Roof collapses
26 girls killed in Taiwan
Inside. p.9
KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
HOT
High, 100. Low, 70s Details on p.2
Vol. 94, No. 5 (USPS 650-640)
Thursday morning, August 25, 1983
Phone-strike talks proceed 'slowly'
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Bell System and its striking unions extended talks into the early morning hours today trying to reach agreement on how to end the 18-day-old nationwide phone walkout.
Early this morning, American Telephone & Telegraph Co. spokesman Charles Dynes said that the talks were "proceeding slowly" and that the extension was not unusual. He said final agreement by the 34 local Communications Workers of America bargaining units and the Bell System was not expected until later in the day.
Some local bargaining units of some unions had resolved their differences and sent members back to work. But the CWA, which represents 525,000 of the 675,000 strikers, said members would be on strike until all local agreements were completed.
"Our people are not going back to work until all contracts are finished," spokesman Duayne Trecker said earlier in the day.
"I think they'll probably run right down to the wire." Trecker said of the talks. "And I think they'll probably get them done."
Dynes said early yesterday that it was "awfully hard to predict" the likely outcome of the talks, especially because of the large number of separate negotiating efforts.
"Bargainers always work pretty close to the last minute to do their job," he said. "It'll be pretty close."
He predicted the backlog of telephone installation and repair orders that resulted from the strike would be quickly cleared up when all AT&T employees are back to work.
"I think a few days of overtime and we'll be all caught up." he said.
The company and the three unions — the CWA and the smaller International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Telecommunications International Union — reached agreement Sunday on a national contract. Talks continued, however, to resolve local issues.
Local Bell companies reached early agreements with a number of bargaining units across the country, including IBEW locals representing 13,650 Illinois Bell employees in the Chicago area and 23,000 New England Telephone Co. workers around Boston.
In Connecticut, 10,000 striking telephone workers represented by Local 400 of the Connecticut Union of Telephone Workers headed the national training at the Southern New England Telephone Co.
Striking Mountain Bell workers also returned to their jobs in Montana.
The telephone workers walked out Aug. 7. Management employees took over their jobs, but customers encountered delays in operator-calls and telephone installations and repairs.
The tentative agreement calls for pay raises averaging an estimated 16.4 percent over three years and also includes job security provisions for workers who feared their jobs might be jeopardized by the court-ordered breakup of AT&T.
Students' return has effect Jobless rate may drop more
Staff Reporter
By PETE WICKLUND
But in Lawrence, the news was old hat.
An announcement Tuesday that the state unemployment rate had dropped slightly was considered by some state officials as a harbinger of recovery.
Unemployment figures for Douglas County this July were the same as July 1982. And Ed Mills, manager of the Lawrence Job Service office, said there had only been minor fluctuations during the year from the current unemployment rate of 4.8 percent.
The unemployment rate for the entire state was 5.1 percent last month, down from June's 5.4
mills said he had expected the Douglas County rate to drop more when totals for the month of September are released.
"What normally happens is that the rate goes up a little when the students leave town in May, and it comes down when the students return." Mills said.
Although unemployment claims have dropped during the past few weeks, there still are some that remain in high demand.
Mills noted that local laborers from the besieged construction industry had fared better
in July than they did at the same time last year. This year 100 construction workers filed for aid, down from the 900 workers who filed for aid in July 1982.
Mills attributed the rise in construction employment to new projects in the housing market.
The state report, however, emphasized gains in industrial jobs rather than in construction, which was different from the picture in Lawrence.
Personnel representatives from two companies in Lawrence, FMC Phosphorus Chemicals Division and Hallmark Cards, said they had not done any hiring recently.
Tuesday's report stated that the only drops in state employment came in agricultural-related jobs and in the number of auxiliary personnel employed by schools.
Employee of a company The rate for unemployed agricultural workers in Douglas County stayed the same in July as it did in June.
"I expect it will go up some now because there won't be much of a harvest," Mills said. Mills said the large number of educational institutions in the region such as school year that helped cut down on the unemployment rate in the governmental bracket of the job market.
United Press International
Preparations are being made to commemorate the 20th Luther King and other civil rights leaders. See related story or anniversary of the historic march on Washington, led by Martin page two.
Department juggles budget, demand
By PAUL SEVART
Staff Reporter
The computer science department has rein-
stated most of the sections of CS 200 that were canceled last April, but officials say the department is being influenced by increasing demand and a limited budget.
Victor Wallace, chairman of the computer science department, said yesterday that 11 canceled sections of the introductory programming course. The Department is offering 28 sections, which have about 1,100 students. Wallace said 33 sections had been offered last spring.
Robert Lineberry, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said the financial situation in the computer science department last spring had been grim. The money to lineberry was not enough for her. Lineberry said, through "resourcefulness and reorganization" on the part of the department
"It's still moderately grim," he said. "It's a problem here and around the country."
In the past two years, Wallace said, demand for undergraduate computer science courses has been growing 35 percent a year, and demand for graduate courses has been growing 30 percent a
Other adjustments are being made in the department, Wallace said. The class size in most
CS 200 sections has been raised from 30 to 40. To help compensate for the increased numbers, students will do five instead of the usual six programming projects, and two extra consultants will be available in Strong to help CS 200 students.
"We're nervous about it." Wallace said of the decrease in the number of projects. "We have been and are determined not to see the quality of education fall."
Wallace said the department's budget for teaching assistants was up slightly from last year but still down from two years ago. The department also have to make do with two fewer professors.
See SCIENCE, p. 5, col. 1
Enrollment for Lawrence campus declines
Fewer students are enrolled at the University of Kansas Lawrence campus this semester, officials said yesterday, but total KU enrollment rose.
On the first day of classes in 1982, there were 21,132 students enrolled on the Lawrence campus. This fall, that number is down to 21,113.
duing sau that early enrollment figures from other universities in the Midwest also showed declines.
Chancellor Gene A. Budig yesterday attribuited the enrollment drop to a declining number of high school graduates. "The demographics are catching up with us," he said.
The largest enrollment drop affected KU courses taught in Topека, Overland Park and Leavenworth. On the first day of classes last fall, 1,241 students were enrolled in off-campus classes. This semester that number is down to 958.
Kansas City, Kan., campus, fall enrollment at KU is slightly higher than last year.
A total of 23,384 students are enrolled on both the Lawrence and Kansas City campuses, whereas only 23,366 were in class on the first day of the fall semester of 1982.
However, combined with enrollment at the
On the Kansas City campus, enrollment is up to 2,234 compared with 2,271 last fall.
Despite the decline on the Lawrence campus Budig said he was optimistic.
Phil Montgomery, associate mathematics professor and a member of the Olde English softball team.
Stage Phillips Kansas
Softball and literature join players for 'Olde English'
By KEVIN LOLLAR Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
The setting is a hot, dry softball diamond where players on Olde English, a team made up mostly of English department members, plays the game in KU's intramural fast pitch softball league.
First baseman Don Warders, assistant professor of English, is providing the closing remarks on the problem of a bad pitcher, who has been involved in many years but never seemed to get any better:
"That sounds like C.S. Lewis in 'Mere Christianity,'" he says. "When confronted with the paradoxical problem of bad Christmas, we should be glad that bad they would be if they weren't Christians."
to the bulbpayers, this academic chatter — the team's variation on ballpark chatter — makes perfect sense. And although it seems oddly out of place, the chatter, on reflection, somehow always appropriately reflects what is happening on the field.
How's that?
To the ballplayers, this academic claptrap
Warders, a 20-year veteran of the team, reflects on Olde Ice's penchant for skating.
"When we had relatively little talent, we were short on ability and long on interest in the game, love for the game and understanding of the game. So if we couldn't play a game, we would have to try to create an illusion to disguise how bad we were, and we did it mainly with language.
"When we are a stronger team, the attempt is at witty repetition that's purposefully ironic and incongruous. It's a way to bring two sides of play together." And of the social pastime of playing ball —
and at the same time to see how different they really are.
"It's a matter of having fun with the language while poking fun at our own intellectual pretentions."
If the language distinguishes Ode English from other teams, so do the players' reasons for playing a game designed for the more athletically inclined.
"The reasons have something to do with the nature of baseball itself. More than most other athletic endeavors, baseball is an exercise in style, looking good, wearing your glove correctly, holding your body correctly so that you appear ready to respond, knowing full well that you probably won't have to respond.
Mike Valk, doctoral candidate in English,
explains:
"We're playing at a stylized behavior, so the relationship between the English department and the team begins to make sense. We are professionally interested in style. The theme is a triumph of style over substance, looking good even though we really don't play well."
However, Valk concedes that occasionally the team does play well. Occasionally
A ground ball is hit sharply to the left of left-handed second baseman Kelley Hayden, recent graduate of KU's doctoral program in English.
He doesn't make the play. As he turns to chase down the ball, Warders shouns encourage him.
"Don't worry about it, Kelley."
Hayden replies on the run, "I've already forgotten it."
Valk makes a final judgment. "Nothing
See SOFTBALL, p. 5 col. 1
Marcos picks Aquino council
By United Press International
Marcos also ordered the entire Aviation Security Command contingent that was on duty at the airport when Aquino was shot confined to quarters during the investigation, a government statement said.
Aquino's widow, Corazon, ashen and grim arrived with the couple's four daughters and son at the same Manila International Airport where the popular ex-senator was gunned down while under military guard Sunday.
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos appointed a special commission yesterday to investigate the assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino and set a $45,000 reward for information on the alleged gunman.
Airport security officials barred reporters from the arrival area and quickly escorted the Aquino family through immigration. The family lived in the airport near his home, a life filled with leadership was in self-improved
As the van carrying Aquino reached the family home in suburban Quince City where her husband's bloodstained body was on display, thousands of mourners gathered outside to pay their respects. "Ninny" = Aquino's nickname.
Mrs. Aquino told reporters she was touched by the outpouring of affection. "I think this is one of my greatest consolations. My daughter was a great friend. She has 100 pesos ($8) for funeral expenses," she said.
With tears in her eyes and her voice shaking, she said, "You know, this more than anything else proves that the people love my husband." She continued, "and their last respects at the coffin since Monday.
Aquino's sister, Lupita Kashiwahara, said the body would be taken in a public procession today to a Ca-hi church. She said the funeral had been moved to Tuesday from Sunday to allow Mrs. Aquino time to visit the family hometown. At a news conference in a backyard patio, Mrs. Aquino said she did not want to make creations, but she said, "I would like to ask the
government to answer me certain simple questions which have puzzled me.
"When I first saw the TV clips, of my husband when he was being lifted and when the three security people went up the plane. I said how come there are only these three security people coming up to pick up Ninoy?"
Aquino, 50, was killed at the airport by an assassin described by the government as a civilian who penetrated airport security and encountered moments after Aquino was led off the plane.
Marcos announced the formation of a special five-man commission to investigate the shooting and offered a $45,000 reward for information on the attack. He himself shot down in a volley of military gunfire.
Police said the gunman had the name "Rolly," a Filipino nickname for Rolando, stitched in his undergarments.
The inquiry panel will be headed by Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Enrique Fernando. Other members are former Chief Justice Roberto Concepcion and former Justices Rupero Martin, Guillermo Santos and Felix Antonio.
A press statement said the commission had been "empowered to utilize all government investigative agencies to allow for a free, fair investigation into all aspects of the tragedy."
Manila police chief Maj. Gen. Prospero Olivas said investigators would ask Interpol to help trace the serial number of the murder weapon, a 377mm gun that was the third. The .357 magnum was not registered locally.
In Washington, FBI spokesman Ed Gooderham said the bureau had received an informal request from the Philippines to provide assistance in the investigation.
In a warning to reporters, Information Minister Gregorio Cendana said he would "sue anyone who would continue to survey calumny and libel against the government and its leaders," the official Philippine News Agency said.