Monday. October 23,1961 University Daily Kansan
Page 3
Kansan Focus on Central NSA Figures
Jerry Palmer
Jerry Palmer, El Dorado senior and chairman of the All Student Council, favors disaffiliation with the National Student Association. He advocates the formation of a campus current events committee instead.
Palmer feels NSA is not representative of student opinion and that KU does not receive benefits from it equal to the $500 annual national dues. He feels a current events committee could serve the same function as NSA while not being nationally associated.
"The current events committee would still definitely have an important function in discussing national and international issues. Discussions of problems such as the migrant farm workers can be carried on with or without national affiliation.
"The liberal point of view is dominant in NSA. It is made up largely of the liberal Eastern and Northeastern schools that have a strong voice in NSA. Kansas is not liberal. I would say Kansas is moderately conservative.
"I don't think KU gets benefits from NSA to the tune of $500." Palmer continued. "We could use that money elsewhere in the budget. We have a responsibility to give the students something worth their money."
The NSA committee has asked for an $800 appropriation this year.
"Our budget gets tighter each year as more organizations are formed," Palmer says. "We can use the money we would give to NSA elsewhere."
"The ASC will allocate People-to-People money for the first time this fall," Palmer says. (People-to-People
Palmer attended the national NSA Congress in Minneapolis, Minn., in the summer of 1960. He has attended three regional conferences. He is also one of the six organizers of the conservative Young Americans for Freedom, which began functioning at KU two weeks ago.
When asked to comment on the charge that YAF was behind his wanting to disaffiliate with NSA, Palmer refused to comment. The charge came from Carol McMillen, Coldwater senior and coordinator of the NSA committee. She said that YAF opposes NSA and wants to weaken it by getting schools to drop out.
Palmer says NSA is not representative of all schools. He points out that only 400 of the 1200 U.S.colleges are in NSA.
Palmer asked if she really made the charge. He said he would not comment on it and that Miss McMillen could have her own views on his opposing NSA.
"The South is not represented at all and the Western schools are dropping out of NSA. Kansas and Missouri are the only big schools in NSA in the Missouri-Kansas region."
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Palmer says NSA is more beneficial to smaller schools. "They can benefit from what NSA offers. But with a large school like KU, NSA's advantages are met by other campus organizations such as the Current Events Forum. KU-Y and People-to-People.
Carol McMillen
Carol McMillen, Coldwater senior and NSA coordinator, is probably the staunchest defender of the NSA at KU.
She is friendly and easy going, but quickly and fervently stands ready to defend the NSA against all comers. She is dedicated to keeping KU in NSA.
Her campus activities include Mortar Board, Presidential Forum, All Student Council and the College Intermediary Board, in addition to the NSA. She has a grade point average of 2.66.
At an interview at her sorority house yesterday, she said that opposition to the NSA is coming from the YAF (Young Americans for Freedom), an organization which promotes conservatism. The NSA at present is liberal.
Miss McMillen had this to say about the YAF
"They tried to take over the national NSA Congress at Madison, Wis., last spring. They failed and their attitude was 'If I can't be captain, I'm taking my football and going home.'
"They got their conservative little toes stomped on, then they wanted to stomp back. They said at the Congress that they would get as many schools out of NSA this year as they could. They want to weaken it and make it ineffective. This just isn't good sportsmanship."
Miss McMillen went on to give a behind-the-scenes picture of why the NSA is meeting opposition at KU.
She said that Scott Stanley, a first year law student at KU last year, was one of the YAF members at the NSA convention in Madison who opposed NSA's liberalism.
Stanley is presently traveling around the country as YAF liaison man.
"Scott was an alternate who was supposed to work with the NSA. We never saw Scott. He was too busy working with the YAF to know what was going on at the Convention," she said.
"I heard that he wrote to a political leader at KU and said he didn't like the NSA's liberalism."
This is where the opposition at KU to NSA started, she said.
Despite YAF's opposition to the NSA, Miss McMillen said she thought the "existence of the organization is fine because you should have representatives of the whole political spectrum.
"Their methods are lousy. This is my main objection," she emphasized.
Miss McMillen is the College representative to the All Student Council as well as the NSA coordinator. Asked whether her primary interest is the ASC or the NSA, she replied:
"Let's put it this way. The NSA is my primary concern right now until we get this settled. If we stay in the NSA, I'll concentrate on the NSA less," she said.
How would she react if the ASC decided to withdraw KU from the NSA?
"I would feel the ASC had not acted on its own, but
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Charles Menghini
One year ago Charles Menghini was appointed to the KU National Student Association committee. At that time his interest in NSA was "curiosity to find out what it was."
Today Menghini is one of NSA's most avid supporters at KU and is leading the fight against disaffiliation of KU with NSA.
Menghini, an international relations and history major, is known as an outspoken liberal. In addition to his position on the NSA committee, he is co-chairman of the Civil Rights Council and last year was co-chairman of the University Party.
During the past year, he attended the regional NSA international relations seminar, was chairman of a committee on Cuba at the spring regional NSA conference, attended the Foreign Student Leadership Project evaluation convention and was a delegate to the NSA Congress at Madison, Wis.
His support of NSA is based in part on the many benefits which KU could receive from its affiliation, but which it has not received in the past due to "ignorance of the benefits or due to the complacency which frowns on the idea of a national organization."
"These benefits can range in scope from information on campus problems to activities on the national and international level," he said. "The information is there; all we have to do is ask for it."
Benefits which KU can receive from NSA, said Menghini, included the following:
Educational Travel, Inc., which provides low-cost student tours of Latin America and Europe.
Student Government Information Service, which lists movies and speakers available for programs.
Foreign Student Leadership Project, which brings student leaders from other countries to various United States campuses to study.
He specifically mentioned the International Student Conference, which he said NSA helped to organize and to a large extent still leads.
"Our contacts with other students and with future leaders of other countries through the Conference are of such vital importance to this country that its overall effect can't be minimized," he said.
"KU has been acclaimed nationally for its athletic and scholastic activities," he said, "and NSA offers us the opportunity to take a leadership position in educational, political, and social activities as well."
Menghini stressed KU's role in NSA.
He said he did not believe disaffiliation is justified on the grounds that NSA does not represent the views of KU students.
"NSA is a confederation of student governments, and no student government is mandated to abide by the decisions made at the National Congress," he said.
"If KU disagrees with the majority opinion of the college students, as vocalized at the conference, we have
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