6
Friday, November 16, 1973
University Daily Kansan
Students Practice Rural Simplicity
By MARY LOFTUS
By MARY LOY PUS
Kanaan Staff Reporter
Four University of Kansas juniors are spending this year on a 100-year-old farm near Marysville. Their goal is to find a better, simpler way of life.
The four students, who preferred not to be identified or interviewed in keeping with their desire to return to the simple life, are part of Pearson Integrated Humanities Program. Each has taken a Liberal Arts and Sciences course in rural living.
Their backgrounds are varied. Only one grew up in an arm. The other three come from a house on the river.
Dennis Quinn, professor of English and director of Pearson College, said he encouraged the "junior year at home" project.
"A big problem in the United States is the deterioration of small family farms. The small village as a way of life is vanshing, and we think that it is a very serious loss," he
NO FOUR JUNIORS were chosen to live on an 8-acre farm family where they could learn how not to depend on electricity or machines.
The farm belongs to the instructor of last year's rural tradition class, Charles Fredericks. He lives there with his wife and child, and the four KU students.
The household is trying to make the farm as completely harmonious with nature as possible, according to Roger Williams, Leawood junior, who has visited the farm.
The farm uses no electricity, except to power a refrigerator, Williams said recently. There was a wringer-type washer, but now the washing is done by hand, he
said. Eventually, the group plans to phase out all the refrigerator.
All the cooking is done on a wood-burning stove, said Williams. On the women make the bread, churn the butter, and manage to provide "three plentiful meals" each day.
THE MEN HAVE PLANTED winter wheat and sorghum. The sorghum was planted to make old-fashioned sorghum molasses.
"There's a town near the farm where they still make sorghum molasses by a process handed down from father to son," Williams said.
"It's a very traditional, old-time community. There are men who still remember blacksmithing with a forge and how to build a brace with hard tools."
Part of the KU students' time is devoted to talking to members of the community and sharing their experiences.
"they visit people in the community and talk about history, both in this country and in the old country," Williams said.
By working the land, caring for livestock, and having duties to carry out each day, such as milking cows and chopping wood, the "juniors at home" are discovering the best and happiest way to live on the land, he said.
"THE ISN'T A COMMUNE," he added.
"The men have converted an old chickenshed
building into a chicken coop."
Michael Reed, Courtland sophomore, has also visited the farm.
"They're not reading about it, they're doing it," he said. The simple act of taking a bath requires hard labor, Reed said, when you have to heat the water on the stove.
"It's a hard life, but it's truly rewarding. Williams and Reed e-emphasized the romantic aspects of this experiment in rural living.
But through labor come rewards, he said,
"Nine million dollars to take care of it."
"They're not reliving the past," Williams said, "It's a way of life. It's not ignorant exploitation of the land, but fair usefulness."
The student farmers devote a part of each day to study, singing and reading.
"they're trying to combine the physical with the contemplative and the emotional with the moral."
reading, singing and dancing have historically been part of rural life, Quinn
The KU students study Latin each night and are working on a book about their experiences to be published at the end of the year.
IT IS THE COMBINATION of physical labor, study and contemplation which will save the students from becoming bogged down in the mystery of hard work, according to Williams.
"They know it's hard, and it's possible they'll give up," he said. "The druggery
But the main object, he said, is a balance between the contEMPLative and the prac-
"The failures are easily seen," Reed said.
"The successes are more obscure."
Wilmair said, "we hope it will effect a wall on the system, or bring it to light, to improve it."
Quinn said, "In a lot of ways, it's not a real farm, let's face it. They're students and farmers both, and they may be finding that the two are hard to do together."
Feedback Draws Mixed Response
feedback, the published results of the Curriculum and Instruction Survey (CIS), seems to be serving its purpose, but students and faculty members think there is room for improvement, according to a recent Kansas survey.
DOUG MERGEN, SALINA sophomore, said that he had tried to use Feedback to help him select his courses but that when he took it, he was not wanted to take, they usually weren't listed.
Most of the students surveyed said they had used Feedback or would use it in the future to help them select their courses. Most of the students had complaints about the publication.
One student said he thought Feedback hadn't gone into enough depth. Another said he thought it would be more valuable to participate in University instructors participated in it.
Mike Fitzgerald, Salina junior, said he looked at Feedback when he selected his courses but didn't base any final decisions on what he found there.
"It's going to make a lot of difference.
Feedback will list about three times as many
questions as answers."
Nancy Harper, Lawrence graduate student and director of CIS, said recently that Feedback would be more complete since the CIS had been required in the School of Education and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Bernard Benton, Robinson senior, said he wasn't certain how valid Feedback was because he had known instructors who were very good at conducting surveys when the ratings were unfavorable.
"If nothing else, though, it helps the instructor to evaluate himself," he said.
All of the instructors polled who use CIS in their classrooms said they thought it was bad.
Edward Grier, professor of English, said he used CIS to determine what systems were effective in the classroom. Grier said he had made a few minor changes in some of his classes based on the results of the survey.
Calder M. Pickett, professor of journalism, said he had changed some of his classes slightly because of the survey's results but said he wouldn't necessarily make changes based on what students said in the CIS.
"If all my students said I was doing something wrong, but in my mind I felt I was right, I wouldn't change," said Pickett. "I didn't really get me to look at what they had to say."
College Credit Exams Subject of Discussion
The College Level Examination Program (CLEP), a series of examinations that enables students to receive college credit in various subjects on the basis of test scores, will be the subject of a public meeting at 11 a.m. in the Council Room of the Kansas Union.
The University of Kansas is the only state supported college in Kansas without a policy on accepting or refusing credit gained through CLEP tests, according to Robert Wiley, professor of pharmacy and medicinal chemistry and chairman of the University Committee on Placement Examinations and Advanced Placement.
Test and the Law School Admissions Test.
Test and the Law School Admissions Test. Test, Bedford hardy, a CEEB representative from Chicago, will be in Lawrence Monday and Tuesday to discuss the CLEP examinations with interested faculty and students.
Wiley said there were two types of CLEP tests. One is the general exam, which a student may take in one of five areas: English; social sciences and history; humanities; natural science; and mathematics.
Wiley said his committee was working to obtain a decision from the University as to whether CLEP test results would be accepted for credit by KU. He said the committee would neither support nor oppose acceptance of the tests.
"The majority of sophomores have no idea what they want to do," he said. "I think it's a very good thing to get away from the university academic atmosphere—to the end of the sophomore year—and into another, different academic atmosphere."
Quain said he encouraged the project because he thought most sophomores needed time to reflect on what they wanted to do with their lives.
XXXXXXXXXX
xxxxxxxxxx
The Garden Center and Greenhouses
"The farm, although it's busy, lets them take a look at what they've been doing and what they want to do. They'll come back with new ideas," Quinn said. "A new sense of purpose."
15th & New York
843-2004
60,000 square feet of greenhouses filled with plants for enjoyable indoor living.
The main topic of the meeting will be salary equity, according to Shirley Gilham, director of affirmative action. However, she said, any arrawev could be discussed.
Beautiful flowering Mum Plants, Reiger Begonias, Azaleas, Kalanchoe and many more for Thanksgiving decorating. From $2.99 to $5.00
The Office of Affirmative Action will sponsor an advisory unit meeting for women faculty members at 7:30 p.m. Monday in Parlor C of the Kansas Union.
OPEN WEEKDAYS 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
The purpose of the advisory unit is to discuss complaints that the affirmative action committee has received.
SUNDAY 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Patients See Game Courtesy of Templin
"The hospital may be like home to some natives, but to others it is like hell."
3 games for $1
Ten mental patients from the Osawatomie State Hospital watched the Kansas Jayhawks beat the Colorado Buffalo in a game courtesy of the residents of Templin Hall.
Breck Churchill, Chanute sophomore and social chairman of Templin Hall, said the main reason for the trip had been to get patients out of the hospital for a while.
"It's no fun for them to live there," he said. "Some people find a sort of security in the hospital, but many of them have a great desire to get out into the outside world. An outside trip spurs them on even more toward progress."
Every Friday from
Tickets for the patients who saw last Saturday's game were paid for with Templin Hall social funds. The patients were greeted at Templin by students.
"I think they really enjoyed it," Churchill said. "Some of them were football fans; some weren't interested in football at all." She said he was exciting her cheering and that I think they
noon to midnight!
ANNOUNCING
Call 842-4454
really had a good time."
Churchill said he didn't think the program would be expanded, but he said he would like to see patients have a chance to leave the hospital more often. He is considering a similar trip for this spring involving a panel discussion or a picnic.
Wake-up service for ONLY $5 a month
"I have had experience working with mental patients before," he said, "and it's really a rewarding experience when you can help one of them."
We also offer typing service
LQQK AT THESE PRICES!!
1963 Ford Galaxie 500 . . . . .
2300 West 29th St. Terrace
Toyota—Triumph—Jensen
Lawrence, Kansas 66044
(913) 842-2192
HEAD FOR HENRY'S DRIVE-IN
6th & MISSOURI — LAWRENCE'S LARGEST MENU — 843-2139
A DIFFERENT SPECIAL EACH NIGHT
MONDAY — THURSDAY
Th work
No carem
perh profo
Saye
FREE BEER
AT MOTHER'S
Hear the Hawks BOOM the Sooners!
Come out to help MOTHER kill a keg.
Free keg starts flowing at kickoff time Saturday.
Bud on Tap
2406 Iowa
1