Finding where he was last spring . . .
Awbrey ends long year
By GREG SORBER Kansan Staff Writer
It was not like last year. During election night last year, Dave Awbrey, Hutchinson senior and student body president, was greeted by Chancellorelect E. Laurence Chalmers Jr. while his party's members flashed peace signs and waved flowers. This year there was no fanfare when Awbrey stood in the election headquarters.
Awbrey entered and left the election headquarters several times during the evening this year, checking how the elections were proceeding and talking with the other candidates. He was running for student senator for the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, but those results weren't posted until 6 a.m. the next morning.
Awbrey broke with the Independent Student Party (ISP), his successful party last year, early in the campaign. Running as an independent, he won a seat in the senate, receiving 406 votes, the highest number tallied for a candidate in the college.
Head of the Alliance party and president-elect Bill Ebert, Topeka junior, will not be installed until the next Student Senate meeting. Awbrey said he will take it easier until then.
Arriving when the college results were posted, Awbrey glanced at the paper and commented that the Alliance party made a large sweep in the elections.
"You hear things about privacy that politicians always say," he said, "and it really is true. I am trying to define myself outside of the office and it is really difficult. The inner struggle I have had is the office versus the person, when to say things that you feel—when to not say things because it would damage the ultimate effect of what you are trying to do."
Awbrey said he is trying to become a concerned person again—instead of
a student official. He is trying "to find where I was last spring," he said.
Awbrey will still have to act the student official in dealing with the contempt of court charges brought about when he acted with the Senate Executive Committee (SenEx) in not placing six referendum questions on the election ballots. There are also the charges of Tim Miller, Wichita graduate student, which ask the student elections be declared invalid because of fraudulent practices. Awbrey is one of the persons Miller lists as a defendent
Speaking about the referendum questions and the courts action,Awbrey said,"I think it is a good case,because it will set a precedence of judicial review, whether the student court or any court has the power to review or declare unconstitutional any legislation the senate passed."
The Student Senate gave SenEx the power to decide the questions on any referendum posed before the student body and also to decide when the questions should be voted on.
Awbrey said he dismissed the possibility the election would be declared invalid.
He said, last spring his major concern was the establishment and interpretation of the new Senate Code, and expected no spectacular changes during his term of office. "The Code of course," he said, "was crucial. That is the one thing that had to be done."
Awbrey said the University Council recently adopted an amendment to the University rules and regulations that stated schools and departments should be student represented on all policy making committees.
Ebert, he said, was lucky to have tns power to wield. Awbrey said, "Next year students will have more power by being on committees to help make educational policy of different schools."
Awbrey awaits election results
Photos by Greg Sorber
Until April, Awbrey acts as student body president
No fanfare . . .