Students enjoy elbow room, privacy of apartments
By LIZ LEECH
Staff Writer
Staff Write
(Editor's note: This is the third in a five-part series examining where students live and why at the school.)
The main reason University of Kansas students live in apartments is space: there's more of it, 10
"Unlike residence halls, you don't feel like you're
working in a closet in downtown. We've apen
sofa in closets on walls at Halls."
About 9.145 KU students live in apartments. That figure represents 42 per cent of all students.
Some other reasons students live in apartments are privacy, location, less noise and the freedom to move.
But some students said there were disadvantages. Not all apartment complexes are conveniently located or quiet. Some students say they feel isolated living in an apartment.
Ash, who lived in a KU residence last year, said that the only thing he missed was meeting a lot
"But I still have my old friends from the dorm," she said.
ASH LIVES WITH THREE other women at West Hills, where they share a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and three baths.
"We're just two blocks from campus and it's a quick five-minute walk," she said.
The women split the $185 rent four ways and each paid a $2 security deposit when they moved in.
Ash said that the rent didn't include utilities and that she wasn't sure how much monthly utilities cost.
The food bill is usually $20 a month for each woman, Ash said, and they share cooking responsiblity.
"We try to save money by picking on the sales, to be might we might be spending a little more than the dormitory."
BRADLEY CLARK, Overland Park junior, said he and his roommate split the $250 a month rent in their apartment at Jayhawk Towers. He said he used to live in a fraternity.
"It's a little less noisey here, and there's a whole lot more room." Clark said.
He said that Jayhawk Towers' two-bedroom
heater cost $40, but he and his roommate paid
$16 for extra bedding.
Clark said that he did most of the cooking, but the two usually ate only dinner at the apartment
Ellen Maxwell, Overland Park freshman, lives in Naismith Hall, a privately-owned residence hall. She said her parents didn't want her to live in an apartment.
She looked at the university dorms, and the rooms weren't bier enough. she said.
She said that she paid $755 a semester to live in Naisimh, where four persons shared one suit. The cost was about $1200 per month.
"IT SEEMS THAT IN university dorms people have their doors open all the time and everyone is watching."
She said she liked the privacy at Naismith, but sometimes, particularly on weekends, it became
Kathy O'Brien, Eldorada junior, said that she enjoyed the privacy of an apartment. She shares a two-bedroom, furnished apartment with two other women at Frontier Ridge Apartments.
"And even with just two roommates, you can still have enough space to add another room and shut the door," O'Brien said.
water usually cost $7 and electricity cost $17 to $35.
All costs are divided among the women, she said.
She said that the apartment wasn't close to campus and that she drove to classes.
SHE SAID THE APARTMENT cost $165 a month.
"We're on the top floor here and we can sometimes hear the stereo in the apartment downstairs, but there are mostly students out here that need to bed prely early during the week." O'Brien said.
O'Brien's sister, Amy, a sophomore, lives with her. Amy said the main reason she had wanted to marry her was that she could be
She said that she and her roommates took toum
preparing meals and that their total food bill was
$12,395.
Amy said she lived in a residence hall last year and couldn't study in her room there because it was
"In the dorm you'd come home from class and you had a bed and a desk," she said. "At least here you can sleep."
SHE SAID SHE HAD made a lot of friends at the residence hall the year before.
"But if you start out in an apartment you're in
trouble because we're out here in the middle of nowhere," she said.
Mark Willoughby, Overland Park sophomore,
lives in a duplex on Brush Creek Drive.
Willyloughy said he had lived in two apartment complexes before the duplex and then the duplex after that.
WILLOUGHY SPLITS HIS rent with three other roommates. Rent is $25 a month for the unfurnished duplex, which has two bedrooms, two kitchen and living room, a dining room, a kitchen and a garage.
Willeighy said each of the four men paid $20 for a month's utilities and #4$ for each food.
"We share the cooking and its edible," he said,
"and it's probably better than dorm food."
She said that she had lived in a KU residence hall for one year and a sorority for three years before her death.
Staff Photo by JAY KOELZER
City Manager Buford Watson in his downtown office
See HOUSING page 9
Watson says charges against city not new
By MARY ANN DAUGHERTY
Staff Writer
City Hall is still standing
from its offices, Buford Watson, city
man, supervises directives to city work
crews. Lawrence streets are repaired,
walkways, sidewalks and trash is
collected from city roadways.
On Jan. 27, three members of a committee that investigated charges of mismanagement demanded a thorough house cleaning.
But times haven't been easy for City Hall. In recent months, the activities of Watson and other city administrators have been probed, debated, criticized and rebuked, in response to requests of city employees. Charges of "businessmanagement" have become common.
The members—Murree Pamir, Amy Samuels, president of the city firefighters association, and Dennis Smith, president of the city sanitation workers association—have recommended changes for nearly every city office.
AMONG THEM IS Watson's office.
The three have said Watson is guilty of, among other things, harassing and misleading city employees.
The mismanagement report isn't the first
Yet, Watson doesn't think the report has permanently harmed city administration, because it also has significant improvements, such as safety programs, insurance plans and better roads.
"A lot of the charges and allegations are old," he said last week. "Some of the people who talked to the committee are disgruntled former employees. I hope the public makes note of the fact that most of the charges were never proven."
Whether in his quiet office on the fourth floor of the First National Bank building or amidst volatile debate in public discussions, he studied sessions, Watson says he isn't guilty.
A card on his desk, a mammoth piece of furniture that is usually covered with papers and packets, says: "It's difficult to win a battle when your opponent is not handcapped by knowledge of the facts." It's a suiting motto.
The well-publicized charges, which reached virtually every tentacle of city law, bother him rather than run him. He apparently thinks in the victim of angry city employees, who retaliated because the commission refused Nov. 4 to acknowledge employee associations for assaulting a cop.
"WHEN PEPSI-COLA has a strike, their employees say 'Don't buy Pepsi,'" he said. "They don't say Pepsi is poison or made of dead rats."
see WATSON page z
818.
Lawrence, the fifth largest city in Kansas has 42,983 residents. It has 177 miles of streets, 11,900 acres of land and $92 million in assessed valuation.
WHEATHER WATSON IS GULLETY of mismanagement is something that wasn't
Class II is known since coming to Lawrence in Spring 1970. Watson, who had been city manager in Henryetta, Okla.; Muskogee; Oakland; and Sioux City, Iowa, before coming to Lawrence, met several problems during his days at the helm of a university town.
“It’s the only town where I've seen the student union burn, two people killed in the streets and a computer center bombed,” he said.
THE TURBULENCE of the University of Karasas student body was only half the problem, Watson said. Equally important was the prejudice and inability to communicate with students that existed in the police department.
It has 394 city employees.
In 1971, Watson secured a $25,000 federal grant to send all police officers to the Meinnerg Foundation in Topeka for training and counseling. Only two officers didn't attend.
Watson said he had been "very involved" with the Chamber of Commerce efforts to bring new industries to Lawrence, something a city manager wouldn't have done 18 years ago when he first entered public administration.
In Fall 1975, the United Public Employee Associations of Lawrence accused the city of misallocation a one-half per cent sales tax, which a city referendum endorsed in 1971. Watson, as the mainstay of the city government, said. The money has since been accounted for.
Not egistically, Watson says he has been instrumental in constructing Babcock Place and Edgewood Homes, projects for elderly and low-income people, and in balancing city budget and lowering the tax burden. It was 38.92 mills in 1970 and is 34.89 in 1976.
DURING THE DISCUSSIONS of the mismanagement report, Mayor Barkley and his staff acquainted federal funds and his opportune acquaintances with federal officials. Clark also praised him for his successful presidency of the Kansas Association of City Managers.
City streets have also been improved during the past six years, Watson said.
Two years later, Watson began emphasizing the need to keep young men and women in the police department to assure them of their safety with the times." The trend has continued.
Wednesday, February 25, 1976
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Vol.86 No.94
Commission okays 28-point plan n response to employ complaints
By MARY ANN DAUGHERTY
Staff Writer
The Lawrence City Commission last night unanimously approved a 28-point resolution in response to grievances and suggestions made in recent months by city employees.
Essentially, the resolution restates commission intentions to continue recently implemented programs and plans for public safety inspections, revamped grievance procedures and provisions to allow employees charged with violations of Buford Watson's discretion of Buford Watson, city manager.
Programs to be added by the resolution include free mental health services, explanations of insurance billing, distribution of copies of 1975 sales tax allocations and revision of employee evaluations and work manuals.
The resolution, which was prepared by city personnel last week, originally had 27 deputies.
The commission unanimously approved an amendment that Watson constantly monitor progress made by city employees; Donald Purdy, sanitation superintendent, and Arnold Wiley, street superintendent, that they build better working relations.
THE AMENDMENT was made jointly by commissioners Donald Binsn and Fred
The resolution marked the disbanding of a six-man committee, which investigated charges of city mismansion, and the end of commission review of employee complaints, which must be reviewed in the city's grievance procedure.
Five study sessions, during which the commission informally discussed the findings and recommendations in two reports. The committee then preceded the final commission decisions.
Passage of the resolution went swiftly, and no one in the audience, which filled the entire meeting room, disagreed with the plan.
MAYOR BARKLE CLARE said he was pleased with the work of the committee and response by management to the many months of investigations and study sessions.
"It was painful to some extent," he said,
"but I think Lawrence is a better city boy."
Bimbs echoed Clark, saying the "time has come for all of us to lick our wounds, forget our personality conflicts and get together as a team."
Tentative plans for a $7 million water treatment facility were also brought before the commission. Watson said the commission would be wise to authorize the facility in the event that federal funds would be made available for such a project.
SPEAKING IN THE closing minutes of the meeting, Watson suggested that the commission think about the plan and that it will be put forward to the committee planning at its meeting next Tuesday.
The engineering project, Watson said, will cost $36,000. He said an engineering company had done a preliminary study of Lawrence water needs in 1969, which cost $25 million to implement the city for the $13,000 study, he said, if it's selected to draw the final plans.
In other action, the commission awarded a $646,374 contract to Twin Cities Construction Co. for the building of the city maintenance garage at 11th and Haskell. The garage, which has been debated for years, is expected to be completed in the fall.
The facility will be built on Dragstrip Road north of 23rd, Watson said, and will treat water from Clinton Reservoir, expected to be completed by 1980.
Watson made construction cost estimates, which were made several years ago, have been altered because of building material price increases and alterations to the original site plan. He asked the commission to approve the reallocation of $80,215 in
revenue sharing funds and $23,115 in interest payments for the project.
THE REVENUE SHARING funds, Watson said, could be diverted from remodeling of city offices to the garage project and replaced by part of $225,000 that the city expects to receive in revenue sharing funds after July 1.
The commission approved the suggestion, although Pence, who has opposed the proposal, said it was too early.
"That garage has cost more than it should have, and it should never be built," he said.
The commission also set March 8 as the bid date for sidewalk construction on the west side of Iowa from 15th to 23rd on University of Kansas property.
George Williams, director of public works, said he the project would be paid for by KYDOT and he would have to although the city was acting as a contracting agent for the project. He said he
See MEETING page 2
N.H. primary close for Ford and Reagan
CONCORD, N. H. (AP)—President Gerald R. Ford and Ronald Reagan ran neck-in-neck early today in the New Hampshire presidential primary election.
Former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter led the democratic field with 31 per cent of voters.
Carter's closest challenger was Arizona Rep. Morris K. Udall, who claimed in his second-place showing to have emerged as the top liberal contender for the nomination. He trailed Carter by about seven percentage points.
Ford had a narrow edge in the slow count of the Republican race.
The President said he had expected to win.
Reagan claimed he already had won by holding the President's virtual standoff against Clinton.
It was a 50-50 race with 80 per cent of the expected vote counted.
The figures: Ford 47,910, Reagan 47,512. The presidential preference vote in the New Hampshire spotlight was advisory only. National convention delegates were
Ford's strategists were counting on ballots from Keene, a southwestern city where he campaigned personally and where GOP moderate are plentiful, to boost his tally. But that would be the last major New Hampshire city to get its ballots tallied.
being elected separately, and in that category candidates pledged to Ford were leading 18 to 3. Delegates pledged to Carter were leading 64 to 3. Democratic convention seats, to Udall for 4.
Ford's New Hampshire campaign manager, Rep. James Cleveland, had a word for the Reagan victory claim: "I say it's howwash."
Cleveland said a victory is a victory.
Earlier, with 33 per cent of the estimated turnout tallied, the Democratic lineup was:
0-228 2-295 3-414
Carter 9,975 or 31 per cent.
-Udall 7,410 or 23 per cent.
—Sen. Birch Bayh of Indiana 5,564 or 17 per cent.
- Former Sen. Fred R. Harris of Oklahoma 3.496 or 11 per cent.
—Sargent Shriver, 3.031 or 10 per cent.
Computer dating comes to KU Fun of it stressed Legitimacy doubted
By PAUL SHERBO
Staff Writer
The ads picture such diverse subjects as wild boars and a men's rugby team in the buff. The applications feature questions on radical preference and not smoking.
It isn't publicity for a serious attempt to reconcile the lonely hearts of the University of Kansas. It is for laughs, says Steve Danzig, head of the computer date match service employed by the Board of Class Officers (BOCO).
The service has been used with Dangi's off-bat approach at 13 universities across the country.
"THE ONLY REASON I do on college campus is that I couldn't deal with this in real life."
Applications distributed around the campus have a series of questions from which punch cards will be made. Danzig said. The cards are run through the computer and the results are sent to Indiana in Birmingham. The results be sent to the applicants in about three weeks.
The applications have questions about the religious, racial, and physical preferences of the applicant. The applicant must also be a full page of self-descriptive statements.
KU students, staff and faculty will be matched only with each other. Daniag, said it
"If you only want to be with people who
it smoke ablaze you will only be matched
with those who don't."
The idea of the service isn't to seriously match people with marriage prospects, Danzig said. People wouldn't want to participate in an event where Danzig had used the service himself.
"THE FIRST YEAR, I signed up under
three different names, purely for research
(1973-1982)."
See BOCO page 5
A free dance for all applicants will be held at 28, Rich Coulson, BBOO chairman and Frye.
BOCO decided to use the computer dating idea to get out of a $2,000 debt, incurred when BOCO-sponsored concerts lost money Coulson said.
BOCO won't lose money but Danzig may,
be said. However, Danzig expects a succe-
sure.
Coulson said the contract required that Danzig take one dollar from each applicant's fee for the first 700 applications and $1.35 for the next 1,000. The percentage paid to Danzig increases with volume, he said.
DANZIG SAID his idea had been received much better than he had expected when he started at the University of Indiana. About a year ago, he applied there two years ago, he said.
"I would be highly suspect if something like this started up again," he said.
"I did talk to a source of the University of
The Shawne County district attorney's office express cautious doubt Monday about the computer dating service employed by the University of Kansas board of class officers (BOCO). Other sources said the operation was leitimate.
THE INDIANA BETTER Business Bureau said that the computer dating service hired by BOCO and operated out of Bloomington, Indiana, has been incorrectly confused with an illegal operation that worked out of Indianapolis.
Computer Date Match, the Missouri company that O'Sullivan sued, had charged $600 for their services. The BOCO operation charges $2.75 to $3.50.
Steve Clark, alumn adviser to BOCO,
he said he thought the Bloomington operation
Joseph O'Sullivan, attorney for the consumer affairs division, said he had a different computer dating service last year for deceptive and fraudulent sales practice. The present BOCO operation apparently detected, he said, but he still had reservations.
Before losing the suit and ending business, the Missouri firm had given matches who lived as far as 50 miles away to invalids. O'Sullivan said.
Indiana that I felt was a reputable source," he said. "Talking with the people in Indiana, there was no problem with the program not being legit."
Steve Danzig, who runs the BOCO-hoired operation, said he had been confused with a police officer.
THE BOCO PROJECT isn't to be taken as
"Those high-priced operations really prey on the problems of lonely people," he said.
"People want to do this for a laugh," he said.
Rich Coulson, BOCO chairman, said any applicant who didn't receive at least three offers was out of luck.
O'Sullivan said he thought protective measures were available to BOCO.
"This isn't fraudulent in any way," he said.
"If I were working with that guy, I think he had him press a performance bond," he said. "It sounds like a lark to me. I sure as hell wouldn't want anything to happen." "Did he didn't
"You've got to wonder how much $3.50 would hurt anyone," he said.
O'Sullivan recommended that students more conventional means to get dates.
O'Sullivan recommended that students use more conventional means to get dates.
"You don't need a damn computer to do it," he said.
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