KU budget Budig encouraged by action Inside, p. 3
KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
Vol. 94, No.117 (USPS 650-640)
High, 35. Low, 20.
Details on p. 2
Friday morning, March 9, 1984
Reagan's military aid proposal for Central America is blocked
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Reagan failed yesterday to win Senate committee approval of a request for $83 million in emergency military aid for El Salvador and $21 million more for aid to Nicaraguan rebels.
Reagan had asked the Senate Appropriations Committee to provide the money as amendments to two supplemental money bills, but the panel rejected the Nicaraguan amendment and delayed until next week a vote on the El Salvador amendment.
One prominent Republican senator delivered a blistering criticism of the administration's handling of the requests, which were made known to the committee only Wednesday afternoon.
afternoon.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who generally supports Reagan's Central American policy, said if administration officials, particularly at the State Department, handle future requests "the way they've handled this episode, I guarantee them and I guarantee the president for whom they work they're going to fail."
Committee Chairman Mark Hatfield, R-Ore. who opposes the administration requests, indicated the issue was far from settled.
"WHATEVER THIS committee does on these two issues will be redone on the floor," Hatfield said.
said,
the two-hour battle centered on bills to provide energy assistance to low-income Americans and emergency food aid to drought-streken African nations.
Sen. Ted Stevens, R.Alaska, tried to attach an amendment to the energy bill providing the $21 million in a aid to the Nicaraguan rebels but failed on a 15-14 vote. The bill, which has already passed the House, was then sent on to the Senate for a vote.
Sen. Bob Kasten, R-Wis., planned to offer the El Salvador aid amendment to the African food bill, but the committee decided to delay action on the bill until next week.
"We're disappointed," deputy White House press secretary Robert Sims said.
The administration said that the aid was essential.
"The president feels ... that we are critical juncture in Central America." White House spokesman Larry Speaks told reporters. "We'll need more funding in the very near term or we are going to face a deteriorating situation."
He said El Salvador exhausted its military assistance at the end of February and had been
confronted with supply shortages since then. The administration anticipates an offensive by leftist guerrillas leading up to El Salvador's presidential election, which begins March 25.
tion election, which begins March 20.
"EACH DAY WE WAIT, the situation will grow worse," Speakes said — pointing to congressional inaction.
He indicated Reagan might draw the request $63 million from discretionary funds outside the legislative process if Congress did not act swiftly enough — a move Democrats have strongly warned against, saying it would endanger the entire foreign aid bill.
The $93 million for El Salvador is more than Reagan originally requested for the current fiscal year. It is part of a $179 million supplemental request the White House considers to be bogged down in Congress.
Reagan's $8.8 billion long-term package of economic and military aid to the region — drawn from the recommendations of the bipartisan commission on Central America — faces opposition from Democrats in the House and Senate, who challenge Reagan's policies in the region. A lengthy debate is expected.
region Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee held their third meeting in two days, trying to decide how much to cut the president's overall aid request.
Athletes' tutors are paid for idle time
By MATT DeGALAN Staff Reporter
Last semester, the KU athletic department paid $6.50 an hour to tutors who spent many of their evenings in the study hall at Jayhawker Towers waiting to help athletes who often did not show up.
snow up. The athletic department offered the service four days a week, and sometimes as many as 15 tutors were on duty those evenings.
"We were all just sitting around," said Jim Benson, a math tutor, who recently estimated that he actually worked only one-third of the time during the evenings he tutored last semester.
semester
TO REMEDY THE situation this semester,
the athletic department in January cut back the
number of days some tutors worked from four
days a week to two, and reduced by one-third the
hours tutors are available on a standby basis.
However, tutors said this week that the changes were made because the athletic department went over budget toward the end of the semester.
Mike Fisher, athletic department academic counselor, said he made the changes to ensure that the tutors were kept busy. He said economic problems had not prompted the changes.
Brian McCaul, a computer science tutor, said the athletic department had increased the tutors' hours to handle an anticipated extra burden as final exams approached.
burden as that examiners expected came to the sessions, however, and the department ended up paying tutors who sometimes had nothing to do.
The athletic department now employs about 16 tutors, Fisher said. Tutoring is available to all students.
thletes at no charge.
Tutors are available for most subjects, Fisher.
said. He said that if an athlete needed help in a subject with which no tutor was familiar, the department would hire a temporary tutor.
epapland in the year 1983, which ran from July 1982 to the following June, the athletic department spent $42,171 on salaries for tutors — $15,851 more than had been allocated in the budget.
FIGURES FOR THE fiscal 1984 budget were not available. Fisher said, however, that money for tutoring had increased five-fold in the past five years.
available from 7 to
Math tutors are still available each night at the study hall. Our tutors work two weeks a week but be requested 24 hours in advance if an athlete needs help in a specific subject on a night when the tutor for that subject is not scheduled to work.
IVEARE
last semester, tutors worked at a study hall in
Jayhawker Towers Monday through Thursday
from 7 to 10 p.m. This semester the service is
available from 7 to 9 p.m.
Ali Hachim, a graduate student who supervises the tutors, said that last semester math tutors were busy but that others often had little to do.
"We had to learn from our mistakes and make some changes." Hachim said.
some changes, Herman said. Fisher said the new system had reduced but not eliminated the problem of tutors having nothing to do.
BENSON SAID that despite the changes, he tutored for only 75 percent of the time for which he was paid.
Fisher said that tutors would always have a certain amount of time with nothing to do unless the athletic department adopted a "hands-on" program, in which the tutors would be monitored constantly.
collaborate.
He said such a program would not be
in financially practical because it would be
the athletic department to hire additional employees to constantly watch the tutors.
Fisher did not have figures on how many athletes used the tutoring service, but said he would like to see more athletes take advantage of it.
of it. Hachim estimated that about 15 athletes used the tutors each night. He estimated that about 20 percent of the freshman and sophomore athletes received tutoring and that few upperclassmen took advantage of the service.
McCaul said that about 10 percent of the 40 to 50 athletes taking computer science courses sought tutoring.
sought tutoring!
Keeping track of athletes who need tutors is difficult, Fisher said, and the athletic department cannot be responsible for making sure that athletes get to tutors if they are having problems in classes.
problems in classes
The athletic department's main responsibility,
he said, is to notify athletes who have academic
problems and advise them to seek tutoring.
IN THE END, he said, the athletes themselves have to seek the help. . . . .
have by their students. Failure cited three reasons why some athletes with academic problems do not use the tutoring service. He said some were too busy with practices, others were not aware that they needed help and others thought that needing tutoring was a sign of weakness.
turing tutors said this week that the cost overruns in the part of the athletic department budget set aside for tutors had caused problems for them.
Benson, the math tutor, said he had received an unannounced, retroactive pay cut in December. He said that when he began tutoring in October, he was told he would be paid $9.75 an hour.
See TUTORS, p. 5, col. 1
France paralyzed as millions strike over economic policies
A hawk circles above pigeons perched on a house in Lawrence
PARIS A one-day economic protest strike by nearly 5 million public workers brought chaos to France yesterday, disrupting government services, halting international air traffic, delaying medical operations and creating massive traffic jams.
By United Press International
The strike, involving one-fourth of the country's total work force, was the largest labor outburst since Socialist President Francois Mitterrand took office three years ago.
MITTERMAN took office as THE STOPPAGE by France's 4.6 million public sector employees, which also closed schools and nationalized banks, was called to protest wage freezes and cuts in the workers' standard of living.
standard of living. In an isolated outburst of violence in the town of Clermont, north of the capital, several people were slightly injured when an angry motorist drove into a crowd of several hundred striking hospital employees.
hospital employees. In Paris, 30,000 strikers paraded from the central Latin Quarter to the Finance Ministry next to the Louvre Museum, causing further chaos in the congested city by halting traffic across the Seine River.
With only one out of four trains running on the
Paris underground, passengers stood ten deep on the platforms, jostling and shoving to board the few trains.
Air traffic gradually returned to normal but half of Air France's international flights were canceled in the afternoon and remaining departures and arrivals ran at least 30 minutes behind schedule.
With air traffic controllers joining pilots and state-owned airline personnel in the strike, airports were virtually shut down through the morning, with departures canceled and only a few arriving planes landing.
behind schedule.
Hospitals remained open but provided only emergency services. Routine operations were postponed.
postponed.
The strike was called a week ago by public service unions after they broke off negotiations with the government.
THE UNIONS OPPOSE the Socialists' decision to drop automatic cost of living increases and freeze wage increases until next year in a bid to hold inflation to 5 percent.
Spring weather on slopes, beach suits break plans
out to look missionary.
With unemployment expected to climb above the current 8.25 percent and purchasing power dropping for the first time in Mitterrand's term, the Socialists face the threat of increasing labor unrest.
From Staff and Wire Reports
For KU students headed to beaches or snow slopes over spring break, forecasters are predicting some cooperative weather along the coasts and in the mountains to help those miserable mid-terms slip into the past.
miserable mid-terrils sip moisture. Temperatures at resort areas in southern Florida should be in the 70s this weekend, according to the National Weather Service. The sky should be clear over most of the state, and forecasters are not anticipating rain in the state.
Tenight will be cloudy and temperatures will probably drop to 17 degrees. Tomorrow, the sky should be clear with temperatures in the high 40s.
Along the coast, and a clear sky are expected to cause temperatures to linger in the 70s this weekend. Southern California, near Long Beach and Los Angeles, should have clear skies and temperatures in the 70s.
For Lawrence, the forecast is not so bright. Friday's high temperature is expected to be 33 degrees, according the National Weather Service in Topeka. Snow furries are possible, and the wind should be from the north at 10 to 15 mph.
Along the Gulf Coast of Texas, fair weather and a clear sky are expected to cause temperatures to linger in the 70s this weekend.
natures in the tos.
For Lawrence, the forecast is not so bright.
For KU students planning to ski during the break, Colorado ski resorts are reporting a heavy base of snow.
- Arapahoe Basin — 65 inch base, no new,
packed powder.
- Aspen Highlands — 55 inch base, no new powder, packed powder.
- Aspen Mountain — 58 inch base, trace new, powder, packed powder.
- Arapahoe East — Open, no report.
See WEATHER, p. 5, col. 1
Dennis "Boog" Highberger, student body vice president, and Carla Vogel, student body president, say that they don't want to
lose sight of their original campaign goal, which was to avoid becoming bogged down by politics.
New leaders want to stand by own ideals
Vogel, Highberger intend to run Senate by being themselves
By CINDY HOLM Staff Reporter
A picture of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, a Cuban revolutionary who fought with Fidel Castro, now hangs on the door of the student body vice president's office.
Guevara is a symbol for the new Student Senate administration because he stood by his beliefs, Dennis "Boog" Highberger, the vice president, said yesterday.
cant, said yesterday. "Guevara was concerned with making things better," Highberger said. "He didn't lose sight of his goals."
Like Guevara, Highberger said, he and Carla Vogel, student body president, want to retain their original values, including just being themselves.
THROUGHOUT THEIR campaign for student body president and vice president, the Costume Party candidates said they were not politicians and represented only themselves.
and represented only by letters. "We were concerned with getting our ideas across." Highberger said, "not with winning the election."
But now they find themselves in office trying to work with a political process, he said.
"It's easy to get bogged down in the politics and not be yourself." Highberger said. "It's hard to know each
See VOGEL, p. 5, col. 1