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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Sept. 29, 1965
Policy Puzzles
Last Friday the Kansas Board of Regents issued a policy directive on fraternity-sorority membership stating that discrimination in all fraternities and sororities at the six state colleges and universities will be prohibited.
The policy evokes two reactions—the Regents should be commended for recognizing an issue which has raised intense concern on the campus. But a sense of bewilderment pervades "interpretation" of the vaguely worded statement. It seems as though all the Regents accomplished was the creation of a toothless, paper tiger.
"THE RIGHT OF organizations to establish standards of membership is acknowledged, provided that all students are afforded equal opportunity to meet those standards," the statement reads.
"Just as all students have the right to choose those with whom they would associate on the campus, an organization shall have the right to select its members subject to these principles. Nothing in this policy shall be interpreted as imposing a requirement that would violate the principle of selection on the basis of individual merit."
The policy directs that each organization acknowledge the policy by assuring "that there exists no restrictions on membership, either local or national, that would violate this policy."
SO WHERE DO we go from here? It appears that the only concrete compliance with the policy would be to prove that no discriminatory clauses exist in national or chapter charters of the fraternities and sororities, which has already been accomplished on the KU campus.
The issue of covert versus overt discrimination still remains unsolved. No standards for judging what constitutes discrimination have been defined. How and when is this policy to be enforced? How can discrimination be proved?
The Board provided for the establishment of a committee to deal with problems relating to the policy and its application. How can such a committee comply with a policy that really doesn't say anything?
Covert discrimination cannot be proven. The policy specifically says members should be selected "on the basis of individual merit." So, if Negroes or Jews or international students participate in rush and are not pledged, the monster of discrimination is still going to raise its ugly head. Until the Regents say "thou shalt pledge a Negro, or a Jew, or a foreign student," myriad reasons showing why a person was not pledged can and probably will be given, and they will have to be accepted.
And if the members of sororities and fraternities do have legitimate reasons for not pledging a Negro, or a Jew, or a foreign student on the basis of merit, as they quite possibly could, they will have to face charges of discrimination from those who believe that race, creed, color or national origin automatically erases the need for individual merit.
THE PROBLEM OF discrimination in fraternities and sororites is not going to be solved today, or tomorrow, or perhaps even in this century.
The only solution, in the end, after all the legislation and policy statements have been written, will be strong individual integrity. Those who are in a position to discriminate must honestly appraise the individual merits of pledge candidates, and those who may feel the sorrow and bewilderment that discrimination, or alleged discrimination, creates will, I hope, be able to believe that there can be other reasons for discrimination besides color or creed.
If policy statements will help annihilate psychological discrimination, as well as tangible evidence of prejudice, then they should continue to be issued. But statements which avoid the real issue are not worth the time it takes to create them, and will do nothing to solve the problem of discrimination.
— Karen Lambert
The People Say...
DEAR SIR:
First, I should make it clear that I am not usually critical of Jack Mitchell as a football coach. Further, I would say that at this time I do not wish to criticize his leadership or tactics from the sidelines of Saturday's game with Arizona. In fact, I probably would have found no reason for criticism at all had I not read the Sunday sports pages.
IN MY OPINION, and I think most coaches and fans agree, a football coach has the right and duty to criticize his players on the practice field, in the dressing room, or on the sidelines. This is understood by all as the coach's honest effort to help his players and team. However, what possible benefit can a player receive from being singled out and specifically criticized to the public for mistakes made on the playing field? I refer specifically to a statement which appeared in last Sunday's Topeka paper in quotation marks which if repeated here would only be making the same mistake. Mr. Mitchell made. I was also disturbed by reports, apparently coming from the coaching staff, concerning specific players following the Texas Tech game. Until this year I have never noticed such quotations or reports in connection with the KU team. Once again I repeat that a coach should and must criticize his players privately, but to blast them individually in print can only breed discontent and disrespect.
Respectfully,
A shocked sports fan
William Wayne
St. Louis junior
EDITOR'S NOTE:-This is the second in a series of editorials discussing the problems of space at Watkins hospital.
Space Acutely Needed
When Watkins hospital was built, it was considered a beautiful and superbly planned structure. Those planning it studied the best student hospitals in history before beginning work. But those student hospitals were in a history before the third decade of this century.
Mrs. Jabez B. Watkins had the students' welfare in mind in donating this hospital. She wanted to be sure it would accommodate their every need in the best and most expedient way possible.
It is too bad today the hospital can no longer live up to her wishes or to those of the present staff.
Along with the eight doctors, the nursing staff, the clinical psychology staff consisting of one doctor, two clinical psychologists and one social worker, there are six laboratory technicians and three X-ray technicians.
This is a large staff to operate efficiently in a hospital 126 feet long in front, 186 feet long in back and 37 feet wide.
THE AREA SET ASIDE for laboratory technicians may have been big enough for the one technician on the original staff in the '30's but it is totally inadequate for six technicians.
Last year over 43,000 prescriptions were filled. The area provided for the pharmacist and his assistants is much too small for work to be carried out with efficiency.
There is very little area for drugs in the small room set aside for the pharmacy. All other drugs must be stored in the basement. Under this system, the pharmacist must run up and down stairs and keep students waiting in long lines. Only one
patient can be handled at a time because there is only one small window to receive prescriptions.
Students must also wait in long lines to be registered at the front window before they are put on the waiting list to see the doctors. One small hallway is the only waiting room available.
One small room in the subbasement is the only place left for storing food now that most of the rest of the basement has been turned over to records and offices. The room is not well ventilated which cuts down on the amount and type of food which can be purchased and kept on hand.
How can the staff at Watkins hope to keep students in the classroom and out of the chairs in the waiting room unless some provision is made for a more convenient system? Our enrollment has grown again this year and all predictions show it will continue to do so again next year and in the years after that. If 63,000 cases were handled last year through the out-patient area, how many may require attention this year?
The dietician has nothing more than a hallway in the basement. Many records in the basement are needed at various times for patients who are not currently on file upstairs. It is very inconvenient when students and their records cannot be taken care of in the same area.
MOST SECRETARIAL work and work with records must be carried on in the basement. If a student has incurred a bill he must go on a long hunt to find the small partitioned basement office where these transactions are handled.
THERE HAS TO BE ROOM for them. The bottlenecks in our badly undersized student hospital have to be solved.
— Janet Hamilton
Coiffure Leads to Confusion
I swear by my long locks that I am not a liberal, or a Beatle-emulator, or a beatnik, or a shady character!
Honest! I am a conservative with long hair. Seems impossible, doesn't it? Nevertheless, this is the way I am.
Personally, I dislike crew cuts, flat tops, and other "modern" styles. The reason for my attitude is simply that I like variety in life.
THIS WHOLE BUSINESS about sameness goes deeper than haircuts. It seems to reach into all activities of Americans, particularly Midwest-erners.
For example, Lawrence, like most of the towns and cities of the country, is blessed (?) with comfortable "ranch-style" homes—rows and rows of them. The people who live in these houses are much like the buildings they live in—all the same.
Everyone seems to be continually on trial by their peers. Every step a person takes is closely watched and if an individual deviates from the norm he is branded. The brand doesn't burn into the skin, it goes deeper.
Take the example of styles. Nowadays a person who has long hair is regarded as a trouble-maker, especially on a college campus. Some people believe every long hair wearer is effeminate. Now,
may I ask you, were Buffalo Bill or General George Custerissies?
MY GREAT GRANDFATHER had a crew cut in the 19th century. He deviated from the norm of longer hair, but was he persecuted? No, he was not, and he continued to cut his hair with a pair of sheep shears.
Today people invest $20,000 in a new house that looks just like the one next door, except for color. If a man built a Hopi hogan in a housing development he would be laughed out of the city and probably prevented from constructing it by conformity-seeking building codes.
I suspect there are at least a few individuals who are now living in a housing development who have entertained the notion of living in a castle, a hogan, or a log cabin. Will they ever be allowed to build in towns such as Lawrence, Omaha, or Columbia?
I AM CONVINCED people who wallow in sameness will destroy themselves. The satisfaction gained from having a different idea is hard to replace.
Me? I'll save my $1.75 haircut fee, I'll live in my trailer, and I'll drive my 1951 Plymouth that looks like a fat gray old lady.
Larry R. Ketchum
BOOK REVIEWS
HISTORY OF MANKIND, CULTURAL AND SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT, Volume I, Part I: Prehistory, by Jacquetta Hawkes (Mentor, 95 cents); HISTORY OF MANKIND, CULTURAL AND SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT, Volume I, Part II: The Beginnings of Civilization, by Sir Leonard Woolley (Mentor, $1.25).
Here is an exciting adventure in paperback publishing, the first volume of a projected six-volume "History of Mankind" to be done by UNESCO. "Prehistory" covers the Old and New Stone Ages. "The Beginnings of Civilization" describes the development of mankind from the Bronze Age up to about 1200 B.C., when urban society began in Africa, Asia and Europe.
Each is an attractive volume, with maps, drawings and plates, and extensive photographic inserts. The hardcover edition of the second volume sold for $12.50.
UNESCO's plan is to trace the evolution of man's achievements right up to the atomic age.
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