Student Council Approves Vote
Wednesday, March 20, 1963
By Patti Behen
The All Student Council last night approved a proposal calling for a referendum which, if passed, would insure each living district one council representative per complete 1000 students in that district.
The amendment will be presented to the student body for approval or rejection in the elections April 3 and 4.
THIS PROPOSAL was rejected by the ASC last week. The council met in a special session last night to reconsider the proposal at the request of five council members.
An amendment approved by the council last week would eliminate the present minimum of 75 votes necessary for a district to have one representative on the council.
Last night Charles Marvin, Lawrence junior, and Mike Miner, Lawrence sophomore, proposed to amend the approved amendment to specify that "no district shall have less than one voting representative per complete 1000 students in a living district."
This amendment will also go before the students in the April elections.
Reuben McCornack, Abilene junior and Vox Populi candidate for student body president encouraged the council to approve the proposal.
"THE CONSTITUTION needs to be amended at times." Marvin said. "We feel this proposal should be considered by the student body."
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LAWRENCE, KANSAS
"I believe the council should approve it," he said, so that it can
Greg Turner
be presented to the student body. The issue is important to the students and they should have a say in the decision."
McCormack and John Underwood, Parsons junior and Vox Populi candidate for student body vice-president, opposed the amendment last week at the regular meeting of the ASC.
McCormack said yesterday he and Underwood did not feel the issue was important last week, but he and his running mate had had a change of opinion.
Greg Turner, Seattle, Wash., junior and ASC vice-chairman, said, "It is my contention that the constitution should not be amended for the reasons that have been presented before this council.
"The proposal passed last week is a good one," Turner said. "We should make sure it won't be endangered by this amendment."
"THE CONSTITUTION is quite specific," he said. "It is not up to the students to rewrite the constitution for political expedition.
Miner pointed out that "what was real when the constitution was written may not be real now.
"We are trying to build on the constitution," he said, "and make it better."
MINER SAID HE realized the proposal would give the students in his living district "a better deal." He said, however, that he did not feel this was discriminatory. Both Miner and Marvin represent the unmarried-unorganized district.
Peggy Conner, Wichita sophomore, said slight favoritism to one group is not actually discrimination. The student body should have the right to vote on the issue, she said.
McCornack suggested that the proposal be divided into two individual sections, so that students might vote on the issues separately.
A short recess was called in order that the proposal might be rewritten. The proposal was divided
Daily hansan
Charles Marvin
into two sections, one calling for at least one council representative from each living district, and one calling for one representative per 1.000 students living in a district.
THE ENTIRE amendment was passed by a vote of 16-4.
Phyllis Wertzberger, Lawrence senior, opposed the amendment. She said the proposal favors one group and "this should not be."
The amendment was also opposed by Dennis Branstetter, Independence, Mo., senior and Journalism School representative.
"This amendment would single out one group of students for preferential treatment. The unmarried-unorganized students are the only ones who will really benefit by this amendment," Branstetter said.
HE SAID the unmarried-unorganized students have shown in their past voting records that most of them are not very interested in student government. He said it is the job of the candidates, not the ASC constitution to get out the vote in an unorganized district.
Branstiter said there seems to be a misconception about who an ASC representative really represents.
"He represents the people in his district who went to the polls on purpose and voted — not the people who accidentally live in his district and don't care enough about student government to spend the few minutes it takes to vote." he said.
Branstiter said the amendment doesn't give anyone rights that they don't already have. "They already have the right to more representatives. It's up to them to take advantage of that right," he said.
Reuben McCornack
The approved amendment will also be presented to the student body in April.
60th Year, No. 107
Weather
Spring arrived a day early today with high temperatures reaching the 60 and 70 degree marks. Sunshine, clear skies and light winds are forecast to continue through the first day of spring tomorrow with little change in temperature.
The low tonight will be in the middle 30's.
Yale Chorus Performance Draws Encores
An enthusiastic audience of 600 persons attended the two hour program of Russian liturgical, military and folk music.
Three encores of American Negro spirituals followed the Yale Russian Chorus performance last night.
Many of the numbers were arranged by Denis Mickiewicz, the leader and founder of the group.
The entire program was sung a capella in the Russian language interspersed with several solos by members of the chorus.
THE PROGRAM was quite varied, ranging from traditional folk songs to music of a classical nature.
Before each number, Mickiewicz explained the meaning of the song in English.
"We feel the program was most warmly received. The chorus had the audience in the palm of their hand," said Tom Moore, executive secretary of the KU-Y who sponsored the event.
THE CHORUS is giving 13 concerts in 15 days at colleges and universities across the country.
The proceeds from these performances will be used to finance their travel in Russia this summer.
They performed at Missouri University Monday and will sing at the University of Colorado tonight.
THE GROUP was organized in 1954 to present the musical facet of Russian culture.
They have taken part in cultural exchanges in Europe and the Soviet Union each summer since 1959.
TWENTY-THREE Yale University students and faculty members comprise the chorus. Most of them are proficient in the Russian language and others are fluent in several other languages.
They have sung in impromptu concerts in public places in Russia, at the Helsinki Youth Festival in Finland, at a Requiem Mass at the Berlin wall for an East German boy who was killed in an attempted escape, and in concerts throughout Europe.
This has enabled them to converse with the people of the Soviet Union in their own language.
"Private Property as a Total Concept," is the topic of the Minority Opinions Forum today.
Robert LeFevre, editor of the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph, will speak at 4:30 p.m. in the Forum Room of the Kansas Union.
Editor to Discuss Individual Rights
LeFevre believes man has a right to life and that he sustains that life by consumption of material goods. Thus his ability to sustain his life is contingent upon his ability to claim and consume property.
He is president of the Freedom School, Inc., located near Colorado Springs. He has written several books and many articles.
LeFevre says government enjoys a legal monopoly through the use of coercion. Since he believes cooperation, not coercion, has brought man "out of the jungle." he turns to the free market for the solution to man's problems.
JFK Addresses Latin Students
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica —(UPI) President Kennedy appealed to Latin American youth today to take up the challenge of democracy and said:
"Without your efforts and sacrifice and leadership . . . tomorrow's hemisphere will be doomed to failure."
Addressing thousands of students at the University of Costa Rica, Kennedy warned in a prepared text that "this is an awesome task and a great opportunity."
The speech was Kennedy's last public appearance of his three-day visit which culminated yesterday in the "Declaration of Central America" in which he and the six Central American presidents pledged full joint effort toward economic development and protection of the area against Communist subversion from Cuba.
KENNEDY, THE first U.S. President to address a Latin American university, said, "You have been given the task of demonstrating that as free men we can conquer the ancient enemies of poverty, hunger and ignorance — of protecting freedom against those who destroy it — or bringing hope — and of extending liberty to those who lack it."
Kennedy told the students today that "we share a feeling of great sorrow" over events in Cuba.
THE UNITED STATES, he said, wished to restore to Cubans "the lofty principles proclaimed in the Sierra Maestra and betrayed in Havana."
"What we cannot accept in Cuba is the yielding up of sovereignty to the Soviet Union and the transformation of that island into a base from which Russia seeks to expand its empire to the shores of the continent." he said.
Stressing that the United States and Latin America share a common heritage of independence, he added;
"TOO MUCH BLOOD has been shed over too many years to preserve our independence from foreign rule. And we can never be secure in our hemisphere until the Soviet Union goes the way of George III, the Spanish conquerors, Maximilian, and William Walker. And indeed, it must and will."
(Walker was an American soldier of fortune who proclaimed himself President of Nicaragua for a short time early this century.)
Kennedy clearly used the opportunity of addressing Latin American students to dispel their suspicions about U.S. policy toward Latin America.
WHILE READILY admitting that the United States had made "inany mistakes" in its Latin American policy in the past, he stressed that it had also helped in the struggle to liberate the continent from foreign domination.
The task now is to "take up the great cause of liberty and welfare" embodied in the Alliance for Progress, the President declared.
Kennedy then spelled out the "four basic principles" of the alliance:
- The right of each nation to govern itself free from outside dictation or coercion.
- The right of each individual citizen to political freedom and individual liberty.
- The right to social justice, and of every citizen to participate in the progress of his nation, "which means land for the landless and education for those who are today denied the right to learn."
- The right of every nation to pursue the course of rapid economic progress, which modern knowledge and technology have made possible.
"THESE ARE the principles of our Allianza Fara el Progreso, whose ultimate fulfillment is in your hands." Kennedy told the students.
"They will not be attained by speeches or documents, but by work and sacrifice, courage and endurance, on the part of millions of individuals throughout this hemisphere.
"I am fully aware that the United States has not always been true to these principles in its relations with your nations. We have made many mistakes. At times, indeed, it must have seemed that we regarded freedom as a domestic institution, and progress as a national privilege."
HE ALSO NOTED that from the days of the fight for independence, when U.S. ports helped fit out expeditions against the Spanish in an effort to defeat Fascist aggression in World War II, "There has also consistently been a recognition that we who shared a continent shared common problems as well, and common aspirations, and a common responsibility for the welfare of the world."
Referring to Cuba, Kennedy said:
"We share a feeling of great sorrow about what has happened to our fellow Americans on that unhappy island. The bright promises of a new era of freedom and progress for the Cuban people have been transformed into the grim realities of Soviet domination, of a police state and growing poverty.
Kennedy said it was appropriate that the first speech of any United States President before a student audience in Latin America should take place in Costa Rica, "a nation so dedicated to democracy."
Speaker Policy Being Prepared
A written statement of policy on off-campus speakers is being prepared by the Senate Advisory Committee, Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe said today.
Wescoe said he asked the committee to prepare the statement because the University now has no policy concerning facilities and scheduling whenever speakers are brought to the campus.
HAKOLD KIPP, professor of mechanical engineering and chairman of the Senate Advisory Committee, said the committee is considering the policy statement, but that no action has been taken.
He said the statement may be acted upon at a meeting of the Committee next month.
The Senate Advisory Committee is the executive committee of the faculty Senate. The Senate is composed of all faculty members with the rank of associate professor or above. Some administrative officials who do not have the rank of professor, such as the director of admissions, the dean of men and the dean of women, are also members of the Senate.
THE SENATE acts in an advisory capacity to the Chancellor.
Three years ago, when a student group sponsored the campus appearance of Edward Shaw of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, a pro-Castro group, Chancellor Wescoe announced that he and the University "disclaimed" the speaker's viewpoint.
LAST YEAR'S campus appearance of Alexander Fomin, a counselor to the Soviet embassy in Washington, led to protests from a Wichita American Legion post and some other Kansans. The administration stated that Fomin would not be permitted to appear in classes except as a "resource individual" who would share the lectern with the class instructor.