Thursday, October 24,1968
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
3
Hoffer charges students 'behaving like hoodlums'
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Eric Hoffer, the self-educated longshoreman and philosopher, walked out of a hearing of President Johnson's Study Commission on Violence yesterday after charging that today's college students were behaving like hoodlums.
"I'm sitting listening to all this stuff here and I just can't swallow it," said Hoffer after hearing testimony by Henry Mayer, a student leader of the demonstrations that rocked the University of California at Berkeley in 1966.
Mayer told the commission that instead of investigating student protests it should question those responsible "for that arrogant exercise in official violence—the war in Vietnam."
Blows Up
When Mayer finished, Hoffer blew up.
Wearing his customary heavy work shirt and brown sports jacket for his first appearance as a commission member since its hearings began Sept. 18, Hoffer referred to campus demonstrators and shouted:
Legislation promises four years of college for two years service
WASHINGTON (UPI)—President Johnson signed into law yesterday a measure broadening educational benefits for military veterans or their widows.
In a ceremony in the cabinet room at the White House, Johnson said the new legislation guarantees four years of college for two years of military service.
At the same time, Johnson issued a proclamation formally designating Nov. 11, the 50th anniversary of the World War I armistice, as Veterans Day.
The bill expands the length of educational assistance to attend college or training schools to one and a half times the length of service by a veteran, up to a maximum of 36 months.
The bill also extends for the first time educational assistance to widows of servicemen killed on duty or to the wives of veterans who suffer 100 per cent service-connected disability. Minor dependents of such veterans receive such assistance, once they complete high school, under prior laws.
"They're having the time of their lives. They're having a ball. You expect educated people to behave in a civilized way. Instead, they behave like hoodlums."
Hoffer, a 66-year-old San Francisco, also noted that "I've always said it's harder to write a good paragraph than to start a revolution."
Praised LBJ
Hoffer has written several books about his views on the times. He was interviewed on nationwide television last year, and spoke highly of President Johnson. The President subsequently invited Hoffer to the White House for a chat, and appointed him to the commission which he created after Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in June. The commission will study the causes and prevention of violence in American life.
Mayer was accompanied by Tom Hayden, a founder of Students for a Democratic Society. Hayden was a director of demonstrations at the Deomericatic National Convention that were organized by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam.
Power Hungry
"You people want power." Hoffer told them gruffly. "You say you are alienated, but I haven't seen a single alienation that a little power hasn't cured."
Hoffer returned for the afternoon session and had a loud exchange with Sam Brown, a former Harvard University divinity student who was youth coordinator for Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy's unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
"My impression is you do not believe in the democratic process," Hoffer said. "You will not accept defeat. You were beat fair and square."
Living groups drop closing freshmen still have hours
Emancipation has reached the KU coed. It has taken 103 years but the woman student has finally broken the security hour barrier.
Sophomore, junior and senior women can now enter and leave their living groups at their own discretion. The Council and Forum of the Associated Women Students (AWS) acted last spring to grant the new privileges—that men students have always had.
The standard or advisory board of each living group determines its own system of sign-outs within the simple rules of the Office of the Dean of Women. They require each women student to sign in and out personally upon leaving and returning to her living group.
Mrs. Frank Shavlik, assistant dean of women, said freshman women still must be in by security hours and will until new regulations pass the AWS forum and council.
Each woman student eligible for these privileges must pay $1 to cover administrative costs of the program and the cost incurred to mail a letter to the parents of each woman under 21 years of age, Mrs. Shavlik said. Each letter asked parents to reply if they did not wish their daughter to have no closing hours.
Living groups have three basic systems. The sororities, in general, use the card key system, as
last year. Each coed must sign her card key out when planning to stay out after security hours and must return it between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m.
The residence halls changed from the card key system of last year to using KU ID's for identification before being admitted to the hall. Coeds must return to the hall before 7 a.m. or sign an overnight slip.
The scholarship halls generally require each coed to sign out so hall officials know she plans to stay out, but each coed is given her own key which she keeps, except when leaving Lawrence.
Informative literature on the United Nations will be distributed today in the Kansas Union.
CIRUNA to distribute literature
Members of the Council on
International Relations and United Nations Affairs (CIRUNA) will sponsor the display table near the Hawk's Nest.
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Wed., Oct. 30—Halloween Costume Party—The Jerms.