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University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, Dec. 17, 1963
Admission of WU Top Campus Story
By Mike Miller
The controversy surrounding the admission of Wichita University to the state school system was the top campus news story of 1963.
Although the legislative action took place in Topeka, not Lawrence, the reaction and future significance to KU made the story the most important of the year.
THE SECOND most important news story also was based on reaction rather than
the initial event. It was the reaction to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The impact on students and faculty, the canceling of classes and the memorial convocation made this the number two campus news story of the year.
"Operation Bootstrap," the program to keep talented Kansas students in the state, was ranked as the third top news story.
allow one representative for each 1,000 students in a voting district. This made a significant change in the representation on the ASC since the Unmarried-Unorganized district, which usually got only one representative, now has four representatives.
The fourth story was the vote of the All Student Council to
THE HUMAN RIGHTS Committee report and subsequent human rights legislation by the All Student Council was the fifth campus story of the year.
The $2 million grant for study
of the social communication behavior of mentally retarded children was the sixth campus news story of the year. It was the largest research grant ever received by KU.
The retirement of Fred Ellsworth as executive-secretary of the KU Alumni Association was the number seven campus news story. Ellsworth's retirement followed more than a quarter of a century of service to KU.
The Student Court's decision
Kansas 1963--Exposes, Nudists, Atheists
Kansas, 1963, may be remembered as the year of dramatic exposes.
By Byron Klapper
It was the year a police chief in Kansas City was ousted from office for allegedly beating a prisoner whose hands were shackled behind his back.
It was the year when a newspaper reported defied the "handsoff" policy of his newspaper and of local law enforcement and exposed Leavenworth as a town which condoned violations of gambling and liquor laws.
IT WAS THE year that Godfearing residents of Stockton were threatened with exposure to atheism by the woman from Baltimore, Md., who earlier had carried the controversial "prayer in the schools" issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.
And it was the year that newspapermen, red-faced and bare, exposed themselves in order to attend the American Sunbathers Association convention at Sycamore Hollow nudist camp near Lawrence.
The move which forced the dismissal of Kansas City Police Chief John Theroff began when policemen who opposed the city administration in the previous election found themselves pounding beats or assigned to equally undesirable tasks.
At the conclusion of the state
inquisitions, testmony concerning brutality, political favoritism and liquor and gambling violations in Kansas City could have filled a book.
State authorities recommended Theroff's dismissal.
A well-worn phrase in Leavenworth is, "There has always been drinking and gambling here, and there always will be."
Those sentiments had echoed the feelings of a large percentage of the population, local law enforcement and businessmen.
THE COMMUNITY was understandably rocked when a newspaper reporter and a minister collected evidence of liquor and gambling violations in 35 taverns and delivered that evidence to the county attorney.
For his defiance of the traditional "hands-off" policy, the reporter found himself jobless, friendless, and confronted with threats of violence.
The Bible belt united in forceful opposition to Madelyn Murray last summer when she came to Stockton to inspect a tract of land donated by Carl Brown to "Other Americans, Inc." an atheist group. Stockton police refused Mrs. Murray's request for special protection, despite the obvious dissatisfaction concerning her arrival.
On the 160 acres, Mrs. Murray had planned to establish a community with a college and a radio
station for atheists like herself. There were rumors that Speed, a town 25 miles northwest of Stockton, also would be donated to Mrs. Murray's cause. The major property owner of Speed, however, denied any validity to the claim.
MEANWHILE, Mrs. Murray threatened action against the Hays school system, which her son had planned to attend, for permitting nuns to teach in the public schools.
The threat to Stockton citizens was postponed later this year when it was learned Mrs. Murray was having difficulty raising funds to finance her project. However, Mrs. Murray still owns 80 acres in Stockton and has a pledge of another 80 acres when funds become available to Other Americans, Inc.
Enterprising newspapermen were permitted to attend the camp, interview the sun worshippers and participate in the frolic, provided they did so in the nude.
GODLESSNESS, crime and vice were far-fetched topics at Sycamore Hollow last summer when nudists attempted to convince the "outside world" that nudism was a respectable practice.
In consideration of the more modest members of society, the camp invited newspapermen and selected Lawrence citizens to Sycamore Hollow to view "Barely Proper." a play presented by the Pacificans of Southern California, who were attending the American Sunbathers convention.
THE PLAY concerned a young Englishman who became engaged to a German girl, who brought him home to meet her family. However, she lacked the courage to mention they were nudists.
The plot thickened as the Englishman struggled to overcome his modesty. At one point it appeared he wouldn't make it. But love conquered all and in the end he was as bare as the rest of them.
WHILE KANSAS struggled with problems of illicit alcoholic beverage consumption by humans, Gov. John Anderson was in Japan praising that country's beer-fed cattle.
The governor was told that the cattle were "very fond of drinking beer," and that this helps their digestion and makes tastier meat. After a dinner of steaks from cattle which had been beer-fed, the governor said that the steaks tasted better than the beef raised in Kansas.
When reports of the governor's statements reached Kansas cattlemen, protests "ang out. But state officials soon pacified the farmers by explaining that the governor was merely behaving as an appreciative guest should when visiting a foreign country.
Meanwine, back at the ranch, farmers lasood a head or two and fed them the malt-hops brew. There were no signs, however, that the fad was about to take root in Kansas.
that campus traffic tickets are not valid if not signed by the officer who writes it was ranked the eighth top story.
THE RETURN OF the stolen Manet painting was the number nine story.
The arrival of the GEM III, the contraption which floats on a cushion of air and which will be studied by the department of mechanics and areospace engineering, was the next top story. The machine was too wide and too heavy to be transported on Missouri highways, and had to be rerouted through the South.
The number 11 story was the speech of Arnold Toynbee, noted historian.
The change of the Homecoming theme to "Higher Education" and the reaction to this change ranked as the twelfth top story of the year.
THE KU BASKETBALL team's defeat of highly rated Cincinnati University was the number 13 story of the year.
KU's victory in the Big Eight outdoor track meet last spring was the number 14 story of the year.
The victory of the KU team in the Big Eight College Bowl was the number 15 story of the year.
The death of KU Police Chief Joe Skillman ranked as the next top story.
Seventeen: the razing of Blake Hall.
Eighteen: the Student Peace Union's picketing of the Air Force ROTC meeting in the Kansas Union.
Nineteen; the Board of Regents' decision to raise the rates at Watkins Hospital.
Twenty: the acquisition of the land for expansion of KU research.
JFK Death Promises More Politics in '64
By Balph Gage
Politics was an insignificant phase of American life in 1963 until that tragic day. Nov. 22. Developments have seemed imminent since, and promise to make that 22nd day of November a most significant day in American politics for the approaching year.
As a result of the assassination of President Kennedy, the biggest development on the political scene may be the jockeying for the 1964 Republican presidential candidacy.
ARIZONA'S Son. Barry Goldwater turned in good poll showings prior to the assassination. He's waiting now to see the results of current polls, but President Johnson has stolen much of Barry's political thunder by presenting a conservative image in financial affairs—something Americans seem to like. Johnson is liberal regarding matters such as civil rights, which many Americans approve, and in spite of this, he has demonstrated an ability to work with the Southern bloc.
If the polls run very heavily in Johnson's favor, the GOP may have a great deal of trouble getting anyone to run against him. That's where Nelson Rockefeller and Richard Nixon come in.
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THE NEW YORK governor threw his hat in the ring early in the game, despite his poor showing in national polls after his marriage. Now that Rocky has declared himself, the GOP's conservative wing may let him have the nomination in order to sacrifice him. It would get him out of their hair, and if he loses, make a good argument for party support of a conservative in 1968.
The Republicans also have Richard Nixon, the cat with nine political lives. Nixon conceivably could be sacrificed by the GOP in '64.
Johnson's popularity makes it unlikely that any Republican darkhorse like William Scranton or George Romney will bid for the 64 nomination. It is doubtful that any Republican will want to run against Johnson. Note the difficulty Eisenhower has having convincing Henry Cabot Lodge to carry the party banner.
The GOP needs a gimmick, like running Margaret Chase Smith for President. Proposals that she run for vice-president should fall through in the aftermath of Kennedy's death and the re-examination of the vice-president's importance.
THE GOP CAN'T attack Johnson's mistakes, because he hasn't had time to make any as President, although putting people out of work won't make him more popular.
It would be heretical, in view of Kennedy's recent defiication by opinion-makers, for anyone to attack the record he made.
ENTER HERE one Robert Baker, boy secretary to the Senate majority, protege of now-President
Congress, another facet of American politics in 1963, languished comfortably on a seat of public apathy until an assassin's bullet gave it a slight jab in its collective rear end. Both houses showed signs of life for a while in indignant speeches, and some action has followed.
Lyndon Baines Johnson. Reflections cast on the President by the Eaker investigation, together with any mistakes he might make in coming months, plus civil rights-inspired dissatisfaction with the Democratic party in the Southern states might make things look better for the GOP. This is quite an "iffy" proposition, however.
Perhaps the most significant Congressional development, if anything comes of it, is Rep. Richard Bolling's crusade for reform of procedures. Bolling thinks, probably correctly, that the present manner of doing (or not doing) things is outmoded. He is particularly displaced with the use of seniority alone as a criterion for selecting committee chairmen.
ELECTIONS THIS year proved little, if anything. Both parties claimed gains and victories. The Democrats got the big plums, like the office of mayor in Philadelphia. The Republicans claimed victories on the basis of voting percentages. Before the elections, there was speculation the Republicans might show new strength because of Kennedy's civil rights program. All the speculation came to nothing.
Court-ordered reappointment in several states may make it more difficult for the parties to assess their strength as 1963 becomes history, and 1984 becomes reality.
"Next Year You Might Be Ready To Pack EVERYTHING You Have"