6 Friday, February 8.1980 University Daily Kansan English professor looks back at his years on hill By DON MUNDAY Staff Reporter When Carroll Edwards walks through the doors of Frasher Hall to teach poetry or Shakespeare, he doesn't grimace anymore at the design of the building. When the seven-story Fraser Hall was new, however, the professor of English wanted to show what he considered to be a duplication of DeVoehns Prison, with its tiny twin towers so out of proportion that they "look like matchboxes stack on at the last minute, like an af- But Edwards will have to coexist with the intruder for only a few more months. Retirement awaits him at the end of the semester. Old Fraser was better, he says, not only because it came first but because it had individuality. Edwards' fingers savored the walnut battenisters when he went up and down to find them. He found the huge brass doorknobs, the pleniful brass fixtures and the solid wooden doors. But like almost everything else, Fraser has changed since Edwards arrived at the University of Kansas about 32 autumn ages to teach literature and composition. Nearly there is a new campus now, called campus now. Fraser's charm is only a memory. Edwards' office is now in the building named after the chancellor who had written old Fraser's death warrant. Visitors to that office in Wesco notice a door to the room. The office rebels against the door and the halls outside. The desk, for example, isn't the metal type supplied to everyone. "You just don't work as well on a metal desk as you do on a wooden one," Edwards explained. "You're not as creative. You can't pull out wood. They've proven that, you know." Actually, he doesn't have to prove it, at least to him. It's a fact the desk is wood. So are the chairs and even the shelves that are built with a branch library—they're all wood. These shelves harbor the literary giants of many eras: Ellot, Chaucer, O'Neill and Miller. Shakespeare and Domine. Winding their way around the top of the shelves that support all these books are dozens of issues from the New York Journal of Education once produced. Closed Sunday Sale Ends Sat., Feb. 16 Literature has been his life, and he has shared it with students at universities throughout the Midwest. Having spent most of his time since high school in the university world, either as a student or a teacher, David has taught on many occasions in many ways. One of the detrimental changes, he says, has been the pressure placed upon instructors to publish. Carroll Edwards "There's so much pressure for publication today, it's unusual," he says with wide eyes. "Inevitably it hurts the profession because the young guy can't spend his time on teaching, because publication comes first. sure, there's always been some pressure on Sunday Brunch Buffet 11 am to 2 pm Level2 $4.00 Buys all you can eat! Make Sunday Special! LEVEL 2 KANSAS UNION He shakes his head at the folly of it all, but then he smiles and confides. "But if you are older, like me, you can ignore all those rules!" the university level for teachers to publish, but not nearly as much as there is today." An English teacher can't ignore literature, however, and like the rest of the world, literature has changed greatly over the years. In these cases, he says, were not always for the better. "I have nothing against the modern novel," he says, "but I haven't kept up with the new ones. The last novelist I followed closely was Lawrence." Time seems to slow down in Edwards' book-filled office. The regulated pace at KU-a world on runs on a steam-voiced bicycle. He's his boyhood winter in a Colorado mining town. Take poetry, for example. The great American poets of the 20th century—Frost, Cummings, Williams—overshadow the young and notorious of their days. And novels are not what they were. "We were free then," he says, "You can't be free and safe at the same time. Well, we were free. Our parents never hovered over us like parents do today." When Edwards was growing up, Trinidad, Colo., south of Pueblo, still gave the illusion of frontier life. "We always kind of lived on the edge, never knowing what was in store for us," he says. "It was exciting, unlike life for kids before." We hadn't seen her today. "Is it no wonder they to turn to drums?" Dirty and barefoot, even in school, the offspring of the town from the doctor's son on down to the sons of the miners, banded together to find adventure. Edwards takes off his reading glasses as he thinks back to those days. Memories have no need for antical aids. "Back in grade school, we were always running from the cops. But it wasn't until I was six years old that I implies something asket from the normal order of things. Back but back, running from the school." Those early years are now only memories, but their impact upon Edwards' life is still being felt. For example, it isn't certain what he was taught of English if he hadn't read so much as a book. "Without TV, you read a lot," he says. "Jane Grey, Edgar Rice Burroughs, even the River Boys series—you had to keep your eyes on the screen." You totally absorbed yourself in reading. He'd read enough by the time he worked way into college that he found English not his least favorite subject, then, except for the Depression and war years, has been making his living through England. Edwards came to KU on the advice of a friend, who guessed that Edwards and KU would complement each other. Teaching 30 years ago was easier than teaching is today, he says. "Those who were it here when enrolment was 1,000 said it was better than when there was only 600," she says. "To say it was better with 6,000 than with the 4,000, is certainly better than with the 24,000 we have." The sentimental old building on campus, Fraser, was the center of campus life, not the Kansas Union. Yet in the early 1960s the decision was made to demolish Fraser and build a new building. That decision still boils back good more than just about anything else. "Marx once said that the capitalists will "keep tearing down the old things at a faster and faster rate. Well, I've never read much of Marx but it certainly looks like that's exactly what's happening. We've got a lot to do with it," he tended to tearown down everything we have. He had been teaching at KU nearly 20 years ago, and he was a mentime, students have been herded through his classes, have been taught literature and have graduated to find their own path. "They told us it was fall apart, but I never believed one word of it," he says. "I look at all the stone buildings in Europe, going back to the 14th century or earlier, put them on a table and marble them. They're still around, so why should we believe Fraser was fall apart? "Actually, a loophole in the rules allowed me to teach an extra year." Edward says. "They say if you are 70 after the school year starts, you can finish it out. I turned 70 on April 18 and classes back in August, so I got to stay here through the end of this semester." But the days of grading papers and leading discussions, at times to students who cared and at times to those who did not, are drawing to a close. Like the bartender in T.S. Eliot's "Waste Land," the university's Edwards, "Hurry up please, it's time." "It was great," he says. "There I was, getting paid for doing work I'd have done for nothing." Edwards' opportunity to teach, however, was appreciated. REEL TO REEL Best Buy That extra year meant another chance to review his favorite works, but he says that after 33 years at KU, a change sounds good. After he walks out of Wescoe for the last time, he may he go back to far farming, like his father did so many years ago in Colorado. He has had an opportunity to买 a parcel of land in Illinois, he says, and he is moving. The future, he says, is uncertain right now. AKAI GX-4000 DB SAVE $80⁰⁰ 4 Track 2 Channel stereo/Mono 7" *Disk with Dolby* 3 - One GX Record Head and one OX Record Head - One GX Playback Head and one OX Playback Head - Source Monitoring, Mic/Live Mixing, Sound On-Sound - Sound With Sound, Track Selector Switch, Auto-Stop, - Audio Filtering ONLY $42000 REG. *50000 Hurry Limited Quantities STEREOAM/FM RECEIVER CLEARANCE AUDIOTRONICS 928 MASSACHUSETTS DOWNTOWN Rotel 30 Watt Stereo Receiver SAVE $7500 Hurry Limited Quantities There is one thing that is certain, however. RX-404 AM/FM STEREO RECEIVER ONLY $22500 REG. *30000 AUDIOTRONICS 928 MASACHUETTI DOWNTOWN - 30 watt per channel, min. RMS, both channels diluted into 8 gmms * 2-stage amplifier with no more than 30 dB, t=1d * 2-stage amplifier with more than 40 dB, tone control for accurate clear sound * 2-stage amplifier with equalizer and tone control amplifier for quality sound reproduction Job Opportunity 1980-81 Academic Year ASSISTANT RESIDENT DIRECTOR and RESIDENT ASSISTANT at NAISMITH HALL Information including job requirements, descriptions, and applications may be obtained from the Manager's Office, Naismith Hall, 1800 Naismith Drive. Deadline for submitting applications is 5 p.m. Wed., Feb. 13. Nalsmith Hall is an equal opportunity affirmative action employer; male/female. Edwards won't miss the bleak face of new Fraser. He'll leave KU like he found it, with the memory of the real Fraser alive in his mind. Matchbox towers, indeed! 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