The University Daily
A taste of home
Training table supervisor dishes up family atmosphere. See story on page 6.
KANSAN
Sunny, mild High. 47. Low. 30 Details on page 3.
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas.
Vol. 95, No. 98 (USPS 650-640)
Violations claimed in asbestos removal
Tuesday, February 19, 1985
By CINDY McCURRY Staff Reporter
Larry Renbarger thinks he and his 8-year-old son, Tony, eventually will die from exposure to asbestos.
Renbarger said he was one of the facilities operations workers who helped destroy a 40-foot boiler containing asbestos over a one-year period that ended last fall.
Federal guidelines for asbestos removal weren't followed when the 50-year-old boiler was demolished inside the campus power plant, southwest of Watson Library, and removed from the plant, he said.
"I pretty scared," Renbager said last night. "I consider myself as good as dead.
"I'm even more scared I may have brought it home to my son."
Asbestos is a fire-proofing material that causes cancer and other diseases in those exposed to it, said Wolfgang Brandner, regional asbestos director of the Environmental Protection Agency in Kansas City, Mo.
The boiler was insulated with about 50 cubic feet of mortar containing 10 percent asbestos, preliminary studies by the Kansas Department of Human Resources have
Richard L. Smith and Steve Braswell, facilities operations workers, also said federal guidelines had not been followed in the boiler demolition.
"I have four kids at home that may have contaminated at some point," Smith said.
On Feb. 6, Smith and Brasswell sent a letter to Paul K. Dichoff, labor negotiator for the Kansas Department of Human Resources, charging that facilities operations officials had ignored the safety of workers who injured the boiler and removed the asbestos.
Rrica Waddill/KANSAN
Britten and Brasswell also said other people had death and had been placed in danger.
Copies of the letter were sent to 27 other people, including John. John Carlin, local state legislators, Chancellor Gene A. Budig and Robert Cobb, executive vice chancellor.
member panel appointed to investigate the demolition and removal of the boiler. The panel was formed in response to Budig's request that the Department of Human Resources investigate after employees complained that the demolition and removal violated safety guidelines.
Smith said in his letter that the removal of the asbestos might have exposed people outside the power plant to asbestos.
"Boiler insulation was thrown off the top of the boiler for handling, and a fair amount of it was shaved into the draft tube that led from the boiler to the smokestack," he wrote.
Last night, Smith said, "Stuff just went out the doors and windows and one time out the smokestack."
Emit Trybom, chief power plant engineer,
said last night that protective masks and
clothing had been available for workers who
had wanted them.
and robert cool, executive vice chairman.
Dickhoff is the chairman of a three-
"Materials were there for them to put on paper suits and rubber masks with filters from a respirator."
Smith said, "They told us, 'You can use these at your own discretion.' I didn't really know what asbestos was."
Smith and other workers began dismantling the boiler in September 1983. He said he became concerned when a co-worker said insulation in the boiler might contain
In his letter, Smith said he was offered a mustache. He asked when he asked his employees at the plant to apply.
"I felt it was impossible to safely use a cutting torch while wearing a paper suit," Smith wrote in the letter.
"In addition, not only could I not wear the mask and my safety goggles at the same time, but a co-worker pointed out that the mask was not needed. And that it was not to be used in abrasives dust."
Braswell said he had not been directly involved in dismantling the boiler. He said he had been doing electrical work inside the power plant last summer and fall.
"I tried to avoid the boiler floor when the dust was the heaviest." Braswell wrote, "but on Nov. 19, 1984, I was working on the
Major Paul Findley of the Lawerence Fire Department kicks a flaming pot off the front porch at 1137 Kentucky St. Firemen were called to the house at 4:40 p.m. yesterday when a neighbor smelled smoke and heard a smoke alarm. Craig Wright, Shawnee junior, said his roommate, Mark LaRue, Shawnee senior, had put a pot roast on the stove at 1 p.m. and turned down the heat before going to class. "I guess the water just boiled away and the pot roast did its thing." Wright said. He said the only damage was to the pot.
See ASBESTOS, p. 5, col. 1
Financial aid cuts would affect 3,200 at KU
Bv JOHN HENSON
Jeff Weinberg, the associate director, said last week that about 43 percent of the nearly 7,400 students receiving some form of federal assistance see that aid diminished or eliminated.
Staff Reporter
The financial aid office obtained the numbers in a computer study conducted earlier this month at the request of David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs.
supplemental educational opportunity grants.
Federal financial aid is offered in the form of guaranteed student loans, Pell grants, national direct student loans, work study and
Weinberg said that about 1,800, or 24 percent, of the nearly 7,400 students receiving federal financial aid each had benefits totaling more than $4,000. Under Reagan's proposal, he said, students would have to give up any federal aid in excess of $4,000.
About 3,200 KU students would lose financial aid if Congress approves President Reagan's proposed financial aid cuts, according to the associate director of financial aid.
ALSO, ABOUT 1,400, or 27 percent, of the nearly 5,200 students who have guaranteed student loans would be ineligible for those loans because they have combined family incomes of more than $2,500. Weinberg said. Reagan's proposals would cut off aid for students with family incomes above $2,500.
Another part of the president's proposal would prohibit students with family incomes of more than $25,000 from receiving aid, or 229, or about 8 percent, of the 2,909 students now receiving Pell.
grants had family incomes above the proposed limit.
NO FIGURES WERE available on the number of students under 22 who receive financial aid as independent students. But financial aid, the number probably would be "significant."
A fourth part of Reagan's proposal would classify a student under 22 years old with at least one living parent as financially independent, raising the amount of parental assistance received.
WEINBERG ALSO SAID that by the time the proposals took effect, more students would be affected by the $4,000 aid ceiling. The changes would affect primarily out-of-state students if implemented now, he said, but in the fall of 1987 they would affect "most students, particularly the needy."
The $2,500 family income limit and the $4,000 aid limit probably would affect different groups of students, Weinberg said, because few dependent students with family incomes over $2,500 are eligible for more than $4,000 in aid.
Last month, Chancellor E. A. Budig criticized Resignar's plan to attack the university. Budig said,
The proposed cuts, if approved by Congress, would take effect Oct. 1, 1986. Since students could file financial aid applications for the 1986-87 school year before that date, the effects of Reagan's proposed changes would not be felt until the fall of 1987.
Weinberg said students receiving more than $4,000 in aid were "mostly needy".
By then, Weinberg said, more family business probably will have crept above 10%.
Enrollment sets record on 20th day
By J. STROHMAIER Staff Reporter
Enrollment for the Lawrence campus increased to 23,177 for both on- and off-campus centers, an increase of 267
Spring enrollment at the University has reached an all-time high, according to 20th-day enrollment figures released yesterday by the office of student records.
The head count for the two KU campuses and off-campus locations, which is calculated from enrollment figures as of Feb. 12, is 242 students from the spring 1984 enrollees.
Staff Reporter
Enrollment figures
See AID, p. 5, col.3
On the 20th day of classes
Semester Headcount
■ Spring 1985 25,437
■ Fall 1984 26,744
■ Spring 1984 25,192
■ Fall 1983 26,620
■ Spring 1983 25,267
■ Fall 1982 24,400
■ Spring 1982 25,284
students from spring 1984. Enrollment declined by 25 students at the College of Health Sciences for a total of 2,427.
The University also recorded its third-highest full-time equivalent enrollment for a spring semester. PTE enrollment is up 38 from spring 1864 enrollment, for a total of
THE FTE FIGURE is used by the Board of Regents and the Kansas Legislature to determine a budget for the University's operating funds. The figure is calculated for the Lawrence campus but not for the College of Health Sciences.
The figure is calculated by dividing the total number of credit hours by the average full-time credit course load. The average course load for undergraduates is 15 hours; for law students, the average is 12 hours; and for graduate students, nine hours.
The enrollment figures include students who enrolled after the first day of classes, but exclude students who enrolled and then dropped out, said David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs. He said 20th-day figures were arbitrarily chosen for use as the official head count for the University for that semester.
AMBLER SAID THE record-breaking enrollment was surprising because of a decline between 7,000 and 8,000 graduating from the school City, Kan., during the past eight years.
Chancellor Gene A. Budig said in a prepared statement that he was encouraged by the increase in spring enrollment.
"The Lawrence campus has experienced a record high head count enrollment," Budig said. "That impressive count means an unprecedented number of able students have elected to cast their lot with the University of Kansas."
Marvin Burris, Regents associate director for the budget, said this spring's enrollment
See ENROLL, p. 5, col. 4
Passing the bucks to student groups A comparison of allotments to revenue code organizations
Listed below are the Student Senate allotments for fiscal year 1985 and the Finance Committee recommendations for fiscal year 2001. The two groups. Revenue code groups are financed by the Senate every two years but receive money annually. On Thursday, the Senate will vote on budget proposals and could result in a $1 increase in the student activity fee.
Allotment for FY 1985
Groups to argue need for more Senate funds
By NANCY STOETZER Staff Reporter
Four student organizations have voiced disapproval over the Student Senate Finance Committee's budget proposal for the 1985-86 school year and plan to ask the Senate to overturn the committee's recommendations.
Representatives from the Transportation Board, Robinson Gymnasium, radio station KJHK-FM and Legal Services for Students said yesterday that the proposed allotments would not be enough to cover expenses. The groups plan to ask the Senate to reconsider the proposed allocations at Thursday night's meeting.
The Senate will vote on the proposals at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Big Eight Room of the Kansas Union. The budget recommendations will
THE SENATE APPROVED five new groups for revenue code status this year, and most of the other 15 new groups are asking for more money.
Last week, the Finance Committee approved funds for 20 revenue code groups and a $1 increase in the student activity fee to cover the greater demands on the fiscal year 1986 budget.
then go to David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs.
Student groups are financed by the student activity fee that students pay each semester with their tuition. Under the proposal, students would pay a $25 activity fee in the fall and spring semesters of fiscal year 1986. The summer semester activity fee would increase 50 cents to $12.50 for each student.
REVENUE CODE GROUPS equest money from the Senate every two years but receive funds annually. Revenue code groups are generally large student groups that serve many students.
students Mark Sump, Transportation Board secretary, said the board would protest the committee's proposed allocation because it was insufficient.
The transportation board requested $366,975 for fiscal 1986. The finance committee recommended that the Senate give the board $244,530, the same amount the board received for fiscal 1985.
Sump said the board needed a $110,000 increase in addition to the amount proposed by the finance committee to cover additional costs such as the new West Campus route and increased contract costs. He said the board would ask the Senate to
See FINANCE, p. 8, col. 1