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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, April 13, 1965
Guest Editorial
Insult Added to Injury
For twenty-five years I spent many of my working hours, seven days a week, in Fraser Hall. When it was announced that it was to be torn down I felt sad—sentimental and sad. However, I braced myself for the sake of Progress and accepted the inevitable. But with the architect's drawing of the new Fraser, insult has been added to injury. I agree with every honest protest that has been published.
AS LONG AS I WAS ON THE JOB I said my say and worked my hours and they were crowded and tense; now that I am retired I am past tense and should let others do the objecting. I can't, however, refrain from two comments.
When Murphy Hall was completed, I thought the greatest architectural mess imaginable had been accomplished; but I fear that Murphy will
look like the Taj Mahal when this new Fraser is erected.
IN THE 30'S FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT visited the campus. He commented on the conglomeration of bad architecture on the hill. Chancellor Lindley defended, "We don't notice it. We can overlook some of our buildings here for higher things." The architect bristled and replied, "My God! You can't overlook what's up there. It's impossible." I wonder what Wright would say about this latest projected addition.
I have one small consolation. At my age, I won't be around here very long to look at it. Most of you will not be so lucky. You may have to live with it for years. My heart goes out to you.
Allen Crafton
Prof. Emeritus, Speech and Drama
Fraser Protest Continues
We have received many letters since the administration released the new design for Fraser Hall. None, so far, have been complimentary. Public opinion seems to be unanimously opposed to the structure which will supposedly radiate the image and spirit of KU.
The only favorable comments on the proposed design for Fraser have come from Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe and a couple of Kansas newspaper editors, who seem to brush off any criticism of new Fraser as foolish remarks by amateur architects.
Just to set the "experts" straight—some of the most stinging criticism has come from professionals, both on and off campus. So we salute the administration for its bullheaded stubbornness in the face of overwhelming opposition from students, faculty, and professionals.
We will continue to publish every letter we receive on the new Fraser to emphasize our disapproval of this thing.
Gary Noland
The People Say...
Editor:
WE JUST RECEIVED IN THE MAIL a newspaper photo of the new Fraser Hall. Now we quite agree that Fraser should be torn down and replaced with a new building—but with this?
Surely the state architect can't be serious! Behind our apartment in New Haven there is an old horse barn that has been turned into an apartment building; the cupola on top of it looks much like the towers of the proposed Fraser. According to the news story, this new Fraser will sit atop the highest point of the campus. Please! Reconsider before desecrating Mt. Oread in such a way!
Alan D. Latta, '62
Martha A. Latta
New Haven, Conn.
An Open Letter to Friends of the University of Kansas:
IT HAS BEEN SAID THAT the proposed new Fraser Hall takes the design which has been announced in an attempt to capture the spirit of beloved old Fraser. I would like to suggest that this attempt, well intended though it may be, will result in a dismal failure if carried out. The proposed new Fraser is a grotesque parody of the original building. The reason perhaps is the forced merging of aspects of a nineteenth century design with a twentieth century building.
When old Fraser was being designed in the late 1800's, KU's chancellor traveled throughout the United States looking at campus buildings. His purpose was to gather ideas for a truly outstanding main campus building for the University of Kansas. The resulting structure was the largest classroom building in the country at the time, and was hailed as an outstanding and creative building, incorporating imaginative innovations of design. This, I submit, is the true "spirit of Fraser Hall" and this is the tradition which new Fraser should attempt to carry out, not a burlesque of the innovations of a past century. The true spirit of old Fraser was one of innovation and thoughtful creativity. Cannot new Fraser be a creative, even exhilarating building which people would travel to see and appreciate, rather than one they would travel to laugh at?
If it is too late for this spirit to be served in new Fraser, perhaps it could be reawakened in future KU buildings. Let the University—a place supposedly dedicated to fostering creativity and innovation—sponsor architectural competitions for the design of future structures. Perhaps the unfortunate design for new Fraser can awaken public interest and begin a movement against the University's headlong rush toward architectural insignificance.
Joel Goldstein
WHAT IS THIS FOOLISHNESS about new Fraser not being representative of Kansas? Hogwash! That's the most foolish thing I've ever heard. I ask
Lawrence graduate student
Dear Sir:
you, what is the thing most representative of Kansas? A barn, of course! When new Fraser is built we may well have the largest barnlike structure in the state. Conceivably, it might become a greater tourist attraction than our state capitol building.
There is also some other stupidity related to the representativeness of our new building to be. Namely, talk about it failing to present our progressive image. What's progressive about a state that can't even pass a fair housing bill? And I don't think the passing of the new rendition of it will cancel this argument. In writing the new version, the legislature "forgot" to put a single tooth in it.
This is Kansas—tradition is king; our state weed is the sunflower; our state symbol shall be the Great Barn; and our state picture should be Grant Wood's, American Gothic.
In all sincerity,
C. Robin Hood
Pittsburg, Kansas, senior
To the Editor:
I am glad to see that our coffee-price demonstrators are beginning to think about more serious problems.
Dailij Hänsan
Yours,
Bernard Galton Lawrence Senior
111 Flint Hall
UUniversity 4-3646, newsroom
4-398, business office
University of Kansas student newspaper
rounded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press.
Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York
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$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.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Leta Roth and Gary Noland ... Co-Editorial Editors
5+HERBLOCK
"Any Place To Land Down There?"
Editor Seeks Student Interest in Publication
Bill Panning, Ellinwood senior, and a member of the editorial staff of The University Review, a new, non-profit student publication, announced yesterday that there will be a meeting of students Wednesday evening to plan a second issue this spring.
THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE UNIVERSITY REVIEW was published just before spring vacation. The publication is planned as an "outlet for student writing and creative effort in the fields of humanities studies and fine arts."
The meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Pine Room of the Kansas Union. Plans will be made for this year and next year. Students interested in writing or doing secretarial work for the new publication are urged to attend.
BOOK REVIEWS
THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF THE MODERN AGE (Premier, 75 cents); VERSE, by John Updike (Crest, 75 cents)—Here are two interesting collections for the student of literature. Updike is riding high, and this is a collection of his poetry, much of which was done prior to the recent fame he has achieved from "Rabbit, Run" and "The Centaur." Many of the short stories will be familiar to you—things like "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Devil and Daniel Webster." The authors include Poe, de Maupassant, Chekhov, Henry James, Pirandello, Conrad, D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Joyce, Mann, Sherwood Anderson, Isaac Babel, Benet, Faulkner, Kafka, Sartre, Frank O'Connor, Lionel Trilling, Shirley Jackson and Lawrence Sargent Hall.
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THE MEANING AND END OF RELIGION, by Wilfred Cantwell Smith (Mentor, 75 cents).
The thesis of Wilfred Cantwell Smith is that the world of today, with the accumulated ideas and impacts of Darwin, Marx, Freud, Nazism, atomic power and the space age, is ready for a new religion. He believes the world must find a religion that will combine belief and reality.
Smith is director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard. He looks at the world's religions and concludes that inadequate concepts have been behind many studies of creeds. He would eliminate such terms as "religion," "Christianity" and "Buddism," for he feels the great teachers have preached not a religion but rather a personal faith.
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THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, by John le Carre (Dell, 75 cents).
The main thing to say about this book is that it's in paperback. That will be news sufficient for many readers, who have been waiting for the book at libraries or wondering if they want to pay for the expensive clothbound volume. For aficionados of spy stories (James Bond or E. Phillips Oppenheim), or for the general reader, this has become a must volume.
The uniqueness of "The Spy" is that Le Carre achieved such an air of authority and excellence in a genre of writing so frequently trivial. He is a former member of Her Majesty's Secret Service, and he brings to the book a feeling for the drama of our times seldom achieved in other writings.
As for the story—that's for the reader. Put it down, mainly, as an understated, exciting, frequently haunting tale that recalls Graham Greene—a 50-year-old secret agent who takes a last assignment, involving the East-West conflict and the Berlin Wall.