THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED SINCE 1889 BY THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
(USPS 650-640)
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1989
VOL. 99, NO.102
Advocates seek freedom of press
Advisers say students are accountable
by John P. Milburn Kansan staff writer
Kansan staff writer
TOPEKA — Representatives of Kansas student journalism yesterday urged members of the House Education Committee to support legislation that would guarantee press rights for high school publications.
Members of the committee were told in a packed room that students were forced to deal with serious issues such as sex, AIDS and divorce but were not given the right to publish articles on the issues
"Journalism teachers, administrators and school board members must work on the same side to have a relevant student press of which our students can be proud," said Jackie Engel. KNU journalism lecturer
"I have sat on both sides of the table, and I do believe. I earnestly do believe that we are not enemies," she said.
Engel, Kansas Scholastic Press Association executive secretary, said that she had received more than 20 phone calls from advisers and students. She had experienced conflicts with school officials about publication content.
She said that the issue of student press rights had developed into a scare syndrome in which everyone was scared of the next person. Fear is the biggest thing that threatened democracy in the nation, she said.
Eweleen Rhue, publications adviser at Pittsburg High School, said she was told by the administration that she had to create a censorship board. She wrote it with a committee but her way supported the result, she said.
"I consider it a hypocrisy to have representatives of the Kansas National Guard come to our school and sign up juniors, pumping them up about being leaders prepared to defend our country and to bring Bill Graves (Secretary of State) down last October to register (they) to vote . . . and then by virtue of Hazelwoold say them, "Oh, but please don't think for one moment that you are mature enough to write about the
issues with which you are faced daily." Rhue said.
In January 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that high school administrators had the authority to approve articles for publication at Hazelwood East High School in St Louis. The principal had censored stories that were inappropriate for high school publications, prompting the lawsuit
Dave Adams, director of student publications at Kansas State University and organizer of support for the bill, said that two states had enacted legislation defining student press freedom. Both states were working on similar bills.
He said that the U.S. Supreme Court feared the worst in its decision and that students had been responsible for many of the public accountable for their publications.
Adams was telephoned Friday by a student who was scheduled to testify. The student said that his principal had told him that if he were to testify, the student would receive an unexcused absence. Adams said.
Opponents of the bill said that the state already had broad laws under the state constitution which extended to students, and that the conferences misunderstood the situation and no bill was needed.
"The teacher, the journalism instructor, the principal, no one can prevent the publication of anything the student wants to say," said Patricia Baker, associate director and general counsel for the Kansas Association of School Boards, in reference to the bill.
She said that punishment could be given after something was printed, but not before.
Students would be held accountable for all that was published, but if they were under age 18, no damages would be made. Students in a lab case, according to the bill,
State Rep. Jessie Branson, D- Lawrence, said that even though there wasn't a problem in Lawrence, the presence of the bill indicated a need for clarification of student rights in Kansas.
Baker encouraged the committee to examine the bill and current laws to see if any legislation was necessary.
"I feel that sometimes the legislation helps to make a statement even though we may have provisions elsewhere." Branson said.
Seen from a flutist's perspective, Thomas Stidham, assistant director of bands, music and dance, conducts the KU Concert Band.
Strike up the band
Dollar's shrinking value hurts libraries
by Thom Clark
of publications purchased abroad.
Kansan staff writer
The rise of domestic inflation and the devaluation of the dollar abroad have resulted in a $715,709 loss in the buying power of the University libraries since July 1865, a University official said yester-
Jim Ranz, dean of University libraries, said that beginning in 1985, the library suffered a 25 percent increase in the price of domestic books, a 40 percent decrease in the cost of public collections and a 50 percent increase in the dollar price.
Ranz attributed this increase to the plummeting value of the dollar.
Ranz said the increases in book prices had been offset in part by annual financial increases of
"It has been necessary to cancel periodical subscriptions totaling $200,000 and to reduce the purchase of books from 38,000 to 35,000 annually." Rory said.
Even if the library receives the full $250,000 allocated in the Margin of Excellence, Ranz said
the library would still be limited in its buying power of different books and publications.
The Margin of Excellence is the Board of Regents three-year plan to bring the total financing of its seven institutions to 98 percent of their faculty salary salaries to 100 percent of their peers.
"The library directs all of its resources toward the support of the University's teaching and research."
KU graduate recalls racism, views changes
Kansan staff writer
by Cynthia L. Smith
He was talking about the 1960s.
Former Kansas basketball All-American Bud Stallworth said the University of Kansas was more educated than black students than his hometown.
Stallworth was one of many black students who witnessed racism and change at KU.
Stallworth, a 1972 graduate and now a Lawrence resident, attended segregated public schools in Hart-selle, Ala., before coming to KU.
"Athletics was an avenue that transcended racism," Stallworth said. "I'm a product of the '50s, but it opened my mind."
See GROUP, p. 6, col. 3
Stallworth said public rest rooms and water fountains wers off-limits to black residents of Hartselle until 1968.
"It was a time of turmoil, but if you knew who you were, you did what you could to make a statement," he said.
"But being involved in protests just to be involved didn't mean that much to me because I knew what civil rights were all about," he said.
He said many students protested to prompt social change.
But Rick Dowdell, who attended KU in 1969, was killed by a white Lawrence police officer on July 16, 1970.
Stalworth said growing up in the South provided him with insight into the civil rights movement.
"Out here in the Midwest, it's conservative and everything's apple pie and ice cream," he said. "You had problems here, but they weren't nearly as bad as they were in the South."
"A lot of people make a lot of noise, but when somebody gets killed, that
Harry Rice, a white KU freshman, was killed during a confrontation between KU students and Lawrence police on July 20, 1970.
quiets down." Stallworth said. "When a life gets taken, that really frightens people."
A member of former President Richard Nixon's commission on campus unrest met with black and white Lawrence residents and KU students and professors on July 25, 1970, the day after both men were buried.
Gary Jackson, a black student and part-time KU employee, purchased 27 boxes of ammunition and allegedly distributed them to others that week. Jackson had been fired by the Board of Education not yet been allowed to defend himself.
But Jackson was not the only person missing from the meeting.
"Once I learned that a position had not been obtained from him, I took the attitude that it did not meet the process." Elmer Jackson Jr. said.
Elmer Jackson Jr., a 1953 KU law school graduate and the first black member of the Regents, was in New York preparing to give a speech.
A U.S. District Court judge later ruled that Gary Jackson's firing was unconstitutional.
The Bell Memorial Hospital, in Kansas City, Kan, where KU medical students completed their clinical requirements, was an extension of the KU community in the late 1940s which divided blacks and whites.
Christine Northern became the first black woman to earn a three-year nursing diploma in 1952.
"A small town like Lawrence — to have something like that happen to it — it gets national exposure," Stallworth said.
"ILawrence was too small of a community to really have too many black white contretions," he said. "I wasn't that kind of community."
He said the incident was an exception.
"It was horrible in 1949 when I
See TEACHERS', p. 6, col. 1
Black students have made progress
by Cynthia L. Smith Kansan staff writer
1870-1900
1876 - Lizzie Ann Smith, the first black KU student. enrolled
1885 — Blanche Ketene Bruce became KU's first black graduate.
1900-1950
■ Aug. 8, 1938 — The Board of Regents decided to allow black students to complete clinical requirements for a RU medical degree and decided that Edward Williams would be a member of the 1938 class.
1927 An article focusing on racial discrimination at KU was published in "Crisis", the official magazine
1952 – Kermit Phelps became the first black man to receive a doctorate
1962-53 — Lawrence movie theaters admitted black students after former Chancellor Murphy charged students a dime to see first-run movies in Hoch Auditorium
1950s
F. eb. 8, 1956 - Sixty-five black students and 17 white students participated in a sit-in outside former Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe's office in Strong Hall to protest racial discrimination by sororities and fraternities.
1902 The Negro Student Association presented a petition signed by more than 1,000 students to end segregation.
1960s
May 4, 1960 — Sixty-five black students marched to protest a Big Eight Student Body President's 'resolution against anti-segregation sit-down strikes in the South. Former KU student body president Ron Dalby was one of the six presidents who voted in favor of the resolution.
Jan. 13, 1961 - Forty KU students participated in a sit-in at Louse's Bar. 1017 /2 Massachusetts St., to protest racial discrimination. Ten white and nine black students were arrested.
March 6, 1965 — About 150 people participated in a sit-in at Chancellor W. Clarke Wesco's office. Lawrence police arrested 110 people at 5 p.m. The next day Wesco signed an amendment to the University's Civil Rights Bill 7, denying official recognition to student organizations who discriminate.
1969 - The Office of Minority Affairs was established.
1969 - The first black history course was taught at KU.
1970s
1970 - The Black Studies Department was established.
July 16, 1970 — Rick Dowdell, a black man who attended KU in 1969, was shot and killed by a white Lawrence police officer after a brief car chase. This incident took place on both blacks and whites in the Lawrence streets.
July 20, 1970 — During a confrontation between KU students and the Lawrence police, Harry Nicholas Rice, a white KU freshman, was killed. Meidon Olds, a graduate student, was injured.
■ April 1974 - The Black Student Union becomes inactive.
1975 - Elmer Jackson Jr., a KU graduate, became the first black chairman of the Board of Repons
1976 - The Black Faculty and Staff Council was established.
Oct. 1976 — The KU Black Alumni Committee was established
■ April 1978 — The Black Student Union was re-established.
1980s
1986 — The Center for Black Leadership Development and Research was established.
March 1888 — The Minority Issues Task Force was established in response to concerns about the March 7 visit by the Ku Klux Klan.
1984 - The Black History Collection at Spencer Research Library was established.
- March 7, 1988 — Students and Community Against Oppression and Racism assembled to protest a free speech forum which included the Exalted Cyclops of the Missouri Knights of the Klu Klan at Hoch
President calls tour successful
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Bush returned home last night from a five-day Asian voyage that he called a productive and rewarding journey, and moved to take personal command of the struggle to win confirmation for John Tower as defense secretary.
In a prepared statement he read at the foot of the ramp to Air Force One, Bush said his trip to Japan, China and South Korea demonstrated that the United States "is and will remain a Pacific power."
In his brief statement, the president said he had conducted "thoughtful and candid conversations" with world leaders, including the several he met with in Japan, where he attended the funeral of Emperor Hirohito. From there he went to China for two days, followed by a five-hour stopover in Seoul, South Korea.
1. return tonight pleased with the progress made toward lasting and mutually beneficial relationships." Bush said.
He said work remained to be done toward encouraging the growth of democracy, working for human rights, strengthening international alliances and opening foreign markets to U.S. goods
Bush made no direct reference to the Tower nomination in his airport statement.
But in comments to reporters just before his plane touched down, he said. "No one has challenged his qualifications to head the Pentagon.
Tower has been plagued by allegations of drinking and womanizing, as well as possible conflicts of interest stemming from the hundreds of thousands of dollars he received as a defense industry consultant in recent years.