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University Daily Kansan Monday, May 22, 1961
Guest Editorial
Cuba's Emissary...
In view of the importance of freedom of inquiry, it would be unwise for Kansas University or any school to bar the appearance of controversial personalities from their campuses, except those who are committed to the destruction of America through force and violence.
But at the same time, it would be lambrained foolishness for schools to welcome with open arms those individuals—like Edward Shaw of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee—who obviously and openly espouse anti-United States causes.
KU CHANCELLOR W. CLARKE WESCOE took the proper approach to such an issue Thursday after questions arose in the minds of quite a few local citizens about the role of the University in the Shaw visit.
Wescoe, in an official statement, pointed out that it was a group of students who invited Shaw to the campus to express his views. . .
This eased a lot of minds which had become disturbed with the Wednesday announcement that Shaw would come here. While most of these persons had no quarrel with the man's right to visit and talk to those who would listen, they did have pronounced ideas about KU's rolling
out a red carpet for someone whose beliefs they feel are not in the best interests of the U.S.
IN ACTING AS HE DID, WESCOE KEPT the door open for freedom of inquiry and yet made it clear that KU did not officially sanction the visitor...
Students, such as those who go around looking for Shaws to invite, can often be excused for their behavior. Most of them, but not all, are quite young and inexperienced and have a lot to learn. All the suffering elders can hope is that perhaps through such experiences the innocents among the indelible radicals will learn enough to have sounder judgment on future occasions.
BUT AN ADMINISTRATION THAT WARM-heartedly adopts every wayside waif just to show it has a heart of gold and can't turn a cold shoulder to anyone, is inexcusable.
Chancellor Wescoe showed Thursday that KU has a sound, solid and practical approach to important matters of principle. His action was another good reason the citizenry can have greater respect for a fine University and its leaders.
(Excerpted from the Lawrence Journal-World Friday, May 19.)
A Reply
Marilyn Stokstad
The visit last week of Edward Shaw, propagandist for Fidel Castro, has stirred at KU the oft-troubled waters of academic freedom. Should this outspoken critic of the U.S. position on Cuba—this "confirmed socialist"—be allowed to defend Castro before impressionable young KU students?
THE EDITORIAL WRITER, AND OTHER Protectors of the Morals of KU Students, obviously assume that students here are not sufficiently mature to make decisions about a controversial opinion. "The suffering elders" therefore feel they must shelter students from all but sanctioned viewpoints.
CHANCELLOR W. CLARKE WESCOE ISSUED a thorough disclaimer Thursday of Shaw and his viewpoint. In a news story that day the Journal-World attributed the chancellor's statement to the "questions (created) in the minds of the citizens about KU's relationship with Shaw
The above editorial from the Lawrence Journal-World is clear. Although it begins with some mish-mash about academic freedom, the point of the editorial is that a speaker like Edward Shaw should not be allowed at the University of Kansas.
The editorial suggests that students are "young and inexperienced and have a lot to learn." This is no doubt true. But one wonders when all this learning is going to take place, if self-appointed censors continue to filter out the more scandalous opinions being thrown about in today's world.
and why KU would let itself be identified with an obviously anti-U.S. group."
The disturbed minds of the citizenry apparently were not soothed by the disclaimer, for the Journal-World reported the next day that KU officials had denied Shaw permission to speak Friday in two classes previously scheduled to hear him.
The editorial lauds the chancellor for showing that "KU has a sound, solid and practical approach to important matters of principle." This "sound approach" apparently means bowing to veiled demands from the Journal-World that the University erase citizens' questions about "why KU would let itself be identified with an obviously anti-U.S. group."
SHAW WAS ALLOWED TO SPEAK HERE three times. Everyone probably heard him who really wanted to. What is irritating is the administration's decision mid-way through Shaw's visit to prohibit his speaking to two classes to which he was scheduled to speak—a foreign policy class and a Latin American government class.
This makes the educational process a sham, not to mention what it does to that old-fashioned concept of freedom of speech. Any tattered radical who has an opinion should be allowed to express it at the corner of Sunflower and Jayhawk, so long as he doesn't obstruct traffic. A university worth its Latin motto does not have to explain why it lets itself be identified in this way with an unpopular opinion.
— Fred Zimmerman
Daily Hansan Silent Generation Speaks
University of Kansas student newspapers
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(Continued from page 1)
the late Joe McCarthy, favor colonialism, back such causes as the "right" to exclude Negroes from certain neighborhoods, demand that students sign loyalty oaths. . . . On the other end of the spectrum are Kennedy supporters who find in the President's appeal to duty ('Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.) the essence of their conservatism.
"In the middle of this stream runs the strongest current. Its members stand for the old verities, which they think the U.S. has forgotten," the article states.
A SURVEY LAST FEBRUARY of 468 colleges and universities resulted in 441 responses, all of them favorable to the idea of a Peace Corps.
President Kennedy's Peace Corps is stimulating phenomenal interest among American college students.
The student newspaper at San Francisco State College asked eight
Typical comments: "Would be happy to go." "I'm going to apply, though I don't think I can make it" "If I could help, I would be very willing to go."
students if they would join the Peace Corps if they had the opportunity. Seven of the eight said yes.
NO ONE is really sure why college students are suddenly becoming so involved in the issues of the times. Their elders have no explanation, and many, in their bewilderment, attribute the "involvementism" of students to the unknown powers of "communistic subversion."
Whatever the cause, a glance at today's headlines proves that the famous "undergraduate withdrawal" of the fifties is at an end.
Students on American campuses are vitally concerned with today's issues. What is happening at KU?
(Tomorrow's article will discuss the relative lack of awareness among KU students of current issues.)
Stokstad Appointed
Traveler Heads Museum
By Ron Gallagher
The new director of the Spooner- Thayer museum takes over the operation of one of America's top college museums after just three years at KU.
Marilyn Stokstad, assistant professor of art history, will bring to this position the same intellectual curiosity and vigor that has propelled her to scholastic honor and extensive European travel and study.
"I THINK IT IS GOING to be very exciting," she said. "I am always eager to try new things."
But the activities of the museum are hardly new to the youthful director.
She has always been interested in the operation of the museum and is solely responsible for a collection of photographs of Spanish art which is now housed there.
ALTHOUGH CONFIDENT that she can do a good job, she explained that the museum is strongest in periods that are not within her field of Medieval Spanish art. "For this reason I consider myself very much an amateur," she said.
As director of the museum Prof. Stokstad will head the department of art history. The demands of the museum and the department will force her to give up some of the classes she is now teaching.
"I hate to give up the research and the classes which I love to teach." she said.
However, she said that she will still find time to continue to teach two classes.
Explaining how she became interested in the work of an art historian she said:
"AS AN UNDERGRADUATE. at various times, I had five different majors. I am a very good example of someone who just fiddled around. I finally ended up with a double degree in painting and art history."
Her interest in art history continued and she earned the master's and doctor's degree in this area.
SHE EXPLAINED the art historian as an art detective who digs and probes around for clues to such mysteries as the identity of an artist or the date a work was completed.
"You have to train your visual memory as much as possible so that when you see a piece you can remember where you have seen a picture or another piece like it," she said. "A photographic memory
would be perfect in this business."
This June she will go back to Europe for her fourth summer of hunting and studying in the archives of great museums and investigating art works in Cathedrals and art galleries.
THE ENERGETIC art historian explained that since almost all medieval art is in Europe it is necessary for her to spend as much time as possible working there.
"You have to see the real thing for a lot of features that aren't in the photograph such as size, color and condition."
Since, as director of the museum she is also in charge of acquisitions, she will be on the lookout for art to bring back from Europe. She said that there is some material in Spain and London that she wants to check.
"You have to work very carefully and shrewdly to make the small amount of money we have available go as far as possible.
"MUSEUMS ARE OFTEN considered a frill. It is not until you meet these Russian people who are so deadly materialistic that you realize the importance of things of the spirit."
The exhibition and publication programs will also be under the direction of Prof. Stokstad. "These programs allow people who are just casually interested to learn about art," she said.
PROF. STOKSTAD indicated that most of the programs of the museum will be planned with the student in mind. "I would much rather have comments from students, than comments from faculty members, because the students are the ones I am interested in." She suggested that anyone with any comments, "could just drop by and see me or write a note."
Prof. Stokstad has also taught at the University of Michigan where she received her doctorate degree in 1957. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a member and faculty adviser of Mortar Board and has held four different fellowships and grants for study abroad.
Short Ones
Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men. —Thomas Henry Huxley