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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, Dec. 13, 1960
The Student's Obligation
"And I tell you, the future of the United States is at a crossroads today. There are forces present in the world which could knock our great nation from its pinnacle of success with the simplest of ease. The greatness of the United States in the coming years is up to you, the future leaders of this great nation."
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE COLLEGE STUDents heard this pitch at the end of a speech? And sadly, how many times have college students shrugged the challenge off with disregard — an attitude that the problem will take care of itself when the time comes.
Now, not the coming years of the future, is the time for college students to study with care this question of the United States' future. What will be demanded of them when they are the leaders of this great nation? Will they be capable of leading the United States through increasingly complex situations?
THE MOST SOBERING THOUGHT IS THE consequences if this generation of college students is not equipped mentally to meet the challenges. Throughout the world today students are arising to the needs of their nations. In Turkey and Korea, student-led riots have toppled governments from power. The student population was instrumental in Castro's rise to power.
But you have to give the students on American campuses credit for getting indignant and doing something about their problems, too. Look at KU and the recent Big Eight eligibility ruling. Emphasis in the United States today is far different from that in many nations in other corners
of the world. We are fat and can afford to indulge in luxuries such as big time football, while students elsewhere are concerned with their country's political being out of necessity of life. Economic conditions in these countries are often insufficient and democratic rule often non-existent.
As a result of the differences between the United States and much of the underdeveloped world, students in America often do not awaken to the cold facts of life until their schooling is behind them. Then it is too late to concentrate on getting more out of an economics class.
THE NEED IN THE UNITED STATES IS for students to realize the complexities of the world and just what demands will be placed upon them. The demands will be much greater than those in an underdeveloped nation as the United States has the role of leading these countries through the world's complexities toward freedom and independent, democratic government.
Thus the matter of immediate importance to college students in America today is that of attitude. This attitude cannot be one of mediocrity, but must be one of excellence. For along with mediocrity comes the disastrous desire for security — security in all walks of life. This desire for security often leads people to take the safe road to a secure but mediocre future, when with some effort, perhaps risk and a desire to excel, these same people could achieve the top in their field of endeavor. This excellence is the needed attitude for college students today.
John Peterson
The Tactless Mr. Hodge
Editor:
I'm writing this with reference to Mr. John L. Hodge's letter in the Dec. 7 "Kansan." I'm not an athlete — just a student who likes to walk down to Memorial Stadium on warm Fall afternoons and watch intercollegiate football games. Mr. Hodge's opening sentence caused my jaw to drop in astonishment! I'm sure at least one member of the Board of Regents of this great institution would have a similar reaction. (I make reference to the one who played All American football for Kansas a few years back)
I think Mr. Hodge has missured the whole point. It's pretty hard to get around the fact that this nation is still basically capitalistic. People are willing to pay you for your services according to their need and your ability. I look at football scholarships the same way
...Letters ...
that for themselves and the rest of the student body, including Mr. Hodge. And as for myself, I can't see how anybody associated with the University of Kansas can be narrow-minded enough to raise hell because several minutes of school time were taken to pay tribute to a great football team.
I would look at a job in a grocery store — payment for services rendered. Whether those services involve carrying groceries or entertaining a congregation of students and alumni is irrelevant — it's still a compensation for services. It so happens that there are many people who are willing to pay cold, hard cash to watch a winning football team; a group which includes the governor-elect of Kansas, who obviously "needs to carefully re-examine his values." "I am under the impression that there are enough people willing to pay to watch football that the football program is not only self-supporting, but also plays a major role in supporting some of the minor intercollegiate sports.
I don't think the football scholarships contain any clause about playing hard enough to win a Big Eight Championship. The team did
Examine your pockets Mr. Hodge find any pennies missing because of football scholarships? Examine your heart — aren't you just a little bit happy that KU is on top rather than at the bottom? I can sincerely sympatize with your friend's financial shortage — but if he isn't already working, you might mention that job at the grocery store. It's a cold, hard fact Mr. Hodge, but in the years to come, the majority of the American people — the people you associate with — are going to think of KU as a football or basketball champion, and not as the place where you, or I, or anybody else, made the DHR.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
"PHGSST — DID OLE MUSCLE-MOUTH TAKE ROLL TODAY?"
Incidentally, I don't think there's an athlete on campus who isn't well enough educated in the art of public relations and just common courtesy to avoid making such a tactless statement as the one which headed Mr. Hodge's letter. Maybe KU should be as careful in handing out scholarship hall awards as it is in awarding athletic scholarships.
Robert A. Hinton
Hamlin Senior
* * *
Bayles Called to Account Editor:
About that ceiling that came down in the office of the Drawing and Painting department last Friday; Mr. C. G. Bayles, Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, was merely telling us a comforting lie when he reported that "only a small amount of plaster fell." The whole plaster ceiling DID come down as reported by John J. Talleur, assistant professor of drawing and painting (an honest man who realizes the seriousness of this occurrence).
I think that what Mr. Tallere said in Monday's issue of the Daily Kansan is well worth repeating. "It's fortunate no one was in the office at the time the ceiling fell."
Mr. Bayles has treated a matter of heavy importance in a very light manner.
Larry Fowler Atchison senior
"I'd like you to meet my lovely daughters."
From the Newsstand
The All America players undoubtedly love the game, but they take an unromantic view of the system that made them All Americas...
Fair Pay for Gridders
The players had been brought here by Look magazine, which this week announced the selection of its 22-man All America team. Some of them felt that their schools got more out of their football scholarships than they did themselves.
It is dandy to be an All America, but after four years of viewing life through a face guard, many of these padded heroes see big-time college football as a business.
There was Mark Manders, a guard from Iowa, who felt that married football players were not treated fairly.
"You're doing a job for them," Manders said, "and married guys should receive fair pay. We should get half-way decent expense accounts. I get 87 bucks a month for room and board like all the single players and it's not enough."
The single players, such as Tee Moorman of Duke, Bill Miller of Miami and Mike Ditka of Pittsburgh, believe that the $10 or $15 a month they receive for incidentals is not in keeping with the profits made by their schools.
Some of the eleven players interviewed said that the policy of most campuses was win at all costs and that this had dulled their appetites for the game. Moorman, an end who will go to medical school, said he would not have played football if he had had enough money to attend college on his own.
"We draw about $80,000 into the stadium every Saturday," Ditka said, "and we should get at least $30 a month for toothpaste and clean shirts."
"College football is a business." Moorman said. "After you find out the cold facts, that you're all just there for the same reason, the fun wears off.
Miller, a slim intense fellow who is majoring in physical education, said it was difficult to have a normal college life at Miami with only $15 a month for spending money.
"It costs a lot to go out on a date there," he said. "I believe you should get more money for living expenses if you're on the first or second team."
"Our All America team always had a few bright and personable players like Whizzzer White and Paul Giel. Many of the others were real animals. Most of these kids this year are realists. They're overjoyed to have been picked, but they know that in life every day won't be Saturday afternoon."
A Look representative said:
Then, after considerable deliberation, he continued: "I'm amazed that more kids are not ruined by all this."
A person on the Look staff who has observed the players closely had this to say:
"Some are here to get everything they can at our expense. They've been taken care of in college and they expect to be taken care of now. It's not their fault. It's the system."
Tro In S
"Then there are some who are just nice little animals. There's one so nice I feel like patting him on the head."
(Reprinted from the New York Times.)
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Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press, Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East St 50, 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.