CAMPUS AND AREA
University Daily Kansan, October 28, 1983 Page 8
Proposal simplifies buying computer equipment
By PAUL SEVART Staff Reporter
TOPEKA — A committee of the Kansas Legislature has drafted a bill that would allow Board of Regents schools to bypass the tangle of red tape required of state agencies that want to buy computer equipment.
The bill, supported by the Regents and by Richard Mann, KU director of information systems, would speed the process of approving equipment, especially microcomputers, for schools and departments.
The House committee on communications, computers and technology drafted the bill under which Regents schools would no longer need approval of information systems and computing to buy computing equipment.
State Rep. Mike Meacham, R-Wichita and chairman of the committee, said that under present practice, the Regents schools did not have to provide as much information for a review as other agencies.
THAT AGREEMENT was reached, Meacham said, because the department did not have enough people to do more in-depth reviews with the large volume of proposals generated by the seven Regents schools.
The proposed bill would clear the schools from the department's authority entirely, although Mann said the department had worked with the department on other matters.
The committee read a letter from Patrick J. Hurley, secretary of administration, to Meacham concerning the proposed legislation. The information systems department is a branch of Hurley's department.
Hurley said in the letter, "The feeling is that some degree of general oversight is desirable and appropriate. I would hope that your committee can make sure you benefit overall to the state and would not propose this draft bill for introduction."
MEACHAM DELAYED committee action on the proposed bill because no one was present from the start. The matter will be taken up again in the committee's
November meeting.
Mann told the committee that KU and the other Regents schools had competent professionals who could decide the merits of proposed computer equipment better than the department's staff, which he said lacked specialists in academic computing needs.
The review process often requires many pages of information to be submitted even for the purchase of a product. The review team might also that might cost less $500 or $600.
Mann said that he had never had a proposal for KU turned down by the department, but that the department often asked for more information than KU originally provided for the review. Compiling the extra information takes more time, and can delay a project that might be badly needed, he said.
"IN THE LAST year particularly," Mann said, "the institutions have been very, very burdened by how much information they have to produce. The rest of us have not talked about, I think, is unreasonable. he's making me dot every 'i' and
By comparison, Mann said, requests for electronic typewriters and word-processing equipment that might cost much more than the computer equipment required to such harsh seriety, because they are not considered computer equipment.
Another problem caused by rules and regulations, Mann said, is that the department has interpreted state law to mean that equipment a school might acquire through a gift or grant is subject to approval by the department.
THAT REQUIREMENT impinges on the academic freedom of researchers who might have to ask the department before they applied for a federal grant that might involve the purchase of computing equipment, Mann said.
That requirement also contradicts recent state efforts to improve cooperation between academics and industry, he said.
For instance, Mann said he had to ask the department's permission for the University to use an IBM computer system to benefit Life Insurance of Topeka.
ON CAMPUS
TODAY
SIGMA DELTA CHI, Society of Professional Journalists and the Photojournalism Students Association will sponsor a panel discussion on photographer-reporter relations featuring a reporter and photographers in the Karmata City Times at 3:30 p.m. and 10:30 p., StuartFinn Hall.
AN ANTHROPOLOGY proseminar on "Interactions of the Living and the Dead in Japanese Pre-Funeral Spaces" will be at 4:30 p.m. in the Jayhawk Room of the Kansas Union.
INTERVARSITY Christian Fellowship will feature Dick Keyes, a speaker for World View and Relationships Seminar, in an informal discussion from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Alcove B of the Union.
THE EMILY Tailor Women's Resource Center will sponsor "Career Exploration for Women," a career expo for women in the Regionalist Room of the Union.
KU FOLK DANCE Club will meet at 7:30 p.m. on the second floor of the Military Science Building.
MONDAY
UNDERGRADUATE Biology Club will meet at 4 p.m. in the Sunflower room of the Union cafeteria.
KJIK WILL BROADCAST "Alternative Conversations," with open phone lines, at 6 p.m.
YOKO YOSHIKAW, professor from the University of Kyoto, will speak on "Japanese Politics" at 9:30 a.m. in Room 109 Blake Hall.
KU MOUNTAINEERING Association will meet at 7 p.m. in the Oread Room of the Union.
STUDENT CREATIVE Anachronists will meet at 8 p.m. in the Union.
BASEBALL SIMULATIONS Club will meet at 7 p.m. in Parlor C of the Union.
VALUABLE TAKE-OUT COUPON
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Friday & Saturday October 28th and 29th Only For the Courageous Woodruff
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COMING UP AT SUA:
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Tuesday. Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor
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Tues.-Sat. 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
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To ensure you have your textbooks for this semester please purchase them by the first of November. After this time books will be returned to the publisher.
Let the sunshine in...AGAIN!
Presented by The University of Kansas Theatre and the School of Fine Arts. Book and Lyrics by Gerome Rigaert and James Hook. Music by Gall MacDermot
November 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 1983 • 8:00 p.m. nightly • Crafton-Preyer Theatre / Murphy Hall
Tickets on sale in the Murphy Hall Box Office. All seats reserved. For reservations visit 00180343882. Partially funded by the KU Student Activities Fund
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