Tension hovers over campus
Sporadic violence marks semester
By JIM CZUPOR
By JIM CZUPOR
Kansan Staff Writer
As the 1970 spring semester finally draws to a close, the University of Kansas campus seems almost placid after two months of sporadic violence.
Amid the eruptions of firebombings, snipers, rock throwers and disgruntled blacks, the month of April and first of May passed as an air of tension hovered over the campus.
Three major fires and two minor ones plus numerous firebombing attempts coupled with high school blacks clashing with Lawrence policemen, sent National Guardsmen and extra highway patrolmen into the city to help guell the disturbances.
The first hint of trouble was revealed on April 5, when patrolling campus policemen discovered an unlighted Molotov cocktail behind Strong Hall. The fact that a mere attempt had been made was enough to have Federal and Kansas Bureau of Investigation officials sent to Lawrence.
Campus Tension slowly began to rise as students planned an all-day strike demonstrating their dissatisfaction at the Board of Regents deliberation in promoting two University professors.
Abbie Hoffman, one of the "Chicago Seven" was to appear that evening, April 8, but arrived early and joined the strikers that afternoon at Potter Lake.
Extra Highway Patrol units were called to Lawrence and established roadblocks at all major arteries leading into the city to check all incoming traffic for guns, home-made bombs or Molotov cocktails.
The night before Hoffman spoke an attempt was made to firebomb Old Haworth Hall, already approximately one-fourth of the way torn-down. But the strike and Hoffman's speech ended
Photo by Jim Hoffman
Three days after the fire
Light streamed through the open roof of the Kansas Union three days after the fire which on April 20 caused $2 million damage. Workmen had already started clean-up operations, clearing the Ballroom floor of debris. The damaged portion of the Union will be redesigned before reconstruction will begin.
Senate's future predicted
By TINA BORAK Kansan Staff Writer
The University of Kansas experimented this year with a new type of government, the Student Senate. The first step of setting precedents for the new governing body has been taken and its goal of increased participation of students in the University may now become a reality.
Bill Ebert, Topeka junior and newly elected student body president, predicted the concerns, the problems and the goals of next year's Senate in a recent Kansan interview.
"We're trying to find methods of stimulating people here to become more human," Ebert said.
He said the Senate would continue to concern itself with involvement in national movements including the war in Southeast Asia; local, state and national politics; and the ecology movement.
He said the Senate's responsibility would be to make the University more responsive to what happened outside the academic community.
"We must sell ourselves and what we stand for to the local community and the country," he said. "In the past there has been a lack of understanding between students and taxpayers and state legislature. They must be made to realize that the things we are doing are constructive methods which we have to construct changes in present policies."
"The Student Senate next year has a very important function in reflecting the credibility of the students at KU and other universities," said Ebert.
May 13
1970 KANSAN 3
Ebert said the Senate would be concerned with what it could do to make students more responsible for their own education.
"One focus will be on the expansion of academic alternatives." Ebert said.
Ebert predicted some of the Senate's concerns for next year:
- Changes in priorities in student activity fees.
- Proposals in regard to academic reform.
- Action specifically dealing with the University's relationship to citizens of the state of Kansas and the state legislature.
- The University's relationship with Haskell Institute.
- New academic department and programs in such areas as black studies and ecology.
"Most important," said Ebert, "next year we must be ready for what we can't anticipate."
peacefully. However, law enforcement officials were still wary.
Australia has a net migrant intake of about 80,000 persons a year.
Paranoia and tension crept in as city, county and state officials felt that the day's strike and Abbie Hoffman in Lawrence, both at the same time, would be a breeding ground for violence. And they were right.
At approximately one a.m. April 8, a firebomb was hurled at the Anchor Savings and Loan Assoc., 900 Ohio. Several windows were broken but no other major damage was assessed. At 3:15 the same morning, two more bombs were thrown; this time at the animal research lab near New Haworth Hall. Police described the bombs as Molotov cocktails, but reported no major damage.
The rest of the week passed without incident until early Saturday morning when fifty-five members of the Kappa Sigma fraternity were rudely awakened by fire.
At first the expressed sentiment was one of "a bad break" for the men, but as investigating officials hinted the fire's cause to be arson, the sentiment changed and tension continued to mount.
While investigations continued on the fire and attempted firebombings, the week of April 13, the focus of action suddenly changed from "the Hill" to a few short blocks below, where black high school students disrupted classes to present a list of demands to the rest of the student body.
The blacks demanded more courses in black history, a black cheerleader and black spring queen, and interrupted classes long enough to present their demands before walking away from the building en masse.
The next day John Spearman, Jr., Lawrence sophomore and president of the Black Student Union was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace in connection with the Blacks' walkout. He was released on $100 bond.
But the campus pyromaniacs were not finished, as later that evening smoke belched out of a rooming house near campus.
Daniel S. Ling, associate professor of physics and owner of the house at 1225 Indiana had told the renters to evacuate because of failure to pay their rent. People living in the area who were interviewed believed the renters to have started the fire as a show of disgust towards Ling. Fire officials later determined the cause of the fire to be arson.
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Local policemen were called to the area, as conditions remained unsettled at the high school and blacks remained unsatisfied with the slow results. Soon angry shouting and fighting broke out between blacks and policemen resulting in 28 students being injured, five seriously enough to warrant hospital treatment. Clubs, chains and chemical mace were used in the melee that resulted
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