The Los Angeles Loyolan, Volume 46, Issue 14 - March 31, 1969

Los Angeles LOYOLAN VOL. 46 - NO. 14 A LOYOLA-MARYMOUNT STUDENT PUBLICATION APRIL 14, 1969 Newly-named president is ‘getting acquainted’ By Ed Ingebretsen Loyola’s newly-named president, Fr. Donald Merrifield, S.J., flew from USF to Loyola last week to visit his future charge. Arriving on 'campus Thursday, April 3, Fr. Merrifield was imme-- diately ushered into a week of heavily scheduled visits, meetings, receptions, and general all-around His arrival here prompted a rash of lobbying and vying for favors among a number of people and organizations on campus; yet Father was open to all. He received each organization and each group of students and faculty who wished to see him, and left them all with favorable impressions of a good upcoming year. Ralph Smith, Harold Brooks, and a number of other BSU members were among the first to become acquainted with Fr. Merrifield. Charlie Curtis, Minis¬ ter of Politics for the BSU, was also present for this meeting, and in an interview following it This week is “GreekWeek” for the frats April 14 at noon with the “empty keg toss,” the interfra- temity competition and social affairs known as “Greek Week” will begin. That evening in Seaver 100, there will be a “Trivia Bowl” sponsored by Phi Kappa Theta. Presiding over the contest and asking questions about trivial things from the past three cen¬ turies will be Fr. R. A. Taylor, S.J. A Pie-Eating contest sponsored by Delta Sigma Phi is sched¬ uled for Tuesday the 15th on the Lair Patio at noon. Following on Wednesday, at the Delta Sigma Phi house there will be a stag event from 4-8 pm open to all Fraternity members. Thursday the 17th of April, there will be a tug-of-war on Sul¬ livan field sponsored by Alpha Delta Gamma. That evening at 7:30 p.m. each fraternity will participate in a “skit contest.” Each will present a Greek classic of the past or present. Fraternity moderators will serve as the judges. The traditional “chariot race” will be held on Friday the 18th at noon on Sullivan Field. Sponsored by the Phi Sigma Kappa, each fraternity’s chariot will be judged on creative appearance and speed during the race. “Greek Week” will conclude that evening with an inter-frater¬ nity exchange at 8:00 p.m. The exchange wil be open to frater¬ nity members only. Marymount girls are invited to attend. “getting acquainted.” _ said, “When the BSU delegation first walked in, we could see that Fr. Merrifield was somewhat nervous. However, I was gen¬ erally impressed with our first meeting. He spoke confidently, as if he knows what’s happening, and as if he will support our ideas. I would like to reserve final judgment, though, until I see him past the talking stage and back¬ ing up lip service with action.” Curtis went on to recount an in¬ cident that occurred at the begin¬ ning of the meeting. He said that one of the BSU members present used rather colorful language, and immediately apologized. Father answered, “I don’t mind, talk any way you want. When I talk to the BSU, they can do what they want. They can criticize me, laugh at me- talk back, get upset — anything, so long as they don’t hit me.” Following his encounter with the BSU, Fr. Merrifield was the guest at an UMAS luncheon, where he met Dr. Julian Nava, a member of the Los Angeles Beard of Education. At the lunch¬ eon, Fr. Merrifield proposed that the university facilities, when not in use for academic purposes (e.g. at night), should be utilized for the benefit of the urban com¬ munity (e.g. expanded University Extension Programs, Community Conferences on Minority Prob¬ lems, etc.). Fr. Merrifield told the group of UMAS members and guests that as President of Loyola he will try to continue rapport with the different campus groups. Father said he wouid probably try to teach a Theology or Physics course in order to maintain close relations with the students. Fr. Merrifield had plenty o' surprises for everybody. While an eager group of students saS impatiently in the President’s Lounge awaiting his overdue ar¬ rival, Father was out taking things easy; walking in and out of Robert’s, greeting surprised students, and in general going out of his way to prove that presidents, even new ones, are people, too. Tuesday evening, April 8, a small group of students and faculty gathered at the house of Tony Mathews for dinner. About twenty members of the Loyola- Marymount Community were present. Mathews asked Fr. Merrifield what he thought about a mixed Board of Trustees, and Father (Continued on Page 3) Fr. Donald Merrifield, S.J. Loyolan Survey The Shape of Things To Come Last year at this time, News Editor Steve Hayes was working all night compiling the results of a Loyolan survey. The 50-item survey questioned one hundred residents on matters ranging from the quality of Food Service punch to the (predicted) effects of the coming affiliation. By John Jackson This year we decided to see if anything had changed, and what the Marymount women thought about Loyola, and vice versa. The resulting questionaire in¬ cluded 201 items. It was distri¬ buted last week to over five hundred students, residents and dayhops from both Loyola and Marymount. This article is based on what they told us. (Those who responded to the survey were: 324 Loyola students, 93 Marymount students, 300 resi¬ dents and 127 dayhops. The total represents approximately 25% of the total enrollment at both insti¬ tutions.) When we drew up the survey, John Armstrong and I wanted to find out who the men and women who attended this University are; what they think about their com¬ munity, their lives here, their studies, each other. We wanted to know what, if anything* they thought was particularly good or bad about the place, and what improvements they thought were needed. Members of the Loyolan staff and others worked 24 hours a day every day last week to tabulate and compile the answers. This article, which is the first of a series on the survey, is based upon a preliminary compilation of the 80,000 answers which we re¬ ceived. The compilation takes up well over four hundred typed and hand-written pages. It provides us with what we think is the most comprehensive and accurate pro¬ file ever done on the two thou¬ sand Loyola-Marymount under¬ grads. Because one article cannot hope to cover anything like that amount of data, topics such as the quality of the food here, the differences between classes, study habits and the library, and the (Continued on Page 4) Debaters place first in MSU tournament Loyola University debaters won first place in the national De¬ bate Tournament of Champions at Michigan State University last week. The team of John Tagg and Jim Caforio emerged victorious after eight power-matched preliminary rounds and four elimination rounds of debate. In the championship round, they defeated the Uni¬ versity of Kansas on a 6-1 decision. Lion director of forensics George Schell said this marked the second time in the past three years that Loyola has won the Tournament of Champions. Loy¬ ola won in 1967, Harvard in 1988, and Loyola in 1969. Lcyola was one of the few schools to qualify two teams for the prestigious national tourney. Brian Bennett and Mike Fernan¬ dez gave Loyola the best two- team record in the meet by reaching the quarter finals and tying for fourth place. While Tagg and Caforio were capturing first honors at the Tournament of Champions, Brian Pierik and John Rose were placing in another national tour¬ ney. In the Pi Kappa Delta National Tournament at Arizona State University, Pierik and Rose were undefeated in the preliminary rounds of championship division and emerged top-seeded. They lost only one debate in the en¬ tire tournament and won fourth place. They were one of the four teams out of eighty that received superior medals. Rose was also a superior medalist (highest honor) in ex¬ temporaneous speaking while Pierik earned a certificate. Rose achieved the highest sweep- (Continued on Page 3)