Athletes' grades concern Novotny
(Editor's note: College athletes are often characterized as "jocks," paid performers who must be eased every inch of the way toward a college degree. The Kansan talked to the man at the University of Kansas who is responsible for the athlete's grades, to the athletes themselves, and then consulted the University's records in an effort to determine the facts about the athletes' performances off the field. Often the record was dim, but many athletes still manage to graduate from KU in the normal amount of time. First of a series of three.)
By TED ILIFF Kansas Staff Writer
The academic problems, goals and successes or failures of KU athletes are among the daily worries of John Novotny.
Novotny is the academic counselor to all KU students who receive athletic scholarships. His duties include anything from recruiting athletes and evaluating their academic potentials to supervising enrollment and study halls for the men we see in KU sports events.
Talking with Novotny, one can sense the pride he takes in his athletes. He gladly spouts statistics and grade point averages of his better students, and pictures of
Novotny begins his work with the athletes even before they come to KU.
outstanding scholastic athletes cover two walls of his office in Allen Field House.
"The first thing we do in recruiting is evaluate the academic goals of a prospect," Novotny said. "We try to find out what his interests are academically and otherwise to see if KU is the school for him to attend. If a kid has a certain major in mind, my job is to make sure he can get it at KU."
Some promising recruits have been lost simply because they wanted something KU couldn't offer them, he said. Novotny cited several instances of eventual star athletes for other Big Eight schools who wanted to come to KU but didn't because they couldn't major in veterinary medicine here.
"Despite what many people think, kids do make a choice of a school because of their academic goals as well as their athletic ones." Novotny said.
Once a student athlete arrives as a freshman, he is immediately taken under Novotny's wing. Schedules are planned with the aid of faculty members, and study tables are required for all freshmen.
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John Novotny
UDK News Roundup
By United Press International
Nixon to veto HEW bill
WASHINGTON—President Nixon is certain to veto the $19.7 billion appropriations bill to run the nation's education and welfare programs, UPI has learned.In fact, the White House already is soliciting votes in Congress to sustain a veto.
Bryce N. Harlow, Nixon's counselor for congressional affairs, circulated an analysis of the bill to Republican members of Congress.
Apollo shots postponed
HOUSTON—The U.S. space agency has postponed its fourth Apollo moon landing by three or four months and may delay Apollo 13 from March to April to give scientists extra time for lunar rock study between flights.
Mayor Daley indicted
CHICAGO—Mayor Richard J. Daley was to testify today as a witness for the "Chicago Seven." They said they would indict him and put him on trial.
Rennie Davis, one of the men charged with conspiring to incite riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, said the defendants would serve Daley with "an indictment cataloging his crimes. . ."
The indictment would be served, Davis said, "on behalf of all the black people who have been clubbed in this city, all the poor people whose homes have been taken away, all the welfare recipients who have been cheated on their small checks and all the long-haired people who have been harassed and maligned in the city because of their culture."
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas Tuesday, Jan. 6, 1970
Kennedy sticks to version
EDGARTOWN, Mass. (UPI)—Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was the star witness Monday when a secret inquest opened into the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. His testimony virtually duplicated his nationally televised account of the accident last summer, UPI learned.
Kennedy, driver of the car in which Miss Kopechne died, testified for about two hours in a heavily guarded courtroom that was swept of any potential listening devices.
Afterwards, Kennedy said he was "completely satisfied" with the proceedings. He returned to his Squaw Island home on the mainland, saying he did not expect to be recalled as a witness.
"I responded in the most complete way possible to the questions of the judge and district attorney," he told newsmen. "I also said a few things I thought would help add to the record."
Kennedy said his car plunged
Kennedy's testimony, UPI learned, was similar to his July 25 televised explanation of the accident in which he claimed to have made a wrong turn while driving Miss Kopechne back to Edgartown from a party on Chappaquiddick Island.
off the narrow wooden dike bridge into a tidal pond, carrying the 28-year-old Washington secretary to her death. His efforts to save her, he said, were futile.
Another witness was Robert Malloy, a New England Telephone Co. accountant from Boston who testified about telephone calls Kennedy reportedly made to lawyers and friends in the nine hours between the time of the accident and the time the senator reported it to police.
Lunar rocks reveal gold, silver particles
HOUSTON (UPI) — Intense analysis of the Apollo 11 moon rocks has revealed minute amounts of gold and silver plus several new minerals that have not yet been named, scientists reported Monday.
This means the moon is as ancient as the solar system itself, scientists said, and is much older than was estimated before man's first landing on the lunar surface in July.
The studies, conducted in laboratories around the world for the past three months, also showed the gray dust from Apollo 11's Tranquility Base dates back at least 4.66 billion years and possibly 4.73 billion.
Scientists said they were puzzled by the fact that the Apollo 11 moon dust dates back more than 4.5 billion years, but the rocks from the same site are a billion years younger.
Dr. Edward Anders of the University of Chicago, reporting on findings made by a six-man team from the university, concluded 98 per cent of the gold on the moon came from somewhere else in space and was deposited by meteorites.
He said there were only tiny amounts of this precious metal and of silver present on the moon — "to small to finance the space program," he joked.
Financial squeeze pressuring KU
During the past decade, two of the nation's 50 states failed to receive new sources of revenue for higher education from such operations as bond issues. One was Ohio; the other was Kansas.
This fact was contributed by Chancellor E. Laurence Chalmerns Jr., as well as a prediction that it will be necessary to build temporary structures next fall to accommodate classes for which there simply will be no classrooms. "We're no longer crying 'wolf.'" Chalmerns said.
But if there is an acute need for various new facilities, it is not because KU's Program for Progress has failed its mission. The fund-raising program, initiated in September 1966 by then-Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe, surpassed its proposed $18,617,000 goal by $862,000.
The collection of the nearly $19 million in gifts and pledges was handled by the KU Endowment Association from the inception of the program Sept. 19, 1966, until its completion Dec. 31, 1969. Additional gifts and grants made directly to the University by corporations
and individuals during the campaign period totaled $1,-179.065.
Program for Progress was formulated to increase the level of private support given to KU in order to insure the continuing high quality of the University's various programs. Maurice Barker, Endowment Association fund director, said it is one of the largest private-giving campaigns to be successfully concluded by any of the nation's state colleges or universities.
Several major objectives remain unmet, although the dollar total set for the campaign was exceeded, said Stanley Learned of Bartlesville, Okla., who served as the program's national chairman. They include a new museum of art and a law school building, structures for three of four colleges-within -the-college and a new medical research building at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City.
The Lawrence Daily Journal-World listed the above physical improvements with others suggested for KU. Some physical facilities are in various stages of planning:
Nunemaker College-within-aCollege; Wescoe Hall, proposed humanities building; the Satellite Union; the NASA space building; the geological survey building; and an addition to new Haworth Hall. Work is being done towards improved student health facilities.
The annual report on the KU libraries stated that Watson Library's "years are numbered, and a program either for another major addition (there have been three thus far and the report said an addition 'would not save Watson
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