Page 2
University Daily Kansan Wednesday. Jan. 4, 1961
A Korean Problem
Two editorials in a recent Korean exchange newspaper indicates a trend of thought among Korean students that is at the same time reassuring and disturbing to Americans. The editorial subjects were a nation-wide anti-Communist student rally at Seoul and the trouble Korean students are having in gaining scholarships to study in the United States.
The newspaper, "The Argus," published by the Foreign Language School in Seoul, deals first with the scholarship problem. The editorial says that Korean students have been "troublesome guests in the United States especially since they don't like to return home after completing their studies." The editorial then asks the question why; especially since Korean students have been "heroes as bold defenders of Korean democracy and reliable knights in the anti-Communist struggle" as evidenced in the April revolution.
THE EDITORIAL ARRIVES AT NO ANSWER to this problem but says that the students now in Korea have a severe problem. First, the country needs an educated leadership from its younger generation; and second, the students must begin to look elsewhere for education opportunities if the United States is not able to meet the demands for student scholarships.
"As a result shouldn't we students in Korea with our ever-increasing demand for higher education . . . seek for a chance in Japan or some other place, maybe the Soviet Russia?"
To get the other side before commenting, a quote from the editorial concerning the anti-Communist student rally at Seoul Stadium:
"... TEN THOUSAND STUDENTS FROM all over Korea gathered to affirm their determination to fight communist influence. He (the school's student body president) was elected during the proceedings to be Foreign Secretary of the Korean National Federation of Student Governments, an organization made up of delegates from over sixty colleges and universities in Korea."
If a conclusion can be drawn from two editorials on two differing topics, it would be that the majority of Korean students today are strongly against Communism but that their desire for higher education is nearly as strong as their fight against Communism. The editorial pointed out that perhaps the Soviet Union was the answer to the education problem.
THIS ISN'T A GOOD SITUATION FOR THE United States. It can not afford to lose the chance of educating promising Korean students while at the same time driving them into the Communist camp. Staunch allies in the fight for freedom are necessary and must be given as much attention as nations today in the wide gulf of neutralism. Korea is vulnerable to Communism and the United States must continue to aid the nation's drive toward democratic goals.
John Peterson
Emphasis on Religion
A tradition for 40 years on Mt. Oread—Religion-in-Life-Week—is being replaced this year. KU's Religious Council has initiated a substitute plan which asks organized houses to invite religious speakers to dinner once or twice each semester, and asks campus religious organizations to sponsor speakers at irregular intervals throughout the remainder of the year. The council also plans to sponsor an outstanding religious personality in a University-wide forum in the spring.
Poor student support for the week-long emphasis program last year made this change necessary. One campus-wide discussion group was attended by only 10 persons. Members of the Religious Council hope that this new prolonged program of religious emphasis will revive student
interest and participation.
The council is sending a letter to all organized houses this week asking for support and participation in the program. Besides the poor attendance at some of the programs during the Religion-in-Life-Week last year, another factor was in part responsible for the change in policy.
Most campus religious leaders feel that one week of religious emphasis is too limited and does not create the continued interest that is desirable. These leaders contend that this program of semester-long emphasis—if pursued with vigor—will lick both the problem of complacency and limited time for religious emphasis.
We heartily agree and endorse the efforts of KU's Student Religious Council.
— John Peterson
BEN HUR; VARSITY; COLOR
At the Movies
General Lew Wallace's epic novel explodes into life again, this time under the direction of William Wyler, who proves he can handle a sword-and-shield spectacular with the best of them.
And this is the spectacular to end all spectacles. It almost makes colossal productions like "Quo Vadis" and "The Ten Commandments" look like low-budget quickies. The most stirring and spectacular scene is the chariot race, reputed to have cost millions to film.
"Ben Hur" is billed as "A Story
of the Christ” but there is little in the film to warrant this claim. Instead, the contacts between Ben Hur, the exiled Jew returned to his native land, and the then-unrecognized savior occur only twice, and are used to lend dramatic force to the plot.
Ben Hur is a compelling figure. A man of stature and power in his own land, he rejects a Roman offer of rewards for his influence over his people. An unfortunate accident gives the Roman governor a sufficient excuse to send him to the galleys and to imprison his family. In the forge of hardship, Ben Hur
rises to greatness of soul, but never forgets the cruelty of Rome. This final return to the ancient, ruined house of Hur is stirring. His final meeting with his leprous mother and sister, released at last from prison, is perhaps overdone but moving nonetheless.
On the whole, the film is an exciting and reasonably faithful representation of one of the most popular novels ever written. Wallace's story was crudely written in spots, but its vitality and adventure are as appealing today as they were when the book was first published. The screenplay leaned toward the sensational, but the message was undamaged.
Dailu Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, trweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone Viking 3-2700
Telephone Viking 3-2700 Extension 711, news room Extension 826, call ff
Extension 376, business office
Member Inland Daily Press Association. Associated Collegiate Press, Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York 22, 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
Managing Editor Carol Heller, Jane Boyd, Prisella Burton and Carrie Edwards, Assistant Managing Editors; Pat Shelley and Suzanne Shaw, City Editors; John Macdonald, Sports Editor; Peggy Kallos and Donna Engle, Society Editors.
Rav Miller
Bill Blundell
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
John Peterson and Bill Blundell ... Co-Editorial Editors
Charleton Heston, who now slips into period costumes as easily as he pulls on his socks, won an academy award for his portrayal of Ben Hur. There were better dramatic performances during the year, but the scope of the film and the extensive, meaty role supplied by Ben Hur gave a good actor a rare opportunity.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
John Peterson and Bill Blundell
Mark Dull ... Bu
Business Manager
Short Ones
Those stories that circulated through Republican cocktail parties before the election received a counterpart from the Democrats. It went like this: Add one part of anything, particularly new Republicanism, and another part of something else, and then finish it off with a twist of Norman Vincent Peale.
"It ought to be any time now!"
From the Newsstand
Pox on White Paper
I READ EVERY WORD OF THE UNIVERSITY OF Kansas' "white paper" in connection with its athletic difficulties with the Big Eight. It should prove to be valuable, particularly in the rural areas where the Sears catalog gets pretty thin this time of year.
As I understand the white paper, the University has carefully weighed the evidence and returned its verdict: Not guilty. This reminds me of the teller who said he didn't care what the bank examiners, the judge and the jury said, he still was innocent.
The white paper is worth examining. This sequence of events is interesting, even though the plot is one of the oldest in the world.
It starts out when a football player meets an alumnus, accidentally. This is always happening, and it's one of the strange phenomena of our time. Football players and alumni are always bumping into each other accidentally.
It's always a chance meeting, even when it's in the living room of the player's folks in Hooker, Okla.
The NCAA didn't care, but he had to promise his wife he'd quit smoking. . .
THIS ONE HAPPENED ON THE STREET, AND the two of them flew off to Chicago. There's nothing unusual in that. I had an uncle once who left home on Christmas Eve to get a package of cigarets and got back January 17.
To get back to the white paper, when these two got home from Chicago, the conversation must have gone something like this:
"Where are you going to college? Gualladet? Pomona Juco?" "I don't know. Where did you go?"
"A simple plains institution called Kansas. You don't mean...?" "Well, I might..."
"I will call the proper authorities and ask them to process your enrollment."
It turns out he had to talk to the football coach, and that proves the registrar should spend more time in his office. You never know when these things will come up.
Then thunderbolt struck. The NCAA didn't buy this version of the story, and punished the University. The Big Eight did the same thing. The latter also made the player ineligible for a year in sports, except he can run in track. This proves only that track is not a sport, and I'm glad the conference made that clear.
NEXT, SAYS THE WHITE PAPER, THE COACH tried to discourage this player from enrolling. But he insisted and finally, the university accepted him. It's a good thing, too, because the University was on the verge of being accused of prejudice against out-of-state students.
The scene now is a little confusing. The school maintains its innocence while anticipating soaring season ticket sales. The coach has just received a hefty raise in salary. And who is taking the rap? The player—the very young man who put himself into the hands of men of the white paper stresses are "men of integrity."
This is good, old-fashioned American collegiate athletic justice, although it may bear a disturbing resemblance to good, old-fashioned American collegiate athletic hypocrisy. ...
FINALLY, THE UNIVERSITY EXPRESSED ITS anger over the fact the newspapers printed the story, early in the game, that the school and the player might be in hot water with the Big Eight. It accused another school of giving the story to the papers.
This isn't true.
The University feels, I suppose, that it would have been better to keep this whole mess out of the papers. Then it could have announced, next fall, that the player missed five games because of a severe attack of lumbago.
I will agree that might have been better. Had it gone that way, the white paper wouldn't have been issued. And almost anything would have been better than it...
(Excerpted from Dick Snider's column, the Topeka Daily Capital, Dec. 18, 1960.)