HEW Taking a Look at University Hiring Practices
By BOB SIMISON Kansan Staff Writer
After conducting a nationwide search earlier this year to find a black geologist to fill a position here, the team decided not to continue.
Only four black geologists with doctorates were found in the United States, W. J. Argersinger Jr., vice chancellor for research and graduate studies, said Wednesday. One was president of the University of Massachusetts; none of the others was available.
The search was part of the University of Kansas' effort to comply with federal affirmative action requirements, Argerisinger said. The University has filed a complaint against all participation of members" of minority groups.
Affirmative activity programs, administered since 1966 by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, are to insure that federally funded institutions do not discriminate in hiring according to race or sex and to correct undervaluation of women and members of minority groups.
HEW's Region Seven Office of Civil Rights in Kansas City informed the University August 14 that it would conduct an on-site compliance review of HEW's equipment before preparation be prepared before HEW makes its inspection
"This is in line with HEW policy because we know of one other major university in this area that has received a similar request," Acting Chancellor Stephen R. Reid said, checking to see that we're implementing our goals."
HEW has requested information about KU's hiring record, statements of policy and descriptions of temporary affirmative action programs administered by the four vice chancellors, Nichols said. An Affirmative Action Board, created earlier this year, is developing a comprehensive program.
Preliminary information was to be submitted to HEW by last Friday, but a two-week extension was granted on Nichols' request. Vacations, enrollment and other details required for the visa are impossible to meet the first deadline. Nichols said.
Meeting the delayed deadline will be difficult, Shirley Lamh, director of the Office of Affirmative Action for Women, said. Lamh's office and the Office of Education head a task force gathering the information.
Gilham said part of the data HEW had requested will be compiled in two weeks. The remainder will not be compiled in this report.
Under state law, the University's permanent employment records could not include racial discrimination.
"We're on the horns of a legal dilemma." Angersinger said. "The state says that if you keep these records, your discriminating. Now you get those records and have those records to prove you're not discriminating."
University to provide information about the age, sex, education level, salary, position and race of all students.
Nichols said the information probably could be compiled by asking each department for a racial breakdown. Only a visual review of each department is permitted.
Gilham said she expected HEW to send its site committee here in about two months. She said she did not know what to expect when the site committee arrived.
"Yes, it is scary," she said. "If they find us not to be in compliance, they could tell us what we have to do."
Nichols said HEW would probably want a statement of intent from the University about establishing realistic, attainable goals. The Fund's chairman was told to comply or lose federal funds, he said.
Gilham said information about employment policies would be evaluated to see whether minority groups or women were underutilized or unfairly paid.
"It's determined in various ways whether minorities or women are underutilized." Gilham said. "For non-professional jobs, it depends on the nature of the job and the professional staff positions, they use national average
"If it is concluded that we are underutilizing
civil servants and women, we will be required to set
goals and work."
Goals differed from quotas, she said, in that a goal was an approximate percentage of a group to be achieved in a number of years; a quota was a specific number of a group to be maintained.
"If an institution doesn't have women or minorities or equal pay, you can't solve the problem overnight," Nichols said. "Our problem is setting realistic goals—are they available?
"You can't just go out and get qualified people of a certain race. Our program must be realistic, attainable in terms of the employment market and financial considerations."
The Geological Survey's failure to find a black geologist is an example. The Survey also has found it difficult to fill positions with qualified women, Arngersinger said.
Efforts to comply with affirmative action requirements were further complicated by the fact that some employees had been on leave.
from HEW, Nichols said. Only general requirements were known.
Besides interm program in the programs of student affairs, academic affairs, business affairs and research and graduate studies, the University is responsible for creating the created Office of Affirmative Action for Women.
Gilham's office, since it opened July 1, has established a grievance procedure for women who allege discrimination by the University. It also has issued a report on 1971-72 faculty salaries.
The report said the average difference between the salaries of men and women faculty members was $2,720.00. The average male faculty member salary of $1,935.62; the average woman, $1,195.82.
By rank, women professors received $2,257.21 less than men; women associate professors, $1,785.98 less than men; women assistant professors, $1,676.75 less than men; women instructors, $274.80 less than men; and women lecturers, $1,879.97 less than men.
Four of the 24 women professors were pau-
salaries at least equal to the average male
professor's salary of $17,003.02, according to the
report.
CLOUDY
83rd Year, No. 4
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Kansan Photo by SUSAN HAYES
'Hawking
Thursday, August 31, 1972
As the presidential jet had traveled upward across the Pacific, Nixon advised that he expect the two days of talks with Tanaka to result in "reasonably specific action" to ease the multibillion-dollar crisis that runs each year in its trade with Japan.
Nixon's grey suit was soaked by the time he had finished talking and stepped away to buy a bottle.
Factors Vary In Resignations Of Chancellors
Steve Edmonds of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce shows a Hawkchief to
him.
Hawkerfield is one of the items being sold at Allen Field House by the organization's sports committee. The items will be sold from noon on 7 daytime and Sept. 1, 5 and 6 in the afternoon.
See story page 8
Nixon reached Hawaii four hours ahead of Tanaka.
Better Relations Object Of Talks with Japan
Before presiding at a red-carpet welcome for the new Japanese leader, Nixon planned a bit of election-year politicking, arranging to attend a reenac-
HONOLULU (AP)—President Nixon arrived in rain-swept Hawaii Wednesday for summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Kakiu Tanaka and predicted the mid-Pacific conference will contribute to a new structure of peace.
Nixon noted that it was in Hawaii three decades ago that World War II began with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The fact that the leaders of the two former states were in peace in this island state now shows, Nixon said, how much the world has changed.
Sources reported the two leaders would ratify an emergency agreement drafted by lower-level officials calling for Japan to import on a crash basis $750 million worth of products as enriched uranium, farm equipment, helicopters and planes passengers.
A lea draped around his neck, Nixon stood in the rain and told about 5,000 persons that he was here to further the "very close friendship" with Japan.
At a news conference the day before he departed, Nixon said he expected the U.S. to continue trying to reduce" the $3.4 billion annual deficit the U.S. is posting in its dealings
The agreement was worked out after Kissinger, in a Tokyo visit Aug. 19, cautioned that urgent steps were needed to ensure relations between the two countries.
tion for the island state's business and
longtime friend Clare Boole the Lacey.
The Nixon-Tanaka talks are scheduled to that 10am and include a working day for them.
The trade imbalance, Nixon said at his Tuesday news conference, "is not healthy for the United States" or for Japan because it creates fuel demands for restrictive quotas.
Besides the two days of talks with Tanaka, the President scheduled a meeting Thursday with Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker, U.K. envoy to Saigon, who was summoned to Hawaii to report on latest Vietnam developments.
State Educational Financing Is Declared Unconstitutional
OLATHE (AP)—The Kansas system of financing elementary and high school education was ruled unconstitutional Wednesday by the Johnson County District Court in a decision that may have far-reaching effects.
Judge Phillip L. Woodworth enjoined the operation of the system, similar to that of other states, but gave the Kansas Legislature until July 1 to restructure it. In Topeka, state Sen. Joseph Harder, chairman of a special legislative committee, said his group would begin work next week to implement the court order.
Woodworth's 16-page decision dealt
primarily with the school foundation plan of state aid to education, which he said failed to provide equal aids statewide for college formulas by which this aid is computed."
BY FAILING to offset disparities in local tax efforts or per-pupil operating expenditures, he said, the state program makes each child's education "essentially function of, and dependent on, the wealth district in which the child resides."
David Wasse of Olathe, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said another count still pending in the district court concerns the ad valorem property tax.
★ ★ ★
School Finance Committee To Study Court Decision
TOPEKA (AP)—The chairman of a special legislative committee on school finance said Wednesday that his group would begin work next week concerning a court decision holding the present Kansas act of financing public education to be invalid.
Sen. Joseph Harder, R-Moundridge, said his committee would convene Thursday, Sept. 7, to hear a report on the ruling and the plan to end the drug crack enacted in the 1972 legislative session.
He said the committee would also re-examine some alternatives.
BOTH HARDER and a top leader in the state Department of Education said the decision by Johnson County District Court Philip L. Woodworth was no surprise.
"I don't think it came unexpectedly," said William Goodwin, assistant state commissioner of education. "It follows decisions in other states."
Harder said, "I'm not surprised at the court's decision. We're going to have to get in gear and do some changing in the method of financing schools."
"I THINK it of such importance that there should be a review by the state's highest court," said Goodwin. "This case can have a tremendous impact. It means a new school finance structure for the state."
The present finance system distributes approximately $10.3 million in state aid to the tribal lands.
HE SAID the most likely course for the legislature to follow was to proceed with re-examination of the bill that was under review, the legislative committee earlier this year.
"I anticipate that we the legislature might be under court mandate to enact a new finance plan by the time we convene in January," Harder said.
Harder said the U.S. Supreme Court was going to hear an appeal from a similar decision in a Texas case in October, with a decision possibly by December.
He said the bill would require the local district to impose a tax against these
Goodwin said he anticipated an appeal to the Kansas Supreme Court.
Harder said the bill would have required a minimum local effort based on the wealth of the school district. This would be computed from income and the taxable value of property in the district, adjusted to the state average.
sources to meet its required minimum local effort. If this didn't provide sufficient money, the state would make up the difference. Harder said.
"The bill is designed to equalize educational opportunities." Harder apply.
He said one of the alternatives that would be considered by his committee was the idea of providing differing amounts of aid for various types of punis.
"IT'S AN established fact that it costs more to finance the education of a high school student than it does for an elementary student," Harder said.
"If probably costs still more to educate a disadvantaged student, or a vocational-technical student, and probably still more to educate someone in special education. So you weigh these differing kinds of students for the aid formula.
William Goodwin, assistant state commissioner of education, said he was not surprised by the decision because "it follows decisions in other states," but he said, "I think if it such importance there be a review by the state's highest court.
"It means a new school finance structure for the state."
WAXSE SAID counts dealing with both the property tax and school foundation formulas for financing education were "filled together, but we decided that in order to minimize costs, the suit, it would be better to proceed on this one count school foundation plan."
The suit was filed last December as "a class action representing all students in a similar situation," Waxse said, although it was initiated by Mr. and Mrs. James Caldwell of rural DeSoto, Kan., on behalf of their children. Michael and Michele.
"The school system in which our plaintiffs live is one of the very poor school systems--very low pupil expenditure and very high tax levy." Waxse said.
JOHNSON County, bordering on Kansas
Missouri, Mission school district,
one of the smallest in the country.
Defendants in the suit are the state of Kansas, the Kansas Board of Education, and the DeSoto Unified School District No. 232.
The school foundation plan was a principal reason why the court found the system in violation of both the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Kansas Constitution, Woodworth wrote. He added that "nothing in the constitution grants a right to the legislature to adopt a specific system of financing or taxation."
He said equality is not a judicially manageable concept and the 'quest for equal' is not a moral question.
problems fraught with economic and political difficulties.
In his attack on the school financing process in Kansas, Woodworth said, "Whether it is equitable to provide the school with the money to pay the taxes is not a question for the courts."
"HOWEVER, it is a relatively simple duty to develop a financing scheme that is fiscally neutral and does not make public the wealth of the state as a whole."
Waxse, who said the suit filed by his employer in the case of the property tax itself, estimated this method of taxation "is responsible for about 70 per cent of the school fund" in
Woodworth wrote:
"TT IS for the legislature to balance the interests between citizens and to please or displease the land speculator, retired homeowners, farmer or rancher, landlord, merchant, manufacturer, investor and folkos who are interested in such matters."
Waxse said the school foundation plan—a complicated formula which involves numerous factors, including teacher credit units, students, per capita income—"was supposed to take into consideration the number of districts, but it never succeeded."
During the legal arguments, he said, "we compared several other school systems of similar size in terms of students—including the UllysSES and Kingman districts. There were wide differences in the educational opportunities that students have a vivacious vocational program, the other school doesn't even have a shop.
"WE THOUGHT it would be difficult to not win, but apparently there are a couple of states where they're starting to lose in these things," he said.
Kansas Selective Service Director Sees Few Immediate Draft Changes
By JERRY ESSLINGER Kansan Staff Writer
The director of the Kansas Selective Service System, Junior Elder, said Wednesday that the functions of state and local draft boards "will probably remain mostly unchanged" in light of President Nixon's announcement Monday that the draft would be replaced by an all-volunteer military service by July 1.
Elder said that although state directors had not been informed of any definite changes in regulations, he expected the department to be restricted only in a physical sense.
Procedures for registration, random selection, classification and physical examinations still will be maintained after July 1. Elder said.
Studies are continuing on the national level, he said, to determine the feasibility of a new constitutional conscription could be terminated as early as January. President Nixon has said he will not ask Congress to renew the section of the present conscription law, which remains in place.
Elder said he thought the practicability
Wulfküblke said he had thought the draft might have been drowned a year ago.
Rutherford Hayes, a member of the three-man local board, said he was "glad the drafting is finally going to be discontinued."
of all-volunteer armed forces would depend on whether "preferred military manpower requirements can be met." He speculated that draft calls would be reissued if the expected number of volunteers were not realized.
Members of Local Selective Service Board No. 18 contacted Wednesday expressed their approval to an end of the draft.
Dean Kackley, assistant to the dean of men, who has worked in draft counseling for nearly two years, said that students should not infer from Nikon's announcement that the Selective Service classifications or number priority
Ross Wulfkühle, a member of the local board and a manager of campus services at KU, said he was 'really happy to hear that the draft was going to be ended in time'. The board said the finance of the draft would be permanent. Wulfkühle said he had thought the draft
selection systems would be dropped along with the calls for draftees
"There will be simply a number zero based on call numbers, the number selection system"
Men who lose II-S deferments after graduating from KU or who become vulnerable to the draft before July could still be inducted, Kackley said. The ceiling on random selection numbers of selective students was set at 75 for the period, ending October 1.
Although draft quotas for the month of October had not been officially announced, a reliable source said an increase to 95 for quotas would be announced within a few days.
As in past semesters, students with II-S demertees must inform their local draft boards each semester of their renewed student status. A copy of the student's class schedule and a "blue sheet" must be placed on the local boards, according to Kackley.
Class schedules will be available September 4 at window 4 in Strong Hall; the other form can be picked up at the registrar's office, window 2.