Tuesday, Jan. 3, 1961
From the Magazine Rack
University Daily Kansan ___
The Negro Scholar-1
"One of the most perplexing problems in a society filled with perplexing problems is posed by this question: How can we give adequate opportunity and encouragement to the academically talented and, at the same time, maintain our commitment to the widely cherished principle of democratic education? It is a problem that is certainly as old as the movement for universal education; and it became increasingly difficult and complex as public responsibility increased and as the concept of equality emerged as one of the most important ingredients in the new definition of democracy in the early nineteenth century.
"The problem was dramatized by the transition from the Jeffersonian commitment to intellectual excellence and superiority to the Jacksonian commitment to broadening educational opportunity with little regard for intellectual excellence. Unfortunately, this transition implied that it was undemocratic to place emphasis on anything in which all the people could not share. Thus, it was felt that the principle of democracy in education should lead to the establishment of a system in which no special treatment would be accorded to any group or individual. Democratic education in the context of Jacksonian democracy meant equality in the educational process.
"For the Jacksonians there was no compromise, no half-way point at which the system could reconcile education for the talented with education for the great numbers. Jacksonianism meant equality, pure and simple, and it made no concessions to the aristocracy of intellect or to the existence of superior talents. Soon, this became the dominant theme not only in the establishment of the educational system of our country but in the shaping of most of our other institutions and practices as well. No special consideration should be given to any group or individual, for equality of condition was a mark of true democracy, it was argued. This position was advanced with a vigor that bordered on passion, and it could be seen in many phases of political and social life as well as in education.
"That this country has tended to exalt the doer rather than the thinker is a testimony not so much to an overriding anti-intellectualism in American life as it is the operation of a simple historical fact. The task of developing a new country involved the utilization of brawn almost as much as brains, and the institutions economic, social, and even educational — were essentially the product of experience and urgent necessity...
"Only in recent years have our educational institutions given systematic attention to the academically talented. It is a happy phenomenon that belongs primarily to the period following the last war. Perhaps it was belated recognition of the obvious value to the nation of those who had made significant contributions to the national welfare because of their superior talent and training.
"Certainly the New Deal and the war years demonstrated their importance and doubtless stimulated the drive to capitalize on such talents in the future by providing greater opportunities for the development of those talents. ...
"All that I have said with regard to the growing interest in education, either of the Jeffersonians or the Jacksonians in our society, is subject to substantial, material qualifications when one recalls that ours is a multi-cultured, multi-religious, multi-racial society.
"For some Europeans who settled in the New World their commitment to the cultivation of the superior mind was so deep that they were affected only slightly by the curiously pragmatic approach to education in this country...
"Meanwhile, the many who sought universal education, or the few who wanted to encourage the superior student, actually had in mind white universal education or the encouragement of the superior student provided he was white.
"Perhaps nothing has blighted the drive for universal education in the United States more than the simultaneously held contradictory notion that universal education should be confined to white people. Perhaps nothing has made a caricature of the current drive to identify and encourage the academically talented more than the concurrently prevailing practice of segregated education and cultural degradation that makes such identification and encouragement extremely difficult if not impossible.
"If the early Jacksonian demand for equality in education was a perversion and a distortion by demanding the same education for the moron that was provided for the genius, the Negro escaped the influence of that particular perversion. Meanwhile he was subjected to another perversion that was even worse. It was the view, supported in law, that Negroes should have equality in ignorance, and that no black person should have an education, whether he be a moron or a genius.
"This position, translated by law into policy, merely reflected a widely held view that a Negro was unworthy and incapable of becoming a participant in, or a contributor to, the culture or even the amenities of a so-called civilized society. The view persisted that Negroes were a degraded lot, pariahs of the land, condemned to be and to remain the slaves and servants of whites. They were not capable of acquiring an education and, in the event that some had the mental equipment, laws were enacted making it a crime for them to learn or be taught. They were to be kept apart in every relationship that did not ensure proper subordination.
"After freedom, another body of customs and laws fixed their status. Among them were segregation in education, housing and practically everything else; discrimination in education, with Negroes getting barely the crumbs from the public funds; disfranchisement, which made it impossible to exercise any political influence; and a general denigration by some of the most artful and imaginative schemes of humiliation ever devised by man.
(This is the first of two excerpts from a speech by John Hope Franklin, "To Educate All the Jeffersonians," published in the April, 1960, issue of The Superior Student.)
Around the Campus
Prep Seniors Get Funds
The Office of Aids and Awards has announced the selection of 45 Kansas high school seniors as Honor Scholars for the school year 1961-62. Additional Honor Scholars will be named after the March 1, scholarship application deadline.
Judy Arlene DeSpain, Wichita;
Scott Downing, Defield; Evelyn
Twila Fearing, Lawrence; Sharon
Sue Fink, Manhattan; Walter E. Foster, Bethel; Joan Fowler, Overland
Park; Sydnie Gerard, Leavenworth;
J. Fred Giertz, Wichita; Patsy Lee
Goins, Marysville.
The KU Honor Scholarship is first a recognition of merit. The amount of each award may vary from nothing, when the scholar has no need of financial assistance, up to whatever support is needed by the scholar beyond his family's resources. Funds to support the scholarship program are available through private gifts to the University and the KU Endowment Assn. Some of the scholars will receive already existing "named scholarships" and some may also include a place in a scholarship hall.
Ine Honor Scholars are Bob Curtis Allen, El Dorado; Larry D. Ashley, Kansas City; Karl Edmund Becker, Wichita; David Leon Beller, Topeka; James Allen Benson, Hutchinson; Ardrys Sue Boston, Mary Elaine Bowden and David Louis Brack, all of Salina; William Joseph Cibus Jr., Altamont; Mary Jean Curtis, Leoti.
The goal of the Honor Scholarship program is to co-ordinate the various sources of student aid so that no KU Honor Scholar will be deprived of the opportunity of enrollment because of financial reasons. These awards go only to those students who have exhibited highly superior academic achievement.
Sandra Marie Haywood, Winfield; Robert Michael Hubbard, Wichita; Leanne Je Koehn, Dodge City; Charles Krigel, Prairie Village; Billy Lee Landers, Wichita; Leon McKinley Largent, Garden City; Janet Elaine Loofbourrow, Lawrence; Carolyn Ruth Pennis, Wichita.
The 24 men and 21 women Honor Scholars come from 26 high schools in 19 Kansas cities.
Robert Harold Price, Salina; Nailia Ramzy, Topeka; Sibyl Nellie Riker, Crestline; James Allen Robinett, Prairie Village; Carol Jeanne Rowland, Manhattan; Allen C. Schuermann, Wichita; Marilyn Scott, Kansas City; Robert Edwards Shenk, Lawrence.
Philip Howard Smith, Onaga; Lee Price Solter, Wichita; Rob Wiley Stafford, El Dorado; Cynthia Sue Stiles, Overland Park; Pamela Louise Stone and Lynne Marie Warner, Wichita; Bettie Lou Weaver, Arkansas City; David Eric Wilhelmens, Prairie Village; Kenneth Malcom Wilke, Topeka; and Gary Dean Wilson. Wichita.
The selection of 23 Kansas high school senior men as Summerfield Scholars for 1961-62 has been announced. These scholars come from 14 Kansas cities and 17 high schools.
The scholars are Mike Duane Bainum, Wichita; Kerry Sterling Berland, Manhattan; Don King Blevins, Wichita; James Kemper Campbell, Paola; William Joseph Campion, Liberal; Harrison Ogden Flora, Leavenworth; Robert E. Gaskins Jr., Wichita.
raiph Dale Hile, Kansas City,
Roger Forrest House, Kansas City;
Roger Wayne Jones, Winfield; John
Robert Kannarr, Wichita; David
Hiebert Klassen, Newton; Richard
Michael Kobeck, Wichita; Johr
Cornelius Maloney, Lawrence; Robert Nelson Miner, Great Bend.
23 Summerfield Scholars Selected
Peter Andrew Nelson, Bethel; Robert Lynn Oblander, Salina; William Henry Panning, Ellinwood; Lary R. Schiefelbusch, Lawrence; Arlo Willard Schurle, Green; Michael Charles Taylor, Wichita; John Peter Whalen, Wichita, and James Lemuel Worthham, Lawrence.
JAMES K. HITT
Registrar to Serve On Education Post
James K. Hitt, registrar and admissions director, has been appointed to a four-year term on the American Council on Education's Committee on Relationships of Higher Education to the Federal Government.
He is the only registrar or admissions officer on the 16-member committee which includes 13 college and university presidents.
The American Council on Education includes in its membership about 150 national and regional educational associations and more than a thousand institutions of higher education.
The committee meets three or our times a year.
Hitt was a Summerfield scholar and undergraduate mathematics major at KU. He has been registrar and director of admissions since 1940 except for army service during World War II.
Federal, State Tax Forms Are Available
Federal and state income tax forms are available in the Personnel Office, 131 Strong.
W-2 Forms for KU employees will be available about Jan. 20 at their respective departments except for hourly students whose W-2 Forms will be available with the paychecks about Feb. 1.
Prof. Nelick Heads Navy Reserve Unit
Lt. Cmdr. Franklin C. Nelick, USNRF, has replaced Cmdr. Jules M. Busker, Sioux City, Iowa, as commanding officer of the Naval Air Reserve Patrol Squadron 883 based at the Naval Air Station, Olathe.
Nelick is associate professor of English and is head of the committee of graduate studies.
The change-of-command ceremony took place in one of the air stations two hangars with the station commanding officer, Capt. R. C Dailey and the officers and men of patrol squadron 883 in attendance.
Before assuming his command Nelick had served with the patro squadron since joining the Nava Air Reserve in 1952.
Increase Planned For Biochemistry
KU will expand its graduate training program in biochemistry with a five-year grant from the U.S. Public Health Service, effective Jan. 1.
The award provides $30,000 for each of the five years and an additional $700 for the first six months of the program, to be directed by Dr. Russell C. Mills, professor of biochemistry.
Engineers to Hold MeetingTomorrow
The 11th annual Sanitary Engineering Conference will be held here tomorrow.
About 125 engineers and public health personnel will attend the meeting sponsored by the School of Engineering and Architecture, the sanitation division of the State Board of Health, the Practicing Engineers of Kansas and University Extension.
John S. McNown, dean of the School of Engineering and Architecture, will welcome the delegates. William G. Riddle of Haskins, Riddle & Sharp, Kansas City, Mo., will preside.
Speakers include Ross McKinney, professor of civil engineering; Robert E. Crawford, Wilson and Co., Salina; H. R. Hunter, consulting engineer from Wichita; Earnest Boyce, chairman of the department of civil engineering, University of Michigan; Aleck Alexander, U. S. Public Health Service, Dallas, Tex., and George W. Bradshaw, chairman of the department of civil engineering, who will lead a summary of the conference.
Grants Up to $900
To Start Next Fall
Preference will be given to students from Butler County among other applicants for a scholarship up to $900 a year beginning with next fall.
Money for these Sarah D. Knox Scholarships will come from investments of a special bequest of $18,000 received today by the KU Endowment Assn.
The scholarships will go to "worthy and deserving students at KU," with preference in selection being to students from El Dorado, Augustus, Douglass and other towns in Butler County.
Mrs. Knox, of El Dorado, who died in December 1958, was not an alumna of KU.
Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe said Mrs. Knox's significant bequest is private philanthropy at its best. The Chancellor said:
"It helps attack a situation that this year found the University rejecting the scholarship and loan applications of more than 200 students who met all merit and needed criteria. But there were no more funds for them."
KU Student Robbed On New Year's Eve
Gordon Hogan, Meade graduate student, was admitted to Watkins Memorial Hospital New Year's Eve after being beaten and robbed in a Kansas City parking lot.
Dr. Ralph I. Canuteson, director of the hospital, said that Hogan suffered a fractured jaw after three assailants attacked him as he returned to a friend's car.
Hogan's money was taken, but he picked up the wrong keys before returning to the car, so the assailants could not get into the car.
Hogan is expected to return to classes in a few days.
Two KU Students Get Rotary Fellowships
John R. Newcomb, Topeka senior and Lora Kay Reiter, Simpson, senior, are among three Kansas students who have been awarded Rotary Foundation Fellowships for graduate study abroad next year.
Newcomb will study at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and Miss Reiter will study at the University of Poiters, Poiters, France.
Poet to Read Own Poems
Arvid Schulenberger will read his own poetry at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Poetry Hour in the Music Room of the Kansas Union.