Student rep. resigns

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33069, 9 November 1972, Page 3

Student rep. resigns

(N.Z. Press Association) HAMILTON, Nov. 8. A member of the Waikato University Council has resigned because of the university's acceptance of a $12,500 gift from the former American Ambassador in New Zealand, Mr K. Franzheim.

“In receiving and accepting the gift, we have stained our hands with blood money,” Mr G. Lawrence, a student representative, said at today’s council meeting. He resigned from the council after a motion, calling on the university to return the money, lapsed for want of a seconder. “I cannot in all consciousness stay,” said Mr Lawrence.

The money, he said, came from a man who had been in New Zealand to defend and promote Nixon Administration policies — “policies which have been the most atrocious, bloody, and violent of our times.”

Urging Mr Lawrence to reconsider his decision, Mr M. J. Minogue said more could be achieved by seeking positive assurances as to how the money would be spent. The university’s Vice-Chancellor <Dr D. R. Llewellyn) said such assurances had already been given. “There are no strings attached,” he said. The meeting agreed to give the same assurances to the president-elect of the Waikato University Students’ Association (Mr C. B. Gordon), who wrote to the council expressing concern about the gift.