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University Daily Kansan Monday. Jan. 11. 1960
Des Moines Questions
Seniors Illiterate?
We find it shocking that 20 percent (on the average) of Iowa State University seniors flunk a freshman-level English composition test. The university requires seniors to pass such a test before they graduate.
What we can't understand is how one-fifth of the senior class got to be seniors without being able to pass freshman English.
Some members of the English faculty at Iowa State said a main reason the seniors are so poor in language is that they get no practice in writing after finishing freshman English.
Surely this can't be literally true. Students have to write reports in nearly all courses, and in many of them they must write narrative or discussion-type examinations, at least. What the English professors evidently mean is that students aren't graded on English composition in any courses except freshman English.
But shouldn't they be? If a student taking biology cannot write a clear, grammatical exposition about his subject, shouldn't he be graded down for this deficiency?
This abysmal record on English composition at Iowa State University probably is duplicated at most other public institutions and many of the private ones as well. The colleges and universities frequently complain about language deficiencies of the students they receive as freshmen. They blame the high schools for inadequate preparation of these students. No doubt these complaints are justified.
But the colleges have to assume the blame themselves for their own seniors who cannot express themselves adequately in the English language.—Des Moines Register
News Suppression
By John Husar
Several times the Daily Kansan and some University administrators have been at odds over policy issues. Regardless of the issues themselves, the basic argument frequently has been the suppression of news.
Three instances immediately come to mind. There have been others. The first dealt with three students who were suspended in the fall of 1958 for allegedly painting TNE signs on University property. The Lawrence Police Court acquitted the students for lack of sufficient evidence. Not until nine days after the students were arrested did the Daily Kansan learn that they were suspended from school without as much as a hearing by the administration.
Quoting an administration spokesman, the Nov. 17, 1958 Kansan said: "The administration spokesman explained that the University had made its decision on the facts it had investigated, and the court action was a matter between the students and the city."
While maintaining a policy to suspend any student who becomes "implicated" in vandalism, the administration sought to keep the process of suspension under cover.
Then last spring differences arose between the Kansan and Watkins Hospital. A student, under severe mental strain, had swallowed a solution including Drano in an effort to commit suicide. Treatment at the hospital saved the student's life.
Only through a news tip from an outsider did the Daily Kansan learn of the story. Absolutely no help was gained from the hospital staff. Immediately a question arose as to whether the story should be published.
While rumors of the attempten suicide were floating over the campus, the editors decided to use the story for several reasons.
1. There was an attempted suicide and attempted suicide is a crime.
2. People already were aware of distorted versions of the story.
3. Publishing the truth would be in the public interest.
4. Since the suicide attempt was the student's fourth try at self-inflicted death, he could be considered a menace to society.
The last point swung the decision. However, it was agreed that the newspaper would protect the student by omitting mention of his name.
The question in this case was the matter of good taste. The hospital felt that the boy's crime was a private affair and that it had a duty to protect its patients from undesirable publicity. The Kansan felt that its readers have a right to know about such matters, especially when they concern a maniac whose very presence is a danger to them.
The third instance of news suppression came with the disclosure that Delta Tau Delta social fraternity had been placed on probation because one of its members violated University social rules at one of its parties.
Once again an administrator felt that the matter was a private affair between the fraternity and the Disciplinary Committee. As usual the Kansan was discouraged from printing any account of the action. Participants in the case were urged to maintain a strict silence.
Included in the general hush were reports of an "informer" system fostered by a member of the administration, and that some members of the Disciplinary Committee were ignorant of the matter. Against administrative wishes, the story was published. The Kansan felt that it had a duty to publish the story, which contained information considered essential to many local citizens.
There is a line evident through all three stories. Each one deals with a touchy issue. In each case the raw nerve-edges of personal sentiment were brushed with public knowledge and opinion. Each time the Daily Kansan felt that the stories were essential to maintaining an informed public.
All Are Similar
Actually, no one could have begun to suppress these incidents. Romans already were in the air. And, as no good newspaper will
leave a bush unentb in its search for news, the Daily Kansan eventually would have found the facts and brought them into the open. And, frankly, that is what it did.
Kansas is not the only place where suppression of news is an issue. Recently the administration at the University of Minnesota told the student newspaper that "there's no story"; in regard to a rage at the University's nurse's dormitory. This line was maintained for five days until the story no longer could be withheld.
Minnesota's excuse was that earlier publicity might have hampered progress in the case. In an editorial, the newspaper replied:
"When a similar incident comes along, we hope the campus police and the administration will keep three things in mind:
- "It can be more dangerous to have reckless rumors circulating than it is to have the truth published.
- "The news media will 'sit' on a story in order not to hamper the case if they are told truthfully that there has been an incident and it is being investigated.
- "The University is least hurt by 'incidents' involving students if it admits that they have happened and that proper action is being taken. This last fact is an important one which is often overlooked when 'bad publicity' may be risked."
We would like to second Minnesota's three points. But in dealing with the question of news suppression, we must stress the second point.
Willing to Cooperate
A good newspaper always is willing to cooperate with the law. Stories frequently are withheld in order to give police a better shot at a criminal. But cooperation from the law (or as in the Daily Kansan's case, the University administration) must be returned. Before a newspaper can decide to "sit" on a story, it first should have the story.
University of Kansas student newspaper
Dailu Hansan UNIT OF ITS LIFE
Since news is a newspaper's business, it is necessary that the newspaper be given all the details of a story before cooperation in withholding it can be expected. Without supporting evidence, no newspaper ever will consent to withholding information from its readers.
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912
Telephone VIking 3-2700
Telephone VIking 3-2700
Extension 276, news room
Extension 276, business office
Member Inland Daily Press Association. Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 420 Madison Ave., New York N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays, and examination periods. Entered as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Jack Harrison
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
George DeBord and John Husar ... Co-Editorial Editors
Saundra Hayn. Associate Editorial Editor.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
The Kansan feels that it is sensitive to personal matters and to public expediency. It is determined not to deliver any unwarranted injury to any party.
Business Manager
Keeping these thoughts in mind, therefore, the Daily Kansan will practice the following general policy:
When publication of certain details might impair the pursuit of a criminal; when some particular information might demoralize the society; or when any situation might arise in which it would be in the best interests of the general public to withhold a story, the Daily Kansan will exert its utmost cooperation for the duration of each crisis. But without the facts, it is impossible to make such a decision.
By Calder M. Pickett
Associate Professor of Journalism
THE SCARLET LETTER, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Signet Classics, 50 cents.
The story of Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth stands alongside the stories of Huck and Jim and Ahab and Ishmael as the great works of American literature. Available in an attractive new paperback edition. "The Scarlet Letter" calls for more than a casual observation of the fact that bookstores will have it in stock.
It is more like a novelle, placed alongside a blockbuster like "The Portrait of a Lady" or a virtual encyclopedia like "Moby Dick." Short, neat, concise—there are few wasted words in "The Scarlet Letter." This tightness and economy help to preserve the book, which has overtones as dark and Gothic as a "Wuthering Heights," but which tells its story crisply, unlike that other tale of darkness.
WHY HAS "The Scarlet Letter" lasted for more than a century, and why does it grow in stature? Why do professors of American literature regard it as a standard, and require it of their sometimes impatient students, who would prefer "Anatomy of a Murder" or "Exodus"? Why has it been an inspiration to writers who have followed Hawthorne, like Henry James, for example?
IT IS ALMOST FLAWLESS in its tightness of construction. The 20th century reader may be impatient with Hester's silence and Dimmesdale's cowardice, but he can appreciate the fact that in terms of puritan thought one can appreciate "The Scarlet Letter" and its conclusion. Unlike a "Huckleberry Finn," it has no ending that critics need debate, and wonder why the book runs downhill in its last few pages.
It is true to both the Puritan period it describes and the 19th century context in which it appeared. The New Critics may be able to analyze the novel only as a work of art, one which bears no relation to 1850, or to the Massachusetts that had gone through both Unitarianism and Transcendentalism since the days of the dour old Calvinists who had placed the "A" on Hester Prynne's breast. But Hawthorne, who clearly is on Hester's side, does not take an Emersonian leap into the realm of individual rights.
HAWTHORNE WAS STILL a Puritan himself, a Puritan of compassion, however, who would not persecute an adulteress but who also would not relieve her of some of the burden of her guilt. He was the Hawthorne who tried the self-reliant experiment of Brook Farm and found it wanting.
Does one sympathize with anyone other than Hester Prynne? This reader does, with Arthur Dimmesdale, for example. In an excellent introduction, Leo Marx of Amherst College refers to Dimmesdale as the "craven father." Craven he may be, though "cowardly" seems a better word. Like Hester, Dimmesdale wears his "A," but he keeps it hidden, and he suffers the torments of a martyr, though he cannot expose his martyrdom to society.
The maturing mind of youth is made the keener, his critical faculties the stronger, if in his educational experience he has been forced to discriminate and choose between competing ideas.—Thomas S. Lamont.
A convict at the Colorado penitentiary called to testify in a confidence game trial of a county sheriff, was asked: "Were you born in the United States, Pete?"
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
"FUNNY, BUT EVERY TIME WE HAVE A BULL SESSION' HERE AT WORTHAL'S THE DISCUSSION ALWAYS GETS AROUND TO GIRLS"