University Daily Kansan Monday. December 5, 1955
Blank Looks, Nervousness Shown In Saturday's Ordeal
Ear-scratching, pencil-tapping and blank stares were the order of the day Saturday as 550 juniors and seniors went through the required ordeal of the Proficiency Examination in English Composition.
Girls seemed to scratch their chins as often as boys, and roving eyes lost their romantic implications as everyone buckled down to pass.
Percentages of passing papers will not be computed for several days. The following statistics are the result of a survey made of those taking the examination.
Varied Reactions
While studying the instruction sheet, 28.5 per cent of the students frowned, 1.5 per cent smiled, 3.8 per cent showed an expression of utter disgust, 9.2 per cent concentrated intently, and 6.1 per cent maintained an absent look, complete with rolling eyeballs and pursed lips.
As many as 38 per cent managed to look indifferent, and at least 2.9 per cent were chewing bubble gum.
Only 98.3 per cent exhibited signs of nervousness
20 Minutes Of Stunning Silence After the papers were given out, silence reigned for twenty minutes, broken only by the sound of the proctor's squeaking shoes and the shuffling of admittance cards. Then, as the group began to feel more informal, noses, upper lips, and arms were scratched. At 2:21 coughing broke out in one corner and spread in an orderly diagonal fashion across the room.
Soon some students began to write.
On the left side of the room people began to scratch their ears. On the right side they pulled up their Argyles. A girl was trying to balance a pencil on her nose.
A boy in a checkered shirt tried to read his dictionary upside down.
He had his dictionary upside down. Someone else was trying to scratch his belt by reaching down the back of his shirt. A girl ran out of paper at 2:48. She had been issued 10 sheets at 2:00.
Wants A Break
Two people yawned; several stretched. A boy with horn-rims wanted a 15 minute break.
"Okay, but you can't leave the room."
"How about a cigaret?" "Uhuh."
He bit the end of his glasses.
A boy in the front row turned
American Students May Study In Spain
The University of Madrid has announced a program of study abroad for sophomores and juniors in American colleges.
Counselors Hear Collister
Courses in Spanish, geography history and philosophy will be offered. American textbooks will be used and American college requirements will be observed. All expenses will amount to $2,000. Additional information can be obtained in the office of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Gordon Collister, associate professor of education and director of the guidance bureau, spoke to high school counselors at a conference on mental health and education Saturday at Park College in Parkville, Mo. His topic was "The Role of Education in Mental Health."
his dictionary over four times before he found where it opened. It was upside down. A girl in the back carefully removed her fingernail polish with a fountain pen.
All the normal reactions of college students were seen, as they tackled such subjects as "How the Mountains Were Made," or "What Should Be Done About Falling Farm Prices?"
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"If the student doesn't like it he should think of what a pain in the neck it is for the English Department, we who aren't even responsible for it," said one of the department's ungrammatical representatives.
ASC To Review Money Requests
Better animals, better care, more feeding and improved beef types account for a 38 per cent increase in cattle productivity in the United States since 1924.
Richard Billings, Russell junior and All Student Council treasurer, has announced that the finance and auditing committee of the ASC will review applications from organizations desiring an appropriation from the All Student Council.
The application must be signed by the president and treasurer of the organization and must contain a statement of the purposes for which the money is to be used and the budget for the present school year. The budget of the petitioning organization must contain a statement of anticipated income and proposed expenditures.
Billings urges organizational heads to contact him as soon as possible in order that the ASC can take necessary action.
The $1 Question
MERIDEN, Conn. — (U.P.) A slightly angry driver appeared at police headquarters to pay a $1 parking fine and handed Lt. Louis V. Aloia a $100 bill. Aloia promptly counted out 99 singles in change.
Anti-Oxidants May Prevent Cancer, Dains Lecturer Says
"Anti-oxidants may prevent cancer, but it's a gamble," Dr. Louis S. Fiesler, Sheldon Emery professor of organic chemistry at Harvard University, said Friday at the eighth annual Frank Burnett Dains Memorial Lecture.
"It can't do any harm to try it," he said, "and if we have any success in animals we will immediately apply it to man."
A man weighing 170 pounds carries about 210 grams of cholesterol, which functions as part of the structural unit of the nerve tissue and transports neutral fat in the blood stream, he said.
To an audience of over 200, Dr. Fieser said he is now working on the hypothesis that the cause of cancer could possibly be an oxidation product of cholesterol, a white, fatty, crystalline alcohol.
Cholesterol can be found in gall stones, spinal cord, brain, blood, and bile, Dr. Fieser said.
Cancer is a malignant growth occurring by cell division without control, Dr. Fiesler said. If caught in the early stages, the tumor can be removed by surgery or treated with X-ray.
Scientists are now looking for a chemical therapeutic agent for the cure of cancer.
"Because I am a chemist I think that a chemical agent may be the cause of cancer, but I'm more hopeful on the side of preventing cancer."
Dr. Fieser's research group worked on this problem about 10 years, was interrupted by World War II, and the work was forgotten after the war, the chemist said.
In 1946 work was resumed and ex-perimenters hit upon the rather simple hypothesis that cancer might be caused by an oxidation product of cholesterol, Dr. Fieser said.
Dr. Fieser was introduced by Dr. R. Q. Brewster, professor of chemistry, who gave a brief history of the Dains memorial lectures. Dr. Dainas was a chemistry professor at the University from the early 1900s until he retired in 1942.
After Dr. Dain's death on Jan. 5, 1948, Alpha Chi Sigma, professional chemistry fraternity, instituted the lectures in his memory.
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