THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Vol. 90. No.123
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
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Friday, April 4.1980
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Three clergymen go to Iran for Easter
By LYNN ANDERSON
Staff Reporter
Three clergymen from the Midwest left early this morning for Iran, bearing their crosses to celebrate bunnies and a boy hostage for the American hostages.
The delegation is the latest effort in a "dialogue of reconnaissance" at the latest Committees for American-Iranian Crisis Resolution. The clergy and government officials, of Iranian clergymen, students and government officials, according to Nermor Foner, KU professor of social welfare and human rights.
forer, who led delegations to Iran in December 1979 and this past February, will not accompany the cleremen.
The clerjemans are: the Rev. Jack Bremer of the Ecumenical University of St. Louis; the Rev. Patrick Ruppert, minister; the Rev. Darrall Ruppert, a Roman Catholic priest from Omaha, Neb.; and the Rev. Nelson Thompson, director of the Martin Luther King Urban Ministries Center in Kansas City, Kan.
FORER SAID that they would conduct an ecumenical Easter service for the hostages, but that other activities and the length of time required are unknown.
Forer said the Easter visit, which was being financed by private
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donations, was conceived during the December trip, "which made us feel that only alternative to war and confrontation was possible."
He said during that trip the delegation and the Iranian people raised a "whole series of steps which would lead to normalization," including clergy visitations, exchange of gifts and correspondence and public interviews with the hostages.
"The hostages felt it was crucial to maintain contact." Forer said. "And out of that understanding this trip has come."
THE CLERGYMEN last night expressed a common belief. They said that the crisis in Iran could not end until reconciliation was achieved between the two countries and that reconciliation cannot happen without an admission of American guilt.
Brenner, who spent the evening before his departure working with the committee's organizers in Lawrence, said he saw his wife, Sarah, at a party.
"I am responding to this invitation as a pastor to persons who share the Christian faith and are in confinement," Bremer said. Bremer, who said he had been involved in People-to-People meetings before, said he would have to have contact with many groups in any non-denominational country.
contact with many groups in any non-democratic country.
"That way, when a dictatorship falls, we have bridges," he said.
that way, when a distractorship falls, we have bridges he said. That way, when a distractorship falls, we have bridges he said, that focused on understanding what the Iranian people think about the situation. We don't do that.
"We may not agree with each other, but we have to understand each other," he said.
BREMER SAID his bishop and the Ecumenical Christian
Ministers board had endorsed his trip and that the Methodist Church had taken a formal stand on the crisis.
The Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church, he said, has issued a "call to repentance" for American involvement in Iraq.
Bremer said clergy could play an important part in ending the crisis because of "the Islamic nature of the Revolution."
"When we clergymen go to Iran, 'Bremer said, we're wIP's. Our role is very much respected. So this invitation is consistent with our work."
Thompson, who spent part of last night playing basketball with youth from his community center, supported Bronner's statements
"I always preach that the world is my parish," he said. "I don't limit my feelings and attitudes about preaching and ministering to this community. I preach wherever I am asked, particularly in a crisis situation."
"If something tragic happens and war breaks out, the poor will be most affected," he said. "Services to them will be cut as spending for weaponry increases. War always creates economic problems that affect the noir first and last."
THOMPSON SAID he was also concerned because as a black leader he would to witness the effects of the crisis on his
Thompson said his church board knew of his visit and supported him because the board members understood the need for people to attend.
"If this crisis is resolved," he said, "it'll be people like myself and other clergy, who don't represent absolute national interests,
"People on the inside of government, who are trying to protect their national interests, cannot open themselves objectively to the truth."
Thompson said he did not think the taking of hostages was the right way for Iranians to express their feelings, but he said he could understand them because of the uprising he had witnessed among American blacks.
THOMPSON SAID he wanted to take to the hostages "the message of hope, which is the great message of Easter."
The message, he said, was that right and justice would triumph. "In the final analysis," he said, "there is a law higher than the law of the state."
Ruipier, the third clergyman, spent last night at a Kansas City. Ruipier, when he were retreated, he said, for solitude and preparation,
He said he hoped continued dialogue would help avoid the need for economic boycotts or military intervention.
*I Think the people going have a keen sense of the oneness of the institution and that is why I am looking for reconciliation and understanding rather than standstillism and suspicion.*
RUPIPER, WHO was part of Ferer's February delegation to said he saw no contraction between his priesthood and the university.
See IRAN page eight
Easter ambassadors
BEN BIGLER/Kansan staff
Above, the Rev. Jack Bremer, a Methodist minister from KU's Ecumenical Christian Ministries and the University of Pennsylvania with Norman Forer and Linda Burdell. The other delegates are the Rev. Nelson Thompson, a Methodist minister from Kansas City, Ks., right, the Rev. Joseph Cappler, a Catholic priest from Omaha, Neb., below.
Classified workers could get 11% raise
Staff Reporter
By BLAKE GUMPRECHT Staff Reporter
The Kansas House yesterday gave preliminary approval to a bill that would increase salaries of 1,527 KU classified employees by an average of 11 percent.
The $14 million pay plan calls for @ 8 to 21 percent salary increase for the state's civil service employees, who also can receive merit raises.
The average increase is almost double what KU's classified employees received a year ago. All classified employees after a pay increase of at least 8 percent.
"That's great," said Jan O'Neil, Classified Senate president, when informed the vote. "It best the news that happened." But it an election year."
OVERWHELMING FINAL approval of the proposal, which next must be heard by the Senate Ways and Means Committee, would take effect June 18 if passed this week.
"We have to keep the salaries of public employees in line with those paid in private industry." House Speaker R. Overland, R-Overland Park, said yesterday.
The pay plan is the result of a three-
year study conducted by the state Department of Administration. Gov. John Carlin proposed the plan at the beginning of the session.
"It's certainly a step in the right direction," Lady said. "This is the first time we've taken a look at the pay plan and had developed several inadequacies."
The plan was a legislative priority for the session for many lawmakers, including the House sneaker.
Salaries of civil service workers have increased 9.8% per century since the 1970s by about a third, state figures. During that same period, the consumer price index has jumped 92
"With inflation at 18 percent, it obviously wouldn't keep people paying," he added. "the percentage increase we've had the last few years," said Joseph Collins member of the Class of 2016.
THE PLAN would also establish half- step merit increases in each pay range so that employees would be rewarded more directly because of performance.
"The Legislature's realized that we had fallen behind considerably," he said. "It's a bill designed to help us catch up."
Service groups decry budget cut
A Student Senate Services Committee decision not to fund the Consumer Affairs Association Wednesday night met with a furry protest from Consumer Affairs and other KIU service organizations yesterday.
Invoicing a Senate rule on duplication of services, the committee voted 2-1 against funding Funding Affairs' request of $15,238 on the grounds that it overlapped services with six other organizations.
The Senate Finance and Auditing Committee will meet Monday night to rule on the validity of the duplication of $50 million.
Duplication of services occurs when an organization's services parallel those of another Senate-funded group.
Bren Abbott, Senate treasurer, said that if the decision was overturned, the money cut from Consumer Affairs would be cut from other Services Committee budget. That would probably cut the cuts we could probably be made on the Senate floor, he said.
STAFF MEMBERS from Consumer Affairs, 819 Verizon
were told the association was cut from the Senate budget,
and 30 members were replaced.
"We were led to believe from the preliminary budget hearings that we would receive funding," Susie Hanna, Consumer Affairs director, said. "There was no question of whether we had no kidding of the duplication of services charge."
The association receives money through the Comprehensive Employment Training Act and Douglas County and Lawrence Revenue Sharing, he said, but provisions for all these funds forbid use for a director's salary.
"This source of funding is the only source we were able to use to pay a director's salary." Chapman said. "Without it, our organization would not be able to do what it does."
Clyde Chapman, consumer administrative coordinator,
said the association would fold without Senate funding*
stability and because of this, we probably can't get other organizations to give us money."
"We had the option of cutting funding for all the service groups and watching them die slowly or cutting funding for those who are making it worse."
TIGHT SENATE money defended the Consumer Affairs tunding request, according to Eric Burkard, one of the two senators.
Harkness said he based his decision on assurances from Senate leaders that no supplemental funds would be available this fall. Previously, groups receiving inadequate funding could appeal for increased funding in the fall.
"We thought it was necessary to cut out Consumer Affairs now to give all the other groups sufficient funding for the year. We can't bail out all the groups in the fall without supplemental funding," he said.
However, Abbott said supplemental hearings were scheduled for next fall although there would probably be less.
JOIN LAMB, the other committee member voting for the funding of a new social money should be chosen in areas directly benefiting you.
"They aren't worth $10,000." Lamb said. "Students can get their services through other channels. If I had $10,000 I would still vote against them, because they are a waste of money."
Lamb said that Consumer Affairs requested nearly half of the committee's budget. The committee, composed of 18 members, was given $23,436 to allocate. Consumer Affairs requested $15,238.
When the final vote on Consumer Affairs was taken, four members were present and three voted. One member was committee chairman Tanya Ivory, who is allowed to vote only in the case of a tie.
Harkness said that all the committee members had attended at least one budget meeting during the week and a half of budget hearings.
"What could we do?" he said, referring to the final budget session. "We were under the direction of the vice president to complete our budget before the deadline that night.
"We didn't have enough people to deal with it."
COMMITTEES WERE required to submit their final budget recommendations Wednesday night to be printed Thursday. The full Senate will vote on the committee budgets April 8-9.
Harkness said the Finance and Auditing Committee consideration of the duplication decision would highlight the low Services Committee member attendance the night of the decision.
Miki Gordon, Finance and Auditing Committee chairman, said he was making an effort to ensure significant changes in accounting practices.
"One person can meet and be the committee and decide whether to do this or that, infertilitate." Gordon said.
The Senate does not have a quorum requirement for committee budget提出, although a quorum can be requested.
John Macchietto, the one committee member who voted against the Consumer Affairs cut, sent a letter to the Finance and Auditing Committee protesting the decision. The committee later approved it, but at times the time of presentation make a cut "of that magnitude."
MACCHETTO ALSO challenged the committee's consistency in funding decisions. He said that if Consumer Affairs represented a duplication of other consumer service companies, there were a number of overlapping counseling organizations.
He named the Psychological Clinic, Watkins Hospital and the University Counseling Center as three on-campus
See CONSUMER page eight
Modern-day bounty hunter rounds up child support
By BILL VOGRIN
George Dugger is a modern-day bounty hunter.
Dugger doesn't ride a horse. His job is not a glamorous one. There is no silver臂 bade shining on his chest, nor are there admiring women swooning over him as he tracks down the funtivities.
His job: to track down non-paying parents, deadbeat husbands, and playboys who got burned and refuse to take responsibility for support of their children.
As a part-time employee for the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, Dugger sift through documents and traces Social Security numbers through miles of red tape, in the hope of
He doesn't even carry a gun.
pinning down the location of a delinquent child-support paver.
THE OFFENDERS, usually not blatant law breakers, are hard to find. There is no typical offender. Delinquent parents range from men who don't know they have a child, to women who abandon children at the home of a grandparent or other relative, said Jeanne Shephard, assistant district attorney.
The money from an absent parent can buy a new pair of shoes, or a dress or cloak, or class. she said. "You might be better off missing a meal. He probably just sticks out in the crowd. wears been clothing or lacks the simple luxurious ones."
Dugger spends most of his time in the RSCE office at Third and Perry streets in north Lawrence, a single-
story building that once housed Wooddawn School. Dugger, a location support specialist, works out of a general office, has no private room, and works with a full-time SRS agent, hunting the parents down.
Kansas has a force of 90 locators across the state, digging up names and numbers, trying to make a dent in the $200 million in taxes spent annually in Kansas. The agency also recruits children, Medicaid recipients and other aid programs.
THE LOCATION and Support Program began in Kansas in 1975, and involves a cooperative agreement between local SRS agencies, and county governments that makes prosecution of cases easier.
"We are trying to get parents to assume responsibility for the support of their children," Dugger said. "We stress that we want only current payments, and not the full back payment from absent parents."
There are about 75,000 delinquent parents in Kansas, and SRS is collecting on about 5 percent of these. That 5 percent rents $4 million for a year for SRS county governments that have contracted with them.
Interest in collection of back payments and finding non-paying parents, has increased in the past five years.
SRS pays the child support for the parents who refuse to pay, and seeking out the parents, whether men or women, is the only way to reimbure SRS for the $200 million the taxpayers pay.
DOUGLAS COUNTY entered into a reciprocal
Also it is a felony not to pay child support in Kankan or attorneys in highly populated counties, prosecution is
agreement with other states and some foreign countries in 1978, to take action against non-paying parents. The county fronted the district attorney's office to investigate administration costs, and sat back and waited for results.
Results came quickly. In the first year of the contract, the district attorney's office collected $16,800, using various legal procedures to enforce child support obligations.
In 1979, cases processed through the Douglas County District Attorney's office resulted in payments of $47,839. Administrative costs to the county were only $14,000, and quickly paid off.
In addition, the county received payment of $4,000 in straight profit as incentive from SRS. The payment was part of the contract, which guarantees the county 15 percent of the money collected.
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