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University Daily Kansan
Monday, Oct. 27, 1958
The Right to Know
The administration has finally clarified its position in the Sunnyside issue. Too bad this was not done sooner—on Oct 7, to be exact.
If J. J. Wilson, director of dormitories, had at that time told the All Student Council Housing Committee that $105,000 of the Sunnyside rent money had gone to Stouffer Place, the matter would never have reached the proportions it did.
Unfortunately, on Oct. 7 Mr. Wilson said all Sunnyside rents were being used for Sunnyside's maintenance and other costs.
This precipitated one of the most furious controversies between the administration and students this campus has seen.
The student committee could not believe Mr. Wilson's statement. The group asked to see the records. The administration said no.
Naturally, this led to some questions:
Where was the money going? Why was Sunnyside not being maintained as it should? Why were not students allowed to see records on the disposition of their money? Nobody replied.
Mr. Wilson also said student housing rates were kept in competition with Lawrence private housing. And he claimed the University made no provision for a replacement fund.
The administration allowed Wilson's statements to stand from the time they were made until Oct. 16, when the chancellor set the record straight.
During these nine days of silence, students could not be blamed for getting ideas about the Sunnyside issue.
The chancellor says all the rent money is poured into a pool from which the combined costs of the housing units are paid. This keeps rents balanced among the dormitories.
The money left in this pool, after costs, is the base for building new apartments. Without such a pool, no new apartments could be constructed, as state taxes cannot be used to finance married student housing. Chancellor Murphy says he tried to change this last year, but the legislature would not cooperate. Sunnyside residents pay more than the worth of their place, but they can do nothing about it.
Everything the University has been doing with the money is perfectly legal. However, the student committee's investigation of the situation is both proper and admirable in view of the conflicting statements.
The only unresolved matter is the point of the whole issue. The Housing Office files are still closed. Chancellor Murphy feels they should stay this way, but he has asked the attorney general for an opinion on the law.
The students' right to know is at stake. Certain files, of course, are, and should be, confidential. But the majority of records deal with funds and the students as a body. These latter files, we feel, should be opened.
The administrators want to lead, but the students must know what is going on. There is no reason for a thick, un-crossed line between the two groups. Lack of communication should not be a trouble in the future. —John Husar
A Teacher's Opinion
Editor:
Once again the cry has been raised against the schools of America. And again it comes from a misinformed individual who is either too lazy or too indifferent to thoroughly investigate the situation. Martha Crosier's editorial in the October 15 Daily Kansan ("From Classics to Claptrap") is almost entirely a rehash of the Time article she mentions.
... Letters ...
These good editions are NOT intended for the use of ALL high school students, as Miss Crosier indicated by omission. In The Nation's Schools, October 1953, Agnes Kraup states that in the Pittsburgh, Penn., system these classics are stored in a cabinet and issued only upon recommendation of English teachers to the remedial readers. I agree that good students should read the originals, but what Miss Crosier must realize is that the poorer students almost CAN-NOT read, let alone read the originals. Is it not better that they read the adapted classics than a steady diet of comic books?
I will agree that there are poor editions of the adapted classics she discusses; however, no English teacher or school librarian is prohibited from making the selection of the better editions, of which there are many despite Miss Crosier's doubts.
I would suggest that Miss Crosier go further than a non-professional periodical for her educational editorials. Her views could be broadened if she were to consult with Dr. Oscar Haugh of the School of Education. (Of course, that is outside of the journalism building.) Perhaps her best approach would be to leave her little world and observe a remedial reading class in action. That is an education in itself.
—John H. Kiesow
Education 1955
Medicine Lodge
Editor:
In the column of the Oct. 8 Kansan referring to college pranks, the writer suggested that KU needed a "humorous event to be staged plainly for the sake of a good joke." Subsequently, the writer of the editorial in the Oct. 22 Kansan entitled "Heading on the Right Track" suggested that the parachute stunt during the halftime of the Oklahoma game was an example of this.
One might be tempted to ask whether the stunt was a humorous event, or even whether there was anything funny about it at all, or was it merely a publicity stunt designed to attract votes in a popularity contest? At any rate, the ill-timed stunt was unfair to the band in that the event took the interest of the spectators from the band's halftime performance. Would it have been fair to the team had the jumper performed his feat during the game?
David Elliott
Merriam freshman
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
"OH MY ~ IM IN FOR IT AGAIN TONITE  —IT LOOKS LIKE HES HAD ANOTHER BAD DAY AT SCHOOL!"
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Books in Review . . .
By Robert C. Harwi
USA-SECOND CLASS POWER, Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson. Simon and Schuster, $3.95.
Mr. Pearson and Mr. Anderson try to prove in this book that America has lost her place of world supremacy by virtue of Russia's Sputnik last fall.
This was a difficult position to establish before the Pioneer lunar probe two weeks ago, and it is even more difficult to prove now.
But the authors have a number of interesting things to say. This book was written by men who are reporters. They name names, they cite examples, and they give their book a depressingly accurate ring. It moves rapidly and is best when it dwells on Eisenhower, Nixon, and Charles E. Wilson. None come out too well.
The authors' real target is the Pentagon. They blast it for its systems of duplications of work, for waste, stupidity, and short-sighted leaders, and for its internal rivalries.
The Department of Defense, they say, has been badly snarled ever since its inception. Pearson and Anderson admit there have been men of judgment and vision in it, but too often, they say, America's welfare and security have been gambled with because of petty ambitions and jealousies of our military men.
The authors are almost shrill in pointing a collective finger at the Pentagon. Some of the incidents they recite sound like bits from a script for the Keystone Kops.
Far too often, according to Pearson-Anderson statistics, high military officials have given defense contracts to certain industries and then, upon retirement, have taken high executive positions with those same industries. Is skulduggery involved? It depends on one's point of view.
Pearson and Anderson say flatly that certain Washington leaders have not faced up to the threat that confronts America. High officials knew we were in a satellite race but preferred a balanced budget to beating Russia. Then, after Sputnik, a crash program had to be started which cost us even more. Consequently we lost the race and saved no money.
The authors do not say that he is a bad, black-hearted man. But they do say he is an ineffective policy maker and leader—a weak President.
The authors have some special words for Eisenhower. They say he lacked vision as chief of staff in the immediate post-war period, and as President, does not have his heart in his job. He is, according to Pearson and Anderson, reluctant to take steps to stop the bickering in the Pentagon.
Nixon is described as an ambitious and unprincipled man who has his heart set on the Presidency.
The book seems to be written with good motives. The authors want an end to mistakes and cookedness so America won't be embarrassed again as she was last fall. But they have both been around long enough to realize that America's top affairs are not handled by saints or geniuses.
Pearson and Anderson have no special ax for use on Republicans exclusively. Democrats make mistakes too, and many are mentioned. But since Republicans are in power now, they get quite a few more brickbats.
As a solution to world problems, the authors offer the following suggestions; a United States of Europe; control of outer space; two summit meetings per year; and a public works plan for the whole world. America is supposed to lead the way for this program.
These are just dandy ideas, but they are not likely to be worked out overnight.
Pearson and Anderson are best when they point out the mistakes of others.
USA—Second Class Power?
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