Page 2
University Daily Kansan Wednesday. April 1, 1953
"I didn't realize that you could draw that well, Worthal- Ever thought of taking some courses over in fine arts?"
Today Also Marks ASC Beginnings
Students voted 15 to 1, on that drizzly day in 1943, to switch from the old bi-cameral system, divided according to the sexes, to a one-council system which was supposed to: (1) merge all KU men and women into one centralized governing association, (2) discourage the evils of petty politics while preserving the benefits of proportional representation, and (3) provide for an effective liaison between the students and the administration.
Today is April 1—among other things, April Fool's day and the 10th anniversary of the All Student Council.
For a time—to be specific, the duration of World War II—it looked as though the combined Council was going to achieve all three aims. Under Peggy Davis, college '44, the new Council ironed some of the bugs out of the new constitution and enacted the first ASC bills, most of which are still a part of ASC legislation.
However, petty political partying still continued as a dominant feature of campus government. In the same month that the All Student Council was created, a petition guaranteeing, in essence, the right of Negroes to take part in campus social activities was turned into a political football.
The 15 to 1 figure sounds impressive until one notes that only 522 of 3,500 students voted in that referendum.
The Daily Kansan waxed furious editorially over the issue, saying, "To bring up a question that will appear favorable to a group of students just because it might mean a hundred or so votes for the party in an election is a violation of the trust placed in campus leaders."
The constitutional change approved by one fifth of the student body in last month's referendum had as one of its major purposes reorganization of the ASC in a manner which more accurately would reflect student opinion.
It will continue to be the dominant factor in preventing the All Student Council from being accepted by the majority of the student body as a responsible organ of student government and an accurate mirror of student opinion. That is, unless some miracle happens, which is doubtful at the present time.
Squirming Audiences Predicted For Jayhawker Traveling Troupe
An apprehensive group of 15 actors, actresses, and production personnel leave here Tuesday on the most difficult theater assignment in the brief five-year history of the University roadshow.
Their job is to present effectively an archaic, 18th century American comedy, "The Contrast," to a wide variety of audiences in 14 Kansas and Oklahoma towns. This giddy-witted satire on the spirit and customs of post-Revolutionary America concluded its Fraser theater run last Saturday.
Actually, unless the student leaders elected to the ASC this coming April 22 regard an ASC position as a trust and not a device to gain personal notoriety, the bi-cameral system will just make the game more confusing by providing two political footballs instead of one. —Jim Baird
One of the actresses states willingly that the play is neither very entertaining nor does it have a message. She calls the play "a period piece," but believes it should be appreciated as such without making demands of hilarity or message.
A lead actor classes the effort as "a farce of a play." Nearly everyone agrees that "The Contrast" might be termed "serious" theater in a mildly comic vein.
Ironically, Royall Tyler's play (first produced in 1778) was blessed with the finest acting of the year. And Tom Rea, director of the show, drastically revised, re-arranged, and supplemented the original script in an effort to speed up the action. More than half the original dialogue was cut.
But the final result was laborious comedy. The humor of a drawing-room-type American has aged considerably with the passage of 166 years. The wit of unmotivated situations is so mellowed as to be innocuous.
One left the theater feeling cheated of substantial laughs. Still, this is not the important consideration. The biggest complication is yet to come when this cultural theater opens in small towns to high school and even grade school audiences.
How many of the outmoded situations will catch and hold the imagination and emotion of the adults?
This year, a period piece—and a rather primitive one at that—presents itself to small-town audiences with little to offer in the way of popular entertainment. This experimental exercise in theater must pretend a universality it cannot offer. Road show crowds are guaranteed because the University show has become an important event in many of the towns.
Younger audiences would sit patiently through abbreviated expository scenes, knowing that rude, comic, sword fights, or villains would catch their imagination. For the adult, a timeless quality of universality of emotion or intellect made the evening worthwhile.
high school. In the past, such road show selections as "A Mid-summer Night's Dream," "Hamlet," and "Twelfth Night," met with popular approval, while at the same time realizing an educational function. For Shakespeare is superb entertainment.
Yet, it will be interesting to note how many persons in a younger audience will sit patiently through an hour and twenty minute first act based on drawing-room situations.
The cast of "The Contrast" is in for a rough 14 days. Ask them. They will tell you so.
Letters
Student Predicts Low Voting Total
Dear Editor:
Here it is spring again and time for another campus election. I wonder if any more than the usual 25 per cent of the students will cast their votes for the new campus leaders. I sincerely doubt it.
Why don't students vote in their own governmental elections? One of the main reasons probably is the never ending stream of undesirable printed and verbal statements of FACTS political party. Many students hate to see these political methods and, consequently, don't vote.
A good indication of this appeared in the FACTS newspaper recently. FACTS said it opposed the corruption of five years of machine rule by Pachacamac, and that it wanted to replace the petty do-nothingism of the Pach regime.
Untrue statements like this (the student court has proved it was untrue) are a clear indication of why, as our elders say, this generation is "going to the dogs."
With the primary elections at hand, I urge every student to take five minutes of his time and vote. We can show the world who is inferior, if we only use our minds, put forth a little effort, and cast our ballots April 1.
Nathan Harris
Do other countries have old mother-in-law jokes? If they do, we think King Farouk could add a few new, perhaps vicious, ones.
Wonder if "Doggie in the Window" is responsible for the sudden fad among high school girls of wearing dog collars around their ankles?
college sophomore Bully for you!-Ed
Latest Cat Jokes Hit Skids As Prof Reverses Connection
Nobody likes to butter up professors better than I do and whenever I get a chance, I pep up one of the old pots with the latest cat joke. ___
Yesterday I stalked one in the hall and bowled him down. "Gimme five, dad, I got a gasser for you." "A-gerant?"
"A gasser?"
"Yeah. Two cats were walkin' down the street in New York when one spotted the Empire State building, 'Man,' he said, 'dig that crazy clarinet.'"
This didn't send him so I gave him a stopper. "A cat finished his meal in a restaurant and ordered a piece of apple pie. The waitress told him it's all gone. 'Gone! Man, that's crazy pie. I will take two pieces.'"
The prof, floundered. "Look here," he said.
But the cream was yet to pour.
"This one's a fracture," I said. "Two cats are going to Europe when they break in, and there's the one,
Dir that cra-a-zzy cange."
I figured this would double him up enough to make him forget that midsemester flunk. Instead, he looks sort of sidewise like a blurped chick and starts this spiel.
"Knock, knock."
"Knock, knock on what?"
"No, you say 'Who's there?' "
"Crazy, man. Who's there? "
"Orange."
"Orange."
"Orange what?"
"No, you say 'Orange who?' "
"Did you say 'Orange who'?"
"Orange you going to study today?"
This broke me up. What a gone dialogue! "Say, dad, where did you pick up this jazz?"
"It's an old fad," he said. "You just make them up. Like this. Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
"Tarzan who?"
"Tarzan stripes forever!"
"Proffy, now there's a real gone gasser. Wait'll I dig the cats down at the Union with that one."
Just then the dean walked up. "Say," he said, "I heard a rather amusing story the other day. About Little Audrey. Seems she was shopping with her mother. . ."
—Chuck Zuegner
One Man's Opinion
Bv DON SARTEN
Robert Vosper, director of the University libraries, has issued a memorandum to his staff as follows:
I am anxious to have good publicity about the library in the Kansan and other papers and so hope all of you will be alert to suggest good ideas.
On the other hand, I feel that news stories must be planned and controlled in order to avoid careless, reporting.
Staff members should not give interviews without clearing first with a Department Head or me.
Robert Vosper
Robert Vosper
We are not members of his staff, but we'd like to suggest good later, as requested in his first paragraph.
Forgetting the obvious censorship this dictate imposes, we'd like to remind Mr. Vosper that good publicity isn't ordered—it's created by the actions of two sources.
In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of Bock beer.