THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Vol. 90. No. 43
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The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
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HOPE award finalists' profiles
Wednesday, October 24. 1979
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Arson cited in city fire
By MARK SPENCER
Staff Renorter
Investigators have determined that a fire that destroyed two downtown Lawrence buildings last month was intentionally set, and a suspect, described as a transient, is being sought by police. Fire Chief James McNeill said yesterday.
ocwcain said at a morning press conference the fire, which was reported at about 2 a.m. Sept. 20, was of an inertian type, and it is not being controlled.
Ll. Larry Steimerman, who headed the arson investigation for local police and fire departments, described the suspect as a white man with black hair.
The fire destroyed a building at 706 Massachusetts St., which formerly buried Burk Awning and Canvas, and a building at 708-710 Massachusetts St., which housed Freeman Real Estate, Public Hunting and Big K's Bar.
The total damage from the fire was estimated at $200,000
STEMMERMAN SAID the fire was started at about 1:50 a.m. by combustible substance near a rear basement door of a building.
Investigators found no physical evidence of combustible material at the scene, Stemmerman said, but the rapid spread of the flames and the extreme heat of the fire led them to think such materials were used...
CHRIS TODDI/Kansan stat
Lawrence police officer Eric Smith said an incident behind the Lawrence Opera House, 642 Massachusetts St., in which a motorcycle was overturned and all the gas emptied from the tank, might be related to the fire.
Distracted donor
Marianne Marrison, Parsons junior, paid little attention to the nurse. checking her blood pressure as she donated a unit of blood yesterday in the Kansas University Ballroom. The drive, sponsored by the
Stemmerman asked that the police be notified by anyone who saw anything suspicious in the area or had flammable material stolen.
SMITH SAID THE investigation, which consumed 300 hours and followed 85 leads, led back to the man whom police questioned for involvement in the case.
"He was questioned very thoroughly about his involvement in the fire," he said. "He never admitted to anything other than that he was involved."
The suspect is thought to be the same man who told a Kansas reporter the day of the fire that he had been questioned by police who said it was staged.
"I'd never been in this town in my life," he said. "Why the hell would I want to build a building on fire if I never even seen it?"
Would I have to be in contact with law enforcement agencies in the West but had no idea where the suspect was?
"HE'S LEFT OUR jurisdiction I'm sure." Smith said.
The man was further described as being 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighing 180 pounds, with curly brown hair, sideburns and blue eyes. The police said the man was wearing a long-sleeve shirt and a brown sweat the morning of the fire.
Pankhelenie Association, Interfraternity Council, Association of University Residence Halls and Circle K Club, 11 in paddles ahead of its two-day goal of 400 pints. The drive ends at 4:30 p.m.
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Blame exchanged for fund losses
Rv DAVE LEWIS
Staff Reporter
Losses in the retirement funds of KU faculty members have occurred because the University has submitted retirement deductions late, not because of state policy. William Wachs, head of the state's accounting control and services section, said
However, the Faculty Rights, Privileges and Responsibilities Committee released a report Monday recommending that the state and University "remedy" the policy.
The policy requires the state division of accounts and reports to have all of the University staff deductions before it can send any of them to the retirement comin late because paychecks are issued late.
Each time a paycheck is late, his office cannot send any deductions to the app-
portment fund and a month's interest is lost.
Wachs said that the state and University needed to determine how to submit the deductions to the Topeka office before the deadline.
"I think the people are very concerned and they have a right to be," Wuchs said. "We should be able to talk about the present system. Our trouble is getting the premium list from the in-
WACHS SAID THE deductions were sent
Late paychecks usually occur because of paperwork problems, which result from new faculty appointments or reassignments.
Wachs said the policy that required all deductions to be submitted to the division of accounts and reports before being sent to the companies improved the accuracy of the
"If we sent in a late supplement to the companies, we wouldn't know if any names were in error." Wachs said. "We may have already processed the account. We don't have the list of names, only the list of contacts." The list could make the budget incurrable."
THE FRP COMPMITTEE report said that the majority of faculty members were risking losses, even though only about 50 paychecks were late each month.
of architecture and urban design and chairman of the FRP committee, said the report tried not to explain why the problem existed, but document the loss in faculty training.
The report also said that the University had sent the deductions past the deadline 13 times since January 1978.
"I don't think this is a controversy," Richardson said. "When we made the report, every department we contacted fully cooperated."
Gaylord Richardson, associate professor
Wachs said some of the FRPR committee's other recommendations were to better understand state and reports, which began a study in August to determine the needs of the state's pay rate.
THE FRP COMMITTEE recommended that a system be established to monitor the success of the state in making retirement payments on time. The FRP committee suggested that the office include the problem of late retirement payments in its
MUST HACE FACULTY MEMBERS participate in the debut of the College Association and the College Retirement Equities Fund two national retirement institutions.
Under the TAA and the GREP, 5 percent of students get an extra month. The University then matches the deduction, making the total retirement fund contribution 10 percent of the faculty salary.
Wachs said that the state office called the University when the deductions were late.
The TIAA and CREF pay interest on the deductions for the faculty member's retirement fund.
The TIAM invests the retirement fund principal in mortgages and other annuities, while the CREF invests the principal in stocks.
IF THE TIAA and the CREF do not receive the deductions within a 30-day grace period from the first of each month, they may be discharged to the faculty members' retirement funds.
Some faculty members use Tax Sheltered Annuity programs, independent of the TIAA Board, to pay for benefits separately by the division of accounts and records but must be sent when the other division is discontinued.
Faculty members who participate in the TSA could lose more interest than those who participate in the TIAAS and the CREP faculty. The TIAs and the CREP do not allow a 30-day grace period.
Libertarian condemns draft policy
By JUDY WOODBURN
Staff Reporter
Americans who think the draft is designed to defend the United States against threats to the nation's interests mustaken, Martin Mueller, national director of the Students for a Libertarian Society, said in an email.
Mueller, who spoke to about 30 people in the Panamanian Union, said the Selective Service Act required all recruits to complete a draft registration in time of war, served to protect only the United States “comprehensively” and “consciously.”
"U.S. foreign policy is a fraud," Muelter said. "A major reason the United States is involved in global affairs is the belief in the corporate state, that is, a government which combines economic and political interests."
Mueller said adherence to that philosophy led many U.S. businesses to have privileged access to the government.
"The government believes it has a right to interfere to protect its worldwide economic interests."
"THIS ENDS UP being a massive welfare program to big businesses," he said, "and
we have to put our lives on the line to defend them.
"Let the businesses defend their own interests."
Martin Mueller
Paul Adams, a civil rights worker and history foacher in California, also spoke to reporters at the White House about things Americans were trying to escape when they fought for independence from the United States.
Mueller said that if the United States had not all-had volunteer armed services for the last four years, the United States would have been militarily in Iran, Nicaragua and Angola.
"WE WERE TRYING to get away from conscription for the collective good of the country," Adams said. "The government cannot give you life. If the government has the right to take it away, then your life is worth *n* more than a piece of toilet paper. There are too many people that have been conscripted in Constitution as toilet paper for too long."
Mueller said that all an-volume army was not an equitable solution to the draft because it forced a disproportionate number of minors and poor people to join. He said the government's military service by unreasonably high unemployment rates elsewhere in the economy.
He said the Selective Service Act of 1967, as it was enforced now, was also not acceptable.
"IF THE GOVENOMENT agrees that I am immoral to draft people in times of peace," he said, "then it seems doubly immoral to draw them from those times. Then the stand the chance of getting killed."
If American soil ever became endangered, Mueller said, there would be "more than enough" people who would volunteer to defend it.
Mueller the liberarian group was working to have the Selective Service Act repealed. The group has set Nov. 15 as a national "Ballistic Amendment" to protest posters and leaflets and will hold a nationwide news conference to draw attention to its efforts.
PAT GOODWYN, Overland Park junior and a member of the KU Libertarian Alliance, said the KU group would participate in anti-draft activities Nov. 15.
He said the group was considering circulating an anti-draft petition similar to the petition that listed the signatures of 1,100 KU students last May.
Classifieds settle for 'endorsement'
By.JEFF SJERVEN
Staff Renorter
The Classified Senate steering committee has withdrawn its request for formal recognition from the University of Kansas administration.
Joseph Collins, chairman of the steering committee, said yesterday that the decision to withdraw the request was made by his uncle, Mike Davis, University general counsel.
"We're backing off a bit on the recognition issue," Collins said. "The words 'officially recognize' have a dual meaning that bothered the administration."
"Davis said using a word like endorse would be more appropriate."
In a letter to Collins, Charanetor *m.* asked that the Commission should the Classified Senate's code, as Collins had suggested, would not remove the legal complications surrounding formal communication.
"We avoided using this term because we wanted to make perfectly clear that employees are employees at a campus organization, not an employee-representation organization under the same name."
THE ADMINISTRATION expressed
concern last week that formal recognition might facilitate the formation of a classified employee union. Recognition, according to Dykes, would have waived the University's right to be consulted if the Senate wanted to become
Collins also withdrew a request for recognition from the Faculty Senate and asked instead for an endorsement.
When the Classified Senate receives endorsement from the Faculty Senate, the Senate executive committee to incorporate it into the University gover
The Student Senate already has given its recognition to the Classified Senate.
STATE REP. JOHN SOLBACH, D.Lawrence, said the classified Senate probably would be most effective if it were managed through the University administration.
Collins said area legislators had shown interest in the Senate's formation and had asked about some of the concerns of classified employees.
Balloons for the Classified Senate election will be distributed to employees Nov. 2 and will be due by Nov. 14.
Carter gains support of state Democrats
By TONI WOOD
Staff Reporter
Support from officers of the Democratic State Committee seems to be tipped in favor of President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 presidential nomination.
Of six of the seven officers, three have voiced support for Carter and three have remained uncommitted. However, none have voiced support for Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
He said yesterday that he was asked to be on the committee by Terry Scanlon, a national commissitee from Wichita who is Carter's financial chairman in Kansas.
John Montgomery, a national committeeman from Junction City, is a member of a steering committee for Carter's campaign in Kansas.
Shirley Wassenberg, a member of the Democratic National Committee from Marysville, and she was supporting Carter because his performance since the 1960s.
"I think he's a good, honest man who's doing a lot better job than people give him credit for," she said. "A president can't turn tensions around overnight."
SHE SAID SHE had not heard much from the Kennedy supporters in Kansas.
"People are less willing to support Kennedy," she said, "because they're a little bit afraid of him. He's pretty liberal and wants a lot of the more conservative during these times."
Mary Kay Peltzer, vice chairman of the state committee from Wichita, said, "I
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