The University Daily
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
KANSAN
Tuesday, November 18, 1980
Vol. 91, No. 61 USPS 650-640
Candidates argue students' apathy, bus system funds
By MIKE ROBINSON Staff Reporter
In the only debate of this year's Student Senate election, the three candidates for student body president clashed on the transportation system and student anathy.
The debate, broadcast last night on KJHK radio, was sponsored by the station and Student Senate. It featured presidential candidates Mark Bernstein, independent; Bert Coleman, Impact Coalition; and Larry Metzger, Spectrum Coalition.
Metzger said that the transportation system did not serve a majority of the students and that the cost of semester bus passes for the KU on their current price would increase from their current price of $30.
He advocated the use of federal funds that are available for public transportation, which would free some of the approximately $470,000 currently being spent on transportation for other uses, such as non-revenue sports, and would keep transportation costs down.
COLLEEN CONTENTED that although not all student use systems, it is available to a total of students.
BEN BIGLER/Kansan staff
The bus system would lose flexibility and the Senate would lose control if federal funds were used, Coleman said, because those funds would have to go through the state and be spent in conjunction with federal, state and local government approval.
The sun, as it begins to break through the clouds, is reflected in the small amount of water left in Lone Star Lake. The lake was drained this fall so a leaking spillway valve could be repaired.
See DEBATE page 5
Athletes paid KU for phone calls, spokesman says
By JIM SMALL Sports Writer
"On those phone bills that were wrongly paid for by the athletic department, we contacted the coach and the athlete, and the bill was repaid," Wachter said.
Athletic department business manager Susan Wachter said yesterday that the entire amount owed to the athletic department by three KU basketball players in connection with the misuse of an athletic department credit card had been paid.
The Kansas reported Friday that Richy Ross, Darnell Valentine and Tony Guy, KU basketball team members, used Assistant Coach Lafayette Norwood's credit card number to make calls to friends and relatives in October 1979 and January 1980.
Sports Writer
Wachter did not specify the exact amount paid by the three plavers.
NORWOOD CIRCLED 26 phone calls totaling $287.17 on the Jan. 27 bill. He wrote at the bottom of the page that the circled amounts should not be paid for by the athletic department. Ross' mother and girlfriend received 22 of the circled calls
58 seats at stake in Senate election
Wachter said the circled calls were not paid by
Southeastern Bell's business office in Topeka.
Southwestern Bell's business office in Topeka.
"Southwestern Bell is trying to collect on those," she said.
usen was unable to reach a See PAYMENT page 5
The Student Senate elections begin tomorrow with 108 students vying for 58 seats.
Because of a mix-up in school classifications, one liberal arts and sciences candidate has dropped out of the race and four other LA&S candidates now are competing for Nunakerem
Two of the candidates were running with the Impact Coalition. One, Dereck J. Rovaris, now is running as an independent. The other, Lucy Woodard, has withdrawn from the race.
Bert Coleman, Impact Coition's presidential candidate, said the two students no longer were able to participate.
The Nuenmaker seats are for freshmen and sophomores who have not yet entered a specific school. The four candidates were not eligible for LA&S seats.
Woodard said she would continue to help the coalition's campaign.
See related stories page 6
Wendy Cullers and David Kersley, Ambition Coalition candidates, and Mi Ling Stone, an
coalition already had a full slate of candidates for the Nunemaker seats.
independent candidate, also are now running for Nunemaker seats.
The Spectrum Coalition had 22 candidates file, including Larry Metzger and Kristy Kossover, the presidential and vice presidential candidates.
Impact Coalition has the most candidates, 39, including its presidential and vice president.
Fifteen groups will be electing senates. The groups and the number of Senate seats they have are: Liberal Arts and Sciences; 12, Nunemaker; 13, Architecture; 1, Business; 2, Education; 3, Engineering; 4, Fine Arts; 3, Journalism; 1, Law; 1, Pharmacy; 1, Social Welfare; 1, Allied Health; 1, Special Students; 2, Graduate Students; 12, Off Campus. 1
Mark Bernstein and John Guillory are running as independents for president and vice president.
No students filed for the social welfare seat,
and only one student filed for the two special
students.
Matt Davis, student body vice president, said last week that those seats were open to write-in candidates and that if they were unfilled after the vote, students at school or group involved would have to fill them.
IRS ruling signals rise in book prices
Staff Reporter
Bv DALE WETZEL
A recent Internal Revenue Service clarification of a 1979 Supreme Court ruling could lead to a wave of book burnings in America.
The IRS edict probably also will produce higher textbook prices for certain texts and a reduced selection of titles available to students and teachers. The University of Kansas, director of the Regents Press of Kansas,
The original Supreme Court decision—Thor Power Tool Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue—did not remotely concern the publishing industry, yet the fallout from the ruling could significantly change the way that publishing companies do business, Langley said.
BEFORE THE IRS ruling on Thor, book publishers gradually depreciated the value of book overstocks, the unsold copies left after a book's first year on the market.
This practice reduced publishers' taxable income and reflected such accounting realities as the capital invested in slow-moving book circulation would increase the risk that the books could become obsolete.
However, the Thor decision said that the practice of selling tax-reduced inventories at full price was illegal. Thereafter, book companies could not reduce the value of title overtostores unless they sold the books at less than cost or burned or otherwise destroyed them.
PROFESSIONAL PUBLISHERS—the publishers of scholarly and limited-appeal books—are likely to be the hardest-hit by the ruling, although all types of books are affected. This could mean higher text prices in some cases, according to Langley.
The professional publisher's going to take a
beating on big book inventories, and who's going to pay for it? The customers," Langley said. "The publisher's going to have to destroy all the books that don't sell. He can't keep them without suffering a tax loss. To allow for that loss, he's going to build a higher price into the book."
Publishers stuck with slow-moving titles do have the option of selling them at very low prices.
Remainderers specialize in reselling these items at stallings; cut prices to retail outlets, such as JWJ Stores. Also, such items can be purchased from
HOWEVER, LANGLEY said, textbook publishers usually do not consider remaindering, for two reasons. When selecting a text, professors might opt for an earlier, remaindered edition selling for much less than a new one. Unscrupulous bookstorekeepers often purchase remaindered books, Langley said, and send them back to the publisher for credit on the bookstore's account.
Also, publishers cannot tell the difference between legitimate returned books and remaindered books, he said. A college bookstore stocking a particular course text could, if the text was subsequently remaindered, buy up the remaindered copies and then return them to the publishers as legitimate end-of-semester overstocks.
In relatively slow-changing fields such as accounting, where a new edition is very similar to the older one, the possibility that a professor can write more for the older, cheaper book is great, Landley said.
"If a professor takes an earlier, remainderd edition rather than the latest one, this really cuts into what the publishers call their primary market." Lannell said.
IN ADDITION, book remainders seldom are interested in old textbooks, which are unlikely to interest the casual department store browser. Books of this nature are usually fate for professional publishers' surplus books.
"You could buy a remaindered copy for, say,
$2, and return it to the publisher. He then would credit your account for the original pre-remainder price, say, $7.50." Langley said.
"If the ruling meant less junk in print, fewer books like 'Love Story' or 'Jaws', I wouldn't worry about it too much. However, it will be harder to instead an era of best-seller run rampant."
"This means that a lot of titles are going to go out of print forever," Langley said.
The prospect of long "out-of-print-forver" lists is one reason that James Carothers, associate professor of English, is apprehensive about the consequences of the IRS ruling.
"Obviously, the decision was made to close a business loophole," Carothers said, "but its consequences for book publishing and contemporary culture are frightening.
CAROTHERS USES many original works of literature in his classes, and he is worried that the number of titles available for his use will be reduced.
"I frequently use Larry Weidwele's 'Beyond the Bedroom Wall' in my classes. I doubt that there are 500 other people doing this, which is a little hard to take to keep the book in "Carol." Carothers said.
"I think that publishers will now be even less willing to gamble on an 'unpredictable' novel," Langley said. "It's awfully tough for now for Thor. It would be hard for Thor. It's going to be damned near impossible."
Carothers said several publishing houses had stopped giving advances to young authors, making it economically less feasible to write novels for a living.
Larentors and Langley both foresee undesirable consequences for aspiring young athletes as well.
it will be sunny today, with a high between 45 and 50, according to the National Weather Service in Topeka. It will come from the north at 10-18 mph.
It will be fair tonight, with a low in the low-to mid-20s.
Tomorrow will be fair, with a high between 50 and 55.
The forecast for Thursday through Saturday calls for no precipitation, with highs in the 50s and lows in the 20s and 30s.
Applications available for Kansan positions
Applications for Spring 1981 Kansan editor and business manager are available at the office of student affairs in 214 Strong Hall, at the Student Senate office in 105B of the Kansas Union and in 105 Flint Hall. Completed applications are due at 5 p.m. on Nov. 20 in 105 Flint.
Report on declining GPAs raises few eyebrows at KU
By GENE GEORGE
Staff Reporter
A recent study by the KU administration showed that the overall grade point average at the University had dropped, but some KU students are asking themselves, "So what?"
Students interviewed yesterday said a decline in the overall GPA did not mean much.
Some said the drop in the GPA showed students were putting a greater emphasis on learning than on making straight As.
"I care to college to get the knowledge, not the money," Young, Kansas City, Karel Freghman, said.
However, he said KU was not as difficult as he had expected.
Young, who is studying astronomy, said he waited a year before coming to KU because he thought it would be hard to get good grades.
The GPA report, which was conducted by the office of academic affairs and the office of admissions and records, compared the GPA of the schools in the University since July 1971.
THE HIGHEST AVERAGE during that period was in 1974, when the University's overall average was 2.38. The report showed the average average had since dropped to the current average of 2.793.
Ralph Christoffersen, vice chancellor for academic affairs, said one reason for the drop in the average could have been the strict withdrawal policy adopted by the College of Engineering in 1978, which made it harder for students to do a class in which they were doing poorly.
Robert McMullen, Athens, Ohio, graduate student, had a different theory.
He said the University seemed to crack down on grading standards when there were many students studying for an already required course, and he said standardized tests when the field was not as crowded.
However, McMullen said, "May this is a time when students are not looking for that."
He said good grades were hard to get at KU.
He said hardest (grades) are the most worth it.
FERIDON MOTAMEDI, Tehran, Iran,
"I don't care about grades," he said. "I don't make a mistake and lose points on an exam."
junior, said that compared to other schools, KU was hard. But he said the administration's report did not mean much to him.
Motamedi, a geology student, said he was more concerned with learning than with grades.
Greg Snackne, student body president,
said he doubted the student's worth.
"I wonder if it (the study) is a measure of anything," he said.
Schnacke said grades were not accurate reflections of students' success. Instead, he said, students should "look at how they have graduated, maybe in five or 10 years."
The report also met with criticism from the dean of the school showing the highest average GPA.
"The report was done in a simplicistic manner, and it dealt with a complex phenomenon," David Hardcastle, dean of the School of Social Welfare, said.
Hardcastle said one reason the school's average GPA was high was the standards it imposed. Undergraduates in the school must complete a minimum of 3.0 and graduate students must maintain a 3.0.
The report found that the highest grade point average during the nine-year period was in the School of Social Welfare, which had a 3.480, and that the School of Law had the lowest GPA during that period with a 2.59 average.
Hardcastle said the report did not take into consideration that two-thirds of the students in the school were graduate students, a higher proportion of graduate students than any other school, and that their grades could not be accurately to those of incoming freshmen.
The report suggested that schools compare average GPAs and possibly make changes in their strategies.
He said the high average did not mean the school were inflated or the classes easy.
Hardcastle said, however, that the School of Social Welfare's grading procedure was in accordance with the general guidelines set by him and that he would not consider any changes.
Lowest to Highest GPAs by Fiscal Year Chart shows highest and lowest GPAs by school from 1971-1980.