Our Future

There were three days of beautiful April weather, a handful of distinguished scholars and social experts, and a few hundred wizened, weary seniors. What brought the weather, the experts, and the seniors together was "The Future of Our Social Order: Freedom or a Controlled Society?" - the weighty topic of the second annual Senior Symposium.

Originally planned as an incentive to keep seniors on campus during the term before graduation, the symposium attracted some five-star speakers for a series of talks and, presumably, some late-night mulling-over in the dormitories. The speeches were open to the public, but seniors planned the event, seniors raised the money (mostly from donations by campus organizations and academic departments), and, according to Scott Brown '78, head of the planning committee, the seniors pulled it off "without a hitch."

Well, almost without a hitch. A series of last-minute cancellations left the symposium planners with somewhat fewer fivestar speakers than they had counted on. Still, there was spirited debate, with some voices lamenting the demise of the "blessed community" that grew out of the upheaval of the sixties and others contending that the United States would be "saved" by the advantages of high technology. "The students who came really cared," said senior Charles Allison. "They had intelligent comments to make and they added a lot to the whole thing."

But Scott Brown said that the atten- dance was "disappointing," for which there were several possible reasons. It had already been a week for weighty topics. The symposium fell on the tail end of the New England Student Conference on Arms Control and Disarmament, and it coincided with a day-long teach-in on South Africa. "The people who went to one tended to go to the other, and they were pretty burned out," Brown said.

There was also that beautiful weather.

While some students worried about man's fate, others waited through the night insleeping bags and tents for tickets to a Green Key concert by the Grateful Dead.