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Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
Vol. 95, No. 133 (USPS 650-640)
Federal employees vent anger at Grace
Wednesday, April 17, 1985
By KEVIN LEATHERS and KATHY FLANDERS Staff Reporters
Federal workers last night once again haunted J. Peter Grace in an attempt to let him know who they thought would bear the brunt of his recommended budget cuts.
Grace, who was chairman of a presidential commission of business executives that last year reported it had found $425 billion in government spending waste, said gross overspending by the government could send the federal deficit to nearly $2 trillion by the year 2000.
Grace spoke last night to about 300 people — including more than 100 protesting federal workers from Kansas and Missouri — in Woodruff Auditorium of the Kansas Union. His appearance was part of KU's Vickers Memorial Lecture series.
Grace cited as an example of government inefficiency computer repairers who were kept on the federal payroll to repair obsolete
computers because no one in the private sector could remember how.
"THEER ARE MORE than 12,000 computers owned by the government that are simply outdated," Grace said. "It's a money inefficient use of the taxpayer's money."
He also mentioned overspending in the Pentagon, citing an example in which the commission found that $345 was being spent for a $7 claw hammer.
“This also goes back to the government’s outdated computer system,” he said. “The government has no conception of its inventory. Sears & Roebuck has an inventory of about $5 billion and has virtually everything on computer. The government, on the other hand, has more than $40 billion in inventory and has no idea what is needed or what is already on hand.”
Grace, also chairman of W.R. Grace & Co., became well known in 1984, with the publication of the President's Private Sector Report, which is now known as the Grace Commission report.
See GRACE, p. 5, col. 1
Protesting federal government employees display their opposition to a speech by J Peter Grace. Grace last night spoke to about 300 people, including about 100 federal workers from Kansas and Missouri.
J. Peter Grace answers a question at a press conference in the Pine Room of the Kansas Union. Grace, chairman of a presidential committee that looked for waste in federal spending, last night spoke in support of his committee's findings in Woodruff Auditorium of the Kansas Union.
GOP moderates fear Contra aid defeat
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Reagan's blitz to get Congress to release $14 million in aid to Nicaraguan rebels stumbled yesterday over the concerns of GOP moderates who fear he was heading toward a stunning repudiation on Capitol Hill.
"I told him he has to deal realistically with same people who share his objectives, but disagree with his methods," said Sen. David Durenberger, R-Minn, after meeting with Reagan at the White House. "He shouldn't go out of this loss."
Reagan's plan restricts the $14 million for the Contra to humanitarian assistance for 60
days while they negotiate with the Sandinista government.
Some critics oppose any aid to the rebels; others want to be sure that the money could not be diverted to buying military equipment if the talks fail.
The White House was cool to suggestions of compromise.
DEPUTY PRESS secretary Larry Speaker said that the White House had seen some changes in congressional thinking toward its budget, though Congress should accept his proposal.
"The president believes his way is the right way," Speaks said.
Reagan, who hammered away at the Marxist government of Nicaragua in his
meeting with congressional leaders and an afternoon conference on religious liberty, acknowledged to the GOP lawmakers "this may be a difficult issue politically." "But we all get laid to do what is right," Reagan said, "not what is easy."
Reagan tacked on an appeal for Contra aid to a speech yesterday calling for support of his budget, telling a group of business leaders, "Pew votes will ever be so important."
democracy in this hemisphere, they will be sending a message of desertion, a clear signal that the greatest democracy on Earth doesn't care if communism snuffs out the freedom of our neighbors and endangers our own security."
In an address Monday night, Reagan called opposition to the humanitarian aid peace talks package "literally a vote against peace."
HE SAID, "A 'yes' vote will signal new hope for peace and a return to the original democratic promise of the Nicaraguan revolution. If Congress votes 'no', if they in essence wash their hands of our responsibility to support peaceful development and
But there were no real indications Reagan had reversed the significant opposition in Congress, which last year denied $28 million in covert aid to the rebels.
House Republican leader Robert Michel of Illinois said that after meeting Reagan that he doubled the president's plan would pass.
KUAC board talks about allegations
By CECILIA MILLS Staff Reporter
In response to recent allegations of assaults by football players, the University of Kansas Athletic Corporation board yesterday asked its executive committee to evaluate the need for a policy to deal with misconduct by student athletes
The board also approved a $6.4 million Athletic Department budget for fiscal year 1986. The budget marks a 12.8 percent increase over fiscal year 1985 and includes an increase in the student athlete's increased that was first approved and rescinded by Student Senate earlier this month.
MUCH OF THE meeting was spent discussing how the board should react to the allegations and the publicity that followed. The allegations surfaced last week when Mike Kirsch, the owner of Gammon's, 1601 W. 23rd St., wrote letters to the Journal-news department in Kansas, complaining that several football players had been student in the parking lot of the nightclub and charging that similar incidents had occurred in recent months.
The Douglas County district attorney, Jim Flory, has said he has not decided whether to file a lawsuit.
At yesterday's meeting, head football coach Mike Gottfried spoke about the allegations, answered questions from the board and read from a letter he wrote that appeared in yesterday's Lawrence Daily Journal-World.
GOTTFRIED SAID that stories about the alleged incidents that appeared in the Kansan and the Journal-World had been told and had reported only one side of the story.
He said he had met with six football players who were involved in the incident immediately after the letter appeared in the paper. Gottfried said he met with the athletes and was given a group and said their account of the incident differed from that given in the papers.
Gottried read from the letter he had drafted for the newspaper.
"As a result," the letter said, "I'm concerned that our entire team has been branded as a group that travels throughout the world and is available every weekend in every beer tank in town."
THEY ARE GOING to make mistakes and when that happens, they should be disciplined. But as a group they also do many worthwhile things in this community with schools, hospitals and various fund-raisers
"These are my final words on this subject. I don't condone fighting If, after determining all the facts, someone is guilty of this murder they deserve an appropriate punishment."
He said handling of discipline in the football department was his responsibility, but he was waiting to see what action the district attorney would take.
Tony Redwood, KUAC chairman, said the board was concerned about the allegations.
"We have every confidence in the Athletic Department and Coach Gottfried that if the allegations are true, they will take appropriate action." Redwood said.
NEAR THE END of the meeting, the board
See KUAC, p. 5, col. 5
Faculty pay too low, report says
By TAD CLARKE
By TAD CLARKE
Staff Reporter
The quality of education at the University of Kansas and other Board of Regents schools could suffer if steps are not taken to increase faculty members' salaries in the next few years, according to a report issued this week by the Regents.
"A Time for Renewal of the Kansas Regents System," the report prepared by the Regents staff, focuses on faculty salaries and other concerns the Regents schools have. Members will begin discussing the report at tomorrow's meeting of the Regents Academic Affairs Committee, which will be in Manhattan.
Stanley Koplik, executive director of the Regents, said yesterday that the state needed to be competitive in salary offerings to keep up with the new schools going out of state schools that pay better.
The amount of money spent on higher education in Kansas has not kept up with what other states are allocating to their programs, the study said.
Another survey, which was conducted by the American Association of University Professors and was published this spring, reported that KU salaries were among the bottom 30 percent for all schools in the nation.
SIDNEY SHAPIRO, professor of law and president of the KU chapter of the AUP, said KU was in the bottom half of any comparison made to other schools.
The Legislature recently approved a 5 percent increase for fiscal year 1986 in
salaries for faculty members at Regents schools, but Shapiro said the increase was
The full-time faculty salary and benefit package at Regents schools for fiscal 1985 was $3,700 below that of the package at peer schools, according to the Regents survey. The peer schools, which were chosen by the Regents because of their similarities in size and other characteristics, are Iowa University, Oklahoma University, Oregon University and Colorado University.
"We're not falling behind, but we're not gaining," he said. The Legislature saw fit to impose the rule.
THE AVERAGE SALARIES for full-time faculty at the peer schools for fiscal 1985 was $39,200. At the Regents schools, the average salary for full-time faculty was $40,000.
The study recommended $12 million more for salaries in fiscal year 1987, which begins July 1, 1866, followed by 8 percent annual increases for the next four years.
Shapiro said that the Legislature and Gov. John Carlin had recognized the problem of faculty salaries, but that they hadn't moved to correct it.
Another dilemma facing the Regents schools is the number of faculty retiring in the next 25 years. At KU, the average age of faculty members now is 47, which corresponds to the average age for all Regents schools in the state.
A recent study at KU showed that 800, or two-thirds, of KU faculty would retire from the university.
Koplick said a large-scale retiring of
professors at the schools would dramatically affect the education of students at the schools. One way to stop this, he said, would be to encourage instructors to come to Kansas.
"We have to be competitive with other schools in the country and in the region," Kokoshi said.
Shapiro also was critical of graduate teaching assistant compensation at KU. Although the Legislature recently approved a Regens budget that included increased fee waivers for graduate teaching assistants, Shapiro said the waiver would not improve. Shapiro said KU could not effectively compete with other schools until its GTA fee waiver was increased to 100 percent.
The Regents study mentioned a common problem that KU, Wichita State University and Kansas State University have — that of adding money to research and graduate study programs. More than $25 million is needed to repair, replace and maintain scientific facilities at these schools, the study said.
Other recommendations in the report include:
- Spending $6 million immediately to upgrade instruction equipment, particularly to replace outdated equipment in science laboratories.
- Spending $7 million over the next five years to establish top-rate libraries at the schools.
- Spending $200,000 a year for faculty to receive training to keep abreast of developments in their fields.
Divestment resolution gets to KU Endowment
Staff Reporter
A resolution that calls for the Kansas University Endowment Association to divest all interests in companies that do business in South Africa was presented to the Endowment Association's president Friday.
By J. STROHMAIER Staff Reporter
Chancellor Gene A Budig gave the resolution to the Endowment Association upon request from the University Council, and assessed the resolution at its meeting Thursday.
"I DON'T THINK I'm going to make any comment at this point until I get a chance to discuss it with a number of people." he said.
The council is the executive body of the University Senate, which comprises all 280 university members.
At last week's council meeting, members voted to pass the resolution, making it the official statement of the University governance concerning divestment.
The Endowment Association does not have to follow the resolution because it is a private corporation separate from the University.
Todd Seymour, president of the Endowment Association, said the chancelor had presented the resolution to him Friday morning, but he would not comment on the
The resolution calls for total divestment in response to the policies of the South African government, which operates under a system of racial segregation known as apartheid. Three University members drafted the resolution in March.
The council also voted to request the chancellor to present the resolution to the executive committee of the Endowment Association.
IN ADDITION to divestment, the resolution also requests that the Endowment Association contact the attorney general's office to see if the Endowment Association can legally divest without violating state law.
Under the Prudent Man Trust Management Law, the Endowment Association, because it manages trusts for others, may not be allowed to divest from companies. The law says that fiduciaries, such as the Endowment Association, cannot divest on moral, social, economic or political grounds.
James Carothers, associate professor of English and president of the council, said he thought that neither the Endowment Association nor the University had the authority to request a ruling on divestment from the University. He said that it was possible to find out whether the Endowment Association would be violating state law by divesting.