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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, May 7, 1958
English Lack Apparent
Whether it was noticed or not, a symptom of illness showed up in the results of the spring English proficiency examination.
A high percentage, (just about 25 per cent) of students taking the test failed it.
In essence, there are only two reasons why so many should fail this exam. Either the English department staff is grading the tests too severely, or there is a very high percentage of semi-literate college students at KU.
Lacking other criteria, we must assume that the English department knows its business-at least they should know what is and what is not acceptable writing for college upperclassmen.
The problem, then, is that students at KU—or a sizable number of them—cannot write.
The students who take the proficiency exam have all taken English 1, 2, 3, and 4-ten hours of college composition and literature. Ten hours should prepare a student sufficiently for the proficiency exam, but obviously doesn't in many cases.
Therefore, the freshman-sophomore courses are not accomplishing their purpose. The failure rate is only an indication, not the goal of English courses, but there has apparently been a failure to teach the fundamentals of writing.
It is often claimed that the failure begins in high schools which don't teach English properly, and that the student entering college is not equipped to handle college English courses.
This is begging the question. So long as the University must accept all students who apply for admission, it must endeavor to correct the flaws in the students' previous education.
The knowledge of English—our native language, and for most of us, the only one—is a basic tool in almost every line of college study. If you cannot communicate your knowledge to other people, it is useless.
The answer, then, is obviously not to simplify English courses at KU, nor is it to ease up on the proficiency exam.
Perhaps the answer is a required remedial course for students who fail the exam. Most students will dislike the idea, and it would admittedly be a strain on students who are supposedly already carrying a full load of courses.
But the ability to communicate must be learned, even if it takes a lifetime. Until it is learned, a college degree is not worth the paper it's written on.
That the administration believes in the importance of a knowledge of English is indicated by the fact that the examination is a requirement for graduation.
We can only suggest that the exam is equally important for business students, engineers, and every school in the University. It should be required for every graduate of KU.
Where Do They Come From?
Alan Jones
How long has it been since you really believed in gremlins or leprechauns or poltergeists?
We've long since passed that stage of credulity, but lately we're beginning to wonder.
Now every night, if you roam the campus you'll notice that there are only a few stray students wandering about, with no more than a dozen in sight at any one time.
And yet, when something happens—specifically the false fire alarm Monday night at the library—within three or four minutes, hundreds of students appear, springing up as it were from the ground, from behind blades of grass, as if someone had sown dragon's teeth.
Where do they come from? These are the same students who can't make it from one class to another in ten minutes, and yet there they are, gagging about the fire engines and looking for smoke.
It isn't just because the library is centrally
located, either. About a month ago, like good newsmen, Daily Kansan staff members chased the fire engines out to a false alarm at a sorority house in West Hills. They arrived about two minutes after the engines, and there were 200 college men, trampling the grass and bantering with the girls leaning out the windows.
Where do they come from? Of course, we know there's nothing unnatural about it, and it's just a normal expression of human curiosity, but somehow . . . maybe they're not real people at all, but only show up when there's a fire, solidifying from smoke.
When the sirens start to wail, the crowd is right there. Someday we're going to turn in a false alarm, just to see if the crowd gets there before the fire engines.
In the meantime, we're saying nothing but nice things about gremlins and leprechauns and poltergeists.
Alan Jones
Quotes From The News
WASHINGTON—Walter Reuther, auto workers union president, on car prices:
"The company could have cut prices of cars and still made a sizable return on its investment."
NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in repeating his request he be allowed to resign:
"I am anxious to fit myself for the great tasks ahead and I feel it might help me to do so if I'm away from
the center of activity and responsibility."
CHICAGO — Adlai E. Stevenson predicting the present recession soon will level off and why he is against a tax cut:
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
"A tax cut now would only further inflation, which is just as dangerous as the deflation about to take place."
"— AND QUIT INTRODUCING ME AS YOUR BOSOM FRIEND!"
University of Kansas student newspaper
1904 brweekley 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912
1915
Daily Hansan
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Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 420 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y. News service; United Press. Mall subscription rates; $3 a semester or $4.50 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year. Published in Sundays. University holidays, and examination periods. Entered as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence. Kan. post office under act of March 3, 1879
There are 2,796 languages spoken in the world. English is spoken by more than 270,000,000 persons.
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