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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Nov. 11, 1964
Audience Manners
KU WAS TREATED to a rare performance by a great entertainer in the person of Harry Belfonte last Saturday night.
As usual, however, the thoughtless actions of some of the audience took some of the sparkle out of the evening for everyone.
BELAFONTE'S APPEARANCE was set for 8 p.m.; the time was publicized well. It seems reasonable to suppose that most people would realize that a huge crowd, with its attendant traffic jams, was expected and would have planned their evening accordingly.
But no, it was 8:20 before the stream of latecomers dwindled to the point where the concert could begin. Arriving late at such a concert seems to be the supreme insult to a performer of Mr. Belafonte's stature. Nice going, fans.
MEANWHILE, inside the field house, the stragglers were still filing in, but did the people who arrived early wait patiently and sympathetically. Oh, no. Some of them began clapping and chanting for the performance to begin and continued such outbursts throughout the 20 minute wait. A great display of manners, folks. Take a bow.
THEN SOME MONEY-HUNGRY OUTFIT set up the concessions stands. Not only were some in the audience rude enough that they refused to wait for the intermission before taking a break, but during the remainder of the night
the audience and Mr. Belafonte were serenaded by clinking, clattering pop cans; by jingling, jangling dropped change, and by strident voices demanding service at the refreshment stands.
PERHAPS BALLET OR MODERN DANCE should be a required course for all KU students. Judging by the number of empty pop cans that were kicked over to clatter noisily on the concrete steps during Belafonte's second-half performance, many students would benefit from taking a course in body control. You clumsy ones, do not stand to take a bow. You might fall down and hurt yourself.
THE NOISE once reached such a level that Mr. Belafonte was forced to stop a song and start over.I really did not expect such rudeness from the university family.
A little more thoughtfulness and preparation and the extending of a little common courtesy would have greatly enhanced the evening for many, including, I suspect, Mr. Belafonte.
It was a tribute to his showmanship that he generally held the audience spellbound despite the intrusions and discourtesies displayed by some of his audience.
HARRY BELAFONTE gave a masterful concert that thrilled those who attended. It is a shame that the KU family did not perform equally well for him.
Forced Voting
— Rick Mabbutt
NOW IS THE TIME for campus political party leaders (both actual and imaginary) to become alarmed about light voting in the All Student Council living district elections.
While the Kansan encourages every student to vote in the elections today and tomorrow, gestapo tactics which compel persons to vote are considered
unnecessary and unfair election practices.
IN THE LAST-minute stages of the election, non-voters (at least up to that point) are dragged from their half-eaten dinner, out of their half-finished shower and away from their just-started naps to mention just a few of the situations.
OTHERS ARE THREATENED with a swim in Potter Lake if
they don't vote, or are assured of becoming social outcasts. In some living groups, one men's dormitory (excuse me, residence hall inhabitants) contracts with a women's living group for exchange dinners as "rewards" for units' best voting records.
IF YOU WANT to vote, do. If you know in your heart you don't want to vote, don't.
Roy Miller
Democratic Ballot Redistribution
WHEN THE STUDENT picks up his ballot Wednesd ay or Thursday for campus elections, he will be asked not only to mark the box by the name of his favorite candidate. He also will be asked to indicate his preferences among the other people seeking the office.
It is important for the voter to realize just what effect his votes will have and how his ballot will be counted.
When the counting begins and after some involved mathematics, a quota number is determined which allows the smallest possible fair majority of votes and insures automatic election. From then on it's a matter of counting and redistributing lower preference votes.
ACTUALLY THESE second and third choices are just as important, if not more so in some cases, than the first choice decision. It is possible, in fact, for a candidate to win a seat on the ASC even if he has not received any first place votes at all.
THE SYSTEM IS CALLED redistribution, and it is based on the theory that a voter should not be disenfranchised just because he voted for a losing candidate. When a redistribution system is used the voters' second and third choices on down also are considered in deciding the winners.
All the candidates are ranked according to their first place votes, and any who have reached or gone beyond quota are declared winners.
THEN THE COMPUTER randomly selects a number of their
ballots equal to the number of first place votes they have more than the quota number. These ballots are redistributed among the remaining candidates according to the second choices indicated on them.
If, after this redistribution, a candidate is over quota and there are still seats to be filled, he too is declared a winner and his excess ballots are redistributed.
AND SO IT GOES on until there are no more candidates over quota. If the necessary number of seats still are not filled, the counters start cutting from the bottom, redistributing the votes of the lowest man, who has been declared defeated.
THE SYSTEM WAS FIRST used at KU in 1957 on the theory that there would be more than two active campus political parties. Its advocates felt that in a race where more than two candidates were running, it would be unlikely for any one candidate to have a clear cut majority and so the voters' second choice should be considered.
In other words, a winner would not be declared just because he had 26 per cent of the vote in a four-man race for two offices.
Under the redistribution system, although the voter's first choice clearly has too few votes to win or already has enough his second choice is considered in determining a winner.
ALTHOUGH INFINITELY more complicated than a system where the winners would be determined by popular vote, redistribution is considered to be
Frequently a candidate, running fairly well in the distribution of first place votes, will end up low man on the totem pole and a candidate receiving very few first place votes, but many second place votes, will win.
more truly representative. This assumes, of course, that the voter realizes the importance of his lower preferences.
THE VOTER MUST realize that these lower preferences are not just used in case of a tie or in a close race, but play a very active part in determining his representative in student government.
Kay Jarvis
UNiversity 4-3198, business office
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904.
Daily Hansan
124 University of Kansai assistant newspaper
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NEWS DEPARTMENT
Roy Miller ... Managing Editor
Don Black, Leta Cathcart, Bob
Jones, Greg Swartz, Assistant
Managing Editors; Linda Ellis,
Feature-Society Editor; Russ
Corbitt, Sports Editor.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Jim Langford and Rick Mohbilt Co. Editors
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Bob Phinney ... Business Manager
John Pepper, Advertising Manager;
Dick Flood, National Advertising Manager; John Suhler, Classified Advertising Manager; Tom Fisher, Promotion Manager.
West Side Story
"TONIGHT, TONIGHT won't be just any night." That is if you are planning to attend the performance of "West Side Story," presented for its third and fourth showings on Nov. 10 and 13, by the University Theatre and School of Fine Arts. Tonight will be an evening to remember. It will be three hours of pure pleasure; a mood brought on by fine music, fascinating staging, and a thrilling performance.
THIS NIGHT will find you in the abstract confines of a New York slum area, surrounded by cat-like figures, screeching for recognition from the world, then sliding over the brick walls into obscurity like animals frightened by their own screams. You will be with the Jets, a New York street gang, as they prowl the back alleys of the city. You will meet the Puerto Rican Sharks as they claw for a foothold in a throbbing modern society.
MARIA AND TONY will be your guides through the trembling shadows. These two characters will bring the element of love and hope into a setting reeking with hatred. Yet their love can only end in tragedy for it will be crushed by the jungle around them.
CAROL WILCOX AS MARIA will become a part of your heart. Her excellent singing will lift you onto the stage and swirl you into a realm of echoing melodies. You will need only one word to express your feeling about Carol's performance, "thrilling!"
Bill Bowersock, as Tony, will show you an exceptional performance. His dancing and singing will complete your mood of absolute release from the tragic setting.
BILL DOTY as Riff, Mary Lynn Shea as Anybodys, and Pat Wise as Anita, will serve as strong supports, creating a fast moving play with smooth transitional qualities. The staging, choreography and directing, flanked by the players' effective execution, will create an evening of sheer enjoyment.
You will leave the theatre proclaiming that "West Side Story" is more than an amateurish attempt. This group deserves an "A" for achievement.
— Irvana Keagy
The People Say...
WEWOULD LIKE to take this opportunity to express our thanks for their thoughtfulness. The students are: Jack Gibbons, Kansas City sophomore; Richard Pratt, Olathe junior; Matt Frazier, Lawrence sophomore; Donald Berberich, West Keansberg, N.J., freshman.
Dear Editor:
UNIVERSITY STUDENTS are often criticized for various acts. Perhaps some of the criticism has merit and is justified. But may we cite an instance which exemplifies another characteristic of KU students.
Second Floor nurses Watkins Memorial Hospital
Four students who were patients at Watkins Memorial Hospital during the past week sent a bouquet of long-stemmed red roses to the nurses in the hospital.
PLEASE PRINT this letter in which I announce my candidacy to the All Student Council. I am currently representing the independent Unmarried, Unorganized district and I am also unaffiliated to any party and I wish to remain that way should I be re-elected. As a matter of fact I am a write-in candidate.
I AM WRITING this note to present in a few words what I have stood for and what I stand for today.细心 am for a stronger and more responsible ASC. I definitely think that the ASC should not be merely a mouthpiece for the University administration. I believe that if this is all that it can do, then it sucumbs to the charge always made that it is a place for those who want social recognition and who want to give their mothers back home something to chat about at the PTA meetings.
STUDENT EXPLOITATION in such places as the Kansas Union has gone to high levels. It does not
Editor:
take very much knowledge of economics to observe such oligopolical arrangements as there exist in this town between the University and the townspeople. The University has a monopoly in books and the townspeople have a monopoly in other products. The result is that it is a damn nuisance when you want tooth paste and you have to run downtown when you could get it here at the Kansas Union.
It is pittiful that there is no minimum pay for all these people who work at various places in the University. Eighty cents per hour is too low and I believe that this is a field that the student council should concern itself with. $1.25 should be the minimum pay as other universities do pay their students.
I MAINTAIN as I have always done that the University of Kansas student body should join the American National Students' Association as the most effective and true representative of the student voice in the United States. Just because this organization is considered liberal does not make it bad—and KU should not just sit back and throw charges which for those who have been here for three years know are fabricated because the big wheels who went to one of the ANSA meetings were too far right for student beliefs in this country.
MORE WORK needs to be done as far as civil rights are concerned. The steps taken this past month by the ASC and the Chancellor are commendable. But there is still work to be done. It is with the continued cooperation between these two bodies that the ultimate can be achieved. Let us not however cheat ourselves that things will sort themselves out. We must sort them, I believe I have outlined my point. I want to thank those who voted for me last fall and I hope that at least they were not disappointed with my position over there. (I need your support. Write-in.)
Bgoya, Walter
BOOK REVIEWS
ROMEO AND JULIET, by William Shakespeare (Signet Classics, 50 cents)—Well, there's this family named Montague, which has a boy named Romeo, and another family named Capulet, and their girl named Juliet, and there's Romeo's pal named Mercutio, and one of Juliet's kinfolks named Tybalt, and a nurse, and a clown named Peter, and the two (Romeo and Juliet) fall in love, but the families are fighting—the today's generation, that is, the plot of "West Side Story." The paperback is an attractive one, it has a special introduction, a discussion of Shakespeare and his time, dramatic criticism and so on. All in all a good buy for the student of Shakespeare.