The University Daily
KANSAN
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Tuesday, March 8, 1983 Vol. 93.No.113 USPS 650-640
Classified Senate leader blasts new layoff rules
By JOEL THORNTON Staff Reporter
New regulations for layoffs of state employees would invade the privacy of classified employees and displace them from their present positions, as a part of the KU Classified Senate said yesterday.
And KU officials denied that discussion of the new regulations at administrative meetings yesterday meant University layoffs were imminent.
Suzanne Cupp, the president, said the new regulations would create a complex system of laying off classified employees that would result in retirements of many staff members to departments where they were not wanted.
"WE'RE UPSET," Cupp said. "We are
distraught that so many people will have to be redefined. "
The regulations, which take effect May I, were discussed yesterday at Chancellor Gene A. Budig's weekly meeting with KU administrators and a meeting of the professional school deans.
The University is trying to avoid laying off classified employees, she said.
Deanell Tacha, vice chancellor for academic affairs, said the regulations were discussed at the meetings to inform officials of the new layoff rules.
David Lewin, director of personnel, agreed with Tacha. He said he did not anticipate many layoffs this year despite the University's financial troubles.
ONLY ONE University employee was laid off last year, he said.
Gail Hamilton, former Classified Senate
president, said the new regulations were designed to prevent more employees from being laid off.
Hamilton was on a government committee of state employees last November that decided on new layoff regulations for classified employees. Lewin said he was not convinced the new rules
"From my perspective, I'd have to say that I prefer the existing set of regulations," he said.
Under the new rules, if a department wanted to lay off an employee in a certain classification, all the people in that classification in the entire company would be given a layoff "score." Lewin said.
A LAYOFF SCORE would be determined by multiplying the number of months an employee has worked for the University by the score of his last five employee performance tests.
The regulations also would require employee scores to be disallowed publicly.
The scores of all the workers in that classification would be compared, and the person with the lowest score would be given the option to either drop to a lower classification, or to be transferred to another job that the person had previously held at the University.
Once the employee was transferred into the new classification, the process would be repeated, and the employee with the lowest score would be "bumped," to a lower job. Lawn said.
SIX OR SEVEN employees could be displaced with the new regulations, he said. A person at the bottom of the seniority ladder in a low job classification could be laid off, although Lewin said the personnel office would try to find the person another job at the University.
Previously, a person scheduled for a layoff could only displace someone who was on original probation, which means the employee has not been placed in university for less than six months. Lewin said.
Cupp said she thought the new rules would displace a lot of employees and could create a situation in which an employee would be forced to move to a new department.
She also said the new rules requiring that employee layoff scores be posted was an invasion of employees' privacy.
"It's like posting grades," she said. "We're very concerned and hope it will not go into arc."
Officials seek Senate support for proposed $15 services fee
CUPP SAID SHE was planning an emergency meeting of the Classified Senate for next week to inform KU employees of their rights under the new rules.
By SARA KEMPIN
Staff Reporter
KU administrators yesterday asked the Student Senate to support a $15 academic services fee to help pay for instructional and computer equipment and for library acquisition.
Deanell Tacha, vice chancellor for academic affairs, told members of the Senate Finance and Auditing Committee that because of the state's fiscal troubles and budget cuts, the University needed the approximately $600,000 that the new board would generate to maintain its academic quality.
Robert Cobb, executive vice chancellor, said earlier that the administration had proposed a $15 fee because the money would not come from the state's general fund.
Incidental fees, or tuition, are controlled by the Legislature and are used to pay for general expenses.
"WE WOULD much rather see the increase in the form of an incident fee or an appropriation from the state general fund, but it a question of whether we wait without being adversely affected," he said.
The $15 increase would be a privilege fee, or restricted fee, which is levied in addition to tuition and controlled by the University to pay for such costs as special building and student
The finance committee will discuss the proposal again Thursday. It is to vote then.
LISA ASHNER, student body president, said, "I don't like the precedent we would be setting by approving the fee. It's obvious that the state is not adequately funding the University."
She said that although she did not philosophically approve of an academic service fees, she supported it because the University would be seeyrely hurt if the fee was not passed.
"It's not the students against the administrator," she said. "If students are angry, they should stop."
She said that by creating the academic services fee, KU could send a signal to the
Legislature that students would pay for services the state did not provide.
FOUR STUDENT senators had previously submitted a petition to the finance committee to reduce tuition fees.
Tacha said the $15 academic services fee would address financing problems throughout the University and asked the committee to consider it instead of the $5 library fee.
David Cannatella, vice chairman of the University Senate libraries committee and co-author of the library legislation, told Tacha that he had been disturbed by the administra-
He said he had been concerned that KU libraries would not get their fair share of the administration's proposed $15 academic services fee.
"The administration feels that they were generous with the libraries already in the budget, so they won't feel an obligation to give the libraries as much," he said.
THE $5 LIBRARY fee was proposed and would have been approved by students, Cannatella
"The fee the administration is pushing has the possibility of being enacted even if Student Senate doesn't approve it," he said.
Cannellato said he was angry that administrators had not told the libraries committee to take action.
Cobb said the administration had discussed the imposition of an academic services fee for several months.
"It's not the most favorite thing we've ever proposed. But we don't have too many options if we want to maintain the quality of our libraries and equipment," he said.
THE $13 INCREASE would have a sunset
CLAUSE, making it automatically expire after
$13 hours.
Tacha said the three-year deadline had been because of the University's three-year budget.
'If the Regents do not agree to a sunset clause, we would withdraw our request for the fee,' she said.
She said the administration would be guided by what Student Senate decided.
Today will be partly cloudy with a high in the mid- to upper 48$, according to the National Weather Service in Topeka. Winds will be from the northwest at 15 to 25 mph.
Weather
Tomorrow will be partly cloudy with a high near 50.
will be from the northwest at 15 to 25 mph.
Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low in
As spring baseball season approaches, Parks and Recreation workers repair the backstop at South Junior High.
New rules to make FBI studies easier
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Reagan administration issued new guidelines yesterday making it easier for the FBI to launch investigations of domestic groups that advocate violence to achieve social change.
Attorney General William French Smith said the new rules clarified the scope of FBI investigations into groups in the country and would help to recover terrorist activity before anyone was hurt.
"We are not waiting for the proverbial ticking to start." he said.
"THESE NEW guidelines will clarify the standards governing these investigations and reaffirm the importance of gathering criminal intelligence about violence-prone groups, while retaining adequate protections for lawful and peaceful political dissent." he said.
The new rules, which go into effect in 14 days, replace strict 1976 guidelines issued by Attorney General Edward Levi in the wake of disclosures that the FBI engaged in widespread spying on Americans in the civil rights and anti-war movements in the 1960s and 1970s.
The new guidelines, not subject to congressional approval, allow the FBI to open an investigation into the case.
that two or more people may be engaged in a scheme to further social or political goals using
THEY ALSO let the FBI use informants at an earlier stage of a probe and permit the FBI to gather "publicly available information" as long as it does not violate the Privacy Act. That law bars the government from collecting information about a person exercising his First Amendment rights unless the subject of an investigation.
Rep. Don Edwards, D-Calif., chairman of a House subcommittee on civil and constitutional rights, said he was concerned because the rules
See GUIDES page 5
Senate panel slices $1 billion from jobs bill
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a $3.9 billion job bill $1 billion less than what the House needed to get the measure to President Reagan by Easter.
The committee also adjusted the way the money would be spent by voting to target about $2 billion for areas of high unemployment. Of
that sum, about $667 million would be spent in 15 states where unemployment was higher than the national average during each month of 1982.
A key committee aide said the bill might create up to 600,000 jobs.
SENATE LEADERS said they hoped to take up the bill on the floor Wednesday or Thursday. Before the Senate committee action, White House deputy press secretary Larry Speaks said Reagan would take a "close look" at the House bill but preferred a measure with less
money. Speakes would not say whether Reagan would vet the $4.9 million bill.
The House bill, passed overwhelmingly last week, provided that 75 percent of the $4.9 billion would be spent in pockets of high unemployment. The bill would reduce the national percentage of the national average for the past year.
The revised targeting amendment was sponsored by Sens. Mark Hattfield, R-Orche, the president of the American Cancer Society.
See JOBS page 5
Chaplain shares in Med Center patients' joy, sorrow
The Rev, Jerry Spencer, Catholic chaplain at the KU Medical Center, jokes with a patient and his wife. A sense of humor lightens the burden of the work, he says.
By MICHAEL BECB Staff Reporter
As he sat in the brown easy chair, he gazed intently at the floor and brushed the lint from his meticulous garb.
From the soothing of relatives of the dead to trying to mend broken marriages, Spencer deals with the problems of life and shares in the pain of those who are missing at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
The Rev Jerry Spencer talked, slowly and quietly, remembering the death of numerous victims.
"I was with the parents of the Christian boy when he died," he said last week.
BRIAN TODD Christian was 16 and worked part time as a cook at Waid's Restaurant.
Ten days ago, two men entered the back door of the restaurant and shot Brian, who was cleaning the floors. He died on the operating table at the Med Center.
Brian's parents, devastated and frightened, sat in the waiting room. Complex and unpredictable.
Emergency room personnel called Spencer in to relieve some of the burden.
"In such difficult situations, you just have to be sensitive to their needs," he said. "I just lend an ear and try not to get into any theological debates."
SPENCER IS responsible for the myriad difficult duties of hearing the emotional and spiritual grievances of the sick and the dying at the hospital.
"We get about everything here. You just never know what's going to happen."
"The relatives' first reaction is denial," he said. "They don't want to believe the person is actually dead. I just try to get them to realize he is. People will try to grapple with some pretty heavy questions, and they demand answers, but I try to field any theological questions.
Spencer paused, his eyes widening. He again glared at the floor and thought of another
THE SURGERY had gone well. Everything looked fine. The man was scheduled to go home, and his wife and kids were to pick him up that afternoon. He got out of his bed to pack some clothes, but a few minutes later the doctor found him, dead on the floor of his room.
different from the person that said
BUT SPENCER said he saw more than death.
"People tend to wait the last minute to think of these things," he said. "That makes it harder."
"I don't know if it's harder dealing with the relatives of someone who has just died," Spencer said, "or with the relatives of a person who has been dying over an extended period of time.
"Hope is fine, but you have to be realistic. Besides consoling the relatives, one of his duties is to help them prepare funeral arrangements.
He walks several miles in rounds to all the Catholic patients in the hospital.
"I try to see them upon admission through the time they walk out the door," he said. "It doesn't always get done because the patients are in tests and so forth, but I try."
Charles Sack, an Independence, Kan., man in the hospital with pneumonia, said Spencer had
"He's a real inspiration," Sack said. "He comes by here, but he usually doesn't stay long. He's a busy man."
"When he comes in here he's usually out of wind. I think he needs a pair of skater skates."
STUDENT COUNSFLING is also a big part of the job, as is dealing with ethical problems that pertain to hospital treatment and research.
"A dietetic intern cornered the other day and said he was unsure about feeding a cancer patient to keep him alive when the patient did not eat. In a lot of cases it's difficult to know what to do."
He said doctors and nurses would often pull him aside and ask him to see someone who had been injured.
Marilyn Finn, nursing supervisor at the Med Center, said Spencer had been vital to the staff.
"If we need a clerery in the middle of the night or anytime," Flian said, "we can always depend
See CLERGY page 5