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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Dec. 16, 1959
Students in Action
On the opposite page is a letter explaining a new movement being undertaken by KU students. The letter asks members of the University community to aid the University in its future budget battle with the state legislature.
The appeal is simple: Contact local representatives, parents and friends during the Christmas vacation. Explain to them the needs of the University and the consequences it may suffer if it should not receive adequate financial support. Write a couple of letters to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Topeka, telling them what you explained to the others.
Information itemizing the University's needs and the methods by which taxpayers can help to secure them can be had from any of the 12 students whose signatures appear on the letter. As leaders of 11 major campus organizations, they took the liberty of instigating the campaign by themselves. Their plan requires the support of everyone connected with the University.
The plan does not exempt members of the faculty. Various legislators might be enlightened to discover a few teachers' viewpoints on the significance of proposed faculty salary raises.
The plan resembles a similar movement begun last spring under the direction of the All Student Council. At that time, an undetermined number of students joined a group of 13 organizations in a letters-to-the-legislature campaign protesting Gov. George Docking's handling of the state educational budget. The campaign gained state-wide support when it was picked up by other Kansas newspapers. Partly due to the students' interest, a number of the governor's budget cuts were restored by the legislature.
The present campaign, aided by a $200 ASC appropriation, is better organized than that of last year. But no matter how well the groundwork is prepared, the plan will fail without action. However, when a great university as ours enters a crisis, we feel sure that there are plenty of people loyal enough to stand with it and fight.
John Husar
Error in Judgment
Recently this newspaper ran a letter in the Letters to the Editor column which should not have been run.
The letter was in bad taste. It was an attack on three persons and was not within the bounds of fair comment and criticism.
The letter was allowed to run through an error in judgment on the part of the editors of this page.
We do not defend our mistake. However, we do wish to apologize to the individuals who were needlessly harmed by the letter.
Probably, it was read too quickly by us. We failed to distinguish the attack on personalities from an attack on the English Proficiency Examination which we took it to be.
is in good taste and shows due restraint. We have always encouraged such letters and will continue to encourage them.
We strive to print every letter we receive that
We hesitate to refuse to print a letter because we believe our readers have as much right to the space in this paper as we do. Their opinions are valued highly, and we hesitate to do anything that will cut off this important flow of material.
However, this policy does not give license to the printing of attacks on personalities as distinguished from issues.
Hereafter, this newspaper will screen all letters with special care. Letters which do not meet the Kansan's long-standing specifications of good taste, appropriateness and reasonable length will be returned to their senders.
The Editors
On Freedom
Editor:
Last Thursday I read "An Editorial Feature: A View of European Schools" by Peter Posch. The undertones of European superiority, although irritating, could not alone incite me to write to you. But the last three sentences of the article could not escape retribution.
The first — "Many Americans think that they are free when they can do what they please (except in
fraternities and sororities). If there was freedom only when we could do what we please, Mr. Posch, freedom would result in a lawless, chaotic interval of claim jumping. Civil rights would be like a barn party chaperoned by Emily Taylor—completely ruined.
Freedom to Americans is something different from what you describe it as—but I have the common sense not to try to put it into words. The last two lines of the article bring me much distress.
You said, "I believe that freedom is the deliberate bondage of something worthwhile. But with this I would like to trouble you in a later article."
Your expression, "deliberate bondage," is so vague and unmeaningful that even I, who for two semesters dealt only in generalities (according to my English teachers), cannot decipher it.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
And the fact that you are going to trouble me with a later article... I hope it's much later—like in ten years when I'm gone.
AWW, SCHOOL'S O.K., I GUESSE — I'M JUS' QUITTIN'
'CAUSE ITS TH' END OF TH' SEASON.'
Editor:
The editors of the Daily Kansan have certain definite minimum responsibilities in the area of good taste.
One such responsibility is to avoid allowing The Kansan to become a forum for any spiteful, mud-slinging letter-writer who sends you a letter.
—Peter Block Mission junior
** ** Poor Teste
In Poor Taste
And your readers may wonder how well you are discharging your responsibilities when you allow factually undocumented and malicious letters to be printed without comment, without consultation with the injured party or parties, or without plain good sense on your part.
This is not an issue of freedom of the press. Rather, it is one of editorial judgment.
—Harold Orel
Associate professor of English
With John Morrissey
I wonder if infants have as much fun in infancy as adults do in well, when they're older.
Just got word from a Mizzou buddy that the Santa Fe is going to send a special train to Miami. Imagine it — a whole train of club cars.
A Christmas Story
(Editor's note: The following was taken from Motive Magazine, December. 1959, a publication of the Methodist Student Movement.)
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold, there came wise men from the University of Jerusalem.
By Michael Daves
Saying, where is the bright new star we have followed so far? We have traveled many miles over desert and mountains to get a closer look. Herod assembled the chief priests and scribes of the people and demanded of them where the star could best be seen.
And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written in the astrology maps.
And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. The learned professors of the university, followed faithfully by their adoring students, looked for the best place to view the new constellation. After a long search, they finally set up their instruments outside a stable and made notes as to the shape and size of the star. Amazing! Fantastic! Like no other star! they exclaimed.
Noise from the stable disrupted their calculations and exclamations. One of the students approached the stable, opened the door, and said:
Madame, please keep that Baby from crying. We are trying to record a great new astronomical discovery, and the noise is distracting.
Campus Roundup
Docking Blast Is Tops
By Saundra Hayn
Governor Docking's branding of KU as a "trouble spot" was the biggest campus news story of the year according to a vote taken among Daily Kansan editors and writers.
The governor made his statement to a group of Daily Kansan reporters Feb. 20. He suggested it was time for a "clean up" at his alma mater. As a result, campus leaders made appeals to students to write their representatives and a letter writing campaign followed.
The KU budget hassel was the second most important story. It began in February and has continued through December. A student campaign is in progress on this issue, also.
The story of the nine men being suspended and two men being put on probation April 22 as a result of a private apartment party took third place. Later two of the men were reinstated by Chancellor Murphy.
Other top stories in the order which the Kansan staff rated them;
4. Thirty-nine percent of the students who took the English Proficiency examination last spring failed it. This represented the worst showing in the history of the examination.
5. HOPE (Honors for Outstanding, Progressive Educators) was a late suggestion on the senior class gift ballot. The award was elected on a write-in vote and was presented to Clayton Krebhiel, associate professor of music education and choral music. The selection of Prof. Krebhiel was made by a senior class committee.
6. The new Blue Cross-Blue Shield health insurance plan was made available to all students at the time of enrollment and this fall found an increased number of students subscribing to its benefits.
7. Vox Populi swept the spring elections by taking 20 All Student Council seats and electing James Austin, Lawrence senior, as student body president. This election served
as the straw which broke the back of the Allied Greek Independent party, which announced its dissolution in October.
8. KU maintenance men gathered at the Daily Kansan Feb. 4, to plead for a living wage and to have their feelings made known. Later, the legislature voted to cut the civil service pay scale.
9. "Smiles of a Summer Night," a Swedish film, was banned for viewing at KU. Gov. Docking supported the State Board of Review and the students appealed for adult treatment.
10. The first annual Mid-America Symposium of Contemporary American Music was held by the School of Fine Arts in April. Composers came from all parts of America to hear their works orchestrated for the first time.
11. The Cell Block 7, hired by the Pep Clubs for a dance and advanced a $350 guarantee by the organizations, did not show up. Many excuses were given, letters were written, and finally, last spring, the money was returned.
12. "The Fowl," the newest in a series of campus humor magazines, was declared a failure. The ASC dissolved the magazine after a Kansan series revealed its shortcomings.
13. Explosions shook radio station KANU in the spring and again in the summer. The "Mud Hut" as it is called, is located behind Marvin Hall. No one was injured in either explosion.
14. Delores Michaels, 20th Century-Fox starlet, was the center of a mystery when she visited the campus. Miss Michaels claimed she was a former student and a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma social sorority. The truth came out that she was a former student but not a Kappa. Her only contact with the sorority was during a rush week date.
15. The $4,000 theft from the Allen Field House business office is still unsolved. Police report that they have not given up the search for clues.
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904,
triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone Vikking 3-2700
Extension 711, news room
Extension 376, business office
Member Inland Daily Press Association. Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service. $20 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. Mail subscription rates to International. Mall subscription rates to semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence. Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays, and special events. Bodies entered as second-class matter September 17, 1910, at Lawrence. Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Jack Harrison Managing Editor
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
George Bord and
John Hume
Co-Editorial Editors
George DeBord and
John Hume ... Co-Editorial Editors
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Sill Kane Business Manager