To test Student Senate power
UDB may set pattern
By GLORIA VOBEJDA
Kansan Staff Writer
Three KU students will appear before the University Disciplinary Board (UDB) tomorrow to answer charges arising out of a campus demonstration April 23.
The students called to answer charges are: Bill Berkowitz, New York graduate student; Rick Atkinson, Belleville graduate student, and Donald Jenkins, Kansas City, Mo., junior.
Expected charges will include disruption of a seminar for Kansas law enforcement officers, damage to three tables in the Kansas Union and interference with student elections.
The UDB will meet tomorrow despite pleadings from Senex, the executive committee of the Council of the Senate, and the Student Senate, to postpone the meeting until May 15.
The postponement had been requested to "give the Student Senate an opportunity to take what position it deems fit with regard to those charges," said a release from Charles Oldfather, Senex member and professor of law.
The Student Senate still plans to hold an emergency meeting tonight to deliberate recommendations to be sent to the UDB in time for tomorrow's meeting.
The Senate meeting will be at 8 p.m. in 303
(A letter from Russell N. Bradt, Chairman UDR)
May 6,1969
Ambrose Saricks, Chairman May 6,1969 Executive Committee, Council of the Senate of
University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
Deer Dean Saricks.
The University Disciplinary Board met this afternoon to consider the request of the Executive Committee of the Council of the Senate (SenEx) that the Board's hearing scheduled for May 8, concerning certain occurrences on April 23, 1969, be postponed to May 15. SenEx stated that it requested the postponement "to give the Student Senate an opportunity to take what position it deems fit with regard to [the] charges."
Prof. Charles H. Oldfather, SenEx member, and David S. Awbrey, Student Body President, were invited to and did appear and present their views to the Board.
The Board determined that, after SenEx decided to request a postponement, Mr. Awbrey called a special meeting of the Student Senate for the evening of Wednesday, May 7. The Board understands that that meeting is called for the purpose of and will be devoted to a consideration of the questions of proper student conduct raised by the incidents of April 23, and that the meeting is intended to provide a full opportunity for expression of views by members of the Student Senate concerning these matters. The Board therefore concluded that, since the reasons suggested for a postponement no longer obtain, the postponement is not necessary.
Sincerely yours,
Russell N. Bradt, Chairman University Disciplinary Board
Bailey Hall, and only the case of Berkowitz, Atkinson and Jenkins will be discussed, said Dave Awbrey, Hutchinson junior and student body president.
Referring to the UDB meeting, Donald K. Alderson, dean of men, said, "The hearing is closed and is for students who have been invited to be present and the members of the board."
Alderson refused to say whether the outcome of the hearing would be made public. But, he said he would relate what had been done in the past.
"It has been closed (the meeting) and the hearing has involved the members of the board and the persons appearing and no other—no one else."
If information is released to the press about future hearings, he said, it would be a change in policy.
Authority not yet defined
What appears is a power struggle between the University Disciplinary Board and the Student Senate. In the transition period from the previous form of student government to KU's new expanded Student Senate, outlines of disciplinary authority have not yet been defined.
Student body president Dave Awbrey Hutchinson junior, admitted the Student Senate does "not have the power to judge the case, just to recommend action to be taken by the disciplinary board."
The action would be a test of the Student Senate and student responsibility concerning matters of great importance, he said. "I think matters of this type, directly affecting these students, should be channeled through student government."
(Continued to page 20)
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
79th Year, No.126
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Wednesday, May 7, 1969
Ohio authorities deny impaneling grand jury in Abe Fortas affair
TOLEDO, Ohio (UPI) — U.S. authorities denied last night that a federal grand jury has been impaneled here to reopen a two-year-old case involving Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas's law firm.
"We're not in a position to impanel a jury because we have no U.S. attorney here," said Federal Judge Frank Kloeb. "We have a very crowded docket. We have enough to do, let alone adding something like this.
"It just could not be done right now."
U. S. Atty, Harry Pickering of Cleveland, who is handling federal cases in Toledo while the city is without a U.S. attorney of its own, echoed Kloeb's denial.
"We don't have a grand jury impaneled at Toledo," he said.
Pickering added that he would be notified of any plan to call a grand jury here. He conceded, however, that the Justice Department might have ordered an investigation of the case without letting him know.
The New York Times reported in a Washington dispatch today that the Justice Department had begun a grand jury investigation into an action taken in 1967 by Fortas' firm. The Times dispatch said the action "delayed the production of documents sought by federal antiracketeering attorneys from one of the firm's clients."
"We never know what they're investigating," he said. "We don't ask. They don't tell us. We prefer it that way."
John Mattimore, the former U.S. attorney in Toledo who resigned when President Lyndon B. Johnson's term expired in January, said the Fortas firm, Arnold and Porter, represented one of several steel companies involved in a price-fixing case he prosecuted in 1967.
The newspaper said the investigation had been under consideration for months.
Four steel executives were indicted, but only Irwin Fruchtman of the Fruitman Steel Co. was convicted. Arnold and Porter represented the Donovan Steel and Wire Co.
Reports of a grand jury reinvestigation of the 1967 case circulated yesterday in Washington, where some Republicans were demanding that Fortas resign because he received—but later returned—a $200,000 fee from the family of financier Louis Wolfson, now jailed for stock manipulation.
Police fight student rebels
Two hundred riot-equipped state police early today broke down a door and evicted some 60 students from a Dartmouth College building they had held for 12 hours.
By United Press International
An additional 800 students camped outside the building moved aside at the prodding of New Hampshire and Vermont troopers. The sitters-in were
then dragged or led to buses and driven to an armory near the Hanover, N.H., campus.
The protesters had earlier ignored a court order to leave the building.
Protesters at predominantly Negro Howard University in the nation's capital also ignored a court order to abandon a seized building and instead sealed off the entire campus early today.
Purdue University students today continued their third sit in 24 hours. The first ended early Tuesday with the arrest of 229 students and the second was called off when state police began photographing protesters.
The disturbances marred Purdue's centennial celebration
New York's Queens College was to reopen today after a two-day hiatus after vandalism and a campus battle.
UDK News Roundup
V.P. says Fortas unwise
By United Press International
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Vice President Spiro T. Agnew said yesterday Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas was "unwise" for accepting a fee from the foundation of financier Louis Wolfson.
"The bench has a peculiar and very high sensitivity," Agnew told newsmen. "I think it was unwise of Mr. Fortas or anyone else to accept a fee of this type while on the highest bench in this country."
Nixon backs farm unions
WASHINGTON - The Nixon Administration yesterday backed the right of farm workers to organize unions, but opposed bringing them under the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Instead, Labor Secretary George P. Shultz proposed a special farm labor relations board to handle agriculture union-management problems.
Talks near bargaining
PARIS - A tacit agreement among the Vietnam peace negotiators in Paris to stop threatening each other gave impetus yesterday to reports the conference is inching toward real bargaining.
Leftist link to Al Fatah?
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department said yesterday it had asked the FBI to determine if elements in this country, including New Left campus groups, were violating federal laws through links with Al Fatah, the Arab terrorist organization.