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University Daily Kansan
Monday, Sept. 23, 1963
ASC Predictions
The All Student Council will hold its first meeting of the year Tuesday night, and we'd like to make a few predictions about what will happen during the course of the year.
1. Vox and UP will raise merry hell about the shenanigans being pulled by the nasty, scurrilous, irresponsible members of the other party, and both will vote straight party line on some issues, just to prove that there is such a thing as party unity.
2. The independent members and the fraternity representatives will glower at each other.
3. Someone will offer a resolution condemning Gov. Wallace or the repressionist policies in Diem's Viet Nam, and insist that the ASC send a letter to President Kennedy in the name of the Associated Students of the University of Kansas. Someone else will denounce the whole idea, maintaining that such resolutions are outside the scope of the ASC. The two ideas will be debated until a third party proposes some innocuous compromise.
4. THE REPORT of the Human Rights Committee will be accepted with skepticism. All attempts by genuinely concerned parties to work out solutions to problems clarified by the report will be met by outraged cries from extremists who want the whole problem solved the day before yesterday, preferably by punitive legislation, and other from extremists who like things just the way they are.
5. Anarchists among the student body will scream that the whole idea of student government is bad.
6. Organization-minded persons among the student body will scream back that there is nothing wrong with student government.
SUCH A LIST is by no means complete, and some of the predictions will probably be wrong. We hope they all are, although five and six are safer than the Yankee's pennant.
To make some of them wrong, we suggest that:
1. Vox Populi and the University Party limit their name-calling to things they can prove, and limit party-line voting in the ASC to election of officers—unless, of course, some miracle happens and a definite philosophical difference between the two appears.
2. Both the fraternity men and the independents crawl down off their "they're picking
on us" soap boxes and work for the good of the entire student body. Both have specific interests to represent, naturally—that is why the campus is divided into voting districts—but both should consider the welfare of the other in the final vote.
3. A COMPROMISE be worked out at the start of the year on resolutions to be sent to the White House, and debates limited to the questions of whether or not the specific action should be condemned. For a start, admit that students should be interested in international and national affairs. Next, admit that the ASC is not empowered for the entire student body on such questions as the propriety of Mme. Diem.
Next, grant that the members of the ASC, as students, should be interested in extra-local happenings, and as citizens are qualified, if not duty-bound, to comment. It follows, then, that the ASC should comment on extra-local affairs, but not as the governing body of KU students.
If that proposal is not satisfactory, work out another. But hour-long arguments—"debate" would do much honor to what ensues—should be eliminated.
4. FIREBALL LIBERALS and rock-ribbed conservatives should both please keep reasonably calm when the HRC report comes up, and when debate starts on what is to be done. Both should be given a chance to speak their minds, and both have points on their respective sides. But racial prejudice is a disgraceful problem, which must be solved, and polemics have no place in any attempt to get something done.
As we said, five and six are both safe predictions. It would be nice, however, if those who rail against student government would grant that the ASC does have some functions, such as allocating funds to University-supported activities, which would have to be done by University officials if they were not done by the students. And the ASC has come up with the Student Advisory Board and the responsible Human Rights Committee.
And those who defiantly preach that there is nothing wrong with student government would do well to keep completely quiet, lest other people become convinced that the preachers are bigger fools than they really are.
Other problems will arise, of course, and nobody expects the ASC to be perfect. But let's try a little harder this year.
Blaine King
"Of Course, I Abhor ViolenceHave A Book Of Campaign Matches, Bud"
BOOK REVIEWS
THE PRINCESSE DE CLEVES, by Madame de Fafayette (Penguin, 85 cents).
Enjoying a vogue these days in this novel of 1678, which is regarded as the forerunner of today's psychological novel. It was published anonymously, but it soon became known that the author was Madame de Lafayette. In its day it was a literary sensation
The translation is by Nancy Mitford, and the setting is the days of the French Henry II. Basically it deals with the amours of the Duc de Nemours and the wife of the Prince de Cleves.
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF RICHARD BAXTER (Everyman's Library).
This is a volume of some significance, for it is the story of an English minister of the 17th century (1615-1691), who played an important role in the English civil war. The reader who wants additional enlightenment about that important era may want to consult this work.
The Diary of a Collegiate WASP (White. Anglo-Saxon Protestant)
By Saint Hereticus
(Editor's note: The following article is reprinted from the Intercollegiate, the University of Florida, and YMCA, where it appeared under the title and by-line given above.)
Freshman Year
Arrived at State U for freshman orientation. Eager to use next four years to clarify "life goals" (cf. opening speech of Dean of Men).
Went to opening chapel service. Decided to shed chapel for next four years in order to develop own point of view, though will resume church attendance when have family.
Signed up for course in logic. Discovered logical positivism on first day. Shed belief in God but still retain belief in power of man's reasoning capacities.
Read "Lord of the Flies" for freshman English. Shed belief in power of man's reasoning capacities, but believe in psychoanalysis, which could have saved them all.
Finished introductory psych. Not sure whether am Freudian, neo-Freudian, Jungian, neo-Jungian, Adlerian, neo-Adlerian, or disciple of Harry Stack Sullivan.
Shed psychoanalysis. Embraced mysticism.
Spent entire weekend studying Zen Buddhism. Nothing happened, so shed mysticism.
Spent three days working out new world religion, appropriating best from each existing faith. Surprised no one ever thought of this before. Explained new religion to roommate, who wouldn't accept belief in All-Cohesive Source of Reality. Shed world religion idea.
Reread "Catcher in the Rye" for ninth time. Rediscovered phonies. Realize at last everybody in dorm a phony. Parents haven't got a clue to what I've been through in last ten years. Wrote freshman essay on ducks in Central Park.
Finished freshman physics. Shed causation and determinism but recovered belief in power of man's reasoning capacities.
(No recollection of sophomore year save for discovery of moral relativism. Temporarily shed everything else. Got very tired.)
Sophomore Year
Junior Year (Fall Semester)
Took course in French literature. Discovered Camus. Now believe in the absurd. Am on abyss of nothingness.
Shed abyss of nothingness temporarily to exchange tweed sport jacket for ticket to fall dance.
Fall dance a flop. Back on abyss of nothingness. Ready for the leap.
Affirmed meaninglessness of existence in term paper. Got "A-" and the comment, "Well-organized paper." Still getting ready for the leap.
Leaped into the arms of Faith. Faith Moriarty only girl in entire junior class who really understands me. Shed fraternity pin.
Junior Year (Spring Semester)
Have become socially conscious.
Dailu Hansan
111 Flint Hall
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Signed petition urging U.N. employ economic sanctions against South Africa for its handling of race problem.
Signed petition urging rights of Negroes in Alabama to live in white sections of cities.
Weekend spoiled by long fraternity meeting. Pinkos in sophomore class urged we go local because national office insists on retaining discriminatory clause in charter. Argued we should abide by wisdom of more mature minds in national office. Have nothing against Negroes, Jews, or Orientals, but feel person should be allowed to choose who he is going to live with.
As result of fraternity wrangle, have gotten new vision of American Way of Life. Busy writing term paper on best way to export American Way of Life to uncommitted nations. Glad to find something I believe in one hundred per cent.
Read James Baldwin. Shed American Way of Life.
Spent weekend with family. Expounded James Baldwin. Listen to reactions of father's friends, some of whom have done very well for themselves. Shed James Baldwin.
Senior Year
Fall — engaged. Ready to lick world. Adopted evolutionism. Nothing too hard to tackle. Can't wait to get out of here and start in.
Winter — realized big job decision lies ahead. What has education prepared me for? Amalgamated E representative says big field for refrigerator salesman in tropics, chance to travel, see world, make contacts, get ahead, export American Way of Life. Okay, except don't like tropics.
Spring — engagement broken. Shed optimistic evolutionism. Affirmed tragic sense of life (cf. Unamuo paperback). In defiant gesture of despair in Student Union knocked over cup of coffee which spilled on freshman coed.
Spring (ten days later)—have finally made firm decision about future. Have appointment with Dean tomorrow to discuss possibility of graduate work. After another year of thinking, things ought to fall in place, particularly through employment of power of man's reasoning capacities.