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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, November 8, 1967
Dump the ASC, try again
The recent death of the campus political party Vox Populi strikes a sensitive spot in the affairs of KU's All Student Council. Vox Populi's extinction and the factors contributing to its failure are symptoms of a crippling illness within the ASC, an illness which may now have become fatal in effect.
"Vox Populi as a political institution has found its purposes mired in apathy," the official obituary read. "We feel the present apathy stems from the ineffectiveness of student government." Vox Populi died because of apathy.
The newly formed Independent Student Party was organized last week to combat that disease. "Perhaps as freshmen we believed them (ASC representatives), but soon we learned the futility of expecting anything from student government as it now exists," the new party's platform preamble read. "Many of us settled into apathy."
Vox Populi, at its death, hoped for a student government "really representative of student opinion." Indeed, there is no sense in hoping for such a condition—it already exists. The apathy in KU's student government is a reflection of the impressive lack of enthusiasm of its constituents.
Who cares about student government at KU? Certainly not those students outside the ASC inner circle. And who, for that matter, cares about apathy? What better example of democracy at work—government reflecting the feelings of those to whom it accounts?
Clearly, our model democracy works too well in some ways. The opposite is true elsewhere, however.
Student government at KU has all the trappings of a mock-up of U.S. political activity—opposing parties, election platforms designed to attract the vote, caucus decisions, etc. Although political parties are crucial to the operation of our national government, they have seriously inhibited ASC's stated goals by introducing petty politics, political games, and the like.
The no-care attitude in and about our student government is a vicious circle. The ASC has failed to provide leadership because of this and other internal inhibiting forces, even to the point of embarrassment as when several independent students upstaged the ASC this semester on the library issue. Seeing this, students lose faith in and can not support their government.
Student government at KU, therefore, must change. It must take courage in hand, face the agony of self-analysis, then reorganize and try again.
Possibilities for reshaping the ASC into an effective, dynamic institution include the following: Establish a governing council comprised of class officers, or of living group officers, or of campus interest-group delegates, or of volunteers from the student population, or even establish a specially tailored constitutional monarchy. Granted, these proposals are possibilities shot full of holes . . . but one of them might just be the start of what KU deserves in student government.
But in any case, the ASC should be dumped. It has been a disappointing, inadequate effort. Let's try another way.
Allan Northcutt Editorial Editor
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"Say—What Ever Happened To That Good Old American Know-How We Used To Hear About?"
Paperbacks
One non-fiction book that will interest many, Fred Goerner's The Search for Amelia Earhart (Dell, 95 cents). Here is a story that has absorbed the world since the famous flier from Atchison, Kan, disappeared in the Pacific in 1937. Speculation about her continues, and this book entertainingly considers the mystery of what happened.
THE MAN OF PROPERTY, by John Gawlsworth (Signet Classics, 95 cents)—Which is volume one of that which became "The Forsyte Saga." If you don't like detaching one book from the big one you might be opposed to reading this, but in its gentle, old-fashioned way it tells beautifully the story of Soames Forsyte and the woman he tries to buy. Somewhat Victorian, perhaps, but mighty good reading still.
GERMAN PHONETIC DICATION, by Bernard Rechtschafen and Conrad P. Homberger (Signet, 75 cents)—A handy guide by two language professors. It converts English into German and German into English at a glance, all by phonetics. No plot to describe.
The Hill With It by john hill
It was dark and noisy as usual in the Gooselight Bar near the Student Onion when I went in and noticed a friend of mine sitting alone at the bar.
"Hi Charley," I said, joining him, "How are you?"
Charley, who had been hunched over his beer with the collar of his coat turned up, slowly looked around and regarded me with a cold stare.
"You don't really care how I am," Charley snarled out of the side of his mouth. "You're just following the programmed dictates of your socially-oriented personal associations, expecting by your pseudo-interest in the real me to improve your peer-group rating in your own eyes."
"Good 'ol Charley," I thought to myself, "lotsa laughs."
"Among the many things I don't need are your comradely jabs at my arm, accompanied by your personal string of favorite trite expressions, your general appearance as a walking cliché, notwithstanding."
"Been hittin' the 'ol drinky-drinky, eh Charley?"
Funny thing about Charley. When he's sober during the day, he'll stagger around, mumble rather inarticulately, and smile happily. Get a few drinks in him and he'd get dead serious, enunciate clearly, and use long words I'd never heard of.
"Look," I said, after considering what he said about me using trite phrases all the time, "that just won't get it, i.e., I can't see it. It just won't cut the mustard, as it were."
"Voltaire once said that one great use of words is to hide our thoughts, but in your case, you're so trite, few indications point toward your actually possessing thoughts of your own. The more you communicate in being verbal, the less you communicate in reality."
I rarely understood what Charley was saying, so all this didn't bother me. Charley's the kind of guy that would open a bookie joint and run it as a front for the candy store he had hidden in back.
"You know, you really hit the nail on the head, Charley," I said, thinking it over a little. "Yeah, you really called that one right."
"Did the last starving remnants of any creative thought you might once have possessed slink away with the last of your integrity toward expressing your true feelings?"
"You know something, Charley," I said, not even trying to figure out what he was talking about, as I looked from side to side and leaned closer, "I think that sometimes people just put up a front, as it were."
For a few moments Charley sat in complete awe at my insight.
"And these trite expressions you mentioned are just what they hide behind." I finished, looking pleased with myself.
For once, Charley was speechless.
"You know." I said, jabbing Charley on the arm, "it sure feels good to really communicate with someone for a change. I think that people don't really communicate sometimes."
Charley was in some kind of a daze then, as he slowly got off the barstool and quietly walked into the night.
"Ain't it the truth, though," I heard him mumble to himself. "Sure beats the hell outta me..."
Letter to the editor
To the Editor:
CIA petition in Strong Hall
On the authority of Time magazine, we know that the Central Intelligence Agency is "the world's most reviled spy network." We know that the CIA has its hands on the reins of governments throughout the world.
But the CIA operates in America, too. How is it possible to have a secret police in an "open society?"
CIA involvement in Project Camelot, Michigan State University and the National Student Association are notorious examples of its methods which have
received soothing democratic and moral criticism. And yet the CIA is still with us.
Our society must exercise itself of this publicly unaccountable and, therefore, totalitarian institution. As members of the academic community, we are appalled to find that an institution like the CIA whose purpose is human manipulation can be permitted to exercise its power in an institution like the University whose purpose is human freedom.
We, therefore, require that the University either justify or discontinue such contradictions.
The CIA will be conducting interviews in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Office, Strong Hall, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We will also be there compiling a petition expressing our discontent with University support of the CIA. Let the University know what you think, too.
Bob Howard
Wichita junior,
Mike Warner
Graduate student,
Steve Heren
Graduate student,
Mehmet Kuraynak
Graduate student