Most express hope for world peace
Speakers present many viewpoints
By MIKE RADENCICH Kansan Staff Writer
The 1969-70 school year at the University of Kansas was indeed a different and unusual one in many respects. University students saw two war moratoriums, protest against ROTC, the burning of the student union and other protests and demonstrations including three nights of curfew complete with National Guard units.
The University also saw many well-known speakers appear in
in a society where people are oppressed because of the color of their skin."
Finally, Benjamin said that whites were victims of their own lies compounded by what academic circles taught because they did not "practice what they preach."
Yet, there were those who, while visiting and speaking at KU, denounced student activists and left-wingers.
One such man was Saul Alinsky, a sociologist, activist and
Photo by John Brown
Hoffman more than verbal
Before Abbie Hoffman, one of the Chicago "7," spoke in Allen Field House April 8 he mingled with students at Potter Lake during the "pleasure fair" after the student strike. While he was there he blew his nose on an American flag.
cluding H. Rap Brown and Abbie Hoffman, one of the now fabled "Chicago Seven"; Sen. Edmund Muskie, D-Maine; Paul Ehrlich, author of the "Population Bomb," and many others.
Aside from the war moratoriums, the first semester at KU was a lot quieter and visiting speakers were relatively few in number.
During the first moratorium Oct. 15, a number of University professors spoke to students assembled at Wescoe Hole.
Robert Swan, who had been a 1968 Democratic race candidate for Congress from Topeka, told students that two presidents and a silent Congress had committed us to Vietnam; that never had a foreign policy been so haphazard and so confused; never have we so deceived ourselves. Another speaker, the Rev. Robert Shelton, acting assistant professor of the School of Religion, told students that demonstrations can make a significant impact on national policy, although many people have begun to wonder.
But the problem of seeking an end to the fighting in Vietnam was not the only focal point of visiting speakers at KU. The struggle by blacks for true freedom in America was also discussed by three black speakers who came to KU Dec. 8.
H. Rap Brown, the well-known chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Haywood Henry, biochemistry lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Playlt Benjamin, lecturer and historian at the University of Massachusetts, told their audience what should be done for the black cause.
Brown warned the audience of increasing oppression being directed toward blacks, American youth and the press.
"If fascism comes to America, it will come on a program of Americanism," he said.
Henry said the nature and purpose of the American society must be changed because "there can be no peace and tranquility
10 KANSAN May 13 1970
author. Alinsky said he denounced student activists because they "depend on empty rhetoric" and he stressed the need for organized activists who are unafraid to face the existing society.
The self-proclaimed "professional radical" said that student activists tended to place themselves away from the realities of our society and needed to become more involved with it on a personal level. He said students should start using their middle-class background instead of putting it down.
But in a lighter vein Feb. 11, Eugene C. Pulliman, first vice-president of the Associated Press and publisher of Phoenix Newspapers Inc., was presented with the annual William Allen White award for journalistic merit and spoke to students in Hoch Auditorium.
Pullman said that without a free press, man would hopelessly face the problems which plagued the world. He said American newsmen should protect and perpetuate the people's inviolable right to know and to print the truth.
Some students who were interviewed later said they became somewhat irritated with Alinsky when he said that John Brown and Carrie Nation had been the last two Kansas radicals.
Yet, he somewhat agreed with Spiro Agnew in his clash with the press in some points and said there was a threat of a crackdown on network licenses in the vice-president's remarks.
But things took a turn again toward radicalism when, in protest of the "mistreatment" of the so-called "Chicago Seven" during its trial in Chicago, Lawrence Velvel, professor of law at KU spoke to a gathering in front of Green Hall Feb. 18. He said that the judiciary in this country "has become a corrupt tool of the establishment's position."
links and on March 21, the Board of Regents postponed his promotion.
There were other speakers who visited KU during the spring semester and talked about what universities should do for the cause of peace.
March 4, Michael Scrien, professor of philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley, spoke of the problems of violence in anti-war protests.
He said Judge Hoffman had evaded the rule by sentencing the men on charges other than those of contempt of court.
He said that through violent action our whole value system would be changed. This, he said, is because people are uneducated in this area and have no idea how to react when confronted with a violent situation.
"Violence is at home because violence is abroad," he said, "and if the war could be stopped, the violence at home would soon end also."
About a month later during the student strike at KU, Abbie Hoffman, who had just returned from the Chicago Seven trial, spoke to a small crowd in Allen Field House.
As a result of his speech, state Sen. Reynolds Schultz, R-Lawrence, asked for an investigation into Velvel's possible radical
He said the role of universities is to "serve as the training ground for revolutionaries, and a college degree is a meaningless document."
"People have to decide to destroy the University; if they accept the role of the student, they accept slavery," he said.
But Hoffman received a poor reaction from the crowd. Many of the students said that they were left cold and that he really had nothing of any value to offer. In fact, at the end of his speech no one applauded him.
The second semester also saw various speakers talk of the problems man is facing in his battle to clean up his environment and in his quest to curb overpopulation.
Paul Ehrlich, well-known author of the "Population Bomb" and KU alumnus, visited his alma mater to talk to students about the rising tide of overpopulation.
He said the population had, since 8,000 B.C., doubled in increasingly shorter time periods with the present 3.6 billion population to reach 4 billion by 1975 or 76.
Ehrlich said abortion laws needed to be more lax so that manufacturers wouldn't have to make the birth control pill, thus alleviating the problem of side effects caused by it.
Finally, on May 11, the Democratic senator from Maine, Edmund Muskie, spoke to a large crowd in Allen Field House
making what he called a "major policy speech."
Muskie appealed to the students by asking their help in the coming months to support peace candidates in the fall elections. He spoke of violence on the campuses of the nation and told students that "violence threatens to brand us anew in the hardest terms."
He said the nation must listen to young students and respond to them intelligently. He slammed the politicians who "use their temporary sanctuaries of elective offices to insult and intimidate the members of academic communities."
And so, the various speakers and their varying ideologies seemed to clearly sum up the feeling of a search for understanding and a quest to bring peace to a troubled land once and for all, and most of the students at KU didn't overreact to
what was said although there were some who came to hear the speakers with closed minds.
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INFORMAL MEETING for SORORITY RUSH FALL 1970
will be held Wednesday, May 13 5:00 p.m.
Council Room
Kansas Union
Anyone interested in fall rush should attend this meeting