University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
KANSAN
The University Daily
Thursday, February 25, 1982
Vol. 92, No. 104 USPS 650-640
Committee backs Carlin's faculty pay increase
By COLLEEN CACY Staff Reporter
TOPEKA- It may shift the dollars around, but the Senate Ways and Means Committee plans to give faculty at Board of Regents institutions the same salary increase that Gov. John Carlin has recommended, according to State Sen. Paul Hess, committee chairman. "We're going to stay within the total dollars that the governor recommended for faculty salaries," Hess, R-Wichita, said yesterday. "We're just going to reshuffle the deck."
HESS SAID THE committee would take final action today on the Regents faculty salary increases, enrollment adjustment figures, expenses and graduate student tuition fees.
Money for capital improvements and other allocations for individual Regents schools will be provided in the next financial year.
After the committee makes a recom- mentation the budget will be passed to the State floor.
Hess said the committee would probably recommend an 8 percent faculty salary increase.
The Regents requested a 13 percent increase, a total of $6 million for KU faculty.
Carlin recommended a 10 percent increase. It would be split between an 8.75 increase for all faculty and an extra .125 percent for areas with a high market value—accounting, engineering, computer science, library science and the physical sciences.
HOWEVER, CARLIN recommended two
budget that the committee would reject. Hess said.
If the Legislature adopts the changes, they will result in less money for KU.
Carlin proposed increasing the shrinkage factor from 2 percent to 3.5 percent.
Shrinkage is the amount of money withheld from the salary budget to allow for faculty turnover. A salary savings results because a position may be vacant for a period of time, and the replacement might be hired at a lower salary than the original employee.
A 2 percent shrinkage means that out of every $4 million in salary funds, the University receives all $800.
If shrinkage were increased to 3.9 percent, the $1 million salary fund would receive $655,000 of every $1 million of salary funds.
WITH SHRINKAGE subtracted, Carlin's
sensor increased improved Aperture.
Hess said the committee would recommend that shrinkage stay at 2 percent.
Carlin also proposed a different method of figuring fund increases for changes in the economy.
He recommended returning to a formula based on full-time equivalency enrollment figures, whereas he had chosen the lower figure.
FTE is figured by dividing the number of undergraduate hours by 15, the number of graduate hours by nine, the number of student hours by 12 and by adding the three numbers together. The increment figures from each fall to determine increases or decreases in money and number of faculty.
Last year, the Legislature began using a different approach, called the "corridor consort."
UNDER THE CORRIDOR method, an institution must absorb an increase or decrease of less than 1.5 percent. One year is used as a base for the next three years, so large changes in the number of faculty would be made every three years.
State Sen. Ron Hein, R-Topeka, head of the
Ways and Means subcommittee handling KU's budget, said Carlin's proposal would cheat KU out of money it should have received for enrollment increases in 1980 and 1981.
Under the corridor method, the current base year is 1979, therefore, KU would not be scheduled to receive large funding increases until this year. But since there was a slight decrease in the fall, Carlin recommended cutting $292,722 and 15 faculty positions from the KU budget.
"The governor abolished it (the corridor method) to play his political games," Hein said. "He had to do that to pull off what he wanted to do."
HEAID SAIN HEoped the Legislature would end un staving with the corridor approach.
"I think everyone can assume the corridor is better for everyone," he said.
Hess said the committee wanted to give universities as much flexibility as possible in managing the salary funds that the Legislature appropriated.
He said it was unlikely the committee would
Regents have said they favor the corridor method because it had given them flexibility.
allocate an extra salary increase for engineering and other high-market value areas.
In a hearing yesterday morning, a representative from the engineering industry asked the committee for a special $5,000 salary supplement for engineering faculty.
BOB HAKTSOOK, executive vice president of Kansas Engineering Society, thesupplementary editor of the journal
It would go to faculty of engineering schools at KU, Kansas State University and Wichita State University.
He said an assistant professor of engineering with a Ph.D. made about $24,000 a year, and a student just out of college could earn from $22,000 to $32,000 in the private sector.
"The demand for engineers in business has forced faculty to look at alternative ways of making engineering more practical."
But Hess said the committee was not convinced of the need to appropriate more money for the program.
"I don't think we're going to do anything in that form," he said. "The mood of the committee is to maintain the flexibility on the part of the senator and on the salary dollars the Legislature appropriates."
Recent study identifies basic equipment needs
By ANN WYLIE Staff Reporter
The University of Kansas needs $4,673,000 for equipment to compete with other universities and private industry for research, faculty, and students, according to the chairman of the university's equipment committee.
The committee published a report Feb. 9 to identify the University's equipment needs and to address concerns.
The University routinely checks basic equipment needs, however, said Meyen, who is associate vice chancellor for research and graduate studies.
"We really hadn't taken the time to determine the state of the arts for large equipment needs for the future."
The report was sent to the office of research, graduate studies, and public service and to University officials, including Robert Cobb, executive vice chancellor.
"We would hope to present the report to the Board of Resents." Cobb said.
He said that Chancellor Gene A. Budig would read the report before the administrators.
The report lists 48 pieces of major equipment that the University needs, including a logic analyzer, a multi-purpose printer and a supermini computer.
Major equipment is defined in the report as costing more than $50,000. Less expensive equipment is funded by means that do not exceed the budget, and the other operating expenses budget, Cobb said.
The University is ranked 89th among research institutions, high for a public institution," Meyen said.
But with the proper equipment, KU would have the potential to be in the top 25 or 30, he said.
"(The equipment) is not what would put research universities there; it's what you do with them."
Without the equipment, the University's reputation for research will decline, Meyen said.
Faculty quality at the University will also decline if KU doesn't have research equipment that will draw and keep good faculty, Meyen said.
"Unless we're able to provide our faculty members up-to-date equipment for their research and teaching roles, we're not going to be in a position to recruit good faculty." he said.
The geology department, for example, has had trouble attracting faculty. he said.
Proper equipment at the university level affects the entire nation, Meyen said, because the campus is located in a densely populated area.
*Universities represent a setting for research which is quite different from industry.* No mold.
Industry research is product and profitoriented, while university research is broader in scope, and not limited by concern for the outcope. Meven said.
The federal government has usually funded about 95 percent of the University's equipment needs.
But with quickly changing technology, inflation and budget cuts in federal agencies that have historically funded research, the
See EQUIPMENT page 5
Dean claims library study poorly judges space needs
Staff Reporter
By JULIE HEABERLIN
A New York accounting firm's study assessing KU library needs is based on the unprofessional assumption that libraries have wasted construction spending years, the KU dean of library wrestles yesterdays.
"I think they approached the problems from a very utilitarian standpoint," the dean, Jim Ranz, said. "They have had little experience with educational institutions."
Ranz said Peat, Marwick and Mitchell Co. suggested reducing the University's space request almost two-thirds, from 340,000 square feet to 130,000 square feet.
The $100,000 preliminary study, released earlier this month, was commissioned by the Kansas Legislature last spring to assess library requests from several Kansas universities.
"When I asked them, they had to tell me reluctantly and very embarrassingly that they'd never heard of a library built on their standards," he said.
The firm did agree that KU needed another major library, Ranz said, which will serve the university.
Ranz said that a University study, conducted four years ago, assessed library space needs according to the Kansas Board of Regents set of standards from libraries and architectural firms.
However, State Sen. Jane Eldredge, R-Lawrence, said that while she only had time to look at the study briefly, she thought the staff hired the best firm with the available funds.
KU proposed building a $2 million science-technology library near the military science base.
KU's peer institutions, which have similar enrollments, already had library facilities equal to what the study projected for KU by the year 2000.
Ranz also said that books would extend into the aisles or simply not fit because the recommended shelf dimensions were ridiculously small.
The firm's proposal drastically reduces space for studying, he said, ignoring national standards that university libraries should have seats for one of every five students.
"And we have more books now than all but one of those universities," Rana said.
See LIBRARIES page 5
CLOUDY
Weather
Today will be cloudy and colder with high
wind conditions according to the
National Weather Service.
There is a 20 percent chance of measurable snow. Winds will be light at five o'clock.
The lows tonight are expected to be in the mid-20s.
Friday will be partly cloudy and warm, with temperatures in the high 40s.
Beth Gornev. California graduate student, and her dog Terrapin romp on a slope east of the Campanile yesterday afternoon.
University can't escape high gas bills
Bv LISA GUTIERREZ
Staff Reporter
The University used $297,383 worth of natural gas in January, Richard Perkins, associate director, Natural Gas Program.
Rising natural gas prices, which have been plaguing private homeowners, have hit the University of Kansas right where it counts—in the pocketbook.
Total gas consumption from about Dec. 23 to
Jimmy's was 77,250,000 cubic feet.
Parkins was 64,961,000 cubic feet.
"That's the largest gas bill I have ever seen here at the University," said Pernuls, who has been a professor of chemistry for 17 years.
"We used 20,000 feet more in January than in December," he said.
Gas prices and consumption for the University have been increasing steadily over the past two decades.
In January 1960, KU used $63,731,000 thousand cubic feet of gas, at a cost of $133,392.
In January 1981, the University used $173,787 worth of natural gas-65,642,000 thousand cubic feet.
Perkins said the price for gas used in January was higher than any electric bill the University has charged.
"That's something I thought I'd never see—a gas bill higher than an electric bill." Perkins
But total gas prices are only a reflection of the price increase of gas per thousand cubic foot.
Gas sold for $2.90 per thousand cubic foot in
January 1980 and $2.65 in January 1981.
"Last month, we paid $3.85 per thousand cubic foot." Perkins said.
"The cold weather not only hurt us, but the rising cost of has hurted us."
Bob Allison, plant manager for the Kansas Public Service Co., the company that supplies KU with natural gas, said that KU's increased gas bill was the result of increased consumption.
"This year we have not curtailed natural gas supply to the University," he said.
Allison said that in past years, the amount of gas available to the University was curtailed during the months of December, January and February.
"The KU power plant is an interruptable customer," he said. "They have oil tanks from China."
That way we can keep high priority
See UTLTIMES page 5
Watson lounge turning into wild kingdom
By BARB EHLI
Staff Reporter
Dangerous beasts lurk the first floor of Watson Libraries and Ranger Rick Museum.
magical garden, adapted perhaps here. The
The Reader's Lounge is becoming a jungle.
anhing a snake
By the end of spring break, a marion on the west wall of the Reader's Lounge will include a snake, a zebra, an armadillo, a purple cat, an alligator eating Jayhawk feathers and a black and yellow Cheshire cat among the waterfalls and foliage.
Susan Koch, Naperville, Ill., graduate student, has been doing preliminary drawings of the jungle scene for two weeks and is now working on one of her sketches freehand on the lounge walls.
Carol Chittenden, reference librarian and Koch's boss, provided some of her son's
Ranger Rick magazines from which Koch could get ideas. Some of the open magazines scattered across the lounge floor were mirror images of the line art on the walls.
Chittenden said the library staff was trying to think what could be done at the least extenuated cost.
"Actually, to have someone come in and do this would cost more money," Koch said.
Chittenden said she thought the area needed something to soften and brighten it. A jungle scene at the Hilltop Child Development Center caught her eye.
Chittenden said Koch had a "marvelous.
Koch said yesterday that she had been working at Watson since October and was still working on her research.
"It it just seemed like it would be really colorful," she said. "The idea was to have so much in it, and have it so interesting that people could find something new in it."
whimsical imagination," which would add a positive image to the room naintines.
"I think it's going to be something to help students enjoy the area, and if they enjoy the environment, it will help them."
Koch said she had been working an average of 15 hours a week. But, during spring break week, she would work eight hours a day to finish the resumption of classes.
The University paint shop, under the direction of facilities operations, will supply
"We're using regular wall paint because it keeps and sticks to the wall better," Kearney said.
Koch said she hoped her mural would "add some personality to the study area and make it a better place to be," although she has had her own interests in mind.
"I'd much rather do something I enjoy, or am good at, than waiting tables."