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University Daily Kansan Monday, Oct. 8, 1963
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
If the first four weeks of classes are any indication, this should be a pleasant year for those who believe KU students should not be exposed to any ideas which might conflict with the ideas of the "average" Kansas resident.
Debates, Forums Absent
The year should be equally pleasant for those who believe that a university is merely a trade school, giving out tickets to a high-paying job following graduation.
SO FAR THIS YEAR, there have been no indications that KU students will have the opportunity to participate in the discussions and forums which provided a number of stimulating and thought-provoking sessions at KU last year.
One of the highlights last year was the opening Minority Opinion Forum, which featured a talk on the John Birch Society by Robert Love of Wichita. A crowd of KU students and Lawrence residents packed the Kansas Union Forum Room to hear the talk and the question period which followed.
One week later, the Minority Opinion Forum presented Edwin H. Wilson, executive director of the American Humanist Association, who spoke on "Rights of the Non-Conformist."
LOCAL SPEAKERS also provided a number of interesting sessions. The Presidential Forum
presented four KU students debating the House Un-American Activities Committee, the Current Events Forum presented a debate on "Religion in a Modern Society" and a talk on "Speech and Public Control," and a student group sponsored the showing of the film "Operation Correction," followed by a debate.
In addition, students spent a day discussing international issues on "World Crisis Day," which opened with an all-school convocation featuring talks by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., assistant to President Kennedy, and Alexander Fomin, counselor to the Soviet embassy in Washington.
Two highlights of 1960-61—in addition to the Current Events and Minority Opinion Forums—were the showing of "Operation Abolition" and a talk by Edward Shaw, representative of the "Fair Play for Cuba" committee.
ONLY ONE SUCH discussion has been held so far this year-a debate on "The Nuclear War and World Peace" at the last meeting of the Student Peace Union. Other than this, there have been no all-University debates on national and international issues.
We can't believe that KU students have been exposed to all minority opinions and have discussed all important issues.
—Clayton Keller
Campanile On Time Again
Editor:
Your editorial of September 26 ("The Correct Time Is...") is slightly "behind the times." The campanile clock was synchronized on Monday last with the University whistle system, which is indeed, as you stated, always right. It does happen to be in accord also with the time as given by local radio stations. That the various parts of the University have not yet submitted their local autonomy in the matter of time to the whistle is a matter about which I do not concern myself.
In addition, the campanile clock was regulated during the summer so that it now keeps perfect time, even though for a while it was three minutes ahead of the University whistle system.
As chief student carillonneur, I personally guarantee that the campanile clock will be kept accurate this year, thus breaking (if it ever existed) the "tradition" of "being five minutes off".
Carl Scott Zimmerman Hartford, Conn., graduate student, and student carillonne
Having been present at the two lectures by British architect Cedric Price and the interview he held with a Daily Kansan reporter, I feel qualified to comment on the article "KU Architecture is a Flop," printed in the Sept. 28 Kansan.
Kansan Story Criticized
Editor:
The entire tone of this article and its title present an impression of Mr. Price and his lectures that is completely erroneous. The mood of the article and many of the hastily inserted quotations lead the reader to believe that Mr. Price came here solely for the purpose of discussing and criticizing KU architecture. This, of course, is completely false, and the only comments he made
... Letters ...
about our architecture were forced out of him by students in attendance and your "ace reporter."
Actually, Mr. Price offered an extremely interesting look at several contemporary English buildings, including several of his own structures. Realizing his place as a guest, he refused comment on the dubious conglomeration of KU buildings as much as possible, and complemented us whenever he felt he could. And in lieu of his good manners as a guest, I think it is even more of a shame that this slanted and erroneous account of his talks was published. The article was not only a piece of dishonest reporting, but a rather poor example of the publication principles of the public spokesman on a university campus that supports People-to-Feople programs and supposedly welcomes foreign visitors.
Donald E. Hunter
5th year architecture student
* * *
Ticket Policy Hit
The action of the University Theatre management in limiting the number and location of seats available to KU students by ID card exchange calls into question the function of a campus theater organization.
A CAMPUS THEATER should fulfill two functions: (1) it should provide an outlet for students to test the principles and techniques that they have learned in their drama classes; and (2) it should provide for interested students the opportunity to augment their education by viewing selections from the world's drama.
A university theater should not only provide this opportunity but it should also encourage the student community to take advantage of it. At its best, the first responsibility of the University Theatre is
to the students. Indeed, this is the first responsibility of the entire University. Faculty, alumni, legislators and Lawrencians must, perform, come second.
THE NEW POLICY on student theater tickets that has been established this year by the management of the University Theatre suggests either (1) that sufficient funds for theater activities are not available from student activity fees or, (2) that faculty, alumni, legislators and Lawrencians do, in fact, make up the audience that the Theatre is attempting to reach.
If, out of charity, we place confidence in the first of the above alternatives and the Theater funds are insufficient, additional funds should come from a general increase in student activity fees. This would be in keeping with the levying of the Union Annex fee, charged to all students whether or not they make use of the Kansas Union.
David Bardack
Richard C. Fox
Abbot S. Gaunt
Lawrence graduate students
*    *    *
Justice Is Fickle
Editor:
It ceases to amaze me that here in the good ole United States of America justice can be so fickle. Not long ago last summer, Negroes in Albany, Ga., sincerely believing in what they were doing, admittedly broke certain laws of the state of Georgia, creating something short of a crisis as we now have in Oxford, Miss. The Attorney General, the President, and the United States Army did not intervene, as they could have done (they intervene in local matters so frequently these days), to support those men who were trying to uphold the law. Instead, they gave aid and comfort to those men who were breaking the law.
Daily Transan
University of Kansas student newspaper
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Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York 22, N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays, and examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas.
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
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NEWS DEPARTMENT
Managing Editor
Clayton Keller and Bill Sheldon ... Co-Editorial Editors
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
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Charles Martinache ... Business Manager
Yet, not more than two months later, a white man in the person of the Governor of Mississippi, again sincerely believing in what he was doing, again broke certain laws. And laws are laws, gentlemen; be they state or federal, they must be obeyed and upheld. This time, however, the entire wrath of the executive and judicial branches of our federal government, which were so hesitant to stand up for law and order in Albany, Ga, were brought to bear in the person of 11,000 troops in Oxford, Miss.
At the risk of being smeared and labeled as a racist, and recalling the "equal protection" of the 14th amendment, I believe, my friends, that something is amiss. And we accuse Gov. Barnett of making a grandstand play for votes. Can justice be so fickle?
Brent K. Mandry Ferguson, Mo.. 5th year student
It Looks This Way
'COME ON NOW-WHICH ONE OF YOU GUYS HAVE OUR "CLASSIC COMICS"?~WE GOTTA STUDY FOR A LIT TEST TOMORROW.'
Armchair Psychiatrists
Lovelorn columnists—from Dorothy Dix to "Dear Abby" to Ann Landers—have been pouring forth advice to the delight of their avid readers for over half a century. Here are revealed the woeful plight of the neglected wife, the misunderstood teenager, the baffled husband.
For all their popular appeal, however, these columns have been viewed with scorn by psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers. Many of the rest of us just never took the whole thing seriously.
The writers, he found, often were middle-class teenagers who didn't know where to go for help. Or, many times, they were adults from the lower socio-economic class where community facilities for counseling were apt to be either unheard of or rejected.
BUT A CALIFORNIA journalism professor, after reading and analyzing nearly 550 letters written to one advice columnist, has decided that such columns just might be meeting a real social need.
Some of these were potential victims of fake "psychologists" who were only after their money. At least, the columnist's services only cost them the price of a postage stamp.
It's a really dangerous matter for a columnist to outline a detailed course of action when she doesn't know the writer's history thoroughly. But if she stays away from specific, detailed advice, the danger is lessened.
A clinical psychologist commented that if the columnist offers sympathy and temporary support she can help "persons who for one reason or another are not ready for professional counseling." Her advice can do more good than harm, if it is pragmatic and "not overly given to sanctimonious preachment."
Recognizing the limits of his study, the professor readily admitted that much more research would be needed to support his theories.
One wouldn't want to suggest that the lovelorn column is by any means the best place to look for advice. But then again, it might not be the worst. With all the anxious, muddled people in our nation of organization men, automation and lonely crowds, it may be possible that the columnist is providing a real social service for those who can't or won't turn to anyone else.
Instead they seemed confused, perhaps out of contact with the community and the outside world, and in need of support and direction.
TRUE, THE COLUMNIST sometimes may give unqualified advice. But this also can happen with ministers, marriage counselors and others who try to deal with mental problems.
THERE IS NO denying that there is a certain danger in this sight-unseen counseling. Yet most of the problems revealed in the letters weren't too serious, and the writers didn't appear on the verge of "psychic disintegration."
—Elaine Blaylock
LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES, by Roger Vadim, translated by Bernard Shir-Cliff. (Ballantine, 75 cents).
This is the screen play of the movie of the same name. Somehow movie dialogue loses quite a bit when read. This book is improved, however, by the inclusion of 200 photos from the movie.
The story, as might be expected, is one of seduction, adultery and corruption of the innocent. The pictures, like the story, are quite frank. The wordage is quite simple.