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University Daily Kansan Thursday; October 19. 1964
Peace Corps and KU
This week KU was once again accused of apathy on a subject which has drawn much reaction and interest at other colleges and universities around the nation.
Last Monday Frank Kiehne, field representative for the Peace Corps, made the following statement to a Daily Kansan reporter:
"A lot of enthusiasm and motivation was shown by those students who came to see me. But frankly the overall performance was disappointing."
Mr. Kiehne was at the Kansas Union Monday to answer questions on the Peace Corps.
It was disgraceful that this man should have felt it necessary to comment on the turnout. There certainly should be more interest in the Peace Corps at KU than Mr. Kiehne indicated.
This is an organization that has touched the fancy of students and at almost every other institution of higher education it has been received with a great deal of enthusiasm.
Mr. Kiehne said that KU is not giving the program nearly the reception it is receiving elsewhere. He said that when he appeared at St. Louis University about 400 students were on hand to hear him talk about the Peace Corps. He reported that about 90 per cent of the graduating dentistry class at the University of Kansas City attended a speech he gave there.
But where was KU? There are many reasons Mr. Kiehne did not meet with the interest he had expected on his visit here Monday, Planning, no doubt, had something to do with this. No plans had been made to help provide Mr. Kiehne with
But still there must be a sizeable amount of student apathy, in conjunction with these reasons, to produce the results that embarrassed the University Monday.
the audience he had received elsewhere. Perhaps the Kansan is also at fault for not printing more about Mr. Kiehne's visit to the campus.
The Peace Corps is an idea that belongs to this generation of college students. Thus its success or failure will reflect on the ability of today's young men and women to take over the affairs of tomorrow's world.
It seems that the prestige of Peace Corps membership would also transfer to the University. It might be that someday the comparison of the number of Peace Corps members from various universities will be much like today's comparison of Woodrow Wilson fellowships.
If the Peace Corps is successful, there will be considerable prestige attached to membership in the Corps in future years. Even today only a small percentage of the best qualified people are being taken for Peace Corps training.
KU faculty members have already realized the possible future benefits of KU's active participation in the Peace Corps. Some members of the administration are attempting to have KU designated as one of the official universities at which Peace Corps members will be trained.
However, any efforts of the faculty or administration to increase KU's participation in the corps will be without avail if the KU student does not also become interested in making this University an active one in Peace Corps affairs.
Ron Gallagher
Small Schools and Teachers Editor:
With regard to Miss Karen Jennison's English proficiency paper printed in the October 10 issue, treating the inadequate college preparation given students of small high schools, I wish to dispute certain statements concerning teachers in smaller secondary schools. She says, "The reasons they came were many and varied, but rarely was their primary reason an interest in good teaching. . . Most of these uninterested teachers are rather lazy and do not want to grade homework; consequently, no homework is assigned. . . you receive neither individual attention nor the better teaching supplied in larger schools."
I ATTENDED A HIGH SCHOOL
of 52 students in the same league of which Miss Jennison speaks. In four years at this small school, I encountered several teachers whose primary objective was good teaching, who were dedicated to teaching students to think, and who were far from being lazy. Not only in assigning homework, but in helpfully criticizing and suggesting improvements in compositions for the school paper and yearbook, did they show their willingness to work. For instance, one lady spent most of her free evenings helping us to organize our yearbook. Before long, we could see the correct pattern of organization ourselves, thanks to her patient guidance while working overtime. Another lady spent hour after hour working to improve the students'
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
speaking and dramatic abilities, and this was worth the effort in most cases. I could give several other examples from this one small school, but these should suffice to clarify my point: Although small high schools do not attract all the better teachers, they do obtain many of the more dedicated ones, as these people realize the dire need the small schools have of teachers such as themselves.
I DO NOT DEFEND THE quality of the small high school. Certainly, the fewer there are, the better American education will be. I agree with the greater part of Miss Jennison's essay. I do not submit that such a school gives adequate preparation for college, for this would be a ludicrous untruth. I say simply that there are many fine people, devoted to their profession of teaching, in our smaller high schools.
Jerry Buxton.
Ransom sophomore
"— AND, I NEVER LOWER MYSELF TO AGUMENT WITH A STUDENT
— I FLUNK HIM."
Short Ones
Optimism, said Candide, is a mania for maintaining that all is well when things are going badly. — Voltaire
Absurity: A statement or opinion manifestly inconsistent with your own-Ambrose Bierce
Richard Nixon voices some conscientious objections to running for the presidency, but the Republican national chairman classifies him 1-A for a draft.-Bill Vaughan
A filing cabinet is a device for losing things alphabetically.—Bill Vaughan
The worst cliques are those which consist of one man.-George B. Shaw
Saint: a dead sinner revised and edited—Ambrore Bierce
Cultural exchange is a useful contribution to world peace, as long as it does not descend to the level of a race in which we and Russia try to out-culture each other—Bill Vaughan
The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.-Voltaine
The Soviet Position
In the conversations with me, President Kennedy, and as a matter of fact other Western representatives, too, referred to the fact that the Western powers bear some sort of obligations to the residents of West Berlin and that these obligations cannot be affected even by the conclusion of a German peace treaty.
It is natural to ask, however, what obligations they feel must be maintained if all of them follow from the surrender of Hitler Germany and from the provisional Allied agreements and, consequently, can be valid only until the peace treaty is signed. What is more, there are in general no special Allied commitments with regard to West Berlin.
THE ALLIED OBLIGATIONS applied to the entire territory of Germany, and it was precisely these agreements that were grossly violated by the Western powers. They turned West Germany into a militarist state, founded a military blee directed against us, and in this bloc Federal Germany plays a primary part...
When we suggest signing a peace treaty with Germany and turning West Berlin into a free city we are accused of wanting to deprive the Western powers of access to this city. But that is a wrong and unworthy argument. The granting to West Berlin of the status of a free city would mean that all countries of the world wishing to maintain economic and cultural ties with this city would have the right and possibilities freely to exercise these ties.
The governments of the Western powers claim that they have pledged to defend the freedom and well-being of the population of West Berlin. In the four-power agreements on Berlin, however, nothing is said of these obligations of the United States, Britain and France. The idea of insuring freedom for the population of West Berlin can in itself arouse no objections from anybody. None other than the Soviet Union suggests that the political and social regime in West Berlin should be the ones which its population wants.
OF COURSE, AGREEMENT would have to be reached with the country across whose territory pass the communications that link West Berlin with the outside world. This is normal. Otherwise the sovereignty of the state inside which West Berlin is situated would be jeopardized.
THE SOVIET UNION and our friends do not want war and we will not start it. But we will defend our sovereignty, will fulfill our sacred duty to defend our freedom and independence. If any country violates peace and crosses the borders—ground, air or water—of another it will assume full responsibility for the consequences of the aggression and will receive a proper rebuff.
We have no reason to quarrel with any people, we want to live in friendship and concord with all peoples. To that end the Soviet Union is proposing to sign a peace treaty with Germany jointly with other countries.
We ask everyone to understand us correctly: The conclusion of a peace treaty with Germany cannot be postponed any longer. A peaceful settlement in Europe must be attained this year.
AND THIS PEACEFUL STEP IS called a threat or even an act of aggression! Such talk can come only from those who seek to slander or distort our intentions, to poison the minds of the peoples with lies.
(Excerpts from Premier Nikita Khrushchev's June 15 address to the Soviet people.)
The cover, in fact, is Sargent's 1882 portrait of young Americans abroad. The Luxembourg Gardens, London's Garden on the Thames, the controversial portrait of Madame X, Robert Louis Stevenson, and the lovely Egyptian Girl are among the Sargent paintings. A page of quotations from James underlines his perceptiveness about the differences between America and Europe.
Whistler's work includes his Nocturne in Black and Gold, which Ruskin called a "pot of paint flung in the public's face," his Old Battersea Bridge: Nocturne in Blue and Gold, the Artist in the Studio, Little White Girl, and his portraits of his mother (Arrangement in Grey and Black) and Carlyle (Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2.)
The latter part of the 19th century, like the latter part of the 18th, sent numerous Americans abroad. Where the earlier travelers had gone to escape republican thought and revolutionary oppression, the later ones went to escape their age, which was one of crassness, coarseness, and materialism.
AMERICAN HERITAGE. October 1961. $3.95.
American Heritage highlights, in a beautiful pictorial essay, three of these exiles—Henry James, John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler. Telling the story of this artistic retreat are a perceptive article and several beautiful color pictures.
This is a rich edition of American Heritage, but which one hasn't been? Hugh MacLennan tells the exciting story of voyagers who opened up Canada. An excerpt from Mark Schorer's "Sinclair Lewis" describes the reception accorded "Main Street." The acting Booth brothers are the "Faces from the Past."
There is a retelling of a New England murder scandal, "The Minister and the Mill Girl." M. R. Werner describes La Guardia's unsuccessful—though highly laudable—attempt to unseat Jimmy Walker in 1929. Ben M. Hall presents a sketch of the garish motion picture palaces of the 1920s, like the Roxy, where Gloria Swanson posed as the theater was being consigned to rubble in 1960.
It also is a pleasure to report that the current issue gives us a story about sports, a highly absorbing description of how Walter Camp made football a fabulous sport back in the 1880s. And the windup article is a vivid story about the battle of Yorktown, the decisive battle of the Revolution.—Calder M. Pickett