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University Daily Kansan
Monday, May 7, 1956.
What Next?
The NCAA-AAU Puzzle
Now that KU has joined the ever-increasing list of schools which have been placed on probation by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, most students are undoubtedly wondering what effect this action will have on the sky-high hopes for an NCAA basketball championship and a possible Orange Bowl trip next year.
Frankly, we're wondering too.
As far we can see, the probationary period will not affect any future hopes for KU athletics. It means only that KU has been found guilty of one offense, and will therefore be under closer scrutiny by the NCAA.
It is the relative unimportance of the offense which makes most KU supporters moan with anguish. For the University was found guilty because a prospective student, who didn't attend the University at all, was driven from Kansas City to Lawrence and back by Dr. Forrest C. (Phog) Allen, who also happens to be one of the most outspoken and vehement critics of both the Amateur Athletic Union and the NCAA.
Of course, what Phog did was actually against the rules, although he professes he had no knowledge of that particular restriction on recruiting practices. However, the offense seems to be a very trivial one to rate such punishment. In fact, it appears that the NCAA was bending over backwards in an attempt to find some wrongdoing for which it could punish KU.
But this searching for technicalities seems to be in fashion this year. Both the AAU and the NCAA have exercised their regulatory powers to a far greater extent this year than at any time within our memory.
We can't believe the situation is as bad as all this uproar makes it appear. Admittedly there are serious offenses being committed, and we're all for punishment for violation of the rules. However, it looks like the AAU and the NCAA have gone beyond the spirit of the laws with each making a concerted effort to outdo the other.
- And in doing so, both groups are hastening to enforce rules, which, for the most part, were put into effect many years ago. In spite of the changing conditions, no attempt has been made to keep up with the times.
Most of the rules regarding amateurism were put into effect when the cost of living was a great deal lower than it is today. But today's athletes are expected to get by on expense accounts which were designed for the era of lower prices.
Don't get us wrong. We're not advocating out-and-out professionalism for amateur athletes. All we want is the application of a little common sense in regard to changing policies in view of the changing environment under which the athletes labor. Or play, if you prefer.
... Letters
Editor
We would like to express our deep disappointment in the contents of the Greek students' letter regarding the recent withdrawal of the Turkish exhibit from the Foreign Student Festival. We feel that certain additional comments are warranted in order that the readers of The Daily Kansan might be better informed concerning this incident.
Therefore, we felt that the single exhibition was tactless at best and shouldn't be allowed to pass without our registering disapproval. It was said by the Greeks that since Greece and Cyprus have been exhibited together in the past, it was only natural that they should have been exhibited together again this year. One only has to point out that there were no Turkish students at KU last year to register their opposition.
—Dick Walt
We agree that there is a difference between governmental opinions in our two countries concerning the existing situation in Cyprus and that we should leave these opinions dermant while guests in the United States. But the representation of Cyprus together with Greece involves a national—far more than political—question, to the extent that such a representation disregards the national consciousness of Turkey, as well as political considerations.
We would like to point out that we went in advance of the festival to those administering it, and were given to believe some solution might be arrived at. Yet, upon the day of the festival the exhibits were established as if our voice had not been heard. Certainly there was no indication made to us that any change had ever been considered.
Thus, we felt it necessary to withdraw to indicate our position—an action we took quietly and serenely, and with special care not to disturb the "harmonious atmosphere" of the festival. We did this, realizing that we might be criticized by many, but there are times when principle must be supported regardless of the aftermath. It remained for the Greek students to use the letters column to bring the question into a more public view. In all sincerity we ask, who is being the more destructive of harmony? Their letter following earlier efforts of the Greek students to solicit signatures at campus meetings for the annexation of Cyprus to Greece can only lead us to believe that the letter was not
. . .
designed to create harmony, but one designed to further Greek aspirations in Cyprus.
We also cannot help but wonder whether the juxtaposition of the "flag incident" immediately following a criticism of the Turkish students was just another example of lack of tact or did it have a more subtle motive. We join the Greeks in calling for the condemnation of the offender if indeed there was such one. We are more inclined to believe that in the transportation of the flags from the rotunda to the Union—which is done on numerous occasions during a single semester—the flag became partially loose from its pole.
In order that an unpleasant situation like this may not occur next year and in the search of greater harmony, may we suggest that Turkey and Greece join together in an Eastern Mediterranean exhibit in the Foreign Student Festival next year.
Baran Tuncer, Ankara
Turkey graduate student; Ferruh
Demirmen, Bursa, Turkey freshman.
Why, after Joseph Albers travels 1,500 miles to give his lecture on color, must ten minutes of his valuable time be filled with the exciting news that Betty Boob, etc., has won the Theta Beta, etc., award?
Editor:
This singular bad taste was only topped when 170 music students (required to attend) left the room en masse when the distinguished lecturer overstayed his time.
Rhoda Staley.
Lawrence special student
GUYS IN THEIR CUPS SHOULD STAY OUT OF THEIR CARS
.. Short Ones
Looks like with all the modernization that's faking place on the campus that the senior class could manage at least one IBM machine to officiate at the senior softball game.
The observatory was open Saturday night, but we'll wager there was considerably more star-gazing done out at Lone Star and the drive-in movies than at Lindley Hall.
This is Western Civ week, which is probably even worse than final week, especially if you need Western Civ to become a sophomore, junior, senior, or graduate.
Phog seems to be the only man in the nation—except thoroughbred politicians—who can make the headlines even when he doesn't say anything.
Wonder how we could go about getting on one of those committees which interviews candidates for queen of something-or-other. Guess we'll start our own contest.
Or maybe it would be better to charge rent for library_seats. We could buy all kinds of antique books with the money.
Daily hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
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NEWS DEPARTMENT
John McMilion          Managing Editor
Barbara Bell, Bob Lyle  Kent Thomas,
David Webb, Assistant Managing Editors;
Jane Pecinovsky, City Editor;
Margaret Armstrong, Geoff Dawson,
Gordon Eckelman, Gordon Eckelman,
Telegraph Editor; Robert Riley,
Larry Stroup, Assistant Telegraph Editors;
Flecia Fenberg, Society Editor;
Bettie Ken Stanford, Assistant Society Editor;
Robert Bruce, Sports Editor;
Daryl Hall, Louis Stroup, Assistant Sports Editors; Larry Holl, Picture Edi
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Richard Hunter Business Manager
James Wiens, Advertising Manager;
David B. Cleveland, National Advertising Manager; Mary Lue Wickersham,
Mary Lue Wickersham; Ford Meyer, Circulation Manager; Walter Baskett Jr., Promotion Manager.
Dick Walt Editorial Editor
Elliot, Ray Wingerson, Associate
Editors
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
Book Review
Dismissing the main body of the text as readable and informative, the concluding pages will pose for some readers a question of immense import. In the last pages, Mr. Battistini presents the problem of communion in the Far East. He says the Soviet Union has as good a chance or better of winning the uncommitted countries as has the West. The countries in the balance know of no treatment from the West other than epoxloiting imperialism, so how can they expect anything more generous? Then Mr. aBattistini closes with:
"The challenge of our times is the ability of reason and the creative force to triumph over hate, fear and all the other negative and destructive forces of man." From this statement of questionable profundity arises the big question: From where is this triumphing reason going to come?
In "The United States and Asia," Lawrence H. Battistini outlines the relations of the United States in Asia from the 18th century to the present. The work is more factual than interpretive and it gives a concise account for those not looking for details.
The Far Eastern Crisis What Can The West Do?
Reason has been around a long time—almost as long as wars. Paradoxically, the two seem still to be getting along fine, and yet leaders of great countries are shouting for "Reason! Reason!" and they have been for a number of decades. The results have been notable, even for such as an advanced and supposedly reasenable country as the United States. The tally is three wars this century at the rate of one every 19 years. The United States will be due for another in 1976, and if a little reason isn't well-placed by then, the war of 1976 might get here.
Still Need Reason
Well-placed reason is the stipulation needed today; it is what has always been needed, for those without the power to "enforce" reason are of small worth.
Mr. Battistiini relates how Franklin D. Roosevelt had the reasoning ability in the middle thirties to know that Japanese expansion was posing a serious threat to the United States. Yet he declined to oppose them on the democratically valid grounds that the American people wouldn't support such a move. The people reasoned: Why send American youth to the Orient for no apparent reason?
The reason was only apparent to a few, and yet the greatest among them, the President, could do nothing. He held the reason, but the people held the power, which doesn't seem too reasonable. The people, who were slowly coming
out of the depression, preferred to ignore the Japanese until later.
In this momentous instance were the people doing right by themselves. That is, would they act in Roosevelt's way were history to be rerun? Government by the people in this instance brought war by the people.
The average person is inclined to be selfish in certain instances, as just noted, to the extent that he will refuse to sacrifice a little now for a lot later. True, the ability to choose to do so is an aspect of freedom, but it also happened to be an aspect of a war that could have been, at the least, less costly in terms of blood.
What is needed today is pressure applied to the UN by its western members to force the UN to be generous beyond any precedent in history--generous to the uncommitted and weak, committed countries. The member nations, in turn, will need persuasive leaders who can convince their peoples that, for their own safety, it is better to give now than to be unable to give later.
Some will retort that man also has the same freedom in order to be generous, but the rule usually holds that people are generous only when they can comfortably afford to be, which is nothing less than niggardly generosity.
If the West is to hold its own conclusively, and even gain some lost ground, the aim must be outright financial, technical and moral aid until the world as a whole knows that the West wants peace and freedom (and not just spheres of interest) to the degree that it will give literally anything, even a lower standard of living, to have its ideals manifest for all creation to see.
However, it appears that this possibility is the most unfeasible ever proposed and that mankind has centuries to go before any solution will be put to use. The solutions have been available for centuries, but there is no one to enforce or implement them and mankind cannot, even under democracy, be forced to do good.
Must Be Obvious
Some force, somewhere, somehow, someday will need to convince man, as good and bad as he is, to submit to regulation in those instances where he has so aptly proved himself incompetent.
—Ray Wingerson