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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, Feb. 20. 1962
The Model UN
The KU Model United Nations will get underway again this year on April 13. It is a project worthy of commendation.
The Model U.N. has a long history at KU. It started in 1946 when the International Relations clubs of the University of Missouri and KU decided to bring together students from over the United States to discuss world problems.
THE IDEA grew out of an International Relations Club convention held in Emporia in 1946 according to the U.N. committee chairman of that year.
A similar idea had been proposed in 1946 by the Student Religious Council at KU. It proposed a two-day student world security assembly to be sponsored by the YWCA, the Administration and several other groups.
and several other groups Enthusiastic plans burst on the KU campus for the conference, but soon died down to a series of discussion groups in faculty members' homes.
Then, in May 1946, the mock U.N. conference
became a reality. It was sponsored by the International Relations Club; Alpha Phi Omega, national service fraternity; Pi Sigma Alpha, national political science society; Delta Sigma Rho, national debating society and the Forensic League.
League. In the first few years, the Model U.N. conferences often involved several universities, and high school students were sometimes invited.
SOME FOREIGN schools even expressed interest in attending the meetings, but were turned down because of housing problems.
The very nature of these meetings aided and will aid the participants' understandings of other governments and peoples. The preparation behind assuming a certain country's role guarantees that something will be learned.
tees that something The philosophy behind holding the conferences indicates that perhaps college students are not as apathetic as often charged.
as apathetic to direct messaging
Its participants merit commendation.
Series Criticized
Editor:
In your usually fine newspaper there occasionally appears an item which seems surprisingly far below standard. Such an item is the recent series from the article by Lawrence S. Kubie on "Faith, Culture, and the American University." It is surprising to me, not because I happen to disagree with the author, but because the article is such a weak tissue of half-truths, clumsy attempts at sophistry, and outright falschoods. Simply on the basis of valid reasoning, one must take exception to nearly every sentence of the article. To point out all of the errors in the article would take more space than it is worth, but let me give just a couple of examples.
IN THE very first sentence it is asserted: "With rare exceptions, Americans assume that Universities should be defenders of Faith." (Mr. Kubie indicates that by faith he means an "unquestioning acceptance of words" which "regards evidence as superfluous.") I have a listing of over a thousand names of Americans who have given evidence that they do not assume any such thing; I have seen a listing of over twenty thousand such names; a general survey would yield a considerably larger number. Mr. Kubie's search for even "approximate evidence" in support of his opening sentence was not painstaking.
I wish to repeat, however, that my objection to your printing such an article is not based upon my
To skip to a more important example, let's look at the statement: "Maturity begins with the courage . . . to accept . . . the fact that the best we can do is to gather approximate evidence which points in the direction of approximate truth." Clearly, either this "fact" is itself only an approximate truth or it is not. If it is not, the statement is self-contradiction; if it is only an approximate truth, then there must be some instances in which this is not "the best we can do," and we again have a contradiction. To accept such an absurdity is surely closer to childish credulity than to maturity.
WITH BEGARD to the position held by Mr. Kubie, let me just say this. Faith to him involves a childish acceptance of absurdities, wishful thinking and superstition; it is incompatible with efforts to prove, for example, the existence of God. These qualities are directly contrary to the altogether different sort of thing termed faith by theologians and philosophers I have studied. One wishes that Mr. Kubie had applied to his own highly immate concept of what is held by religious men some of that insistent questioning and doubt he advocates.
Many other examples of bad reasoning might be given, but this letter would become too lengthy.
disagreement with the position held; it is based upon the fact that the article is so stupid. The question of the relationship between faith and scientific reasoning is a matter of some depth and importance. It deserves and has received the serious consideration of thoughtful and well-informed men. To degrade the matter by publishing so puerile a polemic as Mr. Kubie's is unworthy of the student newspaper of a good university
J. R. Hilbert, S. J.
Kansas City, Mo.
graduate student
A Proposal for YAF Editor:
In the interest of mature discussion and "intelligent debate rather than irrational vilification." I openly challenge the YAF, as a group or individually, to refute the following letter and answer its questions in such a manner as to educate the student body. I cite the paid advertisement in the Feb. 16, 1932 issue of the UDK. I assume that a paid advertisement depicts the beliefs of the YAF and is not the work of those who are prone to make "irresponsible and unsubstantiated attacks on KU-YAF and its leaders." (Quotations are from the last paragraph of the cited advertisement.)
ON THE BASIS of past articles on the matter and on the proposed YAF poll, it is apparent that the group does not believe such a condition exists. If it did there would be no need for a poll or no controversy. Since they paid for an advertisement, I further assume that they advocate a solution. As yet, I have seen nothing but criticism, so I will help the group by stating possible solutions to meet the inadequacy which they have created. The problem is in the classroom so they say, thus extra-curricular
use of the advertisement, refers.
"We believe that faculty representa-
tion of both conservative and liberal views is necessary."
Paragraph three, the last sentence of the advertisement, reads:
activities are not enough. We are now forced into one of two areas, who teaches or what is taught.
Who teaches? This is the decision of the administration. In order to meet the strict requirements of their own making, a political science or economics professor should not be judged on his academic merits, but on the nebulous, undefined degrees of conservatism or liberalism. This is the only way to maintain the delicate departmental balance. If this is unworkable, the YAF can try to solve the problem by dealing with what is taught.
**THIS THEY ALLUDE** to by saying in bold print in the third paragraph, "we believe...endorsement of a political philosophy ...preclude ... an adequate presentation of the opposite side." The missing words were in small print. There is only one solution to a problem of this nature. If a man cannot stand before a class and be completely unbiased on whatever subject he teaches, then he doesn't belong there or he is bound to teach the biased opinions of someone else, as manifested in a text.
Do you advocate the silencing or removal of all professors of economics, political science, business, et al., who do not walk the primrose path of academic neutrality?
Do you advocate that university officials staff their departments with professors who have been chosen on grounds other than their subject preparation and training?
JUST WHAT do you advocate in order to solve the dilemma?
The YAF—and I quote "deplores the evasion of issues and asks responsible discussion." I feel I have given them an opportunity to live up to their bold print platitudes. If they have no workable solution, then they deserve the derision they have brought on themselves.
JUST WHAT do you advocate in order to solve the dilemma?
J. P. Donley
J. P. Donley Kankakee, Ill., graduate student
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Charles Martinache ... Business Manager
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
"FORGET ABOUT WHAT I WANT YOU TO TEACH—CAN YOU DRIVE A BUS? TEACH SUNDAY SCHOOL? MAKE MINOR REPAIRS-?"
It's not often that a sports fan has a letter in these hallowed spaces that are usually reserved for our outstanding student political scientists. But a situation has been quite evident to me and many of my fellow sports enthusiasts during my four years at this distinguished institution. The case in point is our deplorable basketball situation, led by that distinguished gentleman coach Dick Harp.
Basketball Program Criticized Editor;
From our glottic days of nationally prominent teams coached and recruited by coach Phog Allen KU is now faced with a basketball team which at best will finish near the top of the second division of our weaker than usual Big 8 Conference.
ATTENDANCE FIGURES at KU's gigantic white elephant bear out the lack of enthusiasm and interest of KU boosters from both on and off campus. Numerable coaching blunders have been apparent over the past four years. Such things as stopping fine Jayhawk guards such as Bob Hickman from shooting, jerking "hot" men from the games, arguments and bickering between the players on the floor, mental lapses towards the ends of close games that could be cured by the strategies used elsewhere of the timeout or the stall, the apparent complete dependence on one key man, poor free throw shooting, lack of realization and utilization of talent such as the present star of the professional Kansas City Steers, etc., have frustrated many an avid KU basketball fan.
BUT THE HARDEST thing we are forced to swallow is the recruiting job that has been and is now being done by our basketball coach. No longer do we have the high caliber ball player that brings us conference championships and national recognition. With the high quality ball players produced by Kansas and surrounding states, KU is left with a combination of the Kansans K-State doesn't want and the Philadelphiaians who find they don't want KU. Top coaches such as Phog Allen, Jack Gardner and Tex Winter have proven that Kansas can support two first rate basketball powers.
Editor:
Jerry Andre
Honolulu, Hawaii senior
YAF Criticized
Editor:
"We present this statement in the hope that it will bring a cessation of the many irresponsible and unsubstantiated attacks on KU-YAF and its leaders and will aid in fostering a mature discussion by those capable of engaging in intelligent debate rather than irrational vilification."
That advertisement was some of the worst tripe I have ever seen in a newspaper. The YAF wishes so badly to be recognized and not to be chastized but it does nothing to change campus opinion of its image. It has alienated the Young Republicans (as it probably wanted to do anyway) and the Faculty Opinion Poll of the two social science departments was away out on cloud nine. Why doesn't the YAF suggest some progressive, forward-looking project? It is a shame that they continue to live in the nineteenth century.
Fred Callard Lawrence Resident
Worth Repeating
Whoever is right, the persecutor must be wrong—William Penn
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Let those who object to birth control declare themselves in favor of higher mortality instead. The world's present population problems could be solved for a long time by a few mass famines, by a world-wide repetition of the Great Plagues or, for that matter, by a few well placed H-bombs. Do we want to see them solved this way?—Dennis H. Wrong
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When people seek freedom, they are always impatient.—Ralph J. Bunche