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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, Dec. 16, 1958
Campus News of the Year
Vox Populi's sweeping victory over the Allied Greek-Independent party in the spring All Student Council elections has been voted the top campus news story of 1958 by students in the Editorial class.
The general election story included the entrance of independent Ed Prelock into the presidential race and the eventual victory of write-in candidates John Downing and Carol Plumb for student body president and vice president.
In the selection of the top 20 stories, Wilt Chamberlain's decision to leave KU and its basketball team was ranked the second top story by the editors. The story broke late in the spring in a national magazine article.
The man who lived in the attic of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority house was voted the fourth highest source of news. The intruder apparently had lived there for several weeks. He was apprehended after a police chase.
Third place went to the fake early enrollment permit story and the subsequent changes in the enrollment system. More than 90 students were punished for using forged permits to gain early entrance to the enrollment floor.
The Man in the Attic
The class voted the ASC Little Hoover committee report on the functioning of ASC committees and the ASC inquiry into the Sunnyside housing situation as a tie for fifth place.
The Little Hoover committee revealed last spring that several committees and their chairman had failed to carry out their duties since appointment. The Sunnyside inquiry, still in progress, is investigating finances and services to residents of the housing development.
TNE Story Rated 7th
TNE again got into the news this fall when three students were suspended from classes after painting supplies, supposedly used in painting TNE signs on the campus and around the Lawrence area, were found in their car. Seventh place went to the story of their suspension and subsequent acquittal on charges against them in Lawrence police court. The suspension remained in force despite the acquittal.
The slaying of three members of his family by a KU student, Lowell Lee Andrews, ranked ninth in the poll. During the Thanksgiving holiday, the student killed his father, mother and sister so that he might inherit his father's farm and bank account, he said.
The rash of pranks on campus this fall received the eighth place vote. Pranks included a cardboard figure hung on the Blake Hall clock, the stealing of the KU flag from Fraser Hall and the disappearance of a skeleton from the anatomy laboratory.
ASC gained tenth place in the voting with the story on discrimination this fall. It looked into the activities of the Group for the Improvement of
Human Relations, appointed its own committee to investigate discrimination practices, and then voted that committee out of existence.
Heading the last half of the top 20 stories was KU's failure to produce a Big Eight champion in basketball last year. Sportswriters had forecast a great year for the team, but with a defeat by K-State it became evident that the Wildcats and not the Jayhawkers would wear the Big Eight crown.
Pi Phi's fight for rezoning of the land for its proposed new house was voted into 12th place. The sorority's request was voted down last spring by the Lawrence city commission, but was passed this fall.
Rush Change
In 13th was the Panhellenic Council's decision to hold women's rush during the first weeks of the spring semester this year instead of before school opened in the fall, as in past years. Housing problems for women who were not pledged constituted the primary reason for the change.
The ASC again appeared, this time in 14th place, when it cut the budget of the Associated Women Students by almost $1,000 this fall. The unexpected slash left several planned AWS projects with no financial backing.
An all-out attempt to boost KU's lagging school spirit followed in the poll. New band uniforms, a new Jayhawker uniform for the mascot at sports events and the promotion of a white-shirted cheering section were all part of the pageantry committee's work.
Building Program in the News
Number 16 in the voting was the announcement of a major building program for the University. Included in stories both last spring and this fall were announcements of several new dormitories, an addition to the library and a new engineering building.
Tied for 17th place were the death of Emil Telfel, associate professor of journalism, and the disappearance of a freshman student, Pat Burns, both last spring. Mr. Telfel, who died suddenly in March, was well-known throughout the state as well as on the campus. Burns, who vanished mysteriously for several weeks, finally called his parents from the West coast, where he was working.
The NCAA regional basketball tournament, which brought national sports attention to the campus, was ranked 19th. Interest was brought closer to home in the tournament with the participation and victory of Kansas State's Wildcats who earlier in the season had spoiled KU's chances for a championship year.
The final story cited by the editors was the change in rush systems to the preferential system of bidding. Long advocated by national Greek organizations, the system solved many problems created by the previous rushing plan.
Mary Alden
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
"MASTERFULLY WRITTEN PROTECTOR SNARF—ITS SELFDOMMY PLEASURE TO SEE A TEST WITH SO MANY AMUSIOUS QUESTIONS!"
Short Ones
A story from Rhodesia says the Umatalis golf course has a new hazard—a family of lions. The lions generally stay in the rough, but one has been seen chasing up the sixth fairway.
The course has no local rules governing this situation, and it seems something should be done. For instance, picking up one's golf ball is a 2-stroke penalty—how many strokes should be assessed when a lion picks up the caddy?
And what does the Rhodesian golfer do when he is stymied by a pride of lions? Must he play the ball, or may he drop another nearby?
Our aid program in Iraq seems to be moving along nicely. We've reached the "Yankee go home" stage.
That's the trouble with those wire stories—they raise more questions than they answer.
Comedian Henry Morgan savs we need more malice, especially on TV. And the sponsors on the late show are doing their best to provide it.
Les Angeles' mayor says small cars will solve the smog problem, which is almost as rational as Detroit's claim that all small cars are unsafe to drive.
Further Notes on Berlin
In the Wednesday (Dec. 10) issue of The Daily Kansan an interview on the German question given by Professor Laird was published. I cannot agree with most of the arguments put forth by Professor Laird.
In the first place, Professor Laird's statements are contradictory. On the one hand, he argues that "this division (of Germany) is a healthy situation in terms of world peace." On the other hand he thinks that "if World War III does break out . . . the most likely place will be Germany." The situation of the two Germanies then is not such a "healthy situation" after all.
Editor:
Prof. Laird seems to have forgotten what happened in Korea and Indo-China only a few years ago, and the Russian threat that they would drive the West out of Berlin shows that Germany might become another Korea any time the Russians think their chance has come. The reason Prof. Laird puts forth in favor of a "weakened and divided Germany" is that a powerful Germany would be a threat to world peace.
This seems to be an over estimation of the importance and resources of Germany. In terms of world policy Germany will never be able to play an independent and influential role in world affairs. In the age of nuclear weapons and guided missiles Germany is only a small factor in the struggle of the two halves of the world.
Though there are people, especially in France and Great Britain, who would agree with Prof. Laird, such a view is unrealistic, since it does not take into account that the distribution of power in the last 20 years has changed. They think of present-day Germany in terms of the Germany of 1914 and 1939.
The greatest obstacle to a peaceful solution of the German question is not the danger that the Germans will try to reunitize their country in opposition to the Eastern and Western policies, but that these same powers try to use Germany for their own political ends. If Germany were not at stake in the East-West struggle, there would not be any problem of German reunification. That the Germans will take reunification into their own hands is in my opinion out of the question. What would happen has been amply demonstrated during the revolt in the Soviet zone of Germany in 1958.
I would agree with Prof. Laird that "there is no chance for 'peaceful reunification' of Germany" but I would add "at the present time." As long as the political situation does not change, there is little hope for a realization of this paramount goal of German policy. But this should not and will not cause the Germans to give up the hope for a solution of their most crucial problem. As Prof. Laird very rightly observes:
"The most important political thought in the minds of the (German) people is that they are a divided people."
Walter Herdeg
Stuttgart, Germany
graduate student
★ ★ ★
Gunned Down
You know, compared with the New York Times or even the Lawrence Journal-World, the Daily Kansan doesn't amount to much. The writing isn't very good, the editorials are banal and generally dedicated to trivia, the news coverage is skimpy. The Kansan just wouldn't sell in the open market.
Editor:
But people read it and enjoy it. And not a little of that enjoyment arises from the fact that it is a student enterprise, written for students by students. It is an amateur production. The student expects no more from the Kansan than he gets. And we enjoy the Kansan, not because of its news-worthiness, but because it is a student publication.
The Daily Kansan, however, is not willing that other University productions should be so considered. When the University Theatre, the Experimental Theatre and the Children's Theatre venture out into the cold light of day, the Kansan, in the person of John Husar, is right there to make certain that the production is professional in every respect and right up to Broadway standards. And if it falls short, why Mr. Husar feels duty-bound to gun it down. He is shooting tuna fish in a barrel.
Now I submit that it is not very becoming for one student production to treat another in the fashion that Mr. Husar treated "Treasure Island." Mr. Husar is not the defender of the theatergoer's dollar;
Perhaps Mr. Husar thinks that an enthusiastic review is something to be avoided at all costs. He could at least damn with faint praise. The type of review that Mr. Husar is accustomed to writing can only be discouraging to those groups that are panned. And I, for one, am all for encouraging them. They have given me some very pleasant hours.
You people that live in glass houses should be more careful. Someday there may be another student forum on the Hill other than the Kansan. If that day should come, the student who is assigned the task of reviewing the Daily Kansan may find his task onerous indeed.
those who pay are not students, and are mercifully out of Mr. Husar's reach. Mr. Husar is not in the position of a professional critic who has a right to chide a professionally competent performer for not coming up to professional snuff; these people whom he so vigorously criticizes are amateurs who try as hard as they know how, and do very well at that.
The only reward that these student performers receive is the knowledge that they provide good entertainment for audiences that are comprised largely of students. It is unfair of the reviewer to pan the production so thoroughly that people are discouraged from coming to see it.
John C. Nettels
Pittsburgh
Third-year Law
Dailu Transan
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, 420 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 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, 1916, at Lawrence, Kan. post office under act of March 3, 1879.
News Department Malcolm Applegate, Managing Editor
Business Department Bill Irvine, Business Manager
Editorial Department Al Jones, Editorial Editor
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