2
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, May 15, 1968
Progress- yes and no
The selection of a Negro pom-pon girl is a progressive move apparently designed to give the University a needed boost in race relations.
The method of selecting such a girl for the position was evaluated by the Human Relations Committee which decided segregated try-outs would be not only the best but the only satisfactory way.
The chief charge was discrimination in the original selection of the pom-pon girls last month. After an investigation was conducted, the Human Relations Committee reported that it found no discrimination and that three of the 95 girls who tried out were Negroes. Technically, the committee would have been justified in closing the case here. But it chose to seek what it thought was a fairer route. And with the unexpected resignation of a member of the pompon squad, the way was made clear.
It is ironic that in an age of constant pursuit of equality, the University should find itself contradicting this basic thesis of education. It, indeed, would appear that segregated try-outs for a replacement on the cheering squad stand as a reaction to demands made by concerned "black students and others outside the University community."
We are not questioning the veracity of the demanding persons, neither are we accusing the Human Relations Committee of being lackadaisical. But the fact remains that the committee, by using segregated try-outs employed the "separate but equal" principle supposedly eliminated
by the 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education, Topeka.
It is hoped that future negotiations between minority groups and the committee will be handled with more farsight.
Looming as another obstacle is the unexpected organization of a campus chapter of the Black Student Congress. The national group was organized recently at an Eastern university. It seeks to protect the rights of "black" students on college campuses and is pledged to "nonviolence."
If the ideals of the organization are realized at KU, the group could prove beneficial in creating a voice for the Negro in student affairs. But if the organization turns into an overly aggressive bunch of rabble-rousers, the situation only would be worsened, if not polarized.
This, of course, would be fatal to the attempts of the Human Relations Committee and we certainly do not forecast a "hot" fall of 1968.
We do not know the answer to these problems. Even minds far greater—such as the federal government administrative personnel and the administration of this University—are perplexed.
They will require answers developed through a consultation of the best and worst and the common. But one thing is certain, the questions of authority and power never really will be resolved. This nation is founded on a principle that does not permit its constituents to stop questioning its existence and practices.
- The Editors
Letters to the editor
Of the 'men' at KU
To the Editor:
I have been wondering if anyone has the same opinion of the "men" of KU (at least in some respects) as I do. Many of them seem to have been brought up with no training whatsoever. Examples:
1. The elevators in my dorm break down quite frequently, due at least in part to the excessive wear placed on them by students who use the on-off switch to make them go by floors where students are waiting for them to stop.
2. While we are speaking of the elevators, one of them currently has a screen built by B & G over the fan since someone wrenched the screen off it; the plate over the control panel has been taken off several times; graffiti have been scratched deeply into the door at times; once a large piece of wood was jammed into the elevator, really forcing the door to break itself as it closed.
3. It is nearly impossible to put a notice of any kind up on our floor since they are either ripped up within 24 hours (after first being covered with graffiti or literally burned up, as our bulletin board has been more than once.
4. The ash tray fastened to the wall by the elevator has been broken off (this requires quite a bit of force, I would believe) twice.
5. The TV lounge is the messiest place I have ever seen in my life every morning, without fail.
6. To provide the ultimate blow, at the Rockefeller speech today my girlfriend dropped her sweater under the bleachers, and before we even had a chance to move, a male student ran under and stole it, even as we watched.
I could list many more examples of the poor conduct of these supposedly mature people that I have seen in my three years here, but I think that enough has been seen
by enough of us to indict them as they are. This provides quite a contrast to the women; my girlfriend, who lives in my dorm, says no one on her wing bothers to lock their doors since it isn't necessary. My roommate and I are afraid to leave our door unlocked; we'd lose things pretty quickly.
For Wayne, Ind., junior
Bart Heffron
... quotes ...
"No draft law will please everybody. But it is surely high time that we enact into law a Selective Service system designed to meet the realities of 1968 and not a world war that ended in 1945."
Sen. Frank Lausche, D-Ohio, introducing legislation to reduce from 24 to 18 months the period draftees may be required to serve.
"Why, they're not secret service! . . . They're FBI and they've arrested Senator McCarthy!"
New Paperbacks
Here are some new paperbacks in the fields of poetry, the novel and the drama. Mark Van Doren, who spoke recently at the University, has prepared an Introduction to Poetry: Commentaries on Thirty Poems (Hill and Wang, $1.50; cloth $3.95). Poets represented are Burns, Dickinson, Donne, Whitman, Marvell, Frost, Yeats, Emerson, Dryden, Wordsworth, Blake, Milton, Shakespeare and others.
Brian Patten's Little Johnny's Confession (Hill and Wang, $1.50; cloth $3.95) is a work by a young Englishman, poems written when Patten was 18 or 19, some even earlier. It is recommended that the poems be read aloud.
Josephine Jacobsen and William R. Mueller have prepared a work called Ionesco and Genet: Playwrights of Silence (Dramabooks, $1.95; cloth $5.95). The work continues earlier writing by these critics in the theatre of the absurd. The writers see in Ionesco and Genet a common theme of wishing to communicate, coupled with a pessimism over the very ability to communicate.
Newly published is Tom Kromer's Waiting for Nothing (American Century, $1.75; cloth $4.95). This is not a new novel. It is autobiographical, has been long out of print, and was published originally in 1935. Kromer describes a young man, out of work in New York, struggling to survive, struggling merely to stay alive, looking for work for handouts. A generation interested in the thirties might have a look at this book.
This generation, finally, is likely to be interested in a book prepared by the Peace Education Division of the American Friends Service Committee called The Draft (Hill and Wang, $1.25; cloth $3.50). The whole area of military conscription is treated.
Published at the University of Kansas daily during the academic year except holidays and examination periods. Mail subscription rates: $6 a semester, $10 a year. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kan. 66044. Accommodations, goods, services and employment advertised offered to all students without regard to color, creed or national origin. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of Kansas or the State Board of Regents.
ONCE THERE WAS A GOOD KING WHOSE COUNTRY WAS VICTIMIZED BY A GIANT, WAR-LIKE NEIGHBOR.
THIS NEIGHBOR'S CONSTANT ASSAULTS IMPOVERISHED THE GOOD KINGS SMALL COUNTRY AND TURNED HIS PEOPLE BITTER AND VENGEFUL.
BUT WHEN HIS PEOPLE
CRIED OUT FOR
RETIRIBUTION, THE
GOOD KING REPLIED:
"WE MUST NOT
IMITATE THE
BLOOD LUST
OF OUR NEIGHBOR
LEST WE BE-
COME LIKE
HIM-
"AND WHO AMONG US WOULD WISH TO BE SO EVIL?"
THE GOOD KING WENT UNARMED INTO ENEMY TERRITORY AND PROTESTED THE NEIGHBOR'S WAYS NON-VIOLENTLY.
"WE WILL NOT TOLERATE SUCH PROVOCATION!" ANNOUNCED THE NEIGHBOR, AND HAD THE GOOD KING PUT TO DEATH.
MORAL:
WHO'S
MORAL?