Thursday, November 2, 1967
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
7
KU News Bureau always tries to send good news
By Pam Peck Kansan Staff Reporter
If you haven't written home since school started, the KU News Bureau may have done it for you in a round-about way. And, the News Bureau always sends home good news.
KU's News Bureau, in 32 Strong Hall, sends out as many as 1,300 pieces of news a week to hometown newspapers, radio, and TV stations, Tom Yoe, director of the News Bureau, said. The office is busiest around graduation.
"Our purpose is to get the University of Kansas name out to the public in a favorable manner, whether our stories are about students, faculty, or the University in general," Yoe said. "We advertise the good and don't try to spread bad news."
Wide range of news
News from the bureau might range from the election of pompon girls, lists of club members and officers, and the activities of Greek organizations and residence halls to the announcement of grant and scholarship recipients, faculty appointments, reports on guest speakers or announcements from the Chancellor.
Students and faculty keep track of what's going on at KU, thanks to the News Bureau, which is a division of University Relations. Yoe and his staff print 4,000 copies of "This Week at KU," weekly and also publish the University of Kansas Newsletter. News releases, entitled "100 Years on Mt. Oread," are a new method used
by the bureau to publicize University historical data.
Hundreds of departments and organizations at KU either phone in or bring information to the bureau. Yoe and his staff sort it, write the resulting stories and send releases to communications media in hometowns of the students involved.
Yoe, a 1939 journalism graduate of KU, assumed his present position in 1946. The bureau was begun 60 years ago and was under the part-time-direction of journalism instructors until it became a separate office in 1940. The bureau once was in rooms now occupied by the dean of women's office. Yoe said that when he took over, the office was a petitioned-off section of the north foyer and balcony of Strong Hall.
"On winter days we couldn't keep the outside out," said Yoe, who is also faculty adviser to the Jayhawker Yearbook.
Hundreds of papers
The News Bureau's office is lined with stacks of old Jayhawkers and newspapers. Hundreds of papers are stuffed into cubbyholes and one wall is lined with files containing lists of past activities, faculty biographies, photographs, a morgue, which Yoe says "is beginning to get out of hand," and card files on students — listing hometowns, addresses and parents. One of the IBM cards filled out by students during enrollment goes to the News Bureau.
Assisting Yoe are three full-time employees. They are Mrs. James Wolf and Mrs. James Henry, both writers, and a clerk, Mrs. Ronald Strong. Four students are employed part time by the bureau. They are David Les, Ottawa graduate student; Carol DeBonis, Kansas City senior; Clara Hartley, Atwood junior; and Sara Ormsby, Emporia sophomore.
Isn't the News Bureau snowed with work? Yes, Yoe said. "we get lots of story tips each day but that's our business and we could use a lot more information."
Asks for tips
"A lot of students don't know about us. We welcome them to stop by and give us tips we might not otherwise get," the director said.
Yoe said that mental anruish arises once in awhile ever where to draw the line between the bureau's service function and public relation function.
KU's News Bureau has become somewhat of an unofficial information bureau. Letters arrive from people who don't really know who they should write. Yoe writes replies to persons wanting tourist information about the University. He gets letters from people wanting pennants and usually sends in return the less expensive Jayhawker decals.
He sends folders of facts to the high school student who has to give a class report on a college. Yoe recently got a request from an author for information about Wilt Chamberlain. For some reason, someone wants him to send a list of salaries of past KU chancellors.
This is the second $5,000 grant to NASULGC by the S and H Foundation. A portion also will be used for efforts to inform the public of the contributions of
A $5,000 grant from the S and H Foundation, Inc., sponsored by the Sperry and Hutchinson Company, is financing the publication which will present the case for support of Negro colleges and will be distributed to business and industrial leaders.
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Unaffiliated and Party Petitions available in Dean of Men's office, 228 Strong, due Nov. 6 by 5:00. To be elected: ASC Living District Representatives and Freshman Class Officers.
The first S and H Foundation grant was used to publish "Margin for Excellence," which gave the case for voluntary support of public higher education.
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Grant given for financial study of Negro colleges
A study of the financial needs of the nation's Negro colleges will be published by the National Association on State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC). This was announced Monday by W. Clarke Wescoe, president-elect of the association.
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