Moratorium, ROTC, left-wingers
Regents express opinions
By SHERRY ROY
Kansan Staff Writer
Vietnam moratoriums, credit in ROTC classes, the injunction restricting campus demonstrations, left-wing student political groups and the sale of beer on campus—these are some of the current topics of debate among
Paul R. Wunsch
University of Kansas students. In separate interviews, members of the Kansas Board of Regents commented on each of these issues.
Moratorium
Referring to the Oct. 15 war moratorium, Henry A. Bubb, who is serving his eighth year as a regent, said he has "felt all along that good students are being led down a blind alley by misguided Communists and other well-intentioned students who have exploited the peace issue." He emphasized that he was in favor of peace in Vietnam and was not criticizing students for participating in the moratorium, but thought that students were "being used by a Communist front."
"It will take a little while to get out," he said. "We cannot pull out immediately without losing half our troops. We must get out honorably."
BUBB SAID THE United States should never have gotten into the Vietnam war, and the sooner we withdraw, the better he would like it.
Bubb said the moratorium was hampering President Nixon in his efforts to end the war.
"The students are playing into the hands of the Viet Cong," he said. "The leaders (of the moratorium) are bent upon destroying democracy."
AS AN ALTERNATIVE to the moratorium, Bubb suggested that students support the President. He proposed that students "take a Saturday and pray for peace."
He said faculty members were all wrong in cancelling classes Oct.15. He said faculty members should have followed the example of Washburn University and gone to class and discussed the issue with students.
"if they (the instructors) had anything to contribute to peace, they should have gone to class and discussed it," he said.
C. N. Cushing, who has served as a regent for four years, described the moratorium as newsworthy. He said it left an impression in the minds of both those for and against the war.
CUSHING SAID IT was all right for students to show concern, be aware and give thought, but he doubted that boycottng classes would effect any change. Referring to the plan to expand the moratorium by one day each month, he said it was acceptable for students to stage moratoriums as long as they didn't interfere with getting an education to the point that the administration can no longer provide an education for those enrolled.
Cushing said the majority of students at KU were here to get
an education, and it would be unfortunate if a majority of students were to give up pursuit of an education in favor of moratoriums.
Nov.14 1969 KANSAN 17
"EACH UNIVERSITY must meet the problems of a moratorium on its own." Cushing said, "and the question of whether faculty members should be allowed to cancel classes in observance of a moratorium should be left up to the discretion of the individual institutions."
Jess Stewart, who has served on the Board of Regents since January of this year, said instructors have a right to reschedule classes, and students are free to attend or not to attend. He said he regards the moratorium as a constructive protest against the "unjustifiable and morally wrong" war in Vietnam.
James J. Basham, who has been a regent since January 1968, expressed a different opinion. He said he could not see much usefulness in the moratorium.
"Everyone is aware of the diversity of opinions on the Vietnam issue," he said. "It is not necessarily a case of the young being against the war and the old being for the war."
Commenting on the Oct. 15 boycott of classes, he said he could not support absence from class.
Henry A. Bubb
Paul R. Wunsch, who was appointed to the Kansas Board of Regents Oct. 31 by Gov. Robert
C. N. Cushina
Docking, said he doubts the effectiveness of moratoriums to protest the war in Vietnam. Commenting on the Student Mobilization Committee's plan to expand the moratorium by one day each month, he said he considered it a poor plan.
"People have the right to do as they please," he said, "but I think they are going too far."
Wunsch said students who boycotted classes and instructors who cancelled classes in observance of the moratorium should be required to make up the day missed.
ROTC Credit
ROTC classes for credit have the endorsement of the Board of Regents. T. J. Griffith, chairman of the Board of Regents, said he is in favor of offering ROTC classes for credit because it is good for a young man to take the course. It builds character.
Regent Bubb, who is currently serving as chairman of the board of Capitol Federal Savings in Topeka, said he was "100 per cent for ROTC." Bubb said college educated officers who have graduated from an ROTC program prevented the United States Army from becoming a professional army.
be voluntary.
"A professional army leads to dictatorship," he said.
DWIGHT D. KLINGER, who has served on the Board of Regents for seven years, said that in the past he thought ROTC should be mandatory for the first two years of college, but that now he believed it should
"Since it is voluntary," he said, I cannot see why people should be critical of the program."
Wunsch, a Kingman attorney, said that so long as ROTC courses are included in the University curriculum, the classes should be offered for credit. He said the administration of the University, not the Board of Regents, should determine whether or not to offer ROTC classes for credit.
CONCERNING THE injunction restricting campus demonstrations which was issued last spring after the protest which disrupted the Chancellor's ROTC
review, Stewart said he believes it was issued as a preventive measure to be used at the discretion of the chancellor. He said that he is under the impression that Chancellor E. Laurence Chalmers Jr. does not want to threaten the student body with the injunction.
Cushing, president of the Downs National Bank, said if the court felt the injunction was indicated, the Board of Regents was willing to accept their judgment.
Lawrence D. Morgan, who is serving his eleventh year as a regent, said he does not feel the
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