Inscape, Vol. XXXII, Issue 9

              in s c a p e
February 7, 1969
‘S V ie s T T ro te s t Ar.ns«.s Presort Folk Concert
By Nick Jankowski
College P re s s Service
PRAGUE (CPS) - Friday, Jan.
n , Jan Palach set himself afire
to protest press censorship and
the publication of the Russian
occupation newspaper ZPRAVY.
Jan was 21 years old, a student
at Charles University. He is now
dead.
It is always sad when a person
comes to the conclusion that there
is no alternative but death. Some­times
it is tragic. In this case it
was unnecessary.
I recently spent twelve days
in Prague, talking to scores of
students, workers, politicians,
journalists. None of them gave
the impression that the situation
was so grave as to merit s a c r i­fice.
In fact, I got the opposite
impression.
F irs t, there is not p re s s cen­sorship
of significance in Czech­oslovakia
at the moment. There
a re two newspapers banned in
Slovakia, but that censorship is
more a function of the Slovak
Communist Party leader, Gustav
Husak, than of the Russians.
Husak is not a popular man even
among nationalistic Slovaks.
Two magazines were banned
in Prague early in November.
They are now printing again,
as vitriolic as ever. The Prague
p re s s is generally open, candid,
and critical. There a re certainly
no blank spaces in the newspapers
as there are in South Vietnamese
publications.
I spent New Year’s Eve with
Ivan and Helen Klima, two of the
editors of LISTY, the muckraking
weekly largely responsible for
the January reforms. Sort of the
RAMPARTS of Czechoslovakia,
They in no way suggested they
were harassed by censors.
Second, the Russianoccupation
newspaper, ZPRAVY, amounts
to no more than a slight i r r ita ­tion,
not a significant threat. It
was difficult to find a copy, they
were so ra re .
It is clear there has been a
suspension in the institution of
reforms outlined last April in
the “Action Program.” But there
has not beenmuchback-stepping,
in either economic or liberalized
political reforms. The observa­ble
governmental policy has been
to make gains in one area at
the p r i c e of concessions in
another. This is a likely explana­tion
of the Smrkovsky affair; the
Russians demanded his removal,
but the people wanted him to
remain. So the Czechs removed
him, replaced him with a Slovak
progressive, and kept Smrkovsky
on the powerful Central Com­mittee
of the Communist Party.
It is open to question how long
the Czechs can continue to play
this game with the Russians.
I do not doubt that Jan Palach’s
act was politically motivated; I
do question his assessment of the
situation. At the moment, how-
'e r, it is not important to eval­uate
his assessment, but to follow
up on his act. And that is p re ­cisely
what Czech students are
doing; spontaneous demonstra­tions
of hundreds of students in
Prague, Bratislava, and Brno;
hunger strikes, chants in front
of the Russian-occupied hotel—
“RuSFians go home!"
Where these acts will lead is
unclear. Much depends on the
solidarity b e twe e n students,
workers, and intellectuals. Much
depends on the Russians. Com­munist
Party chief Dubcek has
already responded in his new
role of frightened compromiser,
issuing a warning that “such
acts could lead to a catastrop­hic
collison." One re su lt of the
coming weeks will probably be a
loss of confidence in Dubcek by
the majority of the population.
THE ARONSONS
Jan Palach’s death has sent
the nation into a state of shock.
Two more recent attempts at
self-immolation h a v e com­pounded
that state. The Czech
people, who had almost adjusted
to their new political situation,
have been jolted into awareness
again. How they will finally react
is s till a mystery.
On Campus
Patchogue-Medford School Dis­tric
t will re c ru it on campus
February 11, 1969 at 4;30p.m.
in the Placement Office. Can­didates
interested in the Suf­folk
County, Long Island School
District should sign for an
interview.
Utica City School District will
come on campus February 13,
1969 at 4:30 p.m. Those inter­ested'
in this school district
should sign for an interview.
Pine Bush Central School Dis­trict,
Orange County, will r e ­cruit
on campus February 17
at 4:30 p.m. Those interested
in the mid-Hudson area should
plan on an interview.
North Syracuse Central Schools
will recruit on campus Febru­ary
18, 1969 at4;30p.m. Those
interested in the Syracuse area
should sign the interview lis t
for an appointment with the
representative.
U.S. O f f i c e of General
Accounting, New York City will
come on campus February 19
at 10 a,m. to interview econom­ics
and mathematics majors.
Majors interested in this type
of wo r k should sign f o r
an interview on the Placement
Office Bulletin Board.
The Airforce will re c ruit on
campus February 20 in the
Campus C e n t e r at 10 a.m.
Those interested in c areer op­portunities
with the Air Force
may speak to the representa­tive
throughout the day.
Spanish Universities
Resist Franco Control
MADRID, Spain (CPS) - There
has been no re s t for Spain’s uni­versities
this year. Madrid, B ar­celona
and Seville have been
scenes of student demonstrations
and meetings, which a re banned
by the government.
Students a re protesting against
university authorities, who they
say “always speak of reforms
and never implement them,” and
against the government of Fran­cisco
Franco, who they accuse
of openly opposing university r e ­forms.
Growing Discontent
At Barcelona University, stu­dents
fighting against bad teach­ing
and what they consider out­moded
political v i ews on the
faculty stormed lecture halls and
besieged several buildings.
Police surrounded the Faculty
(school) of Economics for sev-dsiys*
In Madrid students have been
holding meetings and have posted
signs all over the city, planning
actions to emphasize the lack of
freedom for Spain’s students and
workers. 24 students were sus ­pended
from the university for
their political actions; many of
them fled the country.
Growing Alliances
The structure of the student
movement has changed. Instead
of mass demonstrations, the stu­dents
are now planning actions
aimed at specific goals. A recent
manifesto of the student com­mission
of the Spanish Com­munist
Party listed these objec­tives:
—strengthening of the student
commissions, which are political
action groups or students in the
same academic departments;
—refusing to recognize the stu­dent
governance organizations
set up by the government, and
organizing some outside the law;
-baffling the university au­thorities
with ‘ unpredictable ac­tions”;
—attacking incompetent teach­e
r s and those who oppose the
“revolutionary struggle.”
Faculties Back Strikes
Students at several universi­ties
have already begun to defy
the government's edict on “legal
student government," and to elect
representatives outside the law.
In past years, the authorities
could rely to a certain extent
on th e support of university
teachers, who habitually were
passive to the politics of higher
education.
But this year teachers have
been activated around the issue
of their meager sala ries . As­sistant
professors at Madrid Uni­versity
threatened la st fall to
strike unless their sala ries were
raised. Assured by the Ministry
of Education that action would
be taken, they went back to work.
But if the authrities fail to settle
the dispute this month, the teach­e
r s say they will begin an unlim­ited
strike.
The attitude ofuniversity auth-orites
and police has prompted
many teachers to support the
students’ demands; they often
allow students’ demands; they
allow students to hold illegal
political meetings in their lec­ture
halls.
Joe and Penny Aronson will
appear in a concert of interna­tional
folk, satiric al and humor­ous
songs Wednesday, February
12 at 8 p.m. in St, Joseph Hall.
The husband and wife team is
the fir s t presentation of the Con-c
e r t -L e c t u r e Series for the
second semester.
Joe, anactor-singer-guitarist,
is known for his r a n g e of
a c c e n t s— I r i s h , S c o t t i s h ,
Russian, Cockney—but he usually
plays straight man ■ to Penny,
who is a mime and visual com­edienne.
Songs satirizing the Age of
Anxiety will be contrasted with
out-of-the-ordlnary f o l k songs
gathered from many parts of
the world.
Joe Aronson ‘ re s e a rc h e s ” the
s o n g s and their backgrounds,
writes the introductions and con­tinuity,
original songs apd add­itional
verses to songs by other
w rite rs . He does caricatures of
international personalities for
one of their s a tiric a l parody
numbers. Joe has had cartoons
published in LOOK, SPORTS
ILLUSTRATED and other mag­azines,
At one time, he was
theatrical c ar ic atu r ist for the
PHILADELPHIA SUNDAY BUL­LETIN.
Penny plays the mandolin and
accordian, writes most of the
team’s musical arrangements,
and introduces traditional dance
movements Into some of the more
rhythmic ethnic numbers.
The Aronsons perform under
the auspices of the Association
of American Colleges’ Arts P ro ­gram,
a non-profit concert and
l e c t u r e a g e n c y which has
operated since 1937.
SAC Announces Films
By Meg Clark
Campus Briefs
Leonard Symansky, Assistant Professor of French, has been appointed
Vice-President of the French Club at the International Center of
Albany.
* * * *
Dr. Yolanda Ortal, Assistant Professor of Spanish has received word
from the editors of “Et Caetera" of Guadalajara, Mexico that the
March edition will contain a number of her poems.
♦ ♦ * *
Sister Katherine Hanley was recently appointed Chairman of the
English Department by Sister Margaret Keeshan, President. Sister
is also director of the Graduate Program in English. She recently
had an article *Walden: Forest Sonata” published in the February
issue of “American Trandscendental Quarterly,”
* * * ♦
Statistics compiled on the most recent GRE s cores for seniors indi­cate
that Nancy Connell received the highest verbal scorej Sister
Miriam Dorothy Ukeritis, CSJ earned the highest quantlUve score
and Virginia Papandrea attained the highest score in an advanced
te s t — literature,
* * ♦ ♦
A trip is scheduled to Stratford; Connecticut^to see a production of
•Much Ado About Nothing,” Saturday, May 3. Tlcl.ets ax-e $2.75 and
may stlU be obtained from Sister Rose Bernard in Room 303.
Continuing its presentation of
fine a r t films from Am e ric a .
and abroad, the Screen Arts Com­mission
p l a n n e d to show John
Ford’s ‘The Informer,” Thurs­day,
February 6. Winner of four
Academy Awards and two awards
from the New York Film Critics,
this film stands as a classic
In cinema history. Starring Vic­tor
Me Laglen, the film tells
the story of a destitute drunk
who Informs on his best friend
for the reward money. The s e t­ting
is Ireland during the Irish
Rebellion. Next in the program
is Francois Truffaut’s autobio-graphicaI“
The 400Blows,” sched­uled
for Feb. 27. Honored with
an award from the New York
Film Critics and the 1959 Can­nes
Film Festival Award for best
direction, the story concerns a
12 year old boy, who discovers
that he Is Illegitimate, knows he
Is not loved and trie s to escape
the dreary world authority has
created for him. On March 20,
the Commission presents three
short films: ‘Night and Fog*
by Alain Resnais; ''The Tender
Game" by Hubley; and “Papa-geno"
by Resnlger, Ballet comes
to the campus April 17, as Mar­got
Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev
perform in Joseph E. Levine’s
color production of “Romeo and
Juliet,” England’s Royal Ballet
Company completes the cast with
the orchestra ofthe London Royal
Opera performing the music of
S e r g e Prokofiev, Finally, the
program concludes with Telno-suke
Klnugasa’s ‘Gate of Hell,”
winner of 6 awards, including
the Grand Prize of the Cannes
Film Festival and the Academy
Award for Best Foreign Film.
Noted for its startling use of
color, the film takes up the
theme of the eternal triangle,
revealing at the same time much
of the nature of Oriental thought.
All screeiUngs will be In the
auditorium oii the dates specified
at 3 and 7. Admission Is $ .75,
$ .50 for students. Watch bulle­tin
boards for announcements of
possible informal screenings in
the lower level of the Campus
Center,
Prof Directs
Local Play
By Nancy Hartnagel
Mrs, Marla Szarvas Aronson,
Instructor In English at the Col­lege
of St, Rose, Is currently
directing the Arthur Miller play,
ALL MY SONS, at the Albany
Civic Theater. The Theater Is
celebrating its fifteenth anniver­sary
with this production.
Mrs, Aronson, .born In Hun­gary,
came to St, Rose In 1965,
and took over as d r a m a t i c s
Instructor and director of col­lege
dramatic p r o d u c t i o n s .
Including presentations of such
plays as BLITHE SPIRIT, THE
KING AND I, MAEDCHEN IN
UNIFORM, THE WOMEN, and
selections from numerous other
plays for Interclass Plays, May
19 P r o d u c t i o n and several
C h r i s tm a s Programs, Mrs,
Aronson has increased the quan­tity,
quality and student p a rt­icipation
in dramatic activity at
St. Rose. She is now in the plann­ing
stages for a Spring production
of Herman Gressieker’s ROYAL
GAMBIT, a five-act drama con­cerning
Henry VIH and his five
wives. Beatrice Manti, assistant
director under Mrs. Aronson,
claims that this offering ‘ is In
the great Aronsonian tradition
of doing something different,”
The Albany Civic Theater p re ­sentation
received good notices
from Albany c ritic s . Particularly
noteworthy, according to critics
Martin Kelly of the TIMES UNION
and R o b e r t K r l e g e r of the
KNICKERBOCKER NEWS,
Is Arthur Ploetz as the gullt-rldden
father, ALL MY SONS
Is nearing the end of Its two
week run, and has played to
capacity audiences throughout.
Mrs, Aronson has also directed
COUNTRY GIRL AND DON JUAN
IN HELL for the Civic Theater.