THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
80th Year, No.20
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Friday, Oct. 10, 1969
Editorial
By ALAN T. JONES Kansan Managing Editor
For the second time in two weeks, representatives of the press have been barred from the University Council's discussion of the status of ROTC on the KU campus. Daily Kansan reports have been written by a staff member who is also a member of the Student Senate and as such was granted admittance to the meetings.
The University Council is a deliberative body and enjoys the privilege, under the Senate Code, to close its doors. While we, as newsmen, must respect the privileges of executive session and closed meetings, these privileges have been used recently all too frequently for less than justified reasons.
The issue under question is one of singular importance, one that affects large numbers of people and one that has in the past, and will possibly in the future, threaten the inner stability of the University itself.
The findings of the council will be presented to the University Senate as a recommendation on the status of a University department. Persons affected and the student body and faculty as a whole have a right to know how the recommendation was made and why. The right is being denied.
The closed meetings now, provide a dangerous precedent for future meetings involving important decisions affecting the University.
The Daily Kansan can only condemn the members of the University Council who have chosen to hide behind closed doors to protect themselves and their ideas from public scrutiny.
Departure requested
Kansan reporter Ted Iliff left a meeting of the University Council in 108 Blake Thursday after he was told he could stay only if he promised not to take notes or write on the proceedings.
--manager, announced Thursday he has resigned and will accept the post of county administrator in Muskegon County, Michigan.
Lawrence city official takes Michigan post
By STEPHEN C. HAYNES Assistant News Editor Ray S. Wells, Lawrence city
Confirmation
Lawrence City Manager Ray S. Wells accepted a new post as manager of Muskegon County, Michigan, during a press conference Thursday.
He said word of his resignation, submitted to the city council Tuesday night, had been leaked prematurely. He did not receive confirmation of his appointment to the new post until almost 5 p.m. Thursday during a press conference in his office.
Wells, who has served as city manager here for the past five years, said he was leaving not because he was dissatisfied with Lawrence, but because the job he had accepted was "the most challenging' job in the field."
Muskegon County, he said, is a highly urbanized area which includes seven virtually contiguous cities. There is at present little coordination of services between governmental units, he said, and his job will include organizing the new government system and administering cooperative efforts to solve urban problems.
In his statement to the city commission, Wells said his strong belief in the emerging role of county government had prompted him to take the new position.
His job will involve coordinating the operation of an entirely new form of county government, he said.
Wells said he regretted leaving Lawrence. He said the city had
doubled in size and city services had doubled during his tenure as city manager.
He said he had not planned to leave Lawrence, he said, but when the Muskegon post was offered to him, he felt he should accept the offer. "Besides," he said, "a community should have a change of managers every few years."
He had known of the new position only about three weeks, he said.
Wells said he felt the most important accomplishment of his term had been what he called "the city's realization that it was for people, not for things." He cited the open housing ordinance, minimum housing standards and other steps to aid the citizens of the community as examples of this realization.
He said he had always had good relations with the city commission and with University officials. Without such relations, he said, the progress which the city has made would not have been possible.
The city council met Thursday night to consider the problem of finding a new city manager. Wells said he would take no part in the (Continued to page 20)
Weather
Zone 7—Considerable cloudiness and cooler today through Saturday.
U. Council ROTC plan is passed
Editor's Note: The reporter, a Kansan staff member, was allowed into the University Council meeting because he is a student senator. Reporters were barred from the meeting.
By MIKE SHEARER Arts & Reviews Editor
Arts & Reviews Editor University Council yesterday voted to recommend the creation of an ROTC Governing Board.
Credit for military discipline, orientation and drill would be dropped by the proposed board if the plan is passed by the University Senate.
Extending a ban on the press made last week, the council met behind closed doors to consider the fate of ROTC. ROTC, the adopted proposal says, should be integrated into the regular academic departments "to the greatest extent practicable."
Rick von Ende, Abilene, Tex., graduate student and author of the adopted proposal, said his plan differed from the majority report of the council in the inclusion of four students on the board. Von Ende's plan calls for the board to consist of four students, four faculty members, the senior officer of each of the three ROTC units and one person appointed by the Chancellor.
A board of eight faculty members and no students had been proposed by the majority report in addition to the ROTC seniors and the Chancellor's apoinee.
Roy D. Laird, professor of political science, proposed the number of students be reduced to three and the number of faculty (Continued to page 20)
UDK News Roundup
By United Press International
Apollo 11 tour triumphal
BRUSSELS—The Apollo 11 astronauts headed for Oslo today, completing a triumphal tour of Brussels that evoked memories of the Allied liberation 25 years ago.
Norway was the 10th stopover on their 23-nation goodwill tour.
Hickel visits Claflin
SALINA, Kan. — Secretary of Interior Walter J. Hickel was scheduled to visit his home town of Claflin today as he entered the second day of a three-day tour of Kansas. Hickel attended a dinner and reception here Thursday night.
Defamation is doubted
NEW YORK—A federal court judge has turned down a petition by the Girl Scouts of America to halt the sale of a pop-art poster of a smiling, pregnant girl scout with the motto "Be Prepared."
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