UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editors represent the opinion of the Kanan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of the authors.
August 31. 1978
Merger sound solution
Discussion among University administrators concerning a possible merger of the men's and women's athletics programs is a healthy sign of progress toward the most practical solution to an ongoing problem—women's athletics funding.
Although the merger is still in a preliminary planning stage, Chancellor Archie R. Dykes has said the merger could increase support for women's athletics. If for no other reason, this alone would seem to justify the merger.
Despite an increase in total funding during the four-year history of the women's athletics department, the main problem that has plagued the program is inadequate funding.
Not only have scholarships, travel and facilities for women athletes been affected, but inadequate funding has forced involvement of athletes in the politics of funding and has been cited as one reason for a high turnover rate of coaches and staff in the program.
IN ADDITION, women's athletics has been forced in the past to make cuts in the program, depriving many women of an opportunity for organized collegiate competition. In fact, field hockey has been cut from the women's budget every year since the department's creation and has managed to survive only through special allocations from the Student Senate and team members' own fund-raising efforts.
If women's athletics at the University is to continue and grow, it is necessary that the funding question be resolved. Without a strong financial basis, KU's women's athletics department will be unable to recruit—not able to assure prospective athletes that their teams will be funded.
Last spring the Kansas Legislature demonstrated its unwillingness to solve the funding problem, granting
only $21,000 of the University's increased request to $85,111.
The Kansas Board of Regents, in an effort to increase funding, approved a $1.50 fee increase, effective this fall, from each student to be used for women's athletics. The Regents' decision came despite objections from Mike Harper, student body president, who told the Regents that the Student Senate had voted to cut funding for women's athletics.
THIS RELUCTANCE to fund the program points to the need for the merger. Once combined, the joint athletics department would be much more efficient, having eliminated many duplications in staff and providing for greater cooperation between the two programs.
As Dykes has said, "I think a merger would help to strengthen the total sports program, especially the women's. It would maximize resources and help us to be more effective in fund raising."
In the past, the main objections to such a merger have been a fear that women's athletics would "get lost in the shuffle" or would become secondary to men's athletics. Although these are valid concerns, they can be prevented through careful monitoring of the merger and budgetary processes. If the past performance of those involved in women's athletics is any indication, any wrongdoing would be brought immediately to public attention.
THE MERGER of the two athletics programs is not an unproven experiment. It has been tested and adopted by many universities across the country, including all of the Big Eight schools except KU.
The time has come to face the problems of women's athletics, and the merger with men's athletics now under consideration by the administration, is a sound solution.
Jail needs improvement
Lennis Eugene Johnson died in the Douglas County Jail last February, a victim of a lung and chest infection resulting from an untreated broken rib.
Two months earlier, a young prisoner at the jail had been sexually assaulted in his cell by another inmate.
A lifelong Lawrence resident, Johnson, 43, had been jailed for five days and had been unable to eat during his entire stay. Amazingly, he didn't receive a physical examination while in the jail, despite his obviously deteriorating condition.
As if to confirm that all was not well at the Douglas County Jail, one week after Johnson's death the city commission was asked to approve the hiring of two new guards for the jail.
Dallas Murphy, undersheriff in charge of the jail, told the commission then that the request was not related to the incidents at the jail, but was in response to the continued overcrowding there.
THOUGH THE TIMING of the request cast that statement in some doubt, Murphy explained that the jail had been built to hold 25 prisoners, but instead usually held between 35 and 45 prisoners. He said that crowding in the jail meant that prisoners were sometimes forced to sleep on the floor and that jailers couldn't be as selective in separating potentially dangerous inmates from other prisoners.
Now, six months later, Murphy says the situation has improved somewhat. The commission approved the hiring of one new guard, bringing to 15 the total number of guards at the facility, and there are "not quite as many" problems at the jail now as there were earlier, Murphy says.
Overcrowding at the jail remains a problem, however, and at this time there are still no facilities to handle with alcohol-related problems.
The sheriff's department usually transfers prisoners with alcoholic problems to St. Francis Hospital in Topeka, which has a special ward equipped for alcoholics.
AFTER JOHNSON'S DEATH, Sheriff Rex Johnson said he would urge the county jail committee to request similar facilities at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. That committee is still "working" on the problem, and meanwhile, the facilities are still unavailable in Lawrence.
But in a city that can afford a gleaming new city hall, proper care of prisoners doesn't seem like too much to ask. Lawrence needs proper jail facilities, and it doesn't have them now.
It is inherent in the role of the prisoner that he has little political clout and little control over matters that directly affect him.
Although it isn't as apparent in 1784 as it was in the period from 1793 to 1795, the energy problem is still crucial and still newsworthy.
If one subject has taken a prevailing role in the news in the past five years, it is often that news about him.
Gas conservation initiative admirable
As possible energy programs and new energy problems constantly emerge, the subject has been an important one throughout much of this decade.
Ten or 20 years from now, when people skim the history books, they'll notice a
As we hear less and less about the
ITS A CONSTANT subject for conversation. Everyone talks about finding a solution to the energy problem. They all say that the cure must begin at home—that individuals must participate actively in the activity. But it's little more than talk for most.
problem that was called the energy crisis five years ago, we may try to forget about it.
Now, however, it appears that someone has decided to begin an actual conservation has decided to begin an actual conservation
Trailways, one of the largest transportation companies in the country, has announced that it soon will install governors in its buses that will limit highway speed to
THE ENERGY saved by one company may not be substantial, but what is important is that Trailways is taking the initiative in conservation. The company is setting an example that could have been set, by someone more than five years ago.
It would be ideal if speeds faster than 58 mph were even for passing.
I'll make a mukky to help you.
Governors are devices placed on engines to provide automatic control of speed.
As always, however, such an action was not without criticism. The Teamsters Union, which represents Trailways' drivers, criticized the move, saying that a speed limitation could be dangerous while buses are attempting to pass other vehicles.
WHAT'S IMPORTANT about Trailways' decision is that the company decided to take action on its own, without a nudge by an interfering government.
As people continue to drive in excess of speed limits, Trailways will have to face the question the Teamsters ask. But defensive cars have to worry about passing slow cars.
No longer will buses be able to cruise by at speeds of even 60 or 65 mph. But persons who ride buses instead of airplanes do so because of cheaper fares, not faster
Yet a nudge may be possible before long. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has said it was considering a new similar devices on all commercial vehicles.
That takes much of the sparkle from the idea. What shines as an individual idea is lost when it is forced upon a company or individual by government.
Laws, not civil servants, to blame for inefficiency
Trailways has set an admirable example with its plan. The government should encourage similar plans, but only as encouragement, not as a mandate.
A 55 mph speed limit is sensible without government interference.
BY FRANK G. ZARB
N. Y. Times Feature
NEW YORK—Congress is considering a White House proposal to fix the Civil Service process. The president says his plan is intended to increase government efficiency by placing new emphasis on the quality of performance of federal workers.
His "reform" program fundamentally calls for reorganization of the existing Civil Service Commission, which would be replaced with an Office of Personnel Management and a Merit Protection Board. It further provides for a new system of performance appraisal and methods for disciplining employees based upon their performance.
IT SHIFTS SOME personnel authorities of government within the bureaucracy and provides for a revised formula for staffing a government agency as well as modifying veterans' preferences. In addition, it provides for a senior executive service, which will be sent to the senior federal official and attempt to put him on more on a performance basis.
A White House release earlier this year indicated that the Civil Service system has become "a bureaucratic maze which neglects merit, tolerates poor performance, permits abuse of legitimate employee rights and delays action in red tape, delay and confusion."
These and several other changes proposed by the president appear to make some sense, and indeed may tend to streamline the government personnel system. However, all of the proposals taken together fall far short of their stated objectives.
The implication is that, if elected, he-she is going to reform the organization and make it more efficient and more responsive by whipping the federal worker into shape. He is not going to be the recipients of better government. With years of this kind of rhetoric and an ample supply of evidence to prove that government as an institution is not very competent, the American people wrongfully come to the conclusion that sequestrat is underworked and undertalented.
WHILE THE STATEMENT goes on to condemn widespread and unfair criticism of all federal employees, and to recognize that the government is not capable of saying, "My proposals are intended to increase the government's efficiency by placing new emphasis on the quality performance of fed
Since the beginning of the republic it has been easy political fun to criticize the federal bureaucracy. The vision of some face-offs with the US was that whose basic incompetence is responsible for the delays and difficulties typical of "governmental bungling" had often been overcome.
How then can you argue that by making the bureaucrat more sensitive and responsive you are going to improve government efficiency, or at least theencies of government, the mistakes, the waste, delays, the expense, ridiculous tape, and counterproductive regulations are the most part caused by outdated or bad legislation. This is why a law, mandated by the executive branch
Although general beating on the bureaucracy is good sport, it's not only unfair, but unwarranted by the facts. During five years of working with federal employees at a private sector employer, they them with a broad range of private sector employees. I must say that it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the federal worker as an individual is probably more productive, loyal and dedicated than almost any in the world.
carry out a mission, then leaves it alone forever.
PERAPHAS THE MISSION is completed, or it falls, or was a bad idea to begin with; in the end the law is rarely revised, and the result is that the almost never eliminated or trimmed back.
For example, in 1974 the Congress directed that the government force certain facilities to convert from oil and gas to coal. The Court ruled in a separateject. But the Congress went on to place in the law a wide range of exclusions, exemptions and methods for appeal. They put enough obstacles into the legislation to ensure that it would achieve only minimum
In 1975, I authorized approximately 30 conversion orders based on the authorities of the 1974 legislation, and all designed to permit such conversion to the Congress. There were countless hearings held, thousands of forms and other pieces of paper were generated, thousands of federal work hours consumed and to the extent that not one of those orders has yet been final.
THAT COMMITTEE will have to step on a few special interest toes and even cause some interesting legislative jurisdiction arguments, but consider the payoff—a smaller, less expensive, more modern government. Any congressional leadership which can put in place a serious effort to govern the size, shape and function of government activity is going to earn a lot of gratitude from the American people.
The first step toward streamlining the government requires legislation, but not the sort which reforms the Civil Service. What is needed is a zero-based congressional review. Why not a joint committee to review all existing legislative generic to federal programs? Give it the simple responsibility of enforcing the laws constituted government agencies set up by the Congress should now be eliminated because they are no longer needed or just not useful.
THE GOOD MEN AND WOMEN—the federal bureaucrats who worked long and hard on this program—could hardly be criticized for either the red tape associated with the process or the final outcome. The fundamental problem here was weak law and a lack of respect for the reasons and not acts of Congress are going to promote coal conversion.
While it is at it, the Congress may as well look at its own organization. Too often a numbo-jumbo of committees and subcommittees produces patchwork legislation.
One of my heroes, Mike Mansfield, tried to get various energy committees restructured and streamlined in 1975-76. He had limited success. His ideas were absolutely right, and are just as applicable today as they were then. Perhaps Ambassador Mansfield should be called upon to revitalize a new overall行政 organization.
If we are serious about improving government efficiency, let's not forget the quality of executive branch leadership. Any organization poorly led is going to perform poorly. I have seen good federal workers, willing and eager to do a good job, fail because their bosses are weak, incompetent, or simply ill-suited to do their job.
Frequently political appointees are not experienced in the areas in which they have worked. They may run an organization anywhere near the site that they are asked to manage once they get into government service. They are sometimes employed in the private sector, and other times suc-
ceasual people from various professions, but they are called pupils in the areas in which they are called pupils.
For these appointments reviewed by the Senate, the question of fundamental competence must be of confirmation. The view here is that the people have the right to pick his own team, so long as he selects people with integrity, and a candidate is not going to produce an ultimate scandal.
Perhaps the democratic system calls for such a spoils arrangement whereby the president can, does and will put people in place simply because they can be counted upon to be part of the "president's team." On the other hand, if we are going to follow that kind of system, we shouldn't deceive them. We should rather improve the quality of government in any meaningful way. Poor leadership produces poor results.
Rearranging the Civil Service Commission may be helpful but it is not very important if improved government is our real
antifact. Generic legislation must be
cleaned up and sometimes eliminated.
A streamlined congressional organization
could help the legislative process and more
properly represent it in the final decision
represent the real "top management" could
go a long way toward improving the quality
of government service.
It seems to me that it's time to stop making good government employees lightning rods for basic weaknesses elsewhere in the system. In other words, let's fix the real problem, then also accept the inevitable-bigger, more complicated, and less effective government.
Frank G. Zarb was assistant secretary of labor, associate director of the Office of Management and Budget and administrator of the Federal Energy Administration between 1971 and 1976. He is now an international investment banker.
"It's a show about the U.S.government."
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