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Wednesday, August 31, 1977
University Daily Kansan
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Comment
Opinions on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Kansas or the School of Journalism
Protect people first
As the salary dispute between Lawrence police and the city commission simmers away, both sides would do well to keep in mind how easily one is burned when playing with fire. They seem to forget with distressing regularity.
Obviously, a police labor dispute is quite unlike a Teamsists battle with management or a county courthouse employee struggle with commissioners. When police start hedging on their duties, there can be more than trouble. There can be chaos.
Each side in the Lawrence Police dispute is guilty of periodically forgetting the gravity of the issue.
City commissioners are being perplexingly unmoving and unhelpful.
THE LAWRENCE POLICE Officers Association (LPOA), the police bargaining unit, began with an unreasonable salary request, chopped its demands to a sensible level, then jumped back to a request that commissioners were given access to commissioners' patience, such vacillating has eaten away most of the public sympathy police once had.
Toss in simultaneous wage talks with the city fire department—as Lawrence police are so desperately trying to do—and the simmering pot is at the boiling point.
The policemen's use of the fire fighters'
concurrent salary problems as a wedge against the city is a low blow indeed. This, perhaps, is the most alarming development of all.
A CONSPIRACY by policemen and fire fighters is a seamy approach to salary difficulties. As the police and fire fighters join arms to add force to their respective demands and secure $30,000 per tree residents hangs rather precariously in the balance.
From a practical standpoint, this joint bargaining venture has obvious advantages for policemen. It also raises serious ethical questions.
Policemen may blemn the level of their wages, but they cannot deny that they chose freely to become public servants—in fact, protectors of the public. Such a position earns responsibilities that do not go along with, say, a United Auto Workers card.
Likewise, the city commission owes Lawrence citizens a bit more open-mindedness. For the commissioners, the salary squabble may be a matter of pride; for the rest of us, it is literally a matter of life and death.
Stripe painting shows they're still B and G
At the moment, there is little movement on either side, Spinning wheels in this manner is characteristic of most labor disputes. There are no police forces do not involve police forces and public safety.
Early this summer the name of the University of Kansas Buildings and Grounds department was changed to Facilities
Rodger Oroke, director of physical plants, said the name change was made to more correctly describe the function of the hundreds of workers entering the department's $1 million budget.
But for the thousands of students returning to KU for the second, third or fourth year, the image of the horseshoe-pitching B and G worker is too firmly fixed in their heads to be removed by a simple name change.
WHAT WAS FORGOTTEN over the summer was very easily renewed when early returners were greeted by a Jayhawk Boulevard so broken by freshly painted crosswalks guarded by barricades that the resulting maze was designed at Allen Field House during the height of enrollment.
Instead, the painting was done from Aug. 15 to 20, because, as Orakse said, it is fresh and we fresh as possible for the students."
Old and new students alike, while waiting near each obstacle for an approaching car to weave its way through the mess, acked themselves why the painting couldn't have been done earlier. Perhaps. Also, the two weeks between the end of summer school and the start of the trickle back to school.
And again the image of the mental maintenance man-paid to work, not to think-comes in department names and change in department names.
particular names.
HOURS AFTER the here!
Sandy
Dechant
Editorial Writer
cades were removed-supposed after each freshly painted crosswalk had dried for a day; the crosswalks had been cleaned that they were barely visible in the daytime and invisible at night, when pedestrian crossing markings come in rather
The painting had dried properly, said Odell Wiley, superintendent of building maintenance. It's just that a pigment in the paint picks up tire tracks and other dirt forced upon it.
He added "They really don't come out too good until they are washed or rained on."
During good weather Orkue said streets at KU are washed about once a week and rains are unpredictable.
NEVERTHERLE, the more than 68 crosswalks on campus are painted two year a atear to "considerable" cost OROke said.
That vague estimation includes about $500 labor for the two-man crew that spends about a week painting, and an assortment of other costs for paint and equipment.
Ron Thomas, paintshop foreman, said the paint used was designed especially for painting dividing lines on highways and not for the heavy cross traffic characteristics of KU thoroughfare.
THOMAS SAID a change has been pondered for each of the 13 years he has been with the department.
departmental name change took more than a year and a half.
Oroke said that other paints had been tested but that none ever produced more pleasing results.
Currently being tested at one crosswalk, however, is a relatively new vinyl-like stripe attached to the road's surface with adhesive. Even if the vinyl markings are acceptable, the cost could be formidable, Oroke said.
And even employees of the newly named Facilities Operations department are getting a bit touchy about the apparent make-work overtones of their jobs.
Meanwhile, planned for spring is another painting-with the same paint.
Thomas said. "They always talk about how foolish it is."
Hoch Auditorium was awash Monday with confused freshmen, leavened by coerced faculty and a few cynical veterans of two or three undergraduate campaigns.
Worthy thought buried by pomp
Brochures were handed out at the door in the hallowed tradition. One gave the words "bring song and an electrifying history of that ubiquitous bird, the Jayhawk. (Freshmen and transfers, you might as well get used to him, because he usually fowls at you from all sides leaving at you from all sides and every position.)"
The band belted out repeated crescendo worthy of an imperial fanfare. The antique architecture blended with the bright flags and pageantry to create the atmosphere of a baronial tower. This drama its highest point as the dems entered—at a measured saunter—in their medieval robes.
THE CEREMONY began with the two strongest group of students at the Star-Spangled Banner and a Judeo-Christian prayer—a gesture to symbolically unite the University with stronger in-
As the deans and other potentates were introduced, an interesting dichotomy appeared. The vice chancellor for academic affairs heads an office that is entirely separate from that of the vice chancellor. The chancellor is very good luck, this pleasant polarity will remain complete throughout the year.
But an interesting thing happened when Chancellor Archie Dykes spoke. Although it is usually vain to search for an arch, a person behind such ceremonies, Dykes broke with tradition. He said
Perhaps his words will never be etched in immortal fire, but there was significant thought behind them.
something worth listening to at a ceremonial occasion. Amazing. Innovative.
Ross
McIlvain
Editorial Writer
AFTER SPENDING Country Club Week in wild debauchery, living life in the fast lane, we need to reflect on what we are doing here, what we plan to do with our lives and how or whether the two are related. For the philosophical, perhaps even a little pondering of the would be order in between bouts of sitting on a barstool before a wooden altar and worshipping the amber god, we should take time to think.
"Without reflection, we merely drift," Dykes said.
This University may be devoting too large a share of its resources to research and theory, but not the action that is a matter of opinion.
Dykes also stressed the need for a strong research program. Although most students would rather see more money spent on instruction instead of channeled to research, Dykes wished they were able to fulfill so sacrificing long-term goals for short-term benefits.
But universities as a group must do basic research, and that is not a matter of opinion. Just about the only research outside universities is for research in technology. Without basic research, knowledge, and thus humanity, will stagnate.
Look beyond the surface.
Although laced with antique pomp and institutional self-importance, the convocation ceremony had a message worth listening to.
"IF YOU DO NOT DO ANYTHING WHEN YOU GROW UP, JUNGE JOIN THE NATIONAL RIGHT ASSOCIATION, PAY YOUR DUES AND PARTKE THE HELL AGAINST ALL THESE LEFTHING SCREAMBLES, FUILISH GUY CONTROLS."
Despite squawking, fee boost necessary
If enrollment at Allen Field House seemed more hectic than usual this year, that's because it was.
Added to the usual assortment of students harried by scheduling problems were a peculiar group of check writers; pens poised to enter the figure that would carry them through semester as official students at the University of Kansas.
Cries of "What is this?" rung out as the amount $344.40 leaped from the computerized enrollment card.
Dave Johnson
Editorial Writer
According to bureaucratic calculations, a 25 per cent reduction in water consumption would provide the San Francisco area with sufficient water to endure a third successive
"SURELY that must be for non-residents?" the check writers asked. "Or maybe law students? Fees have been less than $300 but we've been here, and they they're $ more than last semester."
Not every student returning to Lawrence was caught with his bank balance down after the fee hike. It has to be a minor
shock to students accustomed to a $ or $10 jump each year to fork over $50 more this fall.
Public officials have used the drought to impose more regulations and controls on the wettest areas in the desert, what is happening in the San Francisco area may foreshadow a future of growing bureaucratic control over all areas in the desert, those who live in the West.
Apparently many students are resorting to means other than SMS (Send Money Soon) to teachers, Rogers director of student financial aid said his office had received 5,330 applications by老师们 and 6 per cent of them were received by Sept. 16 last year.
The deluge of applications has also put a damper on prospects for spring aid.
By ORRING G. HATCH
By Y. Times Features
WASHINGTON—Water, a commodity typically in great abundance, is suddenly scarce in the Western United States.
year of drought. To compensate for the revenue loss caused by a 25 per cent reduction in water sales, the city's Public Utilities Commission granted a 43 per cent rate increase.
Crises made for control
But things have not gone according to plan. Customers reduced consumption by 40 per cent that caused a new problem.
THE GENERAL MANAGER of the San Francisco water department said that he would have to seek a further rate increase of 22 per cent if the reduction remained significantly higher than suggested that customers deserve more water to improved sanitary standards and landscaping irrigation.
We can all imagine how the manager's suggestion that Californians consume more water at lower rates rather than less water at higher rates fared when it encountered a statewide climate that wastes American must now be made to suffer.
Immediately, there were calls for his resignation. A spokesman for the State of California's fire department sources complained that the city's water officials were being influenced by such minor matters as finances. The Public Utilities Commission denounced the suggestion to use water to avoid a rate increase.
THE BUREAUCRAT'S attitude is that people must have less even if they must pay more to have less.
The politicians and bureaucrats have greatly compounded a problem of nature, which the train may never set right, because they have a vested interest in compounded problems. These regulators of the public interest, in the non-authority, now tell Californiafans how much water they must use.
The people are hit with price increases if they "overuse" and price increase. Only immiscible bureaucrats—like those who planned a 25 per cent reduction and instead achieved a 40 per cent reduction — can be used, even if there is more available to use. Californians now wonder whether there really was a shortage of taxpayers but just an excess of politicians and bureaucrats.
This is a funny story of bureaucratic bungling, but it is also a scary story of power-grabbing. One group of consultants has suggested that a potential California water shortage in 1986 might require mandatory controls now.
THE NEW CLASS has gone beyond turning crises to their advantage; they even have gone beyond creating crises for their advantage. Now they advocate controls on the basis of anticipated crises in the future.
This scary, funny story is a harbinger of what is to come when the government imposes gasoline rationing. To compensate the sellers in the market itself, for lower revenues as a result of the mandatory reduction in gasoline usage, the government will grant a price increase. As a result, people will further cut back on their gasoline use. The people to stop saving so much gasoline or else face a further price increase.
Whenever government takes control over the allocation of a resource, people have to pay much more for much less. That is the bureaucratic vay when prices are raised; the cry goes out that they are ripping off the consumer. When bureaucrats raise prices, it is justified on the grounds of dealing with a crisis or punishing immoral consumers either too much or too little.
Orrin G. Hatch, a Republican, is Utah's junior U.S. senator.
This scary, funny story also throws light on why, when water becomes scarce in the Western United States, the administration responds by cancelling water projects in the Western states. This increase crisis prompts us to can use control over water and, thereby, over jobs and people's lives.
The self-interest of government is a powerful force. It even harnesses nature to its purposes. Mere mortals have no chance at all until they learn that governments manufacture crises in order to gain control over people.
unjustified or cruel and unusual punishment to students surviving on canned soup and frozen pot pies but on the contrary, the hike was not only justifiable but overdue.
FOR THE LAST several years students' contributions toward the University's research base have only 18 per cent. This is below a loose guideline followed by the Kansas Board of Regents that 28 per cent of school's spending goes to student student students. Thus, students at Kansas State University and Wichita State University as well as KU have slid the last two years with relatively low fees.
F
John Conard, executive officer of the Board of Regents said KU students' share of the operating expenses still does
not equal 25 per cent but he didn't anticipate any fee raises in the near future.
"The Regents' philosophy has been to keep it (tuition) as low as possible to share the benefits the legislature can provide in a Kansas." Conard said.
"We knew the University was falling behind but there no's really been," he said. "Ideally, it should be changed every four years so a student could go through school and pay a tuition increase only once."
The plight of the KU student can be compared to the sick child who forgot to take his medicine regularly and now must take a larger dose to ward off the illness. It is hoped that the $0 hike will keep the tuition bug away for the next four years.
Labyrinth confuses KANSAN Letters
As another school year dawns upon us, I again marvel at the University's object lessons in obfuscation. Enrolment and the Kansas Union bookstore are the most important stagger the imagination.
What should be a relatively simple process is turned into a baffling conundrum of gigantic obstacles. You have to be closed or closed classes and few or no books are only some of the obstacles that face the average person, and so supposed to be challenging and demanding, not the entrance to
This labyrinth of bureaucratic mumbo jumbo has only one saving grace. It can be a bit scary of bureaucratic mumbo that our society is permeated with and we will have to face. But as this is what life on the earth is like, I am not sure I want to go.
and material acquisition for the aforementioned courses.
Steve Lathan Shawnee senior
Playwright thanks Burge
To the editor:
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Everyone has a nice story to tell about Frank Burke, Kansas Union director (Kansas) August 19. This week he has opportunity to share mine.
For six long weeks last spring, when the SUA production of my play Homerimer will evening until midnight at the Union, Burge sat up many a night with us, very much like a benevolent spirit, and, often, privately donated food and beverages to the crew (numbering some 24 persons), but he always rushed
away before anyone could thank him.
On opening night, as I was numbly watching the crowds pour into the Union ballroom, I sat in the corner of my hiding place in the balcony.
"I know how nervous you must be," he whispered shily, "and so I brought you a pot of coffee."
Again he rushed away before I could thank him.
Thank you, Frank. For all the food and the coffee but most of all for genuinely caring. Every plawlight should be as lucky.
Paul Stephen Lim 934 Pamela Lane
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published at the University of Kansas daily August 19, 2013. Subscriptions are valid from June and July except Saturday, Sunday and holiday. Subscriptions by mail are $1会员 or $14.95 for a year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $6.95 per year outside the county. Student subscriptions are $7.95 per year outside the county.
Editor Jerry Seib
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