KANSAN
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Wednesday. April 8, 1981 Vol. 91, No. 128 USPS 650-640
Seven charge Med Center with discrimination
By BRIAN LEVINSON Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
KANSAS CITY, Kan.-Ban employees in the Facilities Operations department at the University of Kansas Medical Center have been verbally harassed and denied promotions by administrators and supervisors, three Facilities Operations employees have told the Kansan.
At least seven of the 52 black employees in the Med Center Facilities Operations department have file discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Other complaints include cases and EEOC complaints have not resulted in an investigation example, a 1978 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 business. One employee, who is no longer employed with 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 attacked by a white supervisor who walked around the countryshire shop yelling "Nigger, nigger, niger."
An investigation into his complaint is pending. The three men who were willing to talk to the three witnesses, James, 24, Jerry Taylor, 31, and Dennis Burkart, all three are still employed at the Med Center.
Williams, who has worked at the Med Center Williams,
Taylor at a 1977 EECO hearing, which was decided in Taylor's favor.
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 offer.
- Williams, a general maintenance repair technician, was awarded supervisey and was not paid supervisey.
- 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 firm also that violates Kansas civil service regulations.
- All three employees said they received no payment for which other employees were not entitled.
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 educational opportunities for minority employees.
However, Gloria Alba, director of employee education at the med Center, said officials were working to correct the lack of minority educational opportunities there.
Center with discrimination Federal complaint system vexed by backlog
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, Regional 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 cases, and the implementation of a phase 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.
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."
"The EEOE feels the purpose of Title VII is best served by pursuing systemic complaints instead of going after complaints one-by-one, as the case with most of our complaints." 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." Welsh said.
Now the EECQ is investigating six complaints filed by employees in F facilities Operations at the MPLA.
Welch said the EEOC initiated 62 systemic complaint investigations in fiscal 1980.
Three of the six complaintants 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 said that he had been harassed ever since he testified for one of the black men at an EEOC hearing.
ONE REASON for the discrimination problems is the all-white administration of Fortune 500 companies, the officials. Employee records indicate that the highest-ranking administrators in Facilities
DESPITE THE EEOC'S EFFORTS, Norris williams, one of the best complainters, said he felt that a few years ago, when he was
Supervisor 1, the lower level, is a working supervisor. A Supervisor 2 performs more admin duties. There are no black Supervisors. Of supervisors 1 in eight areas, only five are black.
an investigator to his case—eight months after he filed his complaints.
Joe Doberty, director of the EEOC's Kansas City office, said that under federal law he could not comment on the complaints or even blame the that a particular complaint had been filed.
However, in a letter to Williams dated August 27, 1980, from Clifford Hill, an EOEC supervisor in Kansas City, Mo., office of the EOE said it "will be prepared" for "appropriate processing" within 30 days.
Welch said one possible reason Williams' 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 until a time a complaint was filed until the charge was closed. Now, it is usually a matter of months."
Another reason the officials mentioned for the existence of discriminatory practices was that equal employment opportunity and state civil service laws were not enforced.
ANOTHER POSSIBLE reason for the delay in
See EFOC page 5.
Main.
application, they can tell me that a job has been closed and I have no way of knowing."
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."
Since the EEOC complaints were filed, the job postings problems have been corrected and the employee education department has started a class for managers. The class is designed to help
April, 1981
Ampersand
Mangrove The Class is designed
See DISCRIMINATION page 5
New KU IDs should arrive by summer
Dyck said he easily peeled apart the laminated sample ID card the company sent.
The University of Kansas should have its fifth student identification card in 19 years by late this spring or early summer, Gil Dyck, director of admissions and records, said yesterday.
The date is uncertain, Dyck said, because KU is still considering bids for the work from various companies.
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"Right now, the lowest bidder is Stik Suk, Inc., from somewhere in Texas," Dyck said. "We be awarding them the contract if we can verify that cards are of the quality that they say they are."
"But they told us that the sample card did that because it had been run through a laminating machine, not hot enough," he said. "We're checking it out; this card is really a good one, we'll go with it."
THE LOGO on the current ID will not change, but will be smaller on the new card to make room for it.
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.
The last time KU obtained new student IDs was in the fall of 1979. The decision to switch to a make after several academic departments issued Dyck's office for cards with pictures, he said.
"We're not going to force anybody to get a new one," Dick 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."
"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 embossed," Dyck said. "The library will still be able to optic
See IDS page 5