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University Daily Kansan Wednesday. Nov. 30, 1960
ASC's Positive Solution
KU's All Student Council, which shows a surprising knack for getting things done this year, must be commended for its successful handling of the National Student Association issue. Little more than a month ago the ASC was in a quandary over what to do with its membership in the NSA. Today the ASC has established a special committee to deal with the NSA on campus and this committee has already proven itself effective.
THE NATIONAL STUDENT ASSOCIATION is a mammoth organization of United States higher education institutions representing every sector of the nation. Each summer at the annual NSA conference resolutions are passed which represent the majority view of the students of the United States on important issues confronting our government today. KU student leaders have not always agreed with the NSA's resolutions and until now, have only voiced individual dissenting opinions.
The NSA committee deals with campus opinions on specific NSA resolutions and other off-campus problems confronting students at KU. The committee studies each issue and draws up a resolution to present to the ASC for approval. The resolutions include the committee's stand on the issue and the basic pro and con arguments.
This NSA committee enables the ASC to make intelligent and responsible decisions representing KU students on the important issues such as the Negro sit-ins, the loyalty oath and the House Un-American Activities Committee which have been so highly publicized in the news. These resolutions passed by the ASC enable both the council and the student body president to speak with confidence on each issue at conferences and meetings of student lelders throughout the school year.
The ASC also plans to send its resolutions on NSA issues to other schools in the area which have also differed with the national organization's views in the past. Through this coordination of opinion, KU hopes to become more of a leader and voice in the NSA annual conventions.
THE COMMITTEE HAS ONLY STARTED to function, but indications from its first meetings are that the students involved have taken a deep interest in the task set before them by the ASC. Through the continued action of this committee KU may realize the potentialities of the NSA on campus and gain some positive achievements instead of the usual bickering over whether to stay in the national organization or not.
John Peterson
Convocation Criticized
Editor:
The following is an open letter to Chancellor Wescoe.
I was somewhat astonished to hear that there would be a "football convocation" Tuesday, Nov. 22. I realize that the University of Kansas victory Saturday was an important event, but I do not feel that non - academic activities should impinge on unit class work.
I have usually felt that athletics play too prominent a role in university life. This is not because I feel that athletics are unimportant, but that often they take priority over academic matters. Athletic scholarships are a case in point. There are many persons capable of doing university work who cannot afford an education. Yet a good football player can be almost assured of sufficient financial assistance. This to me seems to be a gross injustice; it is a matter of placing physical capabilities above intellectual capabilities. This should not be done in a university.
... Letters ...
The ultimate goal, I feel, of an educational system is to see that every individual is able to obtain
a formal education to the limit of his capabilities. When scholarships are given to football players instead of to someone who desires a university education which he cannot afford, then the university is no longer true to its purpose. When valuable class time is taken for pep rallies and football convocations, then our values need careful re-examination.
John L. Hodge Kansas City senior
***
UDK Back in Form
I had begun to fear that this semester the UDK was going to betray the great traditions of the past. But your report on the last Poetry Hour has restored my faith.
When I said that political satire is practically "extinct," your reporter, turning a dirty ear to my "clean diction," wrote "it stinks." The other misquotations were not so good as this, though you did manage to cram down my throat some pretty silly stuff. Imagine what we would have if your man were the only reporter present at the Gettytsburg Address:
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
"These dead did not die insane," Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, said yesterday at Gettysburg. Since they were on our side, the side of that Liberty which our fathers conceived and brought forth in Caesarean section several years back, these dead men must have been in their right minds.
"EDDIE! EDDIE BOY!-YAJUS SET A RECORD! WHERE ARE YA EDDIE!"
Mr. Lincoln used unusual figures of speech to make his talk vivid, and his dramatic gestures were the envy of all Speech 1 instructors present. The audience responded well to the image of folksy reverential awe projected by the Chief Executive.
The high point of the speech, came when Mr. Lincoln stated that because of "the sacrifices of these mighty heroes, government with the populace, to the populace, and underneath the populace shall not, under God, perish from the world."
Assistant Professor of English
Criticism Criticized
Criticism Criticized Editor:
When Mr. Peterson referred to "The Magnificent Seven" as a "typical shoot 'em up Western" he missed the point. Apparently he failed to recognize it as a careful and fairly faithful American version of the prize-winning Japanese picture of the same name, which, as a matter of fact, was shown on the campus Film Series last year. It may or may not have been successful as such, but a review which ignores the attempt seems hardly adequate. Although the picture should and does stand by itself, a comparison of the two would have been much more worthwhile. I was glad to see the movie review column make its appearance. Bill Blundell is especially good.
Marjorie Larson
University secretary
* * *
Most Happy Fella
Editor:
I would like to take this opportunity to answer the critics of the UDK (Nov. 16) concerning the absence of a review for "Most Happy Fella."
I have observed the quality of UDK reviews on musical events for the past four years and I am convinced, dear editor, that you have done the University an immeasurable service by printing nothing!
Charles R. Rogers Parker senior
---
In honor of the birth of his son, the Shah of Iran lowered taxes. Can Kennedy match that?
By Calder M. Pickett Associate Professor of Journalism
ARMS AND THE MAN, by George Bernard Shaw, Bantam Classics, 35 cents.
One might contend, at superficial glance, that "Arms and the Man" was Shaw's lone venture into Graustarkia. But though his hero could be Rudolph of "The Prisoner of Zenda," or his heroine Mr. McCutcheon's fabled "Beverly of Graustark," it is clear that this famous comedy of the 1890s went beyond such nonsense.
Here is Shaw taking a poke (did he ever do anything else?) at conventional romance, especially the kind of comic opera that Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald did so well in the early 1930s. Lest one feel that this is irrelevant, it should be remembered that "Arms and the Man" became "The Chocolate Soldier" one of the more delightful comic opera wheezes out of the early part of the century.
Few would place the silly but witty love affair of Raina and Bluntschli alongside "Pygmalion" or "Man and Superman." But from bedroom to balcony and back again it's a good sight better than most plays that hit Broadway — or off-Broadway, for that matter — in the more sophisticated mid-20th century.
***
By W. D. Paden Professor of English
HORIZON: A Magazine of the Arts. July and September, 1960; $3.95 a copy.
"Horizon" continues to change its editorial policies in search of a group of readers large enough to support it among the luxuries of color-gravure. Judging by these two issues, it has decided that contemporary American work should receive the principal emphasis, and that the art of other lands and earlier centuries should be reproduced primarily in order to illustrate essays upon cultural history. Archaeology and history now fill less space, and the articles in these categories seem more journalistic than before. The appearance of departments that review movies and books suggests a certain desperation.
On the other hand, the treatment of contemporary work in architecture, painting, music, and the drama seems to be even more brilliant than before. Leonard Meyer's essay on "Art by Accident" may be recommended to both painters and musicians; the interviews of Eero Saarinen and Paddy Chayewsky are penetrating; and the article on Samuel Beckett says a number of important things about him. The article called "Frank Lloyd Wright's War on the Fine Arts" includes the flat dictum that the Guggenheim Museum, while striking as architecture, is a complete failure as a museum; there is no doubt that it will cause a considerable stir in some interested quarters. The two issues reproduce in handsome fashion paintings by Elmer Bischoff, David Park, Richard Diebenkorn, and John Koch, and drawings by Morris Graves.—
From the Bookshelf
Challenging the Student
It is clear that there is in American education today a new emphasis upon the pursuit of excellence. There appear to be several things implied by the pursuit of excellence that have relevance not only to what we teach, but to how we teach and how we arouse the interest of our students.
The view has already been expressed that the pursuit of excellence must not be limited to the gifted student. But the idea that teaching should be aimed at the average student in order to provide something for everybody is an equally inadequate formula. The quest, it seems to many of us, is to devise materials that will challenge the superior student while not destroying the confidence and will-to-learn of those who are less fortunate. We have no illusions about the difficulty of such a course, yet it is the only one open to us if we are to pursue excellence and at the same time honor the diversity of talents we must educate. . .
One of the least discussed ways of carrying a student through a hard unit of material is to challenge him with a chance to exercise his full powers, so that he may discover the pleasure of full and effective functioning. Good teachers know the power of this lure. Students should know what it feels like to be completely absorbed in a problem. They seldom experience this feeling in school. Given enough absorption in class, some students may be able to carry over the feeling to work done on their own.
(Excerpted from the book "The Process of Education" by Jerome Bruner, published by the Harvard University Press.)
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone Viking 3-2700
Extension 711, news room
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.