The sane approach
The Civil Rights Council (CRC) and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) have submitted their list of questions concerning university policy to Provost Surface. Regardless of philosophy or methodology disagreements students may have with either group, this questionnaire should be greeted as another preliminary step toward better student-administration understanding.
It is obvious that a lot of research has been conducted into university regulations and state statutes. Three of the questions, however, appear to be so broad as to preclude a definitive answer.
THE GROUPS ASKED "How does the university stand with respect to the article 'Academic Freedom for Students' published in the winter American Association of University Professors Bulletin?" The article to which the questionnaire refers covers a wide range of philosophical considerations in the academic community. Most of its points are concerned with "what should be" rather than with "what is."
I'm sure that any college administration would agree, theoretically, with the principles in the AAUP bulletin. Not too many administrations would say these principles could be enacted pragmatically into existing university structures.
In simpler terms, Surface or any administrator could advocate those principles of student freedom just as the administration "advocates" non-discrimination in living groups. But pragmatically, it is obvious that KU's Greek system will be white, Anglo-Saxon protestant for a long time when alumni, financial and endowment considerations, influential citizens and national offices become involved.
THE SECOND OBJECTIONABLE question is "what is the university's definition of 'in loco parentis'?" The university probably could not define the doctrine if it wanted to. In loco parentis is a common-law legal doctrine, defined only by parochial precedents. It would have been far more helpful to ask the administration which manifestations of the doctrine imply a legal and moral responsibility toward students. Specific manifestations — drinking regulations, closing hours, the "commonly accepted code of
conduct"—should then have been listed for comment as to moral responsibility.
The third question asked for the legal basis of university enforcement of AWS regulations, and asked if the university has the right to enforce any student organizations' regulations. The last part of the question is valid and relevant; the first part may indicate confusion over AWS regulations.
AWS actually has very little regulation-making authority. What rules it can make must be approved by the Dean of Women and the Board of Regents. The organization has no control over housing arrangements and important regulations. Its regulation-making scope is limited to closing hours, sign-out procedures, and regulation of governing bodies within women's living groups.
Too often it is assumed that AWS makes all rules relating to women students. The university proper and the Regents make many of the rules and enforce them accordingly.
THE OTHER 21 QUESTIONS are well-stated and of vital concern to KU students. They ask for more specific definitions of that elusive, but lethal, phrase, "commonly accepted code of conduct." This same series of questions asks if this conduct code is codified in state law. If so, why does the university usurp a police function; if not, why does the university create a police function?
The questionnaire contains some long overdue questions concerning the use of personal, not academic, dossiers on students, and questions the purpose of "wing reports" in dormitories. It asks why All Student Council decisions are subject to administrative veto, and questions why women are more subject to regulations than men.
This questionnaire is one of the finest documents, with one of the sanest approaches, to appear on this campus in the past three years. And the administration deserves a helping of praise for providing spirited, cooperative discussion of the issues.
Hopefully, this kind of arbitration will set a precedent making KU's centennial an academic and social landmark.
—Jacke Thayer
university forum
Sex segregation should end
- Placing due consideration on the fact that women mature physically and mentally more rapidly than men—and, that men do not develop the degree of maturity already developed in women until the junior and senior year in the university—it appears more than slightly absurd that women should be the portion of the student population to have two sets of restrictive regulations placed upon them.
It has also been pointed out by the Dean of Women and a faculty member in the anthropology department that the four years that the American woman attends the university comprises the period in her life when she is extended the most
equality—and still she is segregated and made to follow two sets of regulations; one set imposed by the university and the other imposed by the Associated Women Students.
BY IMPOSING extra regulations on the women students, we are depriving them of the very valuable necessity of developing the ability to make decisions which is allowed to develop in the men students on campus. In the America of tomorrow, it will be as necessary for women to be capable of making decisions as for men.
It is utterly absurd to think that a woman who is old enough to marry and bear children is not old enough to make
such relatively minor decisions as what time she should return to her dwelling place at night. If such is the case, then how can she be responsible enough to marry and raise children?
With due regard to these points I suggest that women have the stigma of having two sets of regulations removed. Women students should, once again, be regulated by all general university regulations in the same manner as the remaining portion of the campus population is so regulated.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY kansan
For 76 Years, KU's Official Student Newspaper
And I would like to further suggest for discussion, that for those women students who feel that they are incapable of conducting themselves by those regulations imposed by the university at large, perhaps AWS should be made into an organization whose membership would consist of those women students—and only those women students—who desire to be affiliated with this organization, and who desire such regulating.
The Daily Kansan, student newspaper at The University of Kansas, is represented by National Advertising Service. 18 East St. 50 St., New York, N.Y. 10022. Mail enquiries to: Advertising Services, postage paid at Lawrence, Kan.; every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays and examination periods. Accommodations, goods, services and employment advertised in the University Daily Kansan are offered to all students without regard to color, creed or
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The opinions expressed in the editorial column are those of the students whose names are signed to them. Guest editorial views are not necessarily the editor's. Any opinions expressed in the Daily Kansan are not necessarily those of The University of Kansas in illustration or the State Board of Regents.
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Editorial Editors Jacke Thayer, Justin Beck
Deborah Ferris Masters Cairo, Egypt, senior
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Daily Kansan
editorial page
Monday, February 28, 1966
illustration by Richard Geary
A young Texan airman was sentenced to two years at hard labor by a military tribunal for participating in a peach march, even though he was off duty and in civilian clothes.
"Reader's Digest," "Look" and "Life" magazines have efficiently assured the American patriot that the whole Viet Nam protest movement is controlled by Communist agents.
The whole American ideal confirmed the right of the individual to speak his mind and pursue his own reality, as long as he was not threatening someone else's right to do the same. What has happened to the ideal?
viewpoint Free to shut up
For all practical purposes, the members of the U.S. population under 21 have lost their freedom.
Are the U.S. government and the mass media, inspired by the chauvinistic tensions of the American people, sacrificing the freedom of a huge portion of the younger generation? We think so.
The burning of draft cards, a symbolic gesture of disagreement with the administration's policy in Viet Nam, can now be punished by five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The peace march on Washington in December, made up mostly of students, was labeled by the mass media, carte blanche, as "fringe radicals" and "pinkos."
Last year the Berkeley protestors (Free Speech Movement) were given fines and sentences for exercising civil disobedience.
We are free as long as we keep our mouths shut, stay in step and join a few clubs.
Colorado State University Collegian
"The Ph.D. may still be the professional union card for most college teachers and the Ed.D. for most school administrators, but the exceptions at the top leadership level are getting to be so frequent that they may no longer confirm the rule.
"Heresy is rampant, as was underlined by the news last week that Arthur Schlesinger, the historian and alumnus of both Harvard and the White House staff, may be appointed to the $100,000 Albert Schweitzer chair at the City University of New York. Mr. Schlesinger's highest earned degree is the B.A. Earlier this year, with similar credentials, John Hersey was appointed master of Pierson College at Yale.
"Francis Keppel, who as Assistant Secretary of HEW is the highest ranking education spokesman at the federal level, holds no advanced degrees. He previously was dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Education, which provides doctorates to the cream of the nation's school superintendents. He will be succeeded by Arthur Howe II as U.S. Commissioner of Education, with a master's but no doctorate."
— Dec. 12. New York Times