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Tuesday, February 7, 1978
University Dally Kansan
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN-
Comment
Unused editors represent the opinion of the Kansas editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of only the writers.
Alter lawyers' status
A Wamego attorney has decided to challenge the immunity from appearing in court enjoyed by lawyers while they serve in the Kansas Legislature. The attorney, Edward Pugh, is right.
Edward, Specifically. Pugh wants to get Sen. Donn Evertt, the Republican attorney from Manhattan, into court before May because he and Everett are involved in real estate litigation. The trial had been scheduled for Feb. 13, but Everett managed to get the case put off. On the district court level, he has successfully cited a Kansas law stating, in part, that legislators "shall not be required to appear in any court in this state and participate in the trial of any action" during the time that the Legislature is in session.
FOR LEGISLATORS who earn most of their income as lawyers, the law is
ridiculous. It allows them to postpone trials for strategic reasons; it allows them an unfair advantage over their competition; it postpones justice.
Pugh said he would file an action with the Kansas Court of Appeals that would contend that the law violated parts of the Kansas Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution. He is on trial for a violation of the Kansas Bill of Rights, the section specifying that justice be administered without delay.
Lawyers who work in the statehouse reap more than enough political prestige from their positions. They don't need unfair legal advantages as well. It is unrealistic to expect the Legislature to solve its own problem by repealing the law, but it is hoped that the appeals court sensibly will move to strike it down.
Buttons false boosters
University of Kansas Medical Center administrators are concerned about employee morale and have embarked on a campaign to bring out the best in their personnel.
Employees are being issued cheery buttons that sport the slogan "I Care" and are being encouraged to enroll in a special six-hour course entitled "Courtesy Training" and to submit suggestions on how to improve employee morale and cooperation. The employee who submits the best suggestion of the month wins $50; $500
is set aside for the best suggestion of the year.
It is truly a grassroots approach for improving morale. The trouble is, even if the employees do "care," the campaign can go only a short distance in solving the major problems that have continually raked the Med Center.
Unstable leadership, low wages, inadequate state funding and the growing pains caused by flawed construction have to be tackled by using more substantial methods than merely wearing buttons. A purely cosmetic approach will not do.
San Fe Railroad Company's Ranger passenger train used to lap up the miles of Flint Hills between Kansas City and the Oklahoma cattle country. The Oil Flyer rushed would-be oil barons down to Tulsa and the Oklahoma oil country.
Rail use saves energy, dollars
Once a day, Amtrak's Southwest Limited now follows the route of the old Super Chief, from Chicago to Kansas City, through Emporia and Dodge City on and to Los Angeles.
Amtrak's Lone Star daily repeats the path of Santa Fe's old Texas Chief deep into the heart of Texas.
THE MIDWESTERN rail freight network is decaying. The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad filed bankruptcy proceedings in January. Some experts predict that the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad might have to shut down if hit by heavy snows.
Declining rail ridership appears to have levelled off since 1971, when about 16 million Americans rode the rails. The number of people began running the nation's passenger rail service. Congress had decided there ought to be a way to reduce the number of trains passed on to Americans by railroads in financial trouble. Most of the rail equipment was in poor shape along the roads Antrakt inherited. The track system was a service and equipment were worse.
Kansas' Santa Fe track, which Amtrak uses, is some of the best kept rail bed in the nation. People who ride the Santa Fe rights-of-way and complain probably never have
Clay Stauffer Editorial Writer
ridden through Pittsburgh or Philadelphia by rail.
Arguments that rail transport gains ridership when energy is burned have been borne out by surveys of riders. During the 1973 oil embargo, Amtrak said that nationally riders increased by 40%.
NO PASSENGER train system in the world is able to operate at a profit. Robert Casey, public affairs director for Amtrak's Central Region, was appointed by Chicago, estimates that Amtrak has shown a net profit of $300 million since 1971.
Amtrak officials say the system is going to keep growing. The number of employees has grown since Amtrak's first year, although the number of employees isn't always a good measure of a system's efficiency. Amtrak inherited was so outdated that although 492 locomotives and cars have been added to Amtrak's fleet, the number has remained about the same.
"THE OVERALL picture is of a growing organization that is badly needed for environmental reasons," Casey said. Rumors that Amtrak was planning to include Lawrence and the Southwest Limited's route were called false by Casey.
The president of Amtrak, Paul Reistiup, has been asking
for more frequent service. In Kansas 'casse' that, might mean two trains a day running east and west, instead of one.
In compliance with President Jimmy Carter's zero-based budgeting plan, the U.S. Department of Transportation was ordered in late 1977 by the Federal system. The study is focusing on markets for riders and availability of equipment. Scheduled to be presented to Congress in March, the study will be released at Amrakrats' Kansas representative, John Mills, Topeka.
"THE DEPARTMENT of Transportation may be asking for a two-month delay in the release report," he said. "Noibkow says."
Passenger rail service in Kansas appears to be an anachronism. Development of
Forbes Field at Topeka into a jet airline and air freight center represents the pride Kansans have in being one of the biggest aircraft manufacturing regions in the world. The prevailing answer to not can't Kansans be a model of an air transportation, too?"
One answer is that rail transport is twice as energy-efficient as air passenger transport, and rail freight transport is ninety times as efficient as air freight.
UNIVERSITY
DAILY KANSAN
Improve Watson by writing legislators effectively
To the Editor:
Thank you for the editorial box in last week's Kansan urging students to write their legislators about the sad condition of Watson Library. As chairperson of Concerned Students For Higher Education, I encourage courageous people to contact their 'hometown legislators, I am befitted by your stand.
Although writing a legislator is not difficult, there are several things any potential letter-writer should keep in mind.
An effective letter to a legislator about Watson Library should specifically refer to the library in the first paragraph. Otherwise the legislator may not know which proposed appeal should be made to it. Also would be beneficial to mention somewhere in the
letter that the recommended appropriations are for improved lighting and shelves ($291,000), increased collections ($100,000) and planning funds for renovation ($550,000).
The most persuasive way to write a legislator is to relate personal experiences about the library. Write about your own problems with the lack of study space, poor lighting and the cracked, book stacks that are lit freest. Be accurate and vivid.
A letter to a state representative and senator does not need to be typed. Any legible letter would be fine.
Never pretend to have influence you don't have when you write a legislator. Never threaten a legislator. Ask him or her to consider your viewpoint, in a polite manner.
I hope this letter is some help in writing a legislator. If you want to write a legislator, whether or not you come from Kansas or Vermont, be certain Students for Higher Education at 864-3715 or by the Student Senate office in the Kansas Union. We have the following resources: Watson Library, women's athletics and the graduate fee waiver. We can give you the name of your state senator and representative and offer some assistance with starting legislators. Rob Green
CSHE chairman
To the editor:
Buildings have served purpose
I never cease to be amazed at the editorials that appear in the
Letters
Kansan. At first glance the "Don't Move Jimmy" editorial appeared to be mildly interesting. On further examination I found that the subject was through the subject was an intriguing one, the Kansan used reasoning that, at best, can be described as narrow. The argument raised it not without reason, the reasoning is without merit.
In writing about a "classically cohesive scheme" the author described ours as an architecturally "fragmented" campus. I like all types of architecture, but most of all I recognize the need for change. To have the new and the old
juxtaposed reminds us of the growth and change that is an implicit part of our lives, ideas and architecture. We have recognized the main purpose of educational buildings to is serve the academic community effectively. In Wescoche and new Green Hall the architects have tried to strip away the ruffles in the curriculum with simplistic, functional and inherently beautiful structures.
I will be the first to admit that not all of the attempts have been successful. Furthermore, when using mostly private funds I don't care whether a mausoleum is built and labeled
as an art museum, albeit a worthwhile one. But when taxpayers' money is involved, I would opt for an experiment and experience in modern architecture any day.
I had to have chuckle at one thing in the editorial, though—the obtvious irony in the phrase "the possessive is needed." For if there is one thing that is narrower than the Kansan's taste in music, it is its perspective as expressed in "Don't Move Jimmy."
Phil Cobb
Phil Cobb
Annandale, Va., sonhomore
To the editor:
Student likes B.G.S. option
In regard to Jan Smith's
Judgeships should be decided by merit
CHICAGO—No president in history has had the opportunity to name in a single sweep perhaps as many as 150 new federal trial and appellate judges. Yet this is exactly the kind of case that Jimmy Carter with the additional federal judgements expected soon under pending legislation. These new judgements represent a 25 percent increase in the federal judicial complement. Thus the quality and coherence of the federal judiciary can be transformed almost in one stroke.
That more federal judges than the current corps of 600 are needed seems beyond question. The backlog of cases in federal courts is substantial, and the individual caseload of existing judges is insufficient to considerably greater than what it ought to be. The quagmire of litigation threats to engulf the entire system.
THE CONGRESS, for patronage reasons, however, has delayed the necessary enactments, until in its wake, a president is secure and sympathetic to the discharging of Congressional political obligations. Now the Senate has passed a law that A Senate bill has passed and a House measure is being readied. The principal question awaiting resolution is how judgements are to be created.
tion is a reminder that political, not professional, considerations are too often paramount.
Whatever the limits of the current methods of judicial selection, it must be acknowledged the federal bench has provided many examples of extraordinarily distinguished legal talent. But the unevenness of the distinc-
An infusion during the next few months of politically attractive but merely professional indebted federal government would be necessary medioiry in our federal judicial system for the next half-century.We must ensure that federal judges whose decisions influence our lives in such personal and professional ways.
PAST ABUSES are truly bipartisan. Judicial appointments by Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Johnson were Democratic 85 percent of the time. Those of Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon and Ford were Republican 85 percent of the time. All of the execubered behavior" tenure of federal judges—with only the most cumbersome and ineffective
qualities and not because of political orthodoxy.
The public and the news media must be alerted to this special opportunity for service if judicial appointments based on merit are not to fall victim to the wrongful filing now included in the following:
- A renewed commitment by the president to the merit
removal procedure of impeachment available for dealing with the isolated, but nevertheless disrupting, instance of the incompetent, disabled or corrupt judge.
TO ADDRESS the long-range issues, the president should appoint a special study commission composed of representatives of the legislative, executive and
selection principle. As an interim measure, he should extend his Feb. 17, 1977, executive order relating to the use of merit selection in choosing judges to address issues of the federal judiciary, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
MENEU
THE BROADWAY GRACE CITY LANDING TRANSIT
judicial branches to review the need for amendting Article III of the Constitution with regard to judicial powers. • A commitment by all senators to adopt plans like those already announced by senators in 16 states that use the assistance of nominating committees drawn from the legal profession and the public and charged with the responsibility for seeking out, screening and recommending candidates for vacancies in the federal district courts. Under these voluntary plans, the senators also pledge to submit to the president the names of individuals who were chosen by the nominating panels.
- A SUSTAINED media effort to inform the public of its stakes in a justice system staffed by judges chosen for personal and professional quality, not for political connections. Most people have, at best, outstanding the nature and organization of the justice system, the duties and powers of judges or the way in which judges are selected.
- If the new appointments are to be based on merit, it will take more than just presidential courage. President Carter will need articulate and powerful support from the public in general and from the media, business leaders, organizations traditionally interested in the selection of outstanding judges.
George H. Williams is executive vice president and director of the American Judicature Society, an association that promotes the effective administration of justice.
article concerning the B.G.S. degree, I found myself startled and annoyed at some of the information contained therein.
First, it seems ludicrous to me that a special "task force" was formed from the whims of a few faculty members to investigate a perfect imitation of well for five years. It has worked well because nobody knows about it. There has never been a push for it—no advertising. When I was being a senior, I had a senior year of high school, there was not even a mention of the availability of the B.G.S. degree. The reps from KU, as well as the faculty at our high school, passed over it as if it did not matter. I asked several people whether they knew that they had a B.G.S. option. Most had neither heard of it nor had any idea of what it was all about. It was only libelous. I only looked at Arts and Science catalog that I was "turned on" to the beautiful B.G.S.
The original reason for the B.G.S. degree was to enable students to form their own educational program without experience or requirements. For many like myself, this provided a chance to go to college without the fear of doing poorly in coursework and not having the protectiveiblity of the individual. So why at this point is the leniency of the program being questioned? It was originated for this purpose. If it were any more official, it would be a B.A. degree.
Let me also mention that because there are only distribution requirements to meet, it still is no piece of cake to get through college: It is still the same course work; it isn't
any easier just because it is labeled B.G.S.
Smith quotes Andrew Debicki in regard to the program's lenency as saying, "We want to find out and make the necessary changes if they're needed." The system uses many models but more specialized students the chance to enjoy a college education? If Debicki and his fellow "task force"—sounds like a bad television drama—will be able to statistics cited by Smith, perhaps they could find something more constructive to do.
She states, "Since 1973 more than 1,200 students have received the B.G.S." At about 20,000 students enrolled a year ago, students together, 1,200 seem to be a rather insignificant dent in the structure of the total system. Why then ruin it for so few people? It serves a select group that does no harm to anyone else.
It always seems that there is an ever-present group of people threatening our very existence at school. So it goes with a handful of faculty members and a task force. Sheesh, I have to tell those who believe in, support and are currently enrolled as or will be enrolled as B.G.S. students to send a letter to the dean of their school and to forward one to Debbok's task group. I need to support the degree, that and as its merits, they should remain unchanged and unaffected. This would give them the information they need and enable the committee to concentrate on advisers, which is another story altogether. May the force not be with you.
Mark S. Gilman Jr.
Shawnee Mission sophomore
THE UNIVERSITY DAVENY
KANSAN
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