300 MEMBERS AT KU
P-t-P aids the foreign student
By Norma C. Romano
When new foreign students arrived in Lawrence last fall, they were met at the bus or train by American students. The Americans showed the strangers around the campus and helped some of them find rooms.
This friendly reception is typical of the activities of the college People-to-People program, an effort by American students to help some of the estimated 60,000 foreign students in the United States to get to know this country.
Started in 1961 at KU, where there are about 550 foreign students representing 85 countries, the movement is catching on at other colleges in this area. People-to-People, Inc., a coordinating group with headquarters in Kansas City, Mo., is trying to organize local chapters on campuses from New Hampshire to California.
THE PROGRAM DEVELOPED from a casual meeting between some foreign students and 23-year-old William Dawson, who was majoring in journalism at KU. Dawson later wrote, "They told me they didn't have any American friends, the more they talked, the more interested I got and I could see their whole picture of America was warped."
To help change that image, Dawson and other student leaders organized KU's People-to-People council, which started with 50 students and now counts about 300 members.
"The toughest thing at first was to overcome the complacency of the American students," he recalled. "We plastered 1,000 posters
on campus to stimulate interest.
Then we asked each fraternity, sorority and campus group to contribute $20." In three weeks, People-to-People collected $3.000.
THE ORGANIZATION assigns an American "brother" or "sister" to each new foreign student to help them get settled and make friends. It also organized diverse socio-cultural events for foreign students to have an opportunity to meet each other as well as to meet their American counterparts.
The local chapter of People-to-People, not only helps international students during the academic year, but also aids them in making plans for the summer vacation. Last summer, Dave Waxse, Oswego junior, then in charge of job placement, wrote letters to about 100 Kansas businessmen inquiring about jobs for foreign students.
"We received 50 answers, but only 30 said they could help us," Waxse said. "So, we telephoned other businessmen and put articles in different Midwestern papers."
The effort turned up about 60
Daily Kansan
offers for the foreign students who wanted jobs. They worked on construction projects, in manufacturing companies, farms, pumping gas and as waitresses. A construction company man in Oswego wrote Waxae after the summer commenting on an African student's skill. "After Madanmohan Fadia left, we had to hire three men to do the work he did by himself," the letter read.
"BUSINESSMEN WHO didn't offer jobs showed great interest in the program and said they hope to have openings for next year's season," Richard Harp, Overland Park junior and chairman of that program, said.
People-to-People is an outgrowth of a 1956 proposal by former President Eisenhower to further the cause of peace by increasing contacts between citizens in different countries. Committees for this purpose were set up in such areas as sports, music and education.
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This year, People-to-People's job placement will be able to help another 50 foreign students to find summer jobs in nearby cities.
Monday, May 9, 1966
ARE YOUR
THONGS
WRONG?
810 West 23rd Street
8:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
The Classical Film Series Presents
BALLAD OF A SOLDIER (1960) U.S.S.R.
Admission 60c Wednesday-7:00 p.m. Dyche Auditorium
Foreign students greet Truman on birthday
KU foreign students will greet ex-President Harry Truman today and wish him a happy 82nd birthday in their own language.
The 75 students representing their countries, will attend a
luncheon given by Truman's friends at the Muehlbach Hotel in Kansas City.
"We send foreign students to the event at Truman's request. He has had a great interest in foreign exchange," Dean Clark Coan, KU's foreign student advisor, said.
On Campus with Max Shulman
(By the author of "Rally Round the Flag, Boys!", "Dobie Gillis," etc.)
THE COLLEGE PRESIDENT : HIS CAUSE AND CURE
(It is interesting to note that college presidents are always called "Prexy." Similarly, trustees are always called "Trixie." Associate professors are always called "Axy-Pixy." Bursars are called "Foxy-Woxy." Students are called "Algae.")
Oh, sure, you've been busy, what with going to classes, doing your homework, catching night crawlers, getting married, picketing—but can't you pause for just a moment and give thought to that dear, dedicated, lonely man in the big white house on the hill? I refer, of course, to Prexy.
It is Prexy's sad fate to be forever a stranger to your laughing, golden selves. He can only gaze wistfully out the window of his big white house on the hill and watch you at your games and sports and yearn with all his tormented heart to bask in your warmth. But how? It would hardly be fitting for Prexy to appear one day at the Union, clad in an old rowing blazer, and cry gaily, "Heigh-ho, chaps! Who's for sculling?"
But I digress. We were speaking of Prexy, a personage at once august and pathetic. Why pathetic? Well, sir, consider how Prexy spends his days. He is busy, busy, busy. He talks to deans, he talks to professors, he talks to trustees, he talks to alumni. In fact, he talks to everybody except the one group who could lift his heart and rally his spirits. I mean, of course, the appealingest, endearingest, winosomest group in the entire college—delightful you, the students.
No, friends, Prexy can't get to you. It is up to you to get to him. Call on him at home. Just drop in unannounced. He will naturally be a little shy at first, so you must put him at his ease. Shout, "Howdy-doody, sir! I have come to bring a little sunshine into your drear and blighted life!" Then yank his necktie out of his vest and scamper goatlike around him until he is laughing merrily along with you.
Then hand him a package and say, "A little gift for you, sir."
"For me?" he will say, lowering his lids. "You shouldn't have."
India, Darawal .
"Yes, I should," you will say, "because this is a pack of Personna Super Stainless Steel Blades, and whenever I think of Personna Super Stainless Steel Blades, I think of you."
"Why, hey?" he will ask curiously.
"Because, sir," you will say, "though you are no longer a young blade, still you gleam and function. Full though you are of years and lumps, rheumy though your endocrines and flaccid your hamstrings, still you remain sharp, incisive, efficacious."
"Thank you," he will say, sobbing.
"So it is with Personna," you will continue. "Naturally you expect a brand-new blade to give a close, speedy shave. But how about a blade that's had hard and frequent use? Do you still expect a close, speedy shave? Well, sir, if it's a Personna, that's what you'll get. Because, sir, like you, sir, Personna is no flash-in-the-pan. Like you, sir, Personna abides."
He will clasp your hand then, not trusting himself to speak.
"But away with gloom!" you will cry jollily. "For I have still more good news to tell you of Personna!"
"How is that possible?" he will say.
How is that matter?
"Hearken to me," you will say. "Personna, in all its enduring splendor, is available not only in Double Edge style but also in Injector style!"
He will join you then in the Personna rouser, and then he will bring you a steaming cup of cocoa with a marshmallow on top. Then you will say, "Good-bye, sir. I will return soon again to brighten your dank, miasmic life."
"Please do," he will say. "But next time, if you can possibly manage it, try not to come at four in the morning."
***
© 1966, Max Shulman
Prexy and undergrad, late and soon, fair weather and foul—the perfect shaving companion to Personna® Blades is Burma Shave.® It comes in regular and menthol; it soaks rings around any other lather. Be kind to your kisser; try Personna and Burma Shave.