University Daily Kansan Monday, April 6. 1959
Practice for Disaster
A warning, four short blasts on the whistle, will be sounded, classes dismissed and students, faculty and staff will scurry to designated shelter areas.
The disaster plan developed by the University sounds good on paper, but how will it work in the event of a disaster?
We agree to the necessity of a plan to provide shelter if a disaster should strike. But should a tornado or other disaster threaten, the plan on paper will go up in the smoke of fear and confusion.
A person can be told to walk, not run, to keep calm. But when he sees a destructive tornado cloud looming towards him, instinct will cause
him to do the opposite unless he is fully aware of the exact steps he should take.
Yes, the disaster plan looks good on paper. How will it look in action? If the University is to prepare adequately for a disaster, a drill or practice should be part of the preparation.
This would mean that all of the University, including all living units, would follow out the plan at the warning whistle. The practice should not be forewarned, but performed just as in a real disaster.
Such practical preparation would reveal the flaws in the plan so they could be remedied.
Strategy of Study
Only 1 per cent of Harvard freshmen read with anything more than speed and "obedient purposelessness," was the charge made by the university's study counsel bureau director William G. Perry recently.
He said the major problem lies "in their strategy of study—a problem—which has nothing to do with the purely mechanical travel of eyes across the page." He feels very few use judgment in skipping backward and forward, using synopses and studying marginal outlines.
His statements followed a recent sample problem in which 1,500 freshmen were given 20 minutes to read a 30-page chapter from a text. The chapter had marginal notes pointing out key ideas and themes as well as a concluding half page summary in bold face type. Only 15 students either turned to the summary to preview their work or used the marginal notes as a guide.
This is a problem on practically every campus in our country including KU. And it goes beyond the freshman year.
Students do not know how to get the most out
of what they are reading or what they are studying. There has never been emphasis of any kind on such things. They are told to read an assignment. Usually they do.
Each student finds his own method of study. His habits are formed while he is still in high school. No one ever tells him how to read so usually he does not learn.
There is a reading clinic on campus but few students take advantage of it. This is not entirely their fault; few of them are actually aware that their reading habits are not what they should and could be.
The clinic attempts to teach a student to read faster and to concentrate on what he is reading. Many students feel that this would be a waste of time and that they can teach themselves anything they could learn in the clinic. Possibly some students could but it would be easier and faster or the most students to learn under the guidance of the clinic.
Students would find that the few hours spent at the reading clinic would pay off in faster reading and better grades.
— Martha Crosier
By John Husar
The warm, free lines of a poet remembering boyhood were delivered in a voice reminiscent of the author last Friday in the University Theatre.
The program, "A Boy Growing Up," was taken from the writings of the late Welsh poet and story-teller, Dylan Thomas. His "voice," or reader, belonged to a fellow-countryman, playwright and actor Emlyn Williams.
Mr. Williams, who is touring the country with his successful experiment of adapting Thomas' writings to the theater, appeared here on the University Concert Course. Unfortunately, only a few hundred patrons attended his majestic performance.
Mr. Williams' method is simple. He walks on stage, introduces the poet, and beings speaking. Soon one becomes aware that he is the poet, that the lines do not belong to the actor, but are those lines which countless people have learned to love in the name of Dylan Thomas.
Most of the sketches are put into absorbing running stories. In the program's first part, Mr. Williams easily blends Thomas' "Memories of Childhood" with a hilarious item about his long-winded "Cousin Gwilym," and a dreamy account of an idyllic day on the sea-shore between the young artist-to-be and an older companion.
The second part begins with a reading of a poem, "The Hand," amid some clever light and shadow effects. Mr. Williams then delivers a vividly funny episode taken from three stories concerning Thomas' school-days, a fight and a friendship.
The final segment relates Thomas' "Self-Portrait" and a long story about his London dream, "Adventures in the Skin Trade."
Thomas, who died in 1953, is already renowned for the products of his short. 39-year life. His prose and poetry dwell on many bits of living. Humor, love, pity, sarcasm are reflected in most writers. Thomas' exception is his delightfully original and thought-provoking style. His powerful expressions tug at the mind and force it to remember and to see. His lines are felt and absorbed, never merely heard.
But it is the acting powers of Mr. Williams which brings Thomas' words to life. Through art the artist's creations are given the urgency of reality. Mr. Williams' use of technicalities and physical and vocal nuances exactingly fit the moods of each piece. Yet, at the curtain call, he humbly gave homage to Thomas, symbolically saluting his books.
This was the second work of Dylan Thomas given here this season. The first was an Experimental Theatre version of his radio play "Under Milkwood" last fall. Both have confirmed the need for more frequent public display of this master's beautiful gifts.
Colleges Hide 'Iron Curtain' Behind Grey Flannel
By Barbara Asbury
Perhaps there was a short time when we could stretch our necks, wave our arms and scream "unjust!" "unfair!" at the activities of the people behind the Iron Curtain and then retreat safely behind our own Gray Flannel one, secure in the knowledge that we had diverted the eyes of the world for a while.
This is no longer so, and we have found that we cannot call attention to others for very long before we start calling attention to ourselves.
The realization that a problem exists and is a result of ignorance is one thing, however. Doing something about it is quite another, for it soon becomes apparent that pledging Negro students within the sorority or fraternity is not answering the problem, but magnifying it.
Our campuses have their own "Iron Curtains." Perhaps the most glaring example is the confusion over whether or not to pledge Negroes to sororities and fraternities. We may hide our "Iron Curtain" attitudes toward racial prejudice behind the gray flannel of respectability and ignorance, but they are there.
The world is now looking to our country for an example of justice and tolerance. What are we showing them? What do we as a campus community show them?
Let us take this problem of segregation against Negroes in sororities and fraternities. That it is a product of ignorance (meaning lack of understanding or lack of awareness) is being recognized by more and more college and university students.
We need, therefore, to do some re-thinking of our values. This is not, however, an excuse for sitting back and waiting for the next guy to start.
As an undergraduate on an eastern campus, I was a member of
the first sorority there to begin pledging Negroes. It was a difficult move, and needless to say we began with much fear and trembling as would any organization that realizes that it is the first to break "tradition."
Our fear was not of what we would get in terms of the Negro students, because we knew that we could pledge some really top girls. No, our fear was "what will the others think?"; "what will happen
to our date rating?" "how will we fare in the competitions?" and all of the other petty things we let stand between ourselves and what we feel is right and real.
After we had made our decision, however, we sallied forth with all of the vim, vigor, and ambiguity of youth. Our first problem became evident immediately. Were we doing this just because we thought we should, or because we really wanted to?
BARBABA ASBURY, Philipburgh, Pa., graduate student and counselor to Lutheran students.
If the first was our reason, both our Negro pledges and our white activities were going to have trouble. Self-inflicted martyrdom is neither pretty nor practical, and we did not want the girls to feel as though we were doing them a special favor.
How were we looked upon by the other sororites? Like we had cut our throats and were standing out in the middle of Main Street for a public bleeding. When the furor died down and we were still stand-ing, however, they began to re-consider. Our Negro pledges had to take some decision from the other sororites, but they came through like the troopers we knew they were.
It took a lot of flexibility and a lot of compassion on the part of both the actives and the pledge class.
What criteria should we use to judge our Negro pledges? This was fairly simple: personality, appearance, the same as we used for everyone else. Who cares whether they bought it at Saks Fifth Ave.? Do they keep it clean?
Did we lose some of the pledges we wanted because we were pledging Negroes? Not to the extent we had feared, and yet one must always leave the foolish behind in the search for wisdom.
Dating presented additional problems, but we took our cues from our Negro girls. Here they put their foot down and said that they would not date white students.
Many were dating Negro students and did not have any intention of damaging this relationship. We did not encourage inter-racial dating or discourage it. When we had four dances with the fraternities on campus our Negro girls were permitted to bring their own dates.
Our position in the competitions did sufficer. Perhaps, this was because 905 would not let it suffer. We hurried our efforts on everything. We placed first in the Greek
Sing, and second in the Homecoming Queen contest.
Many other problems arose among our girls and with other organizations, but we found that they could be solved by clear thinking and a willingness to talk openly about them.
To say that such integration is easy is to misunderstand the whole situation. It is not easy. It takes a lot of thought, strength and praver on the part of all concerned.
If we, the intelligentsia, of this, a declared Christian nation, cannot apply the principles upon which it is based, who will? And if we will, we cannot begin next year, or even next door, but where we are, as we are, and as much as we humanly can.
Dailu hansan UNIVERSITY OF PEKTS
University of Kansas student newspaper
briveweek 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
trieweek 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Extension 711, news room Business 376, business office
EXTERNAL
Maryland Inland Daily Press Association.
Associated Collegiate Press. Rep-
resented by National Advertising Service,
420 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y.
News service: www.advertising-newyork.com.
International subscription rates: $3 a
week or $4.50 a year. Published in
Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during
the University year except Saturdays
and Sundays. University, Examination
and examination. Entered as second
college letter Sept. 17, 1910, at
March 3, 1879.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Douglas Parker ... Managing Editor
Al Jones, John Husar, Jack Harrison,
Jim Grey, Jack Mausten and Carol Allen.
Gecko-City Editors; George DeBord and
Daude Yecom, Co-Sports Editors;
Samantha Grey, Connie O'Connor,
An Assistant Society Editor.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Bill F. Kane              Business Manager
Robert Hads                Accounting Manager;
Howard Young             Classical Advertiser;
William W. Kane            William F. Kane, Promotion
Manager; Paul Nielsen, Circula-
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Pat Swainson and Martha Crosser, Co-
Editorial Editors; Robert Harwl, Asso-
cate Editorial Editor.