University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
KANSAN
Thursday, February 24, 1983
Vol. 93, No. 105 USPS 650-640
Profs consider bid to form union chapter
By DARRELL PRESTON
Staff Writer
Looming budget cuts that threaten pay raises and job security have prompted a group of KU professors to investigate the possibility of forming an incentive bargaining union, profes- torial in the UK.
Art Skidmore, professor of philosophy, said the interest in starting a KU chapter of the National Education Association existed, but he never knew if it was enough support to form the organization.
"IT'S PREMATURE TO SAY what it would be like or what it would do, but we will probably decide whether to go ahead with it by spring break." Skidmore said. "It boils down to whether there are enough people willing to commit themselves to working on it."
Since last fall, the small, loosely knit group has met sporadically with representatives of the Kansas branch of NEA. K-NEA, a Topeka-based group known for negotiating contracts for elementary and secondary school teachers, also has bargaining groups at Pittsburgh State University and about 13 Kansas community colleges, including Johnson County Community College.
THE PITTSBURG State chapter is awaiting a
ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court that will define the contract terms with which the KNEA agrees to conduct the study.
Pittsburgh State faculty and administrators who were contacted this week talked about the importance of creating a better
K-NEA wants to organize a chapter at KU, Skidmore said, but KU professors want to know whether enough people are interested in forming a KU branch.
"It's a big decision to make and we want to be sure we have enough faculty interested in our program."
Lee Quisenberry, K-NEA director of membership and organizing, said he had met with faculty at KU several times to explain the aspects of the organization.
"We are trying to establish a steering committee at KU because we believe organizing should be done on a local level." Quinberry said, "I suspect it be a while before this team gets the ground."
QUISENBERRY SAID he had also met with groups at Kansas State University and Wichita State.
"We are trying to increase membership," he said, "and since NEA wants to represent all levels of education, it would make sense to organize chanters at these schools."
Membership in K-NEA would not mean that
faculty_members would immediately begin collective bargaining.
"NEA offers bargaining, lobbying, insurance and other advantages, although many chapters consider collective bargaining to be the biggest challenge." All depend on what local members want to do.
Pittsburgh State has used collective bargaining for 10 years, with varying degrees of success. It was one of the first states to require collective bargaining.
RUSSELL JONES, Pittsburg State music professor and president of the university's chapter of K-NEA, said he thought faculty salaries at Pittsburg State were higher than at other Regents schools because of collective bargaining.
He also said that having a signed contract gave faculty members security when state lawmakers or the governor began talking about reducing salary increases.
“There was a rumor last year that the governor decided not to cut salary increases at Regents schools because of the contract at Rutgers University, but money was safe because a contract was signed.”
"Some years we had an agreement and some
years we didn't". Hay said. "It resulted in substantial delays of up to a year before salary increases took effect. Almost every year an employee was catched, but it seemed to be a matter of when."
THE UNION has been involved in numerous lawsuits. Hay said.
The Pittsburgh chapter also is awaiting a Kansas Supreme Court decision, expected within a month, defining the contract terms with which K-NEA can negotiate at Regents schools.
Briefs filed in the case, which was argued before the Kansas Supreme Court last week, show that the conflict is between the Kansas and Missouri courts over what is nototiable and the Resent's definition
"If the state and PERB say you can negotiate one thing under the Public Employees Relations Act, then the administration should be able to," Jones said. "But if the Board of Regents says, 'We don't want you to negotiate that,' what is the administration supposed to do?"
PROMOTION PROCEDURES, faculty involvement in decisions about budget cuts, faculty travel for research and summer school teaching are some of the disputed terms at
Like KU's faculty, Pittsburg State's also organized slowly. Jones said.
Separate fires gut bedroom, singe school
Staff Reporter
Separate fires in Lawrence yesterday gutted a second room apartment at 1129 Vermont St. and burned out a bathroom at South Junior High School. Lawrence Fire Department officials said
The blaze on Vermont Street caused an estimated $30,000 damage to the structure and an estimated $15,000 damage to its contents. Mat Paul Findley said.
Fire Chief Jim McSwain said the apartment fire apparently started in the north apartment, where Linda Mullican, a former KU student, lived
MULLICAN SAID that she and her dog, Whitney, left her apartment at about 3 p.m. to help a friend who had locked his keys in his car.
"I was only gone for 10 or 15 minutes," she said, watching firefighters climb through a hole.
Mullican's bedroom was severely burned. She said she kept her clothes in her bedroom.
"At least I'm wearing something now," she said.
When she returned to her apartment, Mullican said, it was in flames
said she kept her clothes in her bedroom.
"At least I am wearing something now," she
building.
Her friends and neighbors offered Mullican a
Mullican said six other people lived in the building.
"I'll be OK," she told them. "I'm just worried about everyone else."
SHE SAID she would probably live with a friend until her apartment was repaired, or she left.
McSwaian said firefighters put out the fire within 20 minutes after they arrived at the scene.
"When we arrived, flames were coming out of
See FIRE page 5.
See FIRE page 5
A Lawrence firefighter saved a net dog from a fire that gutted an apartment yesterday at 1129 Vermont St.
Tavern owners organize to stop drinking-age bill
Weather
Staff Reporter
Tenight will be partly cloudy and cooler with a low of 20 to 25.
Tomorrow will be fair with a high in the 40s
Legislators disapprove of loan bill
Today we will be cloudy with a high in the
today. Winds will be from the north at 15 to 25 m.
south.
He said students who had defaulted on federal loans could find alternatives for financing their needs.
By AMY CRAIG
The bill also would prevent the children of students who had defaulted on student loans from_receiving state scholarships and tuition grants.
STATE REP. Lloyd Poison, R-Vermilion, sponsor of the bill, said the bill was not designed to be a lawmaker's ballot.
TOPEKA — State legislators yesterday criticized an unworkable a proposed bill that would make former university students who have failed to pay student loans inelegible to apply for state financial aid.
Tultion grants affect only students attending private universities, but some KU students have other degrees.
"We're not trying to keep anybody from having an education," he said. "We don't think state money should be given to people who didn't take care of federal money."
State Rep. Mike Meacham, R-Wichita, said that some legislators in the House Ways and Means Committee were not enthusiastic about the proposal.
POLSON SAID that he expected the Legislature to react with mixed emotions to the bill, but that he did not know whether the committee would endorse the measure.
"He's got a cannon aimed at a fly," Meacham said.
"It's something we need to focus our attention on, whether the bill fills or doesn't "f" he said.
Polson said that more than 700,000 people had defaulted on federal guaranteed loans, which had cost the country $640 million. Kansas received the government $6 million.
The proposal would not be workable, he said,
and would apply to only a small percentage of
workers.
restricted from having, and once you get it you want it more." he said.
BUT if the bill to increase the legal age to 21 is passed, 18, 19, and 20-year-olds would still be old.
The federal government pays the interest while the student is in school, and guarantees repayment to the lending institution. Students pay the interest on the loans after they graduate.
Students who take out loans for their education have 11 years to repay the loans after their graduation.
By JEFF TAYLOR
Supporters of raising the age say the bill would decrease the number of alcohol-related accidents involving teenagers, particularly those in high school.
WALLACE AND other tavern owners and lobbyists have organized a lobbying effort to oppose state legislation that would raise the minimum wage, encouraging their patrons to oppose the legislation.
THE CURRENT interest rate on GSLs is 9 percent.
Raising the legal drinking age in Kansas would deny young people's rights and would not decrease alcohol-related accidents, the owners of several Lawrence bars and clubs said this
Ken Wallace, owner of the Jayhawk Cafe, 1340 Ohio St., said he opposed the changing state's drinking age because it was "hypocritical to let a person with a history of alcoholism any contract, but not let them drink a beer."
"Very seldom are there college-aged children whose parents graduated from a university 11 years ago."
Instead of drinking in a bar, the 18- to 20-year-olds would drink in their cars, he said. They probably also would try to get false identification, he said.
"How can we compete with clubs when 80 percent of our customers are 18 and 19 years old?
"It's human nature to want something you're
A bill in the Legislature, proposed by State Reps. Kearth Karrar, R-Hugleton, and Ron Fox, R-Prairie Village, would raise the legal age for buying and consuming cereal malt beverages from 18 to 21. The bill also would require people handling these cereal malt beverages to be 21
The tavern owners have begun circulating petitions against the bill and have encouraged their customers to write or call their legislators about the bill. Don McClure, owner of Louse's Bar, 10:09 Massachusetts St., said he even has provided stationery, envelopes and stamps.
Staff Reporter
Another proposed bill would increase the legal age to 19. It would eliminate the sale of 2.3 percent alcohol beer in Kansas and allow beer that is 4.5 percent or more in alcohol content.
Meacham said that the Board of Regents was not sure how the bill would be enforced, if it were
WALLACE SAID, "Unfortunately, we have a bad state of apathy existing. The failed effort to raise the age two years ago has made people think it won't happen this time.
"Drinking is nationally a more visible issue now, but 18-year-olds can't conceive of logic without it."
However, Polson said the measure was aimed at people who could have paid their debts, but
Solbach said that the bill was unfair to children, who should not be responsible for their
WALLACE SAID he thought education about alcohol was the most effective way to decrease
However, McClure and Wallace said most students had not been responsive to their instructions.
Wallace and McClure said the legislation would hurt their businesses if it passed.
"I don't think we need to punish children for the sins of their parents." he said.
Polson said an amendment was added to the bill yesterday that would exclude adopted children and independent students.
"I'm nervous as hell, wanna said. we're talking about my livelihood. It could put me into bankruptcy. I think the whole situation stinks. "I don't know what would happen to my
State Rep John Solbach, D-Lawrence, a Ways
and Means Committee member, said he would
He said that the loan debts were not dischargeable, which means that defaulted guaranteed federal loans are not secured by collateral and cannot be discharged under
McClure said Louise's would go out of business if the bill passed.
Pelson said Kansas could not allow state money to be missed the way federal money had been.
"If any lending agency was abused by the federal government has been abused they'd be fired."
INDEPENDENT STUDENTS parents cannot claim them as a tax exemption.
"I don't know what would happen to my
Despite sellout, basketball attendance down
By ANDREW HARTLEY
Staff Reporter
Saturday's basketball game against Kansas State University will draw about 15,000 fans and will probably be KU's one and only sellout this season, the ticket manager said yesterday.
The sellout may help bolster the spirits of the athletic department, which, since last year, has seen a continued decrease in basketball attendance. Because of a shortfall in student ticket sales, the department also is facing an anticipated $50,000 loss this season.
FIGURES ORTAINED from the KU sports information department and the National Collegiate Athletic Association indicate that basketball games are continuing a two-year decline.
Steve Bowda, associate director of statistics for the NCAA, said that last year KU had the greatest single-season drop in average attendance among the NCAA's top 70 teams.
1980-81, average attendance was 13,160,
according to the NCAA; in 1981-82, attendance
was 14,050.
Bowda said the only other team with a drop
close to that at KU was the University of Maryland, which lost an average of 3,302 fans last year.
SATURDAY GAMES, including the K-State game, are drawing an average of 10,425, about 2,000 higher than games at night during the week
Tom Hof, the ticket manager, said the K-State game sold out Tuesday. All of the 14,900 regular seats in addition to 100 extra seats will be filled, he said.
Athletic department officials said they were optimistic that the average attendance this year would be higher.
Hir said he could not predict what size crowd would attend the Nebraska game. He said it would vary according to how KU did in its next two games.
The average number of fans at a game so far this season is 9,366, down more than 400 fans from last year's average, but with the K-State sellout and a good turnout against Nebraska the next weekend, average attendance could climb higher than last year's.
DESPITE THE possibility of increased attendance, the KU athletic department will host a homecoming game.
season than the $474,500 that is budgeted, Susan Wachter, athletic department business man.
The reason for the shortfall, she said, is that when the budget was drawn up last April, the department expected more students to buy season tickets than eventually did.
She said all the other projections made last April by the department were accurate.
Basketball account for 11.2 percent of the total athletic department income of more than $100 million.
Wachter said the deficit would have no effect on the overall budget, because a windfall of television income of more than $300,000 from the Fed could lead to losses from all KU's major sports programs.
THIS SEASON, 3,400 students purchased season basketball tickets, compared to last year's 2,700. In the 1980-81 season, 6,100 tickets were the capacity of the student section is nearly 7,000.
Wacher said an increase in the number of nugge-game tickets sold made up for a shortfall in sales.
The smallest attendance this season was at the 27 game against U.S. International, which on Friday drew 415 to 300.