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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday November 13,1987 Vol.98,No.60
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
(USPS 650-640)
Unionization
Opinions differ on effect of faculty group at KU
Staff writer
By NOEL GERDES Staff writer
Change would follow a faculty union as surely as summer follows spring. But faculty administrators and legislators disagree about whether the changes would be positive or negative.
"Everything will become negotiable," said Dick Mann, KU director of information. Salaries, promotions, tenure and grievance procedures would be set down in one contract.
Currently, the University of Kansas or its various departments decide faculty salaries on an individual basis. A contract could specify across-the-board minimum salaries for each rank.
Tom Madden, organizing director for the Kansas National Education Association, said a union would give faculty an equal voice with administrators and the Board of Regents in negotiable matters.
But Marion "Pat" Bickford, professor of geology and president of KU Independent Faculty, said a union would give an equal voice only to union members.
State law says that a union, as the exclusive representative of faculty and staff eligible to join it, would be obligated to meet with the employer, the Regents, to confer about negotiable topics and to set down agreements in a contract.
The Regents would be obligated to negotiate a contract with union members only, even though the contract requires that all faculty members eligible to join.
Robert Hohn, professor of educational psychology and research and spokesman for the KU chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said union membership usually started out low, at about 25 to 30 percent of eligible employees. But eventually more decide to join he said.
Kansas is a right-to-work state, which means that no one is required to join a union or to pay union fees.
"They realize that other people are making decisions for them," Hohn
Although the Regents are technically the faculty members' employers, union representatives probably would not meet with the Regents themselves, but with the Regents attorney, the KU chancellor or the chancellor's designate, said Stanley Koilip. Regents executive director.
"I think it's important for the Regents to keep distanced from the negotiations in order to have the most objective sense of what needs to occur." Koplik said.
Mann, who has negotiated contracts with unions representing KU classified employees, said a first faculty union contract probably would take months to negotiate because of the large number of topics to be discussed.
"A union tends to formalize many things that before were dealt with on the same day."
Bickford said he didn't want the formalization of a union contract because it would take away the administration's flexibility. With less
flexibility, the University might not be able to offer high enough salaries to attract the best professors, he said.
However, Madden said a union contract would be beneficial because it would assure that the administration treated faculty members equally.
Although a faculty union would make a definite impact on campus, it's debatable whether it would make an impact in the state Legislature, which makes the final decision on the entire University budget, including salaries.
Carl Lande, professor of political science, said he thought a union would do a better job lobbying the Regents more than the Regents had in the DHS.
"We know better than the Regents what it takes to make a good University," he said.
But state representatives said recently that it would be difficult to predict how the Legislature would react.
State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-Dawrence, said, “A lot of Kansans think that any union is bad. It’s an idea that’s written into the Constitution.
State Rep.ary Blumenthal, D-Merriam, said, "As an individual legislator, I feel that any group that is able to organize and present its position through an articulate representative will do better."
But he also said many legislators were more conservative than he on the union issue.
State Sen. Gus Bogina, R-Lenexa, said he couldn't speak for other legislators, but he said a union would be better with him than the Regents would.
"A union would have absolutely no impact on my decisions whatsoever," Bogina said. Bogina is chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which has the power to kill appropriations bills for Regents schools.
Koplik said he didn't think that the faculty union now at Pittsburgh State University had more influence within Regents and other faculty at other Regents schools.
"Even with a faculty union, the Board of Regents will still be looked at as representing what needs to be done in higher education." he said.
FACULTY UNIONS
Editor's note: This is the second in a three-part series on next week's faculty union vote.
- Today: The changes a union might bring.
■ Monday: What KU NEA, KU AAUP and KU Independent Faculty want faculty to know.
Unions advocate negotiations, not picket lines
By NOEL GERDES
It's illegal to strike in Kansas.
Staff writer
"But strikes are illegal in a lot of states where strikes have occurred," said Tom Madden, organizing director for K-NEA, the state affiliate of one of the groups that wants to represent a KU faculty union.
'A strike is a no-win situation. No one ever benefits from it.'
Robert Hohn
chairman of the KU-AAUP collective bargaining committee
Madden said that K-NEA considered strikes last resorts only, to be used after employees tried tactics such as negotiation and mediation with a neutral third party.
K-NEA would provide support to faculty who chose to strike, Madden said.
But Robert Hohn, chairman of the KU-AAUP collective bargaining committee, said KU-AAUP would not condone a strike.
"A strike is a no-win situation," she said. "One no-one benefits from it."
In fall 1986, there were faculty strikes at nine colleges and universities, and there were no strikes in spring 1987, according to the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions.
"AAPU has worked to hard and long to protect people's teaching rights."
Both Madden and Hohn said the unions would try to work out faculty-administration disputes by negotiation and arbitration.
Madden said an example of a situation that would call for a strike would be long-term inattention to hemp coupled with a belligerent employer.
"But KU is not anywhere near that point," he said.
FFA rally hears Bush, Bennett
Bush says open market kev to future
By VIRGINIA McGRATH and MICHAEL HORAK Stafi writers
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Unrestricted competition in an open market will help provide a bright future for the American farmer, Vice President George Bush told 18,000 Future Farmers of America members yesterday at Municipal Auditorium.
Ways to foster the growth of the rural economy and create new uses for agricultural products also must be found. Bush told the representatives at the 60th annual FFA convention.
"I believe you can compete and should compete with the rest of the world. I believe that we in government should not be putting up trade barriers, but tearing them down," Bush said.
Bush said that trade barriers and protectionism unnecessarily prohibited U.S. agriculture from increasing its share of the world market and caused damaging surpluses at home.
"I will enforce our trade laws vigorously against those who refuse to let American products compete on an equal basis in a free market. But a restrictive policy at home will lead to retaliation abroad, and the first people, believe me, the first people who will be hurt are farmers." Bush said.
Bush called a Democrat-sponsored trade bill a "1,200-page monstrosity." He also said that it was reminiscent of the Smoot-Hawley bill of the 1930s, which he said helped bring on the Great Depression.
Bush said that although small towns in rural America had seen hard times, the downswing was coming to an end. Areas that have been hit the hardest could be rejuvenated by promoting enterprise in rural areas, and by improving rural health care and programs aimed at expanding college and vocational opportunities.
Bush also said that new uses must be found for agricultural products.
Making biodegradable plastics from corn starch, and producing cars that would run on a combination of gasoline and alcohol derived from corn, wheat or potatoes would cut down on U.S. dependence on foreign countries. Bush said. It also would improve the trade deficit, reduce corn surpluses and provide higher prices for farm products, he said.
"If we're so good at growing things, let's find new things to do with them," he said.
"I'd love to be the president that builds on that agreement," he said.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Vice President George Bush arrives at Kansas City's Downtown Airport. Bush was in Kansas City yesterday to speak at the 60th annual Future Farmers of America convention.
"When Gorbache comes here on Dec. 7, this will be the first arms control agreement in the nuclear age that will eliminate a whole class of weapons, and actually reduce nuclear weapons," Bush said.
Bush told the young farmers that the future looked bright because of the forthcoming summit on arms control between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
"We must look for energy not just from the Middle East, but also from the Middle West," he said.
Bush said an economic summit between the leaders of the Western economic powers scheduled to take place in France in 1989 should focus only on agriculture. If he is president at that time, he will urge that agriculture be the focus, Bush said.
Education secretary lauds virtue and values
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Deborah Bumgardner, Parkville, Mo., resident, protests the visit of Vice President George Bush. Bumgardner was joined by about 10 other demonstrators at Kansas City's Downtown Airport.
By MICHAEL HORAK
By MICHAEL HORAK and VIRGINIA McGRATH Staff writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett gave a citizenship lesson yesterday to students attending the Future Farmers of America Convention, saying that virtue and values are as important today as they have been in the past.
"Character doesn't come easy," Bennett told 18,000 student delegates at the convention. "You can't buy it. It's not transmitted in your genes. You have to work at it."
"Citizenship and good character are not old or outdated virtues. They matter more today then ever before." he said.
Bennett's comments came during the first day of the 60th annual Future Farmers of America convention in Municipal Auditorium.
The three-day meeting, the largest student convention in the country, involves students between the ages of 14 and 21 who are enrolled in agriculture courses at both the high school and college levels.
Vice President George Bush, Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca and
former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach spoke at the convention yesterday. Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, a candidate for president, will speak tomorrow morning.
During his speech, Bennett said
them to lose their values in
lossegment in life.
Bennett said that some corruption and dishonesty existed in national politics but said that the most successful leaders had seen who were honest and decent.
"Some say to succeed in Washington, you have to sell your soul," he said. "I'll tell you as a former teacher and now as secretary of education, you need individual virtue."
Bennett said that even those who learn less prominent lives should should.
"Living every day with honor — the small things, not the big things and the small ones."
Education was mentioned only briefly during his 15-minute speech. Bennett encouraged the students to thank their teachers.
See BENNETT, p. 6, col. 1
Board decides to move meters
By JORN E. KAALSTAD
Staff writer
The parking board yesterday authorized Parking Services to remove 31 meters, which serve 62 spaces, from yellow-zoned Lot 90 south of Robinson Center.
That's good news for students with yellow permits who had to pay to park at those meters.
The bad news is that meters
will soon be installed in yellow-zoneed
streets.
Don Kearns, director of parking,
said Parking Services started to
remove the meters yesterday. He
would say he would be installed in
lot 91 by today.
Roger Templin, Overland Park junior and a member of the board, said the decision to move the meters to Lot 91 would create more available yellow-zoned spaces. Lot 90 is a
crowded lot, and is used primarily by students. Lot 91, however, usually has plenty of space available, parking officials say.
619
I'm glad the board took action to remove meters by Robinson. But installing them in the lot by the stadium is just moving the problem.'
- Steven Phillips first-year law student
"The students on the parking board still feel that the oversell issue isn't resolved. Something has been accomplished, but we still have a lot to talk about," Templin said.
The parking board met yesterday in 208 Strong Hall for a special meeting to discuss the permit oversell policy and parking meters.
On Mondays and Wednesdays, the two busiest parking days, there were no available yellow permit spaces in the lot.
The survey, which was conducted at about 10 a.m. from Oct. 23 to Nov. 10, indicated that on each day of the week there were 244 metered spaces were unused.
At the meeting, Donna Hultine, assistant director of parking, presented the results of a nine-day survey of Lot 90. The survey sought to determine who was parking at the approximately 560 meters in the lot, where were installed to collect revenue from visitors and commuters.
An average of 22 people with yellow
permits were parking at meters each day.
The board agreed that those figures indicated too many meters in the lot and, on busy days, not enough yellow-permit spaces.
Ray Moore, chairman of the parking board, said the board decided to discuss meters after it had received complaints from students with yellow permits who had to park at buses when permit spaces were taken.
Steven Phillips, Lawrence first-year law student, was one of the students who wrote the parking board.
"I glad the board took action to remove meters by Robinson," Phillips said after the meeting. "But installing them in the lot by the stadium is just moving the problem from one lot to another."