Tax hikes analyzed at KU dinner
Bv.JAY BEMIS
Support for a 10 per cent merit pay increase for University faculty members and mixed feelings about a one-cent tax hike on cigarettes were expressed by some state legislators at the Fifth Annual Legislators' Dinner at Lewis Hall last night.
About 110 legislators attended the dinner, which was sponsored by the Association of Unitarians (AAU).
Gov. Robert F. Bennett originally proposed that University of Kansas faculty members receive a 10 per cent merit increase in pay, but Speaker of the House Diane S. "Pete" McGill urged yesterday that the increase be limited to five per cent
LEGISLATORS interviewed last night said they didn't favor McGill's proposal.
"I definitely do not," said Arden Booth, R.
Lawrence and K. Harrison, of Palm Beach
parkside in Miami. "Mt. Browne (the people of
Miami) is my hometown."
Kansas) could be here tonight and talk to these young people I think it's the finest thing that has ever happened.
"I support full funding and think it is absolutely essential."
REP. MICHAEL Glover, D-Lawrence,
"I think the speaker and members of
the house of representatives need student
work in filling and retelling the
University's story."
"It's critical that we follow through with 10 per cent and try to reinstate some."
One program Glover said he would like to reinstitute a was a specified reading program.
"It would be for the more disadvantaged student and I think it's an area where, once helped, a student would be ready for any liberal arts course." he said.
Glover said that more classified personnel (state employees) were needed and
Rep. John Ivy, D-EI Dorado, said, "If we are going to compete with faculty increases in the rest of the country, I think we should continue with the 10 per cent increase."
that additional benefits for them were needed, also.
Other legislators thought the increase might be somewhere between five and 10
"I don't think I'm satisfied that 10 per cent is going through." Rep. Wendell Ladd, R-Overland Park and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said.
"THERE GOING to be an increase, but it's difficult to say what it will be. Aid for secondary and elementary education, penal reform, salary increases for state employees and other needs have to be met at the state level."
Sen. Edward Reilly, R-Lawenworth, said the University had put a great effort to improve his program.
"But being a realist," he said, "I can commit myself to believe that a house of representatives elected every three years will support it. A lot depends on (state laws) and the sympathy of my constituency—and there doesn't seem to be overwhelming support."
"I feel strongly that we need to get on our cancer research," Doyen said. "I would like to see us known nationally for cancer research and we'll need adequate funding that will provide a facility and research for years ahead."
A BILL introduced Tuesday by Sen. Ross Doyen, R-Concordia, would increase taxes on cigarettes one cent. The revenue from the tax, about $2.5 million a year, would be used for cancer research at the KU Med Center.
One proponent of the cancer legislation is Booth, a chairman of the board for the
See LEGISLATORS page two
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Vol.86 No.80
Thursday, February 5, 1976
Library construction okaved
By KELLY SCOTT
Staff Writer
A decision to begin planning extensive remodeling of Watson Library and construction of a new science technology museum in the first dayee by Archie R Dykes, chancellor.
The announcement was made to SenEx, which was charged with forming a facilities planning committee to develop a work program for the libraries.
An administrative group composed of Dykes; Shankel; James Ranz, dean of libraries; Ronald Calgard, vice candleman to the chancellor; and Ralph Christoffersen, assistant vice candleman for academic affairs, acted upon recommendations submitted to them in November by a committee of facilities advisory committees, Shankel said.
THE COMMITTEE recommended at that time that the University either abandon Watson Library and build an entirely new central facility, or that a second library be near the military science building to house the University's various science libraries.
Watson would then contain the social sciences and humanities collections.
The facilities advisory committee had estimated that a new building the size of this office would be
Getting funding for a project of that size was an unrealistic thought. Ravz said.
"With the Kansas Legislature the way it is these days," Shankel said, "the chances
Sankel said Ranz would be invited to be chairman of the committee to plan the construction and remodeling of the library. The people appointed to the committee, he said.
REMODELING of Watson should begin with updating the building's air conditioning, heating, wiring and plumbing according to Ranz.
He said some structural problems of Watson should also be alleviated. Tearing out certain walls and removing some concrete will lower priority in the remodeling project.
"We're trying for a lot of free, well-lit, acoustically-spacious space," he said.
Ranz said consideration should be given to moving the administrative offices, now located just inside the front door, to another room, and then to move the floor space for a large, open reading area.
Ranz also cited the need to add openings
windows of the stacks, and said stack areas
within the stacks should be used.
The binding department and storage area in the sub-basement of the east stack wing also needs to be made more accessible, he said.
2 students reported dead
Two KU students are believed drowned off a small island on the western coast of Ireland, today's (Dublin) Irish Independent reported.
Rick Mathes, Kinsley senior, and Ed Moll, Olathe junior, members of this semester's Pearson Humanities trip to Ireland haven't been seen for two days.
The two were reportedly walking along a tidal path Tuesday evening with two other students on Innisbofin Island when the tide was rising and they went for a dry ground, but Mathes and Moll were
Irish Army helicopters, local boaters and the Pearson group, which has been in Galloway County since Jan. 26, have searched the island and outlying waters twice, the Independent reported, but found only the coat of one of the missing students.
apparently carried out to sea, the paper said.
"All hope hasn't been given up," an islander told the Independent, but authorities said the pair would have been found by now had they made it back to the island. Authorities, however, are still searching.
REDECORATING and buying modern library equipment are other ways to improve libraries.
The library has been unable to take advantage of innovations in library equipment, he said, because it hasn't been able to afford and doesn't have room for them.
Ranz said he hoped the library could buy more media equipment, microfilm, maps and other materials.
Ranz said it would be seven years before the effects of yesterday's decision to begin to plan a new library and to remodel Watson would be enacted by the students who would use the libraries.
"The question is how we'll exist in the interim," he said. "The library has been starved over a period of time. We're now having to rely on people who are internal budget awards through the 90%"
WHEN THE NEW science library is built,
it will house the chemistry and physics collection now in Malott Hall, the biological sciences collection now in Snow Hai, the geographical and engineering collection in Malott Hall, the Natural Resources Library, and materials from the business school reading room. Other smaller departmental and branch libraries could also be consolidated, Ranz said.
Budget requests for an addition to Malott library, currently before the Kansas Legislature, are meant as a temporary solution. But the state would move into the new facility, he said.
"As I understand it, it's a badly needed intermime measure," he said. "I expect it would revert to some other use by the disciplines when the new library is built."
See LIBRARY page 5
Entertained
Staff photo by DAVE CRENSHAW
In addition to dimer, Kansas legalists were treated to a song and dance last night by the Association of University Residence Hall at Lewis Hall. Rep. Ken Marshall of KSU was in attendance.
High GPA not sole road to jobs
By LYNDASMITE
Staff Writer
Frequently, they lose sleep, they cheat
and sometimes, they even commit suicide in
their dreams.
College students are notorious for agonizing over grades.
It's the high GPA, students say, that will land them a good job after graduation.
Some of the job recruiters said that outside activities pursued by the students were more important than good grades. Many students reported that积极性 greatly influenced hiring decisions.
But seven job recruiters on campus this week and four University of Kansas school placement directors generally agreed that new students should be given employers considered when hiring students.
EDGAR WELCH, senior petroleum engineer from Tulsa, Okla., who was on campus recently to interview engineering students for jobs, said he valued a student's extracurricular interests and personality more than his GPA.
He said a willingness to work with others and a positive outlook on life were essential qualities in a person he'd hire. These at-titudes, he said, can't be measured by grades.
"I vire students before with low G's," he said, "who have made good sense."
Wach said he also ranked personal appearance, self-expression, personality, leadership qualities and activities outside school higher than grades.
He didn't totally discount the GPA, however because he said it was one in five.
HE SAID he would hire a C student who had worked his way through school or had been involved in outside activities rather than an A student with no interests.
"But, if all other things were equal between us, would choose B. student?" We asked.
Donald Metzler, director of placement in the School of Engineering, said grades were
an important first impression to an employer. But after the first interview, he said, other considerations, such as work experience and personality, took precedence.
"Grades are one thing an employer can use to make comparisons," Meller said.
Companies have made studies, Metzler said, in which a positive correlation between "advancement up the ladder" and grades have been established.
"So the percentages are in the favor of the employer if he stacks with the student with a
HE ALSO SAID a positive correlation
between activity and extra-curricular
activities existed.
Herb Schroeder, director of elementary personnel in a Wichita school district, said he would offer a job to a student with a poor record and had worked his or her way through school.
He said intangible qualities, such as interest, willingness to work and in interest
in children, ranked higher than the GPA when he was hiring teachers.
"I wouldn't wint he an A student without vim
i and vigor and who wouldn't turn kids on,"
he said.
Schroeder didn't belittle the importance of grades, however, because he said they were indications of capability and achievement.
Usually, he said, people who do well in college also do well in teaching.
"BUT YOURE missing the boat by placing too much emphasis on grades," he said. "If that's all there was to it, we could have a computer and never look at the student."
Schroeder said a B average was probably the GPA he most desired in a student.
"With straight A students, I dig like the devil to see if they're well-rounded or just a girl with a boyish personality."
"I really check the C and A students. If a C reflects what he'll do in teaching I then
See HIGH page 3
KU bell rinaer
University Cardioneurotic Albert Gerken adjusts tension on a cable in the Memorial Campanula. Adjustments in cable tension
Staff photo by GEORGE MILLENER
are made to compensate for expansion and contraction of cables due to temperature changes.
Carillonneur braves cold, fatigue to send bells' peal over campus
By GREG BASHAW
Staff Writer
The wind carried the clear peal of the Memorial Campanile bells for as much as a mile last night. A thousand people may have beard the bells, but the man who makes the campanile's music, Albert Gerken, never knows who's listening.
When he's perched 150 feet in the air in the tower's bridge, Gerken, associate professor of music theory, must overcome the cold out of the belled instrument.
"A lot of people think that a machine plays the songs on the carillon," he said yesterday, "but I hope I put more expression than that into my pieces."
Gerken plays the S3-bell carillon by pressing a set of oak levers and pedals arranged on a caver. These set into motion the linkage that strikes clappers against the cavern floor, as Perlany first gathered in the bells, controlling the claver was a challenge.
"WHEN IT'S COLD I have trouble working the pedals." Gerken said. "Sometimes when I'm through with my performance my less feel frozen."
Orchestrarating the carillon bells takes the talent of a musician and the touch of a surgeon. Gerken must ease the smaller bass instrument, the large bells lyers with a clenched fist.
"I play the carillon in balancing weights as much as creating music," he said. "You have to hit the bells hard enough for a clear sound, without overstriking. When you hit
them too hard you'll hear a dampened thud."
Although the pitch of the bells is permanently fixed, minor adjustments can be made to the striking mechanisms, Gerken said. The clappers often develop too much sway and cling to the bells when they strike, causing an imperfect sound, he said.
When the carillon needs minor mechanical corrections, Gerken puts on old clothes, scales the tower and begins fiddling.
"NO ONE in this area does carillon work," he said, "but two weeks ago we had a specialist from Washington, D.C., in to do a major overhaul."
"Some of the finer carilloneries will perform here this summer in a special
Gerken has played carillons since 1961, when he was earning a master's degree in music at the University of Michigan. He became a member of the Guild of carillonneurs in North America in 1982 and came to KU a year later. Besides the 50 members of the guild, there are only a few carillonneurs in the U.S., according to Gerken.
THE CONCERT programs, yet to be scheduled, will feature patriotic songs and a musical performance.
Gerken said the specialist adjusted the bell linkage and repaired some damage to the keyboard. The repair work, which will be completed in two weeks, will cost $3,500. Gerken said, and the keyboard alterations will make the carillon much easier to play.
Gerken favors classical music and foreign folk songs for his recitals because of their clear melody. There won't be any cannonball rock, he said.
"Pop music, unlike classical, requires a rhythm background that the carlson can't offend."
Occasionally, there's a 'meeting of musics' during Gerenkens's recitals.
"Once in awhile I compete with an unscheduled rock concert they have under the tower," he said, "That dampens my performance."
The KU carillon was built as part of the Memorial Campanile, built in memory of 250 former KU students killed during the war.
Contributions totaling $325,000 paid for the camcorder and its instrument
Bells range from 12 pounds to seven tons in weight. The largest bell hangs 30 feet above Gerken's keyboard and thunderstorms pass through his perch when he pulls its lever.
"On a callation, when you make an error,
it just rings and rings away," he said. "And
I've made some blantant mistakes that I think
everyone caught on to."
Gorken plays Wednesday evenings at 7 and Sunday afternoons at 3. He offers tours of the campanile to any person and to small groups by appointment.