Boycott calls worry KU Olympic hopefuls
BvMATTSEELEY
Sports Writer
In 30 days the XIII Winter Olympics will be history.
In 30 days, barring a Soviet military withdrawal from Afghanistan, the United States' part in the Summer Olympics also may be history.
President Carter's announcement Sunday that the United States will boycott the Games unless the Russians withdraw from Afghanistan within a month has sent shock waves through amateur athletics.
Athletes have attacked Carter and other politicians for using the Olympics as a political tool. Politicians say that the Olympic Games cannot be separated from politics.
Bob Timmons, men's track coach and a former member of the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Committee, said he thought the United States should use the bovocot if other methods failed.
"Only as a last resort should we demonstrate to the world that no matter how much we love sports, our heart is in a hurry."
ALTHOUGH ANY decision by Carter would have a great effect on the country's participation in the Games, it is the U.S. Olympic Committee that would have to deal with issues of safety, boycotts, but the committee's president, Robert Kane,
has said the committee would "be receptive to any admission from our government."
Timmons' main concern is the athletes. He coached 21 athletes who went to the 1976 U.S. Olympic Trials, and in 1984, he coached medal winner Jim Ryun. He said he planned to coach as many this year.
"The Olympics mean more to the athletes than any other competitive event from the standpoint of a team." — The Associated Press one shot in four years. It's not like the Super Bowl where every year only the best in America come in.
What worries Timmons most, he said, is that the United States might be the only nation to boycott the Games. Saudia Arabia has indicated that it would not play in the International Olympic Committee, the Saudis have never had a team in the Olympics. Egypt and Fiji have said they would go along with a U.S. decision. Australia and Great Britain are considering playing in the 2014 games, France accepted the Russias' invitation to Moscow.
"If the United States is the only one to boycott, Timmons said, "it would be a complete shame for the United States."
But Theo Hamilton, assistant women's track coach
and a possible participant in the 1980 Olympics,
disagreed...
"I don't think we should go over there," he said.
"There's too much turmoil. Athletes aren't politicians. I just hope that everything gets resolved soon, whether I or not."
HAMILTON, a former KU long jumper who the NCAA InDOlympiad Champions in 1975, won the 1978 Montreal Olympics by a few inches. He said this would be his last try for the Olympic team.
Hamilton is the only athlete with KU ties training for the Olympics. Lester Mickens and Jeff Gomez were named captains.
for the Olympic Trials, Swimmers Janet Lindstrom and Lanny Shaffer and basketball player Lynette Woodward are headed for the Trials. Darnell Valentini is also heading to the player, probably will receive an invitation to theTrials.
"There's nothing we can do to stop the Russians," Lindstrom said. "There are too many people who have been working too long and hard for us to pull out."
IF THE UNITED States does go through with the boycott, it will mark the third time in Olympic history a nation or group of nations has withdrawn from the Games.
In 1856, Spain, Switzerland and The Netherlands withdrew from the Melbourne Olympics in protest of the Soviet invasion of Hungary. Twenty years later in Montreal, 28 African nations withdrew in protest of New Zealand's participation. New Zealand had close ties with the apartheid government of South Africa.
Timmons said, "The worst part of all this is the tremendous respect Russian and American athletes have for each other. I know our athletes would be compete." *so WHAT options do the U.S. have?*
Timmons said it was not practical to move the Games.
"There has been some interest in postponing the Olympics for one year," Timmons said. "That's not a bad idea. But, any more than a year's wait, forget it." A more recent game was against Timmons, to postpone the Games events.
"This would mean boxing in one city, track and field in another, and so on." Timmons said. "The Games might lose some excitement, but that's better than losing them completely."
Marian Washington, women's basketball coach, said she knew how an athlete might feel about losing a chance to compete in the Olympics. She tried and failed to make the Olympic track team as a discus thrower.
Washington, like Timmons, would favor an alternate site for the Games.
"That would be a great way to resolve our concerns." Washington said. "The athletes would get to compete, but it would in no way undermine our government."
Editor's note: This is the first of a multipart series dealing with KU and its ties to the Olympic Games. Tomorrow: A look at a pair of old-time Olympians, A.C. "Dutch" Lomborg and Dean Neumathi.
Tenant problems focus of Solbach
By STEVE YOUNG Staff Reporter
Joe rents an apartment in Lawrence with some fellow students. His landlord laughed when Joe told him that the heat was not working.
But Joe wasn't laughing because he knew only he had four choices: A) He could live without heat. B) He could heat the air at his fireplace. C) He could sue his landlord. D) He could move.
Joe is the type of person that State Rep. Joe Sobach, D-Lawrence, hopes would be able to win a special election introduced to give tenants a legal, affordable remedy when landlords refuse to make them pay rent.
Under Solbach's "self-help" amendment to the Landlord-Tenant Act, a tenant could
Part I
take steps to have needed repair work done if the landlord fails to comply with the lease or existing provisions in the act.
SOLBACH SAID the bill, which is expected to get a House Judiciary Committee approval, did not have a legal, affordable means of forcing negligent landlords to comply with the law.
Such work might include fixing broken plumbing or landlord-owned appliances. Solbach said, but not such things as renaming or recarrying.
He said the amendment would "put a remedy into the Landlord-Tenant Act where one does not now exist."
solach said that in Lawrence, the lack of a remedy for getting necessary repairs done most affected students and the elderly—low-income groups that cannot afford their homes—left others behind.
Under Solbach's bill, a tenant using the "self-heal" provision would have to notify his landlord in writing that the tenant tended to have a repair made.
If the landlord chose not to make the repair himself, the tenant could have the work done at his own expense. If the tenant fails to pay the rent, the landlord may submit a request for the work, his next
month's rent and a $2 fee to a district court clerk.
Repairs would be limited to $100 or one-half the monthly rent, whichever was greater.
The CLERK would then notify the landlord that the work had been done, and send the landlord the rent check--minus the cost of the remarrs.
If the landlord wished to protest paying the repair, he would notify the clerk. The clerk would inform the small claims court to be reimbursed and to prevent the landlord from receiving the full payment.
The court then would decide whether the tenant had made unnecessary repairs or whether the landlord had been negligent.
Sorbach he thought tenants would use the "self-help" provision only when everything else failed.
"I do not foresee tenants using this before they go to see their landlords on an informal basis. Tenants are only going to use it as a last resort," he said.
CONTRARY TO what most landlords believe the amendment means, Solbach said, no new responsibilities would be created for the landlord.
The Kansas Passed Landlord-Tenant Act, passed in 1975, required landlords to maintain minimum health, building and safety codes in their rental units.
sonach said his bill was designed to offer tenants a remedy and protect landlords' rights at the same time.
"I think it is very important that landlords' interests be protected, and they are protected in this bill," he said. "It won't do damage to the bus system to use this bill if it's got a good landlord."
WHEN THE KANSAS Legislature passed the Landlord-Tenant Act in 1975, both the House and Senate versions contained "renair and deduct" provisions.
However, when the bill went to a conference committee to iron out differences in the two bills, the remedy was stricken from the measure.
Landlords have vigorously opposed Solbach's "self-help" on the grounds that rent would have to be raised, because maintenance costs would increase and because they feared tenants would be able to provide the provision to make unnecessary repairs.
However, Solbach and lobbyists in support of the bill said that many landlords misunderstood the bail and that once it was not liable to responsible landlords would not oppose it.
Proposed faculty salary called uncompetitive, i
By GRANT OVERSTAKE
Several KU faculty members now are concerned that an increasing number of professors will be bured away because of the University's inability to pay competitive
Charles Rutledge, chairman of the department, said yesterday that he had been sorry to see Ericsson go and say that he had no financial means of convincing him.
The Kansas Board of Regents has recommended to Gov. Carlin that $3.66 million be appropriated to the 1981 KU faculty to support the research for the University's faculty members.
Staff Reporter
Two years ago, Carl Erickson left his tenured position in KU's department of pharmacology and toxicology, and with his medical team he moved to Austin and the University of Texas.
"It's difficult to lose high-quality faculty likerickson." Ruldage said. "Not only that, but when we lose them, we need to able to attract people to take their place. In any job opportunity there are several factors, but salaries are a very important
But the proposal, which represents an 8 percent average increase, has been called inadepenate by some faculty members.
IN ADDITION to a $9,000 per year raise that Erickson received for taking over the pharmacology department at Texas, he
According to Joseph Pichler, dean of the School of Business, the lack of major salary increases puts the school in a position where it must be offered to professors with school d娘er quality.
said, he has received $3,000 in raises during the last two years.
"The facts are that we're behind the 8 percent probably won't close the gap entirely," he said. "So I think we will continue to maintain carefully in keeping highly maligned people."
"I was perfectly satisfied with the person at KU," Erickson said yesterday. "It was just the fact that a better offer came along."
Rutledge said that KU needed to offer adequate salaries in order to compete for the few toxicologists who were available.
"If they aren't going to be paid what they are worth, then they won't even show up for the interview," he said.
PICHLER SAID the 8 percent raise might not be enough to keep quality professors in the School of Business.
According to information in the budget request, the average KU salary levels for 1978-79 were $30,000 for assistant professors for the 1978-79 school year ranked between the 30th and 50th grade.
"The ace we have up our sleeve is a 56- year history of exceptional quality, but this can be eroded over time if people leave."
Vol. 90, No. 76
KANSAN
Wednesday, January 23, 1980
free on campus
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
"If we make ten miles, I'l buy you a beer."
very competitive as a aid, "but the costs of or a San Diego State
"It is going to get tough and tougher and to tougher to keep this record up if we keep getting encroached by the Legislature. I think it will be the year, but I don't know about the next."
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1957, said that only four people had left the department since he arrived.
se a student eligible Direct Direct Student Jobs, Supplemental Health Grants, Health Loans and Basic Opportunity Grants.
"One of our professors had a job offer to form a company in August of last year," she said. "We got the money $30,000 a year and at that time he was making $19,200 for nine months. He had a degree."
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The only thing breaking up yesterday's clear skies were these
SCOTT SMITH/Kansan stal
billows of smoke flowing from the Kansas Power and Light generation plant on the Kansas River in North Lawrence.