Photo by Harve Hasler
Accident Saturday morning in X zone
Michael Allmon, Lawrence freshman, awaits the ambulance with an inflatable cast on his leg. Officer Kampschroeder talks with the witness, Richard Turner, Lawrence, to determine exactly what happened in X zone.
WASHINGTON (UPI) — An expert in voting behavior predicted Sunday that lowering the voting age to 18 would have virtually no effect on the outcome of elections.
Younger voters to have no effect
Richard M. Scammon, former director of the Census Bureau and now head of a research organization, believes lowering the voting age probably would not mean a swing to the left in the nation's politics but, if anything, might nudge politics a little to the right.
But more probably, he said, the effect would be almost unnoticeable.
Scammon, head of the Washington-based Governmental Affairs Institute, a research organization specializing in voting behavior, told UPI that the 10 or 11 million 18 to 20-year-olds that the law would enfranchise could be expected to vote no farther
left than the 21 to 29 age group.
"They may well be expected to vote more conservatively," he said, "because they are closer to home. For example, studies have shown college freshmen are more conservative than seniors."
Although the issue of lowering the voting age has been kicking around Congress for years and the house is likely to send President Nixon such a bill this week, little testimony has been given to it political impact.
Scammon said that besides the tendency to vote in familiar family patterns, the impact of the new voters would be minimized further because "kids don't vote that often."
Only about 30 per cent of the 18 to 20 age group voted in 1968 in the four states where they have the vote, he said, and in non-presidential election years the percentage is lower.
Scammon said neither major party expects to be hurt significantly by the Senate-passed proposal to make 18 the voting age for all local, state and national elections.
"If either party thought this would be to their major disadvantage, you could be damn sure they'd be up there screaming and Nixon would be threatening to veto it," he said.
Nixon has shown no enthusiasm for the Senate proposal to lower the voting age by the statute, but he has endorsed the suggestion that 18-year-olds be given the vote by constitutional amendment.
Study made of protests
The only bullfight in the United States in which the bull was killed by the toadorate was in Dodge City on July 4, 1884.
By ANN MORITZ
By ANN MORITZ Kansan Staff Writer
The University of Kansas may be attempting to inch its way into the stock image of campus unrest.
It will soon become a part of the figures, like those listed in a report made by the Urban Research Corporation of Chicago and centered on the last spring semester.
The report was made of student protests and holds a mirror up to the campus scene to present an image of what is happening. In this nationwide examination by Urban Research, 232 campuses, representing 2.2 million students or one-third of the campus population, were studied.
The findings were based on extensive research and include:
- Only one out of five protests (22 per cent) involved Vietnam war issues.
- Only one out of ten students directly participated in protests.
- Black students were involved in more than half of the 292 major student protests on the campuses surveyed in the report.
- Violence of any kind occurred in less than one-fourth of the protests, injuries in seven per cent of them.
- Non-negotiable demands were made in only six per cent of the protests.
The chairman of the Black Liberation Front at Cornell University, Ed Whitfield, recounted a relevant tale in reference to last spring's protest by black students at Cornell. He told about the old mule that always moved if you just talked to him. But first you had to hit him on the nose to get his attention. Whitfield added:
A whack on the nose seems to get schools to move. Urban Research found that the longer and more forcible the protests, the more likely the chance of winning demands.
"Now we know we have the university's attention. It has been sufficiently whacked across the nose . . . It is time the university as a whole should stop and take a look at itself and its role in society."
One-day strikes, disruptions or building seizures succeeded in winning at least one demand 28 per cent of the time.
When such tactics lasted two to five days, they succeeded 56 per cent of the time.
Campus protests invariably involved several demands so that various issues figured in at the same time. Accordingly, the Urban Research report lists these leading issues and the percentage of protests in which they figured:
Going a week or more brought success seven out of ten times for at least one demand.
Apr.13 1970 KANSAN 13
Black recognition, 49 per cent; student power, 44 per cent; quality of student life, 28 per cent; war-related, 22 per cent; university and the community, 18 per cent.
Student power 'topped the list of demands among white students. Such demands made up 44 per cent of student protests and in these protests the students did not want to take over, but they did want a voice in what was happening. In only four per cent of protests did students ask for control.
A role in faculty hiring and firing and a voice in decision-making committees were the most dominant demands for student power. From there demands drop sharply in number to ending restrictions on student publications or organizations and revision of disciplinary rules.
A change in the grading systems and courses was the high demand when it came to conditions of student life. Other demands were for lower tuition, better facilities, revised dorm rules and better food services.
With reference to the Vietnam war and the military, which accounted for about one in five protests, ROTC was the main target. But this only figured in 12 percent of all 292 protests. Less than one in ten protests were aimed at military and war-related recruiting on campus.
Throughout the country, some schools were more likely candidates for students protesting than others.
Four-year liberal arts colleges had three-fifths of the protests.
In 39 per cent of the protests, students were disciplined by their schools and/or arrested by police. But at least one demand was granted in about half of the protests for black recognition, in two-fifths of student-power protests, in 45 per cent of demands for changes in student life and in one-fourth of war-related protests.
The higher the scholastic aptitude of the students, the more likely they were to protest (pinpointed by comparing Scholastic Aptitude Test scores of incoming freshmen in protesting and non-protesting schools).
The bigger the school was, the more likely were the chances for protests. More than half of the schools enrolling more than 10,000 had protests, only 12 per cent of the schools under 5,000.
About half the time, blacks won at least one demand by using forceful tactics, compared with 39 per cent for milder black protests. Whites succeeded 33 per cent of the time with forceful tactics, compared with 23 per cent for milder protests.
All the figures seem to show somewhat of a gap between the public image and the campus reality.
GRADUATES
Make your first step towards the future with the Peace Corps. Begin your 27 month experience this summer in one of several hundred training programs for 50 different countries. In demand are graduating seniors in Business, Economics, Engineering, Education, and Liberal Arts graduates with special skills in agriculture, mechanics, carpentry, or masonry. 100 KU applicants are needed now.
For applications call Mario Karr: VI 2-6917 or see Dean Coan, 226 Strong.