The University Daily
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
KANSAN
Monday, October 27, 1980 Vol. 91, No.46 USPS 650-640
State Senate faces 20-20 party split
By BILL VOGRIN Staff Reporter
State senators in Kansas may get a test of their loyalty in January if party alignment after the senatorial elections is as close this November as it was four years ago.
A split in the Senate, which has 40 members, is a distinct possibility, and that would leave the Senate without any change.
Four years ago, the last senatorial election year, the vote split 21-19 with a Republican majority. An even split would mean there was no majority party, no automatic president of the senate or automatic majority floor leader and, at first glance, no organization or cooperation.
The Republicans in the Senate face a chance of losing control altogether. There are five incumbent Democrats running unopposed, and three Republican incumbents are running for re-election.
All 19 of the Democratic incumbents are running for re-election, including Sen. Arnold Berman of Lawrence, who is not worried about the possibility of a 20-20 split.
"I believe the people I work with, on both sides of the aisle, are reasonable people who are not going to delay the business of the state over a problem like that," Berman said yesterday. "Some people have suggested that the Senate should use a grinding halt, but I do not see that happening."
A tie in the Senate would force the two parties to form a coalition to elect a president of the Senate, and to compromise on chairmen of Senate committees and floor leadership.
One such compromise would be electing a president from one party, and a floor leader from the other party. Committee chairmen positions would alternate between parties. Berman said these problems would have to be addressed in December during organizational meetings.
"It would take a lot of hard work and compromise," he said, "but I don't think it would be worth it."
Research Department, said that a tie was an interesting prospect, but that he did not answer it.
"I conceive that it might not make things difficult at all."
Richard Ryan, director of the State Legislative
Ryan has been in the department nearly 30 years and says that this is a unique situation.
"The inquiry about a tie is valid because it is so close, and it will be interesting to see how it will work."
The Senate considered the chance of a the two years ago when a bill was then set to ground rules. Berman said the bill was defeated because of a "party lines" situation.
"Typically that type of situation is handled by the rules of the body not by legislation," Berman said.
The president of the Senate serves as the presiding officer and is a voting member of the Senate, leaving no recourse in the event of a bill-defeating tie vote.
listener gestures as Rhonda Neugebauer, Lawrence graduate student, prepares to introduce another speaker at a midday rally Friday, outside of
The lieutenant Governor served as presiding officer and tie-breaker until a constitutional amendment in the early 1970s changed his role. The position was independent of the governor, but now it is exclusively a part of the executive branch.
Other states have had even party alignments in their legislatures, Ryan said, and they have successfully solved their problems with common rules. There are two of the states to have had deadlocked houses.
"I guess we'd have to sit down and work out a compromise, but I'm not too worried about it. We're going to take about 24 or 25 seats in this election," he said.
Ross Doyen, R-Concordia, is currently president of the Senate, and he said he was not willing to accept a nomination.
Doyen said that he didn't think the Democrats had controlled the Senate since 1912, and that if they gained control this year, he did not expect any sweeping changes.
Flint Hall. Neugebauer, a coordinator of the Latin American Solidarity, also led the crowd of about 80 through various chants.
Student Senate size cut passes automatically
By CINDI CURRIE Staff Reporter
The resolution to reduce the size of the Student Senate passed automatically at the University Senate meeting Friday because there was no ouorum.
Gregd Snackne, student body president,
Gerbard Zather, presiding officer of the
University and George Worth, chairman
of the University's Research committee,
knew there would be no quorum.
But to reduce the size of the Student Senate and change the University Code, the University Senate had to meet. The Student Senate's size was reduced from 120 to 65 members.
There were about 25 people at the University
Senate meeting. As many as 1,325 voting mem-
bers participated.
The quorum of 265 people was not present.
There has not been a quorum at a Senate meeting since 1960, a time of student unrest. The meetings then served as a forum for discussion of university events.
conflicts at the University of Kansas, and consequently, no quorum at University Senate
But since then, there have been no major
According to the University of Kansas Senate Code, members of the University Senate include the Student Senate, the chancellor, the vice chancellors, deans, and all full-time professors, teaching assistants and academic staff employed by the University.
Zuther said yesterday that although there was seldom the quorum, the Senate should not be
See QUORUM page 5
Dancers bring tradition to China Dav
Staff Reporter
By KATHY BRUSSELL
They weren't they stressed throughout the day, professional dancers. They were merely college students, like many of the members of their KU audience.
But unlike the spectators, they were half a world away from home, acting as unofficial ambassadors for their government and taking advantage of a chance to travel.
"I think this is a special chance to do something not only for my country, but for myself," said Chiao Chuan-Sheng, a member of the Chinese Olympic Committee who performed at Saturdays KU's 1980 China Day.
“It’s an educational tour,” he said. “It gives us a chance to see a new country, make American friends and see Chinese friends who are studying overseas.”
THE MISSION, a student dance troupe sponsored by the Taiwan Television Company, is making its sixth tour of the United States, primarily visiting college towns.
The group's 14 members come from all parts of New Zealand, China and others of them were discovery before they joined the team.
Their college majors range from drama, music and physical education to law, medicine, architecture, engineering and French. While on tour, they will miss six weeks of school, which they will have to make up when they return.
"Right now they're having midterms, which make up about 25 percent of our grade," said Lin Chuen-Fu, a junior at National Taiwan University. "Luckily, finals count more, about 50 percent, so hopefully we will do OK in our classes."
Lin, a geography major, said the members of the transmission were selected from the 108 colleges and universities.
"Each one can send 15 or 20 students to try out," he said. "First we take a little test to show what we can do. Then they keep narrowing the list and finally pick 28. Just because everyone is mean we pick a new better than everyone else." They pick a new group of people every year."
THE 28 STUDENTS were divided into two groups. The first was the East United States while the other team to the West.
The group visiting KU has been on tour since Sept. 9 and will return to Taiwan Nov. 2, according to Wei Chao-Hsin, the troupe's director. In that time, the group will have covered 15 states in the East and Midwest and given 27 performances.
The troupe's dances were arranged by Lin Whai-Min, a Taiwanese journalist who had a love for music and studied under American choreographer Martha Graham.
In the past, the dances had been done in the slow, traditional style of Chinese opera, Chiao Shaow.
"This year, the program is different, more
engaging. You can think you can still feel
the Chinese style, however."
THE FIRST part of Saturday's program, performed before a near-capacity crowd in Woodruff Auditorium, contained four musical traditions and traditional songs from different areas of China.
See CHINA page 5
Chung Shi-Lin, of the Youth Hall Mission from Taiwan, gives the KU audience at Woodruff Auditorium Saturday afternoon, a graceful
KENCOMB/emmanuel
performance of the traditional Chinese dance, "Dance of the River."
The dance was part of the China Day 1980 celebration.
Namibian women and children flee apartheid, speaker says
Staff Reporter
By ROSE SIMMONS Staff Reporter
Namibian women and children bear the brunt of oppression in South Africa, said Ellen Musialia, founder of the South West African People's Women's Council.
Musiella, who is on a tour of the United States to gather support for the organization, spoke Friday in the International Room of the Kansas Union.
Musialela's talk was part of a "day of action" against what she considers U.S. imperialism. The day's events were sponsored by several University of Kansas student organizations.
Namibia was made a South African protectorate by the League of Nations after the defeat of Germany in World War I. Germany had invaded and colonized Namibia in 1884.
THE UNITED NATIONS called on South
Africa to help from Namibia in 1966, but
South Africa refused.
Musiella聊 that blacks, who outnumbered whites 15 to 1, were pushed onto 40 percent of the population.
See AFRICA page 5
Alliance sought by students
Staff Reporter
By DIANE SWANSON Staff Reporter
They called themselves student leaders, and they were the student movement was strong and growth was great.
About 85 students from around the country were on campus this weekend to attend the eighth conference for state student leaders. This year, the national alliance of student lobbying groups.
It was a time of assessing the student movement—where it is—and where it is going.
For an effective voice with administrators and legislators in the future, the leaders said the student movement needs a sophisticated student interest group.
Associations, they said, should be organized on the levels—grants, roots participation and ornamental plants.
DOUG TUTHILL, national chairman of the United States Student Association, said that there had been students involved in educational, social and political issues during the '70, but that now they were becoming more visible and more effective.
"People are sitting back and asking how we organize for a longer, less effort." he said.
Student organization, Tuthill said, is the future for the student movement and the key to effective bargaining with university administrators and legislators.
According to Rob Tobin, University of Kansas student and former graduate student senator, there is no student movement and no urge to organize.
"There is a great deal of apathy," he said. "Students are much too busy to be involved in student politics. There is no agitation, nothing greatly wrong that is motivating students."
MARIBETH OAKES, a student at Westchester State College in Pennsylvania and chairman of the National Women Students Coalition, said that she has seen the issues, but don't know how to act on them.
She said the problem was not student apathy, but a feeling of helplessness as to how to work on an issue.
With an organized student group, she said,
students can benefit from grassroots work or
"physical, mass type activism," as well as a
organization for continuity and public clout.
According to Joe Sweeney, director of the USSA stats and systems program, there are more than 75 state student associations in the United States.
"There are only about 12 fairly effective state student associations in the country, however," but
TOBIN SAID that the Student Senate and the
SEE MOVEMENT page 5
Temperatures will continue to fall today with a 50 percent chance of rain, according to the National Weather Service. Winds will be northerly and gusty in north and northeast mph. The low tonight will be near 30 with a 70 percent chance of rain.
The high tomorrow will be near 40 with decreasing cloudiness.
The forecast for Wednesday through Friday calls for highs in the 50s and 60s and lows in the 20s and 30.