Goodby... ...not farewell
Today KU loses an administrator. His desk in 228 Strong Hall will be empty. He will remain at KU another five years teaching biology, but there will be an empty spot, no matter who sits in 228 Strong, among the ranks.
Dean Woodruff has done more for KU in his 42-year tenure here than there is space to enumerate. He has been chairman of the KU Athletic Board and the Council on Student Affairs, to name just two. But there are few corners of this University that have not been affected by this man.
But his activities in the world of science are not the source of the soft spot most KU students have for Dean Woodruff at 65, the mandatory retirement age for administrative personnel. He has been dean of students since the post was created in September 1953.
Dean Laurence C. Woodruff came to KU as a student in February 1921. He taught here from 1928-30, then went to Cornell University for his doctorate. In 1934 he returned and moved through the KU faculty. Today he is professor of biology and entomology.
His first administrative post was a temporary
one. During the military leave of Registrar James K. Hitt, he served as acting registrar from 1942-1946. In 1947 he became dean of men until he became dean of students in 1953.
In a position such as his, naturally he has come under attack more than once—every personnel dean has. In a national wave of effigy hangings in the late 1950's, a stuffed-paper dummy was found swinging from a tree near Flint Hall. The effigy wore a sign which read:
L. C. Woodruff, Ph.D.
C. Wooden, T. HUNG
Without a Trial
By KU Students
He has weathered this and much more. In 1960 he went to bat for KU at a Big Eight Athletic Conference in the Bert Coan incident. In recent years he has defended COSA and handled the more than 100 civil rights demonstrators who "sat in" the Chancellor's office.
Today he leaves his desk. Yet there is comfort in knowing he will still be around for advice, at least for five more years when state laws force him into total retirement.
The Kansas would like to say goodby— but not farewell.
De Gaulle's World
The war in Vietnam created "a psychological and political process which led to the fighting in the Middle East." This is the De Gaulle explanation for the Arab-Israeli war. Just what does this mean? As a commentary on the causes of the war it is meaningless, but as an indication of the thought of De Gaulle it is excellent.
While the French President loudly condemns Israel he quietly continues supplying her military hardware—at inflated prices. By this double dealing he deludes himself that France is a significant power in the Middle East, perpetuates a policy of "independence," i.e., anti-Americanism, and still makes a hefty profit from Israeli purchases.
DE GAULLE HAD tried to get the Big Four to unite in opposition to the use of arms in the Middle East. His efforts failed, and now he refuses to recognize changes realized on the ground by military action. What the French leader refuses to accept is the fact that there is really no Big Four. There are only two superpowers and a host of lesser powers. Where the United States and Russia have opposing policies no meaningful agreements can be reached. But
where France cannot exert power, De Gaulle wants no power exerted, either by greater or lesser powers.
The fact that Egypt initiated bellerigery by blockading an international waterway seems to have escaped the leader of a maritime power. He condemns Israeli hostilities, and vaguely lays blame at the door of U.S. interventionism. This last charge must necessarily be vague, since the truth is that the State Department had tried frantically but unsuccessfully to avert hostilities in the area.
IN THE PAST many De Gaulle policies have been founded on solid ground, and he has led Western policy where the U.S. feared to tread. He knows China is in China, not Formosa. He has hastened an East-West detente, which he thought was proceeding too slowly. Increasingly, however, De Gaulle's invectives have not been founded on facts, have served no useful purpose, and have only intensified the Franco-American rift. It seems as De Gaulle approaches old age he wants to bring France and the U.S. as far apart as possible before he passes on.
- Ivan Goldman
HERBLOCK "Our Alibi Will Be That The Safety Belt Created Extra Foot Pressure On The Accelerator"
2 Summer Kansan editorial page Friday, June 30, 1967
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LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
being Serious
This editor would like to reminisce a moment. He is not too old, but even to the youngest there comes a time to look back. Today is the retirement of Laurence C. Woodruff. Retirements should be happy times with gold watches, big cakes, and, of course, the office collection.
But to some it is a time of sadness—including this editor. Some high school teachers and, for that matter, college professors, hang on year after year just to reach that magic retirement date. Years before they had lost their classroom effectiveness and all they look forward to is retirement, not what they teach or create. This has not been the case of Dean Woodruff.
Twenty years ago, when he was dean of men, he was asked to fill out a questionnaire on himself for the Kansan. When it came to the blank for hobbies he wrote: "Students and their activities, my family." For the last 20 years that has not changed.
Thinking back to the days when this editor first met Dean Woodruff. I was a scared young reporter. I had been in several offices in Strong Hall. I did my stories. But I was scared stiff of all KU administrators. I cannot remember what the assignment was to see Dean Woodruff, but I did not want to go. The city editor insisted. I went.
For the first time I felt KU administrators had a possibility of being human. I was received hospitably by the dean, spent an hour there and get my stories.
Reflecting further—This fall a group of students who hung around the Kansan newsroom decided to organize "The Newsroom Choir." They elected officers. Malcolm Applegate, then Kansan advisor, accepted the post of new advisor. They even had a housemother (Jean McKnight, journalism librarian).
To be cute, they handed their application in to 223 Strong Hall for University recognition. "Woody" answered personally.
He wrote that this group "had singly been given the distinction of being the first group refused University recognition." The officers looked strangely like another group having University recognition, he thought.
The choir first thought about having a "singin" in Dean Woodruff's office, but decided to "grace" his home with Christmas carols. They called the dean in advance and much to their surprise the house was not boarded and shuttered. The dean even served snacks.
If the Newsroom Choir were resubmitted, would it be refused again, I wonder?
Dean Woodruff, this editor will miss you.