University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, March 19, 1991
Campus/Area
3
Liz Mendez, Student Senate minority affairs committee chairperson, prepares for the kickoff of the impact coalition campaign.
Campaign fever heating up
By Michael Christie
Campaign fervor is at KU
Both coalitions for Student Senate are stepping up their campaigns to increase students' awareness of the coalitions and to make their names fresh in students' minds when elections are conducted April 10 and 11.
Although Jason McIntosh and Giles Smith, Facts coalition presidential and vice-presidential candidates, conducted their campaign kickoff and began putting up posters and distributing buttons before spring break, the next three weeks are crucial, they said.
"We want to make sure that we can capture the interest of students," McIntosh said.
Student interest is a goal of both coalitions.
didate on the Impact ticket, said, "Impact will paint the town of Lawrence
Impact began the task of gaining name recognition this week by putting up campaign posters and by conducting last night's campaign kickoff at the Kansas Union for candidate members and their supporters.
Fulcher said each Senate candidate in his coalition had made a list of 20 people who might support Impact
From that list, between 1,000 and 1,200 letters were sent out inviting potential supporters to the Impact rally.
Facts is planning a fund-riser tonight at the Jazzhaus, $92\frac{1}{2}$ Massachusetts St., at which the band Id Xplosion will play. McMhont said.
A goal of the Facts coalition is to get people involved in the race who
normally would not participate in Senate, he said.
A survey that Facts distributed before spring break will help the coalition target potential voters, Smith said.
The coaition wants to get more freshmen and sophomores involved, he said. This will benefit Senate in an effort to experience beople will be involved.
The survey, passed out before spring break, asked students what issues they thought Senate should address. If either they voted in the last election,
McIntosh said the survey showed that students who voted did so on name recognition or because of issues they felt strongly about.
Another concern of both coalitions is graduate student involvement in the campaign.
Fulcher said that Impact would run a full ticket, with 52 undergraduate candidates and 12 graduate candidate students involved. The graduate students involved was difficult.
McIntosh said that the recent Senate vote to restructure graduate student government should help to ensure graduate student involvement.
"Regardless of the outcome, we need to get more graduate students involved," he said.
However much their coalitions want to spread their names across campus, they are limited in some ways by the new elections code.
The code limits the size and number of posters that can be placed on bulletin boards. It also prevents signs from being placed elsewhere on campus and the use of sidewalks as advertising space.
Election commission says voluntary spending limit more constitutional, fairer to coalitions
Kansan staff writer
By Nedra Beth Randolph
Student Senate election campaigns do not have mandatory spending limits this year for the first time in their history at KU.
The election commission recommends spending limits, but the only limits candidates must follow are those they set for their campaigns.
The Student Senate Elections Commission decided in February that Senate elections should have voluntary spending limits with spending recommendations instead of mandatory limits.
Coalitions and independent candidates must submit budget limits to the commission that will be published. The commission's limits their limits may be fined $10 to $50.
In past years, Senate election campaigns had mandatory limits. Ken Collier, faculty member of the elections commission, said the mandatory limits had not worked in the past.
"Very few, if any, coalitions abided by the mandatory limits last
vear." he said
"We thought it would be better if the elections commission was imposing as few rules as possible. This year we wanted to start out by assuming that people will do things right without being told what to do."
Collier said the commission did not see a way to avoid switching to voluntary spending limits.
"We would have been in violation of the constitution, in the opinion of the University Council," he said. "But I can't believe the constitutional issue is not being raised on other campuses."
He said he did not know of any other schools that had voluntary limits.
'We thought it would be better if the elections commission was imposing as few rules as possible. This year we wanted to start out by assuming that people will do things right without being told what to do.'
-Ken Collier elections commission member
Tom Poer, elections commissioner, said that now would be the ideal time to try the voluntary limits. This is the first year of the commission, and the Senate elections code was revised this year.
Darren Fulcher, who is running for student body president, said his coalition, Impact, planned to abide by the school's constitution set by the elections commission.
"The commission came down to the conclusion that this would be the best way to do the limits," he said. "The recommended spending limits are a way to make fair campaigns."
Poer said he heard that both coalitions were planning to abide by the recommended spending limits.
"If the recommendations are followed by both coailations this year, then both coailions will be on fair merits. But if there was still a mandatory limit."
"In the past, there was a lot of lying on the final expenditure statements," he said. "I think the recommended limits for this year are plenty for a Senate elections campaign."
Alan Lowden, vice presidential candidate on the impact ticket, said he thought the voluntary limits recommended limits were followed
KU professor seeks top slot at Marshall
The Facts coalition could not be reached for comment.
By Eric Nelson
Kansan staff writer
A KU professor has been selected as one of eight finalists for the presidency of Marshall University in Huntington, W. Va.
H. George Frederickson, Edwin O.
Stone distinguished professor of公
事 administration, is one of the
most influential in the large Uml
ublications officials said Friday.
He spent the weekend in West Virginia and had an informal off-camp meeting Sunday with the selection committee.
C. T. Mitchell, director of University Relations at Marshall and search committee member, said the process began in July after then-president Dr. P. Nitzschke to become the President of the University of New Hampshire.
The committee of 15 chose the eight candidates from about 68 applicants, he said.
An information leak
Frederickson said a leak, in which someone gave the eight names to the university's newspaper, forced the university to release the names and contact the candidates.
He said some candidates might withdraw now that their confidentiality had been lost.
"I'm not upset by it, but I'm not real pleased," he said. "I think Mr. Mitchell did the right thing."
Frederickson was a candidate for president at Florida Atlantic University in Fall 1989 but withdrew from the race.
He withdrew in part because of the negative press he received in Florida
based on decisions he made while president of Eastern Washington University from 1977 to 1987.
"There was a reporter in Fort Lauderdale who did extremely negative stories on every candidate who got the job." Frederickson said.
The rumors filtered to KU where the University Daily Kansas printed a story in which the reporter only heard of the work as an administrator, he said.
"My colleagues and friends were absolutely stunned," Frederickson said of the Kansan's story.
He said he spent more than 10 years at Eastern Washington and left with the honor of president emeritus.
"That's a great, great honor," he said. "They wouldn't do that to someone who failed at his job."
Looking ahead
"It's an interesting place," he said. "It has a lot of character."
With the past aside, Frederickson said he felt good about the visit to West Virginia and the Marshall camp, with its mixture of old and new.
Frederickson said the job would be a challenge because the school was not as stable as KU and was continuing to grow and change.
"It is also in a state that has had a declining population and a weak economy for quite some time," he said.
Although the population distribution is similar to Kansas in that there is no dominant city, Frederickson said West Virginia had greater illiteracy and a lower graduation rate.
"He has a delightful sense of humor," Mitchell said. "I don't find that too often. I was personally impressed with Dr. Frederickson."
Frederickson received rave reviews from Mitchell.
By Lara Gold
Students hope Baker's talks lead to peace in Middle East
Kansan staff writer
"I don't think it made a difference for peace in the Middle East," said Ghassan El-Khatib, Palestinian freshman.
Arab and Jewish students at KU are skeptical but remain optimistic that Secretary of State James Baker's talks with Arab and Israeli leaders last week will resolve the longestanding Arab-Israeli conflict.
He said he thought that Israel was the strongest power left in the Middle East after the Persian Gulf War and that it would make him a make concessions to the Palestinians.
Steve Jacobson, Israel coordinator for Hillel, said Baker's talks were a noble effort.
"I don't necessarily think it will bring about a solution or peace," he said. "What most people don't understand is how much issue is one aspect of the problem."
He said that Baker's efforts had changed the tone in the Middle East and that the opportunity for Arab negotiate with each other was ripe.
Jacobson said the Arab-Israeli conflict began long before the Palestinian issue.
"Israel needs to take the opportunity on one front to talk with Arab countries and on another front to sit with a Palestinian delegation," he said.
Samer Sawalha, Amman, Jordan junior, said that if Israel recognized
"We must learn from the past that Middle Eastern politics has its own agenda," he said. "It does not dictate who is in power." Baker's Western-style diplomacy."
Hamed Ghazali, president of the Muslim Student Association, said the Palestinian issue should be an isolated issue in resolving the conflict.
Ghazali said, however, that all countries in the Middle East needed to revamp their government structures and listen to the people's wants.
"The people want their independence," he said.
"The only way I could see a long-lasting peace is through democracy," he said.
Wayne Spritz, Overland Park junior, said he was optimistic about the peace talks but skeptical a solution could be reached.
Sarah Zavett, Oak Park, III., senior, said conflicting emotions on the Arab and Israeli sides may hamper any prospects of peace.
"I appreciate Baker's effort," she said. "I am an optimist. I think there is a solution."
"I think if Israel agrees to give the land back to the Arabs, then the Arab countries could make a peaceful agreement," Sawalha said.
He said he would like to see the West Bank and the Gaza Strip returned to the Arabs.
the Palestinian's right to a homeland, then Arab countries would recognize Israel's right to exist.