KANSAN Comment
'You'd think he'd have figured out the connection between that button and that gavel by now.'
The shame of KU
"You've got to be a football hero . . ."
Unfortunately isn't it? Times really haven't changed at all. For if we remember nothing else about our college days we'll never forget those sunlit, Saturday autumn afternoons, watching the "fighting Kansas Jayhawks" as we gulped our bourbon-spiked soft drinks.
Yes, sports fans, we will no doubt perpetuate the "Shame of the Universities." As our Plastic KU-ID's melt with the passing years, the student numbers it bears will be replaced with two numbers of even greater significance and meaning—the subscription numbers for the KU Alumni Magazine and the KU Athletic Department bulletin. Both are designed to keep us abreast of our greatest post-graduate concern—the coming years' football season.
Is it worth it?
Thursday the Kansas concluded a series on the KU athlete which has revealed some rather alarming statistics, among them, the fact that less than 51% of KU's athletes graduate in a good year.
Why?
John Novotny, guardian angel of the athletes academic lives gave several reasons, among them, the number of hours devoted to practice, which must be subtracted from study hours.
There is one excuse Mr. Novotny did not
make that may hit the scoreboard. A large number of KU's athletes come from inner-city schools or high schools too small to provide them with adequate academic preparation. They are coddled through the years of their athletic eligibility and then literally thrown out into the cold and expected to cope with required courses that they have had no preparation for.
As football fans we can all rationalize the plight of the athlete with such excuses as "many could never afford to go to college otherwise," and "it gives them a chance to be picked up by the pros." But deep down it gives us a chance to enjoy now and later vicariously relive our days as Betty Co-ed and Joe College—and there's nothing wrong with doing that, except, when we give someone a brief taste of the "good life" that he may never be able to obtain.
What's the solution?
It's a well-known financial fact, that the life of the university depends on alumni support augmented by a good sports program to sustain alumni interest. As future alumni we should put this problem into perspective and demand that the athletic department provide for its athletes the post-eligibility guidance to obtain degrees, instead of merely making them marketable flesh, for our Saturday kicks.
Judith K. Diebolt
Off the wire
ZARAGOZA, Spain—Police Capt. Armando Suarez, in command of a detail surrounding a plane at the airport, advising a skyjacker to surrender:
By United Press International
"If the hijackers give themselves up, they may get a few years in prison. If the smallest accident happens to the passengers or the crew, the hijackers will be shot at dawn."
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★★
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HOUSTON—Vance I. Oyama, reporting on his investigation of a piece of moon rock:
"We conclude from this sample that there was no viable life present."
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★ ★ ★
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UNDATED—Football Commissioner Pete Rozelle, describing a conversation with New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath about reports linking Namath to a sports gambling scandal:
"I don't recall his first reaction to the conversation, except it was something like 'Oh, here we go again.' "
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TEL AVIV—The newspaper Haaretz, commenting on Israeli attacks that came within 20 miles of Cairo:
"The proximity of the targets to Cairo . . . should demonstrate to the Egyptian public to what extent Cairo itself is vulnerable."
BOOKS
THE BISHOP MURDER CASE and THE GREENE MURDER CASE, by S. S. Van Dine (Gold Medal, 75 cents each)—Two comparatively ancient detective stories that in their time (the late twenties) were perhaps the most famous books in their genre. The hero of both is the stuffy Philo Vance, a clear imitation of Sherlock Holmes (he even has a
somewhat bumbling assistant), a dabber in virtually every scientific and humanistic discipline. He solves murders in an intellectual way, and some of his language is a kill. These will be of most interest to you if your taste runs to "The Desert Song," Valentino, and the paintings of Maxfield Parrish.
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University Daily Kansan.