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University Daily Kansan
Thursday, Feb. 20, 1964
Rockwell
George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party, speaks on campus today shortly after this edition of the Kansan hits Jayhawk Blvd.
He is anti-Semitic,anti-Negro,and anti-Red.
Some of his speeches, his literature, and the literature of the Nazi Party are among the most fantastic of the fanatic hate-peddling in the U.S.
Example: The NAACP is a Communist plot headed by Jews to overthrow the white Christians of America. To Rockwell, the world is a racial and political mine field, and the United States is threatened at every turn by everything
If you go to his speech, be prepared for the possibility of listening to repugnant things.
and everyone.
The SUA Minority Opinion Forum has been doing the groundwork on the project for some time. They are serving a vital function of campus education by getting such speakers.
For most who choose to come to today's speech, conscious restraint might be necessary to sit and listen once inside. As students it is our responsibility that the meeting not turn uproarious. Such a responsibility is inherent in academic freedom. — TC
Faculty Members, Students Consider Grading Revision
By Margaret Hughes
KU's "obsessive overemphasis" on the grade point average has led to various proposals to revise the grading system.
The Administrative Committee of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has put grading-system revision on the agenda of the March meeting of the College faculty. Should the College faculty vote to change the system, approval of the University Senate would be necessary.
IN A REPORT to the College departments, the Administrative Committee states: "Grades and grade point averages receive too much emphasis in relation to other aspects of a liberal education."
To reduce this emphasis, the committee suggests that the present system of A, B, C, D, and F be changed to one of H (honors), P (pass), and F (fail). Grinnell has a similar plan.
Other plans, however, have been proposed:
- Eliminate the grade of D.
- Instead of course-by-course grades, use terminal comprehensive examinations to evaluate students' work.
- Use a grading scale based on 100 points or on the current 3.0 system, with course grades such as say, 1.3 or 2.4.
Since the College is now considering the honors-pass-fail system, its advantages and problems should be discussed.
GEORGE R. WAGGONER, dean of the College, said that each instructor would use his own scale, grades or numbers, but would report HPF final grades to the registrar. Grade point averages would be eliminated.
Immediately arising is the problem of graduate and professional schools, scholarship committees, and placement bureaus, which use grade averages to evaluate students' work. "But these agencies already rely heavily on teachers' recommendations to judge applicants." Dean Waggoner said. "These recommendations are much more valuable than a student's transcript."
GEORGE W. WAGGONER
'Are KU students such children?
"A personal relationship between student and teacher would replace
the present anonymity of numbers." Dean Waggoner added.
Eligibility for athletics, sorority rush, fraternity initiation, and honorary organizations is presently based on the grade point system.
**STUDENTS REACT** rather violently — either pro or con — to the HPF suggestion.
The College Intermediary Board, a group of students linking the student body and the College faculty, has been discussing the problem for several months.
FRANK THOMPSON "...system contrary to University's goal."
Frank Thompson, Lawrence senior and chairman of the Intermediary Board, feels that the current grading system lessens the students' independence, dampens intellectual interest, and compromises the University's goals.
OTHER MEMBERS think the HPF system would be more effective in a school with selective admission.
Ethan P. Allen, chairman of the department of political science, commented: "Any grading system is artificial; one that gives more leeway to students and faculty members is an improvement."
Other student reactions:
"I'd quit studying. Why do B work in a course and get the same grade as a D student?"
"HPF would emancipate us from the current grade-average slavery."
FRANCIS H. HELLER, associate dean of the College, said the HPF system might "move the students' focus from pre-occupation with the GPA to learning"
"LETTER GRADES are the most important motivating factor in studying."
"The HPF system would be a real step toward bringing KU's standards up to those of Eastern liberal arts colleges and European schools."
Faculty reaction to the proposed plan is as varied as the students'. Many departments have discussed the plan, but have failed to arrive at a consensus.
The newly-appointed head of the department of English, George J. Worth, stated: "The use of the system, rather than the system itself,
is most important. I have a hunch that for years students would try to translate the HPF system into ABC grades."
Statements from the Conference:
He added that the department was "intrigued" with the proposal that requirement for graduation be 124 hours of "C" or better. Grades of D and F would be disregarded and grade point averages would not be computed by the College Office.
KU IS NOT ALONE in considering revision of the grading system. Although the huge majority of colleges are still on grade-average systems, educators at a conference on grading systems last spring agreed that the systems must be modified.
"The revolutionary changes . . . in higher education may well have rendered the marking systems in current use obsolete and ineffective at the best. At the worst, they may be a deterrent to learning and an obstacle to the achievement of important educational objectives.
"The time has come for a reexamination of ends and means in higher education as these are reflected in the mysterious code letters and numbers that mark our students for life."
Sarah Lawrence College, a women's school in New York, is the leading proponent of the no-grade system. At this small college, three written reports are made each year on every student. Individual conferences with the student's don constitute the main means of evaluating academic progress.
At KU, the School of Law, Graduate School, and the School of Medicine use grading systems different from the other schools. Adoption of an honors-pass-fail system would make the University's grading scales more consistent. But undergraduate academic evaluation is based on a philosophy
ETHAN P. ALLEN
"...any system is artificial."
different from graduate and professional schools.
For KU, the grading system presents a real dilemma.
Dean Waggoner sums up: "The question is whether KU students are such children that they work mainly for grades, or if they are really here to learn."
Winter In New Hampshire
JFK in Death
John Kennedy was killed a little less than three months ago. Since then, the press of America has been flooded with glowing tribute to the man. Civic, state, and national leaders have gone to extremes to erect memorials, to—in some way—keep John Kennedy with us after his death.
Despite these efforts, the essence of Kennedy is gone—for the essence of the man was life itself.
TRUE. WE HAVE his writings, we have some of his legislative programs, we have the eulogies and memories.
But to make the sweeping statement that he lives with us even in his death is the stilted stuff of mediocre poets.
The importance of Kennedy was his vision of America, and of America in the world.
He worked with a nation stretching from the bars and beaches of Honolulu to the ghettos and mansions of New York.
He worked with a nation plagued by economic fears, race hatred, aspirin-tablet worries.
Out of the vastness, confusion, and change, Kennedy's vision of America defined a country understandable to us.
HE WORKED WITH a nation afraid of change, but a nation still not chained inflexibly to the past.
Whether you liked or disliked the young president, you felt his national definition. You felt that you knew where you were.
DESPITE THE SUCCESS of his legislative programs since his death, the Kennedy definition and vision are fading.
His roots were in the past, and he was an intelligent historian. But he was so dynamic as to comprehend the dynamism of his country, and his country's world place.
In death, he is crystallized—by the politicians, by his grave marker, by the printed word, by the half-dollars, memorial books, photos, and the American mind behind it which is seeking to remember him as it would like.
This comprehension he related to America.
This is gone, because his vision of dynamism came from the dynamism in the living man.
President Johnson has done well. An AP feature story last week said the U.S., recovering from the shock of the assassination, is now quietly optimistic about the future.
Very possibly true, but along with this there is a nagging feeling that we are a country adrift, not quite able to comprehend what we ourselves are or where we are going, or what our place is in the world.
FOR A MAN whose greatest quality was dynamism, death seems an especially confining thing. In that sense, John Kennedy is gone.
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