Page 2
University Daily Kansan Friday, November 13. 1959
The Public Interest
Wednesday the All Student Council social committee criticized the Daily Kansan's publication of the Delta Tau Delta probation story. The committee said the publicity was detrimental to the persons involved.
We concede this point. But a choice had to be made. And when a choice must be between possible harm to individuals and the public welfare, we will side with the public.
We feel it was in the public interest to know that a fraternity has been placed on probation for allowing an infraction of social rules and regulations at one of its registered social functions.
1. The public must know that such incidents occur in order to prevent their repetition.
We believe this because:
2. The public should know that disciplinary bodies are at work, and that violators will be dealt with.
3. Publicizing the action will have a deterring effect on future violations.
The committee maintains it will keep all future disciplinary matters secret. We hope this view will change for the good of our community.
There can be no remedy for problems if the public is kept ignorant of them.
—George DeBord
Your Brother's Keeper
A confused policy concerning the channeling of student disciplinary matters was brought to light in the recent probation action by the All Student Council social committee against Delta Tau Delta social fraternity.
The fraternity could not understand why an infraction was referred to the social committee as an action against the house rather than to the disciplinary committee as an action against the two individuals reportedly involved.
This action by the committee against the group rather than against the individuals who committed the infraction can be justified.
This confusion arose because the fraternity did not understand what it was being charged with. Apparently the charge grew out of inadequate supervision of a registered social function.
The party at which the infraction of the social rules and regulations took place was sponsored by the fraternity, held at its house, under its supervision. The fraternity was placed on probation, not for the infraction, but for allowing it through insufficient supervision.
Had the house been placed on probation for the infraction itself, we would have been faced with a question that has plagued men for centuries.
Can you have a double standard of justice?
Can you on one hand say the individual is responsible for his own actions, and on the other say that society is accountable for the actions of its members?
The two are inconsistent. But both have been applied.
To solve the dilemma, one must first decide another question. Is he his brother's keeper? If he is, then he is accountable for the actions of others. If he is not, then society has no responsibility to its members.
The great weakness of society today is that people do not concern themselves with this preventive responsibility. They are indifferent to the actions of others.
Responsibility ends when the overt act is committed by an individual outside the knowledge of others.
Because of this, we must maintain the double standard. We must punish individuals for breaking laws, but we must also punish the society when, with prior knowledge of the act, it does nothing to prevent the individual from harming himself and others.
Until we realign our thinking, and break away from our indifference to responsibility the double standard will prevail.
It will cease when the basic concern of man becomes man.
—George DeBord
On Charity
Charity, a word, thought of by most as a good word, a Christian word, a word which all Americans should know and observe. Charity ... help your fellow man, not because he can or will return the favor, but because he has a need and you may have the wherewith-all to help alleviate that
... Letters ...
need. Possibly it means "consideration for one's fellow man."
But in some cases the word, as well as the consideration, has been prostituted.
I recently read an advertisement appealing for funds, if one small dollar can be called funds, for the CARE program. The ad pictured a small boy, not unlike the children playing and enjoying life in
our own communities. Only he wasn't enjoying life because he was hungry, not hungry because he had missed lunch that noon, but because he had missed lunch and every other meal all of his life.
This child had a need, a tragic need, a terrible need. But what was one of the main reasons given the American public for helping this child? It was the following statement:
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
"THIS REPORT SHOWS OUR OVERALL GRade AVERAGE TO BE UP 52% THIS MONTH-AN' I MIGHT REMIND YOU THAT 83.2 MORE IN TH' T.V. FUND AN' WE CAN REPLACE THAT BURNED OUT PICTURE TIME."
One dollar would send him 22 pounds of food to relieve those gnawing pangs of perpetual hunger...and one dollar means so little to us.
What a miserable commentary on the American people that such a statement need even be included in an appeal to help someone in so much need. Why can't people with as much as we help someone with as little as this child without having to be paid for it?
Tom Schmitz Kansas City, Mo., senior
Dailu Hansan
"CARE Food Crusade contributions are income tax-deductible."
University of Kansas student newspaper
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded, became bihweekly 1904.
Founded, became bihweekly 1908.
Member Inland Daily Press Association,
Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 420 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y.
N.Y. service; United Press Internationa-
ly School of Journalism 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 asbonus on Sept. 9, 1870 atLawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879
Telephone VIking 3-2700
Extension 711, news room Extension 376, business office
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Jack Harrison
Manguez
Jack Harrison...Managing Editor
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Gregory
George DeBord and
John Husar Co-Editorial Editors
John Husar Co-Editor/Editors
BENESS CO-Manager
Bill Kane Business Manager
Clouds of Confusion
A Kansas Visitor In New York
By John Husar
NEW YORK—Well, the conference finally ended and the hotel was a mess with delegates hurrying as fast as they could to get packed. The editor from Kansas still was having a pretty good time.
The faculty adviser and two advertising men, who had accompanied the editor to the journalism conference, were going over the notes they had gathered from the various meetings. They also were keeping a wary eye on the editor who was propped on the bed singing ribald songs.
Early in the day he had joined a party with other editors from his region. The festivities ended for him, however, when the faeculty adviser caught him following up a dare to see if he could scale an empty vodka bottle onto 8th Ave. from the 26th floor. He and the "Hell yes man, like I'm a Senior" button pinned to his coattail caused a mild stir in the hallway as he was transferred to his own room.
That evening the editor felt better and so arranged dates for himself and one of the ad- vertising men with two cute society reporters from Seattle. The group died at a tiny
The group dined at a tiny
Greenwich Village delicatessen, intending to visit some of the romantic bars and artists' hangouts later.
Embarrassment struck the friends, though, when the editor and advertising man found they didn't have enough money to pay the bill. Since the girls were without funds also, the editor nobly offered to work off the price of the meals. But the proprietor soon relieved him of that responsibility when the editor cut his finger on the liver sausage machine and bled all over the potato chips.
During the ensuing tour of the bars, the editor became at first upset, then garrulous, and finally dangerous when the advertising man refused to let him order drinks.
As a recourse, the group was forced to use some tickets to a television show one of the girls possessed. The program was a quiz show and the advertising man was invited to take part in it. Unfortunately, he didn't win any money because something happened to the teleprompter. Every time a question was asked, the machine produced the words for the next commercial.
Back at the hotel the editor had found another party and was strongly opposed to catching the plane to Kansas City. Neither threats nor pleadings had any effect on him. Nothing worked until the faculty adviser secured a publicity photograph of an airline stewardess which he held in front of the editor all the way to the airport.
Strapped in his seat, the editor bade farewell to New York. He sure had a time. All he talked about during the trip home was the benefits a student could gain from attending a conference.
F
S F
"West Walworth Volunteer Fire Department will blow the siren 15 minutes before the start of each fire."—The Ontario, N. Y. Wayne County Mail.
F in F as f sch