'The quiet revolution'
Code: a unique document
By TOM WEINBERG Assistant News Editor
For the last year a quiet revolution has been brewing on the campus of the University of Kansas. While other campuses have been struck with the bombastic tumult of violent confrontations and occupied buildings, students and faculty at the University of Kansas have, in an atmosphere of rational discourse, developed a new system which provides for joint student-faculty participation in University governance.
On February 19 and 20, the student body, in a University-wide referendum, ratified the new Senate Code. The Code had been approved earlier—February 4—in a vote of the full Faculty Senate.
The passage of the Code is symbolic of the new direction taken by KU, for it is the culmination of the revolutionary changes that are and have been occurring here in this year of transition.
The Senate Code, providing for joint student-faculty participation in University
governance, is a formal recognition that students are mature and responsible citizens in an academic community capable of exercising participatory influence in determining the goals, purposes, and operations of the University.
In the words of the chairman of the the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, Ambrose Saricks, "The Senate Code provides an orderly mechanism whereby students and faculty can, if they so desire, involve themselves jointly in matters of University governance and the formulation of University policies."
The ultimate importance of the Senate Code was summed up by Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe: "The importance of this code is that it provides for substantial student government and faculty government, while bringing them together in a very meaningful way."
A 12-man faculty-student committee began work on the Senate Code early this summer. Since then, many ideas have been injected, rejected and passed by the All-Student Council. The amendments
written to the Code were numerous, the suggestions plentiful.
In reaching its final destination, the Senate Code had a great deal of "progressive" help. Much of this help has been due to not only the students, but faculty and administrators alike. It is a fact that several amendments added to the Code by the faculty gave additional power to the students.
This article began by referring to the Senate Code as the quiet revolution. This is one of the most significant aspects of its adoption. It is important that change can be initiated in a growing institution by working within its existing structure.
Rick von Ende, chairman of the ASC, and one of the leading forces behind the Code, believes that the manner in which the Senate Code came about and eventually was adopted is one of its most important aspects.
"The Code as a legal document cannot provide all answers nor be all things to all people, but it provides a system in which men can begin to act rationally for social change," Von Ende said.
Early ASC made its mark
By JOANNA WIEBE Kansan News Editor
(The KU All-Student Council (ASC) died Thursday Night. This is the first in a series on articles on ASC's 26-year history).
The All-Student Council celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1968 by signing its death warrant.
When 2,300 KU student s approved the adoption of the Senate Code last night, the execution was carried out.
"The All-Student Council doesn't possess enough power over student activities," was the accusation flung at this body last year. Although the University had grown—both in numbers and scope—the ASC remained essentially the same sort of governing body it was in 1943.
During the summer of 1943, President Roosevelt signed the pay-as-you-go income tax bill. In a race riot in Detroit, 34 persons died and 700 were injured. Benito Mussolini, surrendered unconditionally to Great Britain and France.
And on the KU campus the All-Student Council was organized.
The fledgling group was the offspring of two parent organizations—the Men's Student Council and the Women's Self-Governing Association.
Among the first bills passed by the ASC was legislation to limit smoking cigarettes on campus.
Officers of the "Smoking Secret Service" (SSS) haunted the halls of campus buildings, ticketing violators of the smoking ban. Smoking was prohibited in nearly all buildings.
The Western Civilization program was born a year later when members of the ASC proposed that "all students in the College be required to obtain in the freshman and sophomore years a comprehensive knowledge of modern civilization in the West," said an issue of the University Daily Kansan.
Feb. 21 1969 KANSAN 9
"ASC Approves Negro Players On Varsity Teams," was the banner headline on a 1946 Kansan story. At that time, participation of Negro players in Bix Six games was banned in both Missouri and Oklahoma. The Kansan referred to this ban as occurring in "only" two states.
The chairman of the ASC committee investigating the racial policies on the Big Six and Kansas athletic associations assured members of the Council that their support was a good measure.
After all, he said, "Chancellor Deane W. Malott has stated that he has no objections to Negro participation in the events."
Today's mini-skirted coed moaning over a $16 parking ticket will appreciate a bill passed in 1947, establishing a $2 maximum fine for traffic violators.
The ASC took the University Daily Kansan to task in 1948, saying, "The Kansan Board should be willing to accept gentle, supposedly constructive criticism from the ASC as an organ of the student body." The comment came after a probe into the financial activities of the Kansan. But once the investigation was completed, no one on the Council could decide what to do about it.
In spite of the ASC's strong support for athletic integration, in 1951 the student body was furious over the Council's refusal to support the proposed Kansas Fair Employment Practices bill.
The same year, the ASC set up one of its interminable committees to investigate unsatisfactory student housing.
ASC support of the bill was defeated by one vote at a Council meeting.
1951 must have been a big year for ASC action. In that year, the ASC also passed a bill removing the $12 per month salaries paid to the ASC president, secretary and trasurer. "We need economy on the Council," said one of the members. "It's time we quit sponging off the students at the University."
Still in 1951, the ASC lost a knock-down, drag-out battle for support of a bill in the state
legislature designed to prohibit discriminatory employment practices. Support again was defeated by one vote.
(Monday: the last 17 years)
A graduate, now a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley, studied the Senate Code and took a few copies to some classmates there. Most of them were surprised and amazed that in Kansas quiet political change was being initiated more freely than any political freedom witnessed on the Berkeley campus. The Kansas graduate said that if Cal had this type of change, their
situation might be somewhat better.
Representatives of other campuses have indicated that this Code, supported by both faculty and students, is far in advance of developments at their respective universities. A group of college newspaper editors viewed the Code in its early stages this fall. Many were surprised, most believed faculty passage was out of the question.
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