It's So Easy to Skip
Band camp 1967 has been running relatively smooth so far.
Few or no campers have broken the three D's—drinking, driving and dating non-campers. Almost everyone makes it back to the dorms on time.
Hospital cases have been incidental, for the most part, and usually campers are cured with a pill or shot.
In the whole, things couldn't have been better.
BUT, BEHIND THE SCENES, a problem still exists.
The problem began about a week ago.
Campers have finally realized just how easy it really is to cut a class.
Unfortunately, often the camper doesn't stop at one truancy.
Because high school credit cannot be earned by attending camp, indifferent students see no logical reason to attend all their classes. Often those same students prefer to go downtown or to the Kansas Union than to try to better themselves scholastically.
BUT CAN YOU BLAME them for skipping when some teachers don't even take roll?
In this case a student's honor is the only thing that keeps him attending classes.
Granted, a few classes seem dull and tiring, but the only person a skipper hurts is himself.
To accomplish, one must first try. The truancy problem is difficult to solve because of what could develop in the weeks to come.
THE ADMINISTRATION, IN THE event of continual skipping or class cutting en masse, may be forced to do one of two things. The administration either may threaten the camper with expulsion from the camp or change its camp credit system entirely.
To change the system would mean to arrange for campers to receive high school credit towards graduation in their home schools. High school graduates would receive college credit.
In this case students would have to go to class to receive credit. Campers would also probably have to work harder in general.
Those extra credits would be very good on one's permanent record.
Even without credits, however, a student who doesn't cut classes still gains the satisfaction of a job well done.
Losing All Our 'Rights'?
"They're taking away our rights!" So cry the opposers of the Open Housing bill.
"Selling to certain minority groups lowers property values," they say. But according to a realtor in Galesburg, Ill., the lowering of property values when a person from a minority group moves into a neighborhood is caused by neighbors panicking and selling their property for less than what it cost them, thus setting off a severe chain reaction.
"DON'T GIVE IT TO them. Make them earn it so they'll appreciate it," they say. But what are these people actually being given? Nothing. All they ask is to be judged on the basis of the money they've earned.
But the loudest cry of all is, "It's my property and I'll sell to whom I want. After all, I paid for it." It can't be denied that if this bill is passed, a right will be lost. The right to refuse to sell, rent, or lease property on the grounds of race, creed, or color will be lost. This is the right to discriminate. It seems that the people who would lose by this bill are those who would exhibit prejudice in the selling of their homes.
Overall, the Open Housing bill will by no means solve the housing problem, as, of course, the situation can only really be changed in human hearts, but it is certainly a step in the right direction. —Rich Halpern
On Audience Participation
"Don't repeat this," murmured one camper to another, "but some of the audiences that come to our performances haven't been the most courteous that I've ever seen or heard."
This statement, heard in passing, is all too true. The audiences at music division concerts thus far have been rude to the performers. Though it is more noticeable in the balcony, because it is smaller, there seems to be a great deal of talking, rattling of programs, and general fuss and bother throughout the audience.
Most of the audience is usually made up of people who should be interested in the individuals who worked long and hard to prepare a decent program. This includes fellow campers and relatives of the performers, and they, of all people, should be silent and listen to the result
of a long, hard week of work. Maybe one should decide before he attends the concert to be quiet and attentive or not come at all.
Besides having programs passed out at the beginning of each performance, it might be well to distribute pamphlets also with rules of etiquette pertaining to all musical performances. One of the items that might be included in this pamphlet is the fact that it is improper to applaud between the movements in one piece of music.
If people would use common sense in their behavior at concerts and brush up a little on concert etiquette, the performers and conductors would appreciate it a great deal, and the public would be all the more welcome at the concerts.
— Barbara Talmadge
Odds 'n Ends
What's Left to Complain About?
Let's see now. The movies are good, the dances are fun, the food is more than edible, and the groove is settled into, so what's left to complain about? For some people, plenty. Take the case of a boy dorming in Ellsworth. This poor soul has had 11 girls stolen from him here—all by his roommate.
Here we go again.
And don't forget the call-down sessions administered to every wing last Monday. The pizza winners escaped this tongue cracking, but the "sloppy" wings really caught the king's English. Is it going to be that way every Monday?
TOO BAD THE THREE week campers leave tomorrow. It just won't be the same without them
Wing athletics are in full swing. And in some cases that's exactly what it is—full swing. More than one basketball squad has found its fists and elbows flying throughout the "graceful" contest. Fault of the fights lies with the officials. Not that it's bad. It takes guts to go out on a court at all, but the refs of most of these games won't call a foul until someone's decapitated. Anyone for padless and iceless ice hockey?
EVERYONE SEEMS TO BE remembering the three big don'ts—no booze, no off camp loving, and no driving, so you have to admit the discipline problem at the camp is negligible. Some rules
for a day—at least until a new batch arrives.
are broken; everybody knows about it, but it doesn't seem to be the gross lawlessness that leads to trouble, and that's good in a camp this size.
Another dance has come and gone and the camp has hit a half-way mark, so let's keep the last three as big as the first three.
Here's a good idea. As one student suggested, "Why don't we use the money to buy pizzas with for clean rooms to hire a band for the dances." Why not?
—Bruce Yoder
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
2 Kamper Kansan editorial page Friday, July 7, 1967
"NUTHIN TO DO ON A LOUSY DAY LIKE THIS—WHADDA YA SAY WE GO TO CLASS?"
Moonshots
A Puff of Smoke
Bv KERRY MOON
Recently I've noticed a lot of campers smoking. They smoke everywhere possible—outside the dorms, on the sidewalks, sitting on the grass, downtown and just walking around campus.
I also noted that many girls smoke; in fact, more girls smoke than have cigarettes.
Where do these girls get their fags?
YOU GUESSED it—from us boys. How many times today has a girl rushed up to you and asked for a cigarette?
If you're obviously a nonsmoker, you probably haven't been asked yet.
To get to my point, I experimented the other day by putting a pack of cigarettes in my front shirt pocket in plain sight of any passerby. I then proceeded through the campus.
The seige began. Girls pleaded with, "Could I borrow a cigarette? I left mine in the dorm."
Some tried the tantalizing effect with, "Gosh, you're cute. Would you be so kind as to give me a cigarette and a light, maybe?"
A FEW GIRLS TRIED the direct approach by saying, "I'm out of cigs. You got one to spare?"
What interested me most was the dainty way the females smoked a 100 millimeter cigarette. They either wave them around like a magic wand or have the fag hanging out of their mouths at a grotesque angle.
The results were fantastic. After three hours ten cigs were gone. By the end of the day I had nothing left but the pale gold package.
When I returned to the dorm, my roommate was appalled. "You smoked a whole pack of cigarettes in one day?" he asked.
"No." I replied, "but I've made 20 new girl friends in one day!"
Miscellany
THREE cheers for the persons responsible for the fireworks Tuesday night; they were terrific.
**
Have you bought your Skitch Henderson Concert ticket yet? Better hurry—a sell-out crowd is expected.
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Did you know that student checks can be cashed at Strong Hall—with authorization signatures, of course.
kamper kansan
The Kamper Kansan is published on four Fridays of the six-week session of the Midwestern Music and Art Camp. Written and edited by students enrolled in the Journalism Division of the camp, the Kamper Kansan expresses news and views of the whole camp. Editorial opinion is an expression of the writers whose role is Cos-Managing Editors
Rita Haugh, Rick Folkmite
Joanne Yawitz
Kerry Moon
Clare Thomasin
Joe Planarity
Jane Sahar
Lark Underwood, Roger Lintemuth
Katie Carpenter, Kathy Kiser, Irene Bargas
Students of the Journalism Division
News Editor, page 1
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Irene Editor
Picture Editors