Friday. April 1. 1960
University Daily Kansan
Page 3
UCLA Challenge
By. John Peterson
The position of chancellor at UCLA is the most creative and exciting educational opportunity in the United States today.
Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy was discussing his new post and said that this was the description of it he received while he was seeking professional advice in the East shortly before he decided to leave KU.
"The Regents of the University of California in effect have asked me to play my appropriate role in helping to make UCLA one of the distinguished universities in the United States.
The chancellor divided the Los Angeles job into four divisions. He said that the first in importance was qualitative growth and development.
THE CHANCELLOR was asked exactly what his ultimate goal would be at UCLA. He replied:
AS OF SEPTEMBER 1, UCLA will admit only the upper $12\%$ per cent of high school graduating classes. Currently the school accepts students from the top 20 per cent of their class.
"UCLA now is regarded as one of the very good universities. The objective is to move from very good to a university of greatest distinction."
"The university has a distinguished faculty." Dr. Murphy said. "My fervent hope is to help make it even more distinguished."
I'm quite convinced that my views on scholarly achievement and excellence will be readily accepted. There is no conflict," the chancellor said.
This is the area in which the chancellor has his highest ambitions.
"I am completely dedicated to the notion of developing a national understanding of linguistic and cultural patterns of foreign nations. The Regents and the people I have talked to in California are behind me unreservedly."
DR. MURPHY said that UCLA already has an active program of international-overseas studies. He said that the school has agreements with universities in Africa, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and other areas.
At this point in his discussion
Dr. Murphy turned to the second issue of development at UCLA.
"The physical growth is indeed a real problem. The university is a big operation now. There are 16 projects, mainly buildings, totaling $40 million under construction," he said.
"By 1967 the enrollment will be more than 20,000 and programmed in a general way are 105 more buildings which, along with those under construction, involve expenditures in excess of 250 million dollars.
UCLA has 17,000 regular students and 10,000 extension and night school students. It has more than 1,500 teachers on the faculty and 3,200 non-academic employees.
Chancellor Murphy
"THE GREATEST emphasis will be placed on professional (medicine, law, etc.), graduate and upper division (junior and senior) students with a tremendous obligation and concern for research." Dr. Murphy asserted.
He then turned to his third division. Dr. Murphy said that UCLA has been primarily a commuter school with most of its students from the Los Angeles area and living at home.
"There is relatively no student housing now. It is the Regents policy to have 25 per cent of the student body in dormitories by 1967. This means that housing for 8.000 students must be built within seven years.
By Rex Darrow Overland Park junior
DR. ZHIVAGO, by Boris Pasternak; Signet Books, 50 cents, 456 pages.
When Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1958 for Dr. Zhivago, his first reaction was grateful acceptance, but within a week he had reversed his position and refused acceptance of the award. The obvious pressure that the Russian government brought him under has had its propaganda effects. But since the book had already been released on foreign presses, there was little more they could do but denounce the book and its truth. It has not yet been published in Russia.
Dr. Zhivago is a historical novel dealing with Russia's turbulent years during and following the Bolshevik revolution. Yurri Zhivago, as the main character, acts as an observer of the period. Through him the reader sees the development of the revolution and the horror of internal war and its consequences.
Yurri Zhivago is a physician and poet whose life is repeatedly torn by the strife of the times. His efforts to protect and provide for his family are continually frustrated. The love he shares with a young nurse is destined to come to a tragic end. Throughout his life Dr. Zhivago is swept along by the tide of revolution and its aftermath. Yet he clings to his ideals, refusing to accept subjugation to group thinking. By continuing to live and act as he formerly did, he becomes a symbol of defiance to the new regime, and it is only his relative obscurity that saves him from punishment.
In Dr. Zhivago, Boris Pasternak uses a beautiful and tragic story of life and love, of suffering and death, as the vehicle of a gripping moral message. Vigorously denouncing social, political and ideological regimentation, Pasternak staunchly pits the individual's freedom against adjustment to the group. His continuing theme is the sanctity of every man's soul under God and the primacy of every man's rights over the needs of the state.
The first part of the book is difficult to follow as numerous characters are introduced and observed for a short time and then forgotten. The situations become gradually clear as the story evolves into an exciting, cohesive description of Dr. Zhivago and the revolution. Although the conclusion tells of the deterioration and death of Dr. Zhivago, Pasternak's optimistic faith in the future of Russia can be seen through the tragedy of the revolution.
"It also will be necessary to develop within the university a philosophy of residential living groups as KU has now. This is something new there and is not taken for granted as it is here," he said.
The last of his divisions deals with the integration of the university into the life of Southern California and the greater Los Angeles area.
"THIS PART of California is one of the most rapidly growing areas in the United States. Growth in population has almost been pell-mell. Many millions of people live in the general vicinity of UCLA.
"One senses that this area is forming the initiative to develop a special flavor and spirit of its own. The leaders of the area look to UCLA to contribute to this much as any great university does to the intellect and culture of its area." Dr. Murphy said.
"The political situation in California is fairly stable. The people of California are completely dedicated to education. The salary scales are among the best in the United States and they attract the best teachers.
Dr. Murphy was asked if there was any chance the political situation in California could affect the long range plans of UCLA and himself personally.
"IT'S A GOOD place to raise a family, with its strong and unwavering support of education," he said.
The chancellor explained that the President of the University of California is in charge of long range planning and acts as the chief executive of the Board of Regents.
Dr. Murphy said that the president makes the recommendations for funds to the governor. The chancellor said that he will have no connections with politics at all. "I'm sure that I will have no trouble with my programs," he said. "The Regents have assured me all of the tools needed for the job."
Why I Wear White Socks?
By Dilhagh Singh Bariana Punjah, India, Graduate Student Oh! Girl of my dreams.
Tell me.
Why you wear white socks?
I still remember,
Long and long ago,
About the discussion,
About the socks,
In my country.
The white socks.
Why you wear?
Why you should not?
—A voice came from my side.
You wear white socks,
We don't care.
But why you wear?
We want to know.
And,
Is the only way,
I must say,
To be away.
From the tension of questions,
From both sides.
We like white colour,
We might like you.
We might wear,
But --------,
Your reasoning.
We don't like.
Because it bites.
Oh! The girl of my dreams --
Tell me,
Why you wear white socks?
I don't belong to your side,
If you can't answer,
I will answer.
What I feel.
Look at the Nature,
So beautiful,
These days.
You go everywhere,
You will find,
Snow everywhere.
The white in colour.
In the moon-lit night,
Even white too.
Brings message to lover,
To love.
Nature says ------
A woman,
A symbol of love,
A symbol of purity.
Oh! The girl of my dreams,
Why don't you tell?
Why you wear white socks?
Because --------,
It's a symbol,
Of simplicity,
Of purity.
International Jayhawker By Ernesto M. Vergara Philippine graduate student
An impatient and impassioned nationalism characterizes this era. In the underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, it is usually accompanied by a demand for industrialization, confiscation of landed estates, and a campaign against alien interests.
Often these movements happen without proper understanding of their roots and implications. Nationalism is not just a state of mind that can be stirred up by propaganda or stimulated through the emergence of a "charismatic" leader. It is essentially an aspect of an evolving social structure and any economic reform must take such structure into consideration.
NATIONALISTIC policies primarily directed against alien capitalists are at times short-sighted and operate against the desired goals in the long run. Take the case of the Philippines. Certain factors have stunted the development of a Filipino middle class and at the same time favored the growth of the Chinese entrepreneur. Retaining some of the traditional personal and familial ties, the Filipino entrepreneur finds great obstacles to success in business. He cannot afford to treat his customers in a business-like manner, in which case he loses his goods; on the other hand, if he treats them impersonally, he is ostracized by the group. Either way he loses.
A vacuum in the economy results and it is filled by the Chinese capitalist, an outsider unbound by the group's norm. Unrivaled and unassimilated, the Chinese naturally succeeds, and as he gets richer, he becomes a scapegoat for the country's economic ills. He is harrassed by strict laws, an example of which is the Retail Trade Nationalization Act. He circumvents the law by hiring "dummies" to obtain the business license for him. Inevitably, the law has to be disobeyed, otherwise no one will fulfill the economic role vacated by the alien businessman.
A KEY TO industrialization in the Philippines is the creation of a strong middle class which will serve as a check against abusive bureaucratic power and will contend with alien capitalists in an atmosphere of healthy competition. In some underdeveloped countries, only the land-owning class possesses the capital for investment and as such constitutes the germ for a new middle class. It would be "killing the goose" to divest this class of its landholdings.
On the other hand, this group should be encouraged to engage in industrial ventures, as by the establishment of a stable and realistic legal system. (In underdeveloped countries, where property laws are unstable and prices are indeterminate, wealthy people prefer to invest in land because of its relative security.)
Nationalism, industrialization, freedom, equality, etc., are basically Western concepts which have been formed through a long process of history, upon which various social, economic, political, and psychological determinants have been interacting. They should not merely be "adopted" but should be "adapted" to the peculiar circumstances of the underdeveloped society concerned.
A paramount need in underdeveloped countries is a core of men at the helm of government — men who are zealously dedicated to the country's ideals and not merely spokesmen of a sectarian group, and who realize that one broad sweep of the law or decree is no substitute for the slow, painstaking, and often faltering process of achieving national prosperity and solidarity.
Worth Repeating
"The students who come to college with openness and enthusiasm find themselves up against gamesmen, both among fellow students and the faculty. I know college professors in the humanities who like to get a student to read a "sophomoric" book and, when the student falls for the book, attack it and, thus, the student. Similarly, they will take poetry that they consider corny and assign it, allow the students to commit themselves, and then deride them. So, too, I think one can find a good many examples of this among social scientists, where it may take the form of deriding dogooders.
"Now, when the university and college administrations realize this, they are likely to jump to the conclusion that the college teachers whom one really ought to get are those who care primarily about their students, rather than about their subject matter or about the esteem in which they are held among fellow scholars. But I think most of us here recognize that this is no adequate solution. It is not even an undiluted blessing for the students to be taught by men who are primarily preoccupied with them; rather, such professors can be a little like those mothers who are overdevoted to their children, spending all their time at home with them rather than following their own interests or a career, being frustrated as a result, and perhaps too possessive. There has to be at least a double audience for faculty members, of students and of colleagues; if students are their only audience, they are as likely to endanger their students as to help them."—David Reisman
* *
It would be good if universities would sponsor poetry meetings with no grades attached. Widely-read professors would have to be there to suggest poems to students and to discuss poets' style, and then the meetings would be worthwhile. But college credit and grades are given for music appreciation courses. Why not give credit and grades in poetry classes—classes where students study how poets make language live.-John Ciardi