where we've been before we decide where we're going.

 

5. "Student enthusiasm" should not be the sole criteria for educational value. Don't debase educational standards just to give a popular course and create popularity for the professor.

 

6. Individual contact of student and teacher should be encouraged.

 

7. Education is like a great feast. To plod through the college career taking nothing but physics or Sanskrit is like attending a banquet and eating nothing but potatoes or mushrooms.

 

8. The lecture system should be the basis for a liberal education. Most indictments of the lecture system are actually well-justified complaints about individual lecturers. But such flaws do not invalidate the entire system. The lecture exposes, efficiently and conveniently, the "learned to the learners.'

 

9. The University ought to address itself to restoring the ethical and religious dimension to education. Introduce ethical and religious factors into the study of liberal arts.

 

Student government is guilty of "wasteful factionalism" at Chapel Hill, Gadfly suggests. Student Government is a "symptom and contributing cause to a malady" in the University, and student leaders seek to antagonize and promote suspicion and disrespect between students, faculty and administrators, resulting in polarization and divisiveness, he latest UNC newspaper declares.

 

Student Government and the Daily Tar Heel try to convince fellow students that officials in South Building are the "villains" and that the administrators in the University are "repressive" to students "Should the administrators fail to be cooperatively repressive, the dispatches are doctored," Gadfly asserts.

 

Gadfly appeals to students to "learn and become" rather than "get and have." Student leaders are urged to develop "greater respect for the welfare of the University." The conduct of affairs between the students, faculty, and administrators should be characterized by "courtesy" and with a concentration on "the meaning of education."