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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, Sept. 20, 1960
The Funding Crisis
Last year a disgruntled group of male students packed up their belongings and moved out of Oread Hall, a converted Army barracks and a firetrap of the first order. The former residence hall stood deserted; the administration said it was closed for good.
Now Oread Hall is again crammed with students. What happened?
There is only one reason this substandard living center had to be reopened. The crest of the long-awaited wave of college enrollees broke over this campus sooner than expected; emergency measures had to be taken to house the mushrooming student body.
But behind the melancholy tale of Oread Hall there lies a more complex story, a story of unpreparedness, fumbling, and, finally, sudden realization of the fact that the time for action was yesterday. This story is about money, or the lack of it, and what the state does to raise it for colleges and universities in Kansas.
Before this school year, the great bulk of the money used to build educational facilities on state campuses came from a small $ ( \frac{3}{4} $ mill) levy on property throughout the state. The Board of Regents, as caretakers of higher education in Kansas, determines the funds needed by each school and makes up a proposed budget.
Last year, agreement on school construction funding came only after a bitter struggle among the members of the board, a struggle marred by political overtones. The result was a weak compromise that was inadequate to meet the needs of a growing demand for higher education. The board asked for $11,236,000 over a four-year period — all of it to come from the Educational Building Fund, which is financed by the small
This semester's record enrollments have finally awakened the board. With not a whisper of dissent they proposed to dip into the state's general fund.
The additional funds would mean much to this University. The engineering building could be completed; a healthy start on the Watkins addition could be made; the research facilities at Dyche Hall would be completed, and work on Blake Hall could begin.
levy previously mentioned.
Another drastic move by the board involves borrowing $10 million from the state's inactive fund — the savings the state has put into its banks. This money would be used to build badly needed dormitories, 4200 rooms worth.
It is obvious that the present day levy is inadequate to meet our expanding needs. The general fund must be used to erase the pressure; there is nothing sacred about the general fund.
But keep in mind that the issue must be settled by the legislature and not by the Board of Regents. The board's proposal is now being studied by the Budget Department, of the state; in December its appraisal will be laid before the governor, who will then give his recommendation to the legislature. The lawmakers, however, do not have to consider only the governor's proposal; they are obligated to place the interests of the people first. They may ask on their own for a sum necessary to meet the needs of higher education — and, if the governor's proposal is not adequate, it is their duty to do so.
The legislature is the voice of all of you who have a stake in your own future and the future of your children. Let your voices be heard.
Bill Blundell
The Deepening Chasm
Nikita Khrushhev arrived in New York City yesterday spouting peace and disarmament. It was little more than a year ago Mr. Khrushchev arrived here for his first tour of the United States. President Eisenhower and the entire official U.S. family greeted the visitor with open arms and high expectations that a firm basis could be reached for opening disarmament talks. Yesterday Mr. Khrushchev did not see one official U.S. representative at the pier.
THIS AMERICAN NEGLECT of the arrival of one of the most powerful men in the world points to the deepening chink between the United States and the Soviet Union. It was a direct snub and dropped any illusions that there was any common ground between America and Russia.
Mr. Khrushchev said in his speech at the New York pier that if he were spreading propaganda, it was in the interest of peace. He met no protests, no shouting, no demonstrations.
Yes, it may seem impressive to Americans to say that Khrushchev met only cold stares at the pier. But to people with other values and standards in all corners of the world, an anti-Ike demonstration or a riot against an American embassy certainly strikes deeper than American aloofness toward Nikita.
MR. KHRUSHCHEV'S arrival couldn't have been less promising. He renewed the same old vows for disarmament and peaceful co-existence. There was no talk about safeguards or inspection precautions. It was the same foolish proposal for disarmament while the coals sizzled beneath the surface — divided Germany and Berlin, the seething Congo, increased Cold War tension. When Ike gives his address to the United Nations Thursday, he should consider the falseness and treachery of his arch-rival, the odds against a successful agreement on disarmment.
— John Peterson
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
"SAME PLAY AGAIN, AN THIS TIME TRY TO PLUG UP THAT HOLE. WORTHAL."
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, United States. Represented by national. Mail subscription rates: $1 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910 at Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Ray Miller Managing Editor Carol Heller, Jane Boyd and Priscilla Burton, Assistant Managing Editors; Pat Sueley and Suzanne Shaw, City Editor; Ronald Sandal, Sports Editor; Peggy Kallos and Donna Engle, Society Editors.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
John Peterson and Bill Blundell Co-Editorial Editors
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Mark Dull Business Manager
Rudy Hoffman, Advertising Manager;
Martin Zimmerman, Promotion Manager;
Milo Harris, National Advertising Manager;
Dorothy Holly, Circulation Manager; Dorothy Bolzer, Classified Advertising Manager.
"Hey Joe — I'm Back!"
By Calder M. Pickett
Associate Professor of Journalism
AMERICAN HERITAGE, August 1960. $3.95.
Peter Lyon writes in the new issue of American Heritage of five heroes of the Wild Wild West and of five heroines. He has so much fun with the article, and provides so much fun for the reader, that it is a pity he feels called upon to end it in such a high tone of moral indignation.
"Over it there hangs the stink of evil." That is his conclusion to the great national obsession with such people as Wild Bill Hickok, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Calamity Jane and Belle Starr. We watch highly fictional exploits of these people on television and in the movies; we read about them even in reputable works. We are corrupted.
All were cowards and knaves. The great marshals of Saturday night television were not even marshals. They were gamblers or racketeers. Calamity Jane was a drunk. Belle Starr was worse than a prostitute. Billy the Kid was "an adenoidal moron."
Lyon's article is headed by two splendid title pages, one in the style of the old Police Gazette, which helped to glorify "our heroes," the other a photographed representation of the numerous symbols of the West.
This new issue of Heritage is a rich one. Second to the Peter Lyon article, in my estimation, is an article by James Thomas Flexner on William Sidney Mount, beautifully illustrated by the genre works of the painter.
The best of these shows the old Negro woman and the little boy "Eel-Spearing at Setauket" — a two-page color spread with the warm browns and greens that marked so much American painting in mid-19th century. Two paintings demonstrate Mount's affection for the familiar barn door of his paintings — "Truant Gamblers" and "Music Hath Charms." It seems more and more important that painters like Mount and George Caleb Bingham were preserving for posterity the American countryside and the life of the common people from the 1830s on.
An entertaining excerpt from Allen Churchill's coming book, "They Never Came Back," is included. It is the story of the disappearance of an American heiress, Dorothy Arnold, in 1910, who waved goodbye to a girl friend on Fifth Avenue and vanished. It is a mystery that left absolutely no clues.
Leonard Falkner describes in an amusing piece, "Captor of the Barefoot General," how Col. William Barton of Rhode Island, believing a British hostage would come in handy, captured the half-dressed Gen. Richard Prescott during the American Revolution.
Another perceptive piece is Robert L. Heilbroner's "Epitaph for the Steel Master." This is an understanding study of Andrew Carnegie, who, Alger-like, rose to greatness and then, uniquely, disposed of his vast fortune — for Carnegie was the apostle of the "Gospel of Wealth" and believed that a man at his death should not have a great fortune.
Also in this issue:
"Don't Boil the Calliope Player," by Oliver Jensen, a short article about the old steamboat calliopes and their players, whose fingers were being scorched by the hot brass keys as the boats plied the rivers.
"There Was Another South." by Carl N. Degler, a refreshing article which illustrates through such figures as John Bell, Howell Cobb and Cassius Clay the fact that the South by no means was solidly united on nullification, secession, slavery, or hate for the North.
"Nathaniel Bowditch: The Practical Navigator," by Paul E. Rink, the story of the man who helped to make navigation a precise art out of mathematical knowledge.
"Bread Upon the Waters," by E. M. Halliday, Part IV of the series, "America and Russia," describing how America, twice in one generation, helped to feed a famine-stricken Russia.
"No Fuel, No Fumes, No Flats, No Fuss," a picture story about the Woods Electric Auto of the turn of the century.
"Damned Plague Ships and Swimming Coffins," by Mary Cable, a look at the emigrant ships of the 19th century, ships marked by disease, starvation and misery.