'Hell Raising' Is A UDK Virtue
By Alan Jones
Being on time has always been my weakness. I'm probably the only J-school student who ever showed up late for Prof. Beth's 11 o'clock—five times. No one could forget Prof. Beth. He teaches required courses. And his inquisitions are a thing to behold. It was very simple, really. If you knew the answers, you were safe. If you didn't you'd be fielding questions the rest of the hour.
NOT ALL THE experiences at The Kansan were so edifying. One Easter vacation a campus politician wandered into the newsroom with a suspiciously bulky jacket under his arm. "What you have there, a bottle?" we asked. And believe it or not, he did.
But for discipline, the Kansan work was best. I wanted the editorial page job and got it—and spent the semester working until midnight four or five nights a week. John Husar and I had to produce two editorials a day. It sounds easy to think up one idea a day, but sometimes it takes five or six hours to do it. In turning out editorials on demand, I got a lot of juvenile writing out of my system (far from all of it, I'm afraid), and learned about producing regularly under pressure.
A few minutes later, I was relaxing in the slot man's chair, with a paper cup of champagne. Just then Dean Marvin came wandering in. He talked with us a bit, and noticed the cup. "What's in that—Seven-up, or Champagne?" he asked with a broad grin.
"Champagne."
Still smiling, he bent down to sniff the cup. He came up with an indescribable expression on his face—still wearing the smile as if he'd forgotten to remove it, eyes doubtful and questioning, and his body stiffened in utter disbelief. He said something inaudible in a baffled tone, turned around, and left. We heard nothing more about it. I think he didn't really believe it was champagne, no matter what his nose told him.
IVE LEARNED A LOT about college journalism since leaving it. The arguments that the college press should be disciplined and controlled. I've found, are only part of the whole pattern. You hear the same arguments on a city daily from advertisers, educators, police, officials, and every literate who can scrape up the price of a postage stamp.
I also found that despite everything, the UDK had a surprising amount of freedom. Established city papers tend to take the long view of things, and let issues resolve themselves, rather than rear back and raise hell about them. The reporter's only defense is to dig out the stories and the scandals and write about them anyway. Sometimes they get past the desk, and at least the reporter has done his job
The time to worry about The Kansas is not when it raises too much hell, but when it raises too little. Most journalists get fat and happy all too soon anyway; they shouldn't get that way in college.
(Mr. Jones, Class of '59, is an editorial writer with the Wichita Eagle and Beacon.)
Crusading -
(Continued from page 6) Kansan into a controversy over the old Sunnyside Housing development for married students in 1958.
(Continued from page 6)
Along similar lines was a short Kansas campaign pointing out the lack of street lighting at Louisiana and Oread Streets and the potential danger it presented to women walking in the area from molesters.
QUICKLY, THE LAWRENCE city administration approved the installation of four street lamps in the area.
Page 13
Perhaps the concepts involved in the Kansan tradition of public service were best summed up by John Peterson, Kansan managing editor in 1961, on the occasion of the Hearst award;
"The awards were for stories that investigated and reported the problems of the University. . . . This superior reporting is only possible in a crusading, liberal and free press."
committee handles matters of policy and a news committee is on hand for efficiency's sake. My over-all administration is a body called the Kansan Board, made up of students from both sides of the operation.
THE CONSTITUTION that governs my publication states general purposes of the Kansan in twelve points. Let me relate just three:
Half-Century Old-
(Continued from page 1)
"The Daily Kansan maintains a semi-conservative tone in display of news and editorial material and strives for dignity of expression and appearance.
"As the official student paper of the University, the Daily Kansan stands for the students. It supports all moves for bettering student conditions and all actions to further good student government.
"All matters of public record are published on the basis of news value. Information given to groups of sufficient size or in such manner as to become general knowledge among a considerable number of students is not confidential information. It is subject to publication with or without approval of the persons furnishing it. Every effort is made, however, to obtain information and permission of publication from the original source. It is through the faithfulness of the Daily Kansan in printing news of all student activities that it serves the students as they have a right to be served."
Details of my history and recollections fill the inside pages of today's issue. There's no need to go further here.
I will see this though. I've got a lot of good years left in me yet—I shall never acquire the sensitility of age.
1 nope I'm immortal.
University Daily Kansan
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Tuesday, Jan. 16, 1962
BERLIN — (UPI) — Two American students who spent four months in a Communist East German prison said today they were looking forward to seeing their California girl-friends and getting decent hairstuds.
Boys Headed Home After German Prison
"They want to get home as fast as possible." Pankey's father, Edgar, said. They hope to catch the first plane out of London for home.
Blessed are they who have the gift of making friends, for it is one of God's best gifts.—Thomas Hughes
Well and happy, Victor Pankey, 18, and Gilbert Ferrey, 20, both of Tustin, Calif. booked passage on a flight back to their home by way of Hamburg and London.
They showed no signs of the months they spent in prison for trying to smuggle an East Berlin girl past the Communists' anti-refugee wall.
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