Daily hansan
Monday, Dec. 4, 1961
LAWRENCE. KANSAS
59th Year, No 52
Campus Chest Reserve Funds Assimilate Loss
The chairman of the Campus Chest committee said today a fund held over from last year's Campus Chest drive has taken care of the loss on the Dukes of Dixieland concert Sunday evening.
Although ticket sales picked up Friday and Sunday, the total sales came to a total of $1,500. The concert cost $2,000.
"The Campus Chest usually holds over ten per cent of the proceeds each year as an emergency fund." Charles Hess, Kansas City junior, said. Five hundred dollars held over from last year took care of our loss on the concert."
HE SAID THE DUKES have been paid off, and only miscellaneous auditorium expenses and some advertising expenses remain to be paid. Miscellaneous expenses include such fees as for the policemen at the auditorium, the curtain-puller, and custodians.
Don McKillop, Prairie Village junior and special events chairman, blamed studies, a poor date, and lack of interest in Dixieland music for the poor showing.
"There evidently is a decided lack of interest in Dixieland music on the campus," he said. "If there was any interest at all, we could have sold more tickets than we did despite the other factors involved."
He said may students had examinations and term papers due during the next week.
"Then, too, Sunday night was a bad night for such a concert, but it was one of the two dates the Dukes could come," he explained.
"WE COULD HAVE gotten them for Dec. 10, but it would have cost a lot more," he said. "They would have just completed their stand at Eddy's (Kansas City night club) and coming here would have held them up from their next engagement."
Hess said he believed the Chest drive would be successful despite the disappointing beginning. He mentioned the telephone marathons and Battenfeld Hall's auctions as signs that students are interested in the drive.
"The Pan-Hellenic Council has voted us $100, and the Interfraternity Council is meeting tonight to vote on their donation," he said.
NEW PARTY EXPLAINED—Bruce Bee, Mission senior, snows Suzi Robbins, San Pedro, Calif., junior, information about the formation of the new political party to be organized on campus.
Third Political Party Started
Vox, UP Criticized
A third campus political party is being organized at KU to voice the opinions of those students who the organizers say are not being heard through the other two parties.
Bruce Bee, Mission senior, speaking for the organizers, said, "We feel that there is a definite need for a party which expresses a different view from that presented by the other two campus parties (Vox Populi and University Party)."
"AS STUDENTS INTERESTED in student government we feel that the other two parties are so nearly alike that many opinions are not being heard.
He explained that the organizers are now examining the possibilities of providing an outlet for these opposing views.
"There is not yet a definite party organization," he continued, "because we have been trying to find the best way to approach responsible student government."
He added, "There are a few points and a few issues, however, which we feel have been played down or overlooked by the other campus parties.
"WE FEEL THAT THERE is a definite need to bring out in the open what both parties have hidden
about NSA (the National Student Association)."
Neither party has said anything about NSA except that they didn't want it, he said. The new party has not yet taken a stand on this issue.
Weather
Turning to the area of civil rights, Bee said, "We feel that both parties take a do-nothing stand on civil rights — they don't really want any change in this area.
"We ARE opposed," he added, "to the idea of merely saying we support the Human Rights Committee of the ASC and then doing nothing about it."
"There is a need on the part of the student body to provide equal opportunities for all students on the campus and in the university community.
He said that on the various issues that occur at election time the new party will make a thorough investigation of the issues and then take a firm stand on those issues.
"It seems apparent that the other parties have been organized only for the purpose of getting their candidates elected. We're not interested in just getting Joe Blow elected — we want student government at KU to have a meaningful voice on the campus."
A cold front swung across Kansas today, putting an end to unseasonably fine weather.
Forecasters predict much colder temperatures over the entire state by tonight. Scattered showers or very light snow are expected to accompany the change.
Plans Final for Crisis Day
Katanga Threatens to Down UN Aircraft
ELISABETHVILLE, Katanga — (UPI) — The Katanga government today threatened to shoot down any United Nations aircraft flying over its territory, the U.N. reported.
A few hours earlier, Katanaga gendarmes killed one Swede of the U.N. force, wounded two others and seized three prisoners in Elisabethville's worst day of violence since the widespread fighting in September.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, special assistant to the President and Alexander Fomin, counselor to the Soviet Ambassador will be the keynote speakers for KU's World Crisis Day Dec. 14.
It was known last week that Mr. Schlesinger and Mr. Fomin were being invited. It was not learned until Saturday night, however, that Mr. Schlesinger would accept the invitation.
In the event that Mr. Schlesinger is unable to attend the Crisis Dav a suitable speaker will be provided to take his place, a member of the Crisis Dav committee said.
WHEN CONTACTED earlier last week a Russian Embassy official said they would be quite willing to send Mr. Fomin here. A call will be made today to inform the Soviets
Mr. Schlesinger, on leave from the Harvard faculty to serve as a Presidential adviser, is a noted historian and a Pulitzer Prize winner. He has written several books a few of which are: "The Crises" "The Old Order," "Politics of Uphaval," and "The Coming of the New Deal."
that the Crisis Day committee accepts their offer.
Brian O'Heron, Lawrence senior and co-chairman of the Crisis Day committee said that it is hoped both keynote speakers will be able to spend the whole day on campus.
"Plans for the day are going ahead full steam now that we have definite confirmation of speakers," he added.
THE WORLD CRISIS DAY will begin with a convocation in the morning. Both speakers will reportedly discuss the various aspects of the Cold War.
Following the principal addresses various faculty members will direct discussion groups in their particular field of interest.
Classes will not be dismissed. Students are asked to attend the smaller discussion groups when they are not in class. If a member of the faculty wants to dismiss a class this can be done since there is no University regulation for attendance.
The last part of the Crisis Day will be a general meeting to summarize and evaluate the day's activities.
A Kansan Series:
O'Heron added that if the project proves successful the steering committee will continue working to provide other such programs throughout the school year.
KU Teaching Procedures Examined
(Editor's note: This is the first in a four-part series of articles dealing with the system of classes and examinations at KU.)
By Dennis Farney
Across the hall, another class listens while an instructor lectures to them. Most students take notes, and a few raise their hands to ask questions or to contribute to the class discussion. They are taking part in an instruction system widely used at KU and other colleges and universities for the presentation of subject matter within the social sciences and the humanities—the lecture/discussion class.
The classroom is silent, except for the sound of 30 pens scratching across the pages of 30 examination booklets. Thirty students bend over their desks, all writing intently, few stopping to even glance up at the scene around them. An essay examination is in progress.
THE TWO EDUCATIONAL techniques described above — the
essay examination and the lecture- discussion class — for the backbone of the method used today at most colleges and universities in the presentation of undergraduate courses in the social sciences and the humanities.
But both techniques have been criticized recently by an American sociologist and educator as a "sheer waste" of time — for both the students and the instructor.
Nathan Glazer, co-editor of "The Lonely Crowd" (a sociological study of the changing American character) lists the following criticisms of the present system:
- The present examination system encourages the gib answer from the students and is not an accurate guage of what they have learned in a social science or humanities course.
- Most instructors give lectures inferior to "the average texts in their fields.
THESE CRITICISMS ARE included in "The Wasted Classroom," an article in the October, 1961, edition of "Harner's Magazine."
BLAH BLAH BLAH
Words of Wisdom
"No doubt certain college subjects do require both classroom teaching and as many classroom hours as are now given them," Mr. Glazer writes. "But this is not the case with most college subjects. . . . I know how classes in literature, in history, in political science and psychology and anthrology and sociology are conducted."
"In these classes a single classic mode of organization dominates our schools. Classes meet for three hours a week, some for more, some for less. They are conducted by the teacher in a lecture-discussion style . . . which is often accompanied by some 'discussion' initiated by students or teachers."
LECTURE-DISCUSSION classes have a number of defects, Mr. Glazer writes. The first, is that
"there are few (three hour college subjects in the humanities and social sciences in which 45 hours of the teacher lecturing and the student listening can be useful.
"When we realize that most students are expected to take four or five such courses, and most teachers to give three of them, it is perfectly clear what actually goes on. Teachers can perhaps — if they are good — give one or two series of good lectures a year: students — unless they are brilliant — may have something to contribute to an occasional discussion, he continues.
"As a matter of fact, however,
most teachers give lectures that are not as good as the average text in their fields . . . and most students have not read enough or heard enough to make the kind of contribution that is worth making in a class of 50 students."
(Continued on page 8)
MR. GLAZER THEN SHIFTS this