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University Daily Kansan Thursday. Feb. 18, 1960
The Silent University
There seems to be a general attitude at KU that certain incidents concerning the academic community should be suppressed.
During the last semester this attitude gained a dangerous momentum. It now appears that the "it's not for the students ears" idea has taken the form of a policy among administrators and campus politicians.
- A case in point: The arrest of a student "leader" for being drunk at a ball game while representing the University.
- A case in point: Certain pornographic films confiscated by the administration.
- A case in point: A stolen mimeograph machine used by a would-be politician to print inflammatory leaflets.
- A case in point: An administrator's promise of secrecy in regard to punishment of a fraternity for one of its member's actions during a social function.
Some individuals, deemed "mature" enough to realize the "dangers" of making known these individual and group actions have been let in on the dark secrets. The idea behind this policy seems to be that certain facts could be detrimental to the university.
Unfortunately this principle is a little too idealistic to be practical. On a practical level the policy is being enforced to protect individuals and groups considered too "important" to have
the stigma of responsibility attached to their names.
Stripped of its idealistic clofhing the principle carries a bad odor and we think it is high time that people learn that they are responsible to their community for their actions.
A journalist who gets wind of these happenings and attempts to document them for publication gets the old pep talk about "think of the harm it will do," all types of off-the-record statements, and a close motthed silence—in that order.
We maintain that university students are adults and should be treated as such. The policy of cloaking their misdeeds may lead to the attitude that they are above the scrutiny of society — academic or otherwise.
On the administrative level the doctrine of rehabilitation is preached:
"We are not interested in punishing the individual, but in helping to rehabilitate him. We can not do this in the face of publicity." This is the stock answer from administrators to reporters attempting to gain information. A short-sighted, narrow-view policy.
The main interest should be in preventing irresponsible actions which could be "detrimental" to the University. The best method for doing this is not by secrecy, which in effect promises the individual amnesty. The correct method should be to hold the individual, or group, responsible for their actions—responsible to society. — Ray Miller
An Apology
The Daily Kansan owes Ursula Schwarzkopf, an instructor in German from Stuttgart, Germany, an apology.
Her letter to the editor on "Another Student's View," published in Wednesday's Kansan, was printed in the wrong context. The letter appeared to be discussing the reaction to Jules Dubois' recent comments on Cuba and gave the letter a political connotation.
Miss Schwarzkopf's letter referred to Peter Posch's article on Feb. 11 entitled "A Visitor's View."
Editor:
A Right
I read about the Latin American students who heckled Mr. Dubois and tried to prevent him from exercising his right of free speech in his own country. I want to comment on this.
Since I was 18 years old (I am now 31), I have lived most of the time in Latin America. In fact, I have studied and traveled throughout all of Latin America. I am married to a wonderful Costa Rican woman. We have one child and are expecting another. In our house, only Spanish is spoken. My Latin American friends and relatives are the dearest things to my heart. My experience in Latin America has so saturated me with Latin American thinking and customs that life in the United States is not as happy and fulfilling as it should be.
Some Latin Americans, who read this letter, may believe I am prejudiced against them. That isn't so. I recognize their defects just as I see the weaknesses and undesirable traits of my own po-
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NEWS DEPARTMENT
Jack Morton ... Managing Editor
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Douglas Yocom and
Jack Harrison ... Co-Editorial Editors
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Bruce Lewellyn    Business Manager
... Letters ...
ple. I love them as I love my own people — faults and all.
It is curious and disconcerting that the Latin Americans are so passionately vociferous about their opinions of United States policy and certain American citizens. HERE WITHIN THE FRONTIERS OF THE UNITED STATES. They carry their banners and shout their insults, just as if they were "back home" carrying "Vete Yanqui," "Fuera Gringo," "Muera Nixon" signs and expropriating the property of American citizens.
An American visiting Latin America gets along famously, as long as he lies on the beaches, takes silly pictures of fools sleeping against thorny cactuses, spends his dollars, and acts "simpatico." But the moment he questions the integrity of certain Latin politicians and policies, or gives some nasty opinions of things he doesn't like there, he is immediately eligible for execution. How many times in Latin America, I have listened to savage, insulting speeches against the United States and kept my mouth shut! How many times I have shed silent tears when I was told that all North American women are as spiritually and culturally sterile as stones. But I didn't say anything. I was "smart" I didn't want my head chopped off.
But I have "faltered" occasionally. Once, in a Central American country, I passed a Protestant church that was being besieged by some members of the dominant religious organization in that country. Although I am not a Protestant, I tried to defend them.
"Go home, Gringo!" the mob shouted. "You are in our country! Keep quiet! Be a good guest! Muera Gringo!"
"Please leave them alone!" I shouted to the attackers. "Let them worship God in their own way! If their words are lies, they are not a permanent danger to your way of life. If they speak truth, you will be better off for letting them have their say. Don't be animals!"
Many times, I have been "put in my place" even when I wasn't interfering. When my wife and I were returning to the United States, some students in a certain Latin American country, who were carrying the classic, boring, childish, "Go Home Yankee!" signs, tried to overturn my car while my seven months' pregnant wife and I were still in it.
I know that the Latines have a right to speak freely, even in the United States. So has Jules Dubois. Hear him out. He, too, is human. He, too, is entitled to dignity, respect — and attention. Let him do in his own country what you
Isn't there any dignity among the American students at KU? When Cubans humiliate the United States...why aren't you protesting and complaining and carving signs to the Cuban students? Why aren't you carrying signs stating that you don't like what the Venezuelans did to Vice President Nixon and his wife? You know, that would do more good than a lot of cowardly silence.
don't want him to do in yours. If you don't like it, go home—as you tell us Americans.
You Latins have a wonderful saying, "cada quenda manda en su casa." (Every man is boss in his own home.) Well, remember that the Americans are the bosses of their home.
Back in your territory, you may keep us quiet. Insult us and our way of life. Expropriate our holdings. Fight like vultures over our dollars. Kill us and spit on our women and children. But don't do it in our own country. Show some culture. Such impropriety destroys our dignity. It shows how little respect you have for us. It makes us look like just what you think we are (and I agree with you) "bobos wrears" (Yankee fools). I know that Uncle Sam is really "Uncle Sucker." But please, for the sake of human decency, don't make it so obvious. The truth hurts.
Gene D. Matlock Junction City, Kan.
. . .
Who Was Belligerent?
Editor:
Mr. Harrison; We resent being referred to as "belligerent students" hurling questions at Mr. Jules Dubois, Mr. Dubois brought the roof down on his own head by answering "belligerently" to the opening question posed with dignity by Dr. Arnold Weiss. The second question posed politely by a Cuban student, Ramon Mayor, "What do you think of Prensa Latina?" practically brought Dubois into the audience as he lunged over the podium aiming his finger at his interlocutor and shouted "I'll tell you what I think of Prena a Latina!" Dubois, himself, set the tone of the meeting and in so doing alienated not only the Cuban students but also the majority of the Americans in the audience. We have no doubt that Mr. Dubois had something to say—he simply did not know how to handle himself with the "maturity" and "dignity" one expects from a man in his position.
Robert H. Scott, Lawrence graduate student Jane Murdock, Joplin Mo., graduate student Jim Bennett, Lawrence graduate student Cherrie Soper, Paoll, Pa., graduate student Jim Morelan, Lawrence senior
By W. D. Paden Professor of English
HORIZON (September and October, 1959; volume II, numbers 1 and 2. $3.95 an issue; $18 a year.)
As this bimonthly hard-covered periodical has begun its second year, it is fair to assume that it has emerged from the inevitable first phase of experiment, and try to estimate its nature and its worth. The editors would probably not object if it were called pretentious. The lavish illustrations, mostly in color, present the art and aesthetic documentation of centuries, and the articles are signed by a wide variety of intellectuals—academic, literary, and journalistic—from the United States and western Europe. What kind of readers have the editors decided to address? And what areas have they decided to cultivate, and with what success?
Because "Horizon" carries no advertisements, it must, despite its high price, appeal to a comparatively large class of readers. The major articles seem to approximate six double-columned quarto pages, exclusive of illustrations, which indicates that the editors aim at readers with a span of attention a good deal longer than the average. That the magazine includes neither poetry nor fiction is not surprising, for today with few exceptions an imaginative writer appeals either to a small special audience or to a large undiscriminating one; the first kind would not afford a sufficient circulation, the second can be attracted only by materials that at the same time repel all readers of the caliber desired.
All the articles fall within the area of the humanities. Those concerning the past have each some definite relation to a current problem or preoccupation. The spectrum they form is wide: two important essays by H. R. Trevor-Roper on "The Sudden End of the Renaissance" and "The Persecution of Witches"; a clear sketch of the historical influence of Peter the Great, by Constantin de Grunwald; a witty account of Ulrich von Lichtenstein, the paragon of courtly love, by Morton Hunt; a sharply stated definition of the Grand Tour, by J. H. Plumb; a superb portfolio of the marbles of Aegina, photographed by Leonard von Matt, with a rather glossy—and editorially abridged—account of their discovery in 1811 by Geoffrey Grigson; and a popular essay on archaeological exploration in Palestine by Nelson Glueck.
There are two articles that might be termed minor gossip on current intellectual affairs, and two articles on living writers. The other half of the total pages deals with the current state and contemporary practitioners of the fine and applied arts. Two essays, one on the impact of the latest American painting on Europe, by John Russell, the other on the latest architecture (here called "High Modern") by Allan Temko, are eloquent expositions. A number of other articles may be praised as the finest kind of reporting, such as Richard Gilbert's on Camus, Bernard Asbell's on the culture of Topeka (Kansas), and Frank O'Hara's on Larry Rivers, an abstract painter (who is quietly assassinated by the interviewer).
There are not many signs of editorial tampering with these really distinguished contributions. But one may suspect that something happened under the hands of an "editorial assistant"—that is, rewrite man—to the brief interview with the Danish author, Karen Blixen. It bears the name of Jean Stafford, whom it would be difficult (and dangerous) to suppose naive; yet the article gushes like a girl interviewing the soprano of a travelling opera-company for a high school newspaper. "I asked her if she kept dogs and she said that, alas, her last dog, an Alsatian, had grown so very old, so very thin ('Worse than me,' she said and smiled with rue), that she had been obliged to have him shot." When Miss Stafford read the prose appended to her name, she may have smiled with rue; but it is a good deal more likely that she felt an urge to have someone shot.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
"SORRY ABOUT YESTERDAY, MISS LATOUR. — IT'S JUST THAT WE
VERY SELFDON HAVE A GIRL ENROLLED IN AN ENGINEering CLASS."