Return to learning at last
Students come to the University of Kansas to learn.
This is a basic premise which we must assume.
And considering this assumption, it would seem to follow that the action taken by the University Disciplinary Board (UDB) in expelling several students because of their participation in disrupting the Chancellor's ROTC Review might just bring the focus of other KU students back to that heading.
During the past few years, a minority of students on College campuses throughout the country seem to have deviated from that high goal of a thirst for knowledge. They appear to be spending almost as much time holding demonstrations—and meetings to plan those demonstrations—as they do in attending classes and studying.
But where has that brought them? Most probably into the very situation they are most vehemently protesting.
The draft and the Vietnam war seem to be the favorite "cause" behind most protests and demonstrations these days. Almost to the point where they are becoming boring and trite.
Possibly actions like those taken by the UDB will help curtail some of the disruptions.
Hopefully they will.
No University can function properly and do an effective job of teaching its students if it has
to spend the better part of its time disciplining them and keeping order.
The UDB kicked several students out of the University.
Those students were protesting the draft and the Vietnam war by disrupting the ROTC Review. Many of them were male.And the presence of the female members of the group is somewhat puzzling.
They were supposedly following their beliefs and ideals. But most probably all they did was, to quote an old saying, take themselves "out of the frying pan and into the fire"
They were protesting the draft.
And what did they do? They made themselves openly subject to it by getting ousted from school.
This means that, from now until they are allowed to re-enter the University in the Spring semester, 1970, they will be without their only device for evading the draft—their college deferment.
This, they brought upon themselves. And they have no one else to blame.
But maybe—just maybe—this will serve as a lesson for those who would follow in their footsteps. Maybe some will learn from this University experience.
Only time will tell.
Don Westerhaus Managing Editor
Guest editorial
Regents interfered with UDB
The names of the students taking part in the ROTC demonstration and the disciplinary action taken against them by the University have been made public. The Board of Regents ordered the administration to release that information to the press. The Regents decided that the action of the University in investigating the affair and determining discipline through a responsible committee of faculty and students was not enough. That the students found guilty should be publicly exposed and their parents equally embarrassed seemed to be the aim of some self-righteous finger pointing of some segments of the press. Discipline, harsh as it seems to some, was considered insufficient by the Regents.
The action of such a highly respected group is disappointing, to say the least. The Regents over-reacted and in so doing not only added another penalty to the guilty parties, but put into question the good judgment of the disciplinary
committee. It appears that the Regents were as much interested in revenge against the offenders as in using discipline as an educational tool and as a means of restoring the faith of the offenders in our redemptive purposes and standards of justice. What good has been served by such a public exposure? Is society at large, or the University, or the offenders any better by such action?
Let's hope that the administration of the University, as it works through responsible committees can continue to deal with violations on the basis of good reason, good faith and what is best for the long range purposes of society. Public curiosity, public anger, or even public pressure are not always the best reasons for action. Let's hope that the Regents may give due credit and freedom to the sound judgment of University committees.
Rafael Sanchez, Jr.
Campus Pastor
Kansan Movie Reviews
If you've seen either "Arabesque" or "The Sand Pebbles," you have a fairly bad idea about what "The Chairman" is all about. Like "Arabesque," Gregory Peck is everyone's cool professor, recruited by intelligence to save the world. Like "The Sand Pebbles" the location scenes tend to leave the cinematic visitor to China in dream-limbo. But what "Arabesque" and "Pebbles" had in common, plot, is not the primary ingredient that makes "The Chairman" an evening of good entertainment.
"Chairman" relies not so much on plot as it does on tension. Peck is sent into China in his capacity as a Nobel Prize-winning scientist to obtain a new enzyme formula. That's the plot. The stiff injection of suspense comes when we learn that, along with the secret transmitter implanted in his skull and monitored by satellite there has been placed a secret "fail-safe" miniature bomb device that will render old Gregory a pile of hamburger should he fall into enemy hands. The big catch here is that we know this, but Gregory doesn't.
Director J. Lee Thompson plays out this motif for all it's worth, and then a bit more. Unfortunately, Thompson also seems to get carried away with contemporary China, and the film's namesakes, the Yellow Menace himself, Mao. As a documentary, it is hard to believe that "Chairman" at times seems to take itself seriously. The viewer is treated to fanatical little-red-book-waving Red Guardsmen and every Bircher's stereotype of what a Chinese revolutionary should look like. Even Mao is portrayed (right up there on the silver screen, in Panavision, no less) as a Commie ping-pong player.
The film has its twists, its strengths and weaknesses. Peck plays his professor with the cool he should. His performance is pure Peck and that is good enough. The movie's attention to detail is commendable. The exterior of China are striking, wherever they were shot. The titles are very interesting—a combination or quick-cut stills and cutouts in a collage around the credits. As a suspense thriller, "The Chairman" is not the finest nor the best thriller of the year, but it is solid entertainment done on a proven formula with a good cast.
... quotes ...
PARKERSBURG, W. Va.—Fifteen-year-old Susan Bailey telling, in a confession read in court, of her role in setting a fire that killed her parents and 10 brothers and sisters. The confession described pouring gasoline around the house prior to touching off the blaze:
"I first started with father and mother's room, then in every room except the bathroom. After emptying the gasoline in the dishpan, I put it back under the sink where I first got it."
WASHINGTON (UPI) — HEW Secretary Robert H. Finch testifying before a House committee on federal efforts to achieve desegregation:
"We do not have to go in with an ax. We can and should use a scalpel, and work with the leadership in the community."
Letters to the editor
The University of Kansas Senate Executive Committee believes it necessary and timely to express its deep concern about the pressures which have been and are continuing to be brought to bear on the University of Kansas and on the Board of Regents in connection with the University disciplinary proceedings which resulted from the cancellation of the May 9 Chancellor's ROTC review.
To The Editor:
The necessity for those disciplinary proceedings arose at a time when the new internal governmental structure of the University was just going into effect. Nevertheless, and in spite of a magnitude and complexity not within the previous experience of this or any other Kansas University Disciplinary Board, necessary procedural decisions were made and the proceedings were effectively carried on. Continuation of the disruption experienced at the initial public disciplinary hearing was forestalled with the orderly assistance of a court restraining order.
Following the holding of its hearings, the University Disciplinary Board concerned itself with the formulation of punishments appropriate to the maintenance of the internal peace of the University. That those punishments were to be the sole punishments received was an assumption basic to the deliberations of the University Disciplinary Board. It was to maintain the validity of that assumption that the University's position of nondisclosure of names was taken. The position was carefully considered, and, indeed, after the emergence of external pressures, it was carefully reconsidered and adhered to, in the interest of maintaining the integrity of the University's internal disciplinary processes.
We do not deny the right of others to disagree publicly with the University's non-disclosure position. Nor do we deny their privilege to conduct newspaper and telephone campaigns against
the University's position. We do, however, believe the campaigns to be ill-conceived and unwarranted.
The campaigns are ill-conceived, because they are carried on without apparent understanding of, or attempt to understand, the significant difference between criminal conduct and conduct which is not criminal but which is detrimental to an institution's internal well-being, be that institution a church, a business enterprise, a newspaper, or a university. It is indeed inappropriate for any institution to shelter its members from the sanctions of the criminal law. It is, however, highly appropriate for any institution to develop and sustain internal procedures and sanctions for dealing with non-criminal conduct which it views as detrimental to its well-being. Such internal institutional action is an everyday occurrence. To make a witch-hunt of such occurrences is to strike at a basic source of social order.
Finally, the campaigns are unwarranted, because, in a time of internal stress and public frustration, the University has shown itself able to avoid the violent confrontations that have plagued other educational institutions and has shown itself able to proceed in an orderly fashion to resolve its internal problems. The many within the structure of University governance—students, faculty, administrators and Regents—who have dealt as responsibly as they know how with the difficulties caused by unreasoning impatience from within should be able to expect not to have those difficulties compounded by unreasoning impatience from without.
We believe, and assert, that the University has withstood a severe test. With the continued cooperation of those dedicated to its welfare, it will be able to withstand further tests the future may bring.
The University of Kansas Senate Executive Committee Charles H. Oldfather, Chairman
The Lighter Side 'It's embarrassing'
By Dick West — UPI Columnist
WASHINGTON — Every now and then someone will say to me, "What is Congress doing?" This is an embarrassing question. Particularly when the question is asked by a member of Congress.
After all, I spend most of my time on Capitol Hill. So I am expected to be informed about congressional activities.
To avoid appearing doltish when responding to the question, I have finally worked out an evasive answer. "Congress is buildup," I reply.
When people say, "What is Congress doing?" and I simply look blank, they assume I am stupid. Yet that is the only way the question can be intelligently answered.
I hope the matter will be dropped there, but occasionally I am pressed for an elaboration.
"Building up to what?"
"Building up to their summer vacation," I explain.
For the first time this year, you see, Congress had scheduled a
The Summer Session Kansan, student newspaper at the University of Kansas, is represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 Street, NY, NY. 10022. Mail subscription rates: $6 a semester or $10 a year. Publicity postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas, every Tuesday and Friday for the duration of the summer session. Accommodations, goods, and employment advertised in the Summer Session Kansan are offered to students without regard to color, creed, or national origin.
Well, you could hardly expect Congress to plunge into a summer recess for the first time without any training or practice. Ergo, much of this year's session has been devoted to getting into condition for the recess.
The opinions expressed in the editorial columns are those of the editorial staff of the newspaper. Guest editorial views are not necessarily the same as those of the opinions expressed in the Summer Session Kansan are not necessarily those of the University of Kansas Administration or the Kansas State Board of Regents.
Members have been building up to it gradually, which was a wise approach. Otherwise, some of them might have been overextended.
So the dates were fixed last winter—Aug. 13 to Sept. 3.
They began tuning up with the Lincoln Day recess: Feb. 7-17, took a trial run at Eastertide April 3-14 and rehearsed again over Memorial Day May 28-June 2.
Executive Staff
Managing Editor ... Don Westerhaus
Adviser ... James W. Murray
Photography ... Bill Seymour, Gary Mason
Business Manager ... Rodney Obwynne
Adviser ... Mel Adams
Office Manager ... Helen Ross
In fact, it was the only part of the reform that was adopted.
The reformers argued that congressmen could function more efficiently if they had a regular summer vacation, with the dates fixed in advance, rather than having to improvise time off while the session was in progress.
summer recess. It was adopted as part of the congressional reform program advocated by a group of the younger lawgivers.
The legislative program was kept to a minimum during the weeks preceding and following each of these warmup recesses, and a number of long weekends were interspersed between them.
The House, for instance, held its Flag Day ceremony two days early this week, making it unnecessary to meet on Saturday.