ITHACA, N. Y.--There is a sign over Schoellkopf Field which reads, "Alcoholic Beverages Prohibited;" Cornell's school motto is "Freedom and Responsibility." Obviously there is somewhat of a contradiction between the two phrases, and it is best explained by the Dean of Men, Frank C. Baldwin, when he says, "It's time for a change at Cornell."

Long have the men from Cayuga's waters unrestrainedly enjoyed the pleasures of wine, women and song. So long indeed, that the slogan "Freedom and Responsibility" has come to mean "Freedom from Responsibility" or "Laissez-faire" when applied to social life.

Any post-adolescents from the ages of 18 to 22, gathered together in a large social group, need to have some sort of administrative club held over their heads if a mild sort of chaos is to be avoided. At Cornell the power of administration has been so clouded over by the "Freedom and Responsibility" catchphrase that chaos has grown steadily on campus. The administration has finally decided that it must stop.

Cornell students have always felt that they should be allowed to solve their own social problems as they arise. This idea is very nice if students can recognize the problems, but the Cornell students have been manifestly unable or unwilling, probably the latter, to recognize them.

Located in a relatively isolated area, Cornell, through both its isolation and its large and powerful fraternity system, has come to enjoy a reputation for being an even bigger "blast weekend" college than its Ivy League brother, Dart-mouth.

Spring and Fall Weekends

Most notable are the Spring and Fall weekends which have long enjoyed an almost national fame for their intense concentration of sex and liquor into a compact and often uninterrupted 48-hour span.

It was not until the Spring weekend of 1957, however, that events reached what might, perhaps, be termed an excess.

One man died in a fall from a fraternity window, several others were seriously injured, and there were numerous casualties involving automobiles and their tipsy drivers. A total of 50 accidents was recorded, and President Deane W. Malott decided that something had to be done to change the existing social code.

Besides a staggeringly large amount of drinking, there were also many cases of men sleeping with their dates in various corners of fraternity house rooms and other convenient spots. Destruction of property was fairly wide-spread, and nearly $5,000 worth of goods were stolen from the campus houses during the weekend.

Malott told the student leaders to act fast to change the system or the faculty would change it for them. This appeal to the student body was a last, feeble call based on the old "Freedom and Responsibility" slogan: that is, the students should work out their own problems by themselves. This appeared a bit ridiculous since the validity of "Freedom and Responsibility" rests largely on the recognition by the group of its responsibility. The Cornell student body had to be told to recognize its responsibility.

Drinking in the Stands

The reason behind the decision to give the students a chance to solve their problem came from the furor aroused by a similar incident in the fall of 1956. At that time, drinking in the Cornell stands at Schoellkopf Field during the Cornell-Harvard game reached such proportions that the Cornell Athletic Association decided to prohibit the use of alcoholic beverages in the stands.

This ban unfortunately coincided with the Cornell Fall Weekend, and the student body raised its voice in righteous indignation.

The Cornell Daily Sun, feeling its way cautiously, had this to say about the matter: "We recognize that a drinking problem exists on campus."