ISP announces 1969 platform
Calling their platform "The Politics of New Priorities," the Independent Student Party (ISP) has nominated Bill Hansen, Kansas City law student, as its student council presidential candidate and Marilyn Bowman, Kansas City junior, as its vice-presidential candidate.
"A new pattern for student involvement is the cornerstone of our effort." Hansen explained yesterday. "At issue is whether students are going to take control of their lives or continue to placidly submit to a troubled world and University as we find it."
ISP's platform, under the "politics of peace," was released
yesterday. It recommends elimination of credit from all ROTC courses and requires all military recruiting to take place in the Military Science Building, not in the Kansas Union.
ISP advocates the formation of a committee in the University Senate which would insure that University complicity with the draft system remain at the minimum required by law. This committee would also offer free counseling and legal advice to all students concerning their obligations and alternatives under the current draft laws.
ISP further proposes an investigation of federally-sponsored research grants "to
insure that their purpose and the purposes of an educational community are compatible. The University of Kansas should not lend its people and resources to the waging of war and the proliferation of death."
The ISP platform suggests that money normally refunded from the Kansas Union Book Store be used to establish scholarships for students in low income environments.
Another part of ISP's platform advocates a free inspection service for University housing, especially for foreign student and minority group housing, to insure that the
housing meets minimal standards, and to insure against discrimination.
ISP calls for a boycott of the new Kansas Union tunnel under Mississippi Street "as a symbolic protest against the insane waste of University funds in the face of pressing needs, such as the expansion of Watkins Hospital."
The ISP platform also advocates a pass-no credit system for all non-major courses when desired by the student and calls for greater participation by students in the affairs of the University by means of a student referendum for important questions of University policy.
The ISP platform states, "Solutions to such issues as beer in the Student Union and semester scheduling changes are desperately in need of a new approach and attitude."
Symbolic of what this attitude should emphasize, ISP urges students to recognize that getting cigarette machines back on University property conveniently clouds the overriding question of what and who removed them in the first place.
Hansen has held a seat on the All Student Council (ASC) as an un-married, un-organized representative. He is a member of the newly formed Law Student Civil Rights Research Council and has worked with the Office of Economic Opportunity in East Oakland, Calif.
Miss Bowman has been a parliamentarian for the Model U.N. She has also served on the Student Union Activities (SUA) Special Events Publicity Committee and also on SUA Student Forums.
Residence hall occupancy drops
While some universities cry for funds to construct new university housing, KU's residence halls will have as many as one in five rooms empty this spring semester.
J. J. Wilson, KU's director of housing, said that a preliminary estimate indicates occupancy in KU residence halls will be 10 to 15 per cent below that of the fall semester.
Wilson said that the drop will be reflected in a cut in the budget for improvements and repairs on the halls.
"We budget on a 90 per cent basis," Wilson said. "We are not in a desperate financial situation. Repairs and improvements will just get postponed."
Whether the drop in occupancy reflects a move away from organized living or just mirrors the drop in total enrollment at KU, Wilson did not speculate.
A survey made by Wilson's office showed that 34 of 115 persons who cancelled spring contracts did so because they were not enrolling for the spring
Feb. 17 1969 KANSAN 9
semester. Fifty cancelled their contracts to move to apartments.
A decrease in the number of contracts signed is a perennial problem Wilson said. KU is the only university in the Big Eight which contracts housing on a semester basis.
"We let people live where they want to live," Wilson explained. "We're not trying to have enforced occupancy."
In fact, Wilson said, the University aids private developers by furnishing them with information when they desire to build apartments.
"The University is part of the community," Wilson said. "Private developers bring money to the community, pay taxes and help it grow."
In 1956, when the first of the Stouffer Place apartments were built, there was a great shortage of apartments in Lawrence, Wilson said. For several years construction of new residence halls could not meet the demand, Wilson added.
In 1966, demand began to lessen as more halls were added and private developers constructed elaborate apartment complexes.
Wilson said that some of the present over-capacity resulted from these figures which have been revised steadily downward. A 1964 report projected the spring enrollment of KU in 1969 as 17,937, more than a thousand greater than it is.
Wilson said he expected it would be five years before another residence hall is built, though he says some University administrators doubt that another hall will ever be built.
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He speculated that if a new hall is built, the design would probably reflect the changing attitudes of the generation. Rooms would be more like apartments, more luxurious and men and women would live in adjoining rooms.
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