EDITORIAL.
329
A RELIC OF THE CONVENT.
A case in court has just been brought against the Missouri Normal school that is fraught with considerable interest. A young lady has been summarily expelled for attending a party without permission of the faculty, and her father seeks redress in the law. In the list of the regulations of the Normal school it is provided that no student shall attend parties or receive company without special permission of the faculty. Furthermore, ladies and gentlemen are not allowed to board in the same house except by special permission. The point at issue in the court is whether a state institution has a right to dictate to students outside of school hours.
Imagine what a commotion such rules would make in our University. What stacks of applications would cover the faculty's table each morning! What a fall there would be in the receipts of the theaters and ice cream saloons! How Sunday evening gas and coal expenses would shrink! Then imagine the turn events might take. How annihilated a young Freshman would feel after engaging his lady's company for the opera to fail in getting a faculty permit; or of getting his permit and then finding that some enterprising Soph had anticipated him with the lady. Or again, what a crestfallen state of affairs if the faculty would grant permits for a dance to all the boys, and refuse them to the girls; and then fancy that dance.
There is no fear of Kansas copying from Bourbon Missouri, but still we hope the Normal faculty will lose the suit. Such regulations are relics Catholic cloisters and denominational prisons. There are a number of sectarian institutions and private convents in Kansas where such rules are promulgated; and right there will be found more silly flirting, sickening sentimentality,
miserable ogling in stolen moments and hidden recesses than is concentrated in all the "unguarded institutions" of the United States. These are the schools too, which send out representatives during the summer to solicit patronage and slander the University. All of them have tales of horror regarding the Lawrence students. One college president related a few years ago, how University girls staggered dead drunk down the main street. Many other stories of similar character have been traced to these envious burlesques of colleges.
The truth is that without one rule or regulation of any kind, the University is remarkably free from silly romance and improper practices. Our students are regarded as responsible gentlemen and ladies and act accordingly. Where they enjoy each other's company they do it without stealth, and in a proper manner. The faintest breath of slander has never tainted our institution. The students come here to study, many having earned the money which pays their college expenses. Nearly all of our boys work during vacation. With students of this character the enjoyment of each other's company is not a matter of sudden and ignorant impulses, but of recreation and amusement after study. A state institution should never be disgraced with these multifarious society rules, and we are surprised that even Missouri should have them. They should be left for that class of schools which need them.
Now that we have a well formed Athletic Association, there should be nothing, unless it be bad weather, to prevent the finest field day exercises ever given at this University. The executive committee of the Association should work the matter up at once and show the people of Lawrence and the state what the University is doing in the way of Athletics.
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