CAMPUS/ AREA
University Daily Kansan/Thursday, January 16, 1992
3
Christine McFarland/KANSAN
Richard Kershenbaum, manager of technical services, shows assistant software specialist Bob Sloane where he has received computer mail from. Students can access information throughout the country.
New KU computer system brings students the world
By Jay Williams Kansan staff writer
Whether it is the text of a December interview Borris Yeltsin gave to CNN or current league standings for Spanish professional soccer, a new computer system at the University of Kansas gives students information from around the world.
Both the Yeltsin interview and the league standings are available on Oread, the new computer system that KU students can use for free at different locations around campus.
"Students can come in, set up an account and access information from around the world," said Bob Lehman, a specialist at the computer center.
Sloane said students could use the information for research.
The Oread system divides information into broad catagories by interest area, he said.
The Oread computer network allows students to access information from as far away as the Soviet Union for as little as 20 cents a printed page
The areas include cultural and social topics, politics, science, computers and recreation.
Students can leave messages on the system for other users who ask for information on a specific topic, he said. The answers might come from anywhere in the world.
"If you ask a question about Soviet culture, you may get a response from an actual Soviet, 'Sloane said,' "If you access the space file, you may get something from somebody at NASA."
Oread also can access catalogs from major college libraries and current weather predictions from the National Weather Service, he said.
"Every day, I am adding more
groups of information. The old informa-
tion groups go away," Sloane
said.
Oread does have some drawbacks, he said.
The system can handle 300 total users.
Joan Peterson, data control technician at the computer center, said that 10 people had signed up to use the system.
To sign up, students must go to room 203A in the computer center with their KUIDs.
After students sign up, they can use computers in the computer center and Learned, Fraser, Summerfield and Strong halls to access the program.
Written information on Oread is available for those who sign up, she said.
Sloane said the system installation began in November. Oread has been available for students for only a few days.
Finney blasted but defends budget plan
By Greg Farmer Kansan staff writer
TOPEKA — Kansas lawmakers from Lawrence were disappointed with Gov. Joan Finney's recommendations for the fiscal year 1983 KU budget. But Martha Walker, the governor's press secretary, said Finney had to be concerned with all Kansans, not just KU students.
"The governor feels that taxpayers in Kansas are already overburdened, and we cannot afford as a state to give everybody everything they want." Walker said yesterday. "The governor feels, as everyone does, that those students are the people we are going to rely on in the future. They are very critical in setting the course of the state.
"But they must step out of their identity as students and think as Kansans first."
Finney presented to the 1992 Legislature on Tuesday her recommendations for the KU budget in her State of the State address. The governor recommended a KU budget $12 million greater than last year's, but her proposal was fueled by pre-approved tuition increases by the Board of Regents, not increases in state tax dollars.
Tuition revenues traditionally were supposed to make up 25 percent of the University's budget, but 36 percent of
Kansas
1992
Legislature
KU's budget is financed by tuition.
State Rep. John Solbach, D-Lawrence, said Tuesday that public funds were needed to operate public institutions, like the University of Kansas.
State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-D Lawrence, and State Sen. Wint Winter Jr., R-Lawrence, agreed with Solbach, saying tuition increases would make the University less attractive to students.
"The students are going to pay it one way or the other," she said. "Would they rather pay it through tuition or out of their paychecks? Students need to understand that taxes would be taken out of their paychecks, too."
Walker said the decision to rely on tuition money was made so that taxpayers would not have to face more taxes.
Walker said nearly $3 billion was requested by state agencies, but the state could appropriate only about $2.5
billion.
"That means that the governor had to trim $500 million from the requests the state received," she said. "If (students) were sitting in Topeka, from where would they cut that money?"
Also, the governor did not recommend allocating the $1 million requested by the Regents for the planning of the reconstruction of Hoch Auditorium.
Walker said the governor did not recommend the Hoch proposal because it was a three-year, $18 million request.
"We have a tremendous, multi-million dollar backlog of capital improvement needs and requests," she said. "These are all long-term programs that would meet needs all over the state. Agencies have the opportunity to prioritize, but Hoch is an expensive, long-term project that we couldn't recommand right now."
In addition, the governor recommended only a 2.5 percent merit-pay increase for University faculty and staff, rather than the 5 percent across-the-board increase the Regents had requested.
"We have about 42,000 state employees, and we should give increases to all of them," Walker said. "But the state cannot afford large increases in salary. We have to do what we can."
Finney's budget proposal angers KU students
By Jay Williams
Kansas staff writer
Many students reacted with anger yesterday to Gov. Joan Finney's proposals for KU's budget.
"The people I have talked to have been upset," said Joe Cincali, campus director for the Associated Students of Kansas, a student lobbying group.
covered by tax increases.
He said many students had called the governor's toll-free telephone to voice their displeasure with her actions.
In her State of the State address, Finney recommended to the Legislature a $12 million increase in the KU budget, financed by a slight increase in state tax dollars and a tuition increase of 10 percent for resident students and 12.5 percent for nonresidents.
The Board of Regents approved the tuition increases last fall.
Alan Lowden, student body president said he was bothered because Finney's funding proposals were not
"It seems a little ridiculous to me to propose 'x' number of dollars in projects when she has no solid means of covering it except with tuition increases, which we've had enough of already," he said.
Many students who were questioned about Finney's proposals said they thought that college students, who typed documents of money, were forced to foot the bill.
"It is like you cannot increase taxes for those who have money, but for those who do not, it is OK," Steve Hirsch, chicago senior, said.
Tiffany Buffum, Burlington junior,
said. "I don't know where she gets off
thinking the people who have the
money don't have to pay."
Cinnall said that students paid more money each year to attend the University and that, "We're not getting more services, we are getting less."
Finney, in her proposal, also did not approve a $1 million request to begin rebuilding Hoch Auditorium, which
also angered some students. Some said the state was not doing what it must do to repair the building, which housed 7 percent of the University's classroom space.
"All state buildings are supposed to be self-insured," Cinalli said. "The state is not living up to its end of the bargain."
Lowden he was not surprised by Finney's decision to not propose Hochfurth's
Buffum said, "I saw Finney when she came to Hoch after the fire, smiling and everything. It is sad when the state is not doing its duty."
Slattery discusses health-care costs
Cinalli said there still would be a chance for the state to finance the repairst to Hoch.
The Legislature will debate the items in the budget during the 1992 session, which began Monday. The Legislature also could add the money to repair Hoch to the budget.
Kansan staff writer
"We are aware that we can pass Hoch through the Legislature," he said.
By Gayle Osterberg
Area residents lined up behind microphones last night waiting to express their opinions about health care to U.S. Rep. Jim Slattery.
Approximately 300 people attended the town meeting at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union. It was Slatter's fiftop in a series of eight meetings he will hold throughout the 2nd District.
Slattery said his main purpose was to inform the public about health. care issues and make them more understandable in proposed Congress is debating.
"I think in the U.S. we have the best quality health care available anywhere in the world," Slattery said. "The downside is, it's expensive."
High attendance at previous meetings convinced him that healthcare is an issue that concerns many Kansans. He also said these meetings were important for generating new ideas and for understanding constituent viewpoint.
Audience members included KU students, area professionals and members of the Lawrence Memorial Hospital staff.
Health care is expected to be a divisive issue in elections this year.
Leah Stevens, a Leavenworth family practitioner, was among those who drove from other communities for the meeting. Stevens said her main concern was the spiraling cost of health care.
"The desire for health care is a bottomless pit," Stevens said. "You can always improve things a little
bit. You can always live a little bit longer."
Slattery opened the meeting by explaining a series of graphs and charts related to health care and insurance costs. He said national spending for Social Security and Medicare reached $739 billion this year, more than 27 percent of then-national budget.
Slattery cited tobacco and alcohol use, crime and AIDS as being major factors in rising health-care costs.
He said the increasing costs of health insurance were affecting the competitiveness of U.S. businesses, which provide health insurance for nearly 60 percent of Americans who are insured.
Slattery said $700 of the cost of a new Chrysler automobile went
toward providing health insurance for Chrysler employees, only $300 from every new Japanese car finances employee health coverage.
"Often that amount of money makes a difference in a sale," Slattery said.
He outlined several plans that had been introduced, saying that all proposals could be classified as employer-funded health care or as a government-funded plan.
Nearly half of the audience said it would be in favor of rationed health care.
Slattery stressed that everyone should be realistic about financing a new health-care program. He said increased income taxes or sales taxes were possible sources of funds.
U. S. Rep. Jim Slattery presents national health-care expenditure statistics