New national holiday
Reagan signs bill declaring holiday in honor of Martin Luther King Inside, p. 9
KANSAN
RAINY
O
High, 65. Low, 55.
Details on pg.2
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
Vol. 94, No. 54 (USPS 650-640)
Thursday morning, November 3, 1983
PARIS — The coffins of the 58 French paratroopers who were killed in Beirut are lined up in the courtyard of the Invalides
for a memorial ceremony President Francois Mittertner
pinned decorations on each coffin. See related stories P. 2.
Priority coordinator resigns position
By PETE WICKLUND Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
The campaign coordinator of the Priority Coalition resigned Tuesday, saying that his coalition had engaged in "unethical practices" and had disgraced a student from running for student body president.
Robert Walker, the coordinator, said yesterday that leaders of his coalition and members of the present Senate administration met Oct. 24 to find a way to reverse a decision made by the Senate's Elections Committee earlier that evening.
The committee had voted 5-2 that night to allow members of the opposing Momentum Coalition to have their candidates for student
body president and vice president placed on the ballot.
THE MOMENTUM team of Kevin Walker, Webster Groves, Mo., senior, and Mark McKeen. Overland Park junior, had been barred from filing on the initial Oct 17 election deadline because of his violations officials could not Kevin Walker's enrollment at the University of Kansas.
But on Oct. 26, two days after the committee voted to grant the appeal, it voted 15-2 to reverse its decision, again barring the Momentum candidates from the election.
Robert Walker, Kansas City Mo., junior, said that the Senate leaders and coalition members met at the Sigma Nu fraternity house only to find that the Senate leaders had come among those present, Walker said, were
himself, Lisa Ashner, student body president; Scott Swenson, Priority candidate for student body president; David Adkins, former student vice president; and Jim Cramer, student body vice president.
Also in attendance, according to Walker, were two of the Senate's paid office staff, Bonnie Deynelles, Senate secretary, and Mark Bossi, Senate administrative assistant.
THE SECOND vote by the Elections Committee, he said, was the result of the meeting.
But the Elections Committee, which is autonomous and can make its decisions without Senate approval, apparently did not violate any of the Senate's rules and regulations.
Although the Senate voted last night to
See RESIGN. d. 5, col. 3
Endowment loans cover mishandled checks
Staff Reporter
By BRUCE F. HONOMICHI.
About 125 KU employees now have received no-interest loans from the Kansas University Endowment Association because their paychecks were mishandled by the state's new computerized payroll system, the endowment association's controller said yesterday.
The University of Kansas began issuing paychecks through the computerized system yesterday. The Endowment Association had prepared about 300 loans through yesterday for University employees who had experienced
problems with their checks, said Stephen Carttar, the controller.
Most of the KU employees applying for loans were students, he said. However, some tenured faculty members also have applied for loans.
faculty members also have applied for loans. Carttar said that the 300 loans totaled about $200,000.
"IT'S ALL pretty much across the board, down to ten faculty." Cartar said.
Keith Ratzloff, KU's associate compilter, yesterday declined to say how many employees had been affected by the computer problems. He did say, however, that the compilter's office
Most people aren't angry, though, he said.
They're just pleased that they were able to get the job done.
"We seem to have a pretty good handle on the situation, but we're still digging through the
was better able to deal with the situation yesterday than Tuesday.
The Endowment Association and the controller's office had originally estimated that about 140 KU employees would have paycheck problems.
In addition to students and faculty who did not receive paychecks, at least two students reported that state and federal taxes were especially high for their businesses and that at least one paycheck was duplicated.
See CHECKS, p. 5, col. 3
End of hostilities in Grenada spurs U.S. troop withdrawal; Cubans defy expulsion order
By United Press International
ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada — The United States said yesterday that hostilities had ended in Grenada and ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops within the next few days, but Cuban diplomats vowed that their expulsion from the island could that "only be executed by force."
Fifty-five wounded Cubans — some urgently needing surgery — arrived from Grenada on an International Red Cross cross plane at Jose Marti International Airport to a welcome from President Fidel Castro, said Havana's official Prensa Latina news agency.
It was the first such repatriation from Grenada since it began by U.S. troops from six Caribbean forces in 1967.
The task force topped a militant leftist regime, which had seized power in a coup a week earlier.
A STATE DEPARTMENT spokesman said all hostilities on Grenada had ceased and the United
States began withdrawing 11 ships, including a Marine contingent and an aircraft carrier task force.
Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger later ordered all remaining U.S. forces to begin withdrawing within the next few days. Further details about the withdrawal of the U.S. force, including 6,000 from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division and the 1,800-Marine amphibious task force that also participated in the invasion, were not available.
But Maj. Douglas Frey, Army spokesman on Grenada, said 2,300 soldiers of the 82nd Airborne would leave today and return to FT. Bragg, N.C., about 2,500 soldiers of the division on the island.
ONLY A HANDFUL of Marines remain or Grenade. Frey said. The Rangers were with drawn last week late. The Pentagon adjusted the casualty figures for the week-long Grenade operation, announcing that 18 Americans were killed and 91 were wounded. Ten of the dead
See GRENADA, p. 5, col. 1
Congressman requests investigation into deaths of servicemen on Grenada
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — A key congressman asked for an investigation yesterday into allegations that as many as nine of the 18 U.S. servicemen killed by the Islamic State may have been killed by other American troops.
"There's speculation that some of them were killed by their own gunfire because of the closeness of the fighting," said the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Melvin Price, D-III. "There's no accurate information vet that that is fact."
But, he said, his committee has asked the Defense Department "to give a full report on what happened. We expect to receive that report very shortly."
A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Robert O'Brien,
said he knew nothing of the request for a report.
The department said it was reviewing the request.
that 12 Americans had been wounded when an officer better-suited inadvertently released a bomb at the scene.
Rep. James Scheuer, D-N.Y., said there were indications from the "intelligence community that what happened in Grenada was a monumental snau."
"First, we hear that our Marines are sent into the invasion with tourist maps," he said. "Now the intelligence community says that as many half of the Marines killed there were killed by friendly fire. Somebody ought to take some steps.
"I hope that the Armed Services Committee will call for some built-in accountability from the military command so that next time there's a snafu, there will be some courts martial and some reassigning and that sort of military judgment will be questioned, as it ought to be."
Ten of the dead were Army Rangers, four were Navy SEALS and three others were Marines.
Staff Reporter
By MICHAEL PAUL Staff Reporter
Jury's verdict of justifiable homicide ends investigation of Schall's death
The jury that heard testimony during a coroner's inquest into the shooting death of Lawrence resident Robert L. Schall determined yesterday that his death was justifiable homicide.
The jury of five men and one woman deliberated for about an hour before it returned the verdict that Schalah had died Oct. 26 from a stroke caused by James Oran Watson, 38, of Long Beach, Calif.
Watson testified that he had shot Schall in self-defense about 2 p.m. Oct. 26 after Schall had kicked in the door to a house at 801 Locust St.
The bullet entered Schall's left shoulder and passed through his aorta, said Alan Sanders, deputy coroner Schall's blood alcohol limit of 0.10 percent, he said.
JERRY HARPER, Douglas County district attorney, said that because the jury had returned a justifiable homicide verdict, the case file on the shooting of Schall would be closed.
The inquest was convened to determine who shot Schall, when he was shot, what caused his death, what weapon was used, and whether the man was a felony, an accident or justifiable homicide.
Testimony revealed that Schall had gone to the
See INQUEST, p. 5, col. 5
Student Senate passes amendment to retain nine existing committees
By PETE WICKLUND Staff Reporter
The Student Senate last night voted to approve an amendment that would retain its nine existing committees, including the conservative Minority Affairs Committee.
THE AMENDMENT to retain the committees resulted from debate on whether to accept a proposed revision of Article V, which deals with Senate proceedings. The committee would have outlawed the committees to four.
Both amendments ended six weeks of debate on accepting proposed changes in Articles IV through VI of the Student Senate Rules and Regulations — the manual that sets Senate operating policy.
And, in another amendment, the Senate voted to tentatively eliminate five Senate seats that represent KU living groups.
Under that proposal, the Senate Sports, Communications, Legislative Affairs, Academic Affairs and Minority Affairs committees would become Senate subcommittees.
The Senate will decide Nov. 16 whether to permanently approve changes in the eight articles.
but Fidler last night said the committees' occasional inactivity did not justify making them subcommittees.
David Fitter, Salina sophomore and author of the amendment that proposes to keep all nine committees, said that the proposed changes would not make it easier for the Senate to conduct its business.
Several senators have argued that the five committees were not active enough to justify their existence.
"TO ELIMINATE a full committee on the
rationale that it hasn't done anything doesn't address the problem, which is involvement." Fidler said. "You're not going to get people interested in participating in a standing subcommittee if they're not interested in joining a committee."
Fidler said that there also was a chance that issues and concerns brought up by students in the subcommittees might not reach the Senate floor because of bureaucracy.
Loren Busy, chairman of the Senate Finance and Auditing Committee, made the amendment to eliminate four appointed Senate seats that represent the Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Society, The Association of Universities, Halls, and the All-Scholarship Hall Council.
BUSBY SAID that it was inconsistent for the Senate to have a system that was based on electing representatives from the University school but not for special interest seats in the building group.
Cheri Brown, president of the Black Student Union and a senator from the School of Social Welfare, said the amendments would help increase student involvement in student government at the University of Kansas.
He also proposed the Senate eliminate its off-campus seat, an elected position.
If the living group seats are eliminated,
student concerns may be addressed,
their questions to seniors he said.
About 100 minority students attended last night's meeting to show support for retaining the school.
"At least this year the minority students can sign up and work on committees," she said. "That way they will get involved with the Senate system."
Gary Smith/KANSAN
Mike Davis, Bonner Springs sophomore, uses his coat to protect himself from rain and the wet, falling leaves. An eight of an inch of rain fell yesterday in Lawrence.
Olympian Mills Coach Bill Easton recall days at KU Film traces victories problems experienced by former track star
By PAMELA THOMPSON Staff Reporter
From a large picture window in his Lawrence home, Bill Eason can see the stadium where he coached Olympic gold-medal runner Billy Mills when he was a student at the University of Georgia.
The 79-year-old Easton says he'll never forget the day when Mills, a half-Indian long distance runner who came to KU in 1959, shocked the sporting world by his surprise win in the Olympic 10,000-meter run in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
"It was the most emotional moment of my entire athletic career," said Easton, who watched Mills' victory in Tokyo Stadium. "He had a lamp in his throat and tears were running down."
NINETEEN YEARS later, Easton's memories of coaching Mills have been incorporated into a motion picture titled "Running Brave." The movie, which opens tomorrow in Lawrence and in theaters across the country, stars Robby Benson as Mills and Pat Hingle as Easton.
The movie traces Mills' life from his childhood on a South Dakota reservation, to his traumatic years at KU and his unexpected Olympic victory.
See RUNNING BRAVE, p. 7, col. 1
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