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University Daily Kansan
Friday, April 23.1965
Yearly Editorial
The election, complete with campaigns, suits and ties (a curious election phenomenon), is over. The victory parties, excepting the hangovers, are also over.
Hopefully, the victors will soon recover from the exulting to get down to the business of student government. Now is the time for all good politicians to come to the aid of their campus, to coin an original phrase. Members of both parties should forget that the person on their committee called them a "dirty politician" just last week. Political differences, understandably paramount during the campaign, should be forgotten in the business of making student government effective.
The campaign was relatively quiet, compared to last year's. For instance, tape recorders were conspicuously absent from this year's mud-slinging. Some of the issues that could have been discussed were slighted, but then the student body, as a whole, did not seem too interested in them, anyway.
In the past year, the ASC has done an excellent job, with a few exceptions. The committee system seems to be functioning more effectively than ever before. Hopefully, this year's ASC will continue with the work done last year.
— Leta Roth
The People Say..
To the Editor:
1 FEEL THE PEOPLE ASSOCIATED with The University of Kansas have been done a grave injustice. Like it or not, the university, like many schools of the same size and stature, is judged by the quality of its athletic program as much and more so than by any other program in the university structure. The alumni point more often to the number of All-Americans the school has produced and the number of major championships than to the number of Phi Beta Kappas produced. Our University receives more publicity through its athletic program than through any other medium.
I consider The University or Kansas to be one of the best educational institutions in the Midwest, and possibly, the whole country. But academic achievements are not publicized to the same extent athletic success is. All newspapers have a sports section, few have an educational column. This is mostly true in all other forms of public communication. I am neither commending or condemning this procedure, only stating a fact.
Now to the particular point of this letter, Approximately one year ago The University of Kansas hired a man to head its athletic program who has had little or no experience in the guidance of any major athletic program. His only qualifications being that he was an apparently successful young business man in the insurance field and a former football player at this University. His connection with the insurance business reminds me of another well-known Chicago insurance man who is diddling in sports. There seems to be quite a resemblance.
He is trying to operate a program in which almost every man under him has had more experience in this type of operation. This whole set up reminds me of the young second lieutenant straight out of R.O.T.C. coming in and taking over a company of veteran soldiers and non-commissioned officers. This young lieutenant has a choice of either learning from the experienced men under him or demonstrating how little he has learned about handling men under combat conditions during his training. In doing the latter, he will lose the respect of the men under him and the situation will become chaotic.
Mr. Stinson has demonstrated this know-it-all attitude and his action in this case will assure his losing the respect of the people working under him, if he has not already done so. He made a statement which was quoted in the Topeka Capital that he did not see why Mr. Easton was not able to adjust to the system while others were able to. He meant knuckle under the system. Mr. Easton has too much pride to lick any man's boots. It is well known that Mr. Stinson is the most unpopular man in the athletic department.
Mr. Stinson has given himself and The University of Kansas a black eye by this latest demonstration of his inability to handle his position as Athletic Director. It was my feeling at the time of hisiring that the University was making a mistake in hiring a man without experience to do a job which ranks in importance with or above the position of Dean.
He has fired a man considered by
many to be the greatest track coach in America. Mr. Easton is a man who has devoted his life to building and maintaining a track program which will compete with any in the country. He has demonstrated his loyalty to his work and the University many times and only through his hard work and dedication could we have had such a successful track program. He is a man who believes in the members of his teams getting an education and in teaching them to fulfill their full stature as men. He originated the system of fining boys for cutting classes. The class he teaches, "Track and Field," is considered to be so tough by Physical Education majors that many of them take this class by correspondence from other schools. He will not give a grade to anyone. There have been some very famous athletes who have failed to pass his course.
Mr. Easton is a man this University should be proud of and yet KU has demonstrated its gratitude and loyalty by letting him be fired. It was stated that the Athletic Board had been contacted and was in agreement with Mr. Stinson's decision. This is not true. The Athletic Board did not meet to discuss this issue.
I feel The University of Kansas should try to salvage what is left of our athletic department program by asking for the resignation of Mr. Stinson before he causes our athletic program to deteriorate beyond recognition. If the University Fathers won't do anything then it is up to the students.
It has taken many years and a lot of hard work by many fine people to develop our athletic program and a seemingly short time for Mr. Stinson to tear it down. The University of Kansas owes a great debt to Coach Easton and I think now is the time to repay it, not by the actions which have been taken to date, but by the University humbling itself and asking Mr. Easton to return after the immediate dismissal of Mr. Stinson.
Just as an afterthought, Mr. Easton would make a fine Athletic Director who would do the job this University deserves.
Harold W. Kackley Enterprise senior
Editor:
BILL EASTON'S CAREER AS KU track coach apparently ended over the purchase of vaulting boxes. The sixty dollar cost of the boxes and the necessity of meeting NCAA rules for which they were bought should have overruled any of Wade Stinson's objections. But Easton's purchase was the culmination of many irreconcilable differences, or so said Stinson. I assume that Easton's dismissal is a matter of principle since the amount of
Easton's recent purchase is negligible and the purchase was of necessity. If Easton had not bought the new boxes, imagine the publicity if a vaulting record had been established and then nullified because the equipment did not meet regulations. Still, Mr. Easton did not comply with the rules for purchases, and Mr. Stinson childishly feels that he must not let him get away with anything.
Mr. Stinson has certainly demonstrated his authority. Monday afternoon he refuted a rumor that Easton was being fired saying "He is still our coach and Relays director unless he resigns." Several members of the Athletic Board were not contacted or notified before the action was taken and the press notified. Coach Easton is just as much an institution here as "Phog" Allen, the late Don Pierce, and the late Earl Falkenstien. He has turned down many coaching opportunities because of his dedication to Kansas, only to be slapped in the face.
How does Mr. Stinson expect to replace Coach Easton? Many of the top prospects have worked with Easton and hold deep admiration and respect for him. He has given his all for Kansas—dedication to the University, hard work to build our track program, and a tremendous record of success in the past 18 years. If after all of this he is fired, how many other coaches will be willing to come in and try to please Mr. Stinson. Unless Mr. Stinson comes up with a better reason for the incident that he has to date, I doubt if there will be many.
Grace Roberman Lawrence senior
To the Editor:
FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS, and perhaps longer, the Daisy Hill residence hall complex has been attempting to obtain delivery of the UDK to the various large halls. For the past two years, the UDK has refused to meet this request.
On April 19 of this year, Vox Populi distributed the UDK to Daisy Hill stamped with "Compliments of Schrey-Robinson" in red ink. On April 20 the UDK ran a short first page article declaring that this stamping in no way meant that the UDK supported Schrey-Robinson. For the second time in the history of Daisy Hill, the UDK was delivered to the halls—and the UDK complained.
It certainly is a pity that the Kansan did not support Schrey-Robinson. But then again, if Schrey and Robinson were on the circulation staff of the Kansan, the paper might be better liked on Daisy Hill.
Dailii Hänsan
Sincerely yours,
Paul W. Foraker
Topeka freshman
111 Flint Hall
UUniversity 4-3646, newsroom
UUniversity 4-3198, office
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triviseekly 1909
University of Kansas student newspaper
Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York 22, N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays, and examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas. Accommodations, goods, services, and employment advertised in the University Daily Kansan are offered to all students without regard to color, creed, or national origin.
Ground-To-Air Weaponry
BOOK REVIEWS
DISCRIMINATION AND POPULAR CULTURE, edited by Denys Thompson (Pelican Original, $1.25).
Cheers for this book, and let's have more of them. The writers have handled their subject matter so that it is not dry and dull, and they have some things to say that many of us need to be told.
The writers are British, and they speak in part from a British viewpoint. This should not impair the book's usefulness to Americans. The areas of popular culture treated are advertising, radio and television, the press, the movies, magazines, recorded music and design.
The cheapening of taste, the debasement of culture are the general themes, and the writers consider the impact of individual works upon readers, viewers, listeners. What is the meaning of a steady diet of family stories, western stories, monster stories on television? What is the meaning of a series of beach party movies that sell (a key word, one concludes) better than anything else being offered on that level of moviegoing? What is the meaning of coarse music beating at our cardrums all day long? These are among the subjects discussed in this penetrating little volume.
* * *
THE INTELLECTUAL VERSUS THE CITY, by Morton and Lucia White (Mentor, 75 cents).
The name of Morton White by itself—Harvard professor of philosophy, editor of "The Age of Analysis"—should draw readers to this witty and discerning book. But the subject itself, when many Americans more and more are coming to doubt the Idea of Progress, makes the book of special value.
For Americans, at least many American critics and philosophers, hate the city. Read why Thomas Jefferson wanted to keep America an agrarian civilization. Read how Frank Lloyd Wright built buildings to shut out the city. Read the social novels of the turn of the century; much of the naturalistic movement was conditioned to the city as an evil force in our life.
White and Mrs. White consider this matter. They suggest that the American city has been so vast, and so varied, that it sometimes is hard to state just what we dislike. They treat the question back through 150 years, and tell us that the city can solve many problems, that it must do so, that it can be a place where Americans can live in happiness and which they can learn to love rather than merely deplore.
FOUR MAJOR PLAYS, by Henrik Ibsen (Signet Classics, 60 cents).
It is reaching the point where the job, with Ibsen, is to take your choice of translator and foreword. Or cover and binding. This is a handsome job, with translation and foreword by Rolf Fjelde. The plays can be found in a variety of places, but these are certainly among Ibsen's greatest, and the book may be the one you are looking for.
Though he was a great dramatist in the realistic tradition Ibsen seems somewhat old-fashioned today. His causes have been fought for and won, and it is the dramatic power, not the once-controversial content, that keeps the plays going. In this volume one can read "A Doll's House," "The Wild Duck," "Hedda Gabler" and "The Master Builder."
The translator has made an effort to make Ibsen readable and understandable for readers of the sixties, rather than the eighties and ninety. He feels that earlier translations have been cumbersome. The plays themselves are Ibsen's eternal clarion calls for individuality, for freedom from shackles ("A Doll's House" and "Hedda Gabler" are ringing statements for women's rights, for example).