ing what comes naturally since the ombudsman's functions are essentially his in any event if he is doing his job. More than these three cases however, there is an even more particular application of the ombudsman concept that is attractive to me. For more than 15 years now I have worked on several college campuses with a variety of student governments. If there is one problem typical of all student governments it is one of developing effective communication with the remainder of the student body. It is almost certain today that without some special effort a student government cannot claim to be serving each of its constituents, cannot claim to know student opinion, cannot claim to be representing student interests. The problem is a complex one and a number of creative attempts have been made to face and solve it. One that had limited success for about two years at Rutgers College was something called a "sounding board"-a committee of ombudsmen. This approach built in most of the principles of the ombudsman and made student government on that campus during those years a viable force in decision-making because it was a more reliable representative of student views and concerns.
What I am suggesting is that although I see no regular and permanent future for ombudsman as university staff members there may be a place for such an officer or officers as aids to a student government. Only the University of Arkansas to my knowledge has attempted such an approach to date and it may be too early to evaluate the success of that experiment. Since the winning candidate for president of student government at Arkansas ran on a single plank platform featuring only the institution of such a program, there is some indication that students at Arkansas responded well to the idea. And if a student government can become more effectively representative via its appointment of an ombudsman, students on such a campus will participate with an enhanced role in university governance. My "second thoughts" about the ombudsman concept therefore add up to three separate propositions: 1) Appointment of an ombudsman as a permanent addition to a college staff is, in my judgment, attempting to treat the symptoms, not the causes, of very real problems that do, in fact, exist. Post(Continued on page 121)
A Good Day "at the Track" for Stanford DU's
At the annual outing of Stanford Delta U's as guests of James D . StewaTt, Stanford '25, at Hollywood Pm-k, Inglewood, California, an album of snapshots of this annual afjaiT, taken over the past several yeal's by Freci1-ick Y . Smith, Stanford '26, was pTesented to Brother Stewa1¡t. PI-esent in the DiI-ecton' Lounge of the ?"ace track of which Brother StewaTt is vice pl'esident and general manage!", were: Standing, left to Tight, Dick Richm"ds, Dick McRae, Ge01-ge Robertson, Ralph Camer, Ge01"ge Bakel', Paul Bw"ks, Jim Boyle, Paul IvlacDonald, Bill Baldl"idge, Ed Harbach, Bill Stem, George TackabuIY, Joyce Aldahl, FI'ed Smith. Kneeling, left to Tight, Dwight Roberts, Larry Hall, Hal MacRea, Ray Bakel', Ross Urquhart, Shirley Wmd, Ken MOI'tsolf, Dowell Richards.
120
DELTA UPSILON QUARTERLY •
July 1969