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University Daily Kansan
Opinion
Friday, Oct. 11, 1985
Shouts of "Divest now!" and "KU out of South Africa!" no doubt will be heard at today's scheduled campus rally to mark a national day of protest against apartheid.
A call for comment
But as the campus witnesses another call for the Kansas University Endowment Association to divest from companies doing business is South Africa, one voice will remain silent.
That of the University administration.
At a University Senate meeting in April, Budig presented a letter which said he didn't think total divestment was the answer to ending aparthief. He said he would not use his position as chancellor to influence the Endowment Association.
The two groups, which together represent KU faculty and students, stand firm in their desire to strike out against South Africa's legalized form of racial segregation
The University Council and Student Senate passed resolutions this semester asking the Endowment Association to divest.
But so far, the administration and Chancellor Gene A. Budig have dismissed themselves from the issue.
But since April, the divestment debate has intensified. In May, dozens of students took part in a sit-in in Strong Hall, joining thousands of others in
anti-apartheid protests on campuses nationwide.
Since April, 28 universities have fully or partially divested. The most recent, Columbia University, voted this week to sell $39 million in stock in companies doing business in South Africa.
Faculty and students who wish the KU Endowment Association would do the same have expressed their opinions by signing petitions, voting to support divestment resolutions and participating in public protests.
In the face of the criticism, the Endowment Association has maintained that divestment is illegal under a state law known as the Prudent Man's Rule.
The law, Endowment Association officials say, prevents the Endowment Association and other fiduciary groups from divesting on moral grounds.
Regardless of which side the administration takes in the divestment debate, it is time to register an opinion. Faculty, staff and students need to know where their university stands on this important campus issue.
The Endowment Association is a private corporation. It is not obliged to do as the University asks. But the administration's opinion on divestment, one way or the other, cannot be ignored.
A jab at the farm crisis
The American farm crisis was officially recognized for the first time last week, 400 miles to the north in Des Moines, Iowa.
Iowa governor Terry Branstad declared an "economic emergency" in his state and invoked a law that he said would help some farmers stave off foreclosure.
But turn the measure on its back, and loose strings poke out.
Branstad scored political points with farmers and much of the rest of the state with his decisiveness. On the surface, his law appears effective.
That's fine, but it's nothing Iowa bankers aren't doing already.
At the heart of Branstad's law is a provision allowing judges to postpone foreclosure for a year for farmers who can stay current with interest payments on their debts.
The bankers, many of whom have been hit as hard financially in recent years as their farmer borrowers, don't want to foreclose. They want farmers in combines and tractors this fall, harvesting their fields and working to pay off their debts.
No smart banker would foreclose on a farmer who kept a trickle of debt payments flowing to the bank.
Branstad's action is not without merit. It's the first government help aimed directly at financially strapped farmers.
The Iowa law, while flawed, is a jab at the farm crisis. And that's more than lawmakers in other state capitals and Washington, D.C., have taken.
Dyche's dynamic dinos
Bright eyes in young faces stare at the beast as it roars, snorts and lifts its head. Some of the children point in wonder at the mighty triceratops, which walked the earth about 70 million years ago.
Parents, too, stop and stare,
perhaps in contemplation of so
great an animal. Dinosaurs
are back on campus, at the
Museum of Natural History in
Dyche Hall.
Cathy Dwigans, assistant director of membership and public relations for the museum, said last week the exhibit was part of an effort to increase awareness of the museum.
The exhibit features such creatures as smilodon, a large, ferocious-looking, sabertoothed cat, and diatyma, a giant, flightless bird that, the exhibit says, could be the ancestor of the mythical Jayhawk.
Judging by the crowds more than 2,000 on Saturday alone, according to Dwigans the exhibit will make the museum more visible in Lawrence and across the state. The exhibit will run through Oct. 29.
Recognition for such an entertaining and informative exhibit and for such a museum is deserved.
Rob Karwath
Editor
John Hanna Michael Totty
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Shevchenko's Soviet realities
Wake un. America!
That seems to be the warning Soviet defector Arkady Shevchenko to the University of Kansas on Tuesday.
Shevchenko is the highest ranking Soviet official to defect to the east and is a former Soviet ambassador. He is the primary military general of the United Nations.
He wrote a fascinating book about his life as a Soviet official called "Breaking With Moscow," which was published earlier this year. The book reveals the inner workings of the Kremlin and how top Soviet leaders came to their decisions during the Cold War.
But Shevchenko wasn't here to push his book. He was here to bring to the American people the harsh realities of the Soviet Union — realities that the Reagan Administration has been talking about all along.
Shevchenko's experience makes him a credible critic of the Soviet Union. His knowledge gives him an edge in determining what the Soviets' next move may be. At a press conference before his speech he pointed out, "I still think like a Soviet."
Not only did this man defect with a vast amount of knowledge of the inner workings of the Kremlin, for $2 \frac{1}{2}$ years, he spied for the Central Intelligence Agency. At the risk of his own life, he contributed
Victor Goodpasture Staff columnist
valuable information to U.S. authorities.
In his speech Tuesday, Shevchenko said those in America with the belief that, "If we help them, they will become nice guys," are endangering the free world. "Our naivet," he said, "just whets their appetite."
Shevchenko said the Soviets only understood and respected strong will and strength — economic and military. He said, "If the United States will remain strong, the Soviet Union will not initiate a nuclear war."
He said there had been a U.S. president who shared such a belief. He refused to divulge that name, but after giving an example in which he said the president finally realized he had been wrong, the only possibility was Jimmy Carter. Carter had reversed his position in dealing with the Soviets after they invaded Afghanistan.
He made several other insightful observations.
"It is important for those in the West to know that they (the Soviets) believe that the Soviet system will . . . eventually win."
"The Soviet leadership does not appreciate it when you make concessions to them."
“(For the Soviets) peaceful coexistence or detente or good relations is not permanent.”
"Whenever there is a lack of response by the West . . . they (the Soviets) move, like in Africa."
"The more unilateral concessions you make, the more they believe that you are just stupid fools."
"The back door of the United States is Central America now."
- "The Soviet system is against human nature."
That last quote should be engraved in stone for all the world to see because it gets to the heart of the problems between East and West. All men, even those under the hammer and sickle, yearn to free.
The Soviet system is not only evil and morally repugnant, but it goes against man's yearning to better himself, Shevchenko said.
He also pointed out the false notions that Gorbachev was going to be easier to deal with than
previous Soviet leaders. The press is "going bananas over Gorbachev," he said, but it is lunacy when it says that Gorbachev is not a typical Soviet leader.
Reports suggesting that Gorbachev is a closet liberal — that he would like to ease the ideological indictment in the Soviet Union to Soviet citizenship personal freedom to Soviet citizens who are totally shevchenko said.
The fact is, he said, that Gorbache is an ideological hard line, much more than his predecessors, because Gorbache is much more than previous Soviet leaders. The fact is still the same — world domination.
Shevchenko said Americans must understand that those in the Kremlin sincerely believed in world communism. He wants people to understand the real-life objectives of the Soviet Union.
What is most frightening though is Shevchenko's description of the KGB and its disinformation and intelligence network. With an unlimited budget and more manpower than all of the Western nations combined, the KGB involves itself in everything from unilateral disarmament to divestment in South Africa.
The Soviet threat cannot be overemphasized. Shevchenko has given all of us an important warning. Shall we heed that warning?
Ahoy! Columnist sails with KU club
Everybody knows that a good captain always goes down with his ship. Of course, a really good captain's shirt never goes down.
But all that was a side of sailing I never had considered when I joined the KU Sailing Club. I envisioned sailboats slicing through the roaring caps. I thought of a fearless navigator with a patch over one eye, battling giant squid and living a life of adventure on the high seas.
Evan Walter Staff columnist
While still only toying with the idea of following in the footsteps of Long John Silver or Captain Bly, I followed up on an invitation card from the club — a stunt to draw new members — for a free day of sailing at Lake Annsee.
Although my plans had included an eventual voyage to Australia or Tasmania, I figured I'd begin sportingly at the bottom and work my way up.
My seafaring history began as a passenger enjoying the breeze and sun in a rig less than 20 feet long. The people had to sit on the side of the boat, with their feet numbing and pruning in the collection of water gathered in the boat. The navigator worked hard and came across as a real human of the art, making it look very beautiful. He demonstrated "smooth sailing" handling the heavy waves like the whirls in a bathtub.
So I joined the club to become a "smooth sailor". Last weekend, though, at the rudder — seamen talk for steering wheel — my technique and attempt at smooth sailing was a real turnover.
In KU Sailing Club talk, my boat went turtle.
Capsizing a boat, cib leaders said, was as common as offing a bicky
clc. No big problem. They told the new recruits every experienced sailor must get used to capsizing, especially in the club's lightweight top-heavy rigs.
jacket around my chest. In the water, though, I suddenly questioned my confidence.
My mind wandered through the various "what its". What if I hit my
To this novice navigator, though, capsizing seemed more like the Titanic or Andrea Doria accidents than falling off a bicycle.
So it is with experienced sailors. To this novice navigator, though, capsizing seemed more like the Titanic or Andrea Doria accidents than falling off a bicycle.
head on the sail next time? What if
became caught under the boat?
Although the incident caused no injuries, and my sailing partner and I got out of the situation calmly and quickly, it was a shocker. I never worried about boating accidents while in the boat because of the life
In the water, my life didn’t flash before my eyes or anything elaborate like that. But I did wish I'd had a notebook with me to record the adventure (or misadventure) I was experiencing. My escapades were nothing in comparison to those of Captain Bly or Captain Nemo.
The best thing about capsizing, I
discovered, cane afterward, when I returned home and told everyone how I heroically rescued my boat from this catastrophe — how I'd boldly rised going down with my ship and saved my partner from being a meal to the sharks.
Incidentally, the waves weren't all that fierce Saturday. During the Sailings Club's many years of existence no one has drowned during an outing. And to my knowledge, no sharks or giant squid exist in Lake Shawnee.
But adding these features to my "boating accident" story brings color and excitement to my experiences. If I simply said that I was one of the beginners who hadn't quite gotten the feel for the winds, my listeners would be less likely to put me in a league with Captain Bly.