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JOURNALISM AND YOU:
Reporting Trend?
Cries for more depth, or explanation of the implica
tions, in the news have been registered by this nation's
intellect and to a degree by its public. Meanwhile, several
accomplished leaders in this aspect go apparently un
noticed. The most striking example would be the NEW YORK
TIMES, this country's long established newspaper of record.
But several other members of the mass media have
taken long strides toward this supposed advance in journal
ism. Mark Ethridge, a member of the board of directors
of the LOUISVILLE COURIER JOURNAL, outlines some
of his paper's steps in presenting its readers a more mean
ingful explanation and summary of the news.
To begin, the LOUISVILLE COURIER JOURNAL, in
itiated a unique Sunday section, in which the week's news
is presented so as to show the interrelationships, the in
terweaving of news events and explain their meaning in
full context.
In addition the newspaper trains its reporters and edi
tors in the tastes of its immediate reading public. Writers
are trained to write to the level and taste of its Louis
ville audience. And the paper's reporters not only in Louis
ville, but in Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, New York and
Washington do just that.
The COURIER JOURNAL also has home reporters edu
cated in specific fields who roam to all corners of the na
tion to present the news accurately to its readers.
According to Arnold Gingrich, publisher of ESQUIRE,
this type of work would indicate a trend.
Gingrich believes the character and intellectual levels
of the American public are rising. He points to the evolu
tion of his own magazine from the day of pin-up girls
to the present, when much of ESQUIRE'S material is real
art, as evidence.
In that speech Gingrich offered a series of dares to
American journalism. Most were dares not to fall into
conformity or shy away from challenge. The last dare was
the most significant, "Never let well enough alone."
Whatever the direction that American journalism trav
els in the next few telling years, it is important to re
member that it has as its basic consideration, you, the
public. It is for you that journalism dares to innovate.
Can we P
EDITOR'S NOTE: Dr.
Royce II. Knapp is a Re
gents Professor of Educa
tion at the University. Here,
he discusses some of t h e
problems of growing higher
education and proposes
one solution which might
ease some problems at Ne
braska. By Royce H. Knapp
Regents Professor of
Education
It is the thesis of this pre
sentation that the academ
ic community is being
threatened by outside
forces, at least, by the
specter of having some of
our important problems
solved from without rather
than from within.
The enrollment trends in
higher education during the
past twenty years indicate
that the dominant type of
collegiate instruction for
most students in the United
States is that offered by the
multi-purpose state univer
sities. They have grown the
fastest; they are the ones
who can, and most likely
will, absorb the extra hun
dreds of thousands who wish
to go to college in the next
decade. A recent study
shows that if institutions,
private and public, with en
rollments of 0-399 were to
treble in size, and those
with 400-799 were to double,
the additional places creat
ed would amount to approx
imately five or six hundred
thousand. This is about one
sixth to one-fifth of conser
vative estimates of the 1970
requirements for additional
places. About 75 to 80 per
cent of the total pressure
would remain unabated.
Therefore, the large
increases are going to be
in totally new universities
such as those being built in
California and in the state
colleges and universi
ties like those found in
Nebraska and the Middle
West. Some of the large
public centers of higher ed
ucation will undoubtedly get
larger and new ones will
have to be built if we find
places for the students who
are already at the junior
high school level today.
Many of the great centers
of learning, research, ser
vice, and professional train
ing are already suffering
because of insufficient build
ings, faculties, and research
funds. But more Important
ly, the Individual student Is
rapidly becoming a statis
tic and a number on a com
puting machine. We are
sometimes guilty of spend
ing more time counting the
students than we arc In
planning for their effective
education. Unless some
Thursday, May 28, 1964
reserve The
radical changes are made
and rather quickly, the ad
vantages of the great facul
ties, libraries, research fa
cilities, all of which have
required nearly fifty years
to accumulate in these mul
tiversities, may be lost to
the individual student.
When the enrollment bulge
hits in the near future, su
preme efforts will be need
ed to build buildings and to
hire staffs to handle the mul
titude. Perhaps just as pressing
is our need to improve the
quality of liberal or gener
al studies. These are the
studies which are required
of all students to help them
synthesize their intellectual
outlook, to give them a
more discriminating set of
choices in a complex soci
ety, to help them discover
richer and more meaning
ful leisure and cultural ac
tivities, and finally, to bol
ster their moral sensitivity
and humane values. The
hodgepodge of introductory
courses in social sciences,
humanities, sciences, and
mathematics which we com
bine to call liberal educa
tion are chiefly organized
as the beginnings of spe
cialization, and as such,
they are probably excellent.
We are kidding ourselves,
however, if we think these
groups of required subjects
satisfy the aims and pur
poses of liberal education.
Jacques Barzun says, "The
liberal arts tradition is
dead or dying." There is
little provision for under
graduate students to come
in contact with outstanding
intellectual leaders to dis
cuss the meaning and rele
vance of the facts they are
memorizing. We need to ad
dress ourselves seriously to
the task of helping ALL stu
dents find some integrating
perspective and synthesis
in that diversity of human
knowledge, ideals, and ex
perience. We have achieved a high
degree of skill in building
specialization into the un
dergraduate and graduate
programs. Everyone can
applaud and appreciate the
performance of our majors
in mathematics, chemistry,
English, sociology, history,
etc. We have effectively
built our graduate pro
grams on top of these spe
cializations. We have placed
our graduate students in
close relationships with
great advisers and re
searchers. Our graduate
students are on the fron
tiers of exciting new know
ledge, and their motivation,
interest, and productivity
is excellent. I believe it is
probably the most desirable
Ais
W HOW WOULD M
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sponsible for what they cause to be printed.
learning situation in the
world today. And, it is the
most expensive. If we could
just achieve a measure of
this faculty-student relation
ship at the undergraduate
level, we would make a
great stride forward.
Our multipurpose univer
s i t i e s such as Nebraska,
Minnesota, Wisconsin and
some others are located in
metropolitan centers where
land is expensive and where
land occupancy surround
ing the university is such
as to prohibit faculty mem
bers living in proximity to
the student body so that af
ter dark, the students be
long to housemothers, grad
uate counsellors, and the
Dean of Students. Our fac
ulties now live miles from
the campus and come back
and forth as commuters as
if to a business or a fac
tory. Our students mean
while are being piled up in
increasingly efficient and
modern skyscrapers in the
campus world, and our fac
ulties rarely see them af
ternoons or after dark. I be
lieve the essential spirit of
an academic community is
gradually and persistently
disappearing.
We are also in the grip of
economic and social forces
that preclude our making
an attack on these forces.
State legislatures, city
planners, and forces out
side the academic commun
ity are more and more com
ing to conclusions based up
on their own studies of high
er education's role in t h
scheme of a city or state,
while we sit busily en
thralled with counting stu
dents and providing new
techniques of automated in
struction and taking up the
slack with television and
larger and larger lecture
classes. We seem to be for
ever accommodating our ed
ucational goals and proced
ures to the social and eco
nomic forces which sur
round us. We must do some
thing to break through these
exogenous forces, and at
tempt to preserve the age
old freedom of the academ
ic community to design its
program, provide its intel
lectual and moral atmos
phere, and make such inno
vations as are required.
Transitory circumstances
and enrollments ought not
to determine our program
of liberal education. Nor,
should we permit econom
ic and social forces to de
termine our programs of
counseling. advise
ment, graduate instruction,
student living conditions, or
JWie major aims and activi
KftRlft yM POMtfflC
a
Academic Community?
ties of the academic com
munity. The forces come
and go and change with
war, peace, foreign policy,
but the great intellectu
al and moral commitments
of higher education must
retain some insularity and
some basic stability for
youth to pause and reflect
on the profound problems
of mankind.
Several times in our
history, institutions of high
er education have made
startling innovations in pro
gram, procednres and
aims. Witness the rise of the
elective system at Harvard
under Elliott, the graduate
program at Johns Hopkins
under Gilman, the defini
tion of the state university
by Van Hlse at Wisconsin
and the experimental pro
grams of the private col
leges such as Bennington,
St. Johns, Swarthomore,
and others. Innovation and
experimentation today can
have their greatest impact
when carried on at tnulti
purpose institutions,' I
think, because they have
the most students and the
most varied enrollments.
In recent years there have
been many outstanding
books and studies written
on higher education that
gives us sufficient b a c k
ground for our problems
and some very good pro
posals for effecting change.
Kerr, Morrill, Pusey, Mil
let, and several other col
lege presidents have spok
en out on some of our
needs.
As one small contribution
to the problems of a multi
purpose Institution fronted
with these problems of in
creasing enrollments, un
synthesized programs of lib
eral studies, the dissolution
of the academic community,
I suggest that we make
plans to bring a portion of
the University of Ne
braska faculty back to the
center of student life by
placing about 30 leading
members of our faculty
from all branches of learn
ing in homes adjacent to
the campus. These homes
should be open to students;
the faculty members serv
ing somewhat as do the
Masters of the Houses at
Harvard as general advis
ers and intellectual whet
stones on which young
men and women may sharp
en whatever blades of wis
dom and knowledge they
are gaining.
It may be easier for me
to tell you what 1 would not
want these sheeted faculty
members to do than to tell
V-
a-Uie- Suv-Tivc
POLICY, M GOtPWAttR?"
what they should do. They
would not offer remedial
instruction, manage activi
ties, provide psychic advise
for mental health, enforce
rules, or recruit students
for their special fields.
It should be their main
job to help students come
to an appreciation of their
opportunities for higher ed
ucation, to synthesize the
learning process for stu
dents, and to live an ex
emplary life as a part of an
academic community. They
should be relieved of part
of their work so they can
talk to students individual
ly and in groups in the af
ternoon and evenings. Each
of these major faculty
members should be assigned
a fellow to help him with
his courses and to serve an
apprenticeship in college
teaching. They should be
provided a decent house for
which they should pay a
nominal rent. I would pre
fer that these men and
women be selected from
those holding rank of pro
fessor. They might be nom
inated by a committee of
the graduating seniors and
appointed by the Chancel
lor and the Board of Re
gents for terms of 3 to 5
years and then reappointed
if the situation warrants.
I propose about 30 of
these requiring about 30
homes at $30,000. In all,
1 see an outlay of about
$1,000,000 on homes adja
cent to the University. If
we appointed 30 fellows at
$3,000 each for subsistance,
this would require about
$90,000 annually to help
these resident faculty mem
bers with their teaching.
Yeuenhj
Im once ...
so see The
Pink Panther
hvwel
DAVtO MiYCH ftTER SOIEIS
ROBERT WASSER CAPU053I .
.-OAUOlACAWDWAtE
ATTHE , j
Black
EDITOR'S NOTE: This
review was produced by
Film Making and Moviego
ing in New York City.
BLACK LIKE ME is
based on the true adven
tures (and book) of John
Howard Griffin. It stars
James Whitmore. It was di
rected by Carl Lerner. It is
a Walter Reade-Sterling re
lease. It is about a white
man named Horton (Whit
more) who darkens his skin
chemically, and who travels
through the South. White
people think he's a negro
and act accordingly.
Whitmore does this thing
for two reasons: because
he's a newspaper man, and
it would be a good story;
and because it's a matter
of conscience with him. I
imagine negroes might look
with impatience on the sec
ond reason; whites would
probably think it's the bet
ter reason.
I suppose that for white
Americans the single most
unknowable thing in
America is the clear knowl
edge of how black Ameri
cans live. In point of fact,
we can hardly hope to even
faintly approximate that
kind of knowledge. Why
then does Horton make the
trip? He must hope for
some sort of purification
(you know, like PILGRIM'S
PROGRESS). Now that
may be all right for Horton,
but it makes a problem for
the film.
If white Americans can't
know what they should
know, you would think that
they should at least be able
to identify with a white
man who lives as if he
were a negro. But Whit
m o r e always remains a
white man, and this record
of his experience therefore
relates first to the white
sensibilities of the audience
(not the feeling that negroes
live that way); it relates to
the fact of how in these cir
cumstances Whitmore as a
white man must feel. If I
thought, if I really be
lieved, that the necessary
Whatever the administra
tive details or sources of
money, I think we should
make this attack on some
of our problems. We are
aware that the specter of
numbers is real, and that
for the first time in our
history we are living in rel
ative student prosperity.
We ought not to call it a
problem with no solution.
We ought, instead, make
p 1 a n s to sustain the iden
tity, the richness, the intel
lectual promise, and the
spirit of the academic com
munity not for gifted
students only, but for the
wider range of talents that
Nebraska will continue to
attract.
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Like Me'
relation to negro feelings
would then be made, I
wouldn't, come down so
hard, but I don't think it
happens. I don't think it
happens.
To a certain extent, how
ever, the film does com
bine in a single person a
double focus white and
black. This focus unravels
three kinds of scenes: (1)
Whitmore as a negro with
negroes, (2) Whitmore re
vealed as a white man with
negroes, (3) Whitmore as a
negro with whites.
The scenes with the whites
have a certain obligatory
familiarity in a word,
they're typical. But of
course Whitmore is trying
to become a typical negro
he is never, a singular man.
These scenes then are not
unsatisfactory because they
are untrue, but they do not
come at us as they should.
They seem weary and slug
gish. The scenes with the ne
groes are considerably bet
ter. There are two that I
liked very much. The first
is in a shoeshine parlor
(it's the best in the film;
It's the best I've ever seen).
Whitmore has been in the
shoeshine parlor as a white.
He returns later with his
skin darkened. He asks the
negro shoeshine man (Rich
ard Ward) to show him how
he should act to be a con
vincing negro. And he gets
for an answer five minutes
of instruction five lovely
negro minutes of sly, biting,
cold instruction.
The second scene is near
the end of the film. Whit
more, weary of the trip, is
staying with (and sharing
the bed of) an old negro
man (P. J. Sidney) and his
young activist son (A. Free
man, Jr.) He tells them
what he's trying to do. The
son becomes angry angry
at this impersonation, this
lark, this insane ignorance,
this unasked for intrusion.
And the old man reminds
Whitmore that his skin is
only temporarily black, that
it's all just a charade, and
he asks Whitmore to leave.
And Whitmore leaves.
I think that the film
breaks soni? new ground
and I recommend it for that..
reason. It is, however, over
long. On the whole not a
bad try: no easy answers;
the occasional and unusual
sound of truth.
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I About Letters I
S The DAILY NEBRASKA! tarHssj K
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S ef estatsa ea esrress testes retarsV Jc
less ef vtewpetnt. Letters most be
sine, eestala verifiable aaV
dress, and so free ef Hasten mm-
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JEWELRY
BULOVA
Nebraska Union 111
far the Jntlicvt summer vstjV
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tory Company.
If you ran talk you can act
in melltrdrammrrt
rlrit hnw opens Werlnelav,
.Mine 24.
SECOND GLORIOUS SEASON
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