The Sun had, by this time, reconsidered its editorial position of Fall, 1956, and declared that the incidents of the Spring Weekend were part of "the generally unfortunate social atmosphere that pervades Cornell the year around."
With the prospect of having drastic social changes forced upon them by the faculty unless a solution were found, student leaders met early this week to formulate changes which would meet with the approval of the Committee on Student Activities and at the same time not curtail too seriously the traditions associated with the Spring and Fall weekends.
The Committee on Student Activities also submitted a report in which it presented quotations and observations from alumni, students, parents and faculty members on the situation.
The following are some of the remarks reported by the Committee:
Relevant Remarks
"We parents are deeply disturbed by the licenses permitted by Cornell University."
"I am ashamed to say I am a Cornellian."
"My daughter went to Cornell for a party and the boys acted like animals, everyone got drunk, and her clothes were ruined."
The main problems cited in the report were those of drinking, closing hours, chaperonage and separate sleeping facilities. Men were evacuating their fraternity rooms for their dates and sleeping, themselves, on cots in the basement. However, this was not the most comfortable arrangement for the men, so many of them decided to stay up all night, and often the girls decided to spend it with them.
The report observed that "couples were not separating as they were expected to do," and that "some students have not intended to use the facilities provided them but rather to spend the entire night together. This has been one of their planned objectives."
Another comment, on the subject of drink was, "The main problem seems to be the outrageous extent of drinking at Cornell. We feel the only solution, which will seem completely absurd to many Cornellians, is to ban liquor at fraternities."
Other suggestions concerned inadequate chaperoning facilities, the problems arising out of having parties running continuously through the night, and the question of whether or cars should be banned on weekends.
The attitude of the Cornell students at these "blast" weekends seemed basically to be that "anything goes." They felt obligated to maintain the good old Cornell spirit of getting as drunk as possible and letting nature taking its course after that. This social code was the rule, and the Inter-Fraternity down against Colgate, and Yovicsin saw the Red Raiders move 60 yards in the last two minutes to score their winning touchdown on six straight completions. This, too, has been duly noted.
Cornell's passing may take advantage of weaknesses in the Crimson defense, as so many throwers have in recent years. Deficiencies in this department have been carefully worked over in recent weeks, and if they have been eradicated the Crimson can concentrate on Bo Roberson, a great threat running out of Cornell's slot offense.
Despite inexperience and lack of depth, the Crimson could come through for an upset win in John Yovicsin's Ivy League debut