Inmate achieves goal of KU scholarship
Bv TOM RAMSTACK
Staff Writer
Life on the KU campus is an eagerly awaited goal for Cantrell Blair, the only prison inmate to ever receive a KU scholarship.
"Sometimes a person wishes he was dead rather than in a place like this," Blair, 26, an inmate at the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, said yesterday.
Blair said he expected to be paroled next month and planned to complete his bachelor of arts in political science with tuition paid by a Kansas University Endowment Association scholarship.
AFTER EARNING his General Equivalency Degree in prison, Blair enrolled in KU's division of continuing education. He now has 73 credit hours from KU and saits a degree out of other colleges not offered at the prison.
average, which is 4.0, will enable him to enroll in KU's School of Law.
suspect that are not in court, he thinks his grade point
Eventually, he said, he thinks his grade point
"What's it like at KU?" Blair asks. "Is it beautiful like they say? Will they ask me about my crime?"
Four years ago, Blair was sentenced in Chicago to two eight-year terms for postal robbery.
"It was going to be a robbery of a post office charge with a 10-day sentence, but since I was a gunman and I had been the cop," he said.
"My environment, my neighborhood and having my mother handicapped—there were several things that drove me to it. I don't like to talk about that crime because I always forgot it and I want it to work."
BLAIR WAS Raised in an area of Chicago that was torn by race riots in 1896. Blair said he used to take his mother, who is blind, to local churches, where she was a gospel singer. At the churches, he said, he met ministers and political activists involved in the black civil rights movement.
Blair dropped out of high school when he was 16 to become a dishwasher in a neighborhood restaurant. He said the rits in his neighborhood at the time inspired his interest in political science and poetry
When the neighborhood deteriorated and the restaurant closed, Blair drifted from one job to another. Blair said he was never satisfied with the work he expected himself and continued a write poetry and read.
After his conviction and imprisonment at Leavenworth, Blair worked as a prison storeroom clerk for $10 p. month and continued his studies through KU's division of continuing education.
Blair said that as a result of his college courses, "I've reached my pinnacle of intelligence."
"ONCE I entered this institution and saw what a predicament I had gotten myself into, I realized there has got to be a better way." Blair said. "The staff are here. I'm not still young. I could make something of myself."
"A man has to be constructive. Education is the way."
"It's good, but there's always room for improvement," he said.
Blair said that KU's program at the prison was good but that certain courses were not offered, such as life and death.
"I want to help other young people," he said. "I want to tour this country and talk to them. I think they realize how important education is to them, they think they leave whatever else they're doing on campus."
The program, which allows KU faculty to teach at the prison, was developed by the division of continuing education and prison officials in 1953. Other area colleges also offer courses at the prison.
cluded anthropology, African studies, elementary Arabic, philosophy, psychology, English, history, biology, computer science, theatre, dramatic arts and speech.
RECENT KU course offerings at the prison in-
BLAIR SAID that he had become an unofficial recruiter for the Continuing Education program and encouraged the inmates seeking degrees to persevere.
Of the 1,968 inmates in Leavworth Penitentiary,
of 100 to 130 enrol in university courses each semester;
of 25 to 40 enrol in vocational courses.
In addition to the KU Endowment Association scholarship, Blair received two prison educational scholarships and a Basic Educational Opportunity Grant from the federal government.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
"I've been congratulated 1,001 times for it," Blaire said. "I imagine this will open doors for others because there are guys in here with straight A's and high GPAs. Maybe others will see me and take heed."
Chance of rain High mid-90s
KANSAN
Vol.88,No.172
The University of Kansas
Athletic director could be chosen in coming week
Chancellor Archie R. Dykes said yesterday that he had received a list of seven candidates for the men's athletic director's position from a search committee and that he probably would make the final choice next week.
Wednesday July 26,1978
Dykes said the seven-member search committee had ordered that the seven of their indicted conclaves.
Dykes would not disclare the names of any of the seven candidates for the athletic director's position and said there was no top contender.
"I'll just go down the list and proceed to tell them they recommended and informed me there, he said."
SOME REPORTS had indicated that the four preferred candidates for the position were: John Novotny, director of the Williams Fund, which raises money for athletic scholarships; Doug Messer, acting athletic director; and Bob Marcum, associate athletic director at the University of Alabama; and Bob Marcum, associate athletic director at Iowa State.
More than 100 persons applied for the position, which was left open May 25 when Clyde Walker, men's athletic director, and Stephen Knight, executive at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.
The other candidates were reported to be: Gale Sayers, the former KU running back who is athletic director at Southern Illinois University; Doug Weaver, the former Kansas State football coach who is now athletic director at Georgia Tech; and Ralph Floyd, assistant athletic director at Indiana University.
Staff Writer
By BRAD H. HAMILTON
Training police aim of program funded by grant
Stephens said participation in the national program would allow the department to upgrade its efficiency and service to the public.
To participate in the program, each city's police department must have a crime analysis section and a crime prevention program.
"THE OVERALL focus of the national program allows departments to develop programs to improve the quality of student work and to make the officer in the field more efficient.
A $176.810 grant given to the Lawrence Police Department Monday by the Law Enforcement Assistance Administrator' will be used to improve the department, Darrel Stephens, assistant chief of police, said yesterday.
The grant will be used to implement programs developed last year under the department's Integrated Criminal Apprehension Program. The LEAA provides funds for the program, which is directed at crime prevention, detection and investigation. A method that emphasizes more sophisticated use of uniformed patrolmen.
"Through training as a result of the program, I have no reason to present to the county attorney."
Lawrence is one of the smallest of the 30 cities participating in the LEA program, which was created after the urban riots of local governments reduce their crime rates.
Stephens said the grant from the LEAA to Mr. Lawrence police will continue the two-year loan.
"THE MAIN focus of the program up to this point has been the development of management and information reporting systems to provide managers with a means to make a decision," he said. "The first year in the program was spent training patrolmen to enhance their quality of preliminary and follow-up investigation. This year will begin implementing the methods."
Staff Photo by SU2ANNE BURDICE
Take one
John Welsh, Bart Lavevin and Ken Coit, members of a film crew from the division of learning resources at the University of
Kansas Medical Center, have been on campus producing a safety training film that demonstrates the proper operation of power maintenance tools for Facilities Operations employees.
Latest film stars FO employees
By TOM ZIND
Staff Writer
As part of a program sponsored by the division of learning resources, Facilities Operations employees became film stars for a day yesterday in an instructional film being made to demonstrate the proper operation of power maintenance.
The 10 to 12 minute film, "A Matter of Safety," will be released in September to instruct landscape maintenance em­
plications. A staff member, Broke, director of Facilities Operations
Operations employees using lawn mowers, edgers and trimmers.
YESTERDAY'S filming, in front of Watson Library, featured Facilities
"We get a lot of new people not accustomed to the work and we thought this would be a good way to show them how to work with quality in this job," he said.
Orome said part-time employees, such as students, would benefit most from the film.
The film is one of several instructional films produced by the division of learning resources for the University, John Welsh, director of the film, said.
We have made such films as medical films, patient educational films, student
and public relations films," he said.
The first film, "A Place of Beauty; A Matter of Pride," won an award in April as the best educational media production in Kansas by the Kansas Association for Education, Communication and Technology.
and public relations firms, include
ACCORDING TO Oroké, the co-founder of the
programming program, which includes one other institutional film, is from $3,000 to $4,000.
WASHINGTON (AP)—The Senate voted yesterday to end the three-year old U.S. arms sales embargo against Turkey—a move supporters said would restore that country's power in NATO and would help secure a settlement with Greece over Cyprus.
THE LIFTING of the embargo must still be approved by the House, however. It will be taken up there next week, but House officials say the prospects for its passage were uncertain.
Senate votes to end Turkish embargo
The final Senate vote was more lopsided in the administration's favor than had been expected. Both opponents and supporters of the lifting of the embargo had predicted that
Technology Welsh said the film was made as part of a campus beautification program.
the outcome would be settled by only a few votes.
The vote, 57-42, marked a significant foreign policy victory for President Jimmy Carter, who had called the lifting of the embargo the most important foreign issue still to be dealt with by Congress this session.
of demonstration.
The filming, which is being conducted in part, at the KU Medical Center, will be completed this week. Weil said.
The Senate vote came after a compromise proposed by Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., and several other senators. The compromise was endorsed by the White House after it became evident that a proposal to end the embargo probably would fall.
THE COMPROMISE repeals the language of U.S. law by which Congress imposed a total embargo on arms sales to countries for that country in 1874 invaded by Cayman.
The embargo subsequently was modified to permit Turkey as much as $173 million in military aid so that it could meet its NATO commitments.
The compromise reached by the Senate will retain that ceiling in Turkish arms aid and raise aid to Greece to the same extent as it did in 1972. Over the years aid would depend upon serious efforts by the
two countries to reach an agreement over Cyprus.
SEN. THOMAS Eagleton, D-Mo., said, "The choice now is appeasement or peace. By lifting the ban, the Senate would be sending a message to other countries to whom we supply arms that they need not take U.S. law seriously."
Arguing that to continue the embargo would be counterproductive for U.S. policy, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Dallas, said, *our point is enough. We have made our point.*
Supporters of continuing the embargo said Turkey—despite the embargo—was the third largest recipient of U.S. military aid, after Israel and South Korea, and refused to make any concessions toward receiving its dispute with Greece over overthrow.
Turkey's 1974 invasion of Cyprus plunged Cyprus into a brief civil war and left it divided.
KU bus service revises routes
By NANCY FLEEKER
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
The Student Senate has changed its estimate of the ways in which KU on Wheels, the University bus service, will be expanded in the fall.
The bus service will have only one new route instead of the two requested by the Student Senate, Steve McMurry, director of KU on Wheels, said yesterday.
An earlier estimate by Mike Harper, student body president, that funds would allow the addition of two new routes was incurred in an effort to increase in volume the amount from student fees.
The addition of three new buses would enable KU on Wheels to add the new route and make changes in three of the existing routes.
MCUMURY, chairperson of the Senate Transportation Committee, said the second route, which would have served east Lawrence, was rejected because of a lack of
"I have been able to get everything except the east Lawrence route," he said. "I had hoped for it, I worked for it and I fought for it, but the chancellor would not recommend me."
He said the expenses for operating the service next year probably would be about $20,000.
McMurray said the funds for operating the bus service for the 1978-79 school year would be about $310,000, which would come from student fees, fares and sales of bus passes
THE COST of bus passes for next year will be $23, an increase of $5 over last year's cost. While the fare will remain 25 cents a ride, student fees will be $3.50 for each student, McMurry said, an increase of $1.70 for each student.
"As soon as the money is available we will cover east Lawrence," he said.
The new route will provide bus service to Woodcreek Apartments, 255 Michigan St., mobile home courts in the area, Lawrence University, and Seventh and Florida streets, McMurray said.
The Gatehouse and 24th and Ride Court route and the Meadowbrook route will have bus service twice an hour this fall instead of only once an hour.
THE FRONTIER HIDGE Express route will have service on the hour instead of half
past the hour, which would let students campus close to class times, McMurray school, McMurray
Scheduled for the Campus Express, Night
Campus Express, or Olive-Naimsah-
tunlin will join the same.
"Because we have this additional bus we can make the Frontier Route rightharpoon."
However, the Woodcreek bus and one of the Meadowbrook buses also will run on the Campus Express route once an hour. A ride from Derry to Belfast H1 instead of mine, McMary said.
He said the Woodcreek route was created because of the number of students living in it.
MCMURRY HAS been called by the management of Woodcreek Apartments at least twice about the need for the bus service.
"I went door-to-door to see if the residents were students," he said. "Much more than we thought."
He said there also was a need to serve the three mobile home courts in that area.
He said the new apartments at Seventh and Florida streets housed mostly students.
McMurray said the additional "issues" would reduce problems caused by overcrowding.
He also said he thought it was necessary to have a bus service to the hospital.
I think we covered every area of major student concentration, and the said said.
"There'll be a big concentration of students there, and so we're anticipating the new one."
THE NEW BUS ROUTE will stop at Woodcreek apartments at 40 minutes past 10am.
The additional buses also would make it possible for extra buses to be transferred to such routes as Gatehouse or Oliver-Naismith during severe weather conditions.
The bus service will begin Aug. 21, two days before enrollment, McMurray said.
In the past, bus service had not begun until the first day of enrolment.
Bus passes will be available from the bus drivers or at the information booth in the Kansas University beginning Aug. 21. Passes will be attached to Aug. 21 Allen Field House during enrollment.
City employees balk could lose pay offer
By DAVID LINK Staff Writer
Staff Writer
City officials said yesterday that Lawrence policemen and firefighters may not receive scheduled wage increases in 1979 if working agreements with the two groups remain unsigned.
unsigned.
After voting to ratify a one-year working agreement with the city Monday night, firefighters yesterday issued a statement saying they would not sign the agreement until the city reached an agreement with policemen.
Mayor Don Binns said the action could work to the union's detiment. *IBC personnel not bound by any agreement that has not been signed.* "Binns said,
"We're certainly not bound by any agreement that the firefighters did not sign the agreement, the city would not be bound by the agreement's terms and could go into 1979 without giving the firefighters any wage increases.
"I was not surprised by their action," Watson said. "It's the same thing they did last year with this brotherhood thing."
the city has included a 6 percent wage increase for the firefighters and a 9 percent in wage increases for the policemen in its 1979 budget, but those increases could be reduced or eliminated, according to Watson, if the unions do not sign their agreements.
In the statement issued yesterday by Don Knight, firefighters' union president, and James Woydiak, the union's secretary, the union officials said they had ratified a working agreement with the city for 1979.
"However the membership, as a symbolic gesture of the brotherhood that exists between firefighters and members of this city, voted to withhold our formal signature on our agreement until the city of Lawrence and the policemen reach a mutual agreement for 1974," the statement said.
the statement said.
It was not clear what effect the firefighters' action would have. Their agreement, scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, has been approved by both the city and the union, but apparently will go unsigned for the present.
KEVIN BURT, director of city employee relations, said he was disappointed by the firefighters' move.
"I really don't know what it means at this point," Burt said. "January's a long way off.
"It's just kind of in limbo."
For now, I guess we are just kind of in throb.
Binns said that the city would not return to negotiating with the police.