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CAMPUS AND AREA
University Daily Kansan, November 11, 1983
Page 9
Post-secondary school cut proposed
By DONNA WOODS Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
Kansas should consider reducing the number of its post-secondary schools to deal with limited resources and inquiries from its constituents, according to a recent legislative audit.
The report, from the Legislative Post Audit Division, listed several money-saving measures to be considered by the Legislature's Post Audit Committee.
Rep. Joseph Hoagland, House major leader and a member of the committee, said he thought that most of the measures would be adopted by the legislature in a suggestion to reduce the number of college colleges and universities in the state.
The report showed that Kansas has more higher education schools for its population, especially community colleges, than most other states.
"WE HAVE more institutions of higher education in the state of Kansas than the state really needs," Hoagland said.
The Legislature might consider eliminating one of the six Board of Regents universities and Emporia colleges, and would be a likely choice. Hogeland said
"I think that the question of Emporia will be discussed," he said. Recent declining enrollment at Emporia State University is evidence that the university might be closed.
Hagland said that programs offered at Emporia State were offered at other Regents universities.
But no specific proposals calling for the elimination of Emporia State have been proposed.
Rep. R.H. Miller, R-Wellington and chairman of the committee, said, "I don't think there's a serious movement toward closing any of the universities. I don't even think you can say there's a movement."
HOWEVER, Miller said that the state needed to use its financial resources more effectively.
Kansas is ranked 11th out of 50 states, per capita, in state expenditures for higher education, but the report showed that Kansas was only slightly above average.
Kansas spends about $132 for each resident. The national average is slightly higher.
Auditors concluded that the state was well-ranked in financing higher education because Kansas had a more educated population in public universities than most states.
BESIDES THE suggestion for closing schools, auditors said that the Legislature was considering placing enrollment policies in response to enrollment policies more restrictive.
Hoagland said that the suggestion was made because enrollments at Kansas State University and the University of Kansas have been steadily increasing while enrollments at Pittsburgh State University, Fort Hays
State University and Emporia State have declined.
"It might not be advisable to increase costs by expanding at one school while allowing resources at another to be less efficiently used as enrollment and use go down," the report said.
By putting a ceiling on enrollment at some universities, Hoagland said, the state might encourage students to enroll in college schools with declining enrollments.
ROBERT COBB, executive vice chancellor, said that in Colorado and California, where enrollment ceilings have been used, students unable to attend the university of their choice often went to out-of-state schools.
Another suggested alternative, consolidating or reducing degree programs, has already been undertaken by the Regents. Senate President Robert H. Cox described consolidation as the Legislature's most likely course of action.
Auditors also recommended that students bear more of the cost of education.
"It appears that the current level of student support is not overly high compared with other states," the report said, although auditors were unable to obtain conclusive information.
Cobb said he would not be surprised if tuition costs for students increase. Tuition has increased twice since 1981 and is expected to rise by 20 percent in the 1984-85 school year.
Gary Smith/KANSAN
Genelle Denneny, Iowa City, Iowa, freshman, is hit by a gust of ice-cold wind as she walks from the University Relations building. Yesterday's snow quickly melted, and temperatures this weekend are expected to be mild.
KU research center could aid search for cancer cure
By MATTHEW HARRISON Staff Reporter
A new bio-analytical research center now being established in Malott Hall might help researchers invent a technique that could lead to a cure for cancer, the chairman of the chemistry department said recently.
Marlin Harmony, the chairman, said the goal of the center was to develop chemical detection schemes that would be important to public and private research.
"The whole activity of the center is not designed to solve a particular problem such as what causes cancer." Harmony said, "but rather to develop detection schemes that might allow the companies, companies and agents to cure it."
Bio-analytical research involves the study of specific plant and animal chemicals to determine the chemical's biological system in which it is found.
HARMONY SAID that scientists had only recently realized that minute amounts of chemicals in the body had significant physiological importance.
"The technology is getting better and better so we are able to push the limits of detection lower and lower," he said. "We may be working with substances that have no known manner of detection."
Larry Sternson, professor of pharmaceutical chemistry and director of the Center for Bio-analytical Research and Technology, said that although these chemicals were found in the body in trace amounts, many of them were needed to grow crops such as the growth and health of agricultural products, animals and humans.
Chancellor Gene A. Budig recently hailed the formation of the center as the first step in the state's "Center for Excellence program." The KU center will attempt to create a favourable environment that will attract high-tech firms to Kansas.
LAST SPRING, the state Legislature allocated $130,000 for the center off the condition that the University provide matching funds.
Howard Mossberg, dean of the School of Pharmacy, said that the Kansas University Endowment Association has appointed four laboratories to match the state money.
The endowment association took some of their resources, set it aside and said 'here is a corporation,' he said. "If that corporation proves to be viable, then the endowment association may sell off to private investors."
By using existing University talent, the center will provide a high-tech environment for the state without going to go outside the area, Mossberg said.
THE CENTER'S first project will involve researching a method to detect extremely small amounts of peptides in body fluids.
Peptides are a class of chemical compounds found in the body that are a combination of two or more amino acids. Amino acids are the basis for proteins, which are the body's building blocks for all tissue.
"The parts we are looking at are less than one part per trillion," Mossberg said. "We really don't have the capacity to measure that amount right now."
Pharmaceutical chemists use peptides to make drugs to treat disorders
"Peptide analysis is an exceptionally important area," said Sternson, who along Arnold J. Repta, professor of pharmaceutical chemistry, has done peptide research for more than 10 years.
IN AN ARTICLE in the September issue of High Technology magazine, the president of Serono Laboratories said that "... peplides and their interrelationship with natural biological products will have a major impact on food and will fast become a significant force in the pharmaceutical industry."
Sternson will be joined on the peptide project by Harmony, Richard Gibbons, Robert Carlson and Richard Schowen, professors of chemistry.
Other researchers might be brought into the program as they are needed. SEE ADMINISTRATOR.
searchers can then follow that peptide as it moves through the body.
BY FOLLOWING the peptide through the body, scientists need to determine where the peptide circulates, how it affects the performance of the body and at what level it becomes dangerous or lethal.
The experiment involves combining chemicals with specific peptides, which gives the peptide a fluorescent glow after exposure to laser light. Re-
The work Sternson and his colleagues do will not be easy. The isolation of a particular chemical, in such complex mediums as blood, will provide a challenge that many scientists think is next to impossible.
"It's worse than finding a needle in a haystack," he said, "because there you either have needle or haystack," he said. "With this, however, you have numerous kinds of needles and numerous kinds of hay that are very similar — but you are still looking for only one particular kind of needle."
Endowment seeks swifter loan recovery High default rate prompts policy, loan officer says
By JOHN O'CONNELL Staff Reporter
Students who do not repay shortterm Kansas Endowment Association loans by their maturity date can expect prompter recovery action by the Endowment Association that has been approved in lieu of a membership association loan officer said recently.
William A. Shunk, the loan officer,
said that by writing or calling students
as soon as a loan is in default,
the Endowment Association can maintain
correspondence with the borrowers and
stay abreast of their financial situation.
The crackdown is in response to a recent increase in the default rate of short-term loans, he said. Seven percent of the endowment loans, or 5.7 percent, was uncollectible in 1892, as compared to a 4.8 percent default rate in 1980.
SHIUNK WAS hired in May to help decrease the default rate on student loans. Since then, he has introduced changes to the collection process.
The Endowment Association now sends out monthly notices to borrowers to remind them of the loan's maturity date. If that maturity date expires before the loan is repaid, monthly delinquent notices are sent out.
A letter is mailed by a loan officer after the first month of delinquency and no response from the borrower.
"If no reply is received from the letter, we try to make phone contact with the person." Shunk said. "If phone contact is received, then an attorney's letter is sent."
The account is then turned over to a collection agency or appropriate legal action is taken if no response is arrived from attempts to recover the loans.
Interest rates on the short-term loans are 6 percent prior to the maturity date and 14 percent after the loan matures. Applications for the loans are available in the student financial aid office, 26 Strong Hall.
Due to the Maliciousness
Due to the Maliciousness of those who tore down the posters that we put up on campus, we must take this opportunity to invite you to:
THE OLDE HIP-EYE'S "Dirty Thirty" Bash at the Opera House Saturday, Nov. 12, 9 pm-?
Advance tickets on sale at the Hawk's Crossing-$3.50 $4 at the door
Featuring: Shann and the Scams & the Vogues
Paid for by Committee for Preservation on Wildlife in Lawrence Support Expression - Not Repression