Stowaways
The University Daily
Some bookworms just can't leave Inside, p. 7
KANSAN
SUNNY
High, 90. Low, 60.
Details on p. 2
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
Thursday morning, September 1, 1983
Vol. 94, No.10 (USPS 650-640)
Officials call for abolition of merit pay Classified Senate head sees merit-pay system as costly and divisive
From Staff and Wire Reports
The president of the KU Classified Senate said yesterday that he agreed with some state officials who want to abolish the merit-pay system for state employees.
The president, Thomas Swearingen, said he did not expect the merit-pay system to be financed again and that the evaluation process had been accompanied the system was costly and divisive.
Swearingen said the Classified Senate was polling about 1,300 classified employees at the University of Kansas on the subject of merit pay. The results will be discussed at a meeting Sept. 17.
Gail Hamilton, a Classified Senate member, is on a gubernatorial advisory committee investigating merit pay and its alternatives. The committee has met once to review the history of
Hamilton said she would reserve comment on the desirability of merit pay until she had seen the results of the KU poll. She said, however, that possible alternatives discussed by the Classified Senate included annual bonuses or additional vacation days.
On Tuesday, Social and Rehabilitation Services Secretary Robert Harder told the Special Committee on Efficiency in State Government, and asked that he wanted that the merit gap system abolished.
A kitten makes a bid to free itself from temporary confines in front of the Kansas Union. Mel Young, McLouth, succeeded yesterday in uniting several cats with new cat owners.
Harder said outstanding employees should be rewarded with an annual bonus rather than a merit increase. Merit increases, he argued, are built into an employee's salary schedule and
See MERIT, p. 5, col. 5
Shultz shuns Lebanon role by Congress
By United Press International
Shultz outlined the administration's view amid charges that hostilities in Beirut have created a
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State George Shultz said yesterday that despite a "generalized pattern of violence"—including the deaths of seven Iraqis in S. Arabia—did not need formal review by Congress.
See related story p. 14
new situation for the 1,200 American fighting men and that President Reagan should seek specific approval to keep the Marines on peacekeeping duty under terms of the 1973 War
"Let no one doubt," Shultz added, "that if attacked the Martines will take care of them."
The secretary also declared, as Reagan did Tuesday, that the United States "will continue to maintain our support for the Multinational Force and the U.S. Marine component of that force."
Meanwhile, Gen Paul Kelley, commandant of the Marine Corps, issued a memorandum permitting the commander of the 1,200-man peace-keeping force around Beirut to authorize
$65 a month extra pay beginning today, a spokesman said.
HOSTILE-FIRE pay can be granted in two ways: if the secretary of defense authorizes an area as a hostile fire zone, or if a local official with authority to direct his command have been subject to hostile fire.
Only Vietnam, Cambodia and Iran now are designated hostile-fire zones.
Defense Department sources said that there had been hesitation about using the latter route because of concern that it might invoke provisions of the War Powers Act, which provides for the protection of the nation's troops, they must be withdrawn after 60 days unless Congress authorizes them to remain.
THE CONCERNS WERE resolved earlier this month when a House-Senate conference committee adopted language by Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo, that would declare Lebanon and El Salvador "hostile-fire zones" without triggering the law, the sources said.
The Defense Department has endorsed the legislation, which is expected to get final approval from the House and Senate when Congress returns Sept. 12.
The conflict over the legal aspects of the U.S. force in Lebanon threatened to foment another foreign policy confrontation between Reagan
and Congress, who are already at odds over Central America.
Shultz, in a State Department news conference called as the fighting between Christians and Moslem groups in Lebanon flared anew, said the administration was living up to the letter and spirit of the law in reporting to Congress on the situation in Lebanon.
"The president has reported properly under the War Powers Act." Shultz maintained.
"They are involved in a situation where there is violence. It is a generalized pattern of violence. We are reporting to Congress as we should, as a matter of common sense and of law
SPEAKING OF THE Marines, who serve with forces from Britain, France and Italy to help secure the government of Lebanese President Amin Gemayel, the secretary said;
"I believe there is no concerted effort to single out the Marines and target them."
In his letter, Reagan said only that he was reporting to Congress "consistent with . . . the War Powers Resolution" — not submitting the question for lawmakers' approval. Reagan drew a similar distinction when he ordered the Marines into Beret last year.
TWO MARINES were killed and 14 wounded in a mortar attack Monday and fighting continued through yesterday.
Hospital should stay under KU, Budig says
From Staff and Wire Reports
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Chancellor Gene A. Budig and other KU officials told a group of state legislators yesterday that Bell Memorial Hospital at the University of Kansas Medical Center should not be leased or sold to a private management company.
Financial problems in the past few years have prompted demands from some state legislators to separate Bell Memorial Hospital from the College of Health Sciences.
Budig and other KU officials told a new interim Budget Committee that a new management team at Bell Memorial had overcome many problems. Budig said hospital administrator Eugene Staples had increased flow and had improved bill collections, cleanliness and morality.
Med Center officials said projected revenues were up between $1.5 million and $2 million for the current fiscal year, if trends from the first two months continued.
THE COMMITTEE TOUCHED both the Med Center and Bell Memorial Hospital as part of a study requested by two veteran state senators who believe the state should get out of the hospital business
Staples told the committee there was no need to bring in an outside hospital-management firm when he and his staff were doing a better job than a private company could do.
"We should have the opportunity to show what we can do." he said.
Under private management, Staples said, a conflict would be more likely to arise between University educational programs and hospital administrators.
"If you're profit-oriented, then you will lose some of that emphasis on the quality of patient care, the research, the teaching component that has to be in a wedded way careful," he said.
State Sen. Paul Hess, R-Wichita, conceded that his proposal probably would not win the support of either the committee or the full Legislature. But he said the study had proven his point that the University has to market and promote Bob Memorial more than it has in the past.
"That can't be beneath them to market their product, as well as be a teaching hospital," said Hess, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. "They've got the best of all worlds—if they would market what they have, plus their research and new technology cutting edge."
THE OTHER SUPPORTER of a private management firm, Senate President Ross Doyen, R-Concordia, did not take part in the tour.
The committee and members of the Board of Regents will meet this morning at the Med Center to further discuss the feasibility of hiring private management for Bell Memorial.
Several years ago the hospital had a projected deficit of more than $5 million. Staples said. But the budget was not up to date.
Bell Memorial ended fiscal year 1983 with a balance of more than $5 million.
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — The government's broadest forecast of economic activity edged up just 0.3 percent in July, the weakest rise in a year, pointing to a slowdown in the recovery, the Commerce Department reported yesterday.
The slight increase in the index of leading economic indicators reflected continued high interest rates and the discouraging affect of the heat wave on retail sales analysts said.
Analysts in and out of government said it foreshadowed a new phase of slower growth in the industry.
JULY WAS STILL the eleventh consecutive month of improvement in the composite index, the longest unbroken string of gains since a 17-month period that ended in July 1976.
Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige said, "July's modest rise in the leading index is an early indication that the economic rebound of the second quarter will taper to a more sustainable
"To avoid upward pressures on prices and interest rates, it is better that growth in real GNP slow from the second quarter's annual rate of 9.2 percent."
In California, where President Reagan was vacationing, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said the administration was not disappointed by the figures.
"It's growing at a steady pace," he said of the economy. "Things are continuing to look up."
WALL STREET APPARENTLY agreed, sending stock prices higher in a modest rally triggered by the report's suggestion that inexperienced and overly aggressive rates may not be driven higher after all.
A spokesman for the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis, which prepared the latest report, said the weak indicators still maintained by a resurgence of strength after on.
"The small increase is not uncommon in the midst of recovery," said spokesman Larry Moran, eating similar readings in 1975 and 1971 that were only temporary slowdowns in recovery.
END-OF THE-YEAR economic prospects, influencing the 1984 political campaign climate, could determine whether incumbents will be on the defensive. While keeping inflation at bay, slower growth may also do less to help the unemployed.
The single biggest change in the indicators was a drop in new orders for factory machinery
While sales are slackening, businesses apparently have kept stocking up, starting the process of inventory rebuilding that economists have been expecting.
The 17 percent setback, reported separately Tuesday, was the result of widely scattered slowdowns in ordering from automobile to construction supplies.
Economist Jerry Jasinowski, speaking for the National Association of Manufacturers, said, "Economic developments were influenced by unusually hot weather which meant higher spending on air conditioning instead of other retail purchases.
Small improvements showed up in seven July indicators: length of the workweek, building permits, orders for consumer goods, stock prices, money supply and outstanding credit were up, and new claims for unemployment benefits were down.
Grabow hails city plaza idea
By JOHN HOOGESTEGER
Staff Reporter
The idea of including a plaza in the city's downtown redevelopment plan is good, and even more plaza space should be added, a KU professor said at yesterday's University Forum.
The professor, Stephen Grabow, director or architectural programs, said that the idea for a plaza on the corner of Ninth and Massachusetts streets was an "obvious grabber."
The idea for adding a plaza to the downtown redevelopment plan was included in two new
development plans, called options 3 and 4, that were shown to the City Commission Monday.
See related story p. 5
Grabow and Lawrence Mayor David Longhurst spoke about alternatives in downtown redevelopment at the forum, sponsored by the Ecumenical Christian Ministries Center, 1204
"I like the idea of a plaza, it excites me." Grabow said. "No previous scheme had identifiable open space. Urban development by removal is a recognized principal."
He said it would provide room for activities that now cannot be conducted downtown because of a lack of space. The plaza would be a large, open area with trees.
Granow praised the plaza idea because it would remove the department store from Massachusetts Street, where he thinks the building is natural because of the distinctive style.
Although the building would be back from Massachusetts Street, Grabow said, it would still have access to the street and would be integrated with the rest of downtown.
Grabow also said the plan to close Eighth Street and make it into a pedestrian walkway
Mayor Longhurst has been a leader in efforts to move away from Scheme 4, a plan developed by Sizer Realty Co. Inc., Kenner, La The Corner Has been outspoken about moving to a new plan.
Grabow said, "I'm wary because an awful lot of the negotiating is going on in public. In planning, the city becomes part of a negotiating team that is conducting business with private
He reiterated his concern for revising the plan in an effort to save the Barrand Eagan and Co. building at Ninth and New Hampshire streets. Longhurst also wants to keep a one-story department store off Massachusetts, while at the same time giving the business the same advantages that come with being situated on the street.
Also, Longhurst again mentioned the idea of shifting the plan away from the 700 and 800 blocks of downtown and planning redevelopment on the 600 block, closer to the Kansas River.
Options 3 and 4 are variations of Scheme 4.
Longhurst said the public should not be discouraged that the City Commission is in charge.
"They probably won't come up with as creative a compromise doing it in public, and I hope the project isn't hamstrung by having to do so much in public."
Other commissioners have continued to reject the idea, and Grabow confirmed that it would be
"There are more traffic and parking problems and expensive building costs," he said. "Maybe the city can improve."
Stephen Grabow, left, director of architectural programs and Mayor David Longhurst present their ideas about the future of
Stephen Phillips/KANSAN
downtown redevelopment at yesterday's University Forum at the Ecumenical Christinism Ministries Center, 1204 Oread Ave