*age 2*
University Daily Kansan Wednesday. March 19, 1958
School Spirit
Is It Dying?
One of the most pathetic shows of school spirit is the weekly rallies before football games. The people that show up are the cheerleaders, a couple of team members, and two or three hundred students that happen to be passing that way.
Are the students at KU too good to back a losing team? Does the team have to be one of the best before it deserves the support of the students? That would seem to be the case.
Is the possession of school spirit considered juvenile at KU? It must be, because there is a definite lack of it on this campus.
Assembled here at the University are over 8,000 students from all over the United States and several foreign countries. And that seems to be just what the student body is composed of, 8,000 students with no apparent over-all ties.
Basketball season shows an increase in school spirit, that is if we have a winning team. But if the team loses more than it wins, or doesn't live up to expectations, team support drops suddenly.
During football season a couple thousand of them will attend the home games. For the first quarter or so they will be loyal fans. Then if things go bad, the student section will become silent, except for maybe a few boos.
Or is it a question of acting like adults. Maybe a display of school spirit would be considered childish, and most students refrain from such displays so they won't be so typed.
Or maybe school spirit has just gone out of style on our campus, and nobody wants to be a non-conformist. That could bring ostracism from the ranks of the socially elite.
Then again, it could be that the pursuit of an education has attained such a high level that it is becoming completely impersonal.
Whatever the cause, the effect is that school spirit is slowly dying. There will never be on this campus a spontaneous demonstration for an athletic team, that reaches the size or has the effect that the one at the Cow College this week produced. The largest demonstrations on this campus have been half-hearted panty raids.
Don't get us wrong, we are not advocating panty raids or any other type of activity that is destructive. Maybe the students at K-State are a bit barbaric because they refused to go to school because their team won the NCAA regionals. It was probably a juvenile, childish, unacademic demonstration, but was also probably greatly appreciated by the team.
We apologize for rambling on about a subject that holds very little interest for most people, and for being so unacademic as to even suggest that sports is of any importance to college life. We should have realized that personal feelings and group spirit went out with the double-breasted suit.
—Del Haley
. . Letters To The Editor
Tug-Of-War
Mr. Foster's ridiculous statement concerning the annual tug-of-war between the engineers and lawyers which appeared in Monday's Daily Kansan cannot be ignored. The future of this great country's judicial system may well be decided here at KU.
With all the ambulances rushing about, the pros are terribly busy, but surely they can spare a few minutes each year for some recreation. After all, the annual tug-of-war with the engineers is as close as lawyers get to men of morals. To deprive the future generations of Fifth Amendment advisers this enlightening experience has undoubtedly been inspired by the devil himself.
Don Wall Lawrence Junior
Insulting
Though far from being a music critic, I certainly enjoyed Miss Miller's performance Sunday afternoon. One thing disturbed me, however; the physical condition of some of the spectators.
It is distressing to find that some otherwise healthy-looking students and faculty members have such weak hands that, after clapping them together twice, they must run for the exit to cool them off. Illogical as it may seem, this must be the explanation, for, had they been pressed for time, they would have been courteous enough to leave at intermission.
Even considering natural tendencies not to watch the time during a wonderful performance, it seems hardly possible that a few minutes gained would be excuse enough to insult a willing and talented performer.
Waldo Anderson Traer senior
Poor Pedestrians
Day by day the pedestrian on the Kansas University campus finds the task of crossing Jayhawk Drive more difficult. I personally do not object to waiting in the crossing zones if there is no rain or snow falling, or if I am not in a hurry to get to class. 'Recently I waited in falling snow on one occasion and in the rain on another to cross the street while the seemingly endless caravan of cars hurried by to beat the pedestrian.
Editor:
Do the white lanes indicate a point of attempt to cross the street, or are they provided for
said purpose? Doesn't the white lane mean that cars wait and that pedestrians may cross? It is very difficult to say, "I'm sorry I'm late professor, but I couldn't get across the street."
The ASC cannot make a law for the right-of-way nor can the administration inflet social probation for negligent motorists and pedestrians. The problem must be worked out with the cooperation of both sides.
Preston Craft Junction City sophomore
Editor:
Reply
As to the first point, that the requirement has been on the books since 1943, and that this is the first time that a clamor to do away with the rule has arisen, and that "It would appear that one of the campus political parties feels that the constitution should be revised to fit its own particular political situation." The reason to me would appear to be that this is the first time since 1943 that a party (his own) has:
He states to the reader that the previous comments on the issue have been "a rather one-sided version." He then presents his own version, which I found to be as one sided and biased as the articles he purports to level.
The president of the student body seems more intent in the representation of the president of the student body than in the representation of the student body itself. In reference to Bob Billings' letter to the editor in Friday's Daily Kansan, Billings makes some rather rash statements for the "bright" student he is; some statements that I, for one, found rather hard to swallow.
2. Again changed the rule this year, to read that a candidate must have served on the ASC.
1. Changed the requirements this year, to require that a candidate must have served one year on the ASC before becoming eligible to run for the presidency.
. . .
3. Then proposed a referendum this year to change the rule to the effect that a candidate for the presidency must have served prior to the last eight weeks of the session for which he intends to run.
It appears to me. Mr. Billings, that your council has changed the Constitution to fit the situation from month to month rather than from year to year.
4. Then protested that "Constitutions are not written to be changed as the political situations may dictate from year to year."
Billings says that "some students are continually complaining that our
student government is weak and ineffective," and that "part of that weakness can be traced to inexperience on the part of those participating in certain capacities." Is one of those capacities the presidency that he holds, and does previous service on the council aid him greatly in the functions of his job as outlined within the constitution? Don't intelligence, enthusiasm, interest and like traits form at the head of the line of ability to function?
As to reference to the fact that the national and state parties wouldn't run persons with lack of experience. Billings certainly picked poor examples. Wouldn't the presidency of a fraternity or dormitory, experience in departmental clubs, etc., be just as valuable in the choosing of a leader of the student body as the profession of banking is to the governor?
Billings says that "student body elections might deteriorate into nothing more than popularity contests." Isn't this one of the reasons that the jobs of president and chairman have been divorced? Is there any difference here between the campus and the national elections? Why not a popularity contest for the presidency? Don't the students desire a popular President?
Finally, the president of the student body should. I feel, divorce himself from politics, and as the student elected to represent the students, represent the students.
Robert M. Worcester Leawood special student
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became bweekly 1904
trieweekly 1906, 1925
Telephone Viking 3-2700
Extension 251, news room
Member Inland Daily Press Association.
Associated Collegiate Press. Represented Madison State College Advertising Service 420 Madison Ave., Madison, WI; service: United Press. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year. Published during the school year except Sundays. University not except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays, and examination periods. Entered as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at March 3, 1879. post office under act of March 3, 1879.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Dick Brown ... Managing Editor
Larry Boston, Bob Hartley, Mary Beth Noyes, Malcolm Applegate, Assistant Manager, Martin Crossler, Jack Harrison,
Editor; Martin Crossler, Jack Harrison,
Assistant City Editors; Douglas Parker,
Telegraph Editor; Mary Alden, Assistant Telegraph Editor; George Anthan, Swift Editor, Michael Dennis,
H. C. Palmer, Jeff Santakos, Assistant Sports Editors; Pat Swanson, Society Editor; Ron Miller, Picture Editor
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Del Haley Editorial Editor
Evelyn Hall, Marilyn Mermis, Leroy
Zimmerman, Associate Editors.
Keepers at a London zoo have taught an orangutan to clean his own cage. A scientist has recorded the sound made by a moth larva chewing a sock.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT Ted Winkler Business Manager
Spring Vacation Begins!
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Your Ford Dealer in Lawrence
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to
Woody Herman
and his
New Third Herd at the
Greek Week Dance
Saturday, March 22 9-12 p.m.
Union Ballroom
Tickets On Sale At Information Booth And Union Ticket Center
$2.50 Per Couple