The University Daily
ku
KANSAN
University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
Vol. 93, No. 156 USPS 650-640
Friday, July 8, 1983
Weather
Today will be sunny and hot with highs ranging from 90 to 95 according to the National Weather Service in Topeka. The winds will be from the south at 5 to 15 mph. Tonight will be clear with a low around 65. Today will be sunny and hot with a bigh in the low to mid-85.
SRS cuts may decrease care official says
Staff Writer
By DOUGLAS FARAH Staff Writer
Chuck Jostmeyer suffers from a degenerative hip condition, heart trouble, and a nervous disorder. But he is no longer able to get all of the necessary medication to deal with his condition.
Jostmeier is one of more than 200 people in Douglas County affected by cutbacks in the state's General Assistance Program. Those people receive medical assistance and cash grants through the program, which serves adults who have no other source of income.
BECAUSE OF the cutbacks, which went into effect April 1, recipients will be allowed fewer visits to the doctor, have to pay more for medical services and will receive smaller cash grants.
Barbara Gaines, income maintenance supervisor for the local office of Social and Rehabilitation Services, said that it was too early to tell what the full effects of the outcrops
However, she said that she thought some people might not be getting the medical care needed.
Jostmeier receives $173 a month, the maximum allowed for recipients of General Assistance who are 51 years of age or older or who are physically handicapped.
The $173 is his only source of income. He returns $229 a month before the changes went into effect.
The 42-year-old man has not been steadily unemployed since he was severely injured in an attack.
"MY EXPENSES last month were $209. I have to pay rent, utilities, insurance and a personal loan. That's the bare minimum, not even allowing for a pack of cigarettes." *Costmayer*
1 "spent $22 on medicine this month and $27 last month. I needed more, but didn't have the money to pay it."
Before the cutbacks, all drugs prescribed by a physician were covered. Now the list of drugs covered by MedKam, the state-funded medical institution, for General Assistance recipients is limited.
The problem of how to deal with people who need medical attention but cannot afford to pay for it is growing in Lawrence and the social service agencies have been overrun with requests for aid, according to the Rev. Paul Berry, director of Ballard Community Center.
"REQUESTS FOR AID have been climbing steadily since the first of the year, but there has been a sudden jump since the first of May." Berry said.
The requests are usually for pharmaceutical items that are no longer covered by the state, he
"The these drugs are things like psychotropic drugs for mentally handicapped persons that enable these persons to function normally," Berry said.
See REDUCTIONS page 5
Caitlin McGrath, 6, and Angela Shoher, 7, offer helping hands to Hilary Flaming, 8, as they play in the fountain behind Miller and Wattkins scholarship halls. The girls belong to the "Buffalos," the primary class from the Hilltop Child Development Center.
International students' sponsors must pay bill
BY ALBERTO SALDARRIAGA
Staff Writer
If next fall's tuition fees were due today, 15 international students would not be allowed to study at the University of Kansas because their foreign sponsors still owe money from last year's tuition, KU officials said recently.
The foreign governments or private institutions that sponsor the students will have to pay the full amount due before August 17 for them to be permitted to join fall classes, said Clark Coan, dean of foreign students and associate dean of student life.
"A GROUP OF STUDENTS from Venezuela, Nigeria, Mexico, Zambia and Ghana are facing hard financial difficulties because of different internal situations in their countries," Coan said.
According to Coan, 49 foreign students were facing this ultimatum in May.
But this figure has been reduced considerably and the circumstances of the remaining 15 people still can change, he said. The students have more than a month to adjust with their families if they are up on time.
CHIMA OKENE, African Student Association president, said that the University's policy simply did not work because it did not give the money to travel from the foreign countries.
John Patterson, KU comprolier, declined to reveal the amount of money owed by the students but said that the University had established "a clear policy in that matter."
If a student doesn't pay the last semester he attended classes, he is not allowed to enroll in the course.
"The student is caught in between KU's strong regulation and the long bureaucratic process that goes on in our countries before the money is sent," he said.
Last year ASA requested that the University begin billing sponsored students each academic year instead of each semester.
"They didn't accept it. So we think KU has to be more patient and understand that bills go more than 5,000 miles away while the students remain here," he said.
Okene said that in the case of most Nigerian students, "The money has always arrived," he said.
NIGERIANS HAVE BEEN hurt by bureaucratic problems in Nigeria and the drop of oil prices on the international market, Coan said. Zombians and Ghanians have been affected by increasing regulations that try to stop the flow of currency out of those countries.
Ignacio Vasquez, Venezuela graduate student, said he had to pay last spring and summer semesters' tuition from his own pocket because his sponsor did not do it.
"Otherwise, I wouldn't have been allowed to continue studying." he said.
CHUKWUMA ONWUCHEKWA, a Nigerian student who just graduated in chemical engineering, said his graduation was delayed a semester and a half until his fees were paid.
allowed to join KU's Ph.D. program, "be said"
Ocan said that extreme delays in payments were
the reason the foreign students from continuing classwork all fall unless the bills are paid before August 17.
Agustin Zarate, Mexico City, Mex., graduate student, said he would not receive his master's degree in human development until his government paid his tuition for last fall and spring.
Developers caused proposed tax hike, Watson says
"If it doesn't happen before August, I won't be allowed to join KU's Ph.D. program," he said.
He said that the group of 15 foreign students
TSE TUTION page 5
Staff Reporter
By GENE HUNTER
the total mill levy to 44.808 mills in 1984.
A proposed increase in Lawrence property taxes, revealed Tuesday when the city released its 1984 budget, is directly attributable to developers who have not paid their special assessment fees, City Manager Buford Watson said yesterday.
The increase would raise the property tax in Lawrence $1.81 for every $1.00 of assessed value
Several Lawrence developers said the recession and misunderstandings about special assessment agreements have led to their delinquent statics.
A SPECIAL ASSESSMENT is a loan the city makes to a developer to pay for the construction of sewers, sidewalks and streets in new development projects.
Watson said the non-payment of special assessments caused a proposed 1.808 mill increase in the city mill levy, which would bring
Robert Stephens, owner of Stephens Real Estate and Insurance Co., 2701 W. 6th St., is one developer who has not paid his special assessment, according to Allen Loyd, city
But Stephens said yesterday that he did not owe the special assessment because he had sold the property to a builder.
WATSON, HOWEVER, said it was the city's position that whoever originally guaranteed the special assessment would be held liable for property, regardless of who owned it after that.
"They are still the one on the note until the "matter is satisfied," he said. "But nobody knows what will happen."
buying the property back and that he would pay the entire amount owed to the city within 30 to 60 days.
Stephens said that he was in the process of
Warren Mitchell, owner of Mitchell Agency Inc., a real estate company at BIR Massachusetts SL., said that high interest rates and poor credit ratings have forced the property, and thus, navin the assessment.
"WE GOT CAUGHT in a bear trap and we're trying to work our way out," he said.
"We don't have any explanation other than we are planning to cann' them soon."
City analyst Loyd said that since June 30, 1981, $961,000 in special assessments have remained unpaid.
Watson said that if the assessments were not paid within three years of the time they are due, the city could take ownership of the property and sell it to retrieve the amount due.
Watson said, however, that it was up to the Commission to decide how to collect the money.
Mayor David Longhurst said that the important thing was for the city to get the money in the best way it could, rather than taking legal action.
"GIVEN THE CIRCUMSANES AND the economy, I would be reasonable in allowing them to pay the assessments in as undisruptive a possible," he said. "But they will have to be paid."
Commissioner Nancy Shontz, however, was less understanding.
"It's very clear to me that some developers have abused this benefit financing pitching fund."
"They have used it as a cheap money. Instead of paying off their assessments, they have invested in other things that give them a higher return on their investment.
"IF WE EVER get back on track, we ought to be a little more discriminant in choosing which to take," he said.
Douglas County to have average wheat harvest, farm officials predict
By MATTHEW SCHOFIELD
Staff Writer
Douglas County's wheat harvest is about half finished, and it looks to be an average year, area wheat experts said yesterday.
The wheat harvest reached the Lawrence area this week. Clear skys and little rain are helping. Larry Spray, 1717 East 24th, works to cut the wheat on his family's farm.
Dean Nieler, manager of the Farmer's Co-Op grain elevator in Lawrence, said that some farmers had been getting yields as high as 50 bushels of wheat an acre, but that most farmer's yields were substantially lower and the final yield should be about 32 bushels, which is about the norm.
BUT, HE SAID, an average harvest in Douglas County doesn't mean much in the big picture.
"Out in western Kansas they're having an excellent harvest," he said. "And that's where
He said that Douglas County was a fall crop area, which means the principal crops are corn
Earl VanMeter, Douglas County extension agent, agreed with Nieder.
Not relying too heavily on wheat helps area farmers, he said.
"With exports off — as much as 40 percent in some reports — and carryover so high, the only thing this extra wheat will mean is more wheat to put in storage and lower prices," he said.
"Wheat has been about $3 a bushel for the last 45 years," he said. "And with production costs as they are, interest rates at about 14 percent and machinery cost being so high, that it's not enough."
PRICES FOR WHIET at $3.42 a bushel at the Lawrence Co-Op yesterday, which is about what they were last year. But VanMeter said farmers needed more for their product.
In the PIK program, a farmer agrees not to plant a certain amount of grain and in exchange the government gives him that amount of grain for payment because there was more than an
But VanMeter said the price would have fallen much further if it had not been for the lack of a phone.
entire wheat harvest in storage across the United States.
Nieder said the Lawrence Co-Op had some stored wheat, but not an unusual amount.
THE PIK PROGRAM took about 20 percent of the wheat fields in Kansas out of production this year. VanMeter said But ideal weather conditions this spring increased individual yields.
"Can you imagine what kind of shape we would be in right now if we hadn't PIKI?" he
VanMeter said the program had still been successful.
PIK was necessary because of a spiraling increase in grain yields, he said, which kept prices for wheat so low that many farmers needed the increased production to stay afloat.
Yet the continual increase in production might not be the best thing in the long run for farmers.
"FARMERS WOULD probably be better off it they were still getting yields of 20 bushels an acre and prices up around 45," he said. "That meant that we would pay the price of bread by as much as 20 percent, though."
"And the production-minded American farmer wouldn't want that anyway."
The wheat harvest is continuing in Kansas this week as farmers race to get crops in before wet weather hits again. This combine was about five miles west of Bonner Springs.