Letter to the editor
ISP "new priorities" explained; city clean-up
To the Editor:
Since the release of the ISP platform considerable discussion has been raised about our statements concerning national and international issues. This has led us to believe that many people feel that KU students should not worry about their society. Also, it seems that some people prefer that KU remain isolated, and that the problems confronting America and the world dare not tread on Mt. Oread.
We do not presume that if we are elected, the Viet Nam tragedy will end, the draft laws will be repealed, or the problems of the cities will vanish. However, we feel that KU is implicitly involved in our political society (through research, training of municipal governmental employees, ROTC, political activities of the faculty, etc.) and that by ignoring questions of national policy we would be doing our education and beliefs a disservice.
Further, we feel it is a cruel hoax to advocate programs such as bringing cigarettes into the Union, revising the Western Civilization and foreign language systems, plus calendar changes (all of which we support) without saying anything about the paternalistic faculty, administration, and Board of Regents who hinder these needed changes.
Therefore, we do not offer the student body a shopping list of improvements by which we hope will gain the approval of the students; for we feel this approach is an affront to the intelligence and education of KU students.
Our entire campaign is based on the theme of "politics of new priorities." That is, we want to take student government out of the euphoric realm of personality contests and begin to face university problems with a new perspective. This means that we feel individual students must become concerned with the course of their lives and the quality of their environment. We believe that students should not acquiesce to the personal whims of self-appointed "student leaders" or to benevolent faculty and administrators; we think that they should have direct control over the forces which affect their lives.
Thus, while we recognize that this campaign must evolve around present campus issues, we believe that KU cannot remain in her ivory tower while in Viet Nam our brothers and friends are dying and in Oakland as well as in north Lawrence our black citizens are subjected to constant oppression.
David Awbrey
ISP Presidential Candidate
Marilyn Bowman
ISP Vice-Presidential
Candidate
An open letter to Students.
The black community of Lawrence, Kansas, the advocacy planning class (Architecture 98) and other KU students will be beginning a clean-up, paint-up, patch-up campaign in parts of the 1200 and 1300 blocks on New Jersey. The work will begin on Saturday and Sunday starting April 12 and continuing for two weekends afterward.
Your help is needed! You do not have to be a professional, the manpower counts. In addition, if you have or know of any tools-paint and brushes-transportation, etc. to lend or donate, let us know.
You can sign up to work at 201A Marvin Hall, March 28.
Mar. 25 KANSAN 5
1969
tuesday and wednesday, March 25 and 26 at 7:30 p.m. there will be meetings in the Big Eight Room of the Kansas Union to give general information on the New Jersey Street Project to all interested students and faculty members. Those who have already expressed interest in the project are also urged to attend.
Hope to see you April 12. Communications Committee Advocacy Planning
To the Editor:
In the 1920's, student contributors to the Dove, an independent campus publication, sold on Mt. Oread for 5c a copy, appealed to the administration not to establish an ROTC unit with academic credit and with faculty status for military instructors.
Even an idealistic Chancellor Lindley, revered by many a Jayhawk "across the years," (a favorite phrase of his) was not averse to welcoming the flashy blue uniform, the honorary (and sexy) co-eed colonel, the exhibition drills and military hardware on Mt. Oread. How could a Chancellor of the 20's and 30's foresee what another distinguished Kansan on retiring from the White House, ex-President Eisenhower, has warned against, namely the "military-industrial complex?" A sinister influence that pervades our universities, especially those dependent on Defense Department funds.
Hopefully, a growing number of universities and colleges are protesting the heavily military emphasis. As reported by The Christian Science Monitor (March 1, 1969), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) "started the snowball rolling." Between 25 and 30 universities scheduled protest meetings on March 4th. The University of Pennsylvania was closed the whole day for discussions. At MIT the 100 faculty strong Union of Concerned Scientists (USC) and a student-formed Science Action Coordinating Committee (SACC) went into action. MIT Professor Herman Feshbach, one of the leaders of UCS, is quoted by the Monitor as follows:
"It's not just the long-haired, young,
Who said this state couldn't be turned upside down?
professional radicals, but members of the establishment who are concerned. The main product of MIT is the students. Our basic problem, therefore, is to provide these students with a milieu in which they can do other things than military research ... There are other problems that should be tackled, problems more useful to humanity. We are trying to draw people's attention to the misuse of time money and talent."
Subsequently, a number of universities, including Harvard, Princeton and Yale, have authorized the withholding of academic credit from ROTC courses. By the same token, instructors in "military science" (a misnomer!) are no longer given faculty status. In some instances, such instructors are recognized as "visiting lecturers" only.
It has long seemed incongruous to this alumnus (who himself, in the "first fine careless rapture" of freshman naivete, enrolled in ROTC and continued to the point of bayonet practice, then promptly dropped it as more than incompatible with a liberal arts course!) that professional expertise in the techniques of mass slaughter should be elevated to a cultural level, on a par with the humanities, with medicine, biology, etc.
When will KU take the hint given over 40 years ago by sponsors of the Dove and disestablish ROTC as an accredited course and its instructors as faculty members?
Eugene W. Sutherland Class of 1928 Member 1926-28 Glee Club
To the Editor:
As much as I'd like to be among the first to welcome our new Chancellor, I feel he has made one small but quite offensive error.
As a 1966 Florida State (FSU) alumnus, I regret for Dean Chalmers his unkind comments about my alma mater. KU is a fine school. So is FSU. There are many graceful, adult ways to express enthusiasm for a new position but knocking your old one does not fall among these.
I know I speak for at least two FSU Seminoles when I admonish Dr. Chalmers""-Shame on you for already playing politics."
Terri L. Miller KU staff member
"SAM WHISKEY" BURT REYNOLDS CLINT WALKER OSSIE DAVIS
ANGIE DICKINSON
COLOR by Delano United Artists
THEATRE ... Telephone VI 3-1065
COMING NEXT!