SLO deserves support
STUDENT EMPLOYES should be beating a path to the Information Booth this week to join the Student Labor Organization. It is the first time in recent memory that independent student interest has been strong for raising the ridiculously low campus wage scales.
IN THE PAST FOUR YEARS, there have been three fee increases at KU—an overall raise of approximately $40 a semester. Living costs have risen; textbooks sell at prices that only can be described politely as "usurious" (conversely, they are sold back at prices that only can be called "penurious"). Yet, in this same period of time, minimum student wages have not been raised from 70 cents an hour.
THE STUDENT LABOR Organization ostensibly seeks to relieve this inequitable situation. The most valuable commodity in a university student's life is his time—and surely this should be worth more than a maximum of one dollar an hour.
CHIEF CULPRITS, if they can be called that, in this unjustifiable system are the University library system, the Kansas Union, dormitory jobs and departmental odd-jobs. Departmental jobs often can be excused as they may entail scholarly research or have other benefits for the student.
HOWEVER, THE LIBRARY, the union and dormitories have no valid excuse for such low wages. The university assumes numerous unnecessary responsibilities in a student's life. It's
high time it assumed a proper and necessary administrative role—raising student wages to a realistic, maintenance level. Since the university administration, the offices of the personnel deans and the All Student Council have not fulfilled effectively their responsibilities in this area, students must take on the job themselves.
THE STUDENT LABOR ORGANIZATION however, should take care to proceed first through the appropriate channels to raise wages. Pressure should be put on ASC representatives; Deans Woodruff, Taylor and Alderson; Vice Chancellor Nichols and Provost Surface; and Union director Frank Burge.
THE OFFICES THESE people hold do not render them inaccessible to students. In fact, administrative personnel can be reached more easily at KU than at most universities this size. But it is the responsibility of the students to make the effort to reach them. They probably would be glad to see a few interested, active students with strong opinions for a change.
THE DEMANDS OF THE Student Labor Organization are not unreasonable: use of the federal minimum wage standard in student pay scales; cessation of the practice of hiring high school or Haskell students in order to maintain a low scale of student pay: and job priority for KU students and student wives. They should be supported.
—Jacke Thayer
a kansan review—
'Virginia': powerfully done
"WHO'S AFRAID of Virginia Woolf?" is destined to be, if it has not already become, a classic of the twentieth century theatre. The University Theatre is now presenting the best of Albee brilliantly and powerfully.
The play which has given rise to much criticism throughout the university and the state is the best dramatic production to be presented in this region for a good number of years. If the University Theatre continues with such well-written and well-acted plays it shall no doubt be regarded as one of the best in the nation.
CRITICS WHO have voiced their opinions against the production of the play at KU are cordially invited to see it and then criticize. These critics, both private citizens and members of the Kansas press, have emphasized the "dirty" words in the script and the "immoral" actions which occur onstage and offstage and have, at the same time, overlooked what it has to say to our society.
Albee has cut away the walls of a professor's home and has
shown his audience what goes on in both the house and the characters' minds. They are stripped naked before our eyes; their emotions bared for all to see. And as we view the scenes that pass we see in ourselves the masochism, sadism, and the futile attempts to communicate with our fellow men.
GEORGE. THE professor, played by James Hawes, is a man stuck in a New England college where he must live with his miserable past and present. There is no way for him to escape. He accidentally killed his mother and father when he was a young boy. This catastrophe causes him to live in a world in which he has difficulty distinguishing between fact and fiction.
Hawes' performance is vicious and unrelenting. His ability to maintain a character and yet change magnificently within his character is greatly to be admired. He is a wonder to watch upon the stage.
MARTHA, PLAYED by Nancy Vunovich, also lives a life struggling between the
poles of reality and unreality. Her life, as well as George's, is turbulent, full of trying times and merciless argument.
One moment calm, then suddenly full of rage and sadism, Nancy Vunovich has performed her best role since she has been with the University Theatre.
RICHARD KELTON and Marcia Dalen, in the roles of Nick and Honey, also are to be commended for their performances. As visitors to the home their naivete is delightfully presented. Later, as the situation grows tense, their tragedy is tremendously invoked.
The setting by James Hawes is generally good. A transparent wall in the third act (which allows the audience to see Nick and Honey walk off into the dawn) is a contrived trick and detracts from the feelings which have been built up throughout the play.
ALSO IN the third act the ceiling of the setting becomes a sky. The staircase in the back shows up to be going nowhere.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
kansan
Serving KU for 76 of its 100 Years
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Formatted. 1899
Founded 1889
Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York, N.Y. 10022. Mail subscription rates: $4 a semester or $7 a year. Published and second class 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 national origin.
EXECUTIVE STAFF
Lighting, done by Charles Lown, is appropriate except that lights in certain scenes are dimmed too rapidly and, therefore, too prominently.
MANAGING EDITOR Fred Frailey
BUSINESS MANAGER Dale Reinecker
EDITORIAL EDITORS Jacke Thayer, Justin Beck
NEWS AND BUSINESS STAFFS
Assistant Managing Editors E. C. Ballweg, Rosalie Jenkins,
Karen Lambert, Nancy Scott and Robert Stevens
City Editor Tom Rosenbaum
Feature Editor Barbara Phillips
Sports Editor Steve Russell
COSTUMES by Chez Hachi fit the period and the play.
"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is not to be missed. Day after day KU students inhabit the classrooms, but what can be learned on the stage of the University Theatre, particularly in this production, is not to be learned from textbooks, teaching machines, or very many professors.
— Larry R. Ketchum
2
2 Daily Kansan editorial page Friday, February 11, 1866
by mike miller and jim girard
SURSUM CORDA!
Readers of the Kansan, rejoice! You have finally found a UDK column worth reading. No longer must you flip past the editorial page in disgust. The insightful new editors of this newspaper have found it in their hearts to allow a portion of page two each week to be written by writers rather than journalists. This column is therefore dedicated for the entire semester to those fortunate seniors who have for four years read the Kansan in despair, led only by the faint hope that they might by some quirk of fate find an article worthy of their glance.
THE STUDENT SHOULD regard this column as a postgraduate-level course in Existence, a sort of correspondence seminar. This is no pud. Contrary to what the reader may think, Existence is a fairly complicated subject. It comes in several varieties, among them Campus and Actual. To simplify matters, we have divided Existence into its three major areas: Political, Cultural, and Significant. The attitude of the professors will, of course, be Existential and therefore subjective—extremely so. The student would be advised to adopt this attitude wholeheartedly, in addition to the opinions and prejudices of the instructors. Those failing to do so will flunk. This is a format with which everyone should be quite familiar.
The course will be divided into three sections of five weeks each, taking the three areas in order, from the mundane to the ethereal. At the end of each section there will be an hour exam, followed at the end of the semester, of course, by a final. In addition there will be a term paper of no less than one page, on the subject, "What I Want to be When I Grow Up." It may be submitted to 116 Bailey anytime before graduation.
ENROLLMENT WILL be limited. In order to exclude any riff-raff from enrolling, we have prepared the following entrance examination:
Who Are You?
If you get more than 75 per cent on this, you're in. Answers should be mailed to the Registrar's Office. Students receiving anything other than an IBM card in reply will be recommended for honors. Any Freshman applying must have the written consent of both parents and/or their pledge trainers.
This column will represent the lectures. Texts will include the backlog of "Little Orphan Annie" to 1930, a subscription to Mad Magazine, and The Beatles' Story in paperback, one basic text for each of the three areas. Further readings may be assigned later.
Today's Chuckle Story, to lighten your load and brighten your road: Kansas draft boards are scraping the bottom of the barrel. Students are next.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
.
"OH, OH. I'M AFRAID MY NEW STUDENT TEACHER' JUST IS NOT
LIEFT READY TO HANDLE THAT 8-GRADE CLASS BY HIMSELF."