University of Kansas Plans Memorial for Vietnam Vets

Several student leaders of the University of Kansas and a Vietnam veteran will begin fundraising efforts this month to support the construction of a campus Vietnam War memorial.

The memorial, which is to cost an estimated $20,000, first needs university approval for a $10,000 donation before the project can begin.

A Vietnam veteran from Baldwin will appear before a university senate committee at its next meeting to push for the memorial's construction.

Lisa Ashner, student body president and chairman of the Students Honoring Students committee, which proposed building the memorial, said yesterday that response to the plan had been favorable. She has made tentative plans to meet with presidents of residence halls, fraternities and sororities later this month to ask for donations for the project.

Fountain Chosen

The Senate's Committee last Friday gave preliminary approval to provide $10,000 for the memorial, which tentatively will be a fountain in the Chandler Court of the Frank R. Burge Union.

The entire Senate is expected to approve the donation, and the University's Buildings and Buildings Names Advisory Committee will vote on the proposed memorial site Friday.

Chancellor Gene A. Budig also must approve the memorial.

John Musgrave, a Baldwin resident and a disabled Vietnam veteran, will address the Senate on behalf of the committee and the proposal.

Musgrave said the construction of a Vietnam memorial on campus was necessary because many universities, including K.U., were the centers of protest against American combat involvement between 1965 and 1972.

"I was involved with the anti-war movement when I came back from Nam, and many of the people I knew who were against the war are now supportive of the memorial idea," Musgrave said. "They realize the yets are not representative of the government's actions in Vietnam."

If the Senate votes to finance the project. Ashner and the memorial committee will attempt to raise the remaining $10,000 from student organizations and living groups.

The Vietnam memorial, if approved, would be the fourth war memorial on campus. The Kansas Union and Memorial Stadium were dedicated to the 119 K.U. students and alumni who died in World War I. The Memorial Campanile is dedicated to those who died in World War II. --The University Daily Kansan