Are politics important?
Student elections have, in the past, been little more than popularity contests for a relative few who chose student politics as their form of extracurricular activity.
What more can student politics do than provide a minor training ground for future politicians or give Dad something to tell his old alumni friends. Government has done little more than reflect, sometimes inaccurately, the thoughts and complaints of the student body in general.
In the past, and probably in the future, students have stayed away from the polls in droves. There has been little sense in voting as the government hasn't done much for the student in the past, and it is doubtful that it will do much more in the future.
There is, however, one small change this year that could be indicative of an increasing role of the student in
administrating the University, if he wants to. That change was the adoption and approval of the Senate Code, which does not really give the student the power some desired, but it opens the avenues of communication to give him at least a chance to voice his complaints.
Next week, students will vote for members of the new Student Senate. If the vote is light it will show what many people already believe that students aren't interested in University government. If the vote is heavy it will show there is enough desire on the part of students to warrant the changes. A strong vote will show that campus politics is not just an extracurricular activity and that interest in student rights which has caused much of the strife on America's campuses reaches far deeper than just a militant few.(ATJ)
It's anti ROTC day
Today is the day a great number of major campus daily newspapers are carrying editorials calling for the abolition of ROTC courses on their respective campuses. The Daily Kansan is not one of them.
ROTC has a place on campus just as any other course. At KU it is unobtrusive, forces no one to join and should cause no one, save those who have run out of causes, trouble.
If a man chooses to honor his obligation to his country by the reserve officer candidate program he must be free to do that, just as anyone is free to choose his course anywhere else in the University.
While many people are disenchanted, if not openly against the War in Vietnam, this does not give them cause to blame the KU ROTC. The battles are not fought in the KU military science building nor are they perpetrated there.
In that building there are only military instructors and students who have chosen to be there. The students have of their own free will, chosen that course. They have not been coerced into joining, yet some would take this freedom of choice away.
If a university is to provide freedom of choice in its curriculum, it must provide it for all students, not just those with the loudest voices.
If other college newspapers have allowed themselves to be swayed by a noisy minority it is their business, however there is and probably will always be need for a military. That military is going to need men and those men cannot all be supplied from military academies. A person who wishes to honor his commitment to country but not as a career must be allowed to pursue a liberal education and if he chooses, concurrent military training. The student is the one who will suffer with the abolition of ROTC. (ATJ)
"Too bad you're a local operator."
Readers' write
To the Editor:
Wednesday morning April 9, a freshman resident of Corbin Hall was informed by her resident director that she was to see Mr. John Wolf, assistant director of Corbin College. Shortly thereafter, this freshman girl found herself faced with an ultimatum. She was confronted with a "choice" between withdrawing from school by noon Thursday April 10, or being withdrawn by Corbin College.
What atrocity preceded this drastic action? Might it be that she was inciting Corbin residents to riot? Or was it perhaps that the University had classed her as an "undesirable element"?
No, dear reader, it is with a crime much more grave that we are dealing with. It is that of irregularity in class attendance.
In presenting an unbiased picture, we must clarify that said freshman girl was placed on academic probation after the fall semester. It should also be noted that the 1968-69 Catalog of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences states, "At the end of the semester in which the student has been on probation, he will be removed from probation if his grade point average for the semester is at least 1.00, or he will be dismissed for poor scholarship if his average for the semester is below 1.00."
When contacted by the parents of the freshman girl, the Corbin assistant director cited attendance records for the classes in which she was enrolled, for at least one of which, the wrong instructor had been contacted. This information was given as the basis for the threatened dismissal.
It should also be noted that Mr. Wolf felt himself so qualified a judge that he took it upon himself to inform the girl and her parents that there was "no way" she could make the 1.00 GPA needed to remove her from probation.
It seems strange, then, that when the girl contacted each of her instructors she learned that only five of her sixteen hours were "below average" and that there was a substantial possibility that she would still be able to raise her grade in those five hours.
It also appears that our enlightened administration tends to disregard financial considerations when it takes it upon itself to liberate an individual from the emotional strains of the challenge of the University's arbitrary standards of "sastisfactory academic progress." For many students, however, the money spent on tuition, books, and residence hall payments (not to mention incidentals or time spent in vain), is of some consequence.
Will the next move our paternalistic University be to command Jim Ryun to drop out of the race if he is eight yards behind with half the race to run? Is there no concern with the chance for self-development in overcoming adversity? Do we no longer value freedom of choice when an individual's priorities might be different from our own?
Of course, who are we, as students, to imply that free choice should be granted to anyone, especially when our wise administrators seem to feel that freshmen women are not capable of accepting individual responsibility and need to be led by the hand? Or can we challenge the concept that performance as a freshman inevitably determines future success or failure?
But alas, after conversations with numerous administrative "higher-ups", our freshman found that no one wanted to get involved. In frustration with administrative bureaucracy, the lack of a body to whom to appeal, and no attempts to understand her as an individual human being, our freshman packed her suitcases and left the gently rolling hills of the University of Kansas.
Be it clearly understood that these statements are not presented with incendiary intent, but there were rumors of similar incidents in the offing. So beware, innocent student. You must resist the call of learning experiences outside of the classroom and keep your feet on the straight and narrow. While you're not looking, paternalistic administrators may be deciding your future.
Students Against Paternalism Robert Graber Robert B. Pusey
To the editor:
I was both pleased and surprised to read the editorial comments of Robert Entriken, Jr. and JKD in the April 8, UDK. Pleased because the sentiments expressed echoed mine and I feel the majority of KU students. Surprised because I figured the UDK would go along with the tokenism trend of today.
Entriken said it all when he said that representation on the squad was no one's right. If Negroes, Chinese, Quakers, Jews, red-heads or whatever want to be represented they should earn the honor. I can just see Pepper Rogers playing a five-foot, four-inch, 100 pound student at center because he is black, or Ted Owens playing me at the post (I'm five-foot, ten-inches) just because I'm white. I appreciate your stand and encourage you in this direction.
Jim Stratford
Kansan Telephone Numbers
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