University Daily Kansan, November 18. 1983
Page 3
Registration during the 1950s bears little resemblance to KU's new computer registration process in Strong Hall.
'58 events are relevant 25 years later
By JILL CASEY Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
"A strange sort of cgitural calm has settled over the nation's colleges, at least on the surface."
That's how a 1958 article in Time magazine branded America's college students, and a picture of KU students listening to Mozart in the old Spooner-Thayer Museum of Art was used to illustrate the writer's point.
"STUDENTS ARE DOCILE," John Ise, KU professor emeritus of economics, said when the story was published. "Their social life and football are more important than politics and world affairs."
The description still seems to fit 25 years later. Many have said that a new generation of apathetic students reigns on today's college campuses.
But the world affairs of the 1950s have also been relevant to those of today.
President Eisenhower promised Americans in March 1958 that the recession would end. Unemployment was up to 5.1 percent, and like suggested that everyone "go out and buy things you want" to halt the recession and bring stability to the economy.
During the fall semester of 1957, Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson announced that the armed forces would be reduced by 100,000 to increase funds for the production of guided missiles. In December, the United States' NATO accepted an offer to stockpile medium-missiles for European defense.
EISEENHIWER MADE HIS 'atoms for peace' call at the 1957 Atomic Energy Conference in West Germany. The conference emphasized that "may one day unify a divided world."
Manuel Gottlieb, assistant professor of economics, disagreed, saying that the United States should make a pledge to use its deadly weapons only in tactical warfare, and not against civilian populations.
THE SOVIET SUPERIORITY in space was the No. 1 issue in 1958, and America's repeated failures to get satellites into space was a source of embarrassment. Meanwhile, the Soviets had launched three Sputnik satellites.
This heated issue was greatly publicized. Even the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals got into the spirit when it drafted a letter of protest to the Soviet Union for sending a dog into space.
In 1958, Vice President Richard Nixon took his infamous South American tour with his wife, Pat. They were flown home after attempts on his life were made in Caracas, Venezuela. The headline in the University Daily
Doreta's Decorative Arts Sponsors the 7th Annual Holiday Bazaar
Clifford P. Ketzel, now a professor of political science, reflected the peculiar paranoia of the era when he said, at a meeting of the National Defense Executive Reserve, that if Americans had known of the precarious position of the U.S., there would have been a dramatic increase in requests to public officials to increase financing to the Civil Defense Administration.
THE JAYHAWKER YEARBOOK had a new fully equipped darkroom built at the Kansas Union, and editor Tome Petitt said. "With this darkroom I was able to provide plenty of timely pictures of yearbook value, not only today but in 20 years."
But Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev said that the Soviets "will never start a war", even though the country is the world rocket and missile superiority.
Preliminary planning for an engineering building — Learned Hall — was underway in 1958, as was the remodeling of Watson Library's main reading room, now the periodicals section.
Sat., Nov. 19 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
Plan to do your Christmas shopping... over 150 exhibitors!
Lawrence Community Building 115 W.11 St.
Lawrence.KS
843-7255
The physical appearance of the campus itself was ever changing. The Sunside married student housing was being replaced in '58 by Summerfield Hall, and 120 units were added to Stouffer Place. Two new residence buildings at Sycamore Hill Location were under construction, along with Joseph R Pearson Hall
1006 N.H.
Campus life for students in the case of 1956, though in many respects much more similar to what happened in 2014.
FIDEL CASTRO WAS not yet giving this country headaches, but two Cuban students at KU predicted his coming to power when they told a Kanstan reporter that "everyone is against Batista."
Students also were changing Only 2,300 females were enrolled in KU in 1988 out of 9,000 total - but that still represented a marked increase.
Kansan the next day "Nixon Gets
the welcome" — now seems some-
what trivial.
See DECADE, n. 5, col. 4
$1599
(LIMITED TIME ONLY)
LEVI'S JEANS
Levi's* Boot-Cut Jeans... American fashion. Western tradition. Levi's * classic boot-cut styling, born on the American frontier is slimmed down for the fashion frontier. And Levi's * great fit and rugged wearability are still going down in history. That's good old-fashioned American value.
That's good old-fashioned American value. In the Levi's $^*$ tradition.
QUALITY NEVER GOES OUT OF STYLE
KING Jeans
740 MASS.
1