In the Real News...
The 1960s are a period of transition in which more women and minorities enroll and the university relaxes student-conduct regulations. National events, particularly U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and widespread student protests, motivate students to push for more say in everything from the way their fees are spent to the amount of research sponsored on campus by the U.S. Defense Department.
But local concerns dominate campus headlines in the 1960s. Technician, in step with Chancellor John Caldwell and other campus administrators, publishes editorials in support of integration sit-ins across North Carolina. Countless column inches also are dedicated to the issue of what to call the college as, nationally, larger land-grant institutions begin using university. Though faculty and alumni suggest North Carolina State University, the governor and UNC System administrators want the University of North Carolina at Raleigh to reflect the schools place in the consolidated system. Alumni, students and faculty are outraged and successfully lobby for North Carolina State University of the University of North Carolina at Raleigh.
Technician editorials and campus leaders also pour their energy into protesting the Speaker Ban Law, legislation that prohibited state universities from allowing speakers on campus who were known members of the Communist Party or who advocated the overthrow of the government.
Democratic Speakers Canned by SG Legislature Action
April 1, 1964 | Democratic speakers have been banned from campus.
Student Government, meeting in its regular session, yielded to conservative
pressure last night, and passed a bill banning Democrats from orating on campus.
Debate waxed hot, heavy and boringly on the bill. Introduced by Williard G.
Helms, a representative from the School of Political Science, the bill specified
that “speakers who are registered Democrats may not use state property
to spread… their subversive beliefs… nor attempt to influence the
clean-minded students at NCS.” The bill exempted students and folksingers.
Disclaimer: Don't be fooled! This article was reprinted from Technician's annual spoof edition and doesn't contain a shred of truth. For the real scoop on what's happening at NC State, visit the Technician Web site. As a public forum for student opinion, solely funded by advertising dollars, the Technician is the student newspaper at NC State. In the fall of 2005 and spring of 2006, the Technician won its first national award, a Silver Crown from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, although it had been a finalist for national awards in the past. Individual photographers and designers have also won top national awards, including several first places in the Associated Collegiate Press individual competitions. More information on the accolades of the student newspaper are available here.
Helms spoke to the bill, stating, “It has been obvious for some time
that the Democratic party has been attempting to brainwash the students at this
fine institution of the unmentionable name. Already, our Student Government
President has been corrupted by this madness, lending his name and position
to the Democratic Party in an attempt to influence the students to register
as Democrats in the forthcoming election.
Helms estimated that over 65 percent of the State student body were Democrats,
and he estimated that very nearly 100 percent of the faculty were Democrats.
Helms would not state whether he felt this was due to the liberalizing influence
of the campus or to political pressure being brought to bear upon the faculty.
Speaking against the bill “Little Johnny” Barnum, SG president
said, “Now, I don’t want to make the Republicans mad, or anything,
but I can’t feel this could really be a very good bill. On the other hand,
perhaps a medication of the bill, so that it simply banned all speakers from
campus would make the bill more workable.” Stating that he had a prior
commitment Barnum limited his answering speech to two hours, ending the debate
with a stirring appeal for free silver, saying “You shall not press down
upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon
a cross of gold.” Barnum then strode from the room with tears in his eyes,
upsetting the sleeping students in his path.
Sipping coffee stolen from the Union snack bar after it had been closed down,
Helms defeated an attempt by Mervin Pruill, chief parliamentarian, to declare
the bill nolo contender under a habeas corpus motion. Helms
challenged Pruill to look the motion up in Robert’s Rules of Order.
Pruill found that the motion required a 100 percent vote by the body. The vote
failed when Pruill voted “nay” by mistake.
The vote was called, and the motion carried after Helms, brandishing a sawed-off
shotgun, urged everyone to “remember that God, your country, and your
mother are all counting on you to do the 100 percent American thing and end
this takeover by a pro-communistic group.”
Gubernatorial candidates for the Democratic primary were unavailable for comment,
although one of I. Beverly Puddle’s press agents felt that the bill “was
a very good bill, and it’s very nice to see the students taking an interest
in politics. However, we should amend this bill, or something.”
©1964, NCSU Student Media
Liberal Arts Majors Caught in Harrelson
April 1, 1966 | Sharp-eyed detective work by certain students who, naturally, wish to remain
unnamed, initiated a thorough investigation by campus authorities and resulted
in the apprehension of an infamous ring of Liberal Arts majors who have been
indulging in illegal motor vehicle operation on the N.C.S.U. campus.
The authorities have complied with the requests of the tip-off men and refuse
to release their names and other pertinent identification, but the general consensus
is that the School of Engineering, in a fit of jealousy over their relatively
low status as compared to the nationally acclaimed School of Liberal Arts, organized
a series of shifts whereby the circular ramp of Harrelson Hall could be kept
under constant surveillance 24 hours a day.
Disclaimer: Don't be fooled! This article was reprinted from Technician's annual spoof edition and doesn't contain a shred of truth. For the real scoop on what's happening at NC State, visit the Technician Web site. As a public forum for student opinion, solely funded by advertising dollars, the Technician is the student newspaper at NC State. In the fall of 2005 and spring of 2006, the Technician won its first national award, a Silver Crown from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, although it had been a finalist for national awards in the past. Individual photographers and designers have also won top national awards, including several first places in the Associated Collegiate Press individual competitions. More information on the accolades of the student newspaper are available here.
Arriving on the scene, the police reportedly found, “… at least
14 undergraduate students racing motorized skateboards and stolen Cushmann Police
& Security motor scooters down the ramp at high rates of speed, with litter
or no regard to the safety of pedestrians.”
According to police, the contestants were split into two “classes,”
“modified stock” and “gas.” The former involved the
stolen Cushmanns and was regarded as the least dangerous of the two types of
vehicles, owing to their slow speed and second-rate handling abilities. One
racer was heard to mention that the faults inherent in the vehicle were present
only because of the necessity for safety on the streets when being operated
by their rightful owners.
The skateboards, using a stock chassis to which a small, powerful two-cylinder
engine had been mounted transversely with drive wheels on either side, were
confiscated and sent to the School of Design, where they will serve as prototypes
for later machines, which will be marketed later on in the summer and directed
to the college students’ age bracket.
Officers were reluctant to discuss the aspects of the actual racing, but did
reveal that the contestants were paired off and ran a series of elimination
heats as had been done for the past two months.
The racers were awaiting trial by the Honor Board, and reportedly have received
numerous offers from private industry to act as consulting engineers in the
production of the above mentioned skateboards.
©1966, NCSU Student Media
