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University Daily Kansan Friday. Jan. 17. 1958
Swan Song-
Letter To The Editor
Del Haley, Kingsdown senior
Dear Del:
They tell me you have been elected Daily Kansan editorial editor for the coming semester. Congratulations, for it's an interesting job.
But it's only fair to warn you what you're letting yourself in for as a chief editorialist. Perhaps I can tell you, since I'm winding up a hitch at the job myself.
There's plenty to write about, simply because there's a lot wrong—and a lot right—with the University. Consider these things:
The student body. Professors who ought to know tell us we are a complacent bunch. None of us have been tried by depression and few have been tested by war. Peaches-and-cream times have made us even unsure of ourselves. We need to have our thinking shaken up. If you can do it in 200 words, more power to you.
The faculty. It often takes a man about 30 years to climb out of his raccoon coat and Model T Ford and into the pipe-smoking tweediness of a full-fledged professorship. In the meantime, he has probably acquired a wife, a family and a mortgage on the house.
These things, while not bad in themselves, make a man have second thoughts about wild-eyed liberalism. Security is the watchword of the faculty and security the faculty has. Despite all their hollering, they aren't badly paid, either. But a group of such brilliance isn't found in a railroad station waiting room. For their extra bit of talent, they deserve extra money. It looks as if they may get it. Now they need to buckle down to even more energetic teaching.
The administration. Neither the faculty nor the students are subjected to the front-line firing that the University's officials undergo. They catch it from both within and without the school. We have no complaint to register, but only a plea: as the University grows bigger, we ask the executives to keep alive that interest in individuals which makes a good administration a great one. The job of the man behind the desk is to administer good education to students, whether they number in the dozens or in the thousands.
It's people, then, that are responsible for the University's major problems. There are a host of other little troubles, too.
For instance, there's the Jayhawker, our six-dollar-a-yearbook. It's overpriced and the bonus system for its editors is lousy. Keep hammering at it.
As big-time athletics get bigger, the crowds grow, too. You'll have to watch closely to see that the students' paid-for seats aren't sold down the river to the general admission people.
The University drama department insists that professional actors are needed in some plays. This may be so, but keep in mind that it is the students we are interested in. Professional play production demands professional criticism. Be generous in praise of good work. But if a production isn't worth the price of a professional theater's ticket, then belt 'em a good one.
You'll get letters. I have an armload of them. Some will be funny. Some will contain purple phrases about what you have said. A few will be written by cranks and fools. But the vast majority of letters are from sincere persons who are genuinely concerned about the welfare of their University. You'll be both wise and fair if you print as many of them as possible.
No matter what you write, at the end of the semester you'll have more foes and perhaps a few more friends than you ever dreamed possible.
Remember that at 92, the University is a pretty lively old lady. It's your good fortune to have a part in keeping it that way. Good luck.
Larry Boston Salina senior
Think Before Speaking
Words are like paintings. A painting isn't noticed in an old dusty shop among a group of other paintings. However, take that painting out of its cluttered surroundings, dust it off, put a glass on it, frame it, hang it and direct a light on it and voila, it shows itself to be either a thing of beauty or a horrible artistic failure.
Words are much the same. They don't mean a great deal when they are tossed loosely about in conversation. However, take those words, dress them up in type and print them on the front page of a powerful newspaper and even the originator of these words is shocked by the impact they carry.
It is unfortunate that with the words on the printed page, the newspapers can't carry facial expression and vocal inflections.
Therefore it would be well for the interviewee, or speaker to think, at the time he is speaking, how his own statements are going to look in the paper the next morning. If he can manage to bridle his tongue somewhat, the chances are greater that he won't have to use the press as his scapegoat saying that he has been misquoted.
Evelyn L. Hall
MRS. CATHARINE BRAND
Nice Gal Of The Week
"Our job is to serve people. When students don't know the answer to a problem, our job is to help find it for them or refer them to someone who can," said Mrs. Catharine Brand, secretary in the office of the dean of students.
Mrs. Brand serves three administrators. The dean of students, his assistant and the dean of men. There's never a dull moment in these offices, she says,"because the variety of requests we get from parents and students is astounding."
Part of the office's help-wanted traffic is foreign students. For example, Mrs. Brand helps untangle the red tape of visas and scholarships. On occasion, she has traced student luggage lost in traveling.
"It isn't my job to distinguish between the students coming in for awards and those 'called on the carpet.' "
She has a distinctive low voice. "Some of the students who know me say I sound just like the Gestapo calling."
Mrs. Brand was graduated from KU in 1928 with a BA degree in English. Her son, Jack, was graduated in 1954 and is now attending law school. Her daughter, Beverly, was graduated in 1956.
—J. R. Fultz
So long as University staff members give the kind of helpful service Mrs. Brand does, they get our thanks. She gets thanks for a job well done, plus selection as the Nice Gal Of The Week.
Keeping Posted
WASHINGTON—(UP)—The nation's mailmen struck a mighty blow today against their sometime foe—the dog.
But two Republican senators have begun preparations to introduce a one cent increase in the sales tax. Docking called the move "sales tax subterfuge." He pointed out that the committee was calling it an education tax (the proceeds from it will go to pay for elementary education) but it is still a sales tax.
The average Kansas voter is impressed by methods of saving
The Post Office Department announced a streamlined one-two program of massive resistance against the owners of dogs whose favorite dish is mailman-on-the-heof. If you possess such a beast:
Docking contended the move was intended to deplete the general fund and force passage of a higher sales tax. He has consistently said he would veto any rise in the sales tax unless the sales tax fund and the general fund are combined.
First, you get a letter from your local postmaster informing you in a friendly way that your dog is under the impression mailman is an hors d'oeuvre. The letter will make useful suggestions.
Next, if the mailman's arrival is still the big moment in your dog's feeding schedule, you get a letter saying from now on your mail may be picked up at the post office.
Budget Juggling
The Senate has drawn comments of "chicanery" and a "cheap political trick," from Gov. Docking for its emergency transfer of $2,850,000 from the general revenue fund to the elementary school fund to meet a deficiency.
The political fur is flying already in Kansas politics. Democratic Gov. George Docking and members of the Republican-dominated Legislature have begun hammering at each other in connection with raising revenue for financing the 1958-59 budget.
The Senate Ways and Means committee upped the governor's recommendations for appropriation to the five state schools by almost $500,000. Another slap to the governor was the committee's refusal to accept his suggestion that the money be turned over to the Board of Regents to distribute to the schools.
Letters To The Editor
both married and single, with no organized house affiliation. With the approbation and encouragement of the dean of women we tried to contact all such eligible females and inform them that Grace Sellards Pearson Hall was willing to open all its social activities and house privileges to us.
A nice, and we thought needed, organization has bitten the dust. For lack of a more original title we called ourselves the Jayettes (not to be confused with the physical education group). We had no dues, no membership cards, no nothing except a desire to form a very loose organization on a purely voluntary and non-obligatory basis.
Editor:
We were all University women.
However, whether it was due to lack of organization, maybe poor or skimpy publicity, or the apathy that
makes (some women) reluctant to take advantage of generous offers of representation from both political parties, we bit the dust.
Whatever the reason, we would like to thank the ex-officers of the defunct (but we hope only dormant) organization for a nice try.
Kathryn Kasky.
Lawrence sophomore
Mrs. Dale Turner,
Ottawa senior
money. Whoever pinches his pocket hardest may come out second best in the November elections. The Republicans want to economize in one big swoop.
With a one cent raise in the sales tax, about $25 million would be added in revenue. Gov. Docking would rather do it in a more round about way with several smaller taxes and a delay in distributing the local government's share of the sales tax.
Both sides are fully aware of the voter's eye on them and just how much politics will be behind every suggestion offered by each will be difficult to determine. Both know the time for winning the November election may well be in the next few weeks.
-Dick Brown
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
1004,
trivelloy 1905, daily, Jan. 16, 1912.
trivelloy 1905, daily, Jan. 16, 1912.
Extension 251, 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. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year. Published in Lawrence. Keep every afternoon. University year except summer. University holidays, and examination periods. Entered as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence. Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.