FERMENT ON THE CAMPUS]

With a title like Ferment on the Campus one does not expect a portrait of the new collegiate as per a Goodman or a Friedenberg. That is to say one does not expect anything serious either sociologically or psychologically. One does expect, however, reasonably interesting journalism. But, alas, even that is absent. Mallery has written a vapid, repetitive, rather witless account of campus activities, scattered with cliche paragraph headings (""The Dialogue Between Students and Faculty""), ""hip"" chapter headings (""How To Be Nonparanoid Though Dean""), and comments from those concerned (""Being in a fraternity helps develop your personality...but it can kill the spark of a person...""), after which Mallery notes: ""He was really trying to get at something. He seemed to be divided in himself about the values in learning to live with people... and learning how not to stand out in the wrong way."" Mallery's overall speculations are written in editorial cement: ""Today's new 'veterans' of Selma and Ghana... are bringing back to the campus a passionate identification with a crucial problem in our society and in the world itself... after hearing and reading for years about the futility of the individual in a complex and impersonal society, these young people feel they can be a part of the solution of the problem that has awakened them to action on the front lines."" Etc. Etc. Other topics: the NSA, the rivalry between the neo-conservative and the new ""left,"" crowded classrooms, administrative problems, civil rights, and a small college profile (""which I shall call Havilland""). Awful.