University Daily Kansan, December 4, 1981
4
Page 11
KU fans migrate south to Hall of Fame Bowl
By TERESA RIORDAN Staff Reporter
After a lengthy lull in post-season games, KU fans have become afflicted with a kind of disease that hasn't swept this camasum for six years—bowl fever.
"We haven't been to one in so many years that I wouldn't take a chance on missing this one," said Susan Moser, Wellington junior, who is driving with three friends to see the Jayhawks in the Hall of Fame Basket.
"I'm a football fanatic," she said.
"And I figure there aren't too many times in your life that you'll get a chance to see KU play in one."
MIKE BISCHLER, a Kansas City, Mo., freshman, who is organizing a trip to the game with about 15 of his friends, agreed.
"It could be a once-in-a-lifetime shot," he said.
Bischer said that many of his friends were sacrificing their spring vacation money for the five-day New Year's Eve holiday and spending the rest of the time in Atlanta.
Not all students are driving themselves down to the game, however.
Three Lawrence travel agencies, as well as Student Union Activities and the University of Kansas Alumni Association, are offering air and bus travel
packages to the Hall of Fame Bowl Dec. 31 in Birmingham, Ala. KU will play Mississippi State.
AND IF FANS ever want to catch the fever again, they had better catch it now, Rick Konzem, KU ticket manager, said yesterday.
He said that a good bowl bid depended on the fans' record almost as much as on the team record because the biggest ticket sales are well as wine and losses.
Perhaps one of the reasons KU has been out of the bowls so long has been its apathetic fans and low ticket sales, Konem said.
"Look at Okahoma," he said. "They're going to a bowel game. If we had 6-41 record, we sure wouldn't be ready for the game." He stacked 70,000 in the stands every Saturday.
year, we had the lowest attendance of all."
But if it's fans Konzem wants, it's fans he will get, judging from the response at local travel agencies.
THE TICKET OFFICE had sold only about 1,000 of its 10,000-ticket allotment by yesterday afternoon, but Konzem said he hoped to sell as many as 8,000 to fans—more than twice as many as KU'd for its owl games in 1973 and 1975.
Konzeem hopes to sell the rest of the $15 tickets by proxy to supporters who can't cheer KU on but who will buy them. They'll probably do that at the dernervigley children in Birmingham.
"It's been hectic," said Brian Raydon, owner of the Travel Center, 1601 W. 2x3d St., which is organizing bus and plane trips to the game in conjunction with Maupintour Travel Service.
THEIR AIR-TRAVEL packages cost $418 and include transportation, one-night lodging and a game ticket. The two agencies also offer bus trips for $230, which include the same features. One busload will even stay an extra day in Birmingham so football fans won't be disappointed. And for bowl games because they're traveling.
Tuesday was payday for the University so many people made reservations at lunchtime, he said.
SUA is also offering a bus trip. cost only $175 and also includes transportation, lodging and a game ticket. The SUA trip hasn’t had much response yet, however—only four of the five carriers are open for. The deadline is December 14 at 3.45 p.m.
The Kansas University Endowment Association has almost filled up its 110 seats on a charter flight to the game.
since Thanksgiving," said Dick Wintermote, director.
"We've had a lot of people calling
The direct flight, which includes one night in a hotel, transportation and ticket, costs $330. If the fan wants to have dinner and cocktails and the New Year's party on the flight back, it costs $418.
THE RESPONSE HAS been good, but it was better for KU's 1969 visit to the Orange Bowl. Winnerote said.
"So many people are driving because it's close and because it's over vacation that there's not much demand for air travel."
"We sent as many as 900 on charter flights then." Wintermote said.
That's why the Sunflower Travel Agency, 703 Massachusetts St., isn't offering any packages. Instead, it is selling round-trip airline tickets at $216 each and hotel rooms at $4 a night for double rooms, manager Faye Watson said.
State investigating retirement benefits
By SHARON APPELBAUM Staff Reporter
State officials, responding to KU faculty complaints, said last month that they would get to the bottom of delayed retirement benefits.
"Of the teams with 7-3 records this
They haven't reached bottom yet, but they want to make sure they have all the facts first, according to James Murphy, special assistant to Patrick Hurley, state secretary of administration.
"This office's primary interest is to obtain all the information regarding the problem, to determine the causes of the problem and from that provide the interested parties with a response," he said yesterday.
THE PROBLEM is the way payments are made to retirement accounts.
Although faculty members are paid on the first of the month, the portion of their paychecks that is saved for retirement isn't transferred to the retirement account until the end of the month.
That three to four week delay could cost faculty members interest.
State officials started their investigation by reviewing a report on the delay compiled by three KU faculty members.
The report said that if things kept going the way they were now, a faculty member could lose more than $8,000 in interest by the year 2006.
He said the computer couldn't begin processing retirement payments until all payrolls were processed. Although most payments could be ready by the month, the month, they must wait for the few that come out two weeks later, he said.
JAMES COBLER, director of the Division of Accounts and Reports, has said the problem could be corrected by a new computer system will be installed.
THE NEW computer would solve the problem, and lost interest would not accumulate through 2006, he said.
But Murphy wasn't satisfied with that answer.
"While that may suffice, it doesn't resolve the real issue," he said. "We need to come back with recommendations on how to reduce or
eliminate the loss during the times we're waiting for the new system.
"We'll identify the reasons why money is being lost. If it's a computer problem, what can we do to correct the computer? If it's a scheduling problem, what can we do to change scheduling? If we're doing what else, what can we do to correct it?"
STATE OFFICIALS are now working with the Kansas Board of Regents to examine the various contracts for retirement benefits, Murphy said.
Faculty members can use one of 52 different insurance companies, and
'We need to come back with recommendations on how to reduce or eliminate the loss during the time we're waiting for the new system.' Murphy
each of those offers a variety of programs, he said.
James Murphy
The officials are going through the contracts to find out which earn interest daily or monthly. If interest is related monthly, money lain lost, he said.
THE REGENTS staff has already examined the contracts to see whether any offered a 30-day grace period. The required program, for which faculty members submit 5 percent of their expenses during days during which no interest is lost.
But Murphy said that the other voluntary programs, in which faculty members can submit as much as 16 percent of their salaries, offer no grace periods. If the payment is late, interest is lost.
MURPHY HOPED to have all the contract information by the end of the week. With that information he said, he could be able to find the causes for delay.
"We'll assemble all of the information obtained and send it in to the secretary. It will include a synopsis of the problem, potential alternatives and a recommendation for a response to the faculty."
He said the response would be addressed to Ernest Angino, chairman of the University Senate executive committee.
Angino said SenEx had done nothing on the issue since the beginning of November when it sent the faculty report to Hurley. He said he was waiting to hear what the state officials would say.
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At 1:30 Monday the Lawrence Chamber Choir and the KU concert choral group will sing Christmas carols in front of the Strong Hall Christmas tree, a 35-foot spruce that was donated to the University.
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Strong gets its Christmas tree
By EILEEN MARKEY Staff Reporter
A former fire hazard brought the Christmas spirit to Strong Hall yesterday.
KU facilities operations set up the traditional Christmas tree in the lobby of Strong Hall after it was donated by a Lawrence resident who said the树 was growing too close to her house and chimney.
"Of course, that wasn't the only reason we donated it to KU." May Holderman, 1631 Pennsylvania St., said yesterday. "It was a gift to my husband and me, and we wanted to make it a gift to the University."
"We raised it from a little pup," she said. "It was only about 18 to 24 inches high when we ito it."
Holderman, whose two children attended KU, said she received the tree about 18 to 20 years ago from a friend in West Virginia.
A facilities operations spokesman said the cumbersome 35-foot spruce
tree was not too large to get into Strong Hall.
"We had no problem getting it in," said Wayne Reusch, landscaping supervisor. "I just tied it up and slipped through the double doors. It went through fine."
THOMAS ANDERSON, director of facilities operations, said the tree would be decorated today. Anderson said his staff would adorn the tree with yards of electric lights, garlands and the usual Christmas trimming.
On Monday, the Laurence Chamber
Choir and the KU concert choral group will sing Christmas carols in front of the tree in the lobby of Strone Hall.
"We're scheduled to sing at 1:30." said Jim Ralston, chair director. "We should have about 30 to 40 people this year."
Ralston took the tree and the caroling had been a KU tradition since about 1962.
"We've been caroling for at least 20 years and I'd probably say longer than that," he said. "The trees are usually evergreen, and they have been a tradition for just as long."
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