The University Daily
FLATING
KANSAN
University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
Vol. 93, No. 161 USPS 650-640
Wednesday, July 27, 1983
Weather
Today will be mostly sunny and hot according to the National Weather Service in Topeka. The highs will be in the mid to upper 90s
The winds will be from the south at 10 to 20 mph. Tonight will be partly cloudy with tops around 80°F.
Most KU property not insured
Tomorrow will be mostly sunny and hot with highs in the mid to upper 90s.
By CHRIS McMENEMY
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
Suppose the Kenneth Spencer Research Library burns one night. Its collection of rare books is destroyed, and the building must be replaced.
A new library would cost about $4.5 million, but it would be difficult to determine the cost of replacing the contents because no value has been set on the rare collection of books and manuscripts.
VALUES ARE NOT determined for the contents of most University buildings because they are not insured. In fact, almost no state property is insured.
Again, suppose 2,300 people are listening to a lecture in Hoch Auditorium. A beam gives way, falling on the audience, and parts of the ceiling crash to the floor.
staff people are injured and need extensive hospital care, but the most that all of these people together can collect from the state of Florida is unlikely not enough to pay one person's medical bills.
State law prohibits the University from insuring most of its possessions, and KU is limited in its power to compensate victims of disasters.
IN SPENCER'S CASE, the few million dollars spent on rebuilding would only be a start. The collections in the library are considered priceless because many of the items are
"If it were a total disaster, the state would probably go out of the rare-books library business," Alexandra Mason, chief librarian at Spencer, said last week.
Spencer's fate would ultimately be decided by the Kansas Legislature, which would have to decide.
bobbie place in the image
But the lack of insurance on state property does create an uneasy feeling for people such as Mason.
VIcki Thomas, University general counsel, said that state law prohibited any state agency from purchasing or carrying insurance on state property unless authorized by the State Commission.
THE STATE ISSELF-INSURED. Thomas said, but there are three general exceptions:
- Insurance can be carried on buildings built with bond money, so that bondholders are protected. KU residence halls fall into this category.
- Gifts to the state, such as a museum painting, may be insured.
- Property bought with federal funds also may be insured. Often federal grants include money for insurance.
Some officials think the Legislature decided not to buy insurance because it could not afford the premiums.
But Speaker of the House Mike Hayden,
R-Atwood, disagrees with that interpretation.
"The state can afford anything it wants. The most cost-effective way is to be self-insured," he said.
INDIVIDUALS USUALLY CANNOT afford to insure themselves, so they buy insurance in a pool. Hayden said. The state is large enough that it does not have to work that way.
An emergency fund is kept on hand by the state for arguples that might occur, he said.
"It would take a very major disaster before the state couldn't cope," he said.
One example of the state coping with campus damage is the story of Nichols Hall at Kansas
evenings burned in 1967, but kids were not taken until two weeks ago for its reconstruction.
Within a year of the fire, the Legislature approved funds to move all the activities in Nichols to a new location, said Vincent Cool, assistant director of facilities and planning at
BUT IN 1978 STUDENTS started a campaign to save the landmark, which for 11 years stood gutted. The Legislature agreed to study the issue and later recommended funds for reconstruction.
Cool said that when the old auditorium at Kansas State, which did not have a formal name, burned in 1964, funds were appropriated quickly to rebuild it. It was replaced by McCain
"In our experience, major losses by fire have been replaced almost immediately." Cool said.
The University of Kansas has not had to deal with the Legislature to get buildings replaced. The only building severely damaged has been the Kansas Union, which burned in 1970.
The Union, however, was insured because it is
a private, non-profit corporation and is not bound by the state law, according to Warner L. Ames of New York.
BECAUSE THE STATE'S' self-insurance policy has never been tested at KU, administra-
tionally it is not reliable.
Allen Wiechert, KU director of facilities planning, said the policy of not insuring University buildings was fine unless more than one disaster happened per year.
"The state doesn't have any big pocket of money set aside." Wiechcark said. "It would be nice if we could have insurance on all our buildings because they could be repaired or outbuilt."
The Kansas University Endowment Association pays for insurance on contents and objects borrowed for display by the museum, said Doug Tilghman, acting museum director.
"It's something that the Endowment Association would prefer not to pay." Tlighman said. "They think the state should pay it, but as long the state doesn't, they feel they must."
KU has three buildings that house valuable contents — the Spencer Research Library, the Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of Art. Of the three, only the contents of the art museum are insured.
THE MUSEUM CAN BE authorized to have insurance coverage, because it has property purchased by gift funds.
Mason, chief librarian at Spencer Library, has mixed feelings about not having insurance.
But the research library and natural history museum are in different situations.
Because many of the pieces in her collection are the only ones in existence, she said, they were not created by her.
Philip S. Humphrey, director of the Museum of Natural History, has the same difficulty.
"The problem for our collections is if we had a fire, it is an irreparable loss." he said. "These collections started before the first day of classes at the University.
"How do you insure stuff that is priceless?"
MASON AND HUMPIRE agreed that careful planning is the best insurance. They said they worked hard to protect their collections so that insurance revenue would not be necessary.
Spencer Research Library has a direct line to the Spencer Research Library for all alarm systems with smoke and heat detectors
See INSURE page 5
Mohammad Iqbal Khatri, Pakistan graduate student and a member of the KU Cricket Club, takes his turn as batsman in a recent cricket match at. A match can take all day to play.
Campus security hampered by older locks
Staff Reporter
By MARY ANN COSTELLO
High security locks would be welcomed in Murphy Hall, where $9,145 worth of musical instruments were stolen last week, Stanley said. The KU music department, said last week.
KU police do not know how the instruments were taken, said LJ. Jeanne Longaker, but it was possible the thief may have had a key to enter them because there were no signs of forced entry.
THE CIRCULATION OF keys to old locks on campus has proven to be a problem, according to University officials, and recommendations for security systems are needed to help solve the problem; systems, are intended to help solve the problem;
"Some of those keys are so old and worn they're almost like skeleton keys in that they'd open almost anything," said Robert Porter, a local plant maintenance for Facilities Operations.
He said that with some of the old locks there were as many as 300 to 500 keys made for one door — a situation that was just about impossible to police.
Shumway said the School of Fine Arts did not have the money to install a costly, high-security
BUT HE SAID THE lock on Room S31, the room from which the instruments were stolen, and several other rooms in the department, would receive new locks this fall. The lock changes had been scheduled before the theft occurred.
Patti Jallian, clerk for the School of Fine Arts,
said she distributed all locks and keys for the
school.
Students are required to give her a $3 deposit, she said, and may keep the keys for a semester.
Within the past three years, Porter said, several buildings on campus have installed a high-security lock system by Medeco Security Locks, a company based in Salem, Va.
HE SAID THE MEDECO lock system increased security because Medeco keys could
only be made on a Medeco key-cutting machine.
Canies of the keys cannot be made at stores.
Medeco also assigns each key an identifying number, he said, and no Medeco key within a named key.
"Under the Medeco system, the chances of key getting into unauthorized hands is almost zero."
Doris Belote, business manager for the division of biological sciences, said the division planned to install Medeco locks in the Malot Hall addition now being built, as well as in the third through fifth floors they now occupy in Malot Hall.
"We're just thrilled about it," she said.
Unauthorized copies of Malott Hall key are thought to be responsible for past thefts where there were no signs of forced entry, she said. Forged microcapsules recently' research microscopes were stolen recently.
HOWEVER, BELOTE SAID, there had been fewer thefts during the past two years because the division began keeping stricter records of its keys.
Porter said that before there was any Medeco locks on campus, the locks for a building would be supplied by the lowest bidder and that they were locked to certain levels of locks from different companies on campus.
He said Medeco locks were expensive to install. A $20 cylinder must be placed in each key slot, and it costs $3 to replace a Medeco lock key that *lost* or broken.
So far Medico locks have only been installed in new and remodeled buildings, he said, such as the K.S. "Boots" Adams Alumni Center, Stauffer Fintl Hall, Watson Library and Lindley
WHEN AN ADDITION is put on a building, Porter said, the administration tries to find money to install the new locks on all the doors, not just the doors in the addition.
"Eventually, we hope to have every building on campus done as funding is appropriated," he said.
Porter said Facilities Operations held "key conferences" with departments on campus to
Llamas may not bark, but they keep coyotes away
Where's Stanley? Ollie, an eight-month-old llama, watches over his flock of sheep to protect them from coyotes and other predators. He belongs to Ron and Denise Stauffer, RFD 5, Lawrence.
By JUDITH HINDMAN Staff Writer
Sheep ranchers have a new weapon in their battle against the marauding coyote — the lama.
Ranchers prize the lima because of its alertness and curious investigation of all unusual things.
RON AND DENISE STAUFFER, Route 5,
recently bought a six-month-old llama to protect
their valuable registered show sheep. Denise
Stauffer said a University of Wyoming study found that a llama's presence in a flock would cut the number of sheep lost to predators.
They also prize the llama's ability to project vile-spelling split at an enemy.
And if the spit does not work, the lama can finish the job with a well-placed, strong kick.
The Stauffer bought their brown lama, Olie, from Fred Hartman, Tecumseh, Neb., who has 31 lamas and has been raising them for 18 months.
Hartman said yesterday in a telephone interview that his llamas were so alert that if a blackbird landed on a fence park one-half mile away the llamas would run to "check it out."
is not the only lama in town. Wayne and Sally Russell, Route 2, bought their lama. Spat,
THE RUSSELLS KEEP Spot in the field with their cattle.
But Sally Russell said yesterday that they bought Spot as a pet because coyotes were not very aggressive.
"Having a lama is kind of a bad," she said. "They are selling pretty well right now. A lot of people buy it."
The Stauffers are pleased with their purchase so far.
"Coyotes and bobcats are just terrible out here." Denise Staffer said. "If there is any noise or movement, he checks on it. Since we have gotten him, we have had no problems."
"Ilamas spit like a camel through a harelp! There have even been cases of llamas killing coyotes with their powerful kick," she said.
HARTMAN DOUETED THAT llamas could kill coyotes but said they probably scared coyotes by spitting at them. He said a llama's spit had a terrible odor.
"Coyotes are actually chickens, too. They will run if something chases them," he said. "But they don't."
Hartman also said Ilamas adapted well to the Midwestern climate because their wool insulates them.
Denise Stauffer said llamas were expensive, with females costing more than $5,000. Males.
The prices are high, she said, because of high demand for llamas, restrictions on their importation and their relatively long gestation period, which is 11 months.
"We started home, then turned around and went back and got him. I think my husband didn't want to listen to me all the way home."
LLAMAS ALSO ARE valued for their wool, which she said, could be sold for $35 a pound to
See LLAMAS page 2
"I read everything I could find about llamas and really wanted one. When we got to Nebraska, my husband didn't want to buy Ollie because he was brown," she said.
Denise Stauffer said that, although Ollie was very tame and would eat grain out of her hand, she had a preference for the butter.
Plan to save NPR unfair director says
Bv ANNE AMOURY
Staff Reporter
National Public Radio's rejection Monday of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's latest loan agreement proposal has put public radio in its worst crisis ever, the director of KANU said yesterday.
Howard Hill, the director, said that CPB was intransigent in its demand that NPR transfer ownership of its program distribution system to a select group of NPR stations in return for a loan to bail out the network, which faces a $9.1 million debt.
UNLESS NPR AGREES to the proposal outlined by the CPB, which is a federally funded, nonprofit agency that distributes money to the 281 NPR stations nationwide, the corporation must make a $1 million payment to the network by Monday when the payment is due.
NEW'S contract with the corporation calls for about $1 million to be paid to NPR on the first of each month for program production.
On July 15, NPR appealed to CPB for an interim loan until a formal agreement could be reached, but CPB wants a formal, long-term agreement.
Congress allocates money for public broadcasting through the CPB. The corporation then allocates 75 percent to public television and 25 percent to public radio.
NPR needs $400,000 by Friday to meet the payroll of its 300 employees at the company's office.
HLIA SAId THAT CPB was attempting to restructure NPR by taking ownership of the NPR satellite system, which is one enterprise by which the nearly bankruptcy NPR can make
it's impossible to talk to them," he said.
"They are so unreasonable in what they ask that negotiations become futile.
"The assurances given CBP are as good as the best creditors around. If they're good enough for Chase Manhattan, why aren't they good enough for CPB?"
B. Morse, NPR station services associate in Washington, D.C., said Monday that a bail-out plan CPB proposed in early July called for the individual stations to pledge a total of $1.6 million a year for the next three years from their CPB grants.
She said that 163 stations had signed the contract out of the 201 that had pledged to sign, but at that least 200 were needed to come up with the funding necessary to pay off the stations' part of NPR's debt.
HILL SAD HE was confident that NPR stations would pull together to pay the $1.6 million for the next three years.
*a Meanwhile, NPR is preparing to launch a nationwide fund-raising campaign.*
1
See RADIO page 5