Seniors set up fund
The senior class voted to cancel its scheduled spring party and use the money to set up a $1,500 scholarship fund for financially disadvantaged students announced John Hill, Prairie Village senior and senior class president.
In addition, the class will donate a $1,000 class gift to Watkins Memorial Hospital.
In a senior class poll conducted by mail, of the seniors who paid class dues, 362 voted to use part of its class dues, previously set aside for the party to finance the scholarship. 293 voted against it.
in favor of giving the $1,500 to establish a scholarship fund."
"This is a sincere attempt on the part of the senior class to show concern for someone else," Hill said. "I am especially proud of the class's choice to cancel its party
More than 1,200 seniors, at least half the class, in a mail ballot, boted on whether to rent caps and gowns contribute to the scholarship fund or do either one or the other.
Participants in commencement exercises are required to wear caps and gowns, which are rented for $4.
As a result of the poll, however, this is the first year seniors can offically decide whether to attend exercises. Technically, all seniors previously were required to participate in commencement unless personally excused by the Chancellor.
Hill said the Chancellor left the decision to wear caps and gowns to the class.
The results of the poll showed that 410 seniors voted for caps and gowns alone, 400 for contribution to the fund instead of caps and gowns and 385 for caps and gowns plus a $1 contribution to the fund, Hill said.
Seniors who do not wish to participate in commencement are encouraged to donate the $4 fee to the fund. Contributions of $1 or more will be accepted at the Information Booth. Hill urged seniors, however, to both rent and wear caps and gowns and contribute to the fund.
--administration might be considering the possibility of withdrawing some of its forces, without demanding that the Communists do likewise, as a means of ending the war.
UDK News Roundup By United Press International
Ray files for new trial
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Attorney for James Earl Ray, convicted of slaying Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., filed motions for a new trial yesterday on grounds that Ray has been used by his attorneys to peddle his inside story to magazines, books and motion pictures.
In motions signed by Ray's three new attorneys, the 41-year-old convict claimed that he was forced to plead guilty to the April 4, 1968, sniper slaying because of pressure from his attorneys.
Explosion spawns search
NEW ORLEANS - Coast Guard cutters, planes and helicopters searched 90 miles of the muddy Mississippi River yesterday for 25 Chinese sailors lost and believed dead in a blazing explosion and collision of a freighter and an oil barge.
Lady Churchill weaker
LONDON - Hospital officials said the condition of Lady Clementine Spencer-Churchill, widow of Sir Winston Churchill, weakened yesterday, "giving rise for anxiety."
Lady Churchill, who celebrated her 84th birthday April 1, underwent an operation at Westminster Hospital Friday after falling in her home, breaking her thigh.
Purchase approved
TOPEKA — The Kansas House yesterday gave preliminary approval to purchase a $220,000 airplane for the Governor and other state agencies after attempts to strike out the appropriation failed.
Rolls Royces recalled
NEW YORK - The British manufacturer of Rolls Royce and Bentley automobiles, the luxury status symbols, has recalled all those made in the last four years to correct a "potential defect" in the steering system.
About 1,350 of the estimated 5,000 cars affected are in the United States.
Sirhan's fate up to jury
LOS ANGELES — The state will not demand the death penalty for Sirhan B. Sirhan, the killer of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Dep. Dist. Atty. Lynn D. Compton said yesterday.
Compton told newsmen out of court that the state will "leave it up to the jury" of seven men and five women to decide whether Sirhan should, if found guilty of first degree murder, get the gas chamber or life imprisonment.
Obscenity law overturned
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court yesterday overturned Georgia's obscenity law which makes possession of pornographic material a crime, ruling that a person has a right to "satisfy his intellectual and emotional needs in the privacy of his own home."
Justice Thurgood Marshall, who wrote the opinion, made clear that the states "retain broad power to regulate obscenity," but "that power simply does not extend to mere possession by the individual in the privacy of his own home."
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79th Year, No.105 The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas Tuesday, April 8, 1969
Rogers drops hint of troop withdrawal
WASHINGTON (UPI) Secretary of State William P. Rogers indicated yesterday the United States might unilaterally withdraw some of its forces from South Vietnam, but he said there was no such plan at the present.
At his first formal news conference since taking office 10 weeks ago, Rogers gave the strongest hint yet that the
Hope for chance
"I would certainly hope that there would be some chance of mutual withdrawal of troops this year," Rogers said, "... as far as
Black coeds to try out Thursday for three pom-pon squad posts
Tryouts to include two black regulars and one black alternate to the 1969-70 pom-pon squad will be at 7 p.m. Thursday in Allen Field House, Cheryl Dorris, assistant to the dean of women, announced today.
Members of the BSU met with
The second tryouts resulted from a Black Student Union (BSU) request that the present all-white pom-pon squad be expanded to include two black regulars and one black alternate.
William M. Balfour, dean of student affairs, March 24. At this time they gave Balfour 24 hours to reply to their proposal. In this time, Balfour said he was unable to take any action.
A 12-member all-white committee appointed by the Chancellor's office met March 26 and decided to expand the present squad. This action was taken after the BSU had announced a separate all-black squad.
the unilateral withdrawal of troops is concerned, I don't want to say anything about that . . . we are considering all possibilities."
But, Rogers said, "we don't anticipate any immediate unilateral withdrawal of troops."
No discussion
President Nixon and Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird have consistently refused to publicly discuss such a possibility on grounds it would be inappropriate as long as talks were under way to achieve mutual withdrawal.
Rogers also indicated that the Nixon administration—unlike the Johnson administration—would not insist that all North Vietnamese forces be withdrawn from the south before the United States begins to reduce its forces there. May I turn it over to you, Mr. Frazier?
He said the 1966 Manila communique, issued by the presidents of the United States and South Vietnam, was "somewhat ambiguous," appearing to demand the Communist forces be withdrawn first—a stipulation Rogers said he could not endorse.
Photo by Ron Bishop
Spring break?
Not everyone spent spring break gathering sunburns. Students from several colleges and universities joined pacifists in the Easter march in Chicago to protest the war in Vietnam. See story, page 5.