ASC cross-complaints
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UP
A PETITION TO THE ALL STUDENT COUNCI. ELECTIONS.COMMITTEE
Attention: Miss Kay Orth and Mr. Jim Prager Co-chairmen, All Student Council Elections Committee
I have recently been informed by the All Student Council Elections Committee that Vox Populi has made certain allegations impugning the character and integrity of myself, the University Party, and an executive editor of the University Daily Kansan.
On my own behalf, and on behalf of the other parties involved or implicated (note: see enclosed affidavits), I emphatically deny these charges.
WHILE I deplore the necessity for this petition, I must object to this malicious prosecution, and the attempt thereby to influence the outcome of the election.
It is curious to me that such allegations should appear eleven days after a supposed event and only three days before the election.
Curious also is that of the three individuals who editorially endorsed me—which I am led to assume constituted the alleged "violation of public trust"—an injunction was sought against only one signator.
The petition is clearly asking the Student Court to do what no court can do—to enjoin against future publication.
FURTHER, it is curious that such an alleged "conspiracy" would transpire in a public place; that an apolitical organization such as AWS should be implicated in such proceedings; that a charge of this nature should not be filed directly with the Student Court.
I interpret the Vox Populi petition as seeking, by the Student Court, the prevention of future publication of an individual's views—an action clearly outlawed by the laws of our land which relate to freedom of the press. I do not believe any court in this nation would take such an action.
With the above considerations in mind, and with the evidence of the enclosed notarized statements, I therefore petition the All Student Council Elections Committee to (1) present this document to the student court; and (2) investigate immediately the Vox Populi allegations so the names and reputations of those accused and implicated may be cleared.
I WOULD HOPE, in view of Vox Populi's stand on student rights, due process, and the right of the accused to confront one's accusers, that their allegations and the manner in which the charges were made, directly to the Dean of the School of Journalism and to a Vox member of the Elections Committee, without the knowledge of any of the principals involved, do not reflect the views of the two major Vox candidates.
Charges being pressed without the knowledge of the accused is never an acceptable form of justice.
I hold Tom Stanion as signator of that document personally responsible for its publication. I again emphatically deny these charges, and I assume the responsibility for clearing myself, my colleagues, Miss Thayer, and the University Party through this document from this malicious prosecution.
I AM EQUALLY "confident that the voters will respond" to the "exposure" by Mr. Stanion and will vindicate those who have been implicated by these false charges.
Al Martin,
University Party
Candidate for
Student Body President
Written: March 28.1966
On the 16th and 17th day of March, 1966, Jim Masters, Jacke Thayer, Al Martin, Charles Whitman and I were drinking coffee at the Holiday Inn and generally discussing the content of the University Party's platform and the implementation of the platform if the University Party candidate should win the election.
The allegations in the affidavit that Fred Frailey (managing editor of the University Daily Kansan) had me read, and subsequently questioned me about in detail, are false.
Deborah F. Masters, Cairo, U.A.R., senior
Vox
A PETITION TO THE ALL STUDENT COUNCIL ELECTIONS COMMITTEE
Co-chairmen, All Student Council Elections Committee
Evidence has been brought to our attention of a conspiracy to defraud and mislead the student body. As documented by the notarized affidavit enclosed with this petition, Mr. Charles Whitman and Mr. Al Martin as agents of the University Party entered into a fraudulent agreement with Miss Jacke Thayer, editorial editor of the University Daily Kansan. (Note enclosed affidavit.)
Miss Thayer has violated a public trust, an editorial responsibility, and should no longer be allowed to print her views on the pages of a student newspaper. Therefore, we respectfully petition the Elections Committee of the All Student Council to request the Student Court to grant an injunction prohibiting Miss Thayer from printing editorials relative to campus politics.
We also protest the role of the University Party in the deal—a deal which can be considered as nothing less than a flagrant breach of generally accepted and honorable codes of campaign conduct. However, we seek no action against the University Party through the Elections Committee; we trust that the voters will respond to this exposure in such a way that whatever chance Mr. Martin had of winning the election will be totally negated.
Tom Stanion
President, Vox Populi
Written: Monday, March 21, 1966
On March 16-17, between the hours of 11:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m., Bob Montgomery and Mike LeVota overheard a conservation at the Holiday Inn in Lawrence, Kansas, between Al Martin, Charles Whitman, Miss Jacke Thayer, and Mr. and Mrs. Jim Masters. In this conversation it was stated that in return for Al Martin's influence, and the influence of the University Party in acquiring votes for the support of Miss Thayer in an AWS election. Miss Thayer would publish editorials in the University Daily Kansan backing Al Martin and the University Party.
Bob Montgomery and Mike LeVota
Written: Monday, March 28, 1966
Written: Monday, March 28, 1960 I, and James I. Masters, Deborah F. Masters, Al Martin, Charles Whitman and other persons did converse at the Holiday Inn on the night of March 16, 1966.
Our conversation dealt with the planks of the University Party platform, particularly plank number four, concerned with student rights and regulations.
As a journalist, conscious of my own integrity and that of my profession, I could never make any agreement compromising my honest belief in regard to a political endorsement.
As an independent journalist and co-editorial editor of the University Daily Kansan, I felt my duty to ascertain the degree of sincerity of the University Party candidate concerning his party platform on student rights.
My appearance at the Holiday Inn was by no means unusual in frequency.
We discussed the platform, and I indicated that I agreed wholeheartedly with University Party's stand on student rights.
I totally deny any allegations made against my editorial integrity by Vox Populi.
Written: March 28, 196c
I, James Masters, Deborah Masters, Al Martin, Jacke Thayer and other persons did converse at the Holiday Inn on the night of March 16, 1966. Allegations that any "agreement" of any kind, dealing with any subject matter whatsoever, are false.
I deeply resent this attempt to use "overheard" conversations taken by obviously biased observers in order to malign my character, and that of my compatriots.
Charles Whitman,
chairman,
UP Advisory Committee
Vox presents case
The entertainment, and to some the nuisance, of campus elections is all but over. When the polls open tomorrow morning the responsible and concerned student will disregard the noise and toys of electioneering, and examine the fundamental case presented by each party.
Vox Populi's student body officer candidates, Tom Rader and Dick Darville have clearly demonstrated their interest in responsible service to the students since their election to the ASC. They have contributed greatly to the party's legislative record of twenty-three resolutions and bills, ten more than the opposition, since last spring's election.
VOX POPULF ASC legislative policy is backed by a record of determination to provide the students with the most responsible, realistic, and fully researched programs. In turn it disclaims those who merely seek attention with last minute "filler" and platform proposals.
The Vox platform presents specific objectives for student government in six major areas. Rader and Darville believe that platforms are designed not for philosophical generalization, but for the presentation of concrete programs. Thus the "pragmatists" and "idealists" have sparked a dispute over the student rights question. The Daily Kansan editorial writers subscribing to the opposition's plank on student rights have stated their case well, but sadly missed the point. Their delusion is the result of a confused understanding of the candidates' attitudes toward university restrictions of students.
The Vox position in the above issues has been largely overshadowed by popular interest in the student rights question. Our opposition has paid little attention, much less opposition, to the other proposals in our platform. However, our interest in the rights issue is of equal intensity. No one believes in the significance of this issue more than Tom Rader and Dick Darville, and their legislative record demonstrates that no one has worked harder in this area.
THE STUDENT PERSONNEL BOARD is a proposal to establish a "civil service" system to control the committee appointments made by the Student Body President to ASC committees. Over three-hundred such positions have previously been filled without sufficient opportunity for the students to be interviewed and rated strictly according to ability, and without concern for political considerations.
The opposition's platform has talked long and hard of its philosophy in this area, but has failed to present any specific plan or procedure for removing the "university albatros" from around our necks. Apparently it is not their intention to bless us with other than philosophy. The choice between "idealism" and "pragmatism" is yours.
But student rights are not the only issue in this campaign. We also support the establishment of an elective pass-fail class system allowing students to enroll in one course per semester outside of their major department without the inhibition of competing for grades. Those students majoring in chemistry, for example, could enroll in art history without fearing the competition of majors in that department. Several student members of the College Intermediary Board have already voiced their approval of this system.
VOX POPULI AGREES that full investigation of student rights is warranted, and has called for both codification of student regulations and establishment of processes for proper execution of university regulations. There is general agreement between the candidates on the need for the removal of unnecessary restrictions. However, the demand of total abolition of these rules is well beyond the dictates of sanity and responsibility, and a campus free for all is the only possible vision of the candidate who panders such a policy. Perhaps as a corollary to its student rights plank, University Party should encourage our "liberation" from all parental and legal authority as well. Enough of the polemics; the choice is yours.
A Stop Week proposal is included in the Vox Populi platform, first to reaffirm this party's effort to promote the abolition of classes and examinations during the week preceding final exams; and second, to offer a formula of working with the Calendar Committee, the University Senate, and Departmental Deans to achieve the realization of Stop Week.
The "bogey-man" or radical view postulates an infinitely perfidious administration whose goal is the enslavement of students' minds. Resulting from this attitude is a "black and white" interpretation of university regulations, which are to be attacked with demands for their abolition.
Vox Populi
For 76 Years, KU's Official Student Newspaper
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