THE
FLORIDA'S OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER
STETSON REPORTER
Volume 80
Friday, May 17, 1968
NUMBER 23
Largest Class Since '50 Graduates
Miss Smith
Retires As
Librarian
Mr. Dudley Yates, 35, presently Assistant Director of University Libraries at the University of Southwest Louisiana,
has been named the Librarian
of Stetson's duPont — Ball Library as of June 15.
Librarian Miss Charlotte
Smith, who is completing 29
years of service to Stetson will
take a much deserved rest by
touring Europe this summer
and will return in the fall on a
part-time basis as a documents
librarian.
Mr. Yates has a bachelor's
degree in English from Northeast Louisiana State College, a
masters of Library Science
from L.S.U., and a masters in
anthropology from L.S.U.
Before going to Southwest
Louisiana, Mr. Yates was on
the faculty of Parsons College.
He is a Baptist, married and
has two sons.
FOR THE FIRST TIME President Geren will grant degrees to Stetson's 363 graduates with Chancellor Edmunds assisting. The ceremony
will be held in the Forest of Arden on the evening of June 2.
Russell Kirk Traces Urban Disintegration
Dr. Russell Kirk, leading conservative scholar and philosopher, cited "personal and social disintegration" rather than
poverty as the cause of the
urban crisis in the U.S. today.
His remarks were made Monday night at the first lecture
of Stetson's Political Emphasis
Week, entitled "Dialogue "68"
and keynoting on the problems
of the urban areas. The week's
program had originally been
scheduled to begin March 18
but was posponed when the appearance of Negro comedian
and civil rights activist Dick
Gregory was cancelled at the
request of Stetson's Board of
Trutsees.
A well-known author and
columnist, .Kirk's daily column, "To the Point," appears
"in more than one hundred
newspapers . across . America
"and his book. The Conservative Mind, is recognized as a
major tenant of modern enlightened conservatism.
Kirk attacked the emphasis
placed on poverty in trying to
solve the unrest of the ghettos.
He contended that the poor
would always be with us and
that "poverty is <a by-product of
the personal, social disintegration which is not" caused by
poverty but a phenomena of it."
To substantiate this claim,
Kirk referred to the many other
places in the world that are in
much worse shape than the
U.S. in terms of absolute in-.
. come and the absence of trouble they have had. He- commented that if poverty had been
the cause of the recent riots,
they would have occured much
earlier when the average in
come was much lower and
when a greater percentage of
American families were pover-
ty-s,t'T_cke__.
Tracing the deterioration of
the core city from the time of
its prime in the 19th Century
to the present, Kirk gave the
development of the auto as one
factor. It gave the leadership of
the community the opportunity
to move out of the city and
broke up the basic neighborhood unit. About the same time
came the influx of immigrants
from Europe. However, because they were more prosperous than they had been and because they brought their own
organization and church with
them", they adapted will to the
urban life. Kirk stated.
World War II signaled the
beginning of the crisis when
the influx of rural Negros from
the South into the Northern cities began. Because they had
no organization, did not bring
their church with them, and
had no experience in urban
living, their adjustment to the
new environment was slow and
and painful.
Kirk condemned the Federal government for trying to
ease this adjustment by mass
urban renewal. He said this
"federal bulldozer" creates an
"urban desert" and in turn
HO T I G E
LEADEBSHIP
DA* HAS BEEN ■
CANCELLED
destroys family and racial unity.
The Aid to Dependent Children program drew the most
criticism from Kirk because of
its contribution to the social
disintegration of the urban
dweller. He called it a " "subsidy to bastardy" and noted
that many fathers leave their
wives because the welfare
checks will be bigger and that
children in order to receive
more benefits.
The basic causes of ' the recent riots are an outgrowth of
this, Kirk contended. It is be
cause the present generation
is the third to survive on' welfare, that they have no roots,
landmadrks, or family. They-ar.
bored with life and most any
thing can spark them-in action,
Kirk stated.
Proposing some long-range
solutions, Kirk said that they
will come through voluntary
and local "reconstitution of the
neighborhood," and that "most
of the work will have to be
done by persons who have
some racial, ethic, _or religious
bond.
363 Degrees
To Be Given
June 2nd
Stetson's largest class since
the post-World War H veteran's
bulge will be graduated on Sunday, June 2, in the Forest of
Arden.
About 363 degrees will be conferred, 26 or these for master's
studies and the rest on the
baccalaureate level. This is tK§
biggest since June, 1950, when
over 450 degrees were granted
in liberal arts and music in
addition to 110 law degrees.
Sunday will begin early for
the graduates with the Baccalaureate Services at the First
Baptist Church at 8 a.m.
Delivering the address will be
Dr. Malcom Knight, pastor of
the Souths'ide Baptist Church of
Jacksonville.
Graduation will begin at 7
p.m. in the Forest of Arden with
President Paul F. Geren and
Chancellor J. Ollie Edmunds
granting the degrees. In case
cf rain the service will be held
in the First Baptist Church.
The granting of some 50
Jurist Doctor degrees will take
place Saturday, June 1, at the
law campus in St. Petersburg.
Seniors and their parents will
be honored by President and
Mrs. Geren at a reception in
their honor at the President's
heme at 8:30 Saturday evening.
ROTC Commissions will also
be presented during Commencement to about 55 seniors by Lt.
Col. David D.' McCorvey, Professor of Military Science. Some
of these new Army officers will
begin active duty immediately
while many have received delays in order to attend graduate
school;
VISITING CONSERVATIVE AND FACULTY LIBERALS — Dr. Russell Kirk, right at lecturn utters the modern conservative dogma while
Profs. Critoph, Hague, and Evans Johnson ponder and prepare for rebuttal at a panel discussion Monday afternoon as a nart'of Political
Emphasis week.
I
