Thursday, February 22, 1968
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
3
letters to the editor
Mandelker letters
To the Editor:
Editorial response in the UDK to Professor Mandelker's preference to not provide ROTC students with knowledge they can use to kill people has been unsympathetic and disheartening.
In a letter to the editor, Mr. Paris asks: "Does a teacher, employed by the state, have a right to decide whom he will accept as a student? Questions have a way of revealing viewpoints, as is seen in how I would phrase this question: "Can individual and moral precepts be bought off or dictated by the State?"
Clearly my sympathies fall on the side of moral precepts—however hard to arrive at. Miss Wengler's editorial condemning the "rudeness" of Mr. Mandelker's action, however, offers a focal point for debate of "students rights," or, from my viewpoint, the propriety of using the university as a military training ground
Miss Wengler argues that given the "inherent goodness of academic freedom" and further given that "every man of draft age has to consider (i.e. submit to) some sort of military or civilian service and ROTC is one sensible alternative," Professor Mandelker "has misused his academic freedom to severely restrict" the freedom of the student. A basic problem with this argument is that the question of why every man "has" to "consider" the draft (without even representation) has not even been raised.
Furthermore, given this situation, why is ROTC unquestionably accepted as a "sensible" solution. Numerous authorities would certainly disagree with the militaristic ethic and support civilian service. From religious thinkers to the signatories of the United Nations Charter to modern sociologists such as Irving L. Horowitz war has been considered neither moral nor "sensible."
Finally to the suggestion that "if Mandelker is so insistent on not teaching ROTC students something they could use to 'kill people,' he should not teach at a university which has a military science department." I would like to offer the converse suggestion and hope that if more people would insist that they "sin't going to study war no more," maybe we can have a university with a peace science department instead of a military one.
-Bob Howard Wichita junior
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To the Editor:
It appears that Mr. Mandelker finds himself adopting a very precarious stance: feet planted rather hesitatingly on either side of an indefensible position. To make matters worse, well-meaning Miss Cogswell has taken up his cause and has done a fair job of eroding the one bit of solid ground upon which he had managed a toe-hold.
Mr. Mandelker's point, well hidden as it is, is quite simple:
Only Mr. Mandelker knows the proper manner in which knowledge is to be applied to our lives. Any practical expression of mathematical theory must be cleared through his office. It is possible Mr. Mandelker could justify his pontifical pose on grounds of technical skill, but I hesitate to have him establish his hegemony on moral grounds.
You see, if Mr. Mandelker can decide for the Math department what is moral and what is not (and what is more amazing: who is moral and who is not), then someone in the English department may decide that one could be bored to death by William Faulkner and thus refuse to teach his work as a matter of moral principle. Worse yet, Mr. Mandelker may find his moral insight transcends the arbitrary limits of academic disciplines. What could he do but take up position outside my 7:30 class and refuse my students entry because they may someday discover the horrible destructive power of connotation and loose it upon a defenseless world? Soon Mr. Mandelker would be dashing from door to door, hour after hour, covering all the bases and teaching no mathematics at all.
Luckily, Mr. Mandelker is content to bide his time, until the "system" is changed. In the only truly moral statement he makes, Mr. Mandelker realizes that students are entitled to an education. Unfortunately, he seems to feel there is something vaguely immoral about making even that concession.
He needn't worry, though. In a masterpiece of sophomoric metaphor, Miss Cogswell interprets her guru with the fanatic absolutism only eager young women and very small children can maintain.
Chris Suggs Baldwin graduate student
To the Editor:
Mark Mandelker has stepped on toes—he has indeed "infringed on the rights of others." How?? By simply using his position to his own advantage, by causing embarrassment and by sheer ridicule. A professor should be a person of respect, a person with respect for his students—at least enough to confront them privately about his beliefs. The act of addressing students in a classroom situation where they may not answer charges nor escape them is certainly not that of a mature professor.
Mark Mandelker signed a contract with the University. That signature therefore deprives him of "picking" or "choosing" the students for his classes. Does not this "professor" realize that many of the students he now teaches are not in a uniform, but quite probably will be involved in the military some date in the future?
How can Mandelker justify teaching anyone? I suggest he move to a neutral country where he will have no doubts about teaching his killing subject to the wrong people. Mandelker does not belong with an open minded university that offers such peaceful subjects as basket weaving as well as having an ROTC department.
A professor with respect for his profession would not even slander students nor be caught in such a situation as this one. There were many alternatives available for asking certain people to leave a class; a private talk explaining a fear of being unfair and prejudiced in grading would have been one way.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Mr. Mandelker, a big noise is not—was not needed.
(Name withheld at writer's request)
Paperbacks
THE FASTEST GUN, by Dan Cushman (Dell, 50 cents)—One for those of you who like old-fashioned westerns. This one's the Idaho wilderness in the 1860s, and about a wagon train of farmers in that gold-crazy country.
THE YOUNG DIVORCEES, by Lissa Charell (Dell, 95 cents)—A somewhat sensation-packed story of the new generation that takes divorce so casually—or maybe it's marriage that's taken casually. Four wives—ex-wives—and their amours are described in this one.
THERE IS A SEASON, by Faith Baldwin (Dell, 50 cents)—Romanic stuff by a writer whose books your parents (parent, perhaps) read. It's about a minister, a veteran of war, and the girl he loves. Highly significant stuff.
Engineers to meet Friday
Representatives from engineering societies within 250 miles of Kansas City will meet in Topeka Friday to establish a program of science and engineering guidance for secondary schools and junior colleges.
The program is being organized by Paul G. Hausman, associate professor of engineering at KU.
Hausman is chairman of the
steering committee to organize engineering societies in Kansas and Missouri into a council for encouraging high school students to choose engineering as a profession. The group would aid high school guidance counselors in encouraging engineering by providing them with informational materials they might need.
The Buckle Bull's-eye
Nunn-Bush stylists function with rare competence. Here is a look of handsome virility. Ankle-Fashioned for superior comfort, good looks and longer wear.
the university shop's
ANNUAL WINTER SALE ENDS SATURDAY
JUST 2 MORE
DAYS
OF
FINAL RIDICULOUS REDUCTIONS
1420 Crescent Road
"On the Hill"