Helping through research
Mark Mathews, a research associate with the KU Research and Training Center on Independent Living, has received a fellowship to examine different programs used by training centers for disabled and elderly people.
This isn't Mother Goose
Story, page 7
The Glass Onion has been the site of several poetry readings since its opening in September. Several poetry lovers have attended the readings.
Story, page 3
Fall in line
Today will be a typical autumn day with partly cloudy skies and a 20 percent chance of showers. Highs will be 60 to 65. Tonight will bring a 40 percent chance of rain.
Details, page 3
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Vol. 97, No. 55 (USPS 650-640)
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Friday November 7,1986
Pell Grants slowed by bureaucratic red tape
By ALIS N YOUNG
Staff writer
Paisley Hokanson still is waiting for the Pell Grant check that she expected the federal government to send her in August.
Changes could speed up future correction
Hokanson, Grand Junction, Colo. sophomore, said yesterday that she was frustrated because of the red tape she has had to face.
And she is not alone in her problems with the $4.6 billion Pell program that gives about 6 million dollars wide between $150 and $1,000 a year.
In fact, about 40 percent of the KU students who get Pell Grants receive their checks months after they expect them because of mistakes in the filing process, the KU director of financial aid said.
Many students' applications become bogged down in the bureaucracy of a federal program that has three separate groups handling its forms and a process for correcting errors that differs from every other federal aid program.
Students sometimes assume too many things about the process — things that simply are not true, officials say
Government officials say the Pell Grant application process is clear.
By ALISON YOUNG
Staff writer
Many KU students experience delays in receiving their Pell Grant money, but changes are underway to speed up at least the correction process, leaving future applicants with fewer problems.
Bill Moran, director of financial aid policy and program development for the U.S. Department of Education, said recently that new financial aid laws might allow Pell to accept corrected financial data from groups such as the American College Testing program.
The laws also may allow universities to correct Pell information and order the Pell check, then inform Pell afterwards, Moran said.
Attorneys for the Department of Education now are interpreting the new laws, passed by Congress on Oct. 17, and will issue memos to the criminal aid administrators this month. Moran said.
Pell also has started a program to speed up the correction process.
This fall, Iowa State University in Ames is one of about 60 schools participating in a pilot program that allows the school to correct Pell Grant information on computers.
rected data directly to the Pell processor, and Pell can send a corrected aid form to the student in less than a week, said Dick Lephant, Iowa State assistant director of financial aid.
The program allows Iowa State to send cor-
"We're ecstatic about it," Lephant said, "It's the only way for a large school."
Iowa State has an enrollment of about 27,500 students this fall.
but financial aid officials disagree and call it a bureaucracy nightmare
Moran said corrections could be made overnight with the electronic program.
The Department of Education still needs to evaluate the pilot program before expanding it, but Moran anticipates that more schools will be able to participate as early as next year.
"I understand all the red tape, but sometimes it's just a little ridiculous," Hokanson said.
Last year, about 1,200 of the 3,000 KU students who received Pell Grants didn't get their checks on time. Application figures for this school year were unavailable, but Jerry Rogers, KU director of financial aid, said about the same number of students' checks were delaved.
Congress passed a bill Oct. 17 that
created new financial aid laws, which might alleviate some problems for students as soon as next year.
Until then, some students at KU and other schools have to wait for Pell Grant checks to arrive.
Victoria Tripp, special assistant to the assistant U.S. Secretary of Education in Washington, D.C., said that the process was clear and that she had never heard of so many students having problems with it.
"I can't imagine that 40 percent of
But according to U.S. Department of Education figures for the 1985-86 school year, 37.8 percent of the 6 million Pell Grant applications filed nationally had to be corrected. In many cases, the need for such corrections caused delavs.
Figures show problem
As of Oct. 20, 30.4 percent of the 5 million applications filed nationally have needed corrections.
the students have had problems,' Tripp said.
Rogers said many students didn't seem to understand the application process.
Most problems occur either because applicants estimate family income figures when filing for aid or because students don't forward the required Student Aid Report to KU's financial aid office. Roeres said.
Most KU students apply for financial aid, including Pell Grants, through the American College Testing program.
The ACT sends financial aid information to the Pell Central Processor in Iowa City, Iowa.
Like others, Hokanson's problems started with estimates.
Hokanson's parents are divorced. When she filled out her ACT forms, she was in Colorado with her father. Her mother lives in Prairie Village.
She got most of the information she needed from her mother over the telephone, she said. But Hokanson still needed to estimate costs of medical expenses and her mother's child support income.
"I wanted to get the thing sent," she said.
Hokanson's estimates were off by a total of about $50.
Rogers said that, on the aid forms, parents often estimated their income from the previous year — before they file their income taxes — because early aid applications received priority.
Estimated figures may be $2,000 or $3,000 off. Rogers said. Therefore, financial aid officials use inaccurate data. **Corrections cause delay**
The procedure to correct these estimates causes some of the delays, he said.
See PELL, p. 3, col. 1
Eggs go over easy in drop contest
Josh Crum, Basehor freshman, drops his egg container, fashioned from cardboard and a left-over beer carton, off the balcony of Wescoe Hall. Ali Rezvani, Tehran, graduate student, center, was the winner of the competition, and Jim McKee, Lawrence senior, helped judge the best carton design. Right, McKee weighs one of the eggs that survived the drop from the Wescoe balcony yesterday.
By ATLE BJORGE
Eleven students paid $2 each to splatter raw eggs on the southwest corner of Wescue Hall yesterday.
The eggs dropped 27.6 feet from the third floor, smashed into the concrete at a hypothetical speed of 28.7 miles per hour.
The object of the egg-dropping contest, sponsored by the KU Society of Physics Students, was to drop the heaviest egg into the smallest container without breaking it.
Although the eggs dropped farther than the distance to the average kitchen floor, they were saved by fanciful delivery vehicles such as a beer plane, or they were encased in popcorn, lime jello or sauerkraut.
Randy Gress, Seneca junior, dropped his egg into a Kwik Kencher cup filled with plastic foam. His drop was successful, but he said he had an even more foolproof plan that he didn't use.
"I wanted to drop a live chicken." Gress said. "You know there's an egg in there somewhere."
other students laid eggs in competition.
Mike Holmes, Lawrence graduate student, lost his chance for a winning entry when his egg spilled its yolk on the concrete. The egg was dropped in a cut-open beer can filled with water.
"The stupid thing spun around in the air before it got down," Holmes said after the unsuccessful drop.
Troy, who refused to give his last name because he was wanted for egg dropping in seven states, had a solu-
See EGGS, p. 5, col. 1
Dan Ruettimann/KANSAN
Performer's return may stir memories
By NANCY BARRE
Staff writer
When Mike Finnigan, long-time percussionist for the rock group Crosby, Stills and Nash, visits the KU campus next week, he won't need a guide.
Finnigan, who attended the University of Kansas on a full-ride basketball scholarship in 1963-64, visits to KU when he comes to Kansas City, Kan., to perform in the Youth for Vietnam Veterans Benefit Concert on Tuesday at Memorial Hall.
The concert also will feature George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers, Stephen Stills and John Fogerty. In addition, David Crosby, of Crosby, Stills and Nash, is scheduled to join Stills on stage, Craig Krueger, Sioux City, Iowa, graduate student, and one of the concert's organizers, said yesterday.
Finnigan will make an appearance at noon Tuesday on the fourth floor of the Kansas Union, Krueger said. He said Finnigan would play a few songs to focus attention on the concert.
Now a successful solo artist, Finnigan performed in Kansas City about a year ago, but said he hadn't visited Lawrence for several years.
He holds fond memories of at least six years at KU helped him decide his future.
"I loved KU. When I first got to KU out of high school from Ohio, I thought it was really beautiful." Finnigan said. "It looked just like something out of a picture book."
In fact, he said, he had such a good time that it often distracted him from work.
"I had an overpowering desire to play music in bars all night long, and the Athletic Department took a dim view of any outside interests," he
"And I have to admit my musical interests didn't do great things for my performance on the basketball court. They told me if I didn't shape up, I'd be red-shirted. It kind of forced me into a decision."
Finnigan decided he was more interested in music than in basketball, and he made the decision not to return to school his sophomore year.
'The only problem was that when people heard we were from Kansas, they started snickering.'
Looking back on his successful music career that has included playing with Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin's old band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Fimmigan said he never regretted his decision.
"I'm in it for the duration," he said. "The only time I regret quitting school is the times when I can't find work. Then I wish I was a lawyer or something."
Even though Finnigan didn't stay at KU very long, he stayed long enough to meet Heather, his wife of 17 years. He also made the musical contacts that would eventually launch his career.
After quitting school, he stayed in Kansas and played in bars with two groups, The Serfs and Finnigan and Wood.
In 1969, The Serfs, who were living in Wichita, went to New York to make their first album.
"That's when I met Mimi Hendrix.
(The Serfs) got discovered in New
Senate coalitions attack each others' proposals
See FINNIGAN, p. 5, col. 2
By PAM MILLER
The wind blowing outside last night was cold, but the temperature in the crowded living room of Pearson Scholarship Hall, 1426 Alumni Place, was high.
Staff writer
The heat came from the words exchanged at a debate between the student body presidential and vice presidential candidates, Brady Stanton, Prairie Village sophomore, and Kelly Milligan, Topke junior, of the Cheers coalition and Betsy Bergman, Shawnee junior, and Stephanie Quincy, Iola junior, of the Initiative coalition.
Cheers coalition's most important proposal is lobbying the Lawrence City Commission for passage of an ordinance to allow underage students to enter bars but not drink any alcohol. Stanton said.
Both coalitions spent most of the hour advocating the benefits of their platforms and denouncing the ideas of the opposition.
"By voting in the Cheers coalition, you are giving us the power to go to the city commission and say we want an ordinance," he said. "We would like students to be able to enter bars."
"This is an issue that is going to affect three-quarters of the students at KU," he said.
Quincy said that Lawrence Mayor Sandra Praeger and tavern owners were opposed to
See DEBATE, p. 5, col. 3
Embezzler slow in repaying debt
By BILL RAYNOLDS
Staff writer
In June 1983, a Douglas County jury convicted Steve McMurray of five counts of felony theft of property, and a judge ordered him to pay back the $257.051.17 he embezzled from the KU on Wheels bus system.
As of September, McMurry had repaid $1,060 to the University of Kansas, according to the University comproller and Douglas County District Court records
At that rate, it will be more than 106 years and eight months before the debt was repaid.
"We've consistently determined that the likelihood of getting all the money back that McMurray owes is slim." Mary Prewitt, University assistant general counsel, said
On Nov. 23, 1984, a Douglas County district judge modified McMurry's sentence, making all five prison terms run concurrently.
Prewitt did not comment on any action KU might take to recover the embezzled funds.
McMurry was the director of the bus system from 1974 to 1982, when he was arrested.
McMurray was paroled Dec. 21, 1984, after serving 17 months in a state honor camp in El Dorado. He moved to the Denver area in June 1985, and now he works at an art gallery
In July 1983, he was ordered to pay $257.051.17 in resuscitation to the University. He also was sentenced to serve four consecutive two-to-five year prison terms and one 2-5 year prison term, which was to run concurrently with the four others.
His parole, which expires in July 1988, requires MeMurry to repay the $257,051.17. He also must seek psychiatric care.
McMurry, reached by telephone last week,
would not comment on his parole terms
"We don't see him as public enemy number one," said Larry Cavanagh, parole officer in Westminster, Colo. "He isn't a danger to society, and he has no assaultive background."
While McMurry was director of KU on Wheels, no rules and policies existed to protect the University against embezzlement, said Charles Bryan, Lawrence sophomore and chairman of the Transportation Board.
"McMurry handed the whole thing, and everyone trusted him." Bryan said. "Now, we're keeping more stringent control on the bookkeeping and the flow of bus passes."
Last spring, the Student Senate adopted a policy that dictates that bus passes be sold through the University comproller and through the Kansas Union business office.