Leben learns to roll with punches as student leader
Staff Writer
By LINDA STEWART
Steve Leeben, student body president, said recently one of the things he learned while being presi-
dent is that students can learn through teamwork.
Leben, who has come under attack for his method of running the Senate, said he had learned a lot about it.
"Student politics is a lot more like the real world than I had thought." Leben said.
He gave as an example the fact that there are political motives behind actions that senators take.
Senators recently have charged that Leben "trailored" legislation through the Senate, ignoring the Senate structure of committee consideration before taking a Senate vote on an issue. Others have charged that Leben surrounds himself with an elite group of senators who join him in pushing legislation through the Senate.
VETERAN SENATORS say that Leben swaies the vote of new, inexperienced senators by using his
presidential position to add weight to his personal stands.
Others have criticized him for his unchanging stands on issues or have said they found him hard to handle.
Jill Grubaugh, journalism senator, said she thought a lot of the accusations made against Leben were
"A lot of this stuff has been a bum rap to Steve," he said. "People say terrible things about him." He added, "I was not happy."
Grubbaugh said she thought the rumors had hurt Leben's effectiveness because he was not sure who was involved.
"PEOPLE DON'T trust him," she said. "He's not goin to lead us all astray."
chance to defend himself because senators did not bother to hear his side of the story.
going to do this for her.
She said she thought Leben was not given a fair
Sam Zweifel, graduate student senator, said he thought Lebanese had high ideals and wanted to push them.
Mike Harper, chairman of StudEx, said that sometimes "push comes to show."
"Steve fights hard for the issues he believes in," Harper said.
That fighting for issues and pushing legislation has bothered some senators, who think legislation should be studied by a committee before being considered by the full Senate.
Don Green, communications committee chairman,
said Leben made it hard for people to get involved in
the Senate. Green was an unsuccessful candidate
for student body vice president last spring.
"EVERYTIME SOMEONE wants to get something accomplished they have to fight Lemon. Green sap and the blacks."
What's people doing about it?
Green said that *leben made up his mind how he*
wanted an issue to go and would suppress an opposite opinion.
Randy McKernan, a senator who ran against Leben in last year's presidential race, said that whenever a senator presented an argument against legislation presented by Leben on the Senate floor, Leben would pull out facts and figures to make the senator feel ignorant.
"He's a hard man to deal with." McKernan said.
Leben said recently that he thought discontent in senate came from people who realized that he did not want to be involved.
"My job is to get things done," he said, "not to make sure that beoon are harrow."
Leben said that he looked at leadership as leading by example and that he worked hard and applied a lot of his experience.
Some senators work hard, he said, but they do not even make up a third of the students in the Senate.
HE SAID there were three things that the Senate
has worked on this year that would have a lasting impact on the Senate and students at KU. Thev are.
- Increased funding for recreational services. Leben said that although there had been delays in getting the improvements in recreational services started, students for several years would benefit from the improvements. The Senate allocated 800,000 to improve recreational facilities and prosthems have yet been made because of delays.
- Extensive opinion surveys done by the Senate. Leben said the Senate had taken two surveys of the student body and intended to take at least two more before his term expired.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Leben's term in office is more than half over, and one of his campaign promises has yet to be carried
- A-pre paid legal services program. Although the program still is being surveyed by the Senate, Leben said that, if implemented, the program could have a lasting impact on KU students.
See LEBEN page six.
KANSAN
COMFORTABLE
Thursday October 20,1977
Staff Photo by ELI REICHMAN
advantage of unseasonably warm weather while working on an in-class art assignment.
Regent times resignation to avoid budget hearings
Bv BRIAN SETTLE
Staff Writer
Babb, 70, said yesterday that he was resigning early instead of waiting until his current four-year term expired Dec. 31. He also said the new another series of Regents hearing books.
Henry Bubb, senior member and former chairman of the Kansas Board of Regents, is resigning from the board effective Nov. 1, after 16 years of service.
Bubb said the Regents staff works for weeks budget requests from the seven states.
Then, he said, the board meets for four days with the heads of the institutions to cut down on overtime.
"Then Bibb (James Bibb, state budget director) slices everything out and the outfit goes to work," she says.
BUBB SENT a letter of resignation to Gov. Robert Bennett dated August, 15, but it was not released by Bennett until yesterday, when speculation about the impending demise of the media. Bennett is responsible for appointing board members for four-year terms.
Bubb said he was not leaving state government entirely.
He will remain chairman of the Higher Education Assistance Foundation's board of directors, which will supervise the operation of a new student loan program. Bubb also is chairman of the board of Capitol Federal Savings and Loan.
Also having their expires this year are Regents John D. Montgomery of Juncop, and Todd Hammond of Jackson of Kansas City, Kan., on the board since 1970. Both were appointed by former Gov. Robert Docking. Montgomery and Todd yesterday they would serve if reappointed.
Bubb said Bennett had asked him in August to serve until his term expired. However, the two worked out a compromise resignation date of Nov. 1.
HOWEVER, BENNETT told a news
HOWEVER, there might be
confidence today.
While other students stayed inside for classes yesterday, Elizabeth Dix, Hampton, Va., graduate student, was able to take
The controversy stemmed from the announcement last December that State Sen. Don Everett, R-Manhattan, was going to introduce a bill into the Kansas Legislature that would have required that only a single member from any one Regents institution on the board. At that time, seven of the Regents were University of Kansas alumni.
Bubb made it clear that his resignation had nothing to do with a recent controversy over the death of his daughter.
IN FEBRUARY. Bennett did not reapot Reginaeges Jess Stuart and Paul Wmish, two KL alumun, but instead replaced them with others. The new leaders Hays and Marshall Reed of Garden City.
"That had nothing to do with my resignation," Bubb said. "I thought the whole thing was rather silly. The fact is that I am 70 years old and time is becoming more and more important to me. Believe me, the board takes a lot of time.
In his letter of resignation, Bubb said he was leaving the board with much sadness.
He said he was proud of the heads of all the state schools, all chosen during his tenure.
particularly proud of the way See BUBB page 11
Outdoors
Bulletin
The plane was hijacked at Grand Island, Neb., and flew to Kansas City International Airport. in Kansas City there were conflicting reports about the passengers. One police source said all had been released, but other reports stated only women had been freed.
KANAS CITY, Mo. (From the Kansan's Wire Services)- A gunman armed with a sawed-off shotgun early today hijacked a Frontier Airlines jet carrying 34 passengers and crew and demanded $5 million, 2 parachutes, the release of a prisoner in a Georgia jail.
The Boeing 737 was refueled and took off shortly after 9 a.m. for Atlanta.
Edward Krupinsky, special agent in charge of the Omaha FAI office identified the hijacker as Thomas Michael Hannon of Grand Island.
Prayer best chance to escape Watson fire
By DAVID ALFORD
Staff Writer
A prayer might be in order if a person was to retrieve the stacks in the innert of Wagon Library.
If there were a fire in the library, poorly identified emergency exits and staircases, unmarked fire extinguisher locations, windows that are wired shut for security
A fire in the library would create several eating problems, according to library emplains.
reasons and the 10-inch by 12-inch crawl spaces through the metal window frames would make escape improbable, perhaps impossible, the emplays sav.
MOVEMENT BETWEEN the different floors of the stacks is made possible by the central stair stairs, the stairs on the outside of the east and west wings of the stacks and the two stack elevators — one older elevator in the east wing and a newer one in the west wing. The older elevator has two sliding steel doors, and both elevators must be
of the potential escape routes from the
stacks lead to the first and second floor in
the front of the building or to the rear
entrances on the first floor of the stacks.
"This is not a safe library," Shelldon said. "I would not want to be back in the stacks or the database."
Small crowds prompt $1 tickets
Low attendance at home football games,
most visible in the north end zone, has
prompted officials to try to fill the gap by
offering $1 tickets to students for the
Parents' Day game with Oklahoma State
Saturday.
Doug Messer, assistant athletic director in charge of business affairs, said yesterday that students would have the option of exchanging single game tickets already purchased for $2.50 on ones at the new student rate.
A library patron could unknowingly block an escape route by leaving one of the two doors to the elevator slightly ajar, Sheldon said.
"We're mainly interested in the student's participation in the event and making it available to the ones that haven't chosen to throw a season ticket," he said.
closed by the person using the elevator before the next patron can call it to his floor.
Messer said the seating was available because Saturday's game and the previous Sunday's game were on Saturday.
Students this year paid $20 for season tickets, an average of $4 a game.
Because the extra seating was available, the athletic department obtained permission from the Big Eight Conference to attend all $4 tickets on KU's first three home games.
3,000 tickets requested by Oklahoma State probably would sit in the southeast visitor's corner, leaving the north bowl with extra seats.
But this is the only time this season for which student tickets will be offered for $1. Students must present a current KU ID when they purchase the $1 ticket. Tickets can be exchanged this week at the ticket office in Allen Field House.
Many of the steel-framed windows in the rear of the library have latches that are sealed shut with heavy-gauge wire wire. Richard Gilbar, assistant reference librarian, said the windows were sealed shut to prevent books from being thrown out.
HE SAID VISITORS that use the 2,000 to
"At a buck a head, we're not making any big money," Messer said. "Our approach is more a matter of human relations than dollars and cents."
MESSER SAID THAT the ticket office had received several calls about the special
"For this game, the option for parents and students to sit together is there and the mechanics will permit it," he said. "but abuse won't do that, people who want to abuse it don't do it."
Messer said this arrangement might seem especially appealing to students and their parents who want to sit together on Parents' table. The resulting system did not provide that opportunity.
offer Tuesday but that it was still early to estimate if people would take help with the offer.
On both levels one east and one west is a door that leads to a central corridor between the two wings. At the end of the corridor is a door that leads to the parking lot at the rear of the library. A sign on the door reads "This Door Is Opened." A alarm will Sound If This Door Is Opened."
He also said that a person holding a season ticket would not be prevented from buying a reduced price ticket but that a student shown by each student to enter the stadium.
when told about the unmarked emergency exits, Careen Kirkitchle, Tepperuka junior, said I'm getting out of school so could be like an answer "Towering Infarto."
Other plans to fill the north bowl are special prices of $10 to admit up to six members of a family and $2 for senior citizens.
However, there are no signs on the doors leading to the central corridor to inform patrons that they lead to the emergency exit.
On levels two through six there are no outside exits. Patrons can exit off of level seven of the stacks, which corresponds with the second floor of the front of Watson.
The stairs between stack floors, which would be the only means of exiting the stacks if the elevators malfunctioned, are not marked with exit signs.
there is an emergency exit in a central corridor between levels one east and one west of the stacks that is not identified in the stack areas as being an emergency exit.
Capsules From the Associated Press, United Press International
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN-
Jaworski criticizes South Korea
At the House Ethics Committee's first public hearing on the covert lobbying operation, Jaworski said that he would not let name any suspected payoff be disclosed.
WASHINGTON - House ethics counsel Leon Jaworski yesterday accused the Korean government of trying "to buy off American congressmen," and witnesses said even Seoul's former ambassador carted wads of $100 bills to Capitol Hill.
South African police hold blacks
The crackdown, called the tughest since the early 1960s, came early during mounting attacks on the white government because of the Sept. 12 prison death of a black man in the city.
Senate increases retirement age
WASHINGTON - The Senate yesterday passed a bill allowing millions of Americans to keep working until age 70, five years longer than they can in
But by a close vote, the Senate excluded tenured university professors and certain highly paid business executives from the measure, meaning their employers still could retire them at 65. Sen. John Chaffee, R-LIL, told reporters that they should be retired to new ideas or retire professors at 65 to make room for younger teachers and students.
The bill now goes to a conference committee to be reconciled with the House version, which treats professors and business executives the same as the Senate.
Mitchell urgently requests release
WASHINGTON- Imprisoned Watersite compirator John Mitchell filed an urgent plea for executive clemency yesterday, saying he had a compelling case to fight.
Mitchell, 64, who is not eligible for parole until June 10, 1978, said that he did not want to have surgery within the prison system and that he was not able to help his daughter Martha in her "formative years." He said his legal battles have lasted four years, during which his wife died.
The U.S. Justice Department said the petition had been turned over to a pardon lawyer.
Locally...
Working one's way through college is part of the game for some University of Kansas students. Instead of playing the game, however, the students earn money for their involvement in the sports, softball, volleyball, wrestling, gymnastics and volleyball sporting events. Student officials usually start out judging KU intramural sports at the minimum. But according to one official's estimate, a student officiating in college on his way to a $50,000-a-year career. See story page 10.