The University Daily
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
KANSAN
Thursday, March 31, 1983 Vol. 93, No. 125 USPS 650-640
Carlin asks for delay in state salary raises
By DIANE LUBEB Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
Normally, state employees receive a salary increase July 1.
TOPEKA — KU faculty and classified employees would not get raises until Jan. 1 of next year under a proposal Gov. John Carlin made to a joint session of the Kansas Legislature yesterday.
Delaying the increases was the last of several actions Carlin recommended to the Legislature to prevent an $85 million shortfall in state taxes. The Governor's budget have predicted by the end of fiscal year 1984.
CARLIN PROPOSED LIMITING the deductions individuals and businesses can claim when figuring their state income tax. He also recommended increasing taxes on cigarettes in sales charges and repealing the sales tax exemption granted on used farm machinery, parts and services.
"Taken together, proposals I have provided you today will increase revenues to the state by nearly $94 million over and above those raised by the severance tax." Carlin said, "and at the same time, state spending will be decreased by $17 million."
Carin called for harmony between political parties to solve the state's financial woes, but his address did not appear to provide solutions to both Democrat and Republican legislators.
THEY WERE SILENT after the speech, too. Republican leaders met in House Speaker Mike Hayden's office after Carlin's speech and issued a statement saying that the state should spend less and tax less.
Applause from the side of the House chamber reserved for Democratic lawmakers interrupted Carlin's address several times, but most Republicans sat in stony silence.
Carlin estimated that delaying the increase in state employee salaries would save the state $10 million. He based his estimate on his earlier observation that state employees' salaries 4 percent next year.
State Rep. John Solbach, D-Lawrence, said, "I don't think the six-month delay is set in place."
But the Legislature has yet to approve any increase in state employee salaries.
Solbach said the Legislature could raise the revenues needed for a 4 percent salary increase July 1 for state employees by delaying the proposed transfer of revenue from the sales tax on vehicles and vehicle parts from the general fund to the highway fund.
State Rep. Jessie Branson, D-Lawrence, called Carling's salary proposal a compromise.
THE MONEY COULD ALSO be obtained by increasing the state gasoline tax 2 cents, he said, or by limiting state income tax deductions more than Carlin had already proposed.
"We've been hearing rumors that the leadership was considering freezing salaries and bonuses."
carrin had asked the Legislature, in light of his request to delay salary increases, to avoid reducing state employees' health insurance benefits.
Branson said she would make every effort to see that the salary increase would begin July 1.
"It is extremely important, because I sense that faculty and support personnel are discouraged by the cuts they have already suffered," she said.
STATE REP. BILL Bunten, R-Topema, said,
"It's inconsistent to propose 7 percent or
8 percent increases in teachers' salaries and,
that a 2 percent increase for state
employees."
Gov. John Carlin presented his plan for dealing with the state's financial problems in an address yesterday to the Kansas Legislature.
Bunten, Branson and Solbach agreed that delaying a 4 per cent salary increase six months was not the worst state employees could reject from the Legislature this session.
But Bunten said, "I don't see how people here could rationalize not increasing state employees'
In addition to delaying any state employees' salary increase, Carlin proposed:
- Limiting the deduction of federal income tax that an individual could claim on his Kansas income tax to $5,000 or 5 percent of the federal income tax at 14.9 per person.*
See CARLIN page 5
KU to get high-tech development funds if budget passes
By JEFF TAYLOR
Staff Reporter
TOPEKA — Senate lawmakers pieced together a proposal yesterday that will be worth more than $500,000 to the University of Kansas, if the recommended plan for Regents budget legislation is approved.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee rejected Gov. John Carlin's proposal to spend $1.5 million on high-technology development and dispensed that money to KU and three other
The committee boosted the House's proposed 5.5 percent increase for university operating expenses to 7 percent.
Early in the meeting, a group of senators asked the committee to pile Carlin's high-tech
THE COMMITTEE SENT its Regents proposals to the full Senate.
money on top of the 7 percent OE increase, but the committee voted to distribute the $1.5 million to only four of the six Regents universities and the University of California. The institution for high technology equipment and research.
Carlin's proposal also specified that the money be used for high-ttech research, but asked that it be used for other research.
The three other universities scheduled to receive the money are Kansas State University, Wichita State University and Pittsburgh State University. KU would receive more than a third of the money.
State Sen. Wint Winter Jr., R-Lawrence, and Ron Hein, R-Torkea, joined State Rep. Mike
ALL FOUR UNIVERSITIES fell under a "centers of excellence" guideline because of their high technology programs.
Under the proposal, private industries have to match the funds given to the universities as a condition to receive the money.
Meacham, R-Wichita, in efforts to persuade the committee to disperse Carlin's $1.5 million settlement.
Some senators on the committee suggested that the $1.5 million be added to the operating budget.
But Hein said the money should be used specifically to encourage the development of high-technology programs at the four universities with the best high-tech programs.
Originally, Winter had suggested that the committee allocate $1.8 million to the four schools, using $400,000 left over from the budget of the Central Center budget sent Tuesday to the House.
MEACHAM TOLD THE committee that the plan was backed by House Speaker Mike Hayden, R-Aw田, and Senate President Ross Dayen, R-Concordia.
drew heavy fire from senators who said money had been taken from the hospital too often.
"In the last three years, every time somebody has had a pet project, they ran down and stole from the Med Center," said State Sen. Frank Gaines, D-Augusta.
But the plan to use excess Med Center funds
SENATE MAJORITY LEADER Robert Talkington, R-Iola, agreed that the Med Center had been forced to foot the bill for too many projects. He also agreed that he did not want to use any funds from the Med Center because the hospital had run out of money the last three years.
Along with the OOE increase to 7 percent, the Senate committee deleted faculty and student salary increases, as well as proposed increases for classified employees.
Also, the committee excluded the Med Center budget from other Regents proposals and withheld proposed increases for Regents utility budgets.
Nigerians must pay fees early
By ANNE FITZGERALD Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
The policy was started last fall by the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria in response to a growing number of unpaid bills from Nigerian students at American college, said Julie Rose, coordinator of the program.
Nigerian foreign students now have to pay their first year's fees and living expenses to American universities and colleges before the U.S. government will issue them student visas, a representative of the National Foreign Student Affairs Association said yesterday.
NIGERIAN STUDENTS PROBABLY will not be affected by the policy until next summer.
Rose said that it had become increasingly common for foreign students, especially Nigerians, to arrive in the United States with less than enough money for their first year of studies.
Some schools have let the students enroll even if they could not pay their tuition and fees at enrollment time, Rose said. At best, that meant that foreign students would pay their bills late; at the worst, it meant that they would never pay them, she said.
The University of Kansas stands to benefit from the new policy, said John Pittenbarger, manager of general accounting in the KU controller's office.
"It will markedly improve the cash flow in the university, at least during the students' first year."
PITTENBARGER SAID THAT most foreign students evenwardly paid their bills at the University, but that delayed payment was a common problem, especially among Nigerians.
"It was not uncommon for students enrolling for one semester not to have paid for the previous one," he said. "We used to allow them to enroll as long as they had proper authorization from their sponsors expressing commitment to pay the bills.
"But now we won't allow foreign students to enroll if they have unpaid bills from prior
Clark Coan, director of KU's office of foreign students, said that the required deposit for first-year Nigerian students varied among schools. KU requires an $8,000 deposit, he said.
Rose said that at Iowa State University, Ames, where she is the foreign-student adviser, the deposit based on $9,400 for undergraduate students studying on campus to $11,500 for those families.
STUDENTS ON SCHOLARSHIP as well as those privately financed must pay the deposit, Coan said, and that may pose problems for students, especially those on scholarship, who are unable to come up with the money in one lump sum.
He estimated that half of KU's Nigerian students were on scholarship and that most of the scholarships were financed by Nigerian states. Because the Nigerian economy is so bad, Coan said, scholarship students are more apt to be adversely affected by the policy.
The government probably can not pay the students' scholarships in advance. Coa said,
See NIGERIA page 5
Kent State unrest etched in Ambler's mind
David Ambler, KU vice chancellor for student affairs, remembers well the civil unrest of the Vietnam era. He was at Kent State University the day the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd of students at the school. Four students were killed.
Bv JOEL THORNTON
Staff Reporter
Today's college students may remember the civil unrest and turbulence of the Vietnam era only from the overheard conversations of their parents or glimpses of body counts on television newscasts.
But the burning of the Kansas Union and the Kent State shootings still dwell in the minds of students, professors and administrators who are on college campuses more than a decade ago.
Ambler speaks besithetly about the incident, which became the subject of novels, songs, investigations and protests. In fact, Ambler said that after the incident, he considered leaving his house.
DAVID AMBLER, KU VICE chancellor for student affairs, remembers the time well. As an administrator at Kent State University in 1970, he was on campus May 4, 1970 — the day the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd of students at the school, killing four and injuring
"The year 1970-71 was the worst year of my life," Ambler said, "because we lived day to day, not knowing whether some incident on campus would spark violence and close us down
"It was one of those who was not sure I could continue. I wasn't sure my efforts could be productive, so I decided to defect and I owed it to Kent State University and my profession to try and rebuild the university."
AMBLER, A HAMMOND, IND., native, said that when he came to Kent State, in northeastern Ohio, in 1966 he thought it would be free from the social unrest that had erupted on college campuses from Berkeley to Minnesota to New York City.
He said he had known little about the school.
was excited because I knew people who had
See AMBRL page 5.
Signs succeed at cutting frequency of local crime
By DON HENRY
Staff Reporter
An effort to make Lawrence residents more aware of criminal activity in their neighborhoods has been a great success, the Douglas County sheriff and the Lawrence crime pre-
The effort, called Neighborhood Watch, began in mid-February.
A sign that reads "Neighborhood Watch. We call the police" is the key ingredient of the program. Since the conception of Neighborhood Watch, more than 30 warning signs have been installed in the city and in Douglas County.
"I'm really happy with the public's response, and the officers have been doing a really great job."
BOB AVERY, LAWRENCE crime prevention officer, said, "I think this is one of the most successful programs that crime prevention has ever had."
He said that the amount of crime in the Maverick district of Lawrence, which is in the south part of the city, has declined drastically since the signs were installed in that area.
Police records show that no burglaries have been reported in the area since the program began.
Avery said that the department had received more calls about suspicious activity in Neighborhood Watch areas since the signs were installed.
Marilyn Steele, deputy shiff, said that 25 sigma had been erected in Douglas County and that 20 more would soon go up where roads come from. Marilyn Steele bought these signs, which cost $9.50, Steele said.
THE PROGRAM IS STILL growing in Lawrence, Avery said. He said two more signs would be installed within the next few weeks, and he expects the company to do that, and he expects three more to go up after that.
Anyone interested in starting a Neighborhood Watch in his area should call Avery at the Law Enforcement Center. Avery said he would talk to any neighborhood group interested in starting the program. The city pays for installation of the signs, he said.
Those interested in starting a program in the county should call Steeie at the Law Enforcement Center.
Weather
Today will be partly cloudy and warmer in the 50s, according to the National Weather Service.
National Weather Service in Topeka, Winde will be from the west to southwest at 10 to 18 mph.
fought will be partly cloudy with a low of 40.
Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy with a high of 69.
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