Daily hansan
59th Year, No. 19
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
NSA Backs Seven Who Saw Wescoe
The KU National Student Association Committee yesterday supported the civil rights stand of seven students who met Monday with Chancellor W. Clarke Wesoee.
By Scott Payne
The motion to send a resolution to the All Student Council in "hearty endorsement" of a student demand to stop discriminatory housing listing passed six to two.
housing listing possession. Judi Jamison, Ottawa junior, and Charles McIlwaine, Wichita senior, dissented. Jerry Dickson, Newton sophomore, and Charles Patterson; Joplin, Mo., sophomore, abstained.
PRIOR TO THE VOTE Charles Menghini, Pittsburgh senior, who was a Civil Rights Council representative at the Chancellor's meeting. said:
"Our stand was a blunt request for the Housing Office to drop the names of discriminatory renters.
"We discussed it for an hour and a half," he said. "This is what we want and will work for. I think that here lies a chance for KU to take a role of leadership in civil rights."
"The Chancellor just didn't feel this way," he added.
Wednesday, October 11, 1961
DICKSON MOVED that the proposed resolution be amended to support the Chancellor's decision. The motion was defeated.
Then McIlwaine said, "I would like to amend the resolution to read:
'Be it further resolved that this resolution is in direct conflict with the position taken by the University as expressed by the Chancellor.'
This proposal was also defeated.
FOR 20 MINUTES following passage of the main motion, Dickson, McIlwaine, and Patterson explained their votes did not mean they were against integration.
were against integration. "My vote against the resolution puts me in a position of non-support of civil rights," said Dickson. "This is not the case," he added. "I voted against the motion because I don't think NSA should be the right arm of the CRC."
the right arm of the City.
McIlwaine said his vote was "not to be construed as opposition to civil rights. Such a position of support is an indirect slap at University policy," he said.
For the text of the NSA resolution, see page 8.
AT THIS POINT, Arthur C. Miller, Pittsburg junior, who proposed the original resolution, asked the chairman, Robert Thomas. Marysville senior, to enforce the outside speaker ruling, "so we can get something done today."
(The outside speaker ruling requires permission of a Committee majority for a non-Committee member to speak.)
This action confined Jerry Palmer, El Dorado senior, ASC chairman, observer and last week's outspoken critic of NSA affiliation, to
(Continued on page 3)
Disagree with Wescoe's Discrimination Stand
Two Negroes and a foreign student disagreed today with the Chancellor's statement concerning the listing by the Housing Office of renters who discriminate.
"I always thought the University should have a profound influence on the views of the local townpeople." Sandra Moore, Saskatchewan, Canada, sophomore, said. "Lawrence has remained immune to the advances made by the University in the area of civil rights." (The Chancellor said Monday there has been a great improvement in the racial situation in Lawrence in the last year.)
"FOREIGN STUDENTS should not be forced to undergo the frustrations of having no bounds on their civil liberties while on campus and then be thrown into the role of an inferior semi-citizen. I am continually irritated by conservative reactionary attitudes in Lawrence."
Nolen Ellison, Kansas City, Kan.
junior, said, "I definitely feel that the Negro students here are quite concerned. I hope the University and the students can come to some sort of agreement.
"I CAN UNDERSTAND how the Chancellor took the stand he did. However, considering that he is the Chancellor I feel that he should have made a more positive stand in regard to listing of discriminatory housing. His stand in itself leans toward "no, we will not" in the near future.
"THE LEADERS of the organizations at the meeting with the Chancellor were not a group of radical kids. They were a group of serious-minded people representing important community-minded religious and service organizations."
Elmer Jackson, Kansas City, Kan. senior, said, "I read the article several times, trying to be objective by taking into view the Chancellor's viewpoint as head of KU and my standpoint as a student and also as a Negro.
"I do agree with the point that no individual legally may tell another to whom he may or may not rent his house. But, I feel that the University should prevent discriminators from being listed," Jackson said.
Wilson Explains KU Housing Policy
J. J. Wilson, housing director at KU, said today that the housing office does not ask renters if they discriminate.
"We are simply running a listing service," he said. ___
Mr. Wilson explained if people call up and tell the Housing Office that they discriminate the office listens, but it does not list this information.
"Actually, there is no reason for us to get involved in this (the discrimination problem)," he said. "We are only interested in listing the physical facilities of the room for rent. We have no team of inspectors to check on the rooms."
Faculty Reaction Seems Divided
The Office does have classifications of listings, however. For example, people who will take children are separated from those who will not. If the renter does not allow pets, this is also listed.
Mr. Wilson explained that the housing office does not approve or disapprove of off-campus housing. He said that only the dean of women's office issues such an approved list for undergraduate women who do not live in sororities or University dormitories.
KU faculty members appear to be split in their reaction to Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe's decision to continue listing Lawrence renters who discriminate.
In interviews last night with seven faculty members, two opposed the action, one supported it, one declined to comment and three felt that they lacked sufficient information to comment.
REFERRING TO THE Chancellor's statement, Harry G. Shaffer, assistant professor of economics, said he found the policy contradictory and confusing.
"To me," he said, "this statement seems contradictory to the practices followed at the moment. If the University does not condone discriminatory practices, how is it that the University abets discrimination by listing discriminatory housing?"
To my knowledge, nobody has proposed that either the Chancellor or the University should in any way interfere with the rights of a private citizen to rent his property to whonever he wants to.
"PEOPLE WHO DO wish to discriminate, of course, are free to rent their rooms by using commercial agencies such as real estate companies. But the facilities of the University, a state institution supported by all the taxpayers of the state, certainly should not be made available to them."
"Listing is a service freely offered by the University, and I should think we could afford to insist that certain moral and not merely sanitary conditions should be met by people who avail-themselves of this service.
Peter J. Caws, associate professor of philosophy, felt that the University would be justified in refusing to list discriminatory renters. "I'm not sure," he said, "that refusal to list discriminatory housing interferes with the rights of private itineraries."
"THE CHANCELLOR is undoubtedly right, however, in saying that the responsibility for such a policy is ultimately his. It (Chancellor Wescoe's reaffirmation of policy) cannot have been an easy decision."
Supporting the Chancellor's policy was James E. Seaver, director of the Western Civilization program.
"I think the chancellor is very justified in what he did, and I would back him 100 per cent," he said. "I think the Chancellor's policy at the present time is quite acceptable."
Moral Suasion Stand Rejected
By Zeke Wigglesworth
Five of the seven students who met with Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe Monday to discuss the administration's housing policy said last night they are opposed to his decision to continue listing discriminatory renters.
One student favored the Chancellor's stand; one said he was not clear about the issue.
George Buford
THE STUDENTS asked the Chancellor to change his policy of listing discriminatory renters on housing office lists. The Chancellor said the policy would continue.
The most outspoken of the five opposing the Chancellor is Charles Menghini, Pittsburg senior and co-chairman of the Civil Rights Council.
should in no way — directly or indirectly — sanction any form of racial discrimination."
"The students and the faculty should take action to persuade Chancellor Wescoe that the University should stop listing renters who discriminate," he said. "I think the University should take the leadership in Lawrence. It
IN FULL ACCORD with the Chancellor is People-to-People representative David R. Barrier, Wichita sophomore.
"I agree with Dr. Wescoe's stand," he said. "To use other actions not of the "moral suasive" type would bring pressure on the housing office and make it hard to find places for students to stay.
DENIS KENNEDY, Lawrence graduate student representing the International Club, was confused by the meeting.
"The University's housing policy is not clear. Until that policy is clear, I cannot make a definite evaluation of the meeting. It is true, of course, that some good always comes out of a meeting like this. I think it was a service to the
school because it showed Chancellor Wescoe that there is student interest in the problem."
Denis Kennedy
Another student was also confused. Richard Smith, Great Bend sophomore and a member of the Wesley Foundation said:
"I CAME OUT of the meeting with a feeling of confusion. I didn't know exactly what the Chancellor was doing. The Chancellor said
Jane Dunlap
we must not make the situation worse, and that 'moral suasion' was the best policy. I don't agree.
"There have been leaders throughout history who have stood up and said 'That is my signature.' The Chancellor thinks he is leading the battle against housing discrimination by the use of moral suasion. But moral suasion is person to person. He wants us to settle the problem quietly, objectively and with no trouble. I do not think this will be effective. The Chancellor must lead the battle."
JANE DUNLAP, Lawrence
senior and KU-Y member, felt that little was accomplished at the meeting. She said that in view of what the Chancellor said, the group felt he was definitely against discrimination.
"The meeting was not a waste of time. It let us get to know the Chancellor better," she said. "What was lacking were definite answers and definite questions. I think the issue of discrimination can be solved only by more contact between students. Moral suasion is not the final answer."
Curtis D. Keller, Chase senior and a member of the Westminster Center, was more blunt.
"TO MY WAY of thinking, if the Chancellor lists renters who will (Continued on page 3)
(Continued on page 3)