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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 1959)
Page 2 . The Daily Nebraskon jO T 1 1 No Tuilion Comparisons inevitable Iran, USSR Student Leads Privileged Life Terry Mitchem's description of student life and college customs in the Soviet Union again brings to mind the panic which has swept our country periodically since Sputnik I climbed into the skies. The tale of an education system where all the gifted receive an education, where those who on the basis of tests cannot face the rigors of university training are weeded out 'ahead of time must seem like a realized dream to a registrar. And to the student, the thought that it would not be necessary, to work your way througfh college, but instead could spend summers in sports, sounds equally appealing. On the surface, that is. Under the surface the raw fact is still that choice has been left out of this pic ture. The system, not the individual, ranks first, last and in between. While the students may be a privileged class, they are nevertheless a directed class. While professors are accorded the highest of honors, and scientists rank close to the God the Communists abne gate, still these professors lack the one element which compensates for the rela tively low prestige and salary scales our purveyors of the knowledge possess. That is the right to express opinion. Opinion, interpretation, disagreement with the present system these are the things which an instructor in the supposedly superb Soviet school complex cannot teach. Barring the antics of a few witch-hunters within the past decade, the American college still remains the bulwark of free expression of opinion. The McCarthys pass away at least they have in the part. The freedom remains. Consider the case of traditionally Re publican Nebraska, the "buckle of the Holiday Jamboree Well, it has happened. The date Monday was Sept. 28. . If our calculations aren't completely off, Christmas normally falls on the 25th of December, or thereabouts. Simple sub traction leaves a three month and three days gap between the days. But is the 28th of September too early to put out Chirstmas stockings, decora tions, cards, stationery, candles, et cetera ad infinitum. Nup. Too bad about Halloween. Not only must it compete with the preparations for Homecoming (and the question of the year is "Gads! How do you make a portrait of a Sooner in a house decoration") but it must share upcoming honors with Thanks giving and Christmas as well. The ludicrous possibilities of a Home coming celebration which falls on Trick or Treat Day should be readily imagined. The graveyard the Theta's built last year was a year ahead of time. ' Some cynic has even suggested that the ladies of the black masques and the gentle men of the red robes would be right in season and costumed for a little trick or treating. Perhaps the refreshments so gleaned could be presented to the Sooner team in hopes of an encore of their last Saturday's performance. Just kidding fellows. We think our guys can win without any outside assistance. Bible belt." Within our ivy cloister for years has been an active group of working party Democrats. In the classrooms today, men who call themselves athiests teach Baptists and Methodists. Were it any other way were they not allowed on the faculties because of these dissenting opinions, perhaps then we could look around and say, "Yes, we have a poor system of higher education." But receiving a solid foundation in "the basics" as the Soviets unquestionably do, cannct replace receiving the other basic the ability to weigh and to judge, to ab sorb a pocketful of varying viewpoints and to sift them into one opinion yourself. This is the glory of our system. The better education in science, in math, in languages this is the glory of theirs. Looking from within the classroom, it seems that our universities, at least this one, could "get tougher." It could, as some of the individual departments are already doing, abandon spoon-feeding and adopt a more rigorous program. This isn't to say, as many critics have done, "cut out the frills." Rather, it is to say, make these frill courses more com prehensive. Dig deeper into the subject. Assume that the student is capable of more effort, more original thinking. He is. And if we may adopt one of the sugges tions contained in Dr. James B. Conant's report on the American High school, we would suggest less reliance on multiple guess and true and false examinations. An educated man must be able to ex press himself or his education is only half useful. The English department does not have sole responsibility for educating a student who can clearly, fully and logic ally express himself. What is the use of learning about the economic doctrines of Bentham, St. Simon, Veblen, Smith and all the others if the questions on the exam is going to pinpoint only one small seg ment of these ideas? Especially if after this one exam, one never need recall the theories again why bother? No, our system is not perfect But the fact that we can air our criticism, can print our comments as we have done here, place ours in a different plane from that of the USSR. Frill courses, objective tests, professors who don't change exams from year to . year, sections with 100 persons in them and all we'd still choose ours any day.' At least any day when we had our wits about us. Hold On, There Wait, Halt, Stop, Do Not, we repeat Do Not dash down to the corner delicatessen and snap up a quick bargain to send your father for father's day next Sunday. It's not that we're against fathers or anything like that but Fathers day (as has been pointed out by many of our fans) usually falls in June. The only explanation for the anonymous little antic that appeared on yesterdays editorial page suggesting quick action in time for fathers day is that it wasn't there when we last saw the paper, it wasn't on the page proof. Your guess is as good as ours. If you have already bought your father a present in a fit of panic, we hope you selected something that will keep till Christmas. Staff Views: On the Other Hand The fight for women's rights has just begun! ' A cummer spent in Nebraska City work ing on that city's daily newspaper has made me realize that, far from won, WUIllCU 11&U10 U6 JUSb rMf.(:.ifaa beginning. I had been there nearly two months when my boss came un with what I m1 thought was probably the most exciting idea since I ,s tJp turned zl ne wouia sena "-r me with the highway pa- , " " ' trol to do a story on their evening's activities. Fully expecting to see Sondra several robberies, mur ders and gang wars, I leaped at the sug gestion to see life at its very ebb. The letter went off to the highway pa trol and several weeks of silence fol lowed. Questions to patrolmen at the week ly court proved futile, with nothing but horrified expressions and non-commital answers. Then at last the news arrived, in the form of a rather sheepish looking patrol man who informed us that a girl could absolutely not ride with the patrol. Protesting loudly that my rights as a citizen of the United States were being violated, I began to recite the various con stitutional amendments protecting the freedom of the press. But to no avail. It seems that these free doms only apply if you are of the male sex. But why, I demanded. I would be quiet, stay out of the way and not scream no matter what happened. "No. Girls in patrolmen's cars cause scandals," he explained. Sitting down abruptly on this answer, I said I would wear a big sign saying "Girl reporter working on news story". "No. This would still cause talk among people who were driving down the high way and could not read the sign," he answered. I would disguise myself as a boy so that only those arrested would know I was a girl and I would tell them the reason I was along. "No. Absolutely not. Not under any cir cumstances. Out of the question. But I protested, what happens you arrest a woman? Then came the clincher. "We try not to," he said. Women criminals in Nebraska have a field day! when could Daily Nebraskan SIXTT-KIXE YEARS OLD WSmtimi Associated Collegiate Press, Inter collegiate Press Representative: National Advertising- Serv ice, Ineorporttei Published t: Eoom 20, Student Union Lincoln, Nebraska 14th & B TelrpHnne 1-7131. ext. 4225. 4226, 4227 , The Tmll JlebratsVea I pnMlstK Monday. Tnesdae. VAedMriar i riant dart the heol year, eaoent iwm waulon crem iwrlon. tv ariideate ' Vmmnttr o jwehraaao mirter the authorization of tne CernmlMM Mi ftoent Afra-tr u rspreeslnn of to nt opinion, fnhltrntina under the Jurisdiction of too ftabeammltte on Muden rahllnrtlMM hll be from editorial eeeewriililn n the part of the Huhrnm sMttee or on the part of mur member of the faculty of Mm Uaifflirsily, r sue u at any person outald the rmverslty. The member of the lmlly Nebraska otaff are personally responsible for what they say, or do, or re to he piloted. February- 8. 1S56. Nubaeriptlon rate ar, $3 pr semester or 15 for the udemlr year. filtered second elana matter at the nuat nffle In Lineal a, Nebraska, under the art of August 4. 1I2. RDITMRIAL OTAFF Fdltnr Diana Maxwell Manaclnc Editor Carroll kraus News Mltor Sondra Whalea KnnrW Editor Hal Brown Ml'ht Editor J"hn Hoerner Copy Editor John floerner. fcnndra Laaker. Herb Fruliasro Staff Writer. Jacque Jamoek, Karen l,co. Doug McCartney Jr. Staff Writer Mike Mliroy, Ana Moyer Ruslne Manager Stan Kaiman Assistant Business Manager Tva rerimson. (.H (.rady. f'harlene (.me Circulation Manager : .. -Doug i auagaaul This I the trroad la a scries r article by Terry Mltoheoi. a Jua graduate of the University, who spent 60 day thi past iimnxt Murine the Soviet 1'nlon. Poland and rtrrhnslovakta a a member of a ttadent Mention. Today' article, aa told t staff member Hera Frotiavseo, deal aita Universities and Indent life. By Terry Mitchem The student of the Soviet Union is held in great esteem by the people, and propaganda constantly lauds the stu dents. In the Soviet Union there is no such thing as working your way through college or working after school for lunch money. Students seem to be a privileged class who use their summer vacation to rest, or who spend their spare time in sports or in activities of the KOMSOMOL, the Young Communist League. We visited the University of Moscow, the University of Leningrad, Kharkov Institute for Railway Engineers', the Pediatrics Institute in Leningrad and the Kiev Poly technic Institute, comparable to Georgia Tech in this country. I also spent 18 days living with students in a camp along the Dnieper River in the Ukraine. There is no tuition for students attending institutes of higher learning in the USSR. Eighty-five per cent of the students receive stipends of sufficent amount for board, room, books and spending money. These stipends are granted to all except those who are children of high govern mental officials and thus do not need financial aid. More Girls However, 51 per cent of the students in the USSR are girls. At Kiev Polytech, 40 per cent of the enrollment are girls, compared to 20 girls at Georgia Tech. Since education and economy is rigidly planned, a cer tain number of students must be available for every field each year. For example, the government may decide that they will need 10,000 engineers by 1965, so they plan the enrollment accordingly. Students enter college after graduating from middle school which lasts 10 years. A general background for a middle school student would consist of five years of lan guage, three years of trigonometry, algebra, chemistry and physics, Marxism and four years ojf general math. The Soviet college student goes to school about five and a half years. They are in class 17-18 weeks in the fall with a two to three week exam period followed by a two week vacation. In the spring they attend class for 16 weeks and have the same length exams followed,by summer vaca tion. ' They attend class six days a week, spending six hours in class and labs each day for a total of 36 hours per week. They have hardly any liberal education, only in dialectic and historic materialism. However, they have all read from a very wide list of "American literature, mostly the same things; Dreiser, Saroyan, Hemingway, Twain and anything they can get their hands on by Paul Robson. The Soviets want to know what we've read of Russian literature. None of them have read Dr. Zhivago. "We don't want to read it," they say. "The Nobel Prize is political. Sweden gave it to Pasternak at the insistence of the United States. It is not socialist realism and is not typical of the Soviet Union," they add. (More on Soviet education in the third of this series.) By George! t By George Moyer Now I know how it feels the Bogey man. Humphrey X J gttf " 1 Moyer action to save to stand at ground zero. Last week Jim Roman and Bob Blair really took this column over the jumps. They seemed not to un d e rstand not advo cating the d e struc tion of the Greek sys t e m but rather, de sired posi tive, sincere it. To rephrase a potshot that Mr. Roman teems fond of; not only, do you have to spend time reading books (law or ROTC) but you have to read them carefully before comment ing critically. That goes for this column too. Reams and tons have been written about the new Nebraska (Student) Union.' (I still like that word stu dent in there. It reminds people who paid for the place. ) But no matter how much one writes, it seems there is always something new to be discovered about the flunk-out palace. For instance, the Union's film committee, so ably handled last year by John West, is building on the strong foundation ei-' tablished by that worthy to bring University s t -dents Dome of the best in Hollywood entertainment in the last 20 years. Gail Gray, this year's chairman, and her assist ant, Jane Mahoney, have ' already offered patrons something new in the way of Union film service. In addition to the excel lent Foreign Film Society program and the free Sun day night movie, the com mittee is also offering a free double feature in the small basement auditorium Friday and Saturday nights. Last Saturday, "The Clown", Red Skelton's bid for an Academy Award, and "The Asphalt Jungle", the picture which launched Marilyn Monroe's career, shared the bill. "Jungle" was the detective-mystery done from the gangst ers standpoint a n d done right. It was a prime example of the outstanding fare upcoming. For instance, next week liogart, will appear in "Deadline USA" along with Basil Rathbone in the original Sherlock Holmes masterpiece. But the best is yet to come get this it doesn't cost anything to see these pictures. And the theatre in which they are shown will match any in the mid west for comfort and acous tics. What a pleasant way to spend an evening! Just get a date, take your ID card . and trot off to the free Un ion movie. You'll even have money left for a beer aft erward Thought for the week: What this newspaper needs is a few more edi torials and columns on school spirit. ' T.,0cHnv September 29, 1959 A Few Words . . Of a Kind 4F - ij by e. One of the more ironic signs of our times is posted on the shelf of a library in a Lincoln grade School, it's message: "Don't Touch The Books." The sign's au thor un-doubt-edly had what he or she con s i d ered h o n o able inten tions, yet I cannot help but regard the sign with disgust. Perhaps the fear of torn pages or dirty covers prompted the posting of the declaration. I don't know. I do know that the love of books requires a multitude of fingerprinted pages and slightly beaten book covers. Mind you, I do not en courage shoddy handling of books, and keep a sharp eye on anyone who turns a page in the most worn of my flock of paperbacks. Also, the loss of one of my books upsets me nearly as much as a silly quarrel with a close friend. Many books, in fact, I T9 HA! NOiO. YOU VIE MNE IT! NOOTYOOVE BiJOKfN A I AMP, ANDY01AE63TN3ONE7J, RAME (TON BUT YJDgsaF! It MAYBE I C60U) ON SOCIETY 7 VtT T blame) e. Hine count as close friends. How else could I meet with the wit and wisdom of such keen-minded men as Rus sell, Mencken, Thomas, Shakespeare, Durant, Vol. taire, et. al? How easily, though, they become my friends when I meet them between the covers of books. I am no great devonrer of literature, and sit in awe before the well-read man. Many times I feel spurred to gallop through stacks of books that ought not to be left unreal, and map out lists of classics through which to travel. Unfortu nately, other things usually unhorse me along the way. There are times, however, when I do find my way into a play or novel or book of poems. Frequently, I emerge intoxicated by the sweep of the author's ideas or masterful writing. Cer tainly there are few books which I have not been the better for reading, which have not in someway wid ened my horizons. This world is nearly brim ful of dull, correct people. I'm convinced that the dull, ness of many may be at tributed to little signs thev've posted in their minds which read: "Don't Touch The Books." It's saddening to see some of these dull, correct people even go so far as to post printed signs with this mes sage in school libraries. Not that elementary school chil dren read many great books, just that one's hunger for books is best when it begins early and ends late. Dis couraging the handling of books for cleanliness sake is, to me, a major sin. There would probably be much less dullness in the lot of us if we were able to echo the report of Dylan Thomas: "My education was the liberty I had to read indis criminately and all the time, with my eyes hanging out. I never could have dreamt there were such goings-on, such ice-blasts of words, such love and sense and terror and humbug, such and so many blinding lights breaking across the just awaking wits and splashing all over the pages . . ." My message? Simply that I wish the school would change its sign to read: "Touch These Books With Care And Wonder." USED REFRIGERATORS start 24.00 and up GOODYEAR STORES 1918 "O" St. s;3js;sj3Nnv3s aij5 3t3 T"TVj la 3Q I.TjS apf i i MJk a o n1qs o i e yOi'HxyajWE l33TMlp9p"3 "Jiy a,bi(ao'piMji Ijn a s ila ll a aTjais ItrTlpCfv In p i v Ajy sTvIm. TjoidliVrilvielvlD ECflQSSWORD No. 2 ACROSS 1. Otmult theuaophy T. Bear Barrel. Pennsylvania, etc 11. One of the Frankly U. Famou TiUh. not drinkable 16. Thi i chom 16. Take umbrae at 17. October activity of email fry 11. Nina ZU. What you nut do tc get is 26 A crow 12. A Kool, in hart 28. Birdland oun4 25. Seornleai tie 26. No ear fur s drag race IT. Oral end f K ools SB. When yon need a real change try a 10. Bcfnoning of eolar system 14. What Kooia have IB. It's just south of the border 1. "Thy sited and the Dead" author 40. Kind of pitch in the ball park 41. ' Avar 42. Beene pt famous parting 48. Promontories DOWN 1. Co It with aspersions or fly rod I. Allege 1. Island famed for native girls 4. Unhottlod Guinness a. Fore, pad or hammer C. A Marked man 7. More than two couples . 5. Dance too nthusiaatieally? majcaae 10. Baker or masaeur 1L Mam arid Charley's 12. Shampoo follower lit. Time of the 20' 21. Summer in Pari 2. Where Koul tips growt 24. kind of sail at Christmas time 24, Minx front England 2T. Ma. 20. Scarlett gal 81. More eyes thsn nuy 82. Bound to allegiano 88. Sheridan' Bob 84. Hi has lawn. parties IS. Girl situated in Oklahoma 84. Head haka 87. Fsvorlte pursuit of the female 88. U (Bosnia) I J 2 jJ 1 4 S j6 E 37 it 9 1 10 ill 1 1 2 "ij """" "id Ts i4 it ' " ssBaawaaawaaBaMrWr Maavq a I? 20 al ARE YOU KODL ENOUGH TO "ST"1 TjTtT KRACK this? "I ii'MiasMa iiTiaii -mm 34 35 34 if 3 71 ; When ytaur throat tells ) you i& tima fpr a changaA ... I s you neea a real change... YOU NEED THE m 1. Brawti 4 Wllllan jo. Tom Ce Jl Qcarcitcl )a
