Maintenance Men Face Pay Cuts
About 164 KU maintenance employees will receive substantial reductions in their 1959 paychecks unless the state Legislature takes other action later this month.
Raymond Nichols, executive secretary of the University, said the wage reduction put into effect Jan. 1 is in keeping with a ruling handed down by Attorney General John Anderson.
Anderson said the method of paying KU maintenance employees under the Lawrence "prevailing rate" system is illegal.
Maintenance jobs come under civil service and not under the State Finance Council governing the "prevailing rate" system, Anderson said.
The KU employees have been paid under that plan since 1947.
Every janitor on the University fiscal staff and most tradesmen employed by the University will take cuts, Jan. 13.
Mr. Nichols declined to announce the actual amounts of the reductions until after employees have been notified of the amounts.
Mr. Nichols said the University is still hopeful that the legislature will act favorably and promptly to the University's recommendation concerning maintenance wages. Its recommendation is essentially the
same as the present wage scale operated until January, he said.
"We feel that the rates paid the employees are reasonable compared to the wages paid Lawrence construction employees," he said.
Fiscal plant, dormitory and service personnel in teaching departments are affected by the new ruling. Very few in those categories will receive increases under the new scale, Mr. Nichols said.
The increases were budgeted last July but have not gone into effect. Mr. Nichols said. Because they will coincide with the civil service scale, they will become effective with the cuts, he said.
The wage reduction came after an examination of state records showed some employees were claiming up to 300 hours of work a month where the average is 180 hours.
Consequently, the salaries of
(Continued on Page 5)
State Board of Regents Vacancy Still Open
TOPEKA —(UPI)—Gov. George Docking said today he has "several good men in mind" but has not made a decision yet on an appointment to the State Board of Regents.
The governor appointed Charles V. Kincaid, Independence Republican, to replace McDill Boyd, but has one more vacancy to fill. The term of Larry Morgan, Goodland Democrat, expired Dec. 31. The governor also re-appointed Ray Evans, Kansas City, Kan., Republican.
Docking said he had not made up his mind on faculty salaries at the state university and colleges. He said the school budgets are "still being put together."
The regents are asking for about $42 million to operate the schools during the next fiscal year, a 12 per cent increase over last year's request.
The legislature meets Jan. 13 and
will consider the governor's budget recommendations on the schools, probably at a time late in the four-month session.
An opinion by Atty. Gen, John Anderson confirmed the governor's suspicions that maintenance workers at Kansas University and Kansas State College were operating under illegal wage scales.
The estimated 350 hourly maintenance workers came under state civil service pay scales, as of Jan. 1. These are considerably lower than the "prevailing wage" scales paid since 1947 at the two schools.
Other state-supported colleges pay their janitors, campus patrolmen, electricians, plumbers and other maintenance workers under strict state civil service control. Only KU and K-State were exempt.
Daily hansan
Monday, Jan. 5, 1959
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
56th Year, No. 68
"That was the first I had heard of it," he said.
KU Educator Chief Of Science Education
"I think it will be fun spending a year and a half in Washington," Prof. Smith commented. "But I don't want to become a bureaucrat."
"The success of the National Defense program will pave the way to future improvement in education," he said. "Its failure would severely jeopardize education."
"It is rather terrifying to think of the tremendous responsibility of the position," Prof. Smith said.
Herbert A. Smith, professor of education, assumed his duties today as chief of the science, mathematics and modern foreign language section of the National Defense Education Program in Washington.
Moderate temperatures this afternoon. Fair this afternoon and evening. Low tonight near 10 above. High tomorrow in lower 40s.
The National Defense Education program in Washington today approved the appointment of Herbert A. Smith, professor of education, as chief of the science, mathematics and modern foreign language section of the program.
Prof. Smith, president of the National Science Teachers Assn., was attending a conference of that organization.
The National Defense Education Act passed Sept. 2 authorizes over $1 billion in Federal aid to education for the next four years.
The Board of Regents granted
Of that amount, $300 million has been authorized for the division to be headed by Prof. Smith.
Weather
Arthur A. Fleming, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of Education, discussed the position with Prof. Smith lsat month in Washington.
Prof. Smith an 18-month leave of absence. He left Lawrence on Christmas Day to meet with officials of the educational program in Washington.
Mrs. Smith's family will join
Herbert P. Smith
The purposes of his department will be to.
Prof. Smith after school is out in May.
1. Provide advice, consultation and technical assistance to state education agencies and private non-profit schools in the strengthening of science, mathematics and
modern foreign language instruction.
2. Provide assistance in the effective use of laboratory equipment, teaching devices and instructional materials.
3. Review, prepare analyses of and recommend action on budgets, plans and reports submitted by state educational agencies.
4. Make available to state educational agencies upon request specialized personnel in the review of state and local programs or to provide other technical assistance.
5. Make studies and prepare reports with recommendations for improving instruction and supervision in mathematics, science and foreign languages in state and local schools.
6. Inform and interpret the provisions of the Act, regulations and procedures to state educational agencies.
7. Cooperate with the division of higher education in carrying out the federal responsibilities concerning language institutes.
Prof. Smith said he will name 50 or 60 competent persons to his staff.
"It may take as long as six months to get the program underway," he said.
Prof. Smith has completed five and a half years at KU. He was formerly an associate professor at the University of Nebraska, and supervised the NU Training School. He is a former mathematics and science instructor and a public school administrator.
Andrews Shows No Emotion at Hearing
KANSAS CITY, Kan.—(UP) — The preliminary hearing for Lowell Lee Andrews, 18-year-old former KU sophomore, resumed at 2 p.m. today after a noon recess.
Two witnesses had testified in the morning session. One of them, Dr. ter pathologist, at KU Medical Center pathologist, said it was his opinion that any one who would shoot his loved ones 15 to 30 times was irrational.
Andrews, who earlier had admitted slaying his father, mother and sister on Nov. 28, 1858, sat unmoved and unemotional.
Sloughed Off Books Return as Ugly Nemesis
It is almost like starting the school year all over again—coming back after Christmas vacation.
Instead of summer experiences, roommates are telling each other about how much studying they should have gotten done but did not . . . or about how much holiday food they ate but should not have eaten.
Waistlines are not as slim as they were two weeks ago. As one student thumbs through the calorie book she forgot to take home, she munches on another left-over Christmas cookie.
Half a dozen lucky females compare the sparklers they have acquired for the third fingers of their left hands. A few more show off newly-acquired fraternity pins.
Up in the room, plants neglected the past two weeks stand dead in the windowsill. And until packing is unfinished, the whole room is pretty bare.
The telephone is ringing again. And the living room in the women's dormitory or sorority is filling up with men.
Roommates are a little harder to recognize, too, with their new hair styles. And lots of new clothes "walking" down the hall indicate Santa Claus was a pretty good fellow this year.
Someone down the hall shouts "quiet hours" and everyone else stands puzzled. It is going to be hard to get used to studying again.
BACK TO CLASSES—Jac Campbell, Abilene freshman, clears the snow off her car after coming back from the two-week Christmas vacation. Despite obstacles imposed by
the weather on students returning from vacation, most are agreed that the greatest obstacle is yet to come-finals. The grand week will be Jan. 19-24.
Sixteen days away from classes is a long time—when final examinations are now two weeks away.
Students who had vacations littered with term papers may have been unhappy, but they probably emerged better prepared for finals. At least they didn't get out of the study habit.
Students who carried armloads of books from dormitories two weeks ago joked:
"We're just going to impress our parents."
As it turned out it was not a joke. One student who had experienced Child abuse came before, carried only her luggage when she returned to her dormitory.
"I knew it wouldn't do any good to take books home. They'd just be in the way," she said.
There were probably a few students who really did spent part of their vacations with books catching up on old assignments.
But that still leaves the final spurt of studying for examinations.
The weather will be no study aid for sledding enthusiasts or Potter Lake ice skaters. But students who have been here a few years are learning to avoid the temptation offered by winter sports on Mt. Oread, They know it always snows just before final week.
However there is one consolation for all students. There will be another vacation in three weeks and then the semester will be ended and it will be too late to worry.