KANSAN
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Wednesday. April 8, 1981
Vol. 91, No. 128 USPS 650-640
Seven charge Med Center with discrimination Federal complaint system vexed by backlog
KANSAS CITY, Kan.-Black employees in the Facilities Operations department at the University of Kansas Medical Center have been verbally harassed and denied promotions by their white administrators and supervisors. The facilities Operations employees have told the Kansan.
At least seven of the 52 black employees in the Med Center Facilities Operations department have filed discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Yet many of the internal grievances and EEOC complaints have not been filed, for example, a 178 complaint has yet to be acted on.
KU administrators, however, said that the mere filing of several complaints did not prove that discrimination was actually occurring at the Med Center.
Lawyers advised three of the seven Med Center complainants not to comment on their complaints. One employee, who is no longer employed by the Med Center, could not be reached for comment.
ONE OF THE MEN who would not comment wrote in his complaint that he was verbally harassed by a white supervisor who walked into the country shop yelling "Nigger, nigger, niger."
An investigation into his complaint is pending. The three men who were willing to talk to the Kansen wereWMilliams, 24, Jerry Taylor, 31, Kyle Burcham, 31. All three are still employed at the Med Center.
Williams, who has worked at the Med Center for three and one-half years, and Taylor, who has
From the employee's racial discrimination complaints, several allegations have surfaced:
- All three employees said other men with less experience and seniority received promotions on the basis of performance.
- Williams, a general maintenance repair technician at the company, said that but was not paid supervisor wages.
- Burkhard, a construction worker, said other men were hand-picked by white supervisors for jobs and promotions without having to apply for them.
- Taylor, a maintenance carpenter, said that job openings in Facilities Operations were posted without opening or closing dates for the position. The department also noted that violates Kansas city civil service regulations.
- All three employees said they received all training for which other employees were not criticized.
ACTING KU CHANCELLOR Del Shankel said the administration had been involved in ensuring that discrimination was not occurring at the Med Center.
Although Shankel said discrimination was not necessarily occurring, several officials at the Med Center confirmed that the allegations were true.
The officials, who asked not to be identified, cited a number of discriminatory practices.
One practice mentioned was the lack of training or educational opportunities for minority employees.
However, Glover Allen, director of employee education at the med Center, said officials were working to correct the lack of minority educational opportunities there.
By BRIAN LEVINSON Staff Reporter
KANSAS CITY, Kan.-The discrimination complaints filed by Facilities Operations employees at the University of Kansas Medical Center have revealed several problems with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's complaint system.
The EEOC's inability to keep up with its complaint backlog forced it to reorganize in 1977, when it had 100,000 cases, Reginald Welch, public information officer for the EEOC in Washington, D.C., said. The EEOC reduced the backlog to 30,000 cases.
According to Welch, the reorganization included a separate staff to handle only backlog cases, a rapid-charge process to handle more requests, and a cost-benefit basis on systemic-discrimination complaints.
SYSTEMIC-DISCRIMINATION complaints are similar to class-action law suits. They are complaints filed by different people about the same problem, Welch said.
"The whole purpose of the reorganization was to clear out the backlog and streamline our intake process, so that we could dedicate more time to systemic discrimination." Welch said.
Welch said the EEOC initiated 62 systemic complaint investigations in fiscal 1980.
"The EEOC feels the purpose of Title VII be served by pursuing systemic complaints instead of going after complaints one-by-one, is the case with most of our complaints." Welch
Now the EEOC is investigating six complaints by employees in Facilities operations at the Marmoset Hospital.
Three of the six complaintsans said they were harassed and were denied promotions by their supervisors for racial reasons. Two of the men are black and the other is white. The white man that he had been harassed ever since he testified for one of the black men at an EEOC hearing.
as to where they could get help in studying for the GED (graduate equivalency diploma). Now, we are looking into offering a basic studies program and a GED class for all employees."
ONE REASON for the discrimination problems is the all-white administration of the job, where "unfair" employee records indicate that the seven highest-ranking administrators in Facilities
DESPITE the EEOCS EFFORTs, Norris will complain one more time that the EEOCS list was assis
an investigator to his case—eight months after he filed his complaints.
Joe Doherty, director of the EECO's Kansas City office, said that under federal law he could not comment on the complaints or evenudge that a particular complaint had been filed.
However, in a letter to Williams dated Aug. 27, 1980, from Clifford Hill, an EOEC supervisor in the Kansas City, Mo., office, the EEOC said it would require the "appropriate processing" within 30 days.
Welch said one possible reason Williams's complaint was just now being assigned to an investigator was that the different district offices had different-sized backlogs.
"When the EEOC reorganized in 1977, we moved backlog (cases) around to try to equalize the number of cases each office had," Welch said. "It used to take from two to three years from the time a complaint was filed until it was closed. Now, it is usually a matter of months."
April,1981
ANOTHER POSSIBLE reason for the delay in
See EEOC page 5
application, they can tell that a job has been closed and I have no way of knowing."
Supervisor 1, the lower level, is a working supervisor. A Supervisor 2 performs more administrative duties. There are no black Supervisors. A supervisor is in eight areas, only two are black
THE POSTING OF OPENING AND CLOSING dates for open civil service positions is required by Kansas personnel regulations. The regulation states that "the director (of a department) shall prescribe the period during which applications will be accepted."
Another reason the officials mentioned for the existence of discriminatory practices was that equal employment opportunity and state civil service laws were not enforced.
(They advertise upon positions in the Main-
Ampersand
Since the EEOC complaints were filed, the job posting problems have been corrected and the employee education department has started a class for managers. The class is designed to help
THE AMAZING RICKY JAY
BY JUDITH SIMS
Ricky Jay came to dinner eight years ago. I didn't see him again until this interview, but never mind! In preparation for this major event, I left out a couple of details, but effective—six decks, in various conditions and ages. Jay did not attention to late in the evening. As guests assembled around the coffee table he casually reached for my hand. The other decks were in a bowl off to the side. Then, the Moment I Been Waiting For: Pick a card, he said I extracted the queen spades. "Place it face up in the deck, anywhere in the room," he said, facing face down, the queen was peering up Jay placed the cards back in their box.
See DISCRIMINATION page 5
then indicated, casually, that the packs in limbo on the edge of the coffee table should be examined. I opened the box and found two stacked plywood boards, in every single deck the queen of spades was pointing in the center. The detection We were amazed *I still am amazed.*
He doesn't look or act like any other magician. No top hat and tails, no nose or mustache, no waxy mustache, no well-rehearsed parer Jay looks like a large hipster, a six speed racer with mid torsion. The jacket flows flowing over a nutty three-piece suit. His hands look ordinary, but they make birds appear, money disappear, and you can see the flowing over a nutty three-piece suit.
enirie buildings; his hands trans-
form the shape and substance
and even location of a given
item. Jay is also distin-guished from the black
cape creeper because he’s
bunny
He is not a jokey punch line conceived but rather a beguiling story teller who chirles over humanism, madness, reeling every morsel of weirdness that comes his way (such as his adventures with the monster and its threats for several weeks, or opening for Emily Harris in Lake Tabula). A racon teuf, of which we need more.
He's also an author, of an unfortunately out-of print humorous instruction book. The book is a life like my act, Jay said, "utterly ridiculous but with some philosopy and actual card throwing in it," he wrote. He also has a history of "unusual entertainers over a 300 year period, people who were absolutely famous in their day. They were not the kind of people it was called *Ginnie or Charlize* because so many of them are in that neither world, like Woolford Bodie, who runs a Stage Electrical and Hypnotist
Jay has even written a plot for a TV series, "but I really can't talk about that work as technical advice to his work as artist," directed by Caleb Deschanel ("The Black Station") starring Ryan Reynolds. The film is based on the O'Neal "Iaught Griffin to do real sleight of hand, it was important for us to allow the magic without camera tracery."
brought some guy up from the audience, he picked out two of the four tortillas I had imitated and held them. Then asked him to concentrate on a figure that would be easily associated with American life, something easily memorable. Then asked him to concentrate on the guy to think of Lincoln on purpose. The guy said he had it. I moved my hands around in the air, lifted off the top tortilla — and there was a happy smile on his face. Enjoying himself I looked at the guy as if it were his fault — I shook his hand and said "Have a nice day" Later I took a tortilla and a bottle of Doug Eunus
Throughout this tale, Jay's voice has bulged with barely suppressed laughter. He loves his work.
But he also worried about the fact that he's still not a world famous magician/comedian/writer, in spite of his early exposure to the per month on national television for years (mostly daytime talk shows). About the state of the art in magic, since magic effects are not copyrighted and since they've been talented, less original performers. Magic is the only art form in the world that has been shaped by amateurs. "Jay Magic" is the most people's view of acting as it is. Most people's view of where they've seen a professional performance, but most people who've seen magic have some relative dope, come to their high school — semiprofessional or absolute amateurs."
Jay himself was taught by an amateur—his grandfather. "He was one of a diving breed, a sensational amateur golfer, and he gagged over to professionals." Jay began doing card tricks when he was 4; by the time he was 7 he'd already appeared on television Born in Brooklyn (NY) in 1953, Jey's early years and family are not happy subjects. "I was always being arrested for being incorrigible it was an utter chatic situation at home, my family and I have not called Jey," she said. Jey tells family stories in high school: Jay attended Cornell, Illinois, New York and Columbia universities, bouncing around with no clear career goal. "Jay was really the best," he enrolled in Cornell's hotel school. "I was so naive, I usually thought I could run a casino in Las Vegas could be I'd the only one who would know about cards *and* food. Little did he know the chef anyway *when* the caricature
But Jay has logged a number of hours in casinos since then. "I was banned from playing in a few casinos in Puerto Rico," because he could win so easily; at other times he was hired to spot cheaters (dealers, not customizers) and have the staff handling. "I still have loss of friends who are dealers and card hustlers." How did he manage to avoid the life of a con man? "I was very tempted at certain times in my life, but I too missed it," he said. Your whole life is pretending you're someone you not. You play down your skill, generally you deal to
OFF THE WALL
a partner who wins the money, you can't even say, God. I really hot to night. "Observation you gave you killed." O opposed to a performer, who has immediate gratification, which is oblivious to me. That's the toughest one to do as a writer, write one sentence, I think it is good and I call people up."
So far in his long (nearly 30-year) checkeder Jay's great acclaim and attention came in London, where he later suggested a formal where him after just one appearance on an other show). Jay refused to host a show with a bunch of magicians; he suggested a form where each guestmenchz, Clifford Guest, a veniogroup without a dammy, and Bruce Schwarz, an "ultra-deviant acting" man, throughout until the end. I took a piece of tissue paper and tore it into the shape of a moth, then rolled the paper up into a ball. With the camera on, I was able to change it into a live moth. Freeze frame, roll credit, and then the credits stopped and the moth went right to the ground, around the final music and the show was over. Doing that was worth ten years of schlock gigs. So far Jay has been unsuccessful in conquering that special to American television.
Jay will resume touring colleges this spring (he doesn't always do magic, sometimes he gives a lecture titled "Sense Perception and Nonense"). At the museum in a mysterious skin rash who hospitalized him briefly. He said he might cut his hair, and he was on a diet, so that when we adhere to a ride for lunch, he ordered Perrer and another dollar bill (no, I don't carry them ten); seeing it there on the little red plastic tray was too much for Jay. He picked it up, folding it in two, fourths, and on so down to a little girl. When he folded it — it had been transformed into a two-dollar bill. I smiled. I'd seen him do this on stage. I wasn't really worried, but when he folded up the two-dollar bill and unfolded it to a small sense of relief
How does he do it? I have never presumed to ask, because, like Ricky *w* himself, I love being amazed.
The Latest Astounding Effect
Ricky Jay invites a woman to join him onstage. He borrows a ring from her, puts the ring in the envelope, seals the envelope, and gives it to the woman to hold. She receives the ring at the length of time while Jay produces a deck of cards and says that the cards have a relationship to her ring. The woman opens the envelope. The ring is gone! Jay then closes the envelope and flies far into the audience. There is a balloon hanging from a rafter that has been there the entire time. One of the cards breaks the balloon, a big bird flies out of the balloon and lands on the floor to one of the bird's legs is a ribbon and a little package, and inside the package is the woman's ring.
New KU IDs should arrive by summer
The date is uncertain, Dyck said, because KU is still considering bids for the work from various sources.
The University of Kansas should have its fifth student identification card in 15 years by late this spring or early summer, Gliy Dikey, director of admissions and records, said yesterday.
Dyck said he easily peeled apart the laminated sample ID card the company sent.
"Right now, the lowest bidder is Stik, Stip, Inc., from somewhere in Texas," Dyck said. "We will be awarding them the contract if we give all of their cards are of the quality that they say they are."
THE LOGO on the current ID will not change, but will be smaller on the new card to make room for a new logo.
Regardless of when the new cards arrive, they will cost $1.50, and $5 for each replacement, Dyck said. Purchasing new cards will be optional for students.
"We're not going to force anybody to get a new one," Dyck said. "If they want to keep the plastic IDs, they can. I have around 9,000 IDs that people didn't bother to pick up last year."
The last time KU obtained new student IDs was in the fall of 1979. The decision to switch again was made after several academic records and Dyck's office for cards with pictures, he said.
"But they told us that the sample card did that because it had been run through a laminating machine that was not hot enough," he said. "So we used that card; this card is really a good one, we'll go with it."
"Last spring, we had several of the larger departments request that we go back to picture IDs because they were having problems controlling their larger exams," he said.
THE NEW CARD would differ from KU's current "credit card" model because it would be laminated and carry the student's picture, Dyck said.
"The card will have the same capabilities as the old card, except that it won't be embosed," Dyck said. "The library will still be able to optic
See IDS page 5
It will be partly cloudy today, with a high of 66 and winds from the northwest at 10 to 20 mph, according to the KU Weather Service.
Skies will clear tonight, with a low of 40 and light and variable winds. Tomorrow's high will be around 70, under partly cloudy skies.