No amateurs here
Athletic Director Wade Stinson and the athletic department are about the greatest thing to hit capitalism since the New York Stock Exchange. There is none of that sentimental "art for the sake of art" in their business. If an amateur sport doesn't pay off, either in cash or publicity, then out it goes, a refreshing attitude in these days of increasing complaints about amateurs competing in professional college sports.
It would be difficult to find a more nonprofessional sport at KU than wrestling. Athletic scholarships are not given, recruiting non-existent, and student interest low. The inexperienced team has responded with a won-lost record worse than the New York Mets.
SO STINSON is considering two possibilities, "going full speed ahead" with wrestling, or sinking the sport all together. At KU there is no room for losers, except maybe in football.
"Moving full speed ahead" in wrestling means, we presume, spending lots of money, recruiting some wrestlers and hiring a coach out of Oklahoma or Oklahoma State, all in the hopes of becoming big league in that minor sport.
Clearly for Stinson there are no alternatives. Either KU competes on a large scale in wrestling, or it doesn't compete at all. There is no room on this campus for an amateur intercollegiate team that loses more than it wins.
OUR CONTACT WITH the athletic department here has been fleeting, but what we have seen is quite disappointing. NCAA schools usually at least pay lip service to the concept of the
amateur athlete who competes only because he likes the sport, even if it is minor.
We fully understand that recruiting is necessary to build the image and endowment of the University, and reluctantly accept the entertainment function of the University in providing semi-professional sports for the general public.
But we do think that a university athletic department ought to consider the interests of the students, both as a whole and individually where possible, in presenting an intercollegiate athletic program.
AT KU, THE athletic department shows concern for students only after the year's books have been balanced and a sizable year's profit banked. We have no doubt that if there were a financial advantage in dropping football and converting the stadium into an onion farm or ski jump KU would do it without hesitation.
It is most objectionable that a supposedly amateur athletic department cannot accept the presence of one genuine amateur but money losing team on this campus.
But the athletic department sees only that wrestling must serve some other purpose than merely providing KU students who enjoy wrestling with an opportunity to test their skills against students from other schools.
Most of all, the athletic department sees no profit or publicity in truly amateur sport, for in a big business like athletics there's no room for amateurs.
—Justin Beck
"No Fooling, Men—Let's Try To Avoid Losing Any More Of Them"
HERBLOCK K
THE WASHINGTON POR
The people say...
Open AWS, draft women, readers propose
To the Editor:
We were very disappointed to see an article in the Wednesday, April 20, Daily Kansan concerning a secret meeting held by the AWS Senate. We are not now concerned about whatever decisions may have been made. We are deeply concerned about the way in which they were made. Perhaps we have been naive in believing what AWS spokesmen and members of the Dean of Women's staff have declared repeatedly to be the purpose of AWS. KU women have been told that AWS is their organization—that its purpose is to represent them. Perhaps we have been wrong in believing that "to represent" means to act as a channel for the ideas and opinions of KU women. It seems in reality to mean to act as a regulatory body imposing its own ideas and opinions on KU women.
Is there any reason that a body of elected representatives, chosen by KU women to represent and promote their ideas should meet in secrecy to represent those ideas? The decisions arrived at by the Rules Convention clearly represent the combined ideas of KU's women. Is there any reason, then, that a group dedicated to
those ideas should find a need to secretly change them? No one who honestly represents the opinions of a group needs to keep its actions secret.
One Senate member claimed that "Senate members are supposed to understand aspects of women's problems not readily recognized by women students." But we ask, what are they if not women students? How are they in a position to understand women's problems any better than the rest of us? And if in fact they are in such a position, why do they not inform us about these aspects we do not understand so that we might modify our own opinion? Do they have a patent on understanding? We are sorry to hear that the AWS Senate is in a better position to understand our problems than we are. If this is so, whatever will we do when we graduate and no longer have AWS to handle all our problems?
It is clear to us that either members of AWS Senate are acting in their own interest or they are merely puppets manipulated by somebody else. It would be sad to think that they were acting in nobody's interest at all. If they are acting in the interest of KU women (and we are sure that KU
women know what is in their best interest), then why are they afraid to let their actions be known?
—Cheryl Lunday
Arkansas City freshman—Judith Hixon
Ft. Scott sophomore
Female draft
To the Editor:
It is quite clear that there is an issue in the draft discussions that is avoided by all concerned, but definitely needs to be discussed. Why should draft age women be exempt from the draft?
There is no doubt that many positions in the U.S. Army could be filled by females; that has been amply demonstrated in the Second World War and by their use in the armies of other countries. The men presently filling these positions could and should be freed so that they are available for those roles that are regarded as unavailable to women for realistic reasons. Could this not represent a solution to the shortage of suitable men which is apparently causing the threat of drafting college students?
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
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accepted as the Campanile that stands in its memory: these are the present facts.
Vestigial army
As the seminars were closing I watched our faculty march. Among the ribbons and robes an occasional military uniform showed. They underlined for me something that has been brewing for a long time.
Granted that the present need for the military is, at least on the surface, evident; that the military is as ingrained as the vines clustered on the military science building; that the military is as
Daily Kansan editorial page Friday, April 22, 1966
LEAVING THE present facts behind and looking to the future, the next hundred years if you will, one can look in two ways. One way is hope and the other is despair. Choosing hope and drawing at least a bit of basis for it from the present world situation aside from the Asia problem, I can see a time coming when large war forces will be vestige. The bug on the biscuit is that appendixes kill unless tended. The urgency is that the untended bug has become an empire. Will this empire pass with the need for it or will it drag us back into the abysse for the sake of its existence?
Case in point is the present Viet Nam conflict. In its early stages Viet Nam was called by military men "The Laboratory" because it gave them a chance to try new tactics and machinery. Another reason military men like to have a little war bubbling somewhere is the doors it opens to money and expansion of the military empire.
While I was in the military I thought about its place. When we were taught to use the tools of our trade we used targets shaped like a man's silhouette. And everything we did was busywork to pass away the time until the raid came. This was basically the behavior of criminals, typical gangland comedy. It occurs to me that the military is a "fight fire with fire" concession. Part of the criminal element has been legalized to stand off the inevitable uncontrolled bad apples. Since it's in a deeper sense a "bad move" it has to be rationalized, so the soldier and his exploits are glorified. He "gives his life" while the degraded laborer who builds bridges "gets his pay." But in the end who did more good? The man who gave his life blowing up a thousand bridges a year, or the man who spent his life building a *thousand bridges*?
You will say, "But there have been many fine people in the military." And I will say, "I know. I slept in a barracks with 40 of the finest. They are still fine, and civilian."
DR. CARL MENNINGER left us with the hope that a good part of the criminal element can be helped. Maybe some of this help will seep up to the leaders of
You will come to me and say, "But that's a long time off to be thinking about," and I will say to you, "So is the time when you will take the helm of this government."
nations someday soon, and the need for the military will diminish. I hope we have sense enough to diminish the military.
C
The
ches
Geo
capa
riur
YOU WILL SAY. "But the military has done a lot of good." And I will say, "So has the Model-T."
And you, Germans, Chinese, Americans, Englishmen, French will say, "But many good men have died." And I will bow my head in sorrow and pity you for your pride. Then I will say "I know. And they yet died in vain while the world remembers: their trade, their causes, their names."
Joel Gunn Lawrence junior
Latecomers
It was disturbing enough to have so many of the audience come to the Robert Shaw concert at 8:20 p.m., after the overture, two tenor numbers, and the first chorus. These people probably did not know of the change of time from the normal 8:20 to 8:00 because of the length of the "Messiah." It must have been partly in retallation that Mr. Shaw began the whole concert anew.
To the Editor:
I was mostly disturbed, however, by the latecomers at 8:00. During the overture, some ushers were still directing people to their seats. A few latecomers were even walking around the front of the hall looking for their seats.
To avoid distraction to those trying to listen to the music, can the ushers be instructed to keep latecomers in the back of the hall until a natural break in the program?
J. Bunker Clark Assistant Professor of Music History
10. 12.24 [ ]