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University Daily Kansan Friday, May 20, 1960
CLINTON WARNE
Professor's Exams Can Get Chancey
By Bill Blundell
A KU faculty member is bringing a little of the flavor of a game of chance at Monte Carlo to the usual routine methods of giving examinations.
He is Clinton Warne, assistant professor of economics, whose barbed wit and penetrating comment on the American scene keeps his students entertained, informed—and awake—everyday in Summerfield Hall.
Before an interview by a Daily Kansan reporter could get under way, a rap sounded on Prof. Warne's door.
"C'mon in," he said genially. A student entered and said he was there to take a test, but had never gotten the test questions. He looked puzzled.
"We'll take care of that right now," boomed Prof. Warne, swinging a half circle in his swivel chair and facing this reporter.
His eyes dancing behind his glasses, he said, "I'm sure this young man will be of assistance in making up your exam."
Baffled, I said I would be glad to help. "Pick three numbers from one to ten," he said, with an explanatory wave of his hand. "Just pick any three numbers."
"Five, nine and-oh-seven," I replied.
Scribbling the numbers on a scrap of paper, Prof. Warne wheeled about again and tossed the paper to the waiting student.
“There’s your exam. Answer questions five, seven and nine at the end of the chapters you were supposed to have read” he said triumphantly.
"Just sit over there and start right in."
As the student sweated over the questions, Prof. Warne leaned backward in his much-abused chair and talked about his own days as a student at the University of Colorado.
"I had a partnership in a garagegas station combination. Don't say I owned it—it was only a partnership. But it helped me work my way through school," he said.
"I had another job, too. I was a night switchboard operator at the University," he added. "Between the two, I was able to get through school. And of course they had a good G.I. bill in those days, too." he mused.
Prof. Warne received his A.B. degree at Colorado in 1947. From 1942 to 1946 he was in the Army. Asked about his wartime service, Prof. Warne grinned and replied:
"I was in a combat area, but they made me a teletype repairman. You
might say I had a little bit more 'job security' than the boys in the foxholes."
He said that the Army mustered him out quickly enough after the war, but added that "it took longer than I liked."
After leaving the Army and completing his undergraduate work at Colorado, he went to Clark University, where he received his M.A. degree in 1948. In 1953, he was awarded the Ph.D. degree at Nebraska University.
Interrupting the discussion, the 38-year-old economist disentangled his long legs from beneath his desk and rose to greet another student who had come, book in hand, to take a test.
The same procedure was followed. This time the student himself picked three numbers from one to ten and then sat down to discover what his choices had brought him.
Dropping back into his chair, Prof. Warne said he was ready for more questions. He was asked what he did in his spare time. Did he have any hobbies?
Again the infectious grin. "Playing with my kids takes up most of my spare time—but I like to collect stamps too," he said.
The Warnes have two children, a four year old daughter and a 6 month old son.
He said soberly. "That all depends on the class. I'd much rather teach a large but bright and hardworking group than a few slow and lazy people."
Did he prefer to teach large or small classes?
He said that his seven years of teaching at the University has shown him that KU students are high-grade people.
Thanking Prof. Warne for the interview, I left. Another student was standing in the doorway.
As I walked down the corridor, I could almost hear Prof. Warne say:
"Pick any three numbers from one to ten . . . "
This was the opinion expressed by Butler Waugh, instructor of English, as he discussed and read the works of William Carlos Williams at yesterday's Poetry Hour.
AEC Adds $7,000 To KU Spectrometer
"Fine poems must be about things, that is primarily a vision of things rather than of ideas."
Mr. Waugh answered his own questions by quoting Williams' own observation on poetry: "A poet's business is not to talk in vague abstraction, but in particulars.
"This is why Williams can be called a maker of real poems and a shaper of ideas," Mr. Waugh said. "Williams' poems are individual moments of sensory perception. He cut himself off from the past. He makes no use of simile or literary allusions. It is the personal idioms which make his poems."
The machine, which is being made here for high temperature chemistry research, enables scientists to study more distinctly the evaporation processes and to separate atoms of different weights.
The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) has added $7,000 to its contract with KU for a mass spectrometer.
"What is a poem?" How do you recognize poetry?" he asked.
Waugh Says Poems Must Be Visual
Mr. Waugh said that he first was attracted to Williams by a two line
"You are truly white as plum blossoms."
poem titled "Spring," which simply says:
"O my grey hairs!
Williams wrote short stories and novels as well as poems. He also wrote some dramatic works — all of them unsuccessful. Mr. Waugh said,
In addition he wrote what might be considered an epic poem in five parts titled "Paterson," after Paterson, N. J." Mr. Waugh said that if this was also a failure, it was a most magnificent failure.
Williams was born near Ruther-forn, N. J., in 1883. He is a physician and although he is now quite old he still writes poems and delivers babies.
Five-Time All-Pro
Smoking a cigarette and sometimes giving a wry smile, Mr. Waugh read a few lines of Williams' poems, both early and recent, and selections from "Paterson."
Mine Host
If you don't raise on a pat hand somebody's going to draw out on you. —Herbert O. Yardley
LOS ANGELES — (UPI) — Gene Brito, the Los Angeles Rams' star defensive end, has been named to the National Football League's All-Pro team five times. In 1951, he was the 17th round draft choice of the Washington Redskins, from whom the Rams recently purchased him.
BALTIMORE — (UPI) — Alan Amche, the Colts' first draft choice four years ago, operates three restaurants in Baltimore. Amche scored the winning touchdown against the New York Giants in the 1958 title game.
What's so hard about learning a foreign language? Most of them have the same number of letters as English. —Fritz Halper.
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