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University Daily Kansan
Thursday, Feb. 13, 1964
Lookout World
KU, in the eyes of some of the campus high intelligentsia, is a version of Jonathan Swift's floating island of Laputa, disconnected and uncommunicating with the Real World.
It is the place where the college scholar comes to exist for four or five or seven years, while the University prepares them for jobs.
It is the place where our intellectual takes 21 hours a semester, goes to summer school, and tries to get out as soon as possible.
Then, armed with his diploma, a portfolio of term papers, and a 2.87 grade average, the learning-lover departs for the Outside, ready to go to work. His time for service to society has arrived.
In the past several years he has not: read a newspaper, voted in an election, attended a symphony concert, or gone to a baseball game.
Swift describes well the citizen of Laputa:
Look out. world: here he comes!
"The minds of these people are so taken up with intense speculations, that they neither can speak, nor attend to the discourses of others, without being roused by some external taction upon the organs of speech and hearing. . . .
"In the common actions and behavior of life,
I have not seen a more clumsy, awkward, and
unhandy people, nor so slow and perplexed in their conceptions upon all other subjects. . .
They are very bad reasoners, and vehemently given to opposition, unless when they happen to be of the right opinion.
The Laputians were out in force this week at a dinner of Summerfield and Watkins scholars, the group with the highest grade average per capita on campus.
In a debate and discussion on the merits of working experiences for the college student, the Truth came out: KU scholars are too busy pursuing academic learning to have time for living.
A number of the scholars do value a job during college: "It develops moral character." "Working puts you in contact with the common man." "It helps you get a job in the Real World."
Swift's description of the Laputian seems to fit: a semi-conscious person existing on an island floating miles above the clouds.
The topic for the March meeting of the Summerfield and Watkins scholars: "Are We Heading Toward Absurdity?"
Obviously, they have arrived a month ahead of time.
—Margaret Hughes
The People Say. . .
Stephenson's Stand
Editor:
Stephenson Hall notes with approval the publicity and the favorable response which has been given to the stand taken by Miller Hall against the discrimination practiced by the Plaza Club. As we were associated with Miller in what was to have been a combined party, we believe that we too should take a definite position on this issue. Although finals week prevented an early official decision, Stephenson has recently discontinued plans for a party at the Plaza Club, and voted unanimously to register a strong official protest against the discrimination exhibited by the club's management.
Because the Plaza Club is a private club, it is apparently within its legal rights in refusing service to anyone. However, since the refusal in the present case to let Negro girls from Miller swim in the club's pool was based on purely racial grounds, it must be considered an insult not only to the status of those persons involved whose color is not white, but also to the dignity and intelligence of all KU students. For this reason, we urge all persons associated with the University in any capacity
whatever to join with Miller and Stephenson Halls in refusing to patronize the Plaza Club.
Bill Cibes
Bill Cubes President, Stephenson Hall
Dear Sister
I feel that the Dear Sister editorial in the February 5, 1964 UKD misses the whole point of the Civil Rights Question. The basic principle of civil rights, as I see it, is one of freedom of opportunity, not one of forced decisions made by such self-styled "philosopher kings" as Tom Coffman. The problem is not to ration out Negro students in various social and political positions as Coffman wishes to do with sororities; on the contrary, it is to eliminate all formal discriminatory clauses in such organizations. Any extreme measures, such as Coffman proposes, are infringing on the rights of the fraternity and sorority houses, as private organizations, to choose their own members as they desire. In dealing with Civil Rights, I believe it is best to attempt to seek justice for all concerned, not to glorify oneself by championing a cause.
David Newcomer Shawnee-Mission senior
from the morgue
In 1947, there were many cafes, restaurants, night clubs, movie theaters, skating rinks and other recreational places in Lawrence where Negroes were discriminated against as a policy of the management.
"On The Other Hand, Think Of The Alternatives"
Several cafes, including four on the hill — the Cottage, Jayhawk, Rock Chalk, and Brick's — were refusing service to Negroes, both students and Lawrence citizens. Several wanted to serve Negroes, but only in the kitchen and not on the counter since they were afraid of losing their white customers. Some were ready to serve Negroes in their dining rooms if Negroes would stand up while eating.
The movie theaters had special sections where Negroes were required to sit — but if Negroes were found in the white sections they were asked to leave the theaters and not to come back.
The Committee on Racial Equality was established on campus to campaign against segregation in public places.
On Aug.1, 1854, a party of 29 immigrants who had come to found a Free State city camped on Mt. Oread, in the center of what is now the Corbin Hall block. The site of their campfire became the location of the first building of KU.
A month and a half later, another group of 119 reached the little town of thatched huts. This second party included the wives of more than a dozen colonists, and assured the permanence of the new town of Lawrence.
The symbolism of the fires of the pioneers is carried out by the University through the ceremony of new student induction each September. In this ceremony, a lighted torch is carried from the North College site through the campus to Memorial Stadium.
In the stadium, the torch is received by the alumni secretary, and it is then passed through the hands of the representatives of the various classes until it is received by a freshman, who lights the fire on the altar.
Rocky vs. Sundust Barry, But Consider Tricky Dick
With the GOP trying to pick a presidential nominee, the professionals are becoming more conscious of the candidates' won-lost records at the polls.
The whole thing sounds like a dialogue on pro boxes:
Yeah, I like Tricky Dick but he lost a split decision in '60 and got beat bad in Sacramento last time out.
The Scranton kid fought okay in Pennsylvania, but he's young and might get the jitters in a tough Washington match.
Sundust Barry has done well in Arizona. His right has a lot of punch, but his left is useless.
Rocky's a real pro, but I'm worried about his take at the gate. He's not too popular with the lady fans.
* * *
With the arrival of the Beatles, the wags of the country have gone into a screaming fit of righteous indignation.
Some of it is funny, but a lot of it is hack blokum: "The Beatles prove that the poorer you sing, the more records you sell." After this, they wring their hands over American culture, at which point the reader flips to the sports page.
In the interest of factual reporting I have decided to do my bit on American culture by re-telling a story going around on the golden-record Trashmen.
A New York band leader who makes a living playing semi-popular stuff for the elders got fed up with the music tastes of his hipster teenage daughter. This daughter, it seems, was upbeat on anyone who preferred wash-board rhythm over a violin concerto.
"I'll make the trashiest record in the world," cried papa, "and it'll be a best-seller."
So he did.
His contribution to culture was "Surfin' Bird," by the Trashmen. The record is three minutes of "The bird, the bird, the bird is the word." bleated out in a monotone by a selected group of goons.
It was number one nation-wide for a time until the Beatles' invasion.
BOOK REVIEWS
FUTURE IMPERFECT, by James Gunn (Bantam, 40 cents).
KU's Jim Gunn has a fine collection of science fiction stories in this little volume, and they will provide an evening of entertainment, shock and enjoyment for those who like bizarre—especially comic bizarre-tales. There are 10 stories here, all of them with enough touches of realism that you can almost believe these wild things are happening.
Take the first two stories, which introduce the interesting idea that the most dangerous and frightening of invaders from another world already may be on the scene—the female of the species. Two American husbands begin to wonder if they are being beaten down by a force sent here to run things, for the wives in these stories certainly seem to be in command. Then there is the story called "The Girls Who Were Really Built." These girls are manufactured in Passaic, N.J., and they invade a small Kansas town. Trouble is, they meet all important qualifications for wives—except one.
My favorite is a story called "Every Day Is Christmas." Here is Santa Claus, on the fifth of July, ringing his bell on a New York street. Here is a poor chap who has spent three years in outer space and comes home to find that television programs have 14 minutes of commercials and one minute of dramatic action, that people are buying, buying, buying, and not knowing why. This story, in its wild humor and exaggeration, takes big whacks at advertising.
There's only one trouble: after a while it becomes too believable. Watch the late movies some night, or note with how much difficulty one Kansas City television station has getting into the 10 o'clock news. You almost forget the face of the announcer who several minutes earlier has read you the headlines. The news is almost a day old before he gets to read it.—CMP
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THE KAMA SUTRA OF VATSYAYANA, translated by Sir Richard Burton and F. F. Arbuthnot, edited and introduced by W. C. Archer (Capricorn, $1.45).
A brilliant work of erotica, translated in the Victorian era by the celebrated traveler-scholar Sir Richard Burton, now is available in paperback. It is an explicit, detailed, graphic, but never shocking description of the ways of physical love and the role of sex in the lime of man and woman.
Controversy undoubtedly will become attached again to this oft-forbidden work, but it should be regarded as a work of anthropological, as well as literary, significance. The translators make available not only a guide to the art of love, as practiced in India, but also a work that has beauty and poetry.
Dailu Tansan
111 Flint Hall
111 Flint Hall
University of Kansas student newspaper
University of Kansas student newspaper Founded 1899 became biweekly 1904 triweekly 1908
Sunday 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
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$3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays, and examination periods. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas.