R
Monday, March 12. 1973
University Daily Kansan
Nonpolitical Appraisal Shapes Western Civ
By PHIL McLAUGHLIN Kansan Staff Writer
Fallo, Galeo, John Stuart Moll, Voltaire,
Netsche, Lenin, Bertrand Russell, Kate
Lewis
Kate Millett?
In that company Millett may seem like a bantam weight, but hundreds of sophomores will study her from an anthology on women's liberation in one of the last weeks of the Western Civilization Program this spring.
Some might think that women's liberation is not appropriate to a study of classics, and others might charge that the only reason for such a selection is some muscle flexing by the vocal and powerful feminist movement at the University of Kansas.
According to the director of the Western Civilization Program, James Seaver, the authoity is appropriate reading for the book. The book was an academic, not political, matter.
Seaver said that for any work to appear on the reading list, it first had to pass through a selection process and had to meet the criteria of the tacitly assumed criteria for selection.
"FIRST, THE WORKS MUST be those that are considered very important to the advancement of Western Civilization," he said.
"We feel that the readings have to be those that can be understood by sophomores at the University, and not be too obtuse, he said.
This is sometimes a problem, Seaver said, because the program is committed to using the original sources rather than in-text citations. She was impressed by Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas were dropped from the reading list in the past because students had trouble understanding them.
He said that one of the basic ideas of the program was to expose students to the great ideas and great writers and to initiate discussion on these ideas.
The reading list selection process begins each fall when the Western Civilization chapter is selected.
based upon the reactions of their students and the students' ability to handle the problems, both of which come from outside interests, both University and non-University members.
"Major changes are made in about a three-year cycle," Seaver said.
In the spring, the Western Civilization Faculty Committee decides what changes will be made in the next year's program. What changes are made in about a
A COMMITTEE OF selected western civilization instructors forms a list of possible suggestions which is then voted on by all the western civilization instructors. The result of this vote is then sent to the Western Civilization Faculty Committee which is composed of eight faculty members with ten undergraduate, all of whom are appointed by the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Seaver said that the committee's discussions focused on the beginning works of western civilization because there was not always agreement on what was timely.
Most of the changes are made at the beginning of the reading list and at the end. The reason for this, Sayer said, is that the reading list is formulated as a chronology of western civilization writers, from the time of Aristotle to the present. Most of the changes occur in the middle part of the 24-week course are considerably considered important, he said.
Debates on the inclusion of current writers arise, he said, because no one has the historical perspective to know which are the most important to western thought.
How does the women's liberation issue qualify as a classic and not just as a modern one?
"TRYING TO GET a perspective on our own time is difficult," he said. "The problem is knowing what contemporary issues are, and we try to avoid the current news issues."
J. Michel Ducey, assistant instructor of western civilization, said, "It's a very important issue now, especially in this University. But it ties into the whole issue of personal rights, not just as a current problem. The question of rights is age-old."
Harvard Wins; KU Fifth In KU Debate Tournament
A University of Kansas debate team placed fifth Saturday in the 17th Annual Heart of America Invitational Debate Thursday, held at St. Joseph's College Thursday, Friday and Saturday at KU.
Harvard defeated UCLA in the final round for first place.
Hensley and Russell placed fifth in last year's national tournament.
Bill Russell, Ormaa senior, and Bill Hensley will serve senior lost in theirQuincy lawsuit.
Parson said that Hensley and Russell also ranked among the top speakers at the KU tournament, placing fifth and eleventh respectively.
Other KU debate teams entered in the tournament were: Lydia Beeber, McPherson junior; and Lynn Goodnight, Houston junior; and Joel Goldman, Shawnee Mission junior; and Joel Webster, Carthage, Mo., sojourn.
The University of Pittsburgh placed third, and the University of Iowa placed fourth.
Donn Parson, KU debate coach and tournament director, said that Hensley and Russell had qualified for the 1972-73 national debate tournament which would be held April 8 to 11 at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
sixty major college teams from 28 states attended the Heart of America Tournament, which is considered one of the major U.S. tournaments.
Parson said he was "very pleased with the tournament." The quality of teams and the distances they came, he said, indicated that it was a good tournament.
Only these teams which placed in the top two-thirds of the tournament will be invited to return for next year's tournament. The remaining invitations will be sent to teams with good records through the 1973-74 season.
U.S. Mideast Policy Topic for Forums
The Arabian and Iranian students organizations and SUA will sponsor a forum tonight and Tuesday night on the Middle East. Guest speakers Robert Sheer and Joe Stork will discuss the relationship between North Korea and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
Stork, contributing editor of Sundance magazine and a former editor of Ramparts magazine, will speak on the "Persian-Arabian Gulf Theory" at 7:30 tonight in the Forum Room of the Kansas Union. He will present a slide show with the lecture.
Sheer, an editor of the Middle East Research Information Project in Washington, D.C., will speak on "inexercise" at 7:30 p.m. in the Big Eight Room.
ARRANGED BY
FERDINDA ROTEN GALLERIES
BALTIMORE, MD.
Slide-Tape Presentation
ABORTION—HOW IT IS!
Medical facts concerning fetal life.
Methods of abortion.
Dangerous side effects.
Starting at 10:30 a.m. Repeated every hour on the half hour ending at 10:30 p.m. in the Pine Room, 3rd floor, Kansas Union.
813 Mass. VI3-2091
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