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LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Prof. Backus Undertakes Second Career
Oswald P. Backus, professor of history, began a second career Wednesday—a career which is rather unusual for a Russian history professor.
Prof. Backus was one of 53 lawyers who passed the Kansas bar examination, allowing them to practice before state courts in the state and also in the three federal courts in the Kansas district.
He was admitted to the Kansas bar in ceremonies in Topeka Wednesday morning before the Kansas Supreme Court and to federal practice in afternoon ceremonies before Chief Federal Judge Delmas C. Hill.
Prof. Backus, who recently spent over a year in Finland and Russia on a Fulbright research fellowship, received a Bachelor of Law degree from the Harvard University Law School last year.
He doesn't plan, however, to go into active law practice.
"I'm interested in research and interpretation, especially in the field of Russian law. I thought the best way to gain an understanding of foreign law was to study and interpret our own. I also thought it would be valuable to understand the thinking of lawyers so I began work toward becoming a practicing attorney," he explained.
Prof. Backus will have some opportunities to practice. Occasionally, cases involving wills and contracts between American and Russian corporations are filed and he will be available for these.
"There won't be many, I admit, but there are a few cases filed each year in the Lawrence area involving Soviet laws," he said.
Art Award Established
Establishment of the Maud Ellsworth Scholarship Fund in Art Education, honoring Prof. Ellsworth on the occasion of her retirement from teaching at the University of Kansas, was announced yesterday by Dean Kenneth E. Anderson of the School of Education.
Miss Ellsworth, professor of art education, retired this last month after 29 years on the staff at the University of Kansas. The fund is being created by former students, friends and associates of Miss Ellsworth.
"In the course of her distinguished career at the University, in both classroom teaching and many activities outside the classroom, Miss Ellsworth has immeasurably advanced the cause of art education in Kansas and the Midwest," Dean Anderson said. "She has added cultural enrichment to the lives of countless Kansas children, students and adults through her leadership in this field."
Income from the endowed fund, administered by the Endowment Association, will be used to provide an annual scholarship for a student majoring in art education.
The scholarship committee includes three associates of Miss Ellsworth in the Schools of Fine Arts and Education; Miss Marjorie Whitney and Miss Evelyn DeGraw, professors of design; and Mrs. Marguerite Kerfoot, instructor of art education.
Weather
Partly cloudy today. A little cooler over northeast and northcentral areas. High today 85 to 95.
DOWN SHE COMES—Jennie Allen, 5, roars down the slide at the University playground in Fowler Grove. The playground is open Monday through Friday nights until 9.
Second Summer Play Cast Improves Comedy
Paul Osborn's "Morning's at Seven," which opened last night in Murphy Hall, seems to me a piece of quartz in a cameo setting.
William Inge, who owes a certain debt to Saroyan, could have handled these aging people caught up in their domestic imbroglios without resorting to such claptrap as this.
By Jerry Knudson
"Morning's at Seven" seems a corn-belt version of "The Time of Your Life," and I prefer William Saroyan's pathos and charmingly disengaged characters to Osborn's broad farce and cardboard people.
For example, the dialogue is sprinkled with such folksy phrases as "bee in a bonnet," "honest Injun," and "Oh, don't be such a goose."
The comedy-drama is placed in a superb set designed by Jack Rast Jr. Direction and lighting by E. Arthur Kean and costumes by Caroline Kriesel are competent. Several actors perform miracles.
That is, the University Theatre's summer production is far better than the play deserves.
Some of Osborn's characters sound suspiciously like Charlie Weaver.
But the play itself is something else again.
If old people have anything, it's dignity. And this quality does not
rule out comedy, for Charlie Chaplin retained his immense dignity in his wildest slapstick. That's why he was funny.
These are the characters: Theodore Swanson, an old man addicted to pointless profanity, played by Lou Lyda; his wife Cora, mild, oh so mild, played by Georgia O. Ryther; Aaronetta Gibbs, a ratchety-voiced spinster, played by Kay Carroll.
Ida Bolton, brimming with wide-eyed empty-headedness, played by Maurine Jones; her husband Carl, who suffers "spells," played by Millard Denny, and their son Homer, a 40-year-old adolescent, played by David H. Jones.
By far the best moments of the play are those quiet interludes when the chattering senility ceases, and the cast maintains excellent dramatic pauses.
Myrtle Brown, seven years a hopeful bride, played by Patricia Walters, and Esther and David Crampton, whose resemblance to living persons is not entirely coincidental, played by Sandra Hopkins and Ron Loch.
By all means, see "Morning's at Seven" at 7:30 tonight and evaluate the play (and this crotchety critic) for yourself.
Desire Rated In New Test
Is it possible to tell how well a student will do upon entering college?
A standard examination given to Kansas high school juniors for this purpose is the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, but two educators at the University believe this technique neglects the significant areas of intellectual curiosity and persistence.
Dean Kenneth E. Anderson of the School of Education and Tilghman Aley, now assistant to the president of Mesa College Grand Junction, Colo., worked out a supplementary series of self-rating questions sent to about 7,000 Kansas high school seniors in 1959 who had taken the National Merit test the preceding year.
About 4,700, or 66 per cent of these students, gave themselves ratings, which were correlated with results of their National Merit test scores in the humanities and science.
Students were asked to evaluate themselves on four questions. "How would you rate yourself in terms of:
Results showed a remarkable similarity between several levels of student self-awareness in the intangible areas of curiosity and persistence with the tangible areas of scholastic achievement indicated by the National Merit test.
—Intellectual curiosity? (Do you frequently ask yourself why a particular thing is so or how do I know it is true?)
—Willingness to stand discomfort (a cold, illness, etc.) in completion of a school task?
Willingness to spend time, beyond the ordinary schedule, in completion of a given task?
—Questioning the absolute truth of statements from textbooks, newspapers, and magazines or of statements made by persons in position of authority such as teachers, lecturers, and professors?"
Students used a 5-place scale varying from "considerably below average" to "considerably above average."
Results showed that students rating themselves as "considerably below" and "somewhat below" average had no significant differences on their National Merit scores. But students rating themselves as "average" scored significantly lower than those who rated themselves "somewhat above" or "considerably above" average.
Plans are underway to check the validity of the students' self-evaluations with the actual college grades which more than 300 of them made this year as freshmen at the University.
Items in the self-rating questionnaire "may correlate as well if not better with grades than the usual college entrance or placement tests," wrote Dean Anderson and Aley in the most recent issue of "Science Education."
"Regardless of the outcome, it is possible that a new dimension will be added to use in prediction studies of college success," the authors conclude.
Last of Directory Appears on Page 8
The final portion of the Summer Session Student Directory Supplement appears on page eight of today's issue of the Kansan. The first part of the supplement appeared in Tuesday's Kansan. Students or staff who missed the original directory or the first part of the supplement may obtain copies in 111 Flint.
Kansan Will Not Publish Tuesday
There will be no issue of the Summer Session Kansan Tuesday due to the July 4 holiday on Monday. The Kansan will resume publication on Friday.
Prof. Carey to be On TV Program
J. Sheldon Carey, professor of design and one of America's leading ceramic artists, will appear soon in one of the half-hour Columbia Broadcasting System television series, "Montage."
Prof. Carey demonstrates his craft in "The Potter's Wheel," which will be seen later this summer. He has just returned from St. Louis, where he made a Video Tape of the program with Helen Hogen, CBS producer of "Montage."
The Design Department at the University is listed in the credits at the end of the film.
The show does not appear in this area.
This spring Prof. Carey was chosen to show his work in the International Cultural Exchange Exhibit in Geneva, Switzerland, sponsored by the Academic Internationale de la Ceramique.
In 1959, Time Magazine described him as one of the "top practitioners" in his field. He was one of three ceramists, and the only American, whose works were reproduced in full color in the magazine's art section.
Price Takes New Position
G. Baley Price, chairman of the mathematics department at the University, will be on leave for the 1960-61 academic year to be the first executive secretary of the newly organized Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences.
He is opening a Washington, D. C., office of the Conference Board today.
The Conference Board, which is an outgrowth of a World War II mathematics policies committee, was incorporated in February, 1960, and Dr. Price was elected chairman of the board of directors at that time.
A 3-year grant of $75,000 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York will finance the Board and its activities. The grant was obtained by the Mathematical Association of America two years ago when Dr. Price was its president and the funds, which have been held until now, have been transferred to the new Board.
Dr. Price said the Washington office is being created to gather information of activities affecting all branches of mathematics and to supply information to the government and to the public. It will also carry on activities common to the six societies.