HEW & race
The Department of Health, Education and Welfare has issued a memorandum warning the nation's colleges and universities that special programs for black students may be in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The first action taken under the memorandum is a request made by HEW t o Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, to prepare a desegregation plan for its Afro-American studies institute and a proposed all-black dormitory this summer.
The HEW memorandum says the agency supports efforts to recruit students from minorities and those who are academic risks, but says HEW must enforce regulations prohibiting racial segregation.
The memorandum places a number of universities in a rather unique sandwich. Administrators faced with student demands for black studies programs must now also be careful not to segregate these programs. It may be difficult for university administrations to satisfy both sides.
The statement also gives rise to a new problem, or rather intensifies one that has been growing for the last few years. This problem is one of backlash. White backlash to riots in cities and black demands was one of the fears politicians had in the last election, especially concerning the candidacy of George C. Wallace.
The HEW position does not really represent backlash, but it might seem that way to some black militants. What the memorandum states is whites are entitled to the same courses, living accommodations and benefits as blacks.
In the past few years, charges of racism have always been leveled against whites. However, racism is just as prominent in black ranks. The term racist applies to black and white equally and the principle behind it is leading to polarization of the races.
As noted by some learned students of the civil rights problem, this polarization has led to a breakdown of communications between the races, a breakdown that has worsened in the last 10 years.
This breakdown has to be corrected before the races can reach a state of cooperation for the betterment of both. (ATJ)
--probably more job-oriented than not, a difficulty arises with ROTC. ROTC is not designed for drawing, painting, etc.-but for the most efficient way (naturally politics interferes) to organize destruction of an enemy through various levels of esclation/threats. Yes, nobody "wants to"—but currently much of military science is more applied than theoretical. In the 1920's my father dropped ROTC at KU when the time came for bayonet practice—until then it had not been "serious." He felt, perhaps too simply, that a university was not a place to learn how to kill. (Incidentally, if you examined KU history more carefully, you'd realize the issue of ROTC goes back to the 1920's. My father and others printed a pink (literally) sheet called "The Dove," took after the ROTC and other KU issues, hawked it on the streets for 5 cents—An Underground Magazine in the 1920's no less.) Frankly, I agree—the university is not the place to give credit for such skills.
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Letters to the editor
Readers write of ROTC, right-to-work
(2) Given the fact that KU is
To the Editor:
Your comments on ROTC pose several problems for me. You say (1) Every school is professionally oriented save the College of Liberal Arts and related Sciences; (2) No matter which area of a field is pursued, the ultimate goal is to become proficient, i.e., drawing, or painting, or whatever the specific area of interest may be—for one desires skills for competency; (3) ROTC must be considered a professional curriculum and hence (4) Since other fields of professional study are offered (you list engineering, business, journalism, education, music), why not ROTC for those who wish to pursue it? Is this not academic freedom? For any student to pursue his own field of interest? Indeed, "... no matter what that interest might be, then such a field of study is relevant to him and he should be allowed to follow it." (I trust you do support all movements for Black Studies Programs, Third World Movements for courses, etc. Who knows? Maybe even KKK programs should anyone be so bold as to suggest that because they are interested.) May I express my confusions?
(1) Be not so timid as to exclude the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from your professionalism-competency bag. (Why weaken your case?) Yet is that not a problematic question? Namely, what happened to the College? You really should converse with various grad students in, say, physics, social sciences; and languages and would easily find out the pressures for "professionalization." Thus the whole University can be considered as a certification-agency for job markets of various shades and colors. But is that not a sad state of affairs—is not one notion behind a "Free University" (however bad it may be by other criteria) precisely to get away from the certification a la grades, exams (if you will, pass/fail alternatives) so that one can pursue knowledge for its own sake? Incidentally, the idea of a Free University is much better expressed in German—they are called KU (Kritische Universität). Too bad KU is not a KU.
(3) The same here. No one denies the professional stature of the military. Even Eisenhower recognized that. But what is the nature of this profession? Is this an "art" of interest to a university? Yes, I know military universities exist (they have "Liberal Artsy" stuff like languages, music, etc.) But if you objected to the Kansas legislature interfering with student rights to dissent—can you really imagine student freedom at West Point? Are there really, you know, "strange" people there—even beards and stuff? Presumably one high mark of the professional ROTC man rests on an authoritarian command structure—course it operates mightly strange at times as the doings on with the Pueblo are revealing; like, those guys gave a whole ship complete with secret stuff to the enemy, signed confessions, etc.
(4) You yourself hedge on this one—otherwise why your "Granted, a curriculum such as ROTC should not be a degree granting course of study" (Why not? It, too, is a "science.") But you do want to give it elective credit. Why should the university recognize it? Why the criteria "professional skills?" Is "skills to kill" (even though no
one wants it, of course) the equivalent of "skills to paint?"
Indeed, it saddens me to see an editor of a college paper buying the professionalism-bag as "right" for a university.
David Sutherland
Graduate Student
Sociology
To the Editor:
Last week KU students, led by the Collegiate Young Democrats, showed considerable concern over House Bill 1144. The bill, which would have made state college students who disobey police orders during a demonstration subject to expulsion, has been abandoned in favor of a joint resolution. A Kansan editorial was critical of the bill, arguing that it would have violated rights of free speech and assembly.
Anyone who is concerned about loss of freedom should scrutinize and support a different bill now before the state legislature-House Bill 1179. This bill would further guarantee a freedom created a decade ago by Kansans who voted in the Right-to-Work constitutional amendment.
This amendment assures every person the freedom of joining or not joining a labor union. Eighteen other states have similar constitutional provisions or statutes.
Why, then, does the amendment need legislative action?
Simply because the independent worker, who doesn't want his monthly dues (assessed by unions) to support political candidates of the unions' choice, has had to hire a lawyer and go into court to preserve his rights. A freedom enjoyed only by those who can afford to hire attorneys is a tenuous freedom, to be sure.
House Bill 1179 would prevent coersion of the worker by imposing misdemeanor penalties against the employer or union boss who attempts to deprive a worker of this freedom.
In an era when many individual liberties are being restricted, House Bill 1179 provides a chance to support legislation which insures freedom.
Ben Lighfoot First Year Law