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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, September 26, 1968
Kansan interview: voice of dissent
Kansan: What are the chances of the dissenting report being adopted by the KU student body?
Berkowitz: I think the chances right now are very slim. However, I think if people became familiar with the dissenting report; if they became acquainted and educated to the point where they understood the issues involved, and exactly what the report says; then I think the chances of adoption would be much better. I think the University community can be educated to understand its responsibilities.
Kansan: Was there any inclination on the part of other committee members to support the dissenting report? What complaints were most often voiced against the dissenting report?
Mrs. Atkinson: Members of the committee said they agree with many of the proposals in the dissenting report. They just didn't agree with the wording and the specific nature of some of the resolutions.
Berkowitz: I have been frustrated and amused at the nature of the criticism of the report. It hasn't been that the proposals are not substantive. It's just that somehow we have used the wrong words or that somehow we want to change the whole world or we are idealistic fools.
People think the report is a radical statement. They think you can't achieve these kinds of goals immediately because there is no precedent for them; it hasn't happened before. People are unwilling to go to the point that it's logical to happen.
Professor Saricks (committee chairman) talked about waving a magic wand and Joe Goering (vice president of the student body) talked about irresponsible ideas.
My answer is that I wonder if tutorial programs for black people is an irresponsible idea. I wonder if a department for African students is irresponsible. I wonder if improved relationship with Haskell Institute is irresponsible.
The only magic wand being waved is by those who don't want to see how unjustly these people have been treated.
Mrs Atkinson: I get the impression that some of our critics think we are doing a little too much in saying what we think should be done around here. They think we should have been happy just to get students on committees and as far as social responsibility and non-tenured faculty goes—that's important, but it's just going to have to wait.
Berkowitz: It's a matter of facing reality. One of the main problems that we must face with people opposed to this report is that we are not digging up things that haven't existed.
We are not making them up. We are not talking about hallucinatory forms. We are talking about things that are really happening and need to be changed. They agree that things must be changed but they are not sure when or how.
Kansan: Did the committee attempt to incorporate any of the proposals in the social involvement section of the dissenting report into the majority report?
Mrs. Atkinson: It did not. Some of the people wanted to go through the proposals and pick out the ones they wanted. Others said this wasn't our charge; that the committee shouldn't even talk about social responsibility.
They looked at us as if we had done something wrong to even bring it up. But the committee did talk about it and decided it wasn't important at the time and decided to put it off.
Berkowitz: I think the committee was willing to accept some of the dissenting report's proposals in the area of social responsibility. But the things that we outlined, and they weren't going to accept, go further.
Some of our proposals concern the attitudes that the University has of the problems. The question came up at the press conference "Is there only one black professor on campus?"
It horrifies me to think that this is the attitude. Not one, one would be terrible; but two, thats proper, that's fine.
Professor Saricks immediately jumped in and said, "No that's wrong, there are two."
Mrs. Atkinson: Let me give you an example that came up in the committee. We read proposal number four in the dissenting report advocating "the hiring of additional University personnel from minority backgrounds including instructors, administrators, and coaches."
Members of the committee said this is a fine idea, but shouldn't you say "qualified" University personnel. They were just putting us off one more step each time.
Editors note: The student faculty committee on University governance recently released a report recommending basic changes in the KU governing body. Out of that committee also came a dissenting report. The report was signed by two student members of that committee, Mrs. Elizabeth Atkinson and Bill Berkowitz. The two dissident members of the committee acted as members of Peoples Voice. In an interview with the Kansan, they explain and elaborate on their position.
Berkowitz: Who decides if they are qualified? By putting in the word "qualified," they are not recognizing the problem that exists.
The problem that exists is that black people have been disenfranchised for as long as they have been in this country. And perhaps right now they are not qualified, but put in that position—assuming they can face certain responsibilities—and continuing the educational process, they will become qualified.
So, in their terms it is over-compensation—and I'm willing to admit that it's over-compensation—but I'll also admit that it's damn well time that over-compensation occur.
Their way of solving the problem is to appoint a black cheerleader. We're not talking about a black cheerleader; we're talking about the whole community. If they want coaches and teachers, they always seem to be able to find them, somehow.
Kansan: Up to this point, you have directed most of your comment to the social responsibility section of the dissenting report. But what would appear to be more radical proposals were recommended as amendments to the general report.
One of these was that the position of chancellor should be filled by an individual elected by the University Senate. Could you elaborate on this proposal?
Mrs. Atkinson: I personally think that all administrators should be hired by the University community and should have nothing to do with the Board of Regents.
Berkowitz: Administrators have separate roles and should be treated as such. The faculty and students should take care of the business of the University which is education. The administration should operate as a ball-bearing and not control peoples' lives.
Kansan: You also recommended that the Associated Women Students (AWS) be abolished. Could you explain why?
Mrs. Atkinson: The AWS deals with issues that are not merely a concern of the University's female students, but of the student community at large. Its Standards Board attempts to decide on matters that should be the jurisdiction of the Student Senate Disciplinary Committee.
The role and rights of female students in the University can no longer be dictated by the personal prejudice of certain powerful individuals.
Kansan: You also advocated the abolition of the offices of the Deans of Men and Women, terming them superfluous. Would you elaborate?
Mrs. Atkinson: The responsibilities of the offices of Dean of Men and Dean of Women should be given to the Dean of Students and the Student Disciplinary Committee.
The purely administrative functions should be assumed by the Dean of Student Affairs (whose role is parallel to the Dean of Faculty) and their disciplinary authority should be assumed (as it is already in part) by the Student Senate Disciplinary Committee.
We see these two offices as being purely superfluous and unnecessary in a progressive university as KU presumes to be.
Kansan: Do you think that those proposals just mentioned will attach a radical stigma to the dissenting report?
Berkowitz: People term us radical and call us outrageous, but it isn't the most radical report recommended at any university. You have to remember one thing. This University has been very, very quiet.
University students have tried to deal with the faculty as if they were responsible because the students feel and are responsible. Students have tried to have an exchange of ideas that has many times been difficult and often times shut-off by petty criticism.
Students have attempted to fulfill their community responsibilities. The issuing of this report is one example because the report does try to make a University community rather than a University divided by separate bodies.
Mrs. Atkinson: I think the problem is that most students and faculty don't really feel a community spirit. A lot of students don't feel the responsibilities to create a better university. I think if they were made aware of the educational experience they would get out of this University, they would be much more interested.
The Hill With It by john hill
The bearded man slowly led the donkey which carried his pregnant wife through the dark streets, and finally stopped in front of the Waste Hills Inn.
"You're standing in the shadows," said the landlord from an upstairs window where he was trying to separate his many tenants who were beating each other up, "and I can't tell from here. Is that a beard or don't you wash your face very often?"
"O, sir," said the bearded stranger, "do you have room at the inn for my wife and myself?"
"Why, yes, it's a beard, but I was—"
"Sorry. Means you're a rapist. No room at the inn."
The bearded man was puzzled.
“Look,” said the landlord, impatient, “a beard means you’re a rapist, a mustache means you’re an anarchist, long hair means—”
"But, sir," pleaded the man, "my wife and I need shelter for the night. Could we at least stay in your manger?"
The landlord looked at the snow which had started to fall, and thought about all the Christmas cards he still had to address.
"All right, all right," said the landlord, and the bearded man led the donkey to the manger.
As he was closing the window, the landlord noticed the woman's condition and smiled to himself, smugly . . .
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quotes...
Former Atty. General Nicholas Katzenbach, testifying before President Johnson's Commission on National Violence:
"Most murders, rapes and aggravated assaults are committed not by strangers but by friends, relatives, or acquaintances."
Columbia University president, Andrew C. Cordier, appraising the number of students intent on disrupting University life:
"The number, happily, is decreasing by the day."
"No matter how 'liberal' a white person might be, he cannot ultimately escape the overpowering influence—on himself and on black people—of his whiteness in a racist society."
Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton —"Black Power"
"When I first saw the report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, I thought I was reading H. Rap Brown's State of the Union address."
"The old Negro used to sit around whittling his stick and telling stories. . . . He was beautiful; he was a philosopher and an orator. . . That old man in the ghetto is bitter now and he is the most dangerous Negro in the world."
"If George Wallace wins the Presidential election, I'm going to take up a new profession. I'm going to become a foreign travel agent for Negroes."
Dick Gregory