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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, April 22, 1968
KU barren in 1969?
Flower children arise!
KU's plans to destroy the greenhouse behind Flint Hall within the next 18 months to make way for a cooling tower for the proposed humanities building is just another step to strip the campus of beauty.
The main job of the greenhouse is supplying flowers and foliage plants for campus flowerbeds and departmental offices. But it also supplies 800 to 900 red geraniums for graduation.
Spring is a particularly beautiful time at KU with flower beds, bushes and trees in bloom. While walking by Hoch Auditorium, students' senses are pleasantly assaulted by hundreds of red tulips in the giant flowerbed directly in front of the building. Next year, will that be just another mound of KU dirt? Perhaps the B&G men will be able to fill the bed with concrete.
"We consider the greenhouse expendable," said Keith Lawton, vice-chancellor in charge of operations, "and it is doubtful it will be replaced."
It is unfortunate when the University's crash program of building is done at the expense of the small things that make this campus an unusually pretty one.
But again aestheticism is overlooked for functionability and beauty sacrificed for utility.
As if Fraser Hall weren't bad enough.
Diane Wengler Editorial Editor
An open letter to Dean Heller:
Military inhibits discussion
By Michael Maher Associate professor of zoology
This letter is prompted by the discussions you have had recently with students on the issues raised by the presence of the military on this campus in the person of the ROTC and the recruiters. These issues are of such fundamental importance to the University, I hope the dialogue which has started will be continued. This letter is directed to that end.
The basic point at issue is the function of the University as an institution, and the role it should play in society.
The University is devoted to education in the broadest sense. A student should enter this community of scholars, not to "receive the word," but to be able to hear and take part in discussions of all aspects of any subject, so as to make up his own mind which ideas to espouse personally.
Thus, the University is devoted to the maintenance of a free exchange of ideas. This means, or should mean, the University is devoted to working toward an open society, toward a society characterized by freedom and democracy, since it is only in a truly open society that one can maintain a free exchange of ideas.
The University should work vigorously against conditions in society which would inhibit a free exchange of ideas.
How does the presence of the military fit in with the ideas outlined above?
The military as an institution, both in terms of the principles to which it is devoted and in terms of its actual behavior, is devoted to goals
which are antithetical to those of the University. The military is characterized by blind obedience to authority and suppression of free exchange of ideas. Its ultimate goal is more efficient ways of killing people.
The presence of the military could be justified if it were to enter the University community primarily to take part in the free exchange of ideas, but it does not.
The ROTC is an enclave whose program is designed to inculcate the principles and practices of warfare. The ROTC has little or no intercourse with the rest of the University.
Military recruiters come in to encourage students to join the services. They have refused invitations by students to debate the practices of the military. Thus, the presence of the military certainly does not contribute to the educational function of the University.
On the contrary, it works against that function. For this reason, neither the ROTC nor the recruiters should be allowed on the campus.
American universities have come under heavy criticism in recent years for being merely technical adjuncts to the corporate liberalism of the American Establishment. In a recent essay, John Gerassi made the accusation that ".. American academia is not a marketplace of ideas, but an essential institution in producing the cogs and technocrats and idealogues needed to run, justify and rationalize American imperialism." Certainly, to the extent that the military is allowed to operate within the University, this is true.
"We're making it into a movie . . . For those who won't read the book!"
Letters to the editor
Where credit's due
To the Editor:
It is a pity that credit was not given where credit was due for a job well done. Specifically, I am referring to the monumental, last-minute efforts of two members of the Interfraternity Council, Gary Duncan, Sigma Nu, and Mike Davis, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, who personally headed the fund raising drive that sent the KU Pep Band to the NIT basketball tournament in New York.
Following an IFC resolution recommending sponsorship of this venture, these two men raised over $1,800 from fraternities, sororities, students, alumni, Lawrence business men, and area
residents—all in the space of 24 frantic hours. This service project was undertaken when it was learned that the athletic department could find no funds to finance such a trip, in spite of the fact that the KU team reached the finals of the tourney.
In short, I believe that Duncan and Davis should receive the sort of official commendation they deserve for their devoted efforts and that the athletic department perhaps examine its fund priorities to account for future emergencies such as this one.
—Dennis M. Taylor
Rancho Cordova, Calif., senior
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
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