Page 2
University Daily Kansan Wednesday. April 15, 1953
Politico's Proving Ground
Glasco, Sheldon Decry ASC Quibbling
Editor's Note: This is the first of a series of articles presenting the opinions of the FACTS and Pachacamac candidates on issues of general campus interest. The series will continue through Tuesday, the day preceding the campus general elections.
By DEAN GLASCO
Pachaeamac Candidate
For ASC Presidency
The presidency of the All Student Council would indeed be a challenge to any aspiring candidate and I feel that my opponent and myself would be equally eager to accept such a challenge.
It remains, then, to choose a candidate that has very positive policies and ideas, for the position of presidency requires a man that will assume responsibility and take positive action.
I have been associated with the ASC for some time and I know the true problems that exist. We have all heard of the "Do Nothing ASC." While I do not find this phrase altogether indicative of the Council, I do realize that the ASC should be improved. Such an improvement would be my basic goal.
I would place in committee positions such people that I know would be capable, regardless of party affiliation. I would endeavor to eliminate the awkward and altogether unsound practice of committee chairmen being unable to assume full responsibility because of other committee-work.
I would work toward a goal of full student participation and student recognition. We can only reach our full potential of power when the entire student body has interest. I would attempt in every way possible to quell the incessant political bickering on the council.
I feel that campus platforms are secondary because all of them have but one goal, the improvement of opportunity and conditions for the students and the University. However, I feel that the following planks of the Pachacamac-NOW-FOR platform should be effected by legislation;
Weekly publication in the Daily Kansan of A.S.C. proceedings; improvement of University hospital facilities; the establishment of a student-faculty committee to coordinate activities of all student organizations; positive action concerning the age-old parking situation; and an employed coordinator of all campus publications.
I believe that with the correct leadership of a person who knows and fully understands the potentialities of the reorganized Student Council we could have a council of which to be proud.
Bv DICK SHELDON
By DICK SHELDO
FACTS Candidate
For ASC Presidency
Problems faced by the All-Student Council require consolidated thought and co-operation if they are to be solved. They are problems of the student body as a whole—problems whose solution is extremely difficult if the Council becomes a battleground where two parties quibble for supremacy.
Such partisanship on the Council in the past has made positive action by it very difficult and has lowered the respect of the student body for its own governing structure. University problems have repeatedly taken a back seat to party allegiance.
The motto of FACTS is a recognition of this problem and an attempt to solve it—'It's not where you live but what you believe.' In other words one's behavior on the Council ought to be determined not by his living quarters but by his concern for the students as a whole.
In FACTS are adequately gathered the various elements of the student body—a synthesis of its two major divisions—Greek and independent. The major aim of FACTS, then, is a capable ASC less concerned with voting a party line than with the good of the students.
Among issues dealt with by FACTS in its platform are such vital planks as these: that overemphasis on grades justifies a complete review of the grading system to determine what changes are needed. Examination of the Jayhawker should be undertaken with a view to lowering salaries and perhaps revising its structural set-up.
The adviser system should be expanded to include students themselves helping advise underclassmen. The common denominator of all these issues is that they directly affect all the students and should be handled by a group willing to take the responsibility of working for student, nor party, interests.
Making the All Student Council efficient and important represents a great challenge to me.
To embody in its actions principles of non-partisanship and merit which will revive student interest in, and respect for, student government is very desirable and necessary. It is essential that everyone begin now to support student government and the newly revised Council by voting in the general election—not along party lines but for persons and issues.
Oil, Communism Complicate Iranian Political Situation
The twin problems of oil and Communism perplex and complicate the domestic and international situation in Iran,
The entire northern perimeter of the country is bounded by Russia's border split into two parts by the Caspian sea. Internal Communist infiltration is a formidable threat to the nation's security and constantly harasses the government in power.
by Dick Bibler
Though Russia and Iran are geographically juxtaposed, transportation between the two countries is extremely difficult, and in most places impossible. Two ranges of mountains in the northwest and a range in the northeast, plus the steppelands of Russia provide an impassable fence. One railroad extends from the Caspian seaside town of Bandar Spat Shah to the Petrush self-proclaimed Bander Shahpur. It was taken over by the United States during the war, revamped, and used to send supplies to Russia. It was connected with Russian railroads.
Oil potential puts Iran in a position of great importance. Russia, England, and the United States cast covetous glances toward the maid of the Middle East.
Inside the country, the shah, Reza Pahlevi, and prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, have not been getting along too well. A little over a month ago, a riot broke out in which the two were symbolic leaders of opposing factions.
Pahlevi, under pressure from Mossadgeh who claimed palace intrigues were hampering efforts to settle the oil dispute with England, announced he was leaving the country for his health. But a powerful religious leader, Mullah Kashani, encouraged him to stay, handing Mossadgeh a political setback.
I feel I am entitled to space to answer a letter printed on this page April 3 from George Hotz, college sophomore. Hotz said he could not understand how I could endorse the Student Court's decision in the FACTS libel case.
Tom Stewart,
journalism junior.
Letters
His exact words were, "I can hardly believe that anyone attending the trial was deceived by the proceedings." Having read Hotz' letter, I find it hard to believe that he even could have attended the trial.
Reporter Answers Libel Case Critic
He listed six points which he claimed were brought out by the FACTS counsels, in an attempt to prove the truth of the use of the word "corrupt" as applied to Fachacama party.
—Bob Nold
Hotz doesn't seem to know just what's up. Of his six points, one was more than adequately publicized in the Daily Kansas, one was never four, in evidence, and the other four he misunderstood and mis-stated completely.
Little Man on Campus
"Yeah, well they usta have bull sessions in my room too until I thought of wearin' tennis shoes an' not washin' my socks."
Reasons for this decline in music, which can be called "commercialized jazz," are lack of competition, deficiency of good musicianship, inability to obtain good arrangements, the musician's lack of incentive to produce more than necessary in quality and quantity, people not wanting to pay for good bands, and unappreciative audiences.
Student Apathy Causes Ebb of Band Quality
The quality of music produced by dance bands on the Hill has been declining since 1950, according to several local musicians, and has shown the greatest deterioration this year.
Students on the Hill do not realize what an effect clapping and showing appreciation have on the playing of a band, says Phil Loevenguth, one local musician.
This year and last year there have been only four organized dance bands on the campus. In the fall of 1949, however, there were seven, and the following year, six.
The four major University dance bands, the Varsity Crew, directed by John Duggan, Gene Hall's band,
The decrease in number of bands brought a relaxing of competition and restrictions on the quality of music produced. Some University organizations even had to import bands from Kansas City.
Carl Abbot's Collegians, and Ron Waller's Kampus Kats, play a commercialized, aborted form of jazz." This is partly because too many musicians on the Hill are not capable of playing pure jazz, and because of a lack of knowledge and interest in jazz on the part of the students.
There never has been enough good music brought to the University. Besides Herman, Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic, Harry James, the opera "Carmen," a symphony orchestra or two, Fred Waring, and the ballet, there has been little stimulating music imported in the last four years.
The University dance bands naturally are not up to the quality of Ralph Flanagan, Billy May, or Ray Anthony, but they tend toward the same type of music.
The reasons are similar to those for the degeneration of local bands. There is very little student interest and a real lack of knowledge about these musicians and their types of music.
A student dropping a math course gave this reason: "Am getting married—have a permanent job."
Short Ones
One instructor refers to the late President Klement Gottwald as "the cancelled Czech."
\* \* \*
Best summing-up statement of the splurge of sidewalk construction on the campus: "I think they're running sidewalks into the ground around here."
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas Student Newspaper News Room KU 251 Ad Room KU 376
Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 year (add $1 a semester if in Lawrence). Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays. Exams are extended each week periods. Entered second class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., Post Office under act of March 3, 1879.