KU profs develop seeing, hearing aids for disabled
By RAFAEL SANTOS
Kancon Staff Reporter
Sound that replaces eyes for the blind and light that acts as ears for the dead may be the results of *Pittsburgh*'s development.
Charles Hallenbeck, professor of psychology, is working on a computer terminal that uses the standard braille typewriter keyboard, and a special mechanical keyboard as a teletype and converts it into an electronic voice.
Simultaneously, John Rupp, associate professor of electrical engineering, is testing a prototype model of a device to signal the ringing of a telephone to a deaf person.
Hallenbeck, a blind person himself, said Sunday he wanted computer technology to help the able as well as the disabled person overcome physical handicaps.
The computer is one of the closest and most modern machines at hand to help the handicapped, he said.
"Computers are becoming more and more a tool
*Persons who are disadvantaged will and should take advantage of modern technology, including the computer.
that everybody is taking advantage of," he said.
"It's no longer reserved, just for the experts.
HALLENBECK SAID the idea of the voice output wasn't unique. There are three other institutions doing a considerable amount of research in the field, and apparently they have been successful, he said.
Stanford University, the University of Louisville at Kentucky and Michigan State University already have voice output devices in a pretty advanced stage, he said.
"All we are doing is trying to catch up with work
all done in other research laboratories" he said.
However, the computer conversion of printed matter into an electronic voice is certainly the latest idea, he said. In another five years, probably, the computer will be able to all over the country as a feasible service, he said.
"Blindness is something I know about more than
any other disability." Hallenbeck said, "For the blind, it's important to make sure that other avenues are kept open in such a way that computers will be made useful."
Hallenbeck had two years of advanced work in computer science at Washington University in St. Louis. He also served as an assistant professor.
HIS PROJECT isn't being funded but he hopes that the Social and Rehabilitation service, a branch of the Department of Health, Education and Medicine, will decide to finance all the work being done.
"They find it an intriguing idea but they are still deciding on it," he said. "Our project entails a quite difficult one."
The techniques involved in the project have proved to be very successful, he said. Obviously, it's convenient to get voice output from a computer, he said.
Hallenbeck hasn't been able to test his techniques because he lacked the necessary equipment.
critism from people who are knowledgeable in the field," he said.
In describing the machinery involved, Hallenbeck said there were no new devices being used. It's an easy effort to take advantage of existing invention, which would provide assistance to the blind person, he said.
"We've tested it in the abstract by getting
"My main concern is how does a man who can't see communicate with a computer," he said. Hallenbeck's project to assist the blind is totally independent from the work Furk Is doing.
"WE'RE TRYING to make technology more useful to people who are disabled, each of us from different directions," Hallenbeck said.
Hallenbeck said he didn't have a salaried staff working on the project. However, he said, there are some students who are undertaking parts of it that are of interest in their own particular fields.
"My hope is to develop the project with KU
resources and resources would probably provide
required funding."
students from the engineering and computer science department."
Initial efforts to assist the blind and deaf have been the propellents of ideas that later were commercialized and today have become simple devices almost daily use, Hallenbeck said.
For example, the rearview mirror was initially designed for dead people to see the cars behind them passed by.
"The long play records were originally invented in the early 1930s so that books could be recorded for the blind," he said. "Records were not available commercially until the 1940s."
ALSO, THE BALL-PUNT PEN was invented so that the blind persons could write without making marks on the paper.
Essentially, Rupf said it is a four by two by two box that plugs into an into which a lamp is mounted INDICAFPACK
Another project in aiding the handicapped is Ruff's electrical indicator of the ringed at a telephone.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Pay plan exemptions slammed by senator
By BETTY HAEGELIN
Kansan Staff Reporter
He said he couldn't remember how seven shots were fired into Scott's body.
The prosecution rested its case Friday. Testimony had revealed that McClain was a former 71-store manager who was fired by Scott in May 1974.
Tuesday, January 28, 1975 Vol. 85-No. 78 The University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Kansan Staff Reporter
A controversy over whether the bweekly faculty mentored by Kansan beweekly
The election for student body president and vice-president, senate and class offices will be Feb. 12-13.
A county jail cellmate of McClain testified that McClain offered $1,000 to anyone who could provide an alibi and hold up under oath. An attorney for the defended McClain admitted that McClain admitted the slaying.
Guilty verdict in 7-11 death
Terry L. McClain, 25, Lawrence, was found guilty Monday in Shawnee County District Court of the July murder of Gene R. Aregui a regional supervisor for J-71 Food Stores.
The jury deliberated nearly four hours before returning guilty verdicts on charges of first degree murder and aggravated robbery in connection with the slaying of Scott and the hold-up of a local 7-11 store July 5.
No date was set for sentencing. The case
was continued pending anticipated motions for
punishment.
McClain testified Friday that the shooting of Scott was accidental.
Scott was found dead July 9 on a Shawnee County road. He had been seen alive on last 5, when he picked up $1,993.83 in storefront 7-11 stores for deposit in a Topeka bank.
He said he started arguing with Scott over a pair of surgical gloves and a rope to tie him. "We got not to bring a struggle over McClain, unassured, and Scott was killed, McClain said.
If filing patterns for the Senate last February are any indication, today and Wednesday will be heavy filling days. One hundred and twenty-one students filed for the Senate the last two filing days last year.
Taking the witness stand in his own defense, McClain said he and Scott plotted a fake robbery of the 7-11 store collections. The plan was for McClain to tie Scott with a drive off, McClain said. He said Scott then took to unite himself and report the robbery.
By 5 p.m. Monday only 15 candidates had filed for Senate seats. A team of four filed last Friday for junior class officers and an independent candidate filed for junior class president. Monday, a team of four filed for senior class officers.
pay plan has been further clouded by accusations from a leading state senator.
Following a request from the Board or Regents, Gov. Robert F. Bennett recommended in his budget address last week that the worth of the new pay plan be examined because of the high costs involved. He said that requests to cover the changeover to the pay plan would not so far, and he questioned whether the worth of the plan would justify such expenditure.
Four teams filed for the student body presidency and vice-presidency before the deadline for that race last Wednesday.
Candidates must pay a $ 5 filing fee when they file. Candidates for class officer must also present a petition with $ 10 signatures of their
However, Seri Ross Doyen, R-Concordia, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said that the Regents' institutions were the only state agencies that they were doing so to avoid a strict accounting of unclassified employees' time.
Students wishing to file their candidacy for a class office or one of the Students Senate seats to be doled in the upcoming election have only two options.
Although Doyen said he was also interested in a record of vacation time taken by faculty members at the Regents' institutions, he said his major concern was that the amount of time spent by professors in the class form or in pursuance of academic concerns.
Filing ends tomorrow
As of Monday, only the seats from the School of Architecture and Urban Design were being contested in the Senate race. Four persons had been nominated for the position.
Pettitions may be picked up or turned in along with the filing fee at the Student Senate Office in room 105B of the Kanaags Union.
"We just need a better accounting procedure of faculty work time," Doyen said. "The basic problem isn't so much taking unauthorized vacation time, but I want to make sure that faculty members at state institutions that hardy spend any time in the classroom."
DOYEN SAID there was an ever greater need for accounting of faculty time with the proposed 10 per cent faculty salary increase.
"I think it's only fair that we have some idea of how they're allocating their time," he said. "We begin to wonder why they don't want us to know how they're spending this time." He talked about $8,000 or $12,000 positions, but some that range into the $25,000 area."
"At KU, an average of little over seven hours per week is spent in the classroom, and that's not very much," he said. "I don't really care how we pay them—whether it's monthly, biewely or what—but I just want their time better accounted for. Who knows, maybe they not paying them enough for the time they put in."
Doyen said he wasn't advocating an hourly pay system for faculty members, but said the average amount of time spent by teachers in the classroom wasn't adequate.
Six students filed for senator from Oliver College, two from Nunemaker College and one each from the School of Education, Cen-
sarral College.
DEL SANKELK, executive vice chancellor, said he had no objection to accounting for faculty time, but he said the university opposed the pay plan for faculty because of its emphasis on implementation and because faculty members didn't need such added pay periods.
"I think we can always account for the way faculty and staff spend their time, and should be able to do so," Shankel said. "I think I was more interested as time spent on class room concerns."
Ambrose Saricks, vice chancellor for academic affairs, said the principal reason the University had asked that the law not be applied to faculty members was the added paperwork involved in providing additional pay periods.
He said the question of how much time a professor took off over vacations was misleading because often a professor was engaged in workshops or outside research.
"Our faculty members don't punch time clocks and I hope we don't ever reach this position," Saricks said. "I can see why the state is seeking uniform salary payments, but it doesn't realize that the efficiency gains from an offset than offset by added costs and paperwork."
See EXEMPTIONS page 2
Boxes to the birds
Loaded down with scrap packing crates from the Art Museum originally used to ship paintings, linens, furniture, trucks,rucks, and more.
By Staff Photographer DON PIERCE
working on his doctorate, is doing a project on hous sparrows and their reproductive biology, which will be placed on campus.
Students yet to file suits,charges on allegations of KU discrimination
By DEBBIE GUMP
Kansan Staff Reporter
More than five days after meeting with the University general counsel, two University students haven't yet filed either a lawsuit against University administrators or discrimination with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW).
Jerry Williams, Kansas City, Kan., senior, and Muriel Paul, Lawrence graduate student, have recently threatened to ask for the cutoff of all federal funds to KU if Edward P. Bassett, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, and Ralph Chambley, assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs, aren't removed from their positions.
Baker was cleared or use time.
September in an NEW statement. Unclear
when used.
The students have charged that the office of Academic Affairs used discriminatory practices in the hiring of Bassett and the complaint against his legal complaint with HEW last semester and said they would file personal lawsuits against Cancellor Archie R. Dykes; Del Shankel, executive vice chancelor; and Martin Smith, executive vice chancelor for academic affairs.
The Coalition of Minority Students, led by Williams, filed a complaint with HEW charging Baker University with racial and gender discrimination that university's financial aid practices.
WILLIAMS SAID MONDAY that he and Paul still were consulting with their lawyer, Charles Scott, Topeka. Scott said Saturday he hadn't been retained by either Williams or Paul and was acting only as a concerned friend.
The Kansan has learned that Williams was active as a student at Baker University in the filing of similar charges of discrimination there last spring.
found in relation either to minorities or to income levels.
The Coalition then asked for a review of the HEW ruling, the Kansas learned. That review is still being conducted by the Kansas City regional office of HEW.
THE KANSAN ALSO HAS LEARNED that Paul, now working toward a doctoral degree in social welfare at KU, was employed by Baker as a social work professor and that Williams was a former student of hers.
Paul was the adviser to Mungano, the Baker black student union. Williams was the president of the organization. Paul, then one of the two black faculty members at Baker, was active in demonstrations and special discrimination at Baker, sources said.
Before the Coalition filed the HEW complaint at Baker, Paul and Williams participated in a demonstration against alleged discriminatory hiring practices. In
a taped news broadcast during the demonstration, Paul said she "backed her decision."
in the broadcast, Paul accused Baker officials of making no special efforts to address it.
"When they want to march," she said, "I march."
WILLIAMS ALSO CHARGED in the broadcast that the Baker administration practiced "bengn neglect." the same has used to describe alleged KU procedures.
About the same time that the Coalition filed the complaint with HEW, Williams was suspended from Baker for disciplinary reasons and would return to the campus, the sources said.
The Karanse has learned that the suspension was in lieu of the school's filing criminal charges against Williams in cases with alleged misuse of student funds.
Williams also participated in a demonstration September 18. after Baker President Jerald Walker's convoction address, when Williams was no longer a student, the sources said. A press conference was then held in an off-campus apartment.
and said he was never faced with criminal charges, but might prove the allegations incorrect.
AT THE PRESS CONFERENCE, according to the sources, Williams called for Walker's resignation, charging that he was insensitive to the needs of minorities. Williams was on the search committee that voted in favor of a bill voting for him as president, the sources said.
Neal Malicky, dean of the college, wouldn't deny the allegations about Williams' record at Baker but said he was confident. But he also recently enacted Buckley amendment.
The Buckley amendment forbids official release of student records without the consent of the parent.
Awards established for top profs
Five awards for excellence in teaching, each carrying a $1,000 prize, are to be given annually to deserving faculty, Chancellor Archie R. Dykes announced today.
Faculty members at both the Lawrence and Kansas City campuses will be eligible for the awards, which are to be presented at spring commencement exercises each year. The awards will be financed by the Kansas University Endowment Association
"This is a way to demonstrate the University's commitment to teaching, and I want to illustrate the Chancellor's connection," he said. Shankel, executive vice chancellor, said.
Shankel said the administration for a long
The final procedure for nomination and criteria for selection should be worked out in the few days, according to Shan. The committee should be composed of students, faculty and administrators, would place emphasis on a narrowed's concern for students and interest
time had believed there was a need for more awards recognizing teaching excellence and department Association several months ago. The funding was approved, and plans are being completed for the selection process of establishment of the Cancellor's Awards.
The new teaching awards will almost double the number of presentations made annually to recognize outstanding faculty members at the University.
Awards that now recognize teaching excellence are: three $1,000 prizes by the Amoco Oil Company, a $1,000 prize for the Bernhard H. Fink Award, and the HOPE Award, which usually includes a prize of about $200.
Recipients of the Amoco and Fink awards are selected by committees under the guidance of the Office of Academic Affairs. The award winner is selected by the Senior class.