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University Daily Kansan
Friday, Nov.13, 1964
Professor Recalls Prison Class
Rv Terry Joslin
For nine months, Saturday meant schoolday for 20 inmates of the Kansas State Penitentiary at Lansing.
Richard Stauber, assistant professor of political science, taught Political Science I for college credit to inmates aged 19-50 during the 1962-63 school year.
Prof. Stauber said the class contained some of the most eager students he has ever taught. It was the only class he has ever had where the entire class had read the text within two meetings. The text he used was the same one used for Political Science I at KU.
Stauber and members of the KU political science department contributed paperbacks to the prison library for the prisoners' use.
"They read every book about politics they could get their hands on," he said.
"I WISH SOME of my freshmen got as good grades as these men," he said.
During coffee breaks when Prof. Stauber could talk with the prisoners, he found that there were forgers, bank robbers, burglar, car thieves, and even murderers in his class.
TWO OF HIS BEST students were suddenly dropped from the class one day. Prof. Stauber discovered they had been found selling dope to their fellow prisoners.
Some of Prof. Stauber's pupils were writers. They asked him often to take their manuscripts outside. He had to refuse because it was against the prison's policy.
Prof. Stauber was shocked at first by the prisoners' living conditions.
"EVERYTHING WAS so drab," he said. "Lansing looked like something out of a Grade 'C' movie."
Ted Heim, research assistant, also was connected with the program. In 1962 he was serving as the Superintendent of Reception and Diagnostic Center for the prison.
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Heim said the program was financed through special permission of the Board of Regents under the guidance of the University Extension.
Ordinarily, college courses cost inmates $8 an hour, he said. These courses were offered for free.
INMATES AT Lansing cannot afford to take regular college courses because they only make around 40 cents a day.
"Inmates at the federal prison at Leavenworth make enough money to afford the $8 per semester hour," Heim said.
"The course helped many prisoners to reason better," he said.
HEIM SAID inmates tok the course for a number of reasons. Some wanted the course simply to keep busy. Some wanted more experi-
Fallibility Discussed
"Attitudes have the same place in ethical thought as beliefs have in scientific thought," Charles Stevenson said last night in the second of a series of lectures sponsored by the philosophy department.
Stevenson, professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan and visiting professor of philosophy at Harvard University, spoke on the topic of "Ethical Fallibility."
He compared ethical fallibility to scientific fallibility in order to illustrate his point.
"In the same way, the ethical thinker uses his present attitudes as a basis for investigation to discover the fallibility or infallibility of these attitudes," he said.
"In ethical thinking the person states his attitudes or feelings towards something, and invites others to share this feeling with him," Stevenson said.
"In the scientific field, the person states his beliefs and invites others to share them."
PERSONAL UNCERTAIINTY towards the merits or faults of the premise, the disagreement of others about the faults or merits of the premise, and the reasons sought out to back up the faults or merits of the premise are the steps which follow in either scientific or ethical thought.
"In order for such a premise to be considered, it must be of manageable size." Stevenson said. "A blanket statement of support or rejection such as 'Everything I believe to be the case is the case' allows no basis for discussion. Either you believe it or you don't. There is no room for modification and change."
"The only person who could say 'Everything I believe to be the case'
Kansas City Traffic Carnage Rises to 78
KANSAS CITY, Mo. —(UPI)— This city's traffic toll for the year rose to 78 today with an official ruling that the death of Raymond Bryant, 45, resulted from an accident Sunday when his automobile struck a utility pole.
The number of deaths was 17 above the figure for the comparable period a year ago and five higher than the toll for the entire year of 1963.
is not the case' is a student who has just finished writing an examination and who is exaggerating his failure," Stevenson said.
"The first possibility is absurd," he said, "and the second is muddle-headed. The only sensible approach would say 'Many things I believe to be the case may not be the case.' This approach leaves the person room to change his mind with the introduction of new facts or conditions, and encourages discussion rather than discouraging it."
Some wanted it only for a grade to impress their parole board. Some simply for the status of taking a college course.
ence than the correspondence courses they took could give.
Prof. Stauber said inmates kept asking him about courses in English and economics.
"THE SCIENTIST believes in certain premises and uses this belief as a basis for further tests which either strengthen the belief or hold it in check by supplying additional beliefs which relate to the original one." Stevenson said.
There has never been another attempt at this or any kind of college class at Lansing since the spring of 1963. Prof. Stauber said.
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