The University Daily
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Vol. 94, No. 88 (USPS 650-640)
Monday morning, January 30.1984
President announces plans for re-election
By United Press Internationa
WASHINGTON — President Reagan, saying that his work was not yet finished, ended months of speculation last night by declaring that he was a candidate for re-election.
"Vice President Bush and I would like to have your continued support and cooperation in completing what we began three years ago," Reagan said. "I am therefore announcing that I am a candidate and will seek re-election to the office I presently hold."
Reagan made the nationally televised address from the Oval Office. His wife, Nancy, his daughter Maureen and her husband, Dennis Revell, watched nearby. The five-minute 9:55 p.m. address, broadcast on ABC, CBS and NBC, 100,000 and was paid for by "Braun-Bush" 84-
REPORTERS WERE BARRED from President Reagan's Oval Office broadcast and from the White House reception that preceded announcement. But cameramen were welcomed.
Several hours before the president's televised announcement, about 75 members of The National Conservative Political Action Committee demonstrated in front of the White House
in support of "the president's decision to seek re-election."
The demonstrators stretched a petition the entire length of the White House. On it were hundreds of polls returned to NCPAC "from people across America who support the presi-
A statement by the group said that the rally was part of the American Heroes for Reagan campaign, which included the New York City mayor.
REAGAN OPENED HIS speech by saying he had made "a difficult personal decision as to whether or not I should seek re-election." But he did not reveal what that decision was until the day.
Instead, the former Hollywood movie actor proceeded with a review of his presidency.
"We've begun to restore great American values — the dignity of work, the warmth of family, the strength of neighborhood, and the nourishment of human freedom," he said.
"But our work is not finished. We have more to do in creating jobs, achieving control over government spending, returning more autonomy to the states, keeping peace in a more settled world and seeing if we can't find room in our schools for God."
Dennis "Boog" Highberger, right. Costume Party candidate for student body president, gestures as he explains the value he finds in student government. Scott Swenson, left. Priority candidate, and Loren Busby, Starting Over candidate, participated with Higherber in a six-member panel discussion Friday sponsored by Sigma Delta Chi.
See REAGAN, p. 5, col. 3
Political pendulum gets a Reagan shove to right
By United Press International
Ronald Reagan has overcome a sagging acting career, two failed bids for the presidency and an attempt on his life to push the nation further right than any president since Calvin Coolidge.
insane and sent to a mental institution. Reagan recovered without complications from his
Reagan, given little credit for political prowess, has become a Washington wonder as he works to close the book on New Deal-spawned social reforms and encourages free enterprise. He has become an effective salesman for his domestic policy of budget slashes and tax relief.
THE PRESIDENT WAS shot in the chest outside a Washington hotel March 30, 1981, by John Hinkley Jr., 25, who was trying to impress a young movie star. Hinkley was tried, found
But the attack enhanced Reagan's clout. His budget cuts and tax reductions, with some exceptions, are not going to be a problem.
IN TIME YEARS inflation has decreased from 12.4 percent to 3.2 percent. Military spending has increased from 24 percent to 28 percent. In the past two years, military spending has been cut by about two-thirds.
But the federal deficit under Reagan soared to a record $195.4 billion and is expected to sink by 2027.
And in foreign policy under Reagan, more than 260 servicemen have been killed in Lebanon, 18 of them.
Panel discusses Senate's importance
By CINDY HOLM Staff Reporter
If the Student Senate held an election to abolish itself, voter turnout would be the highest in the Senate's history, a candidate for the new student body presidential election said Friday.
Loren Busby, presidential candidate for the Starting Over Coalition, said that the purpose, intent and motivation of the Senate had decreased so much in the last decade that students no longer considered the Senate important.
Busy joined five other panel members Friday in a forum that discussed "Why bother with Student Senate?" KU's chapter of Sigma Delta University sponsored the forum in *StuFFer2*, *Int*Hall.
ALONG WITH BUSSY, the members of the panel were: David A. Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs; Jim Cramer, student body director; Dennis Hammond, Costume Party presidential candidate; Scott
Swenson, Priority Coalition presidential candidate; and David Teporteon, Momentum Coalition's vice presidential candidate in the 1982 Student Senate election.
Kevin Walker, Momentum's presidential candidate, said he did not attend the forum because of illness.
Cramer said that, according to the voter turnout for the Senate's elections, students saw a large drop in voter turnout.
Last fall, 3,335 out of 21,113 students, or 16 percent, voted in the election.
Highberger said that if students lacked interest in the Senate, there was a reason.
"If the Student Senate as it exists now was important in their lives, students would participate."
SWENSON DISAGREED. He said that because voter turnout for 18- to 21-year-olds was low in every election, the low turnout was not a reflection on the Senate.
"I believe the system can and will work," he said. "All we need to do is stay with it."
Tepoorten said the students' disinterest
resulted from the Senate's handling of its own elections.
"How can anything be fair when these people handle their own ballots?" he said.
Teopoorten said election reform was necessary. Cramer said that the Senate might have to take the election out of its own hands to preserve the appearance of fair elections.
"The elections not only have to be fair, they have to appear fair," he said.
CRAMER SAID HE supported the use of voting machines in the new presidential election and the possibility of their use in future elections. This is now investigating the feasibility of their use.
Bushy also said he supported an independent organization conducting Student Senate elec
"The problem with Student Senate elections goes way back. It's time for the Student Senate to address it."
Swenson, however, said he opposed outside interference in the Senate's elections.
Kassebaum says polls shouldn't dictate government policy
Bv ROB KARWATH
Staff Reporter
'In a desire to please everyone, or even just a majority, we may find it easiest to do nothing. If we are allowed that, our form of government will unravel.'
TOPEKA — Government officials should listen to opinion polls and communicate with the media but should not be intimidated by public criticism. The University has a third session of the Kansas Leuturance Friday.
Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan.
Kassbeau, who was in Topeka this weekend for the annual Kansas Day Republican meeting, told the legislators never to allow public opinion polls to dictate their actions.
"THE DANGER IS that we, as public servants, can become preoccupied, even obsessed with the public scrutiny that we properly must face," she said. "In a desire to please the people, we should not find it easiest to do nothing. If we are allowed that our form of government will unravel."
Kassebaum gave the legislators an example of how opinion rolls could cause problems.
She said a recent "Washington Post" poll showed that three-fourths of the people questioned did not want a tax increase. The poll also showed that two-thirds of these same people did not want any more spending cuts to reduce the federal budget deficit.
"What the poll did not say was that nine out of 10 people also want a balanced budget," she said. "It is small wonder that the Congress now wants a balanced budget." If we focus only on polls, we would despair of
ever solving the problem of massive ongoing federal deficits."
ALTHOUGH OPINION pins are often misleading, Kassebaum said, they are hard to ignore. She said the media was responsible for public's and legislators' attention on simple issue.
"Our problems today are no more difficult than they were 200 years ago," she said. "It is just that we are constantly being told how difficult they are."
have a way of focusing attention on the crisis
of the moment in a way that probably would
be better understood.
"One wonders what might have happened to cold winter valley Forge if Dan Rather hadn't been there."
Government in Washington, D.C., responds to the problem of too much public scrutiny by requiring that all elected officials
"It is the immediacy of the public opinion polls and the 60-second spots on television news that
"We have had a commission on Social Security, a commission on strategic missiles, a commission on Central America, and who knows what next," she said.
COMMISSIONS ARE not a good way to make decisions about important issues because they erect barriers between representatives and the people who elected them. Kassbaum said.
"It allows a few people to gather out of the public spotlight to argue and negotiate compliance."
Naomi Mensch, senior intern for Rep. Jim Slattery, D-Topke, relaxes Sunday afternoon at the Planning Council On Services For Aging Inc., 745 Vermont St.
Cynthia Pistilli/Kansan
65-year-old woman is happy as liaison for senior citizens
By BROBIN PALMER Staff Reporter
Mensch, 65, has lived and worked in Lawrence for 22 years and after her retirement, she decided to apply for the position of senior intern to Slattery because the experience was new.
Naomi Mensch has always been concerned with politics but she never thought she would work as a senior intern for Jim Slattery, D-Kan., 2nd district.
"When you get to be my age, you do everything you have the chance to do." Mensch said with a smile.
As one as one of four senior advocates for Slattery's Senior Liaison Program, and in addition to being his senior intern, she is in a position to effect changes or at least raise awareness.
ONE OF HER concerns is the nuclear arms race and the money that countries are spending to produce the weapons. She said that although she was not against their production, she was opposed to the number of weapons being produced.
Today's most important issues, according to Monsanto's social security, utility prices and the pharmaceuticals.
"I'd like to get even and sit here and rock on the boat. I think anyone is crazy enough to put my hand on you."
Her late start in political life has not been an obstacle in the Lawrence woman's desire to help
She said that the liaison program was designed to provide answers to the questions senior
citizens had concerning the issues that affect them.
THE ADVOCATES represent Slattery when he is unable to attend senior organizations and activity centers. They are spread around the district to cover it effectively, she said. Advocates also set up meetings for Slattery to address issues of concern to senior citizens.
"I want to be a liaison between him and the senior citizens and get the best deal for the senior citizens that won't hurt the rest of America." Mensch said.
Realistically, she said, senior citizens can't have everything they want and should not interfere with the best interests of all Americans.
"I hope to get the word out to senior citizens about the things that they can accomplish."
"They need to know how much clout they have as a group concerning the issues that concern them."
ANOTHER PURPOSE of the liaison program is to work on re-election and to get people out and asking questions. She said that Slattery was a liberal, but that he was more liberal than most Kansasans.
As Slatterty's senior intern, she is one of only two in Kansas even though all representatives are entitled to a senior intern. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum has participated in the program for the last few years and will pick her new intern in April.
The other three senior advocates in the program are Louise Henricks, Manhattan, Kenneth Speed, Holton, and Ruth Barry, Atchison.
TV audience views 'Lear as dry, dull
By KEVIN LOLLAR
It's a play that has everything — adult language, mutilation, murder, madness, swadplay. And to think that Sir Laurence Olivier, one of the greatest living actors, was in the title role of King Lear. So why in the world. . .
Will? Will Shakespeare?
But what's this? A vaguely familiar spectral shape. I know I've seen it before, bailing head, mustache, beard, sharp nose, earring. I'll speak to it.
Staff Reporter
You there, who are you?
I was thy Will . . . for my name is Will
(Sonnet 136)
The same dead thing alive. (Cymbeline)
Well, I'm glad you're here. Will — may I
be sure that because I was just talking
about a production house,
MONDAY MORNING
appeared on KSHB Thursday and starred Laurence Olivier.
Ay, every inch a king. (King Lear)
Right. Anyhow, on Thursday morning I randomly polled 50 KU students and discovered that only nine were planning to watch your play.
I am ill at these numbers. (Hamlet)
I thought you would be. Now, granted, a lot of people said that they couldn't watch because of studies or jobs, but most said that they just weren't interested. They can always find something else to do. Kevin Fried, Kuni Sasaki and Jason Cox were on class Friday, so he was going out drinking.
Rightly reasoned, and in his own division, and by my truth there is one meaning well defined.
But, to be truthful, Will, many people these days find your stuff dull. Scott Focke. Atwood freshman, for example, said. "I look for exasperation and I don't find excitement in Shakespeare."
This is the excellent foppery of the world (King Lear)
Or there's Paul Van Vleck *Lawrence freshman, who said* "Shakespeare always compares to me."
See LEAR, p. 5, col. 1