PAGE SIX
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1942
The KANSAN Comments...
Scholarship--Benevolent Instructors Or Better Class of Students?
Students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences would probably be quick to doubt that more than half the grades recorded in the College are either A's or B's. The experienced student, grimly reminiscent of certain unfortunate grades in the past, would be more inclined to believe that half were D's, with the detested F coming in for the lion's share of the remaining marks.
It is true, however, that a little more than one-half the grades, 50.2 per cent, to be exact, were A's and B's in the last school year. F's, popular belief to the contrary, came in for only 4.2 per cent of the total grades, while incomplete were held to a mere 1.6 per cent and D's (and this is most startling of all), were kept to a minimum of 9.2 per cent.
It is accepted fact that C is supposed to be the average grade. The grade scale builds up and down from C. But, the actual number of C's awarded last year was .2 per cent less than the number of B's. This would indicate that instructors do not grade "on the curve," because then the normal probability curve would be preserved in the total of grades in the College.
Last year's grades show the highest percentage of A's, the highest percentage of B's, and the lowest percentage of failures in five years. The College office feels safe to say that never before have there been fewer poor students, or more superior students in the College than now.
Comparison of these grades with those when the last survey of this kind was made in 1929 is startling. In brief, since that time, incomplete are down 50 per cent, as are failures. On the other end of the scale, A's and B's are
up from 44.3 per cent in 1929 to their present all-time high of 50.2 per cent.
It boils down to the fact that either teachers are getting easier, or students are getting better. Each factor probably is responsible in some measure, because there is a sub-conscious tendency on the part of professors to relax their requirements in times of conflict and turmoil. It is the latter, though, which is most significant. More outstanding students have been brought to the campus in the past few years, due to the increase in number of scholarships, cooperative houses, and similar aids.
For example, the University now has more than 50 Summerfield students who must maintain a 2.5 grade average to retain their scholarships, without which many of them could not continue their education. There are 80 girls at Watkins and Miller halls who maintain at least a B average. Some twenty-five girls benefit by the Donnelly scholarships, which insist upon maintenance of a grade average high in the scale.
In addition to these permanent scholarships there are numerous miscellaneous aid anonymous scholarships. N.Y.A. jobs keep 199 students at the University, and authorities are ruthless about denying N.Y.A. work to students who fail to maintain a C average.
Approximately 800 students are self-supporting—one-sixth of the student body, and a large part of them must maintain some average above 1. This is the significant reason for the increase in percentage of good grades.
All of this merely bears out Dean Paul B. Lawson of the College in his statement that: "The College has the best students now that it has had since I have been connected with it."
It's The World's Largest
It is amazing how this business we know as war has developed. In the old days, if the king decided to make war on a people, he merely called out his men and went marching along to battle. Nothing much, if anything, was ever thought about the consequences that might befall the subjects. After all, they were only the people, and what did they have to say, anyway?
Even in 1917, we hadn't progressed to the point where the entire country's resources were marshalled for carrying on warfare. But the dictators who are responsible for World War II have rewritten the script for the tragedy.
Eventually, of course, the little man began to voice an opinion or two concerning expenditure of his tax money, and eventually he came to be heard occasionally. That was the birth of our democratic system.
The battle upon American soil is made up of three sections:
1. Handling of essential civilian needs
2. Concentration of everything else upon war production
3. Controlling prices, inflation, and seeing
that everyone is dealt with fairly. The present authorizations call for 142 billion dollars that will wing its way into defense and war channels. That's a good-sized lump of cash, too; it amounts to about $606 per capita.
This is really one time that the little fellow is playing a big part.
OFFICIAL BULLETIN
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Vol. 39 Friday, February 20,1942 No.89
Notices due at News Bureau, 8 Journalism, at 10 a.m. on day of publication during the week, and at 11 a.m. on Saturday for Sunday issue.
Newman Club: Corporate Communion for the Newman Club will be held Sunday. A breakfast and discussion meeting will follow the Mass and the Rev. E. J. Weissenburg will preside. All Catholic students are urged to attend.-Lloyd Svoboda, vice-president, Newman Club.
El Ateneo will meet at 4:30 Thursday, Feb. 26, in room 113 F.S. Slides of the Philippines will be shown and a short play will be given. We expect a large attendance so be on time to get good seats.-Frank Pinet, President.
NEW ADDRESSES FOR DIRECTORY SUPPLEMENT: Students who changed addresses between semesters and who have not reported new addresses to the Registrar's office should file these addresses at once so that corrections may appear in the Directory Supplement.—James K. Hitt, Assistant Registrar.
Employment for Women Students: Additional opportunities are available for women students who wish to work for meals, or for room and board. Anyone who is interested may call at the office of the Adviser of Women, 220 Frank Strong Hall, for suggestions.—Women's Employment Bureau.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Student Paper of THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas
Subscription rates, in advance, $3.00 per year, $1.75 per semester. Published at Lawrence, Kansas, daily during the school week, on Saturday and Saturday as second class matter September 17, 1941; post office at Lawrence, Kansas, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Sigma Nu John Dyatt has blasphemed history at his fraternity house. The Sigma Nu's own a bathtub in which T. R. (Strenuous Life) Roosevelt is supposed to have bathed. Johnny filled the tub one night just before dinner, left the water running, and meandered off someplace to parley with Bob Fairchild. Soon after, the Sigma Nu's sat down to dine and presently noticed strange seepings appearing on the dining room ceiling. Lo, the sacred bathtub had run amuck, after the manner of bathtubs, sacred or unsacred . . .
Some fiend at the Delt house gave Glee Smith the hotfoot of the century last week. Smitty was asleep at the time and failed to recover consciousness until two of his most indispensable toes had been blistered beyond recognition. This young man is now sleeping with his feet in a pan of ice water.
Poignant and Touching sight: Hill women crowding into the Red Cross sewing room in Fraser enthusiastically to stick pins in themselves and sew their needlework to their clothes. And aren't those little blue bedjackets fascinating, Maisie?
--are the legendary figures which dwell there.
Agony Item: C. R., "What are we going to do about our basketball tickets?'
Jane.
Editor's note: Jane Veatch and Clem Mong have just written finis to their amour. This entails a very embarassing and complex situation as C.R has Jane's basketball tickets and they are no longer seeing one another. This department will be only too glad to handle any such items as the above, provided, of course, they are accompanied by an intelligible explanation for the enlightenment of the general reading public.
Not Cut Off Without A Scent Thanks to Egyptians
Right now, with two class reports and that quiz hanging over your head, wouldn't you like to curl up in a drowsy corner, hall close your eyes, and inhale the most appealing fragrance in the world? Such a situation was the Greeks' idea of heaven.
Perfume, a luxury adored by women and never ignored by men, had its beginning long ago. The Hebrews acquired their knowledge of the art of perfumery from the Egyptians, and in turn passed the lore of scent manufacture on to the Greeks and Romans. The Elysian fields, the Greek conception of Heaven were made out of perfume. Similarly, the ground of Maharaja Paradise is made of musk, as
Mighty Like a Rose
Perfumery got its start in the ancient East, with Babylon as the first great clearing house for fragrances. Coming on down through the years, perfume held its own. It is said that the court of Charlemagne "smelled like a rose."
$100,000 Yearly
Catherine de Medici had her own perfumer—Rene the Florentine, a character not so sweet as the scents he concocted. He invented the perfumed gloves so subtly poisoned that the wearer drew in death through the pores of the skin.
Napoleon's Empress Josephine had her perfumes sent from Martinique, a West Indian island recently in the war news. Her boudoir was so saturated with musk that the fragrance could still be detected 60 years after her death. Began as Incense
Louis XV, through the charm of Madame de Pompadour, introduced perfume as a necessity for nobility in France. Madame de Pompadour is known to have spent $100,000 in one year for perfumes.
Perfume came into widespread usage in England through the efforts of Queen Elizabeth, who made a hobby of making of her own perfumes.
The word "perfume" means "through smoke," from the Latin "per," through, and "fumare," to smoke, and it is probable that incense was the first form of perfume used.
Today you may spend $1 or $100
Instructors in the course will be Dr. Parke Woodard, associate professor of physiology; Dr. Glen Bond, assistant professor of bacteriology; Dr. C. W. Ashling, instructor of anatomy; and Dr. Ronald Vetter, physician at Watkins Memorial hospital.
for a bottle of your favorite fragrance, but in either case, you may be sure that a long history of ar and industry is behind your purchase.
Southern France is the number on spot for the production of flora scents, but as time goes on more and more good perfumes are produced synthetically in our own country.
Seventy-eight University medical students met last night to arrange classes for the first-aid course under the civilian defense plan. With such training they will become or dearly in the medical field units of the defense set-up. These student volunteered to take the course.
Students will meet in sections two or three afternoons each week until 30 hours of work has been completed, Dr. R. I. Canuteson, health service director of Watkins Memorial hospital explained.
Medical Students To Study First Aid
Dr. Glenn H. Baird, physician the hospital is now instructing University students in a first-aid cours
—FOR VICTORY: BUY BONDS
.