501
University Daily Kansan
Page 2
Tuesday, Oct. 1, 1957
Leadership: A Valued Asset
Not enough could ever be said about the value of intelligent leadership in our collegiate world today.
There are two meanings of "lead." One has the connotation of guidance and direction; the other means, in the words of Webster. "a metallic element heavy, pliable and inelastic."
At this time of year many organizations are thinking about choosing men and women who will offer them guidance and direction during the coming year. In selecting these leaders they must be careful to choose persons who will fulfill the first rather than the second definition of the word.
One danger a leader must guard against is the desire to be heavy handed in his leadership, to prod and push rather than to persuade.
A certain amount of telling rather than asking is always necessary, but the leader, especially if he is leading for the first time, must guard against expressing his own insecurity by forcing others to constantly conform to his own ideas.
A greater danger than "heaviness" on the part of the campus leaders is that of piability. All too often leaders are little more than putty in the hands of professors, administrative officials or other advisers.
In order to earn the title of leader, a student needs to be more than a figurehead. The man or woman who stands up for what he believes even when "the guy on top" disagrees with him often wins the respect of his colleagues, his adversary and more important, himself.
Along the same line, a leader must not be too easily swayed by people within his own group. He must walk the narrow line between spinelessness and dogmatism. He must be firm in his own convictions and still be able to accept the opinions of others.
One final danger of the lead-like leader is inelasticity. Like heavy-handedness this often is a symptom of lack of faith in oneself. Only the leader who is firm in his own beliefs and who has self-respect can afford to be flexible in his leadership.
However, flexibility and pliability should not be confused. The great difference between elastic and putty is that elastic can be stretched and it will snap back into shape. Once pushed around, putty loses all semblance of its original form.
No one can tell a person how to lead. It is an art which must be acquired through practice. Leaders are made, not born, and self-respect, the art of persuasion, flexibility and firmness of conviction are some of the basic elements in the formation of a leader.
Now It Can Be Told
Dick Brown
Keeping in tune with the "Now the Story Can Be Told" theme which is always good material, a scheme hatched over five months ago to sue the Board of Regents for $20,000 warrants is now being told.
You can use it as food for thought or just a good laugh.
Three law students, whose identification adds nothing to the story, became, as some law students do, anxious to prove their worth as lawyers-to-be. Their beady eyes found an issue that would have received at least partial backing from the students, but would have promised only icy stares from other concerned parties.
The lawyers unearthed the fact that there was no provision in Kansas law to give parking tickets on state property. They hatched a plan which would have allowed students who had been fined during the past three years to get their money back. It is fact that some students have paid out large sums in parking fines and would welcome the chance to get their money back.
At the same time the idea was born, the Kansas Legislature was slowly going about taking care of this oversight by passing a bill making campus tickets "legit." Still the law was not retroactive.
The chances for the lawyers' plot to succeed were thoroughly investigated by a local lawyer who saw a chance to rise above the level of local anonymity.
The people concerned with the proposal felt assured of victory. The lawyer even saw members of the Kansas Supreme Court personally. (The case would have been held before the high court.) It looked for a moment as if KU students would be $20,000 richer.
Had the plan been successful the student, according to the lawyers-to-be, would have had to file a request for reimbursement with the district court using the Business Office records as proof of having paid the fines.
The plan suffered a jolt when the lawyer announced that he was taking a job in Topeka that would prohibit his handling the case.
So the end of school came and with it the end of a $20,000 dream. Whether or not the students would have followed through with the plan if time had not run out and their courage with it, is dealing in impossibilities. Still it would have been interesting to see someone sweat besides the students.
Bob Hartley
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
"NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT-IVE HAD VERY POOR ATTENDANCE IN MY CLASSES,TOO!"
Green Hall, which houses the KU School of Law, is named for James Wood Green, the first dean of the first professional school at KU—the School of Law.
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904,
published daily in Kansas City.
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, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except April, May, June, July, August, days, and examination periods. Entered as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.
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Texas Has Its Small Points
Educators everywhere are interested in the somewhat unusual curriculum developments in the Houston public schools.
The school board has continued the policy of its post war predecessors by refusing to teach Houstonian children anything about the United Nations. This past year it banned all text books that included a world point of view.
Its last fling at depriving the inquisitive minds of their youngsters from learning about the four corners of the world was brought to a halt
by its revision of the social studies curriculum.
Now Houston students can study about the Gulf Coast area, history and geography of Texas, American geography only. Their knowledge of the four corners of the world will remain nil.
- Northwestern (Okla.) State College News
Headline classic from the North Carolina University Tar Heel: "Ozark Orval: The Pied Piper of Violence, Bool."
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