The University Daily
Regent honored Papers dedicated to library Inside, p. 7
KANSAN
SUNNY
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
High, 62. Low, 32.
Details on p. 2
Vol. 94, No. 105 (USPS 650-640)
Wednesday morning, February 22, 1984
Marines start withdrawal from Lebanon
Evacuation of Beirut should be completed in week, officials say
By United Press International
BEIRUT. Lebanon — U.S. Marines began withdrawing from Lebanon yesterday, ending their 17-month peacekeeping mission, as Israeli warplanes again pounded targets near Beirut.
OFFICIALS WOULD not say how many Marines were withdrawn yesterday but said the numbers are too small.
The Marines will be stationed offshore indefinitely under orders from President Rea.
The withdrawal of the 1,200 Marines remaining from a force that once numbered about
United Press International
See MIDEAST. p. 5. col. 1
BEIRUT, Lebanon — U.S. Marines preparing to leave Beirut gather near a helicopter at Beirut International Airport. U.S. of-
Education enrollment falls for fourth year
By JENNY BARKER Staff Reporter
Although enrollment at the Lawrence campus of the University of Kansas has increased since 1980, enrollment in the School of Education has dropped by more than one-third during that
Jerry Bailey, assistant dean of the School of
Enrollment at KU reflected a nationwide trend.
Enrollment in the school this semester is down 100 from last spring and nearly 550 from spring 1980.
ONE OF THE REASONS enrollment has dropped to 950 students at KU is that the school-aged
population has declined and the need for teachers is not as great, he said.
If you're a bright, young, undergraduate student in college, go to go to a field where you can get a job. "Bob"
But Dale Scannell, dean of the School of Education, said that the number of students in kindergarten through third grade was increasing, and that eventually, the employment opportunities for teachers would increase.
"I don't know how fast there will be a turn around. Seannel said, "But I look for momentum."
HE SAID THAT the five-year program's tougher grade-point average requirement — 2.5 instead of 2.2 — had probably screened out some students.
Bailey said another reason for the decrease in enrollment in the School of Education at KU was the five-year education program started here three years ago.
And some students can't afford the fifth year of school, Bailey said. KU is the only Regents' institution with a five-year program in the School of Education.
"If you're really financially strapped, and your choices are to come to KU and get a program in five years or go somewhere else and get it in four, it becomes a non-choice." Bailey
Scannell said that the relatively low salaries of teachers and reports of violence in schools had also affected enrollment in the education programs.
However, Bailey defended the school's decision to extend its program, and said that a good five-year education program would eventually draw students to the University.
*OBVIOUSLY, bad salaries and bad working conditions have some impact on people trying to get a job.*
Bailey said enrollment in education programs had also dropped because many women who in the past would have become teachers, now studied to enter other professions.
The decreased enrollment in the School of Education has affected the amount of money that the school receives, Bailey said, because state financing of the Board of Regents
See ENROLL. p. 5, col. 4
House panel approves bill to raise drinking age
By LORI DODGE
Staff Reporter
TOPEKA — The drinking age for 3.2 percent beer was down from 19 to under a bill this year, the yesterday House.
Members of the House Federal and State Affairs Committee recommended that the House approve the bill because they said they were concerned about the number of 18-year-old high school students who bought beer and drank before school or during lunch periods.
They said they were also worried about burglar students who bought beer for voucher friends.
THE BILL WAS introduced by State Rep. Don Sallee, R-Troy, as a substitute measure to a bill
that would have raised the age to 21 for buying
3.2 percent beer except in taverns.
If passed, the bill would go into effect July 1.
The bill would not affect 21-year-olds who may now buy beer and hard liquor.
The committee also approved an amended bill that would make it possible for persons who sold alcohol to a minor to be held liable for damages caused by the minor.
Under the bill, a person who furnished alcohol to a minor could be considered negligent if the minor caused property damage, personal injury or harm. The minor could also be held liable for damage.
Both bills now go to the full House. If the House passes the bills, they will then go to the Senate for a vote. If the Senate approves the bills, they
then will go to Gov. John Carlin for his signature.
then will go to GoV. John Carlin for his signal State Rep. Ginger Barr, R-Auburn, told the conference that she was concerned about minors who obtained false identification to buy alcohol illegally.
SHE SHOWED THE committee a false I.D. that she received through the mail. The picture identification was accompanied by a blank birth certificate.
The Florida company that sold the identification to her was advertised in the back of a magazine, she said.
State Rep. Jessie Branson, D Lawrence, said that she had not yet decided whether she would support the measure that would raise the drinking age to 19 when it came up for debate on the House floor.
SHE SAID SHE had been contacted by many Lawrence-area parents and neighborhood associations who supported raising the age to 19 because of the problems in the high schools
"I knew I wouldn't vote for the 21, though," she said. "There's something wrong about giving people responsibility such as being their own bosses, and then saying they can't drink 3.2 beer."
State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-Lawrence,
said that high school students drinking during
school hours was not a problem the Legislature
should handle.
"If high school kids are going to school drunk on beer, then it's a discipline problem," she said. "It's an enforcement problem on the local level."
Existing halls need repairs, presidents say
Leaking roofs called more important than new schol hall plans
By TODD NELSON Staff Reporter
Last week, Chancellor Gene A. Budig announced plans to construct a new scholarship hall within two years that will house 50 women.
Scholarship hall presidents who said they were living under leaky roofs said yesterday that the University of Kansas should first solve maintenance problems before spending $1 million to build a new hall.
But some presidents of the University's eight scholarship halls oppose the decision.
TOM MAGLIERY, president of Grace Pearson Scholarship Hall, said, "I think it's too bad because some of the halls could use maintenance."
The roof of Grace Pearson has been leaking water into some rooms for the past couple of years, causing plaster to fall off the walls, he said.
Sharla Cloud, president of Watkins Scholarship Hall, said that although housing maintenance workers had made repairs in that hall, it still needed to have some window locks and wooden floors repaired, and a leaky roof over the television room patched.
But J. J. Wilson, KU director of housing, said that department maintenance workers had completed as many repairs in the scholarship halls as residents' fees allowed.
MONEY FOR THE $1 million hall will come from a private trust fund established by Elizabeth Wakins to support Miller and Watkins. The funds will contribute $28,625 contributed the money to build the two halls.
Residents would not be paying for the new hall. Wilson said.
Cloud, a member of the All Scholarship Hall Council selections Committee, review requests
Cloud also said that the waiting list for space in women's scholarship halls had not been large enough to justify expansion while structural problems existed in many scholarship halls.
Scholarship hall residents are selected on the basis of their academic achievements in high school.
"The amount of people left over wouldn't provide enough quality women to make a good scholarship hall," Cloud said.
"I THINK THE real problem is that we've been through so many things year after year, and they didn't give sorry.
Not other naval presidents said they would support the expansion of the system, as long as academic standards were not lowered to fill the balls.
Kevin Slemman, president of the All Scholarship Hall Council), said that he would not comment on the case.
"I am in favor of seeing the system grow." Selman said. "Whether it's the right time or not,
See HALLS, p. 5, col. 4
Rate bills discussed in hearing
*By LORI DODGE Staff Reporter
Hearings began yesterday in the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee on three bills outlining what powers the KCC should have regarding possible excess generating capacity at a nuclear plant under construction near Burlington.
TOPEKA — Onlookers at a house hearing yesterday broke into applauses in support of testimony favoring legislation that would give the Kansas Corporation Commission more helix considering Wolf Creek rate increases.
"KANSANS SHOULD not have to pay for the mistakes of the management of KG&E and KCP&L," said John Simpson, who lives in Fairway, one of the greater Kansas provide power. "Kansans should only have to pay reasonable electric rates."
Simpson told the committee that he supported a bill introduced by 46 members of the House that would give the KCC authority to determine whether the plant would generate more electricity than customers could use.
Kansas Gas and Electric Co. of Wichita and Kansas City Power and Light Co of Kansas City, Mo., are the principal owners of the $2.67 billion
See RATES, p. 8, col. 5
Utilities see a Wolf at the door
By ROB KARWATH Staff Reporter
"If they go bankrupt, the investors on Wall Street will think that people in Kansas don't care enough to protect their utilities," said Gary Haden, a CIO at Mckeesmow. "Investors will say, 'We don't want to invest money there.'"
Financial disaster looms for the two companies building the Wolf Creek nuclear plant near Burlington unless they can obtain huge rate increases that would pass the cost of the plant on to their customers.
But Kansas Corporation Commission officials and state legislators said yesterday that the most devastating blow would be revealed in the economic scars left on the state if Wolf Creek's owners didn't sidestep the huge losses.
For the past four years, Kansas Gas and Electric Co. has relied heavily on borrowed money called Allowance for Funds Used During Construction, or AFC, to pay dividends on its common stock. P.R. Chandy, a financial analyst at North Texas State University, has called AFC "fake profits." Others have said that companies are having serious financial problems if they have been relying heavily on AFC year after year to pay dividends.
Source: KG&E 1882 Annual Report
"Ultimately," he said, "that money would come out of the pockets of the ratepayers."
A loss of investors would force Kansas utility companies to pay higher interest rates on their bonds and higher interest rates on the loans to try to lure investors back, he said.
Within a year, Wolf Creek is supposed to go on line. The KCC will begin deliberating this fall whether to grant rate increases to Kansas Gas and Electric Co. and Kansas City Power and Light Co. the plant's principal builders, to stave off huge financial losses and possibly bankruptcy.
Last week, spokesmen from both KG&E and KCP&L said their companies would face financial disaster if not allowed to recover the cost of building Wolf Creek through rate increases to their customers.
Most of financial concerns appear to be directed at KG&E, the principal builder and operator of the plant, because its financial statistics indicate that it is in deeper trouble than its partner in the $2.67 billion project.
KG&E presented a plan this week to the KCC for increasing rates over the next five years. The plan would phase in the cost of Wolf Creek and by 1990 would raise customers' rates by 95.4 percent.
Lyle Koerper, a spokesman for KGGE, said last week that the company had been borrowing for the last three years to pay dividends.
The company's most recent financial report shows that since 1979 KG&E has paid close to 100 percent of its dividends with money it does not have. That money is called Allowance for Funds Used During Construction, or AFC.
In 1979 and 1981 respectively, KG&E paid 108.7 percent and 113.3 percent of earnings on common stock dividends by relying on the AFC bookkeeping technique, which lists money paid out for construction as an asset.
Financial analysts have been critical of utility companies for regular, heavy reliance on AFC. They say it signals problems that could lead to bankruptcy.
"When you go over the 100 percent mark in AFC it is certainly an
indication of lack of proper planning and proper use of resources, P.R. Chandy, professor of finance at North Texas State University, said yesterday.
Chandy and Wallace N. Davidson, another finance professor at North Texas State, recently published an article in Public Utilities Fortnightly, an industry magazine, criticizing the practice of paying dividends with APC money.
Chandy said that paying dividends with AFC was a way that the utilities could keep up dividends without actually having the money to do so.
See WOLF CREEK. p. 8. col. 1