The University Daily
RAINY DAY
KANSAN
WARM
University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
Vol. 93, No. 151 USPS 650-640
Wednesday, June 22, 1983
Weather
Today will be mostly sunny, hot and humid with highs in the low 90s according to the weather forecast.
Winds will be out of the south at 10 to 15 miles per hour.
Tonight will be clear with lows around 70.
Tomorrow will be sunny with highs in the low
50s.
U.S. newsmen confirmed dead
By United Press International
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Nicaraguan troops fired a rocket-propelled grenade across the Honduran border yesterday, killing two American journalists and seriously injuring their Honduran driver, the Honduran army and the U.S. Embassy said.
Col. Cesar Elvir Sierra, official army spokesman, said in a telephone interview that the military retrieved the bodies from the car and positively identified the dead journalists as Dial Torgerson of the Los Angeles Times and Richard Cross, a freelance photographer.
U. S. Embassy spokesman Robert Callahan confirmed the identities of the two journalists.
Elvir Sierra said the Honduran driver was seriously injured in the attack, which he said came from the Nicaraguan side of the tense border from a rocket-propelled grenade.
He said the journalists were returning from the town of Las Trojes and were hit less than 2 miles from the Niceraguan border.
“Their vehicle could not have been mistaken for a military vehicle. ” Elia Otero said, noting the accident.
Cross, 33, was given his first assignment for U.S. News & World Report five days ago, the magazine said.
The Honduran Foreign Ministry said the American journalists and the Honduran were hit between the border towns of La Touraje and San Juan, where they were stationed territory and 46 miles east of Tequilgala.
U. S. Embassy spokesman Callahan said earlier that efforts to recover the bodies were hampered because gunmen in Nicaragua attacked the army troops sent to the site of the attack.
Callahan said a truck driver 10 to 20 yards behind the journalists first reported the assault and that other witnesses later confirmed the attack.
Just after sunset the clouds provide a dramatic reflection on a pond just south of Pomona, 30 miles southwest of Lawrence. summer. Temperatures climbed into the 90s.
Commission approves list for spending
By GENE HUNTER Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
THE PROPOSALS must now be approved by HUD.
The commission spent more than an hour narrowing down a list of 24 requests to seven for part of $26,000 that is available to Lawrence and the Jobs Bill passed by Congress in the spring.
The Lawrence City Commission last night unanimously approved a list of spending proposals for federal funds that the city hopes to acquire from the department of Housing and Urban Development.
The commission's proposals include:
*$26,641 for summer jobs for Lawrence
vouts.
*$12,000 to hire an art teacher to coordinate an art program at the Lawrence Arts Center.
- $37,000 for curb replacement on North 2nd St.
- $15,212 to establish a training program for disabled people.
- $6,500 for a project to build light fixtures at Haskell Indian Junior College.
- $18,333 for street overlay projects in targeted neighborhoods.
- $110.264 for water line replacements.
The Commission decided not to include in the application a 90-day loan guarantee to a Lawrence grandfather clock-maker who sells a collection of Warwick Army Command School in Leavenworth.
According to Lynn Goodell, director of community development, the loan was to be used for operating capital until sales revenues began to come in.
"Could I come here and get money for my business?" he asked.
MAYOR DAVID LONGHURST said he had serious misgivings about the city acting as a lender to private businesses.
Longhurst is the owner of House of Usher
Printing Service, 638 Massachusetts St.
Commissioner Nancy Shontz, however, said that she favored businesses of this sort get started because they provided jobs to people who would otherwise be unemployed.
Goodell said that many cities helped small businesses get started. He said that he favored a proposal which the commission decided not to include that would have helped a local man start a solar panel manufacturing plant.
See CITY page 5
Regents approve $61 million for proposed improvements
By ANN REGAN Staff Reporter
The Board of Regents Friday approved budget recommendations of slightly more than $60.3 million for a three-year capital improvements plan at Regent institutions.
The recommendations include $15,433 million for capital improvement funds in fiscal year 1985. Of that amount, about $8.1 million would go to the University of Kansas.
Other Regents schools are Kansas State University, Emporia State University, Wichita State University, Fort Hays State University and
See related story page 6
Chancellor Gene A. Budig said that "the recommendations of the Board on capital improvements construction projects represent legitimate needs of the various institutions.
BUDGET RECOMMENDATIONS for capital improvements on the Lawrence campus beginning in fiscal year 1985 include:
THE IMPROVEMENTS WOULD include the construction of new buildings and extensive
Pittsburg State University and the Kansas Technical Institute in Salina.
The recommendations will be sent to the Legislature for consideration.
"Our obligation is to point to the needs of the universities. Only in this way can we expect the public, the governor and the Legislature to respond."
- $12.825 million for a new science library. The
Regents recommended spending $255,000 for preliminary planning for fiscal year 1985.
- $6,568 million for the renovation of Snow Hall. The amount recommended for preliminary planning in fiscal year 1985 was $130,825.
At the University of Kansas College of Health Sciences in Kansas City, Kan., budget recommendations by the Regents for $6.945 million include:
*$4.88 million for energy conservation, with
1985 321 intended for construction in fiscal year
Wendell Lady, former speaker of the Kansas House and now a Regent, said only about $12.5 million in capital improvements for fiscal year 1983 and $10.8 million of that had already been allocated.
- $414.95 million, including $237,000 in previous funds, for expansion of the energy center.
- $2 million for renovation of the diagnostic radiology area.
THE REMAINING $13 million requested, he said, would have to come from the general operating fund.
He said using money from the general operating fund for capital improvements would cut into money available for academic programs.
He said the Regents recommended the improvements because It thought they were necessary, regardless of whether the funds were there.
Merit pay divisive issue among state's educators
"If you spend money on new buildings, there is that much less to go around for salaries, at least."
Bv KEVIN LOLLAR
Staff Writer
The decline in the quality of public education has become a hot national issue in recent months. A possible solution to the problem has become equally hot.
The possible solution, merit pay, is a plan by which teachers are evaluated and paid on the basis of their merit rather than on a straight salary schedule.
Those who endorse the plan say that paying better teachers more money will improve education by rewarding excellence and removing mediocrity from the classroom.
PRESIDENT REAGAN MAS endorsed it, provided it is not federally funded.
Walter Mondale has endorsed it, provided it is federally funded.
However, the National Education Association, the largest teachers' union, has opposed merit pay in part on the grounds that some teachers are not able to demonstrate a reputation rather than through legitimate evaluation.
Among local educators, opinions are mixed. Many said they would favor merit pay if valid
Analysis
criteria for objective evaluation could be established.
Nita Sundbye, director of teacher education at the University of Kansas, said she questioned
"How can we really decide what is excellence in teaching?" she said.
SUNDBYE SAID THAT many factors were involved in effective teaching.
"We must take into account the students and the situation," she said. "We can't just evaluate a teacher in a vacuum.
"It's a Catch-22 situation. Teachers do vary in excellence, but we can't prove it."
Thomas Erb, associate professor of curriculum and instruction, agreed that evaluation of teachers would be difficult. He said teachers objected to cursory in class; he would have them spent a few hours during a week in a classroom and then made a judgment about a teacher's effectiveness.
"And competency tests," he said, "measure some skills, but they are off the mark to measure teacher competence. Merely knowing the subject matter doesn't make a good teacher."
THE BEST TEACHERS are those who combine a sense of caring about each student with a demanding approach to the subject being taught, be said.
Amy Shefelt graduated this spring with a degree in elementary education.
In addition to elementary education, Sheftel is qualified to teach secondary language arts, but she still thinks it is necessary to take classes this year. She was also qualified to teach secondary math as well.
She said that she was concerned not only about finding a teaching position, but also about the needs of students.
"I think the way the system is now stinks," she said. "Teachers are vastly underaid."
But she, too, wonders about objectivity in a merit nav system.
"IN ORDER TO even get an interview, you have to know someone," she said. "So how can they evaluate you objectively if so much depends on who you know?"
Some educators, however, think that teachers can be objectively evaluated.
John Guenther, chairman of curriculum and instruction, said, "We know enough about effective teaching so we can measure it and reward those who do more than the minimal amount in the classroom. One thing that must be measured is student achievement."
But this brings up another sticky question, according to John Bushman, associate professor of computer science at the University.
"THE TEACHER MUST do everything in his power to motivate a student, but the bottom line is that you should be patient."
"A teacher can teach, but the student may not learn," he said. "You can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."
Both Bushman and Guenert suggested "a package of evaluation" that would include evaluation by administrators, students and other teachers.
Bushman emphasized that a teacher could be evaluated by teachers outside his district to ensure objectivity.
He said that the criteria on which a teacher should be judged were effectiveness in the classroom, effective use and variety of teaching techniques, and an interest in the students.
A teacher should also be active in the profession by attending teachers' conferences and being on local, regional and national committees, he said.
NOT EVERYONE, however, thinks that merit pay every ought to be an issue because, objectively implemented or not, it may not be an important step toward improving public education.
President Reagan's National Committee on Excellence in Education thought little enough of merit pay to mention it in only one paragraph of its 30-page report issued in April, said Nancy Lindberg, president of the Kansas-National Education Association.
"Giving a few people an additional amount of dollars isn't going to solve the problem," she said.
James B. Carothers, associate professor of English and a member of Gov. John Carlin's newly formed advisory cabinet on education, agreed with Lindberg.
He said that the notion that public education could be substantially improved solely by merit pay was erroneous.
What is needed, he said, is a program to gradually increase salaries for all teachers.
"THE PROBLEM IS that there are a lot of committed educators and administrators who believe strongly in what they are doing and who are competing for limited funds." Carothers
"I see merit pay as a red herring. Those who favor it see it as a quick fix to a complex problem."
Palestinian rebels heighten attack; Arafat loyalists claim Syria helped
By United Press International
Pakistanian rebels escalated their war for control of the Palestine Liberation Organization yesterday and routed supporters of guerrilla chief Yasser Arafat from key posts in eastern Lebanon, apparently with the direct help of Syrian tanks and strategists.
Lebanese and Palestinian reports said up to 40 people were killed or wounded when rebels firing machine guns, mortars and artillery overran the city. Belitr-Damascus highway in the Beijin Valley.
A rebel spokesman, Jibad Salah, said more heavy fighting was expected, the official Syrian militant group said.
OFFICIAL BEIRUH RADIO also said Arafat
ayalasit "retreated" from the town of Swiwitri
to Beiru.
Syrian tanks and soldiers gave "complete support" to the rebels and fought side-by-side against the loyal Arafat forces, an Arafat sookerman said.
If correct, it would mark the first time Syrian forces actively fought with dissident Palestinians against Arafat loyalists.
The revolt began nearly six weeks ago, with mutineers claiming that Arafat had grown moderate and wanted to pull out PLo fighters rather than wage a new war against Israel.
Arafat sent appeals to nine Arab states, the Arab League, Cuba, India, Yugoslavia, Ethiopia and Cyprus to use their "good efforts to help terminate the current crisis," the Palestinian leader said.
IN A SEPARATE message, Arafat asked
Syrian President Hassan Al-Assad
stand united with his fellow
ASSADIANS.
Money woes, bad equipment jeopardize science programs
By MATTHEW HARRISON
Staff Writer
A $33,000 electron microscope is gatherering cobwebs on the sixth floor of Haworth Hall, and a $20,000 atomic absorption spectrometer sits idle in Lindley Hall because there is no money for
Administrators in many science departments at KU have expressed frustration with the lack of funds needed to keep expensive equipment in operation and the lack of funds needed fororchard maintenance.
Most science departments at the University have at least one $20,000 to $40,000 piece of equipment that is imperative and many more that are working only with "a paper clip and a prayer." Doris Belote, business manager of the biological sciences department, said yesterday.
ERNEST ANGINO, chairman of the geology
department, said, "I wish that the public would give as much attention to academic scholarships."
"In terms of education, the way we're going, in 10 to 15 years the United States might have some of the world's best football teams and the rest of them." The world's best scientists and technologists.
FUNDS TOTALLY $225,000 for graduate assistants, $250,000 for instructional equipment and computing for the basic sciences and $200,000 for operating expenses were among items recommended by the Board of recommendation to the Legislature for the 1985 fiscal year budget.
Angino said that the allocation for equipment was a "drop in the bucket" considering the
"What we have in Kansas is planned medicine in higher education," he said.
Angino said the reduction in the number of
A loss of student help in classes has caused the geology department to limit its enrollment, Angino said, and the decreased enrollment directly affected the number of student credit
teaching assistant positions had reduced the number of students the science departments handle.
"The University gets paid from the state on the basis of student credit hours. So, if we in the sciences have to limit enrollment, we're limiting the total number of student credit hours generated around the campus," Angino said.
Richard Himes, chairman of the biochemistry
The geology department needs money to fix an atomic absorption spectrometer — a device used to measure various elements in a particular solution. One service call, however, would cost about $300 even before any work was started, Anguine said.
department, said the teaching assistant problem was hurting the biological sciences as well. He said the graduate teaching assistants were being taken out of the advanced courses to help with the overcrowded freshman and sophomore courses.
This makes the faculty do more of what their assistants were doing in the past, thus leaving them with less time to be productive.
"We cannot attract high-tech industry unless they see that the University supports what is going on at the University in regards to teaching and research," Himes said.
CHANCELLOR GENE A. BUDIG said yesterday that KU needed more than $8 million to address the University's scientific equipment problems.
"If one analyzes the total fiscal year 1985 budget recommendations, one would have to
See SCIENCE page 5