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University Daily: Kansan
Monday, April 29, 1963
Investment Opportunity
Kansans have a reputation for being politically conservative, and this conservatism extends to financial matters as well. When the Wichita University issue was being debated, those who opposed WU's entrance into the state system gave voice to a common cry—Kansas is not a wealthy state and therefore cannot afford three major state-supported universities.
Whether these Kansans actually could not afford WU or just did not want to afford it is a many-pronged question. But just for the sake of argument, grant that Kansas does not have the wealth it needs to support three major universities.
WHY DOES Kansas lack this wealth? Answering this question is much simpler than devising a foolproof plan to correct the situation. Kansas does not have enough industry.
How can Kansas get more industry? This, too is a complex question. But at least a few of the partial answers relate to state-supported higher education.
In a recent speech to the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, Chancellor Wescoe said that in the University, Lawrence has the key to unlock the potential of research-based industry like that found in other university towns across the country.
Other ingredients are already here. The transportation hub of the Midwest is only a few miles away. Labor is abundant, and because of lower living costs, wages are not as high as those on the coasts. The climate, although we all complain about it occasionally, is far from disagreeable.
WHAT IS missing? The key word in research-based industry is research. There is a university here, and it does some fine research. But in this respect it does not compare with the University of Michigan or the University of California at Berkeley. These universities help draw research-based industry to Michigan and California.
This is the industry that carries a large share of the state tax load, brings wealth to the state,
and brings federally sponsored and industrysponsored research to the universities. This is the industry that pays its own way and then some. This is the industry that helps make average universities great and great universities greater. This is the industry that could be and should be in Lawrence.
What was farm land a few years ago is now the site of a giant Western Electric plant at Lees Summit, Mo., on the other side of Kansas City. Why is this plant in Lees Summit instead of Lawrence? Of course, the reasons are many. But if the KU electrical engineering department were renowned for its research, this could have been an important, and perhaps even decisive, factor in Western Electric's choice of a location for its plant.
THIS IS just one example of what KU could do for the state of Kansas. The wealth that Kansans want is in industry like this. It will not come by accident—it will come because some Kansans got tired of talking and decided to do something.
There are many ways to fight for this industry. Tax holidays, free building sites and low-cost utilities are three. And building a strong university is another.
A reputation for research is built on the faculty and research facilities—neither of which are purchased by good intentions. A university that pays its faculty members salaries 20 per cent below the national average can hardly expect to attract very many top people, let alone keep the ones it already has. And neither can a university with inadequate research facilities. KU is such a university.
IT TAKES money to buy what KU needs—a lot of money—money that must come from the Kansas Legislature. This money would not be a gift. It would be a sound investment—an investment not just in the education of Kansans but also in the economy of the state. Even the most tight-fisted Kansan should not complain about an economically sound investment.
— Dennis Branstiter
Editor
American Sincerity
... Letters ...
As a student from another country I couldn't help feeling so disgusted after reading Miss Salva Haddad's comments on her stay at KU, which appeared in the April 22nd issue of the University Daily Kansas. She said "she will miss the casual, friendly and informal life of KU but won't miss American insincerity." Giving her the benefit of the doubt I wonder if she meant she won't miss the so-called
"American insincerity" because she will find it anywhere or worse if she meant it exactly as the words imply. If the latter is true, even without her permission, I apologize for her, I, for sure, know that we women often tend to confuse anybody much worse ourselves. Right, Americans are too considerate, too nice to be true but that does not mean that they are insincere. It will probably be better if she said American tactfulness instead of the rather misunderstood word,
"Oh, Boy—We're In The Clear!"
insincerity. If we have limited vocabulary and we don't know the right words to say, better not say anything. . . it is too unfair and dangerous, fellow student. Right? After all, as she implied we are supposed to be learning not only academically but socially as well.
For almost two years now I've been living with people in KU, Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.A. I do not claim I am satisfied with everything. I've made a lot of friends as well as enemies. I've met people from all walks of life. I've been in almost any kind of situation. As of now, in spite of the very limited chance I had in knowing people, I can give a general impression that Americans are no different from people of my country, . . . from people of any other countries in the world. Basically we are all alike. We seek personal satisfaction by generally the same path. We feel pains because of the same reasons. We fight for the same cause. Nowadays can anybody say "I know you are an American you must be X adjective; you are an Asian you must be Y adjective; you are a European you must be Z adjective?"
The only fundamental difference I can clearly see is in the outside physical appearance. Perhaps, some day I can see more than just that. Or will there be a day?
Graduate student from the Philippines
Short Ones
Josefina A. Tecson
The place where optimism most flourishes is the lunatic asylum.
—Havelock Ellis
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Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.-Mark Twain
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What we call "morals" is simply blind obedience to words of command. —Havelock Ellis
Sound and Fury
Scholarship Halls Mismanaged
(Editor's note: This is a copy of a letter sent to the office of the dean of women.)
At Sellards Hall we have just received assessments of $25,00 apiece to cover the "operational deficit" of the hall. I understand that the same thing has taken place at the other scholarship halls. Now, this is all very well. The expenses of the hall must be paid, and we have contracted to pay for any deficits that occur. Yet, it seems to me that the regularity with which this sort of thing occurs points up a grave deficiency in the authority that runs the scholarship halls. This deficiency may be analyzed as either dishonesty or apathetic stupidity, and either way we don't stand to come out in very good shape. It is bad enough to be brought to the suspicion that the venerable personages in authority for the scholarship halls are so stupid as to hide their heads in the sand, ignoring rising costs and leaving the operating budget for these halls at a level that might have sufficed heaven-only-knows-how-many years ago. But, it is much worse to come to suspect that these same worthies have failed to raise the budget on purpose with the intent of deceiving the girls who live in these halls. Is it possible that an attempt is being made to camouflage the real expenses of living in a scholarship hall so as to create the appearance of granting larger scholarships than these really are?
FINALLY, I think this episode points up one thing clearly for the benefit of the general citizenry of this country. Deficit financing, no matter by what size bureaucracy it is done, eventually catches up with the citizen. It is he, the individual member of this glorious mass society, who must pay for the "good of the whole." What will happen to the individual citizens of the nation when the government calls for the payment of its "operational deficit?" Hide your heads in the sand as you will, reality is still there, and it is going to get you yet.
Now, I am not ungrateful for my own scholarship hall grant. It has been a thing of great value to me, and it has made the furtherance of my education much more possible than it would otherwise have been. But justice is justice, and honesty is honesty; and I must defend both or lack them myself. I realize that this same thing has been going on for years, and others accept the situation. But this makes it all the more necessary for me to rise and defend what no one else has spoken for. I cannot hide behind the deficiencies of the past. I also completely realize that my protest will be little more than a gasp in the silence; and little will be changed at any rate. But "one must fight, if only to have fought."
EVEN ASSUMING that this situation is due only to oversight, I feel I have grounds for complaint. At this point in the semester, funds begin to get rather low, especially for the girls who live in scholarship halls. Would it not be much more logical and much more fair to distribute the costs—all the costs—throughout the semester, rather than to hit us with a large lump expense at a time when it is much harder for us to find the funds to pay it?
Leanna Koehn
Dodge City sophomore
BOOK REVIEWS
THE VOODOO MAD (Signet, 50 cents).—Fans of Mad magazine—and others—will have a ball with this collection. We see the familiar big-eared Mad symbol on the cover, with pins stuck in him labeled TV, Hollywood, Republicans, Democrats, John Birch Society and Madison Ave. That is the subject matter. Mad lampoons anyone and everyone, and Nixon, Conrad Hilton, Perry Mason, Hoffa, Von Braun, Rickover are among the victims.
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MARRIAGE AND MORALS, by Bertrand Russell (Bantam Classics, 60 cents)—a work that dates to the 1920s and one that has helped to make Russell a respected and also reviled name. Russell proposes a rational approach to sex and love, one based on the realities of need and desire rather than on ancient tribal and religious taboos. He treats free love and trial marriage, and his ideas have brought him under considerable attack.
Daily Hansan
111 Flint Hall University of Kansas student newspaper
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912
Telephone Viking 3-2700
Extension 711, news room
Extension 736, business office
Member Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St., New York 22 N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $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.
Fred Zimmerman ... Managing Editor
Dennis Branstiter ... Editorial Editor
Jack Cannon ... Business Manager