6A
Wednesday, April 12, 1995
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
9th & Iowa Hillcrest Shopping Center 749-1666
Organization's history incorrectly cited
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
In a Student Senate presidential/vice-presidential debate Monday evening, candidate Dan Hare asserted that the Student Legislative Awareness Board (SLAB) was created in the summer of 1994 by the Student Executive Committee of Student Senate. This statement is incorrect, and in my capacity as the Issues Coordinator of SLAB the following is an attempt to clarify.
The Student Legislative Awareness Board (SLAB) was not formed until late in the fall 1994 semester. SLAB's existence was predated by the Student Political Awareness Task Force (SPATF), created early in the fall semester and charged with the formation of SLAB as a permanent replacement for the defunct student lobbying group Associated Students of Kansas. This task force was formed under the student body presidential power of Sherman Reeves, not at the behest or under the direction of any other Student Senate-related body. The task force made its recommendation that SLAB be formed, and Student Senate approved it at the Oct. 12 meeting.
Because I felt that certain comments were designed to minimize
the importance of the above organization's accomplishments and therefore the credibility of candidate Stevens, I would like to tell the student body exactly what these groups have done. Were it not for these groups, the Slattery/Graves gubernatorial and Meyers/Hancock congressional debates would not have happened on our campus; there would have been no voter registration drive preparation for last fall's general election (during which 1,500 KU students were registered); and there would have been no campus issue forums for the discussion of local sales tax or the Haskell/Baker wetlands controversy. Most importantly, there would have been no permanent organization to conduct student lobbying on local, state and national issues; to permanently conduct voter registration and get-out-the-vote campaigns; or to conduct campus programming related to political issues.
While credit for these accomplishments is properly given to all of those who have participated in SPATF and SLAB, Stevens certainly deserves credit for giving time, leadership and direction to rejuvenating student political activity.
Marc Wilson
Issues Chairperson, SLAB
Hiawatha senior
Students appreciate help after disaster
We are writing this letter to acknowledge the overwhelming response by the University community to the recent fire that consumed our home. In no particular order, I would like to thank my students for their understanding, as well as the University Daily Kansan for its kind words concerning how the matter of make-up midterms was dealt with. The western civilization department deserves credit for helping resolve this matter.
Thank you to the faculty, staff and graduate students of the Slavic languages and literatures department. In addition, we are grateful to the faculty, staff and graduate students of the urban planning department.
We especially want to thank colleagues and staff of the western civilization department who have treated us like family. In particular, many, many thanks to Jane Pearce and Bill Sharp for all their assistance and accommodations.
As it is impossible to thank everyone personally for the donations, kind words, etc., especially as many were anonymous, we wanted to mention a special thanks to Steve and Lucy Drain, and Mina Blue, who have stood by our sides in many ways.
Lawrence graduate student
Norm Vavricek.
Loretta Pyles, Lawrence graduate student
Kansan endorsement ignored human rights
I am responding to the endorsement by the Kansan of two candidates who expressed opposition to the Simply Equal proposal to add the words "sexual orientation" to the Lawrence Human Rights ordinance. Although the City Commission deals with a variety of important issues, human rights were at the center of the last election, and, I believe, should have been central to the editorial board's decision.
On campus, lesbian, gay and bisexual students, faculty and staff have the kind of protection that would be provided to them by the proposed ordinance change, but when they are in the Lawrence community, they have no protection in employment, housing or public accommodations. For the Kansan to endorse candidates who are against giving them this protection is a serious insult to the KU lesbian, bisexual and gay community.
Although I may disagree with your reasons for not endorsing the candidate who supported the proposed ordinance, my objection is to the fact that the Kansan endorsed two candidates blatantly opposed to human rights.
Director, Straight Allies
Brenda Daly
Run for ALS
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