A display of magnificence
Photo by Greg Sorber
KU students, campers and Lawrence residents were treated Saturday night to the annual Fourth of July fireworks display at Memorial Stadium. The display is sponsored by the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce.
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Tuesday, July 7, 1970
80th Year, No. 9
Reaction to Regents'policy varied
By BOB KOLSKI
and
and MIKE THOMPSON Kansan Staff Writers
The recent Board of Regents decision not to allow two weeks off for political campaigning next fall has met with mixed reactions on the University of Kansas campus.
Bill Ebert, student body president, said he thought this ruling came about as a result of external pressures placed on the board by the taxpayers and the legislature of the state. The KU Student Senate, he will, now exert as much pressure as it can to change the ruling.
Ebert also said he felt that some type of mass demonstration might be necessary to bring about articulation between the students and the administration on the cancelled two-week session of electioneering. However, he said the time spent demonstrating a need to campaign for political candidates would be better spent actually campaigning.
Students should be allowed to participate in the political process, Ebert said. In this way, students would learn more about the process than if they sat in a classroom studying political science, and by talking to people about their candidates students would learn more about people than they could in a sociology class, he said. "People say that experience is the best teacher, until it comes to changing the basic fundamentals of our universities." Ebert said.
Robert McColl, associate professor of geography, said he felt the students should not be able to close the campus for campaigning because "if students 'politize' the University, then a doctrine is established. Those who do not fit will be purged.
"The problem now is to eliminate all doctrines, whether they be fascist, racist, or simply 'stick-
in-the-mud traditionalists.' To call on the intervention of a legislature or a group of politicians is to end the principal of academic freedom." McColl said.
McColl also said that the actions of the students did make a difference in the actions of a politician, and cited examples of the civil rights movements which started only after college students began showing concern, and of people who have actually reversed their stand on the Vietnam issue because of student concern.
He said, however, none of these things came about in two weeks and it would be futile to expect to get any major accomplishments in two weeks of campaigning.
Clark said, however, that closing the University to allow the students to campaign is neither necessary nor justified. He said that up to this time the students had found time to campaign and had actually effected changes within the government's policies without stopping school.
"Although some students would actually benefit from the experience more than from classroom study," Clark said. "others would be better off learning in the classroom and would rather be there."
Clifford Clark, dean of the School of Business Administration, said he believed students play a big role in the political process today.
Closing the University, Clark said, would be unfair to the students who would not get involved with campaigning and would rather go to classes.
He also said most instructors would allow students to miss classes for the purpose of campaigning, and allow them to work out of class.
Lee F. Young, acting dean of the William Allen White School of Journalism, said that, although the campus would remain open,
there were no enforced attendance requirements. Nothing would prohibit students from campaigning if they first received the permission of their professors to make up missed assignments, Young said.
Student reaction was mixed. In
63 per cent of the students opposed the ruling. Principal arguments for their side were, "We want an active and unrestricted voice in student affairs and policies," and "The Board of Regents acted from pressure, not from wisdom."
a random poll of KU students encountered on the street, 37 per cent said they favored the ruling of the Regents. They gave reasons such as: "I came here to learn, not politic," and "We never needed time before to campaign."
On the other side of the fence.
103 injured in prison race riot
PHILADELPHIA (UPI) — A prison official said Sunday a "hard core" of black inmates apparently planned the Holmesburg Prison racial riot which injured 103 persons, including 29 guards.
"It was a totally unprovoked attack, which leads me to believe there was some planning behind it," said Edward L. Hendrick, superintendent of prisons.
Police questioned about 100 of an estimated 400 inmates involved in Saturday's three-hour riot and expected the information obtained would lead to filing of criminal charges.
The suspected ringleaders were "separated and confined" a part from other prisoners, police said.
"The police are trying to determine exactly what precipitated the situation." Hendrick said. "Approximately 400 were in the area affected by the trouble but we believe that only a hard core of 50 or 100 were involved."
The 1,300 inmates at the city prison were kept in their cells Sunday and police reinforcements were providing additional security.
In an effort to relieve overcrowding, officials began transferring some of the inmates to a state penitentiary which was abandoned earlier this year.
Holmesburg is a maximum security institution for criminals serving terms of less than two years. It was built in the 1890s
Police said the riot started at lunch time when a white guard was punched and stabbed by one or more of the black prisoners. Six other unarmed guards were sent to their colleague's assistance, but the mess hall soon was seized by convicts armed with meat cleavers, boning knives and table legs.
to hold 600 prisoners and about 90 per cent of its inmates are black.
Black inmates began attacking both guards and white prisoners, although there were some blacks who assisted the whites. Police said the injured included 73 inmates, 29 guards and a kitchen employee.
At least 12 prisoners received shotgun wounds.
"Hurry up and get us out of here," one prisoner yelled. Police tossed medical supplies through a window to the wounded men. An inmate shouted back "These bandages aren't going to help us, we're dying."
Frank Sharkey, a convict, was in critical condition from a stab wound in the chest.
Lee Dattele, 43, another white inmate, nearly had his right hand chopped off. A black inmate hacking at Dattele's wrist with a meat cleaver was stopped when
Seventeen prisoners and two guards remained hospitalized Sunday with serious wounds.
shot by a policeman. The convict's hand was held in place by an artery and a thin piece of flesh, and surgeons sewed it back in place.
Police commissioner Frank Rizzo led about 500 officers who surrounded the mess hall. Firemen sawed through bars to give police access to the rioters and allow wounded to escape.
"When the prisoners saw our manpower coming in they knew they were going to get it," Rizzo said. "He decided from the outset we were not going to take any nonsense from these guys or mollydodd prisoners."
While the rioters were in control, one of the leaders telephoned two local newspapers. He said the riot started because "the man (presumably the prison guard) was pushing us around and all that. We're going to kill if they don't let us out."
SOS on gorillas
DENVER (UPI)—City Purchasing Officer Simpson Marcus was stumped Wednesday when he received a request from a city department.
"I need help." "Marcus admitted when zoo officials asked him to purchase two lowland gorillas "I don't know where to buy them."