4
Mondav. October 24,1977
University Daily Kansan
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Comment
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kansan editorial staff. Signed columns represent only the views of the writers.
The other day, alongside newspaper stories telling of college graduates who cannot find jobs, there was a charming item saying that college educations should be valued for the "satisfactions that come from the attendance itself."
That sage bit of advice comes from a study directed by Howard Bowen, former president of Grinnell College and the University of Iowa. The study, which examined the fringe benefits of a college education, was in part an attempt to answer the contention that many Americans are overeducated.
THE STUDY includes among college's fringe benefits "the stimulus of interesting people and ideas, the sociability, the pleasant surroundings and the memorable experiences." It also notes, almost breathlessly, that "college also opens up to many people new interests, new awarenesses and new understandings that are an important basis of lifetime satisfactions."
All of this is fine stuff for a former college president to write. For those of us who plop $341.90 on the counter each semester, it is a bit hollow.
What the study fails to mention is that colleges, universities and society did not lure us to campuses by offering "the stimulus of interesting people." We were enticed by promises of jobs and careers and the assurance that a good education would reap both tangible and intangible benefits in the real world.
BUT NOW COLLEGE administrators find their classrooms stuffed with twice as many students as there are jobs, and those administrators go groping for ways to rationalize their eternal lust for higher and higher enrollment figures.
So we get "satisfactions that come from the attendance itself."
There certainly is much to be said for such nebulous reasons for attending college. Education for educator's sake is an advantage goal that is too often scoffed at by students.
But if colleges are going to continue to sell themselves, their soaring tuition rates and their escalating faculty salaries, they should at least be honest about what they have to offer to students. In addition, base their pitches on "the pleasant surroundings and the memorable experiences."
"Mr. Ford? This is Cheewes in the production department, sir. I wanted to inform you that we have already begun work on meeting the airbus requirement for our model models. It's going well."
"Oh yes sir. The consumer samplers have come back. No one seems to want them in white plastic, sir. They show dirt quite badly and, well, blood too, I suppose. Black is out too, I'm afraid. It absorbs sun easily. One woman said clear enough for an oxygen tent. It looks as if we'll need to run the gamut of colors. People seem to want a variety.
"Yes, sir, especially the stars. President Carter said he wanted peanut shaped ones in the presidential limousines. Bruce Springsteen wanted a canvas one, providing his recording contract pans out, and Barry White both requested the jumbo size, sir, as did Jackie Gleason. Twiggily would like a small one, sir, made of satin and doused in 'Joy.'
YES, SIR, we have encountered a few problems. It seems that we are not well-instructed, indentations on our air bag, sir. However, we haven't yet figured quite how to handle George Burns and his appalling
"Yes, sir, I'm well aware that Bob Hope stands a good chance
Carter has lost his moral nerve
A tape deck and a velvet airbag
The President of the United States is the national leader, and it is really no pleasure, even for the leader of a country, to minority in the House, to criticize him for his action in that capacity. But eight months of the Carter administration, the last four years and ineptitude, compounded by a moral blindness and a lack of understanding of the very processes of government, that reveal no good for the nation's health for the state of its defenses.
By JOHN RHODES
N.Y. Times Features
BUT ONLY eight months later, the administration has produced a situation in which inflation continues to rise at an annual rate of more than 6 per cent and the employment of black Americans is worse than at any time since the end of World War II—14.5 per cent
President Jimmy Carter came into office at the beginning of a long period of resurgence in the national economy. The long recession that appeared to be a long and sustained recovery in the offing.
cun of those black Americans who want to work are unable to find jobs. More than 40 per cent of black youths between the ages 8 and 24 can not find employment. That is social dynamite.
Perhaps the most dramatic illustration of the Carter administration's failure to understand the system it must govern is the energy conservation argument. I cannot understand that his energy program may light the fires of renewed inflation?
This administration has, in a very short time, appeared to lose its moral nerve.
WHY DOESN'T the President understand that encouraging the price of fuel to rise to the world market level is simply a surrender of the OPEC countries? Since when do the American people wish to surrender their economic well-being, the determination of their country's future, to a small group of Arab nations, to deliver tens of thousands of miles from our own shores?
A president who received his party's nomination with the words that the American people are tired of seeing big shots
CARTER TELLS US one day that his welfare program will not cost one dime more than those expenditures now being made, but shortly thereafter he offers a program that will cost, by his own estimates, $1.2 billion more annually. And the expenditures. And by the estimates of impartial observers, the total actually will be more than $6 billion over what we now spend.
Two recent examples of administration double-talk come ready to mind. Extracts from the memo to the President, recently published in the press, suggested that the public be kept in the dark about the likely fate of the Iraq war until the latter half of 1978. It is no coincidence that the timetable is closely synchronized with the next year's congressional election cam
IF A TAX CUT is needed,
Carter is under an obligation to tell the truth about it now and not to use it as part of his political arsenal 18 months down the road. The nation's economic health is too fragile to barter for election profiteering.
On the foreign policy front, the most recent illustration of saying one thing and doing another is that our approach in the Middle East.
Carter assures the Israelis and the American public of his commitment to Israel's fight against Iran he joins with the Soviet Union in a statement filled with code phrases about Palestinian rights and carefully crafted messages concerning Israel's right to exist.
THE PRESIDENT succeeded in bringing our foremost adversary back into a position of influence in the Middle East and at the same time in creating deep unesexuality in Europe, while Britain's commitment to the only democracy in the Middle East.
But looking at the list of paintings that were sold at the auction, one also finds a work by Kees Van Dongen bearing the title *Woman Living*. She is about to see a movie with a name like that—but somebody paid $160.00 for the painting.
If a prize had been awarded for "Best Caption", it would surely have gone to Chaim Soutine for his work, "The
Masters of brush, oils utter failures with pens
GRANTED, "THE LUTE" isn't that bad. And "Seated Man with a Glass," although certainly not particularly inspirational, may be a help to the viewer who has a problem decide just what it is that Picasso was trying to depict.
And it is art they are paying for, not literature, as evidenced by the titles artists have attached to their works. Masters with the paint brush and putty knife, who work magic with watercolors and oils, certainly make themselves come to thinking up the titles by which their works will be remembered.
If there is one strand of behavior discernible through the fabric of the Carter ad-dressing, it is the strand of ductility.
At a recent auction at Sotheby Parke Beret in New York City, a Swiss art dealer paid $440,000 for "The Lute" by Henri Matisse—a record price for a work by this artist.
Six-figure works for art works are the rule rather than the exception these days. People with money to spend are more likely to invest in matching that will continue to increase in value over the years.
Picasso's "Sated Man with a Glass" was sold to a Japanese dealer for $60,000, the highest price paid that evening.
Grant Wood, the American painter whose "American Gothic" didn't endear him to his Iowa neighbors, christened his paintings with a wry sense of humor. A painting of a rather serry-looking plateau, chicken feathers, placed in puffy, pefinears, he captioned "Adolescence." And Andrew Wyeth's "Christian World" is an expressive title for an equally expressive work of art.
Lynn Kirkman
Faulkner and Shakespeare may have been amateur artists but they're certainly not remembered for their paintings. And Michaelangelo and Rembrandt may have written great works, but their reputations are founded on other triumphs.
MASTERING THE art of working on canvas and at the typewriter is asking a great question: Are the media are different and require vastly different talents. Although one person might become proficient in both types of media, the assurance man "is indeed a rarity."
Pastry Cook with His Hands on His Hip." That's a title with all the imagination one could expect from a man who painted "Girl in Red, Standing Holding a Chair."
There are, of course, artists who title their works imaginatively.
deathless prose. Painters sometimes seem to go to extremes to find prosaic titles for their works. Often the public able to improve on the original nomenclature. Witness the famous painter, titled by his arrangement in Black and Gray."
Editorial Writer
The simple fact is that President Carter's domestic and foreign policies are nonexistent.
You probably know it by its popular title—"Whistler's Mother."
But most of the time, a visit to an art gallery won't yield any
The President has taken a series of initiatives and then public retreated as soon as these initiatives come under fire.
He has failed to grasp the global implications of each and every one of his acts. Public movements is an interlocking series of attitudes, judgments and movements that are related to an overall objective. I do not understand how we have such a policy today.
John Rhodes, R-Ariz., is minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives.
"it's off the cuff," and "shoot from the hip" in Jimmy Carter's Washington.
Rick
Thaemert
Editorial Writer
of breaking his nose. Yes, sir, I realize Wilt Chamberlain may miss the airbag completely and the windshield may break as board. We're working on it, sir.
"Johnson over in advertising suggested adding a valve to the air bag. That's the air, sir. A water bag, waterbag. Splendid idea."
"Yes, sir. I think we have materials in hand. For the economy models, we may cut corners and use cellophane. We can install miniature heating devices. Being slapped in the face with a cold airbag in winter morning, we can install a winter morning. Quite devastating indeed, sir.
"Well, we do have a few ideas. Some may see a bit farfetched air, but nonetheless I would argue that the arity of bean bag chairs, we
have thought of installing detachable airbags, sir. They'd be the hit at the drive-in or on camping trips.
"OH, AND I talked to a representative from both Ronco and Popeil, sir. They are convinced that if we can increase the amount of time the airbag stays inflated, we could sell the product as 'Bag Boat—the combination airbag and fishing equipment.' Safety-minded fisherman.' Yes, so sound ridiculous; But look what they did with the Veg-O-Matic, sir. A hit with the ladies.
"Yes, sir, Ive considered that. The Department of Transportation placed the installation cost at $120, but I'm sure we can get quite a boost from special orders and styles."
"Problems, sir? Well, a few have popped, sir. Just like large balloons. It astonished the drivers in a most peculiar way, without having struck anything, but I assure you, contrary to some accounts, sir, they are efficient. We've issued several reports. Reports show that 90 per cent of them have saved lives."
divorce tried to commit suicide by driving into a wall, sir. He was saved by the airbag, sir. He was saved by the fire, he shot himself.
"The other 10 per cent, sir? Well, one man survived the accident, but he suffocated in the bag, sir. Most tragic.
"GO ON, SIR? Well, a young man and his date were wrestling in the front seat when the woman crossed through the back seat, sir. Quite tragic, sir. But tradition tells me that's where they should've been in the first place. It might have happened, you know, sir."
"And, another couple might've survived the crash had not young hoodlums punched her and the bag as a naughty lolr. sip.
"More, sir? Well . . . a chemist was carrying belly supplies from his laboratory when he had his accident. Somehow, the helium and the airbag met and, well, we never saw him again. He'll probably show up, though.
"Oh, don't worry, sir. The minor imperfections will be cleared up before every car requires them. By the way, sir, do you still have a personalized wheel with little steering wheels on it?
"No? What, sir? Seat belts, sir? . . . Sir?"
To the editor:
Gavs influence sheepish students
What normally looks like a sea of blue knees hanging over the stairs of Wescue was a and brown Friday, Oct. 14.
KANSAN
I, as a free human, refuse to let any organization dictate what I wear. Perhuma next year will have to wear a gray hair is gay, face-haired
I came to this University out of respect for its free thinking and educational opportunities. But lo and behold, what did I see? Thousands of conforming sheep observing "Gay Day." I was appalled that an institution such as Gay Services of Kansas has so much influence over the students of this campus that it can decide what they should and should not wear.
I am embarrassed and even more, disgusted, to admit I attend a school where you are manipulated. People, don't you realize that by going along with such a group you have contributed to their cause? Is this the case? Should they "love" you for it.
Letters
creatures should all go out and buv black wigs.
Susan Blenden Lawrence sophomore
Jeans day hurt straights' rights To the edge:
What about those people who forgot about "Gay Day" and put on a pair of blue jeans, only to face a day of jokes, suspicious stares, or both? What about those students
"Wear Blue Jeans If You're Gay Day." doesn't it seem the gays care. Here we give the gays their rights, and yet they turn around and deprive thousands of people from wearing the most common clothing of the gays, because they're desperate for attention. Yes, the gays have rights, but other students have the right to wear what they want and when they want, because being categorized as gay
whose entire stock of pants consists of nothing but blue jeans? Is it fair for them to feel compelled to run herel-skeeter for a different pair of pants? The gays attract attention, but bullying can be more painful for headaches. The drug stores must love it.
The gays say the reason for "Wear Blue Jeans If You're Gay Day" is they want people to be gay. The gays have no right to force people into this experience. Neither heterosexual or homosexual has the right to discriminate against sexual attitudes. If the gays want to identify themselves, then they have the responsibility to send up a signal (such as don't disrupt and confuse people.
The gays are infringing on the rights of a great number of gay people and are infringing rights. The gay movement has gone far, but in this case too far.
Frank K. Reilly III Champaign, Ill., freshman
Discrimination bad either way To the editor:
Agreed, there are years of discrimination and there are underprivileged schools. But it is overgeneralizing to assume that all whites are privileged and all whites are privileged. Possibly that assumption may be true on junior high or high school level. And possibly that is where affirmative action should be aimed at the problem, rather than at the effect.
(whites too) should have equal rights.
The civil rights movement must finally realize an upper bound on its desires. Not to destroy the progress of equality, but to bring realization that every person
Realistically, we cannot right a past wrong. Rather, as in Bakke's case, we are creating new ones. Different standards different people is discrimination, reverse or otherwise.
Furthermore, it is ridiculous to believe that we can arbitrarily promote a certain race for a specified period of time to finally reach a computed point of equality. There is no equality between men and women in denial with 200 years (or any number) of white denial. In fact, the next step in this cycle would then be another 200 years of black denial and on and on. Since we are continuously denied with new people, we have reached a point of equality.
The point is that we should color-blindly evaluate people. With the affirmative action program, the civil rights movement has gone one step too far.
Daniel K. Vermeire Lawrence senior
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KANSAN
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