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University Daily Kansan Friday, March 16. 1962
For a Free Choice
An officer of the Sigma Nu fraternity chapter at KU went before the Human Rights Council of the All Student Council this week and defended the fraternity's right to retain a discriminatory clause in its national constitution.
The American university has traditionally been the stronghold of freedom and opportunity, and Greek organizations are an integral part of these universities. It is only right that the university would not tolerate discrimination on the basis of race or religion.
A COURT RULING in 1954 ruled that since fraternities are an integral part of the university, the university has the right to dictate to the fraternities on their right to discriminate because of race.
His arguments are the stock arguments of defenders of Greek discriminatory clauses. They contain several fallacies.
In the first place, defenders of discriminatory clauses often draw an equation between the right to choose with whom they want to associate, and the right to keep the clauses.
There is no known instance where a university has ordered a Greek house to accept anyone. There have been instances, and rightly so, of a university ordering a Greek organization to remove its discriminatory clause or withdraw from the national organization.
Carrying this a step farther, the university has not only the right, but the duty to see that some sort of effective action, whatever it might
NOTHING COULD be more wrong. No one can logically hold that a private group should be told with whom to associate. But there is a growing and quite correct sentiment that a Greek system should not ban en masse every member of a certain racial or religious group.
be, is taken against discriminatory clauses in Greek organizations.
Another of the Sigma Nu president's arguments was that "it must be obvious since we have not disaffiliated from the national chapter and become local, the majority of men in our house are in favor of the discriminatory clause. Our local chapter has decided to go along with what other chapters have decided. Majority rules."
IT IS JUST as "obvious" and logical that a fraternity does not disaffiliate from the national organization or fight its discriminatory clause because no one cares to take the risk in the closely integrated social structure of a fraternal organization.
All members of a particular race or religion cannot be labeled as undesirable. Each member has a right to be judged individually and on his own merit.
In short, a discriminatory clause in a national Greek constitution is indefensible. It has no moral or logical grounds on which to stand.
Removal of discriminatory clauses would in effect be an extension of the local chapter's freedom, not an infringement. These chapters should have the right to pledge whom they want without blanket rules from a national organization. They should have the maturity to see that this is the logical and morally sound approach.
IT IS A SAD commentary on some Greek organizations that they deem it logical to have a national constitution labeling all members of a group undesirable. It is an even sadder commentary that members of a local fraternal organization allow themselves to be forbidden to pledge a member of a certain racial or religious group without consideration of the particular individual.
—Karl Koch
Greek Clauses Criticized Editor:
Steve Brawner, Sigma Nu president, has stated, "As we are a member chapter of the national fraternity, we must go along with their laws and their constitution. If we did not, we wouldn't be Sigma Nu's." In other words, to be a Sigma Nu, one must support a clause enforcing bigotry. One sometimes wonders whether many Greeks consider themselves individuals first and Greeks second, or vice versa. The narrow-minded, robot-like Greek attitudes on issues such as this one are a major reason why the overwhelming majority of the KU student body is independent by choice, not chance.
Class Gifts and Their Usefulness Editor:
Jack Zinn
Shawnee Mission
freshman
*...*
It is my opinion that a class gift given as a memorial to future students of the University of Kansas should be so placed or arranged that students can use it to its fullest. I have in mind the Hammond Organ in the Student Union. For four years I have seen student after student told to stop using it.
THIS MORNING (Wed.) I inquired about the regulations for its use. The hostess informed me that it was never to be used unless special permission from the director of the union was obtained. She said that the union was used for too many activities and special functions to allow the piano or the organ to be played. I asked her if it were possible to use it at that time (7:45 a.m.) since only she and a janitor were within hearing distance. "SORRY! IT'S A RULE" was her reply. Nearly every room I have visited has allocated one room to house a piano for student use so it wouldn't annoy the television viewers or others.
It seems that better planning would allow the students to use these facilities even if it meant that the Ladies Flower Club of West Lawrence couldn't hold their meetings on campus. Since every student gets to pay Union dues I feel that it should be operated for the
...Letters..
student's convenience and comfort.
Furthermore, I want no part in purchasing a class gift for the University that will lose all value in a matter of a few years. Perhaps the regulations always stipulated that the piano and organ were never to be used?
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
Terry Watkins
El Dorado senior
* * *
For purposes of clarification of the stand that Sigma Nu Fraternity has taken on our rights to determine our own membership requirements, I would like to relate the full content of statements made at the Tuesday meeting of the Human Rights Committee.
Brawner Clarifies HRC Remarks
Editor:
ANYTHING WE have in our laws concerning membership requirements, we feel we have a right to have being a private organization. Any infringement of this right would be an infringement on our freedom of voluntary association in a free country. Churches, lodges, country clubs, and fraternal organizations are entitled to choose their members as they see fit. If liberty perishes on the campus, it will not last long in our country. Responsible college administrators realize that the function of a university is to teach people how to think, not what to think.
Sigma Nu is based on the principle of a family circle in that groups which are historically and culturally related have the best chance for a harmonious existence. This belief is shared by many sociologists and clergymen.
AS A MEMBER chapter of the national fraternity, we must go along with the national laws and constitution. If we do not, we will not be Sigma Nu's. The local chapter must go along with what all the other chapters decide in convention. Majority rules. If our stand proves to be wrong, then we expect to die a natural death due to our inability to attract members.
Steve Brawner
Merriam senior
Commander, Sigma Nu
Coment on Brawner's Statement Editor;
No one denies the right of a fraternity to choose its own member. Any organization has no right. The question is not the truth of that right but its abuse. So if Mr. Brawner is trying to justify a clause which discriminates solely on the basis of color or creed; and if he tries to put the blame on the national fraternity, as though the local chapter of Sigma Nu is lacking sufficient intestinal fortitude to disaffiliate itself; or if he refuses to recognize any other authority than his fraternity, disassociating himself from the Christian ideals on which his country was founded; or if he acts like the University will try to reprimand his fraternity as a mother would admonish her wayward child, then he and any others with him have demonstrated their right to be asinine fools.
Robert Cummings Leavenworth junior
Dailu Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
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"NUTHIN TO DO ON A LOUISY DAY LIKE THIS—WHADDA YA SAY WE GO TO CLASS?"
By Tom Winston
The Experimental Theatre opened its newest experiment Tuesday night $\rightarrow$ three foreign-language one-act plays in their native languages.
The plays are "The Magic Theater" (in Spanish), by Miguel de Cervantes, "The Wall" (in German), by Tankerd Dorst, and "Humulus the Mute" (in French), by Jean Anouilh.
TUESDAY evening's performances ranked in that order of interest, too. But be it known that this writer can understand only German. He like the other 40 persons present, had to depend on the acting and the situation to tell him what was happening, much the same as in an opera.
John Magill, Shawnee Mission sophomore, might as well have been Zorro the Quartermaster. All that was missing from his final entrance was a big white horse. He is slender and even handsome, but he did not act convincingly.
Saving "The Magic Theatre" from all but complete disinterest were Jose Lacomba, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, graduate student, and Joan Felt, Prairie Village freshman, whose imaginative, facile and energetic performances add life to some otherwise dull, stodgy and dead acting.
IT IS POSSIBLE the play, directed by Virgil Godfrey, assistant professor of speech and drama, will improve in English. Much of the slow pace can be attributed to actors struggling to remember lines and apparently, having remembered them, to pronounce them.
The same players act both English and original versions of all three plavs.
"The Magic Theatre" is set in XVII century Spain. Its theme is similar to Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes". Chirinos and Chanfalla (Miss Felt and Lacomba) set up a magic theater and perform at a wedding celebration. Chanfalla says nobody who is either a bastard or has Jewish blood can see the show.
Much more fortunate was "The Wall." The play has only four characters: a man, a woman, a fat soldier, and a thin soldier.
Celia Candlin, London, England, junior, plays the woman. The woman comes to the wall to ask of her husband. The soldiers ask her questions and make fun of her. The woman wants her own husband back, but she will take any man just to have one.
Julia Callahan. Lawrence graduate student, plays the duchess. Humulus' grandmother. Humulus is played by Randy Williams. Each of the cast members are excellent. The play is about 15 minutes long, in three scenes.
The plays will run on alternate nights with the Tau Sigma dance drama: Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday.
Keith Jochim, Birmingham, Mich., junior, and Phillip Kimball, Derby junior, are both amusing and cruel as the fat and thin soldiers.
HUMULUS CAN say only one word per day. His grandmother has him come to her to say his one word each day. One day he refuses, explaining through the governor (Steve Lopata, Clayton, Mo., sophomore) that he is madly in love with a young woman and is saving his words to propose to her.
Saturday, "The Wall" will be in German, the others in English; Monday "Humulus" will be in French, the others in English, and Wednesday all will be in their original languages.
THE WALL symbolizes some great power. Since the play is new it may symbolize the separation of families in East and West Berlin. But who knows?
Miss Candlin made the English translation. The play is directed by Horst Muller, Tirschenseuth, Germany, graduate student.
Curtain is at 8 o'clock each performance night.
"Humulus the Mute," directed by Diana Abruzzino, Huntington, W. Va., graduate student, has the merest trifle for a plot and is also the most charming of the plays.
Worth Repeating
It is simply not possible for small oases of prosperity in the world to continue to exist amidst vast deserts of poverty without engendering storms that might engulf those oases.—B. K. Nehru