English pro and con
The erroneous headline in yesterday's Kansas referring to an ASC stand on the English Proficiency examination should be cleared up. First of all, the ASC did not propose a halt to the exam, as the headline states. The resolution was merely introduced, and will be discussed and voted on at the next regular meeting, in compliance with the normal legislative procedure.
Secondly, we hope that the ASC does not in fact adopt the resolution in its present form. As introduced by Frank Joyce (KUPA-small men's), the resolution would have the ASC saying that the "instruction offered by the English department is of high quality, and that satisfactory completion of required undergraduate English courses is sufficient proof-of a student's ability to express his ideas in writing."
We are in complete agreement with Miss Joyce Snapp (KUPA—sorority) in saying that we feel the undergraduate (and especially freshman-sophomore) programs are NOT of high quality for the most part, and that the mere fact that anyone fails the test shows the main premise of the resolution to be ridiculous.
What is needed, rather, is a more consistent method of administering the examination and a substantial upgrading of the levels of most of the freshman-sophomore English sections. It is
a known fact (known to me, anyway, if no one else will admit it) that many, many students complete their ten hours of comp and lit with passing grades, and still cannot put together an intelligible sentence.
All we used to hear in high school was the English teachers scaring us to death with what a wash-out course freshman English at KU was supposed to be, and that they made it so rough to keep their enrollment down. Now we only wish it was half as bad as they said it was.
The need for an English proficiency exam is itself an admission of the inadequate level of the basic courses. The big complaints about the exam have to do with the way it is graded, and by whom (the Western Civ department), and the fact that if you happen to have developed any writing style of your own at KU (as opposed to opening-conclusion-transition-paragraph, etc.) you are liable to fail the test because your work doesn't comply with the English 1 rhetoric book.
Recognizing the vital need for educated persons to be able to express themselves in all walks of life, then, we hope that the university will not abolish the English pro, but will eliminate the need for it. No one should receive a passing grade in any course unless he has learned or acquired the skill which it offers.
- Jack Harrington
The people say...
Power vs. peace
To the editor:
Yesterday you published a letter written by one of our "peace loving" young men, Hamilton J. Salsich. The letter contained Mr. Salsich's disillusionment with the behavior of certain people who call themselves Americans. While I do not go along with what these people, namely the people of Leavenworth, did to our young idealists I also cannot blame them to some extent for their actions.
While words like "freedom" and "honor" did not exist in the type of actions that the people of Leavenworth demonstrated they also do not exist when people like Mr. Salsich and all other pacifists throw reality out the window and think all of the world is organized on the basis of the Christian ethic of Love.
THERE IS only one thing that the international community of today is based on and that is power spelled with a capital P.
To transfer a particular belief or idea of one body of people to another body of people is one of the common falacies committed in the realm of international politics. It is the same as believing a murderer when he says he will not murder again and giving him another murder weapon only to have him stab you in the back the first chance he gets.
I, as an American and a future member of the international community, cannot help but feel disgust and pity for our young idealists who swallow the peace propaganda put out by the Communist front organizations (I need not name any). How people like Mr. Salsich can believe such claims I don't know.
As an example let me quote D. Mauculsky in a lecture he gave at the Moscow Lenin School on October 23, 1955: "War to the hilt between communism and capitalism is inevitable. Today
of course, we are not strong enough to attack. Our time will come in twenty or thirty years.
"So we shall begin by launching the most spectacular peace movement in history. There will be electrifying overtones and unheard of concessions. The capitalist countries, stupid, decadent, will be overjoyed to cooperate in their own destruction. They will leap at another chance to be friends, as soon as their guard is down we smash them..."
THUS IDEALISTS such as Mr. Salsich have only become doped with Communist double talk. While Mr. Salsich's intentions are to be commended his results are not exactly what he thought. To believe that blood to the Viet Cong will arouse any humanitarian instincts he might have and keep him from murdering and terrorizing is nothing but idiocy, just as calling a Christmas truce is supposed to arouse feelings of Christian brotherhood and peace. While the thought of napalm and U.S. air strikes makes Mr. Salsich cringe, so too do thoughts of a village choftain having his brains blown out by a Viet Cong terrorist make me cringe.
While I admire Mr. Salsich I cannot help but feel a sort of disgust for his utter rejection of reality. Unfortunately there is no such thing as international brotherhood and there hasn't been for quite a while. There is only the struggle to dominate one nation over the other, one idealism over another.
Accordingly, Mr. Salsich calls it hate that levelled the Japanese landscape and accordingly he would probably not call the Bataan death march, or other Japanese atrocities hate. I suppose he would not call Dachau, Brickenwald and Auschwitz hate either. This is the same kind of reasoning he uses when he believes that U.S. bombing is through hate and that the Viet Cong never do anything, that all they want is peace.
William W. Weaver
St. Louis, Mo.
sophomore
2
Daily Kansas Thursday, January 12, 1967
DECLARATION!
Three weeks from today they will have had the ax. A large number of us will no longer grace Mt. Oread. In retrospect the fall semester will have been an interesting experience, if not a learning one. Lovers will be parted, parents will be dismayed, peers will say it was inevitable. And probably the washed-out student will not show much surprise.
There are of this number, we believe, a percentage which were just not fitted for the state university. We would add to this percentage another grade-wise successful group which would just as soon not be at KU and call this combination "dissatisfied." There are at least two reasons, we believe, for the existence of the dissatisfied and these same reasons may be partially responsible for the plight of some of our washouts.
Our Kansas plan calls for the guarantee to every high school graduate with residence in Kansas a tuition fee at any accredited college or university in the state of not more than the average fee charged at the six state universities. Of course we immediately would add qualifications. The tuition fee subsidy would not be more than twice the average fee charge. (e.g. six school average fee charge is $100. State subsidy to student entering private institution would not exceed $200.)
THE FIRST REASON we suggest for the existence of a number of dissatisfied students is economic. Why are they at this particular institution? Well, the tuition (bad word, we mean fees) is much less here than at non-state supported institutions. "I just (i.e. my parents) could not afford to go (to send me) anywhere else. So out of economic necessity the student is forced into the state multiversity. (With some bias on our parts, we consider that one "forced" into the state system would choose the best, i.e. KU.)
This would mean a student could enter a private institution with tuition rates three times the average fee rate at the same price of going to a state school. The figure is reasonable because the Kansas private schools have recently approximated a three times the state fee in tuition charges. The practical advantage to the limit is, of course, to prevent a private institution from profiteering by raising tuition rates ten times above state fees.
A FURTHER QUALIFICATION would be the necessity of demanding a certain GPA standard for students under the program. Such a requirement would relieve the state of possibly supporting the non-educatable for a few frolicking years.
Our second suggested reason for the dissatisfied at KU is a failure to get into a private institution. Admittedly the selective admission standards of the Kansas private colleges and universities is more bark than bite.The fact remains, however, selection is applied to some degree and the student from Kansas (unless he is of the right denomination or an exceptional athlete) is less likely to be "selected" than an out-of-stater who fulfills one of the selective indicators.
WE WOULD NOT BE overly harsh on the private schools, however, because one major reason for their selectivity is their limited facilities. Some are caught in the vicious circle of limited facilities producing limited numbers (which produces limited immediate cash) producing limited alumni (which produces limited future cash).
We see therefore an unfortunate group of students at state universities through the virtues of economics and selection. We see also an unfortunate group of private institutions unable to meet the enrollment demands. We see further a challenge to meet this condition.
We would anticipate several advantages from the adoption of this program.
Thirdly, certain enrollment pressures would be eased on the state system with perhaps a decrease in operating costs which would not effect the quality of education offered.
Secondly, the private institutions would be partially relieved of financial problems and thereby be able to expand and improve their systems.
First, it would give the state an opportunity to financially encourage higher education in private institutions without facing the dilemma of state control.
And finally, the student would be given a more realistic free choice as to where he will attend college.
— Pyrrhus and Cineas
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