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University Daily Kansan
Thursday, May 6, 1965
Jazz Missing
There has been a good deal of student protest in the last month concerning various forms of discrimination at the university. But there is one kind that is being overlooked and to which its victims submit readily since there is nothing they can do.
The discrimination part comes in the form of a course of study that has been left out of the university curriculum. The study of a modern music form called jazz. There are courses in piano, voice, pottery, ceramics, oil painting, and other crafts indigenous to the art world that are considered valuable things to study while in college. But apparently not jazz.
THERE are a lot of people who enjoy jazz on this campus I'm sure, but few who have the desire to become dedicated musicians in that field. Still, that is no reason it should be ignored and treated like something divorced from serious music. If there are not op and pop art courses taught already it is only a matter of time before they are. But what about jazz?
There are no courses taught in jazz to the best of my knowledge. Students interested in becoming jazz musicians meet each week to learn more of the intricacies of that form of music. It has to be on the outside of other school work since there is no place for it in the university.
So, dedicated jazz students (and they are students) play in concert on the lawns of buildings on the university campus in order to be heard. They win prizes to be envied from professional jazz musicians and make headway in the field for those to follow. But why is it that something that takes as much dedication as music is not sanctioned by the university?
COULD it be that jazz is too modern? Or would it cost too much money to initiate a program of jazz training here? There are few things that motivate students these days anyway and it seems a shame that in order to get the instruction they need jazz students must turn to each other instead of authorities in their field. This is certainly not the case with opera, piano, or other areas of modern art where the examples of professionally competent people are followed by students.
The problem probably stems from the idea that jazz is just for fun and not for real study. This is simply not true and educators will find this out only after a few more years of lawn concerts and protests. It is hoped that the dedication of the few who want to learn jazz will last and so maybe jazz will one day be a respected thing to formally study.
— Linda Ellis
Charges of "Communism" Rock Wisconsin Campus
EDITOR'S NOTE: The campus free speech fureo, an issue commanding national attention when it erupted at the University of California at Berkeley, is also raging at the University of Wisconsin with charges of "McCarthyism" and "communism" colliding head-on. A UPI reporting team of Ray Doherty, UPI Wisconsin news manager, and Gene Bernhardt, UPI Madison bureau manager, look into the situation in the following report.
MADISON, Wis. — (UPI)—Wisconsin, the state which produced the liberalism of the La Follettes and the anti-Communism of Sen. Joe McCarthy, is feeling the backlash of the academic uproar of the 60's.
Very much involved in the turmoil at the university is the W.E.B. DuBois Club—a congregation of 30
Charges that Communist influences are abroad on the campus of the state's university are colliding head-on with cries of "McCarthyism."
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or so self-proclaimed "Marxist Socialists" whose voices attract attention far greater than their number on the campus by Lake Medota.
AS AT OTHER universities, Wisconsin students—but in numbers of at most 500 — have marched demanding racial justice and a pullout in Viet Nam. As in other states, legislators have denounced campus radicalism and demanded investigations.
Also at Wisconsin, 6,000 of the university's 26,000 students put their names to a resolution backing the nation's policy in Viet Nam. Professor Donald Tarr said the response was "the result of exasperation with left wing groups and their sometimes downright lies."
House Gets Attention
The current Wisconsin drama began last September when radio commentator Robert Siegrist focused attention on a rather rundown boarding house at 515 Johnson Street in Madison. Siegrist was a friend and admirer of Joe McCarthy. His radio broadcasts are often devoted to charges of Communist conspiracies in this country and around the world.
Now he moved his rights to the university campus and the boarding house rented by Eugene Dennis Jr., son of the former head of the American Communist party. One of Dennis' boarders is Michael Eisenshoe, whose father once headed the Wisconsin Communist party. Another is John Gruber, a 21-year-old history senior who at that time was the managing editor of the student newspaper, the Daily Cardinal.
Siegrist noted that Dennis, who dropped out of Wisconsin to become regional coordinator of DuBois clubs, was writing editorials for the Cardinal. As he pressed forward in his campaign, Siegrist charged that the Cardinal editors were "deleting everything but the leftist or commie line."
Writes Editorials
Siegrist objected strongly to the refusal of the university to do anything about his charges. It has known controversy before. Almost always it has stuck to its motto of "sifting and winnowing in search of the truth" — in this case, a policy of letting everyone speak his mind.
Sen. Jerris Leonard of the Milwaukee suburb of Bayside asked the school to investigate the Cardinal and Gruber. When the university refused, Leonard said the Cardinal's editorial policy was a "symptom" of a faculty that is too far left in its teachings.
Siegrist found listeners in the state legislature, which stands scarcely a mile down Madison's State Street from the university campus.
Sen. Gordon Roselip of Darlington, Wis., the Wisconsin commander of the American Legion in 1953 and 1954, entered the battle. He saw danger in the recent campus appearances of such Communist speakers as Gus Hall and Claude Lightfoot.
Would Bar Reds
Roselip's answer was a "truth in education" bill which would bar Communists from speaking or teaching at Wisconsin campuses. The bill is still being considered by the Senate Education Committee.
Last week Dennis said he is not a Communist. "I didn't get much indoctrination from my father," Dennis said. He said he is, like other members of the DuBois clubs which have sprung up on campuses throughout the nation, a follower of. the Socialist doctrine as preached by Karl Marx.
Roselip and Siegrist often point out that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover has named the DuBois clubs as Communist-oriented youth groups. Dennis, a 22-year-old New Yorker, said his Wisconsin group is most interested right now in "academic freedom, free speech, and cost of education — we're drafting a program on student poverty."
Gruber is not a DuBois club member, although he describes himself as "very, very liberal." He also is no longer managing editor of the Daily Cardinal. He and his staff were displaced by a new staff April 15 in accordance with a longstanding university policy of rotation on the newspaper.
Considers Self Liberal
Siegrist said Gruber ignored campus conservatives and parroted the line of the Daily Worker. Gruber said in defense "the left runs around a lot and the right tends to be more quiet."
Because of the controversy, university President Fred Harrington may face some tough sledding when the school's budget comes up before the legislature. He sticks to his policy of free speech on the campus.
"Wouldn't it be better for a soldier captured in Viet Nam to have seen a Communist or heard one, or read a Communist book, when he is subjected to brain-washing?" Harrington asked.
Exposure to extreme views is educational and not the road to treason. This exposure strengthens the road to democracy."
"Why Not A Trail For Guerrilla Peacefare?"
The Girl. The Wind
It was the year that the wind talked to her and the people wondered at her calm. It was the year that not many people got to know her . . . they said she was too busy within herself.
And she was . . . she wondered about all the mysteries her professors had obliquely mentioned in class . . . all the forbidden topics that no one knows the answer to. She knew she did not know the answers, either . . . but the wind and the sky told her some of them.
It was a night when the wind was wild and unleashed in all its majesty. She walked into it, oblivious of the terror it held for other people. And, for some reason, she remembered passing the girl that she didn't know, but she saw all the pain and the joy deep, buried, in her eyes. She wondered vaguely if she looked that way.
SHE WALKED by the pond and watched the wind play with the water, chasing it back and forth along the bank. And she smelled the clean smell of water, carried by her wind.
She held a match to her cigarette and the wind blew it out. And she wondered what Prometheus, the fire-giver, thought about the wind.
And she returned to the house and watched the wind lash the trees against the window . . . and thought that perhaps she knew a little more than she had previously.
That was the year that people misunderstood her silence . . . they took it for illness or anxiety. They somehow did not understand her depth of feeling. They often blew out candles without knowing that the candle's death was shared by a small part of her.
AND THAT WAS the year she learned how to love . . . she had somehow never learned that before. It was the year she remembered all the people she had known. And she understood why that girl had told her "You care too much. . ." and she pitied the girl . . . the girl who didn't care enough.
It was a good year . . . most thought it her worst . . . she remembered it for years afterward and thought of it kindly. It was her senior year . . . it was her education more than courses, tests and parties.
And the people looked at her strangely and wondered. . .
Yes, it was a good year.
She understood herself better after that year . . . she came to know that she could never know another, except perhaps those whom she loved.
— Leta Roth
The People Say...
Editor. Daily Kansan:
I HAVE AN IDEA WHICH I should like to donate, free, to some literary minded promoter. Many letters concerning new Fraser Hall have been appearing in the Kansan. These represent some of the most stirring and provocative non-fictional writing being produced in these paris: the tone has been sincere and uninhibited, the contents have embraced satire, sentimentality, aesthetics and deep analysis. I suggest that these contributions be gathered into a book. The compilation could be divided into two sections, the For and the Against. The For would contain the letters of the alumni, students, architects, etc., who have approved the new plans, the Against the outpourings of those who have not. Of course, the sections would be uneven as to length but blank pages could be
left in the lesser section for notes and comments.
My reason for this suggestion is as follows: When New Fraser is completed, a booth or table can be installed in the entrance hall where the book may be sold. The purchaser, having bought a copy, could return to the campus, read, and look up at the Gem. This should make a visit to the campus interesting, unique and amusing and with proper public might attract visitors from far-off places. Also a tidy profit might be acquired from the sale of the book, which profit the editors being big hearted, could donate to the hiring of architects for the designs of future buildings.
Helpfully,
Allen Crafton,
Professor emeritus,
speech and drama