Jill Shand

Of all the misrepresentational, factually-distorted editorials it has been my misfortune to read. R.J.B.'s' (on the co-option of Miss Jill Shand to the Students' Executive takes the biscuit. It was misinformed; it was distorted; it was syllogistically ludicrous; and it is not what one expects from a 'Salient' editorial.

Recapturing briefly: the writer's premises were that Miss Shand was a first year student and therefore incapable of executive responsibilty; that she did not present herself as a candidate at the annual Executive elections, and that those persons who did present themselves as candidates should have received first preference for co-option to the Executive body; that the Executive acted in an under-hand manner 'because they wanted someone of their own persuasion, a nice, safe, doesn't - speak - at - the - wrong - time - person,' to use R.J.B.'s words. Let us examine these assertions in the light of what really occurred; then each individual member of this Association can interpret these facts in the way in which he chooses.

Merely because a person is a first-year student, does this preclude them having the ability to tackle—and tackle successfully—Executive responsibility? This is a stupid standpoint, the logical collateral being that all Third, Fourth and Fifth-year students will have such ability as is apparently lacking in 'Freshers'. To me this position is untenable, and the first of R.J.B.'s unwarrantable assertions dissolves.

The writer then raises the partially valid point concerning the apparent passing over of those students who did present themselves at the previous election, in favour of Miss Shand. The point is that the position as to the vacancy of the Cultural Affairs Portfolio was advertised on Student Notice Boards, and only two nominations were put forward. The Executive body, in the normal way expressed a preference for one of the two candidates. As there were only two nominations (not surprising since it was Just before Finals) the obvious question is, where were all the "hundreds of senior students who would by their experience alone be more capable to handle the Cultural Affairs Portfolio": the truth is, that with Finals on their hands, these persons were just not interested.

The second assertion of R.J.B. facts, as did the first, into triviality. Finally, R.J.B. asserts that the Executive wanted someone of their own persuasion'; I am not prepared to argue what that persuasion is, since in my opinion, most shades of student opinion are represented, from the 'radical to the reactionary'. In order that may clarify the interpretation I place on this assertion of R.J.B.'s, it could be noted that two days after the current issue of "Salient" appeared. Miss Shand was circulating a Petition to 'preserve Extravaganza', an issue which the Executive pronounced adversely upon at its previous meeting; this hardly seems the action of a 'safe, doesn't-speak-at-the-wrong-time-person.'

As a concluding remark I could note what is a personal opinion: the purpose of this editorial was to criticise the Executive, and the co-option of Miss Shand was used as a rather primitive tool. It is certainly healthy to see and hear the Executive criticised; but such criticism should be informed and intelligent, especially when it is, apparently. Editorial opinion: in the case under consideration, and for the above reasons. I submit that such was most definitely not the case.—

Little Letters

Correspondents in Salient columns should try to keep letters to the minimum amount of words. Type them if possible.

Sir,—All reasonable women should now know that a man 'will take what he can from a body which attracts him. But he will marry a woman whom he respects." Your attitude could not have been put more succinctly.

Once this is known it is easier for a woman to know the sort of man for whom she can have no respect.—

Sir,—There once was a man who went around taking what he could from bodies which attracted him and then loosing his respect for them. He did this to one University girl whose lack of Inhibition didn't tell her what a disillusioned body she would become. Another dainty, demure creature in refusing to yield her body found herself sold in a marriage based on respect.

Consider for a minute the fates that awaited these two girls who according to their personal attitudes, had reacted differently under the same University influence. The first 'femme moderne' was no doubt left slightly disillusioned but having had the sense to buy drip-dry material to make her morals out of, her avant-garden attitude needed no ironing out—in fact such an emancipation probably even came as a welcome relief from the almost suffocating restrictions that inhibited this particular type of NZ male University student—from any kind of sincerity in his foraging actions.

The fate of the second girl was very different and slightly pitiful to relate. Having kept her 'dignity' and probably her virginity she had tied herself for life to this insincere selfish man whose lack of moral and intellectual honesty is certain to produce a meaningless and humdrum marriage. Mistaking for perfect what was only greed in the face of something he could not pluck he was rewarded with a frigid female on whom to lavish his God-given impotence.

The moral of this tale for any young University girl is this. Lay yourself open to just such a charge of 'indiscriminate sleeping' (in lectures or with lecturers as you choose) so that you may escape the claim of 'respect' from those like the above-mentioned male. This way you will keep these characteristics of University life which should remain with a student until the end of her days—Independence and Liberality.

Intelligent and honest women come to University hoping to meet men as intelligent and realistic as themselves, someone who has managed to escape from just such middle-class morality as our Salient editor has depicted—men who have managed to escape the incredibly low' and uneducated standards of community morality, and who have realised that to be a student is not just a form of transition but a Way of Life!!!—