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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, April 15, 1959
Greeks Ignore Challenge
The fraternities at the University seem to hide behind their paddles and the sororites behind their pins without a word in defense against a charge of racial prejudice.
Barbara Asbury, in an editorial page feature April 6, said one of the most glaring examples of "campus Iron Curtains" is the confusion over whether or not to pledge Negroes.
She said she was a member of the first sorority in an eastern college to begin pledging Negroes. She also said one of the first problems her sorority was faced with was the question of whether they were doing this just because they thought they should, or because they really wanted to.
"If we, the intelligentsia, of this, a declared Christian nation, cannot apply the principles upon which it is based, who will?" said Miss Asbury.
Chancellor Murphy said, March 16, that, "racial and religious clauses in national charters are inexcusable. Each sorority or fraternity should be able to decide who can be a member of that living group."
Jim McMullan, in a letter to the editor March
19. did not believe Chancellor Murphy slammed the Greeks hard enough.
"... I am an American who believes in equality, not only in word, but in action!" McMullan said.
He said the answer was always the same:
McMullan talked to a few fraternity friends of his, saying he thought it was a shame "something cannot be done to rid the charters of this kind of garbage."
"We said the airline, "Jim, I do not agree with the racial or religious clauses either, but if we fight it we may lose our national charter."
McMullan then challenged the Greeks:
"When it comes time to send a representative to the national convention, have him go and speak out against this clause( make sure he can dodge rocks), but let them know that you believe in the rights for which your forefathers died."
The Greeks have neither accepted or rejected this challenge. They probably expect and hope that the matter will soon be forgotten. The Greeks apparently can not justify the present situation. Steps should be taken to correct it.
—Tom Hough
Can't Live on Love
Many college professors, caught between inflation and a stationary salary, are giving up their first love, teaching, in favor of higher paying positions in industry.
College professors, like newlyweds, are finding they cannot live on love.
What makes the exodus so distressing is that the need for good teachers is critical. Some of the top teaching talent has already left KU. Other professors are reading the "help wanted" ads because of the indifferent attitude of many people in this state to increasing faculty salaries.
"In a generation," says Scymour E. Hans, Harvard economist, "the college professor has lost 50 per cent in economic status as compared to the average American. His real income has declined substantially, while that of the average American has risen 70-80 per cent."
Can you blame scientists, engineers and other faculty for reading the classifieds for offers in
During the post-war period the emphasis at many schools was on expanding the physical plant. Salaries were almost forgotten. Now this problem must be reckoned with.
industry that will pay them $8,000-$12,000 when the best some schools can pay is half that figure?
For the past 10 years colleges have defied a basic law in economics—"you usually get what you pay for." Colleges have been getting more from dedicated faculty than they have paid for in salary.
If teaching becomes an ill-paid occupation here, the University will become a refuge for ill-trained, lazy and incompetent faculty. No Kansan wants that to happen.
The heyday is over! The competition for brains is keen.
If Kansas wants to go first class it must find the funds now to pay adequate salaries.
-Harry Ritter
Editor:
... Letters ...
I want it understood at the onset that I have no quibble with your April 1 pitch for a senior gift scholarship or distinguished professorship. I would, however, line to clarity a misunderstanding which seems to be the common property of you and several other persons who have signed editorials this year apropos the gift to the university from the Class of '56.
I must admit that I do have a vested interest in our Jayhawk by virtue of having been a member of the class, but I was neither on the committee which recommended it nor among those who voted for or against it. My purpose shall be to defend it.
You have, by inundo if not by word, labeled it unworthy. Others of your colleagues have from time to time described it as unsighably
inappropriate, disgusting, and,
perhaps most irresponsibly, a
worthy candidate for the bottom of
Potter Lake.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
Now Miss Crosier (and conferees), surely such heroes are not to be uttered with impunity! I hope these spoken feelings represent only youthful bravado and class camaraderie—and not your true sentiment; regarding our University symbol.
"MATH F, PSYC F, ENGLISH F, AN' A C IN PHYS ED. — JU GT SHONG YA WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YA SPEND ALL YER TIME STUDYIN' ONE SUBJECT."
Actually, I cannot think of a single tangible item which more appropriately symbolizes our University than the Jayhawk. His effuge is present at our athletic contests. His spirit pervades our comings and goings in daily University life. His name is legion to thousands of students and many thousands of alumni.
I will admit that the Jayhawk has had some unsavory moments in Kansas history, but considering his present prestige, I view the frequent attaches upon him via Daily Kansan editorials this year as either a vacuum of important issues or a similar state in the editorialists' cranial vaults.
His caricature stimulates immediate recognition of our institution by all persons interested in universities throughout the United States and in many foreign countries as well.
Finally, I admonish you, Miss Crosier, to descend from your high horse; to desist from attacking alumni, the vast majority of whom are not present to defend themselves and their actions; and—if you are truly interested in a worthwhile cause—to suggest to your classmates the possibility of donating a marble pile upon which to raise our Jayhawk majestically and eternally, yes, from the middle of Potter's waters—like Excall-bar—to symbolize the immortality and invincibility of our university.
Sam W. Smith KU Medical Center
By Stuart Levine Instructor of English
A young composer, Russell Smith, has an article in the April issue of Harpers which might be helpful to those who were puzzled by last week's ambitious Mid-American Symposium of Contemporary American Music.
Mr. Smith says that the young composer now has an established style in which to write. There has been a kind of synthesis. The musical scene is no longer chaotic. If this is true, then it is not too surprising that a great deal of the music performed here last week sounded alike.
To some listeners, this is reprehensible. Mr. Smith is not the first to notice the change. Winthrop Sargeant, the thoughtful music critic of the New Yorker, has been complaining for several years about the sameness of our new music. I suppose that he misses the wild days of the twenties, the experiments, the manifestoes, the fragmentation which knocked the musical world into a confusion of little camps.
Well, those were good old days and our generation is indebted to them, but the evolution of a common musical language is hardly an event to be regretted. Besides, experimentation as wild as that of the twenties goes on, and there is no dearth of manifesto-writers.
I have a hunch, moreover, that a second or third hearing of last week's presentation might demonstrate that there was, in fact, more diversity than met the ear. That was a lot of music to digest and evaluate.
KANU did an acceptable job of broadcasting the festival, and one may hope that tapes were made, so we may be given another chance to listen to everything. The performances were far better than anyone had a right to expect, and are certainly worth hearing again.
The week's highlights were the two works commissioned by KU, Alan Hovhaness' "Octet to the University of Kansas," and Norman Dello Joio's "Hymn to St. Cecelia." The hymn is a satisfying piece of music for chorus and brass choir, sonorous and spacious, and thoroughly appropriate in subject matter for the occasion.
Hovhaness has his own special sound. The music is oriental in its surface glitter and sensuousness. I'm not sure that what glitters in Hovhaness is always gold. There were passages which sounded like a kind of latter-day Scheherezade (but where are the dancing girls?). The music is very engaging, however, and the composer's admirers say that his work is getting better each year. When the time comes that he has important things to say, he will have an attractive way of saying them.
The Symposium performances included works by several established composers. The choir sang music of Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber. There was a piece for winds by Gardner Reed.
Despite its pompous title, the Mid-American Symposium was a thoroughly enjoyable event, and an important one, too. It was even a little overwhelming. Few people outside the music department were able to attend every concert; I was especially unhappy about not being able to hear Prof. John Pozdro's "Second Symphony."
Mr. Pozdro and his committee must be commended. The entire affair was beautifully planned, and provided us with a splendid cross-section of current work. One wishes that a detailed program had been available a little earlier, but I suspect that the committee was so inundated by the surprising flood of entries that it was unable to complete its selection until the last minute.
It chose well, and if it did on the whole select works which spoke the same musical language, that's good too. Great composers generally appear when there is an established style in which to write. Those who attended the Symposium know what the style will be.
Worth Repeating
Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate. —Henry David Thoreau
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The mutual confidence on which all else depends can be maintained only by an open mind and a brave reliance upon free discussion. —Learned Hand
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It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.
—Bertrand Russell
Dailu Hansam UNIVERSIT
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