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It's not play money
The Student Senate meets Wednesday night to vote on a proposed 1969-70 budget, among other activities. The budget should be scrapped, and here are the reasons:
There are roughly 237 student organizations at the University of Kansas, using the telephone directory as a source. Of these student groups, the Student Senate executive committee has arbitrarily chosen 10 organizations to receive $9,660 in student fees.
The organizations are: Mortar Board, $50; Sachem circle of Omicron Delta Kappa, $235; College Bowl, $100; Student Bar Association, $300; KU Laws publication, $650; Business Students Association, $150; Black Students Union, $350; Pi Sigma Alpha, $50; American Pharmaceutical, $50; and Student Senate, $5,465.
Incidentally, the budget does not even mention the University Daily Kansan, which has received $1.45 a semester per student as long as we can remember-a meager allotment in view of what other university papers receive from student fees.
Which leads us to the second beef about this skimpy budget. No one seems to know how much money the student government at KU has to allocate. But everyone agrees that it's not a very big sockful.
Certain student governments, such as at University of California at Santa Barbara, have nearly half a million dollars in its responsibility. And that particular student population is smaller than KU's.
There is a third quarrel we have with this amateurish-looking budget. It was prepared by the wrong Senate group. The Student Senate executive committee drew up this inadequate budget even before the Senate finance and auditing committee was elected.
the grossly unjust allocations on the heads of the members of the executive committee. Many of the errors in allocation are traditional, ingrained in the structure of University student government.
Of course we can't dump all the blame for
But we've got a new student government now, and here's a chance to make a fresh start.
In a recent conversation, Mark Retonde, Kansas City, Mo. senior and chairman of the Senate Finance and Auditing committee, advocated "as comprehensive an audit as possible" of all organizations which receive student fees.
His committee would like to see where student funds are going and what is being done with them; then make this information available to you and me.
Eventually, the Student Senate Finance and Auditing committee should have sole responsibility for the allocation of all student fees. The committee should include students and faculty members with experience in business. Certified Public Accountants should be hired to do the bookwork. The group should submit the budget to the Student Senate and publish it in the Kansas several weeks ahead of the voting date.
His suggestion is good. This is real money that is being jugged, money you and I have earned during the summer, borrowed with some anxiety, or cajoled from our parents. We should know what is being done with it.
Students are crying for more responsibility in handling University affairs. Good management of finances would be an excellent way to prove that KU students can take care of themselves.
The first step is a speedy dismissal of the budget which the Student Senate executive committee has proposed.
Joanna K. Wiebe
Sorel's News Service
The voice isn't all he throws
NEW YORK—Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, when asked by a reporter for his views on Vietnam: "My position on Vietnam is very simple. I think that our concept as a nation, and that our actions have not kept pace with the changing conditions. And therefore our actions are not completely relevant today to the realities of the magnitude and the complexity of the problems that we face in this conflict." Asked the reporter, "What does that mean?" Replied the Governor, "Just what I said."
Readers' write
Dear Editor:
After reading Gus di Zerega's column of September 18 I was forced to ask myself one question: Does this man take himself seriously?
First of all Mr. di Zerega speaks of California as follows: "Reagan's goons gassed, murdered and maimed their way to that high principle of 'law and order'." I would say that the real "goons" in California were the radical students who attempted to close the Universities there by using violence. The "goons" are the students who firebombed buildings, here in Kansas, at San Francisco State and at many other universities. I would say that the real murderers were the students who so hounded the president of Swarthmore College that he collapsed and died in the middle of the "strike" at his college.
Mr. di Zerega goes on to say that students will be forced to conform and to act in a conventional way because their "private records can be scrutinized by the politicians in Topeka." At many other universities radical students have published the private letters and papers they found in seized buildings. The radicals found this so good a policy that in Washington, D.C., the SDS seized the School of International Relations of the George Washington University for the sole purpose of finding documents that could be used to embarrass the university. It seems to me that the constitutionally-run body that Mr. di Zerega attacks, consisting of the democratically-elected representatives of the people of Kansas is much less likely to violate the rights of the people than a group of extremely left-wing students who feel that the ends justify the means, any means.
Mr. di Zerega then says that the greatest threat to our University comes from Topeka. Here again I must disagree with Mr. di Zerega. The University of Kansas has existed for more than 100 years with Topeka looking over its shoulder. The University is still free, as shown by the fact that both Mr. di Zerega's column and my letter can be published on the same page of the Kansan.
The greatest threat to the freedom of the University is the New Left. The New Left is a totalitarian movement that does not even begin to understand the ideas about personal freedom inherent in liberal education. In the short five years since the New Left has gained power at some American universities it has already destroyed the academic freedom and the quality of education that goes hand in hand with economic freedom at three of America's greatest universities — Harvard, Berkeley and Columbia.
If Mr. di Zerega is really concerned with academic, or any other kind of freedom he should take a long thoughtful look in his bathroom mirror next time he shaves (if he shaves) instead of writing bombastic columns about Ronald Reagan's "goons."
Jonathan Jordan,
Washington, D.C., sophomore
(We agree that Topeka has been looking over our shoulder for over 100 years—104, to be exact. But not until 1969 have the August men in Topeka decided to sit in our lap—J.K.W.)
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