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University Dally Kansan, April 13, 1983
Only 1,221 students turn out to vote KU referendum on fee declared invalid
By SARA KEMPIN Staff Reporter
The Student Senate referendum on a proposed $15 fee increase has been declared invalid because of poor voter turnout, so the ballots will be thrown away unabated, the decisions chairman said yesterday.
Becky Whitney, the chairman, said the small referendum turnout of 1,221 students on Monday and Tuesday was an example of voter anarchy.
For a referendum to be valid under Senate rules, 3,371 students, or one more than the number who must be the last Senate election, must vote.
Senate leaders and administrators say they are disappointed that the results of the referendum will remain a mystery.
SENATORS AND ADMINISTRATORS had hoped to determine whether students wanted to pay the fee, which will generate interest in their education, computing and instructional equipment and library acquisitions.
Chancellor Gene A. Budig said, "I am disappointed that more students did not vote. I personally favored the change." The university's academic services fee future study,
I will take into consideration positions taken by the Student Senate.
"It is apparent that the University of Kansas needs additional money for science equipment, libraries and computers.
"I will make no final decisions until the Legislature finishes its work. There are unanswered questions."
Discussion of the proposed fee, originally scheduled for the Board of Regents meeting on the KU campus, was postponed until next month's meeting.
LISA ASHNER, STUDENT body president, said, "I think it's unfortunate that the referendum didn't get enough votes to make it valid. I felt like it was an impossibleolved decision had to be made. Maybe that put some students off."
But the referendum received a lot of press, she said. Three student senators wrote columns in the Kansan, and there were editorials on the issue. Students explained the fee to organized living groups and the Senate put three or four quarter-quote ads in the Kansan.
The ads encouraged people to call or come in to the Student Senate office if they wanted more information about the issue, she said.
However, Charles Lawhorn, chairman of the Senate Student Services Committee, said the Senate did not
put forth a necessary effort to effect tively promote the referendum.
"I ONLY SAW TWO ads in the Kansas. Only one senator and two non-sensors have spoken about the fee to organized living groups," he said. "If you're going to have a referendum, you need a more organized effort. A lack of time is no excuse. If you can't get the type of advertisement you seek, you need to do more of a one-on-one effort."
At its March 23 meeting, the Senate passed by two votes a petition supporting the $15 fee. But Ashner said that because the vote was so close, the Senate did not push students to vote one way or another.
Paul Busirk, holdover student senator and a strong supporter of allowing the students to voice their opinions on the fee in a referendum, said, "I'm disappointed. I think mechanically, the advertising for another referendum could be better. But I won'l blame it on that."
"In the amount of time they had, I think they did a good job publicizing it." she said.
“EITHER THE STUDENTS as a whole are satisfied with the way the Student Senate is representing them or they just don't care.”
He said he thought that the referendum had been hurt by the
fact that administrators and Senate leaders had said that the result of the referendum would simply serve as advice to the chancellor...
"I'm sure some people wonder whether there was any reason to vote if it wouldn't count more than that." he said.
The failure of this referendum makes the possibility of another very dim, he said.
"apparently students didn't think it was important to show what they thought about the fee," he said. "They've seen them don't care."
Tom Berger, graduate student senator, said, "I think the low voter turnout was the result of the fact we kept hearing that fees are going up."
"Students are tired of hearing that they need to pay more," he said. "People didn't want to listen to it anymore and some people didn't take the time to figure out what was going on.
TUITION, HEALTH AND housing costs are all increasing, he said. This particular fee was perceived by the students as just another
"But the bottom line still is that the University is not getting enough money to finance its equipment and library needs."
Salvadoran rights record improving, official says
By United Press International
SAN SALVADOR, EI Salvador — U.S. Ambassador Deane Hinton said yesterday that Salvadoran army chiefs were not opposed to improving the nation's dismal human rights record, but implied soldiers massacred 74 peasants in February.
Hinton said that the army's improved attitude toward human rights, coupled with a number of other trends, indicated that El Salvador's tainted human rights record was "going in the right direction."
The ambassador's assessment, made in an interview, is considered important because he must make reports twice a year to President Reagan on the conditions the DOA is meeting criteria mandated by Congress to keep up the flow of U.S. aid.
The next report is due in July.
HINTON SAID THE ONE discounting development he had seen since making a speech critical of the criminal justice system in October was February's massacre of 74 peanuts on his farm. Cooperative in western El Salvador.
The army is investigating charges by peasant survivors who said soldiers were murdering them.
Peasant leaders said they have been told an unidentified captain had been detained in the case.
"They (the army) have prepared an investigative report and maybe it's going to lead to something," Hinton said about the massacre. "I'm hopeful that action is going to be taken against the attackers of this particular business."
Hinton said that the army high command issued a statement that "justice should be done" in the Las Vegas riots, in the cases of seven slain Americans.
"THE IMPORTANCE OF it is the recognition by the army after a meeting of the commanders is that something's got to be done and that they are not opposed to something being done." Hinton said.
He also reiterated his opposition to the congressionally imposed certification process for further U.S. aid, saying it was "like nuclear weapons — they're good for deterrents but not very good if you use them."
Under certification rules, U.S. aid to El Salvador may be cut off if the president does not touch every six months that progress is being made in solving the killings of Americans and in improving human rights.
On the battlefront, military officials confirmed 14 soldiers were killed and several injured in a guerrilla ambush Monday of a truck carrying troops outside Suchitoto, 22 miles northeast of San Salvador.
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