The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 246

"Bright, you are not so bright. The program was a good example of the twisting and distortions you student left-wing jerks make. I hope you don't come to my company looking for a job." Utter to University of Kentucky student-body president Steve Bright after he appeared on TV with the Vice President of the United States. "Who ever heard of a radical in a tuxedo?" UK student radical commenting on Steve Bright. Country boy, fraternity man and student president, the University of Kentucky's Steve Bright has emerged as the SEVEN O'CLOCK Friday eve-.

ning. Steve Bright, "radical" president of the University of Kentucky's student body, fretted in front of a mirror trying to straighten a cummerbund. A picture of his fraternity house and a sign which read, "Some talk about change; others cause it," hung on the wood-paneled wall beside him. bhmh "Bob- 1 need vou for jjj II fT VT a second," Bright said. I Tl If HI II Brown tugged a couple of times at the satin Stephen Brooks Bright, 21, a farm boy from Central Kentucky, was 35 minutes late for this "free meal," a posh affair with fatcat contributors to the university at the Spindletop Research Farm.

The tardiness couldn't be helped. A crisis had arisen 70 minutes before when he learned that the Student Coalition, an anti-Bright group, was circulating flyers accusing the UK Student Government Association of donating $50 to the National Association of Black Students for what were described as "reparations." Bright went immediately to his "media list." "You know that it's a pack of he told newsmen. Bright likes to meet his opposition head on. He enjoys sitting at the head table and letting people know he is a good ole Kentucky country boy from Danville, and that he's not from some evil foreign place like Pennsylvania or New Jersey. Steve Bright likes to tell taxpayers, alumni and even his parents 'about his six months as president of Kentucky's largest student body.

He likes to explain why he tangles almost monthly with the UK Board of Trustees Why he has accused Gov. Louie B. Nunn of playing politics with student unrest Why he was arrested during student unrest last spring Why he has joined student demonstrators on at least three occasions Why he has asked that the university fire the dean of students And most of all, why he is the most controversial student body president UK, and perhaps Kentucky, has ever seen. In fact, the cover of the 1970-71 student telephone directory, showing scenes from last May's disorders, kicked up such a storm of controversy that the Student Government Assembly the other day reprimanded Bright and his vice president, Skip Althoff Tucked in a manila folder in the bottom drawer of his desk in the UK Student Center is Steve Bright's version of what is occurring on campus and what happened last spring when Nunn called the Na RADICAL waistband and surveyed Bright's black bow tie. Yeah, who ever heard of a radical in a tuxedo? "How's she look? Everything go together?" Bright asked as he slipped in a black tuxedo jacket he had borrowed from a professor.

The jacket was tight and the rented trousers baggy, but Brown nodded his approval. "Well, I'm off to my high-school prom," Bright hollered over his shoulder as he half trotted down the red-carpeted hallway between rows of apartments. "I don't know why he goes to these things, but he never misses a one," Brown said after his roommate was out of "He feels very strongly about his responsibilities to other students I guess that's it." "Come off," a third roommate, Dick Parriman joked. "You know Bright can't pass up a free meal." BILL PETERSON Is a reporter for The Courier-Journal on leave of absence to write a book about Appalachia and its problems. By BILL PETERSON Photographed by C.

THOMAS HARDIN te THE COURIER-JOURNAL 4 TIMES MAGAZINE.