University Daily Kansan
Thursday, November 18, 1971
WOULD YOU VOTE TO ABOLISH THE UNIVERSITY?
Of Course Not!
But that's the result of what is happening today. Our universities are dying and we're letting it happen. We're watching a slow erosion of quality in our programs and personnel that may destroy us.
Then it will be too late. The tradition of
If the damage happened all at once we would be shocked into action.
But deterioration is hard to pinpoint. It's like a slow disease that saps our strength. It will be clear when we look back on it 10 years from now.
quality which took so long to build will be only memory.
Buildings, faculty, and students may still be here. Even now we are learning to live with some of the symptoms of the disease like crowded classes, temporary trailers, and faculty exodus.
What really gets lost, though, is the excellence that makes a university.
The loss can be seen in:
-a decline in state per capita support from a ranking of 12th to 24th in the nation in a decade;
-a drop to $00.00 in legislative appropriations for buildings for the current year;
—a 0 per cent faculty salary increase this year in Kansas when all bordering states granted increases of from 2.5 per cent to 7.1 per cent.
Our university is in trouble. We don't have all the answers to state budgeting and university financing. We agree it's not easy to solve such complex problems.
However, we do know that sacrifice of quality in higher education is no solution at all.
WHAT YOU CAN DO.
Talk. Talk to your parents. Talk to your neighbors. Talk to your legislators. Talk to the talk-shows and DJs on your local radio stations.
Write. Ask everyone you know to write.
Write your newspaper. Write your legislators. Write your roommate during vacation.
Rally. Get others to help. College students. Alumni. Civic clubs. Church groups.
Use your imagination!
Share the university with the people who
make it possible. Take the initiative to put into words what a college education means to you—what it means to your future—what it means to Kansas.
Use your own perspective. You're an expert at being a student. As an integral part of the university you're its best spokesman. You see its strengths and weaknesses. Your story is unique. Tell it.
Tell of the deterioration in our colleges and universities. The people of Kansas don't realize the problem and it's our job to make them aware.
Kansans have a long tradition of support for higher education and don't know that quality may become the inadvertent casualty of oversight.
Don't ask for sympathy from people. Get their support.
People may say we're poor. Don't let that get in your way. Help break this stalemate which is strangling our state.
We can't let higher education take its last gasp of breath before acting to save it.
It's worth our best efforts.
A CAUSE FOR CONCERN.
HIGHER EDUCATION:
STATE PERSPECTIVES
Thursday, November 18
Big Eight Room, Kansas Union
7:30 p.m. Meeting of Students Concerned About Higher Education in Kansas
8-9 p.m. SUA Featured Speakers Forum Mr. Max Bickford, Exec. Sec., Kansas Board of Regents
Sen. Tom R. Van Sickle, Chairman, Senate Ways & Means Committee
Sen. Dave Owen, Senate Ways & Means Education Subcommittee
Rep. Jerry Harper, House Ways & Means Committee
The first concern for higher education in Kansas began over 100 years ago.
The tradition of a century is in danger of dying. We think more of this state and of its colleges and universities than to let them go down without a fight.
Now, 100 years later there is a new cause for concern.
A group of students began to take a hard look more than two months ago at the signs of the slow erosion in our colleges and universities. It was not difficult to justify a growing anxiety.
We have found reason for concern.
I WANT TO DO MORE!
Name: ...
Campus Address: ...
Home Address:
For more information mail to:
Concerned Students
PO Box 2043
University Station
Lawrence, Kansas 66044
Students Concerned About Higher Education In Kansas