By Erasmus Baxter
AS Politics
The newly elected AS President took having an open-door policy to a whole new level by pledging to remove the doors to his office, the Vice President’s office and the legislative meeting places. (To clarify, this was when the Associated Students had a full 14-member legislature with committees and bills, which has since been replaced by the current executive-heavy University Board of Directors.) In addition, he announced that he was looking to hire for two new positions: a town crier and a court jester.
However, it was considered a big deal that only around a quarter of the student body voted. Complaints were made about long lines and delays with voting machines that made some wait over half an hour to vote. Normally, around 40 percent of the student body turned out for elections. To compare, the 2016 AS election had a turnout of around 11 percent.
In an influential political maneuver, the President of the Rugby Club ran an ad in the Front endorsing one of the presidential candidates. It featured a large picture of his face.
In light of the AS President’s victory by only 69 votes the legislature debated and voted down a proposal to skip the number 69 when sequencing bills. There was no report on whether they found this number humorous for other reasons…
Vietnam
Beginning a tradition that continues to this day, around 400 students and community members took part in a peace vigil outside the Federal Building in downtown Bellingham on a Friday afternoon. After attending a teach-in at the bird sanctuary, they marched through downtown Bellingham where they conducted a 30 minute silent peace vigil. Reactions were largely unsupportive, according to the Western Front. Passersby were quoted as saying that the march was inspired by communists, an accusation one may hear at the vigil to this day. Another reportedly asked, in regards to the students, “Do they all dress like that up there?”
Students for Peace in Vietnam also hosted a University of Washington Professor to speak on campus. As well as reporting on it, the Front ran a very fetching picture of the back of the professor’s head to go with the story.
Other Biz
A change in dining hall dress regulations made it so that Sunday dinner was the only meal that students had to dress up for. Fortunately, decorum was maintained as the ban on unhemmed shorts in the dining halls stayed in effect.
In this week’s dose of historical casual racism at Western, Club 515 planned to host an “Oriental Night” as part of the festivities to celebrate Mother’s Day.
Another self-proclaimed white liberal came out of the woodwork to attack the Black Student Union’s letter. This time, a college student wrote all the way from Chicago to tell the BSU how he was doing more to address racism than they were.
A student wrote to the Editor complaining that he was having to pay $2.50 for a haircut at the Viking Union.
The Viking Union featured a Current Affairs Briefing Center that could receive the latest news updates from the Associated Press via teletype, a machine that was basically a very early rendition of the fax machine. Perhaps one day The AS Review will adopt this exciting new technology as well.
All excerpts are from copies of the Western Front available through the Western Library Website.
ABOVE: Fifty years later the weekly Peace Vigil is still going strong. With the wide range range of participants, it looks like it may continue for years to come. Photo by Morgan Annable // AS Review