Tuesday, November 7. 1961 University Daily Kansan
KU Not a Diploma Mill
Page 3
It Looks This Way...
College and university enrollment showed a large increase throughout the United States this fall, and indications are that an even larger increase will be registered next year. Because of the large number of students attending colleges, many people may be lulled into a false sense of security. The next generation, they think, will be an educated generation which won't be taken in by rabble-rousers, cure-alls, and crackpot theories.
Unfortunately, however, many colleges are not doing their job. Not only are they failing to teach students to think; they are discouraging students from thinking.
AT MANY COLLEGES. all controversy is discouraged. Organizations which threaten to become controversial are harassed by the administration. Speakers with ideas which have not been accepted by most of society are not allowed to speak to students. The student newspaper is not allowed to support unpopular ideas or criticize administration policy; it is merely a publicity sheet for the institution.
Many colleges have become, in effect, corporations. They exist to turn out students on an assembly-line basis with a piece of paper called a "degree." which supposedly will help the students on their way to "the top." All students are expected to fall into line to present the best possible "public image." Don't let the public get the idea everything isn't functioning smoothly, because the public doesn't like controversy.
THE REASON FOR THIS CHANGE from college to corporation was suggested in a recent editorial in Editor & Publisher Magazine: "College administrators naturally want to present a good face to the public and are extremely unhappy when something happens to dirty that face."
Many college administrators live in horror that their "image" will be tarnished. They see a reduction in funds for new buildings when appropriation time comes around in the next legislature. They see horrified parents vowing not to send their children to that "hotbed of radicalism."
Buildings are important to take care of increasing enrollments. Funds are needed to maintain the physical plant and pay salaries. But if new buildings and bigger enrollments become an end in themselves, colleges are destroying their basis for existence.
COLLEGES DO NOT EXIST merely to give degrees. A college education includes meeting new people from different backgrounds and with different ideas. A college education is supposed to make a student evaluate his old ideas and recognize his prejudices..
Complete outward harmony does not necessarily mean that students are satisfied with everything and that everything is running smoothly in the institution. It only means that students have been kept too lazy or indifferent—or afraid—to do anything about the wrongs they see about them. Whether these wrongs concern a national problem or a school policy it is important that students are alert enough to try to find a solution to the problem.
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, for the most part, does not fit the "corporation" category discussed above. Such events as the Minority Opinion Forum bring representatives of such contrasting organizations as the "Fair Play for Cuba" Committee and the John Birch Society to speak to students. The student newspaper has been free to comment on any issue it feels important—including college policies.
When students go out of college lazy or indifferent to their surroundings they will in all probability remain that way for the rest of their life. They will keep their old prejudices, they will listen to people who have cure-alls for everything that frightens them, they will be content to let wrongs continue because it is too much trouble to "rock the boat."
Unfortunately, however, KU is an exception. KU's freedom is probably taken for granted by most of the "natives," but it is very noticeable to transfer students. This atmosphere should not be allowed to deteriorate so that KU becomes another "corporation."
If KU is one of the top five state-supported universities, as some have claimed, it is partly because of this freedom. Students, faculty members, and especially administrators should stop any "corporation" trends at KU. —Clayton Keller
Books in Review
By Calder M. Pickett Professor of Journalism
THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH, by Saul Bellow. Viking Compass. $1.95.
When this great big book came out in 1953 there were huzzas and hosannas. Many thought it the No. 1 book of the year. Though Bellow won the National Book Award for fiction in 1954, the book failed to catch on. This is too bad, for it's one of the best books of the fifties.
Augie March is a kind of Tom Jones, and his wanderings and adventures are in the mood of Tom. He is a boy out of Jewish Chicago, a young man going places, or at least any place. Always there are women for Augie, wherever he goes—college, Mexico, high society.
IT IS A VITAL AND FUNNY BOOK, ONE THAT RANGES all over the map. Augie March is a natural man, a man of few inhibitions. He tells his own story and it is a fantastic one—life as a thief, a gigolo, a sailor, a businessman, a flophouse bum, and always a lover. Though the novel rambles and is inconclusive, it does these because of Augie himself, his inconclusive nature, and the way that his life itself never really falls into any sensible pattern.
Kennedy and Doublethink Editor:
It is too bad that the English satirist Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell, is not alive today to see how President Kennedy is using his concept of doublethink as developed in the novel "1894."
Last September when the Soviet Union began their recent series of atomic tests in the atmosphere announcements from the White House said that this was a crime against humanity and that we (the United States) believed that such tests were not necessary because it was possible to gain the necessary knowledge to develop better atomic weapons from underground tests and from experimentation in laboratories. We were led to believe that the main reason that the Soviet Union was conducting atmospheric tests was to create feelings of fear in the people of the world—in other words for psychological reasons.
Recently President Kennedy announced that the United States was preparing to resume atmospheric tests if it was necessary for us to do so. This is where I believe that the concept of doublethink is used by the President. The apparent reason for the September statements was to get the world to look down on the Soviet Union for resuming atmospheric testing, because our government said that such tests were unnecessary for the further development of nuclear weapons. To some extent this was accomplished.
In his announcement that the United States may be forced to resume atmospheric tests the President is using doublethink by saying that such tests may be necessary — apparently this is to gain world approval of the United States plans to perform atmospheric tests, which Great Britain has recently approved.
Please do not misunderstand me, I am not saying that we should or should not resume atmospheric tests, nor that they are either necessary or unnecessary to our defense. I am just pointing out that our government leaders are using Orwell's concept of totalitarian doublethink in getting the people of the world to think one thing at one time and something quite different at another time.
Edbert Wayne Miller
Valley Center
graduate student
P-T-P and the American Negro Editor:
However, one question (whether a logical after- thought or not I do not know) followed the pleasant parade of images of international friendship into the door of my mind and continued to march steadily back and forth in my consciousness long after the pleasantries had passed into the silent corridors of my sub-conscious. Do our fellow Americans, the Negroes, feel at home at KU? I must admit that I could not possibly state that I have talked to enough people nor made observations leading to a conclusive conception of the sentiments of our own native-born minority group. I am merely able to say that it appears to me that the preceding question would in most cases necessarily be answered
After reading the article entitled "Why Foreign Students Feel at Home at KU" in the October 15 edition of The Kansas City Star I was very much impressed with the insight and consequent positive actions of students like Bill Dawson, originator of People-to-People. Dawson and others, who realized that pursuit of education in this country created many problems for the international student, have exhibited an eagerness to help their fellow men which is not only a tribute to KU but to the spirit of the country as a whole. It was very gratifying to learn that every possible effort is being made to remove the obstacles in the path of the happiness and self-confidence of our foreign visitors and that at present it can be said that they feel at home at KU.
negatively. It is not my intention to attempt to prove anything but only to propose this question: Granted that a great deal of progress is being made in our relations with foreign students here; nevertheless, what kind of progress is being made in our relations among ourselves? Am I alone in considering the concern for the foreign student and the apparent lack of interest in the problems of the Negro as distastefully paradoxical?
It was pointed out in the feature article of The Star that "A People-to-People council was established on the campus to help foreign students to become better integrated into American college and social life" Are our own Negro brothers and sisters made to feel comfortable at the social functions in our home as our guests are reportedly made to feel? Or do we prefer that our own students who belong to minority groups organize and engage in their own separate social functions while we play host to our foreign visitors in order to make them feel at home? It seems to me that the practice of approaching problems in their order of importance should be exercised in this regard. But then, perhaps I am erroneous in holding the opinion that we should be equally zealous in striving to help our own Negro students before attempting to demonstrate our warm-hearted consideration for foreign students.
Bill Morrow
Kansas City
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Against NSA Disaffiliation Editor;
Being a former member of the ASC, and having attended a regional conference of the NSA, I was very interested in the former's decision to disaffiliate from the latter.
The relationship between ASC and NSA in recent times reminds one of a classic sibling rivalry.
THE RIVALRY WAS BASED on the much greater capability of the NSA compared to that of the ASC.
No level of discussion could sink lower than that which passes for such on the ASC. It has the sort of aroma of a glorified Sunday school — or of a meeting of girls high-school prefects. In between munched donuts is wafted the latest inside information on the probable number of down-slips... to present study anxiety over the Christmas vacation: then a peep-talk from the president on how to combat apathy.
THE ARGUMENTS PUT FORWARD for the disaffiliation with the NSA are mostly silly nonsense. The American tradition is one of "no taxation without representation." However, the YAF outlook on student government would seem to be "no taxation and no representation"; probably their and the ASC's definition of limited government. If they are serious about it, I suggest, that they promote the expansion of the Peace Corps, and ship all the liberals to Africa.
If we are concerned about the costs of argument, let us examine what we receive from the ASC compared to the NSA—for our money. From the ASC a series of "prestige" committees which rarely meet: quote "activities" unquote. From the NSA a travel organization; exact information on how other schools have handled campus problems like traffic, seating, integration, etc.; protection against overly parental tendencies of some schools; the establishment of contact with the students of other countries; the discussion of important national issues — particularly those affecting students.
IT IS OBVIOUS WHICH ORGANIZATION is more valuable.
Finally, in conclusion, what should we think of the integrity of the campus politicians — who ran for office on a pro-NSA platform—and are now afraid to discuss the issue in public — after having voted against it.
Denis Kennedy
Lawrence graduate student
Student Elections and Apathy Editor:
Recent articles in the Kansan concerning student apathy, the campus political parties and the coming election lead me to comment upon the interrelationship of these factors in the campus political process.
The point, I believe, that has been overlooked in the recent controversies is the relationship of the student to his party. The student as a member of the electorate and more important as a member of a political paty must become active in both. Political parties depend upon support for growth and effectiveness. Their platforms are written with a view toward pleasing the individual members of the party and obtaining their support.
The most obvious and most basic way for the student to express his support is to vote.
A party is the creation of the students who compose it. It can formulate a universal party policy only if this policy is an expression of the collective ideas of all party members.
If a student is dissatisfied with the campus political parties or with campus politics in general, I would ask that he look first at his relationship to his party. I would ask that he make his views known to his party representatives or at party meetings. I would further suggest that the student should follow his party's activities and participate in them as much as possible.
The political party is organized for winning elections and carrying out policy. It needs the support of the student to accomplish these ends. Let us not desert it.
Charles Patterson Rockford, Ill., junior
Going on a Picnic ?
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6th & Vt., VI 3-0350
Quarterback Club Meeting
—Exciting films of the KU-Nebraska game
Narrated by a top player.
Forum Room Student Union
Tuesday, Nov. 7
7 p.m.
Free Admission & Cokes