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University Daily Kansan, September 2, 1980
Opinion
Bye, blue paydays
A new payroll system, which is expected to be adopted at the University of Kansas by May 1982, should reap big dividends for University employees.
The weaknesses of the University payroll system have become particularly apparent during the last several years, especially at the beginning of each semester. It is then paychecks for many employees arrive and it is then that everyone complains.
Some faculty members find themselves with no paychecks and, consequently, nothing with which to pay their bills. Often faculty members have to secure temporary loans from the KU Endowment Association.
Because of a number of complications with the state payroll office in Topeka, a number of faculty members have been shortchanged in their retirement benefits.
Retirement benefits are deducted monthly from faculty members' paychecks and interest on the deductions is used for a retirement fund. But if the deductions aren't made before a certain deadline, faculty members aren't credited with any interest.
The University's payroll system is 25 years old and needs modernization. Most of
the kU payroll office's work has to be done by hand, whereas the system will use computers to do much of the tedious work that often has made deadlines impossible
Much of the late paycheck problem is caused by strict paper-work requirements mandated by the Topea office. The computerized system should alleviate this
Undoubtedly, the KU payroll office won't have heard the last of the late paycheck blues until the new system is implemented.
Perhaps the most agonizing problem of the University's payroll system is that it is next to impossible to find the culprit when a problem arises. The University blames the state and the state blames the employer. The employer blames the payroll office for being inefficient and the payroll office blames the employees for not filling out the necessary forms.
Under the current system, if one single error is committed, no matter how small, an employee is in great danger of losing his job or worse, there's nowhere to point the finger.
At least under the new payroll system, everyone can blame the same thing—the company.
Carter starts 'roots' campaign in 'small-town' Independence
There's nothing like a slice of Americana—broadcast coast-to-coast on the network news network.
President Carter, in a blatant attempt to overcome his poor showings in the polls, scheduled his 20th "town meeting" appearance in the all-American city of Independence, Mo.
Independence, of course, was the home of Harry S. Truman, not to mention the origin of the
BLAKE
GUMPRECHT
California, Santa Fe and Oregon trails that pioneers used to settle the west.
And how about that name? Independence. It would be difficult to find a city that sounds more pulsary.
To most of America, a recent Michelin tire television commercial probably represents Independence just fine. The short clip shows a bunch of down-home folks舞ing in a big oak barn, complete with hay. Supposedly, they're from Independence.
No doubt that image came to mind when Carter's campaign crew was racking its brains trying to determine the best way to kick off the fall campaign.
The president's staff will tell you that the purpose of the "town meeting" format is to give people who live outside the nation's media access to tale to the president what is on their minds.
But it's the perfect ploy, particularly with the election only two months away. Just take a thousand or so fresh-faced folks—a few wearing overalls or cowboy boots would do nicely—and pack them into some old-fashioned auditorium in the company of twenty of Victorian houses and red brick factories.
The name of the city chosen for the "town meeting" is important, too. Take some of the past sites of Carter "town meetings." Yazoo City, Miss.; Aliquippa, Penn.; Eikil City, Okla.; Clinton; Bardstown, Ky.; Beuvenille, Ohio; and Merced, Calif.
Independence and Truman High School fit the bill perfectly, the Carter staff must have thought. And the hometown folks weren't about to let them down.
Residents have been preparing for the visit since it was announced a week ago.
Truman High's cheerleaders have been busy preparing banners and posters—using plenty of red, white and blue paint—to welcome Carter. A dozen or so that Patri cheerleaders will greet the President personally, dressed in their traditional red, white and blue cheerleader outfits.
Truman's 100-piece marching band has been brushing up its renditions of 'Ruffles and Flourshies' and 'Hail to the Chief.' The band wore their red, white, blue and concert uniforms.
A huge garrison flag has been raised behind the presidential podium.
"will be will," said Truman principal LeRoy Brown, "a lot of red, white and blue."
Carter's itinerary calls for him to arrive at Kansas City Municipal Airport at 9:30 this morning. He was expected to visit Bess Truman before arriving at Truman High. There he will answer questions from 20 pre-selected spectators.
About a thousand free tickets for the appearance, given away Thursday afternoon, went on sale.
At dinnertime tonight, a few million people across the nation will see footage of the president answering questions from some regular-looking officials and blue and white auditorium in Independence. Mo
Never mind that Independence is, in fact, the fourth largest city in Missouri, with 110,000 residents. Only St. Louis, Kansas City and Springfield are larger.
The reporters won't mention that Truman High School isn't surrounded by large oak trees and neighborhood filled with Victorian homes. Actually, it's immersed in the middle of Inverness's version of 23rd Street in Lawrence. The school is in the middle of the town's fast-food alley.
TV will never let that get out.
But the whole affair will come across as perfectly quaint on the tube.
"It's ridiculous," said one city resident. "There aren't even any bars in Independence."
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editor Business Manager Carol Bear Ehlan Shrader Marketing Editor Cynid Hughes Editorial Editor Ivan Lare Campus Editor Jody Woodburn Associate Campus Editor Jeff Sjerven Assistant Campus Editors Mark Spencer, Don Munday, Cindy Whitome Sports Editor Gene Myers Entertainment Editor Patti Arnold Entertainment Editor Kevin Mills Makeup Editor Ellen Iwanoto, Bob Schaud, Jennifer Holder Wire Editors Lois Winkelmant, Tom Todeschi Copy Creatives Chris Dodd Chief Photographer Benn Bigger, Ken Combs, Scott Hooker, Dave Kraus, Drew Towers Staff Photographers Amy Holwell, Ted Lacking, Bill Meneses, Scott Foley, Frank Fountain Susan Schoenmaker, Blake Gumpehr Cartier当代摄影员 Joe Bartos Staff Artists John Jones, Michael Wunch, Bert Bollon Staff Writers Chick Howland, Dan Torchia, Shawn McKay National Sales Manager Kevin Koster National Sales Manager Nary Guasou Campus Sales Manager Charles Manger Barb Light Advertising Makeup Manager Jane Wendell Staff Artist Judy Seller Staff Photographer Mary Malik Teachsheet Manager Barb Spohr Sales Representatives Rick Binkley, Annette Conrad, Terrif Fry, Bill Groom, Larry Leibnauer, Paul O'Connor, Paul Schwinger, Julius Baldener Thaine Sheltter, Anthony Tilton, Kevin Swapon, Susan Brinneman Rick Musker
Singles are breed so misunderstood
Marriage today is a gilded initiation into adulthood, still sacramental in a society practiced
but the pristine reputation of marriage nevertheless has been marred by a runaway divorce rate that is the tell-tale sign of deeper trouble. From 1970 to 1979, the number of American divorces increased by a startling 96 percent.
The statistics are more clear-cut than the solutions. But if the causes of divorce are debated, it is likely that contestants and their practice should seem to be a curb on headlong marriages.
Yet society continues to reward matrimony with money and apparently hasn't learned its lesson. The single 'side of America still is underglaring as economics or as subtle as a sentence.'
Consider the case of a college student. The economic edge goes to those students who, out of passion or purpose, marry immediately after graduation. After declaring themselves mutually ardent, newlyweds are swamped with an array of pots, dishes and waffle irons.
Meanwhile, graduating singles presumably are able to confront life without the benefit of a toaster, sheets or silverware. Their best hope is for some hand-me-down hardware from home. Their greatest rewards for four years of study are the opportunity and an outstanding student loan payment.
After a simple "I do," couples are privy to societal support that a single person, adjusting to
the stress of independent living, needs just as urgently.
The marital knot is tied not only with materialism, but also with the values of a society that values tradition.
The value may be a tradition, such as a bouquet thrown to the less fortunate at a wedding. It may be lowered car insurance for marrieds or the word "old maid."
It may be language. For instance, the wording of the 1980 U.S. census offered citizens a choice between "married" or "unmarried" status. The word "not come in" single" or "unsingle" categories.
Our marriage-minded values may perpetuate myths that paper over the problems of divorce, treating the right questions about marriage with the wrong answers.
Marriage is often touted as a declaration of independence from parental control, when in reality it is the ultimate dependence—a com-parison with lifelong compromise and to a lifelong companion.
Marriage is considered a prerequisite to a satisfying adulthood, a happily ever-after ending to adolescence that by definition excludes singles.
That myth, steeped in traditional marriage patterns, is not easily dispelled. But if society fails to acknowledge, both economically and culturally, that marriage will continue to be the greatest losers.
Jamaican refugees may invade America
Given the loathsome choice of Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and John Anderson for president, the most interesting election this fall may be in Jamaica.
There, incumbent Prime Minister Michael Manley's social programs have backfired, resulting in 30 percent unemployment and a mountain of foreign debt.
If Manley is not outset by his challenger,
Eward Seaga, Jamaicans may decide to swarm
their opponents.
percent of the middle class of the Caribbean island has fled in recent years.
Only two million of a total of four million Jamaicans still live on the island.
Manley has set the election for October, although an election is not required by the constitution until 1981. Unfortunately for Manley, the economy would not hold on that year and a recession later make it available to Jamaica because of its poor credit standing with world financial institutions.
Instead, Manley has gone the route of Billy Carter and has a $50 million loan on hold from Libya.
U. S. government confidence in Jamaica also has sunk. Foreign aid to Jamaica has been chopped from $30 million in 1977 to $3 million this year.
Jamaica's problems started after Manley was first elected prime minister in 1972. In what then appeared as noble deeds, he instituted a minimum wage, initiated a works projects administration, attempted to spread electricity to rural areas and signed a tenant protection law.
However, Manley's programs were poorly managed. The minimum wage has been reduced to one-half its 1972 value, partly because the cost of living has doubled since 1975. Many rural residents could not afford the $20 hookup fee for electricity, after much of the government's money had been wasted on wiring and installation. The tenant protection law is so one-sided that renters can stay rent-free for months after being evicted.
Manley, now 10 to 15 points behind Seaga in public opinion polls, further increased many low-
Seaga's chances depend on his ability to catch the Rastafarian vote. The Rastas are descendants of African slaves who worked for British colonialists. The British ran the island until independence was granted in 1962. Manley and Sesola were elected before his election victories in 1973 and 1976.
income Jamaicans by stocking resort hotels with steaks and whiskey while allowing shortages of ice.
Manley's strategy in the 1980 election apparently had been to incite pc violence—an average of one policeman was murdered a week recently and 20 of Seaga's supporters were killed last April. In the 1978 elections, violence was capped by a martial law edict imposed before the invasion; Seaga forces say Manley would not dare repeat the handcuffing ceremony before this year's election.
Seaga, the Labor Party candidate, would appear to be the obvious favorite in the election. However, the Rastas will not be an easy way to sway because of Manley's attempts to lift them.
The Rastas, who comprise about 85 percent of the population, are low on the socio-economic ladder behind their Chinese, Jewish, East Indian and Arab countrymen.
But they are moving up by default. Ninety percent of the Chinese, who owned most of the retail stores in the Connecticut-sized nation, have departed since Manley's policies have been adopted. Therefore, Manley's policies perhaps lost their luster in the euses of the Rastas.
If Manley manages to overcome his deficit in the polls, either by voting lever or by machine gun, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Bureau must move more than Vietnamese, Cubans and Haitians to count.
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