Page 18
University Daily Kansan Friday, April 20, 1962
The Campus Political Parties-
Action
An Analysis by
Action, KU's proposed third political party, has emerged this spring from many months in the planning stage and has introduced some new concepts of student government to the KU political scene.
The stated purpose of the group is "to promote the active interest of students in student government and in University affairs by presenting a liberal position on both a campus and a national basis."
Contrary to the primarily local emphasis of the existing KU political parties, Vox Populi and the University Party, Action proposes that KU's governing body, the All Student Council, broaden its vision to discuss important national and international issues and to formulate opinions on these issues.
The party has included in its platform such things as reaffiliation with the National Students Association (NSA), an investigation of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and financial support to the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), in an effort to give KU an orientation in national political affairs.
IN CAMPUS affairs, Action has proposed a decline in the influence which the University has on the individual student. The party platform calls for more student freedom in such things as the speakers to be brought to campus, social regulations, student newspaper, and the end of arbitrary expulsion of students.
The platform calls for more power
being given the Faculty Senate to set University policy in areas that directly concern the student. It says that since the faculty is closer to the individual students and more aware of the trends in student thought than either the Board of Regents or the Chancellor, the faculty senate should set policy directly concerned with the students.
Action's platform asks that an explanation be given of why the petition (signed last spring) demanding a referendum on the student seating plan was not considered.
THE PLATFORM asks why since the Kansas Union is operated for the benefit of the students—the Union's prices on meals are higher than privately operated restaurants near the campus, why the Union does not offer a 5 cent cup of coffee, and why the Union does not publish a complete financial statement annually.
Another plank in the Action platform proposes that the Associated Women's Students and the KU Pep Club should receive financial support from the University and not from the All Student Council as they now do.
Action says that the present system of these organizations in getting money from the All Student Council prevents the ASC from using its funds for more academic and intellectually stimulating pursuits.
The platform also calls for an ASC representative from each living district even if the minimum
number of votes required for ASC representation from a district is not met.
ALTHOUGH the platform criticizes the Human Rights Committee of the ASC, it does say that Action will support it as long as the HRC investigates racial and religious discrimination wherever it exists.
The basic organization of the party, individual membership, is a new idea at KU. In the past, political parties have been primarily made up of bloc memberships from the living groups on campus.
Action is made up entirely of individual memberships and outlaws any bloc membership. Leaders of the party explain that Action encourages this type of membership because it is more democratic.
THE PARTY SAYS that it feels that the present bloc type membership has lost contact with the sentiments of the student body and that the proposed individual membership will give the individual a more active voice in political affairs.
The party's governing body, the parliament, is made up of representatives from each of the living districts and 10 members at large. This contrasts with the living group representatives that make up the governing bodies of the two existing political parties.
In addition to the parliament, a general assembly to be composed of all card carrying Action members is to be called once a semester to discuss elections and at any other time that the parliament
deems a meeting of all members necessary.
The constitution of the party calls for a safety valve on the possibility of the parliament assuming too much power through a recall of any parliament member by a 30 per cent vote of the general assembly.
THE PARTY HAS introduced one controversial new issue in its platform. It calls for the withdrawal of University recognition from those student living groups which have discriminatory clauses in their constitutions if these clauses are not removed by September, 1965.
The other two party platforms call for a removal of discriminatory clauses by a slower rate, to be set by the individual living group.
Action stresses that it is not trying to force integration in individual living groups at KU. It is simply trying to remove the explicit discriminatory clauses from the individual constitutions.
THE PARTY HAS met a roadblock in receiving the All Student Council's recognition as a political party on campus. The group received the necessary 1000 signatures on a petition that called for the ASC to recognize Action, but since the petition did not make any stipulation that those students who signed the petition were prospective members of Action, the ASC ruled the petition invalid.
Because it is not a recognized campus political party, Action cannot officially support candidates in the coming Spring ASC elections, but the party has put up four candidates which it will support un-officially.
In this Spring's elections, Action will function as a pressure group on the existing political parties.
Although it will not be a functioning political party in this Spring's elections, the party is continuing to work to attain the necessary 1000 active members to become a contending political party in future campus elections.
Russian Literature Given at Exhibition
WASHINGTON — (UPI) — Rep. Garner E. Shriver, R-Kan., says it is evident Russians can use ways other than the U.S. mail to deliver their views to Americans.
The Kansas congressman was discussing a House bill that would bar free delivery of Communist "literature" in the U.S. mail system.
SHRIVER said that at a recent display in a suburban Washington shopping center, "representatives of the Soviet government utilized an exhibition of art by Russian children to place in the hands of school children Communist propaganda.
"It is apparent that the Russian government can use such exhibits—or even parcel post which is not covered by the House legislation — to get its material into the hands of Americans."
Patronize Your Kansan Advertisers