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University Daily Kansan
Thursday, Nov. 5. 1964
Hindus Celebrate Festival of Lights
By Harihar Krishnan
To the nation of 360 million Hindus, this first week in November, is the time for gaiety and mirth. The spirit of Deepavali, the grandest and the loveliest of the festivals of India, will be evoked in every Hindu home of India during this time.
Deepavali, or the festival of lights, is to the Hindus what Christmas is to the Christians. Although there are regional variations in the way it is observed, each is interesting in its own way.
Hindu festivals are occasions for family and social get-togethers when everyone is at his best. They are the spontaneous manifestations of the people's urge to be happy and gay.
DURING the festival of Deepavali, the whole country wears a new look. Every city, town and hamlet is turned into a fairyland with thousands of flickering oil lamps and electric lights illuminating houses and public buildings.
According to the legend, as one interpretation goes, Deepavali is an occasion when people offer prayers to the goddess LAKSHMI, the goddess of wealth and prosperity. For the businessmen in Bombay, the metropolis of Western India, it is an opportunity to reap big profits. All old-account books are fed to AGNI, the fire god. And, at an auspicious time on the day of Deepavali, to be determined by the astrologers, they open up fresh account books and look forward to a prosperous financial year.
In South India, it is an occasion for young bachelors and young girls to rejoice. It is the marriage season and the parents of daughters, who are of marriageable age, begin to hunt frantically for prospective bridegrooms. Legend has it that a marriage performed around this time will bring wealth and happiness to the young couple. This time is also considered to be right for performing the Nuptial Ceremony for the newly wed. The belief is that when the bride is united with the groom in the conjugal bed at this opportune moment, she will bear a child that will grow up to be a man of great wisdom.
IN THE land of Bengal in Eastern India, it is an occasion to invoke the spirit of SHAKTI (goddess of strength). The ceremony, called KALI PUJA (KALI meaning "goddess of strength" andPUJA meaning "obeisance to the goddess"), is performed in the most elaborate fashion. To the people from this important seat of culture of India, the goddess KALI is their source of greatest inspiration. The whole community joins the mammoth procession, numbering hundreds of thousands of people, carrying the images of the warrior-goddesultimately to be immersed in the blue waters of the Bay of Bengal.Following this is a grand entertainment of music, dance and drama, and everyone takes part in this.
IT IS the only time during the year when gambling and drinking are not considered illegal. The best place to witness this is in North India. While the children are busy blowing up the world with their fire crackers and the wives are in the kitchen busily engaged in the preparation of all sorts of sweets, the husbands settle themselves peacefully ready to squander away their fortunes on the gambling tables. The policeman on the beat curses at his helplessness and looks to the heaven in despair.
Deepavali, to the vast multitude of India, is an expression of joy, a time when the people young and old, rich and poor, strong and weak, all join together to make it a spectacular event, the like of which cannot be witnessed anywhere in the world.
Faulty Procedure-
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ALL BILLS not sent to the chancellor will be reviewed by the ASC and then sent to Chancellor Wescoe. The review will start next Tuesday night and will include Bill No. 7, and perhaps the amendment to it.
The CRC voted to distribute petitions to the KU living groups, calling for signatures in support of the amendment to Bill No. 7. Faculty, as well as students, will be asked to sign the petition.
In another decision, the CRC voted to distribute leaflets protesting de facto segregation in fraternities and sororities to students and alumni at Saturday's Homecoming football game. Eight or nine thousand leaflets will be printed. The final wording of the leaflets had not been determined yet last night.
THE CRC voted to send a letter of approval to Chancellor Wescoe supporting his letter to the Sigma Nu national fraternity. In the letter, Chancellor Wescoe and James A. McCain, president of Kansas State University, requested that discriminatory clauses in their constitution be waived for Kansas chapters.
Regarding the amendment to Bill No. 7, Bob Stewart declined comment when asked last night whether he would have signed the amendment, vetoed it, or let it pass by taking no action by tomorrow night's deadline. "I have decided that it is not necessary for me to make any decision on the amendment since Bill No. 7 is not valid," Stewart said.
Stewart did say, "I have a serious reservation as to whether or not the ASC, or any student group, can dictate to the University what it shall do." He said, "In my opinion, the ASC's position in this area is to reflect student opinion by suggesting and encouraging the University to take action, but not to demand action."
STEWART said that the University administration has been forthright in its action concerning the ASC anti-discriminatory amendment. He referred to the letter sent by Chancellor Wescoe and President McCain to the national Sigma Nu fraternity.
Station manager Karen Layland listens to check a KUOK evening program.
—Photo by Black
Second in History
KUOK Has Woman Manager
By Don Black
By Don Black
Cookin' Food TVOK"
"Hello Miss, I want to talk to the station, manager, please."
"This is Karen Layland, station manager, speaking."
"Really? Uh. Well. Huh!"
This flabbergasted advertisiser has a right to be a little astonished. After all, there is only one other female station manager in KUOK's radio history. The occasion is so unique that the magazine "College Radio" requested her photo and background history for its latest issue.
The station is now using pre-taped cartridges which Miss Layland used while "outside." These cartridges enable KUOK to produce special introductions and closings for various news programs. The cartridge tape is now widely used by commercial radio stations to eliminate "dead" air when moving from one part of a program to another. Special features
MISS LAYLAND, Paola senior, is guiding KUOK into its 11th year of radio on campus. KUOK programs, via telephone lines, go into nine university halls on campus while acting as a school laboratory. Her immediate staff numbers 18 but about 100 students enrolled in radio courses work for her at different times.
The little college radio began with about 25 students and has grown so that it once had a working staff of 150 students, all working under the watchful eye of Bob Brooks, KUOK advisor. Brooks was once a KU radio student, too.
No drastic changes have been made in the radio station by the female manager—yet. No drapes are hanging around the studio windows. Nor did she move in and redecorate her office. Only one addition can be noticed which would give the slightest indication of a female manager.
IN FRONT of her desk, which is somewhat in the open and in view of the studio, is a dainty green rug. This is the only status symbol that her male predecessors did not rate. Her male staff presented the little token to her.
Miss Layland's experience "certainly helps other members in the class," commented Brooks. Her experience was especially helpful with some new equipment introduced to the station this fall.
Miss Layland attended school at Ottawa University two years before dropping out for some first-hand radio experience. She was employed at KBEA-KBEY am-fm of Kansas City, and KBIG-KGLM am-fm of Hollywood, Calif.
are also handled in this manner, giving an all-over professional sound to KUOK.
MISS LAYLAND tinkered with radio as a senior in Paola high school before going to Ottawa University. At Ottawa she was continuity director and was given the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System's award for outstanding seniors.
Following two years in commercial radio, she enrolled in KU and was continuity director for KUOK last spring. Again she won honors. Alpha Epsilon Rho, national honorary radio-TV fraternity, awarded her a silver platter for excellence in continuity writing last semester at the annual KU radio-TV banquet.
This fall Miss Leyland was awarded the Alumni Scholarship for the 1964-65 school year.
PRESENTLY her station transmitt programs to Lewis, Templein, Hashinger, Ellsworth, Corbin, Joseph R. Pearson, Gertrude Sellards Pearson, Carruth-O'Leary and Battenfalls halls.
Miss Layland's ultimate ambition as manager, and consequently the station's, is to someday cover all the residence and scholarship halls, the fraternities and sororities and all other organized houses on campus.
The process of obtaining KUOK programs is simple, Miss Layland will explain to anyone willing to listen. The station transmits a signal on telephone lines, which it pays for. The halls have a transmitter, which is purchased by the hall for about $75. And the signal is transmitted by the halls via electrical outlets. For a co-ed to get KUOK, she merely turns on the radio and tunes in KUOK. The signal is loud and clear.
Her chief engineer is presently working on a transistor transmitter which the halls would buy and permanently seal somewhere in the building and forget about maintenance problems.
DURING THE day, Miss Layland can be frequently seen trading "shop talk" with the radio station engineer, the news director, or perhaps some befuddled Speech 37 student who is just beginning in radio.
As a station manager, she has to don her jeans and old sweatshirt to make periodical checks on the transmitters, which are usually locked away in some old dusty boiler room. She often drops in and checks the strength of the signal at the halls also.
When KUOK began programming as an infant station, its listening audience numbered in the neighborhood of 300 students. Now its programs reach about 3,600 students,
Miss Layland said.
The college radio's program hits the air with personality sketches at 4-6 p.m. daily. It furnishes light, bright music during the dinner hours, 6-8 p.m., and airs light musical selections for the early evening hours, 8-10 p.m. Softer, quieter music is presented 10-11 p.m.
The remaining hour, 11 p.m. until midnight, on the air is contributed to special music interest areas. Each night of the week is devoted to a particular area of music. Monday night, it's strictly jazz instrumental. Folk music lovers get their entertainment Tuesdays. Wednesday feature the light classical selections and the comics are presented on Thursday. Friday evening the vocal jazz discs round out the week.
THE STATION began programming on Saturdays only two weeks ago. The programs are personality sketches from around campus 1-5 p.m. with special programs also scheduled.
Not to be outdone by the pro's, KUOK stayed up late with the elections to give the students the latest news about the Presidential, state and local results. The staff etayed with the election until the final reports were in. The majority of the staff showed up to help and was spilling out of the studio. Refreshments made the night into a "watch party."
KUOK also plans another election party, Miss Layland landed, for the All Student Council election Nov. 12. This party will be combined with an open house, still remaining up until the winners are announced.
When asked if she had any trouble presenting her authority, she popped back with a quick "No." The staff, made up mainly of men, carry out their assignments and complaints as they would to a male manager.
AT THE staff meetings, usually held on Friday afternoons, Miss Layland's voice booms with confidence. When she delegates action, she usually gets it.
Only in the past ten years have women broken into the radio field, advisor Brooks pointed out.
"I think more and more women are playing a more important role," he added.
Of the five persons applying for station manager this year, two were women. Brooks said.
If Miss Layland continues the year with as much apparent success at KUOK as she is now having, undoubtedly the male student body can be looking for more good-looking station managers in the future.