THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Vol.86 No.81
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Cyclo-cross takes stamina
Friday, February 6, 1976
See page 10
Pair presents battle of sexes in SUA debate
Staff photo by GEORGE MILLENER
By ANNE SIGMAN
Staff Writer
An audience of 500 applauded a feminist, beckoned her opponent, asked questions and made comments during a debate. "A woman came face it!" last night in the Kansas University.
Karen DeCrow, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), argued for the women's movement and George Glerd. She argued that a woman's place is in the home.
Gilder gave the debate by explaining his theory that the home was the central arena of civilized society, in which childbearing was the crucial purpose and the link to future generations. The family and home were differented roles of men and women, he said.
GILDER SAID men dominated the market place and politics to compensate for his lack of education.
"Anatomy need not be destiny in 1976," she said.
DeCrow said the solution to the battle between the sexes was for men to become more like women and for men and women to become friends.
There is nothing healthy about women being dependent, she said, and feminism is going to end sexism and make having sex better.
GLDER SAID the chief problem of American society centers on the aggression of the single male, who commits 70 per cent of all violent crimes. He said men were more aggressive because of their biological make-up.
Men need to channel their aggression into the marketplace to validate their masculinity and thus their place in the family, he said.
DeCrow said happiness would be achieved when men and women were more relaxed and weren't driven to be proper men and women.
Role debate
ONE OF THE PURPOSES of the women's movement is to attain equal access to the job market, she said, and this will take a terrific burden off men.
Gilder cited examples of tribes studied by anthropologists and said that men couldn't survive without a large number of women, but that the reverse was true.
Karen DeCrow, president of the National Organization for Women, reacts to a statement by author George Geller during their debate on the role of women Thursday night in the United States.
Gilder said girls had no problems in
their lives. Some boys, he told,
businesses becoming men. Men
See BATTLE, page 5
2 KU students drown in Ireland
Staff Writer
By JOHN FULLER
A strong, rushing tide caused the deaths of two University of Kansas students Tuesday evening off a small island on the coast of Ireland, Irish authorities said yesterday.
The bodies of Richard Mathes, 21, Kinsley senior, and Edward Moll, 20, Oolathe integer were recovered yesterday afternoon from students' books from where the students were last seen.
MATHES AND Moll were among 60 KU students attending this semester's Pearson Integrated Humanities Program in Ireland. The group is spending the first two weeks of its stay on Inishofin Island, where the University invites them to study and join in the lifestyle of the islanders.
The KU Division of Information said that none of the other participants in the study were involved.
It said that parents who hadn't received word from their sons or daughters on the
trip shouldn't be concerned. There is a telephone and mail strike in the Republic of Ireland currently hampering communication with the area.
Professor Dennis Quinn, director of the Pearson Program, said yesterday from Ireland that the island itself wasn't so vast as expected, and the case were very unusual. He said that Mathes and Moll were experienced hikers and that two survivors who had been hiking with Mathes and Moll were pretty shook up and were defenseless. He refused to name the two survivors.
Mathes and Moll had reportedly hiked with two other students to a dangerous outcrop of rocks known as the Stags. The four had reached the rocks by walking along a strip of ground exposed during low tide. When the tide started rushing back in, the
QUINN SAID the accident wouldn't change the group's plan to stay in Ireland until May. The group arrived in Ireland Jan. 26.
two who survived quickly made their way back to the shore.
Local authorities said that apparently Mathes and Moll decided to wait until the tide went back out. It was almost dark when the incident occurred.
LOCAL RESIDENTS speculated that Mathes and Mol might have planned to stay on top of the Stages, which protrude above sea level at high tide, until they saw the ship. Their fear may have resulted in panicked. Their fear may have resisted in a fatal effort to get back to shore.
"Local people would never dream of going near the Stags," said an elderly islander. "In all my years on the island I seen only one person marooned there."
A FISHERMAN found the bodies of the students after an intensive two-day search by an Irish Army helicopter, the Pearson group and local boaters. The search began Wednesday morning when the two failed to appear on the island.
Senate defeats bill to put athletic subsidy on ballot
By CHUCK ALEXANDER
Staff Writer
a bill allowing the student body to decide whether to support an athletic ticket subsidy was voted down last night by the Student Senate.
Dave Shapiro, co-sponsor of the bill, said the Senate's action could raise football and basketball season ticket prices to $36-$16 more than last year's tickets.
Cycler Wake, athletic director, said he thought the absence of a ticket subsidy would cause ticket prices to rise. But he declined to say by how much.
The Senate cut its $147,000 student ticket subsidy to the University of Kansas Athletic Corporation last year because the Senate said it was unfair for all students, through money collected from the Student Activity Fee, to pay for the pleasure of a few.
During an hour-long debate on the bill, several senators said that the decision of a subsidy should be made by the students. According to the defeated proposal, students would have been able to decide whether to participate in a semester in addition to a $7.75-a-semester activity fee. The $2.90 amount would have generated a $100.00 annual ticket subsidy.
Ed Rolfs, student body president, said the matter could still be decided by the student body at any time that a petition bearing signatures was presented to the Senate.
Sapiro led a drive in December to obtain the signatures. After last night's action, he
said he would resume the drive next week. Shipco said the December petition had 600
In other action, the Senate passed a similar bill allowing students to decide whether they wanted a satellite union on the west side of campus. According to the bill, the new structure would include food services, a bookstore, meeting rooms and lounge areas.
Under the hill's provisions, students would be assessed up to $13 a year through increased student activity fee's for up to 30 years to pay for the building. The question will appear on the Feb. 19 Senate election ballot.
Following the ticket subsidy vote, the remainder of the agenda was acted on by the Student Senate Executive Committee (StudEx) because a quorum couldn't be reached to finish the business of the evening.
StudEx denied a $2,955 request by the Black Business Student Council for guest speakers, conferences and office equipment because the committee thought the council would be interested in expensive channels. The council was granted $200 for supplies and expenses by StudEx.
Tom Curzon, senate executive secretary,
said StudEx can make decisions in place of the full Senate when a quorum was unavailable.
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Polls set for election
Voting times and poll locations for the Feb. 18 and 19 election were set by the Student Senate elections Committee last right.
There will be five polls on campuses from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., both days of the election, Bruce Woner, Elections Committee chairman, said yesterday.
Polls will be in the Kansas Union, Summerfield Hall, on the fourth floor of Wescobie Hall near the west entrance and in the information booth on Jayhawk Blvd. in front of Flint Hall. The fifth poll will be in Blake Hall on Wednesday and in Learned Hall on
Thursday, the fifth poll will switch locations to make voting easier. Some residents want more voting opportunities.
THERE WILL be one poll in each of the five ninemaker districts open from 8 to 7 p.m. each night of the election, he said. Each district's poll will be in a residence hall one night and a Greek house the other night.
The committee still has to find about 150 people to work in the polls for the election, Woner said, but recruiting that number shouldn't be difficult.
Mrs. Bennett replies to the Rev. Taylor
By DAVE HAUBER
Olivia Bennett, the wife of Gov. Robert B. Bennett, had a few words about drinking and religion yesterday for the Rev. Richard Baird, a minister of careers, who called her a barmed媛迎
"Even in the Bible, if you read it completely, they say there's nothing wrong about people drinking wine," she said. "I really understand why it would be hard."
Mrs. Bennett attended an informal gathering in the Kansas Union yesterday, after which she gave a slide show of her leadership as governor of the governor's residence. Cedar Crest.
WINE WAS served at Cedar Crest a year ago during a visit by President Gerald R. Ford. The Wichita Sun quoted the Rev. Taylor as saying, "I think it is very sad to see him get killed in Kansas, for the first time in history the governor's wife was a barmal."
Miss. Bennett said a rose wine had been served at a dinner for Ford, and a steward had done the serving. She said the mansion didn't have a bar of any sort.
"I can't really believe that I could be a heathen," she said. "If my mother were living, she would say to have compassion for her son. I think even though he was a man of the cloth."
TELLING PEOPLE whether to drink, she said, was like telling the whole world what this man was doing.
"I think this is up to each individual," she said. "One has to use discretion and moderation with everything in life. To each his own."
Mrs. Bennett said that when she had come to this country to earn her citizenship she had respected the right of Americans free speech.
People have a right to their opinions, she said, and a member of a public official's family has to bear the brunt of public criticism. She said that she had adopted the philosophy "never, never give in" to criticism.
The Rev. Taylor wrote a letter of apology to Mrs. Bennett.
THE LETTER apologized for any burden that Taylor might have placed on Mrs. Bennett in her role as first lady but it didn't specifically anilose for his comments.
Some legislators, angered by Taylor's words, went so far as to demand that he be removed.
In a story published in the Kansas City Times yesterday, State Sen. Robert Storey, R-Topeka, said, "I think it is reprehensible that a man such as this has so little respect that he refers to the first lady of Kansas as a barmaid."
DUANE S. McGill, R-Winfield, speaker of the Kansas House, rose up on a point of personal privilege to criticize Taylor's remarks.
"This incident is a source of deep embarrassment to every legislator who has witnessed it."
Mrs. Bennett was asked whether Taylor was forgiven after he had sent his apology
"Well, I really don't hold bad feelings of anyone," she said. "When I put my head on the pillow at night, I can sleep, because my conscience is cleared of all hatred."
First ladu
Olivia Bennett during an informal gathering of the University Women's Club in the Watkins room at the Kansas Union. She later showed slides of recent renovations of the governor's official residence, Cedar Crest.
Malpractice maladies multiply for Medical Center
By BILL SNIFFE
Staff Writer
KANAS CITY, Kan.-It is the only medical center in Kansas that provides certain high-risk patients with care.
Unfortunately, in a complex lawyer-patient doctor game of malpractice tag, the KU Medical Department is using
"We tend to the more severe, the more complicated medical cases," Chancellor Archie R. Dykes said this week. "As a consequence, we are more subject to malpractice cases because the patients who come to the Med Center are hanging by just a thread." he said.
Charles E. Brackett, chief of the neurosurgery section at the Med Center, said that often patients with traumatic brain injury need to handle the patients' medical problems. The burn center, cancer treatment center, emergency room and heart surgery facility are examples of the Med Center's specialized and unique treatment facilities.
TREATMENT IS therefore more complicated and more risky he said, and exposes the Med to increased morbidity.
"It's pretty easy to treat the common cold," he said. "But when you're dealing with these other things, it's pretty easy for the patient to have adverse results."
malpractice suits against the Med Center, for claims totaling about $28 million, according to Lee Robertson, a law professor at UCLA.
APARENTLY, some patients think they have had adverse results, because there are now 14
Each of the lawsuits names the Med Center as defendant, and some name the Med Center's plaintiff.
"Qite often (theplainfits)'s expectations exceed reality," Dumn said. "They watch 'Marcus Welby' and they think that's what medicine is, and the doctors suffer."
"There are an increasing number of people who are questioning the value of the service they get," he said, "and sue when they feel they've been shortchanged."
"It's a matter of common practice that you ask for more than you expect to get," Dunn said. He is the sole lawyer defending the Med Center in 11 of the lawsuits,
The most recent lawsuit, for about $1.3 million,
was filed on two weeks ago, he said.
DUNN SAID one of the causes of the large number and size of the lawsuits was a consumer-
Michael Davis, University general counsel, said the publicity given large awards to patients in the program has led to an increase.
"Some lawyer-shopping goes on," he said. "Lots of people go from lawyer to lawyer; may be the fifth
INDIVIDUAL doctors, as well as the Med Center, are being sued. Dunn said.
The overall effect has been an increase in the Med Center's malpractice insurance rates for doctors. The Med Center doctors contacted by the Kansan infected rate increases, but said they weren't injured.
The physicians in the high-risk groups—anesthesiologists, orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons—experienced the highest rate increases; plastic surgeons and cardiovascular surgeons were "not far behind," according to a staff physician who asked to remain unidentified.
AL FUSON, vice president of R. B. Jones Insurance Co., said the increases, which averaged between 25 and 50 per cent, affected only those doctors with "excess coverage"—insurance coverage above the "primary coverage" of $100,000 for each malpractice suit.
Primary rates, Fusion said, differ by medical speciality. Annual primary rates of St. Paul (Mim.) Fire and Marine Insurance Co., one of the two hospitals in New York, constitute most of the Med Center's doctors (the other insurance company is Aetna Life and Casualty) include: an average of $218 for the lowest classified surgeons, $400 for radiologists, $530 for general surgeons, $960 for neurologists and $2,200 for neurosurgeons. Fusion said,
ABOUT A YEAR ago, five or six insurance companies offered malpractice insurance to doctors in this region, he said. But because of high awards to patients in malpractice suits,
malpractice insurance became unprofitable, Fusion said.
Consequently, all insurance companies, including St. Paul Fire & Marine, stopped writing new policies, he said, and some companies even dropped existing policy-holders.
St. Paul Fire and Marine has enacted a mortorium, and will only write new policies under "special circumstances," Fuson said. Doctors who already have primary coverage, and want to increase it to excess coverage, won't be able to, he said.
"EVER IF the claim isn't successful—the doctor is exonerated the insurance company may have to pay the cost of medical care."
And, bracket said, the cost or the "utense-
whether to the insurance company or to the doctors
themselves—is usually passed on to the "unfortune-
public."
BUT A STAFF physician said, "I think everybody practices defensive medicine.
For example, the physician said, if a woman came to him with a problem related to his special
Still another cost is passed to the on public,
pediatric said; the cost of defensive medical
practice.
Three Med Center doctors contacted—an anesthesiologist, a radiation therapist and Brackett, a neurosurgeon—and their specialties that extra preventive care was nearly impossible.
he would treat it, but, if a woman came to him with a lump in her breast, a possible sign of breast cancer, he said he would send her to another specialist.
"I if we see anything that that's not related to our field, we recommend that the patient go see another doctor."
DYKES SAID, "I think many doctors necessarily become extraordinarily cautious about the risk of infection."
“Consequently, they are requiring more tests, more judgment by specialists and more analyses of test results than they have ever done before. Obviously that adds to patient cost.”
A possible solution to the mla practice problem, a staff physician suggested, is "informed consent,"
Informed consent is the process of getting a patient's consent after a detailed explanation of what treatment is being done and why, alternative treatments, and the risks of both, the physician said.
"I THINK that that detailed an informed consent might be quite a curb to malpractice suits," he said. "It can be done in the same practice. When asked whether putting the informed consent in writing might help defeat malpractice suits, Brackett said, "There's no practical way of doing it." He added complications of any operation are innumerable.
See INFORMED, page 5