PAGE SIX
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
JANUARY 23,1947
Kansan Comments
K.U. Dances
For the second time in two months, the All Student Council social committee has accepted the resignation of an A.S.C. dance manager.
The first resignation was tendered because of pressure of scholastic and other extra-curricular duties. The second came as a result of a clash over the question of what class dances are for.
The dance manager (the most recent one) had the idea that a class party was an occasion to bring better music to the Hill than campus bands furnish, an occasion to have a big delightful party, that making money was less important than having a good time.
The junior class officers feel that the purpose of having class parties is to have a good party, yes, but making money was much more important than bringing a "name" band to the campus.
The dance manager thought that he could pay $500 to bring in an outside band, avoid having to make a choice from the six Hill bands, and still make money. The junior class officers felt that while Matt Betton might be better than the local bands, he wouldn't bring in $300 more than a local band. Their strongest argument is that so far no all-University dance has made money this year, regardless of the band.
There's probably no way of deciding whether Matt Betton could be a money-maker for the junior class unless he is brought here. We think that students would regard the Junior Prom just as they have regarded other all-University dances this year. They say, "Swell, let's have a big dance;" then they go to a place where they can have their own crowd.
Most of the school dances this year—midweeks, varieties and class dances—have been rather stilted affairs at their best and a downright bore at their worst. Best-liked University entertainment this year, in our opinion, was the Carnival where by the very nature of the affair, students had to unbend and have a good time.
The increased population of K.U. seems to be responsible for this attitude of ignoring everyone except a close circle of friends. Even the most accomplished name - recaller knows only a small percentage of the University family now. When ever he goes to a dance, he finds it difficult to find anyone he knows unless he's brought his own group with him.
The University Daily Kansan
Student Newspaper of the UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Member of the Kansas Press Assn., Naca-
on Eagar Journal Press, Inland District Press,
and the Kentucky Press. Represented by the National Ad-
vertising Services Jackson Ave., New York City.
Managing Editor                                 Charles Roof
Asst. Managing Editor                            Jane Anderson
Makeup Editor                                  Bille Marie Hamilton
Business Manager                                Bill Donovay
Advertising Manager                           Margery Handy
Circulation Manager                          John McCormick
Education Manager                           Edward Steward
Asst. Telegraph Ed.                          R. T. Kingman
City Editor                                    R. T. Kingman
The University students don't have a feeling of being friends with each other. They don't know each other and by their attitude at dances, they don't give themselves an opportunity to lengthen their list of friend
Earlier this year, a student proteed because he had so much difficulty in trying to "tag" at a dance. He said that when he tried to cut in on a girl he'd like to dance with, the girl's date would turn a disapproving eye on him and dance on.
This student was trying to break down the wall between those he knew and those he didn't know. One student, however, couldn't expect to change this current attitude. Only the social committee and the dance manager can do the ice-breaking. We have a suggestion we'd like to see tried. We know it has worked other places, and we see no reason why it wouldn't work here.
Start the dance with a grand march. Then have a date dance. Then have a circle dance. Then another date dance. And another tag dance. Keep mixing up date and tag and circle dances.
If this doesn't break down those circles of protection everyone has built around himself, nothing will. Dances have to be fun or the crowds will go elsewhere.
Mind-Changing
In a couple of weeks, several hundred students are going to leave the University clutching a sheepskin which says they have survived four years of, to use a coined phrase, blood, sweat and tears.
Talk to any of them right now. If you ask them if they're glad they're getting out, most of them first will tell you they wouldn't serve another year's sentence here for love or money. But if you press them further, they probably will admit that they're going to miss being here. Human nature is such that one always feels a little pang of sorrow at leaving any place where he has had a good time.
Proof of the fact that graduates do remember the University is the number of gifts from alumni. These range from outright donations to the University through gifts of buildings and equipment to loan funds and scholarship funds. Look at the list of such funds in the front of the University catalog. It's amazingly long.
These persons who make these donations aren't any different from the students who are being graduated this year. They have more money now, and they think that their University training has helped them to earn this money. So they show their appreciation by returning some of that money to aid other students to get the benefits of an education at K.U.
Some of this year's graduates may feel that they never want to even hear of this place again, but a few years will change their minds just as a few years changed the minds of the graduates of former years. And this year's graduates can help the students of tomorrow by remembering that a small gift from them may mean a college education for someone else in the future.
Second semester is going to be much rougher on College students trying to fill division and junior-senior hour requirements. The College isn't offering "The Motion Picture" or "Music Appreciation" or even "Early Morning Bird Calls".
No Sweepstakes Ticket For Me
Fat housewives and bald janitors grinned into the mike and mumbled happily about winning $100,000 in the Irish sweepstakes. I saw them in the newsreels, and it set me to thinking—maybe I should buy an Irish sweepstakes ticket.
By RHODA MORRISON (Daily Kansan Staff Writer)
Then I got to thinking about our family and I concluded we were a nondescript bunch. We never won prizes or fame or anything.
Take Mother, for instance. Her only claim to fame was the role she had in a high school play. It was a scenic role, she always said. She spoke no lines. She walked across the stage and she carried a tennis racket. She was "Daisy, the Athletic Girl."
Dad did a little better. One summer between college years, he traveled around the country with the circus, barking for the Two-Headed Calf."
As for me, I gave great theatrical promise. In Sunday school dramas I played before capacity audiences of mamas and papas as an "Easter Lily" and a "Spring Breeze." In the fifth grade health habits play, I was a "Beet" in a crepe paper costume.
The kid brother also has done better for himself. He survived the "Easter Bunny" in Sunday school and actually reached the "Butter" stage in high school. Then on the
night of his big buttering, he was humiliated by fate. He came down with the measles.
As for winning prizes, the family lagged there, too. Once when I was six, the grade school held a sort of spring track meet and I won the tricycle race. As I recall, once the kid brother won a fruit cake on the punch board.
Of course, if you want to count Dad's exploits on the punchboard, the family record rises.
Once we did win something else.
It was in the era when every company was giving away cars for the
He gambled on them wildly, throwing caution to the winds, to come home laden with goey chocolate covered marshmallows. We thought they were wonderful but mother made us each drink a glass of milk before we could eat them. She always said that if our growth was ever stunted or we were otherwise physically abnormal, it was because we ate up the poisonous things Pop won on the punch boards.
best letter saying, "I use Bubz Bubble Bath because"—in 25 words or less. We all slaved hours over a truly literary masterpiece about why we used a certain brand of paper towel. We were sure we would win a new automobile. Well, we won all right—12 dozen rolls of toilet paper.
Dad was astounded. Ye Gods, he gasped weakly, what did they thinkwe were running, a nursery school?
Mother, with her practical eye to the future, bore up under it much better. She thought it was rice and economical. Why, we could store them in the basement and have a supply for the rest of our natural lives.
Pop said that was fine but when he reached a ripe old age and was ready to start for heaven, he wanted to be free to go. He couldn't see forcing himself to hang on a few more years just to use up the paper stock.
The final outcome was that the kid brother, under protest, drove mother around to hospitals and orphanages where she distributed our essay prize.
So, on second thought, I don't think I'll buy a sweepstakes ticket. Hospitals and orphanages would hardly escape my consolation prize of 12 dozen bales of hay. Not that they need to worry. Our family never wins anything, anyhow.
Sterling Furniture Company