University Daily Kansan, April 2, 1985
CAMPUS AND AREA
NEWS BRIEFS
No suspects in motel robbery
More than $300 was stolen from the Travelodge Motel, 801 Iowa St., late Sunday night by a man wearing a skim mask, the police say. The revolver, Lawrence police said yesterday.
The motel was held up at about 10 p.m. Sunday night, police said. The night manager told police he heard the bell on someone's doorstep but it did not see anyone at the front counter.
The robber was standing over one side of the counter. When the manager saw him, the robber pointed his revolver at the manager, tossed a white paper sack to him and told the manager to give him money, police said.
The manager filled the sack with $312 — all the money in the cash register — police said.
Police described the man as being in his early 20s, about 5-foot-10 and about 160 pounds.
Police said they were investigating the case but had no suspects.
Ruling due on Culture Farms
A rung to determine whether Culture Farms Inc., a Lawrence company, should be allowed to continue business will be decided in County District Court said yesterday.
Judge James Buchelle was expected to rule yesterday on whether a temporary restraining order against the state securities commission should stand. But a spokesman for Buchelle he probably ruled on the order until this afternoon.
Buchhe issued the restraining order against the commission after Culture Farms Inc., 2220 Delaware, and Activator Supply Co. of Las Vegas filed a complaint against John Wurth, securities commissioner.
The complaint said Wurth had failed to make a sufficient showing of facts to justify a cease and desist order issued against the companies by the commission月
Wurth said he be had issued the cease and desist order because the companies had sold unregistered securities, operated as a brokerage firm, made false representations to consumers.
Police investigate solicitation
Buchele heard testimony on Friday from Culture Farms Inc. officials and the securities commission.
Police are investigating the solicitation of a 14-year-old boy early Sunday morning while he was delivering newspapers near the intersection of Frontier Road and Fireside Drive, Lawrence police said yesterday.
either Police gave the following account:
The boy, a West Junior High School student, was delivering papers at about 7:25 a.m. when a man walking nearby called out to him. The boy continued to deliver papers, and the man called out again.
The boy said he thought the man might be a customer, so he went over to see what he wanted. The man grabbed him by the wrist, but the boy managed to pull away.
The boy said the man told him he wanted to have sex with him. The boy got on his desk and sat down.
Police describe the suspect as an American Indian in his late 20s to early 30s.
Polls open for city election
The polls will open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. today for vague reasons to want cast votes.
Three Lawrence City Commission seats will be decided in the election. Voters also will decide whether the city issues a ballot to vote for or half of the proposed Holcom Recreational Center.
The two City Commission candidates getting the most votes will be awarded four year terms. The third place finisher will receive a two-year term.
Weather
Today will mostly sunny and warmer with a high in the lower to mid-70s and southwest winds from 10 to 20 mph. Tonight will be clear with a low around 40. Tomorrow will be mostly sunny and mild with a high in the mid-to upper 70s. Compiled from Kansan staff work.
Compiled from Kansas staff and United Press International reports.
KU picked to write education proposal
By ANN PETERSON Staff Reporter
The School of Education would receive part of a $6 million grant to establish a National Center for Research on Teacher Education if a proposal drawn up by the University of Kansas and the University of Florida is approved. The National Institute of Education this summer.
Last month, the institute, based in Washington, D.C., narrowed its list of nine semifinalists vying for the grant to four. It selected them at $15,000 to write final proposals for the center.
The other finalists are: the University of Texas, Michigan State University and the California State University System. All of the four semifinalists were encouraged to work with other universities in preparing the final proposal.
Education officers win the grant, IF KU AND Florida win the grant, research offices would be established on both campuses. The offices would review re-
proposal.
The KU School of Education is preparing its proposal with the Florida School of Education. The proposal is due June 6.
search proposals and distribute money to pay faculty and graduate students to conduct research from KU, Florida and other schools.
"Florida's strengths and ours are complementary." Dale Scannell, dean of education, said yesterday. "Together we make a strong combination."
KU and the University of Florida are the only universities in the country that have 5-year extended education programs. They offer a great contact during recent years, Scannell said.
The center, which will receive $1.2 million each year for five years beginning fiscal year 1986, would provide faculty and graduate opportunities, conduct extensive research, Scannell said.
"It WOULD BE very prestigious for the University," Scannell said. "Just being picked to submit a proposal is a feather in our can."
The competition among the four universities picked by the institute to submit final proposals is severe, Scannell said.
Texas is the favorite in the competition, Julie Neururer, Lawrence graduate student, said yesterday.
Neururer, who helped write the grant proposal, said she thought she was lucky to work on a proposal that might have national implications.
Texas has had its own educational research and development center for 20 years, she said, and this year the university is partnering with Center for Research on Teacher Education.
BUT SCANNELL SAID he thought KU had a good chance because it has one of the few comprehensive teacher education programs in the country.
The institute plans to create 11 national centers this year, Scannell said. Each would focus on a different type of educational research. Last year, faculty at the School of Education decided that teacher education, as opposed to secondary and post-secondary education, was their strong point, Scannell said.
The proposal is the result of a year's work by about 25 members of the school's faculty. It was written by Scannell and Jerry Bailey, associate professor of educational policy and education, and Michael S. small points, which will be expanded and revised before being sent to the institute.
KU PROPOSED THAT the center be used to conduct research on education students, education faculty, the content of education courses and the organization of courses. The center could also be used to determine how realistic education courses are and how schools can change to meet the new higher teacher education standards.
"These are the key questions that have to be answered in the next five years," Scannell said.
Neururer and Bailey, who is in charge of drafting the revised proposal, flew to Chicago yesterday to meet with faculty from Florida.
There they hope to elaborate the proposal submitted last month with Florida faculty and a sub-contractor, Grambling State University, a predominantly black school in Louisiana.
"There aren't the number of teachers to meet the demand down South." Neururer
Neururer said administrators from the three schools would discuss financing arrangements and management of the research money if KU and Florida were chosen to receive the $6 million.
David Burkart/KANSAN
David Bushuse, professor of French horn, performs a Hadyn concerto with a garden hose and funnel during the Faculty Follies show. About a dozen music faculty performed at last night's show in Swarthout Recital Hall in Murphy Hall to have fun and raise money for student music scholarships.
Natural Kansas vegetation flourishes in Prairie Acre
BY KEVIN LEATHERS Stuff Report
Staff Reporter
Beyond the chancellor's residence, just to the south of Blake Hall, lies one of the University's greatest anomalies - a plot of ground that has remained virtually untouched for over 50 years.
In the University's freezed effort to find new areas for development and expansion, Prairie Acre, a plot of land near the middle of campus, has become an oddity.
Campbell Since 1932, it's been overrun by wild grasses, obscure strains of flowers and numerous sprouting trees.
The plot is considered an eyesore by some. Others say it's nostalgia.
Prairie Acre, one of the 50 original acres of the campus, was set aside in 1932 by a committee of four graduates who feared that there would be areas on campus would give way to buildings.
AT ONE TIME the entire region was nothing but tall grass, and the members of the committee sought to see that this was not forgotten.
Agnes Thompson, class of 1897; Rose Morgan, class of 1905; Amida Stanton, class of 1904; and Hannah Oliver, class of 1888 formed a committee to set aside an untouched plot of ground so future generations would have the opportunity to appreciate a small portion of natural Kansas landscape.
At the site, the group placed a bronze plaque which reads: "The Prairie Acre. Wheren is set this block of Oread limestone to mark and preserve Nature's sweet fashion of making her garden."
IN 1932 THE site was covered with prairie grass, wild flowers and trees native to the region. It appeared, for the most part, as did 125 years ago, when the first settlers came to Kansas. The only addition was a hatchery built in 1840, built around the soil in 1840 to protect it.
plot in 1940 to pc to professor Jim Mathes, assistant director of landscape maintenance, said yesterday that the University had taken care of the plot according to the committee's instructions — by having a little contact with it as possi-
by living as little collector we mow about a year and that's about Mary. We mail "Sometimes we'll pull a few weeds or cut back some of the trees, but that, too, doesn't happen very often. We try to keep the area as untouched as we can."
Mathes said the University used to have the plot burned off every spring, just as the Indians and early farmers did to the original Kansas prairies.
"THE INDIANS LEARNED that if they burned off the prairie in the spring, the grass would turn green sooner and then the buffaloes would come around sooner," he said. "Although the University didn't really want the buffaloes to come around sooner, we did burn it up until several years ago to keep the land in what would have been a natural state."
Ron McGregor, the University's herbarium director, said the plot then became overrun with weeds and trees and no longer was in the condition of a natural prairie.
But a municipal ordinance prohibiting burning in residential areas forced the University to stop burning the plot.
One month added to delayed starting date
University waits to start new payroll system
Staff Reporter
The University of Kansas will wait another month before partially withdrawing from the Kansas Integrated Personnel Payroll System so officials can further test a new system, the KU comproller said yesterday.
By J. STROHMAIER
John Patterson, KU comptroller, said yesterday's date for the University to switch to the Human Resource Management System, a University system newly programmed to calculate the payroll, tentatively had been changed to May 1.
The University switched to KIPPS, a statewide payroll system, in November 1983 and immediately encountered payroll problems, such as late paychecks for many employees. KU employees now receive their paychecks on time, but the state wanted the University to calculate its own payroll to relieve some of the burden on KIPPS, which is overloaded.
a great deal of work. The revised system, which allows the University to calculate and store its own payroll and personnel data on the 7,500 KU employees, will produce a payroll and employee information tape that will be sent to KIPPS in Topeka where paychecks are printed.
PATTerson SAID THE University would calculate payroll for the April 1-30 pay period using both KIPPS and HRMS.
Patterson said that if problems arose with the HRMS data, the University would use the KIPPS data to calculate employees' salaries and salary deductions.
"We're running two parallel systems with this implementation," he said. "We're in the final testing stage of the system. It's something that has to be done when you're going through the conversion system."
"Regardless of what happens," he said, "we will pay our employees on May 1 without a great deal of difficulty."
PATTERSON SAID THE April 1 date had
Patterson said the University had been testing the new payroll system since January. The tests consist of comparing HRMS data with KIPPS data.
Richard Augustin, director of payroll and staff benefits, said the delay was the third time the date for switching to HRMS had been postponed.
"It's been changed a couple of times," he said. "I think our original date was back in September or October."
to be moved to May 1 because the system hadn't been fully tested yet.
The original date was moved to Jan. 1, Augustin said. The date then was moved to April 1 before the May 1 date was set.
HE SAID THE Department of Administration in Topeka would compare data from HRMS with data from KIPPS later in April to
When the University first began using KIPPS in November 1983, more than 350 KU employees didn't receive paychecks on time, and between 800 and 1,100 employees received checks for the wrong amounts because of problems with the new system.
By December, problems with the system hadn't been corrected, and more than 100 employees didn't received paychecks on time. Also, more than 100 employees received checks for incorrect amounts.
KIPPS was created by the state to calculate the payrolls of all state institutions
HE SAID THAT HRMS would take over the task of calculating KU employees' gross pay, deductions and net pay, and that KIPPS would use that information to write employees' paychecks. Before, the University sent the basic wage and work hour information, and KIPPS calculated employees' salaries and pay deductions.
Here's your Sound Alternative to those dull, boring jobs. Applications to work at KJHK for the Summer '85 and Fall '85 Semesters are available at Blake Annex. Applications will also be available at the KJHK staff meeting Wednesday, April 3, in the Big Eight Room of the Kansas Union.
The Sound Alternative
determine whether the University could switch to the revised system.
Wednesday Special: All You Can Drink
the Sanctuary 7th & Michigan reciprocal with over 245 clubs 843 0540
Food Service Employees Needed Immediately
Daytime availability, 11 to 3 p.m.
$3.60 starting pay
1 year experience mandatory
Apply at 719 Massachusetts Above the Smokehouse