But the University also maintains a certain amount of outside control over drama, as is reflected in the fact that all play programs read "Brown University presents" rather than merely "The Sock and Buskin presents." One aspect of this control is that the University handles the money for all drama groups on the campus. "It would be tremendously difficult for us to handle the money," Talbot said. "I just can't conceive of how an undergraduate could do it."
The upshot of these various instances of University influence is a feeling among undergraduates that they are not being treated as "Brown gentlemen," but rather as "babies."
In some instances, however, it would seem that the administration is entirely justified in treating the undergraduates as babies. One of the loudest cries raised by some anguished students concerns the liquor ban of last spring. The official letter announcing the ban read as follows: "Because of excess and boisterousness during Spring weekend, the serving of alcoholic beverages at social functions is prohibited for the remainder of the academic year, except for approved senior activities during commencement week."
When one examines the facts of this case, one can readily see why the administration felt obliged to move in. At a jazz concert in the quadrangle that weekend, the state of inebriation reached such a height that a beer can narrowly missed Dean Durgin's wife. Also that weekend, a half dozen "happy" undergraduates tore up bushes in the quadrangle and did damage amounting to about $3,000. Under these circumstances, the ban might best be considered a curtailment of license rather than an abrogation of liberty.
The result of these various University controls has been the development of a rather 1984ish feeling that the "Big Brothers from University Hall" are watching everywhere. This is reflected in the fact that the radio station, which has no editorial policy and is under no visible control by the University, "feels" nevertheless that the administration is ever ready to jump in with both feet. It is also reflected in the fact that the Brown Daily Herald would speak of "apparent overtones of University Hall instigation" concerning the proposed adoption of an honor code. It is also reflected in a statement by Lewis that the administration has "a pretty tight control over everything that goes on."
Power Politics
At times, University policy has leant credence to these ill-defined feelings. One incident about which virtually all students are misinformed and about which they are all very vehement is the now notorious couch ban. On the surface it appeared like nothing more than a senseless and arbitrary use of power by the administration. Suddenly from the office of the manager of student residences came a pronouncement forbidding the use of couches in the rooms. After widespread protest, this was changed to "required registration" of couches. It is understood by some that the whole incident was merely a testing of strength in University Hall power politics, but to most it appeared like just another tightening of the administration's grip, and a senseless one at that.
It is somewhat unfortunate that this feeling should be so prevalent, and it is strange in a way. For though the Brown administration seems to exercise a good deal of control over its students, it has gradually been liberalizing its regime. According to President Barnaby C. Keeney, certain rules have been considerably relaxed over the past five years, notably those on parietals and class attendance, and the Cammarian Club has gradually taken a more and more vigorous role in making recommendations. Keeney also pointed out that the Student Court is empowered to treat several types of disciplinary cases (though it has not handled a single case yet this year).
But beyond this, the administration seems ready to extend student responsibility in other directions, always with the proviso that the students be "capable of handling it."
"I'd like to see the boys tone down on drinking themselves," Dean Durgin said, "and I'd like to see them handle the students who howl like wolves in the quadrangle at 3 a.m."
Although some student leaders view the future optimistically, within the rest of the undergraduate body there is a feeling of disillusionment with student government, a feeling that the administration is too all-powerful. This may be due to the fact that the administration is fairly strict in certain matters. Or it may be due to the fact that the administrators, in an effort to improve things, have spent a lot of time talking with student leaders, and have consequently left themselves open to charges of meddling. But most likely, it is a result of the University's policy of slow liberalization. For once students have been given some freedom, they naturally want more and more, and they tend to regard the denial of it as unjust repression.