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Show LEAGUE REFUSES TO "HELP PERPETRATE A FRAUD" WITHDRAWS SUPPORT FROM FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE WASHINGTON, D.C. -- "The League of Women Voters withdrew its sponsorship of the presidential debate scheduled for mid-October because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American Voter," League President Nancy M. Neuman announced recently. "It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and honest answers to tough questions," Neuman said. "The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the • hoodwinking of the American public." Neuman said that the campaigns presented the League with their debate agreement on September 28, two weeks before the scheduled debate. The campaigns' agreement was negotiated "behind closed doors" and was presented to the League as "a done deal," she said, "it's 16 pages of conditions not subject to negotiations." Most objectionable to the League, Neuman said, were conditions in the agreement that gave the campaigns unprecedented control over the proceedings. Neuman called "outrageous" the campaigns' demands that they control the selection of questioners, the composition of the audience, hall access for the press and other issues. "The campaigns' agreement is a closed-door masterpiece," Neuman said. "Never in the history of the League of Women Voters have to candidates' organizations come to us with such stringent, unyielding and selfserving demands." Neuman said she and the League regretted that the American people have had no real opportunities to judge the presidential nominees outside of campaign-controlled environments. "On the threshold of a new millennium, this country remains the brightest hope for all who cherish free speech and open debate." Neuman said. "Americans deserve to see and hear the men who would be president face each other in a debate on the hard and complex issues critical to our progress into the next century." Neuman issued a final challenge to both Vice President Bush and Governor Dukakis to "rise above your handlers and agree to join us in presenting the fair and full discussion the American public expects of a League of Women Voters debate." Salt Lake Voter KENNETH EBLE, PROFESSOR, DIES AFTER HEART SURGERY Our deepest sympathies go out to Peggy Eble, our good friend and long-time Leaguer, on the recent loss of her husband, Dr. Kenneth Eble. The following obituary recently appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune: Kenneth E. Eble, professor of English at the University of Utah and a tireless advocate of quality undergraduate education, died Wednesday at LOS Hospital of complications following heart surgery. He was 64. Dr. Eble, a native of Shelby, Iowa, graduated from the University of Iowa in 1948. He subsequently earned a master's degree there before enrolling at Columbia University, where he received his doctoral degree in English in 1956. He married Peggy Leach on June 12, 1949, in Avoca, Iowa. Dr. Eble joined the U faculty as an English instructor in 1955, eventually becoming the department's chairman in 1964. In 1969, he went on unpaid sabbatical leave for nearly two years, helping develop stronger undergraduate programs for the American Association of University Professors and the Association of American Colleges. Dr. Eble wrote numerous books and articles. He recently finished a manuscript about American naturalist and writer Henry David Thoreau, one of his lifelong interests. He was active in developing programs that brought high school English teachers together with their university and college counterparts and was widely respected for his teaching ability. "Those signs I get that I've done some students some good are the most satisfying," he told an interviewer about what motivated him to teach. Dr. Eble was named the U's first University Professor in 1976, serving for one year in a position created to nourish undergraduate teaching. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in 1973 by St. Francis College in Maine and was appointed by the Danforth Foundation to the Danforth Associates Program, established in the 1970's to improve student-faculty relations and strengthen teachin·g-learning programs. The family suggests donations to the Kenneth E. Eble Memorial Fund through the University Development Office, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 - 581-6823. -2- November 1988 |
