The University Daily
KANSAN
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Friday, November 5,1982 Vol.93, No.55 USPS 650-640
University stops use of new TA contracts
By DON KNOX Staff Reporter
The KU office of academic affairs announced yesterday that it would stop using a newly created contract for graduate teaching assistants because it included a controversial dismissal clause that was enacted without salutation of student comment.
In a one-page letter sent to the executive coordinator of the Graduate Student Executive Council, Deanneil Tacha, vice chancellor for research, requests that the university temporarily suspend the use of the contracts.
The decision came after almost two months of negotiations between administrators and a special 12-member graduate student committee created to review the contract.
Graduate student leaders formed the contract committee on Aug. 31 after a number of graduate students opposed to an 88-word dismissal clause added to the contracts.
created to review the contract.
TOM BERGER, executive coordinator of GradEx and a member of the contract committee, said the announcement was "a significant step towards the recognition of graduate assistants' contributions at KU."
The clauses said "an appropriate dean, director or vice chancellor" could cancel the appointment of a graduate TA contract if financing was not available. The clause said, however, that each student whose contract was terminated had to submit an application to the semester in which his contract was terminated.
IN AN AUG. 20 letter to Chancellor Gene A. Budig, Berger said, "The administration's failure to consult with GSC leadership in this matter represents a reversal of the improved relationships between graduate students and the administration."
Tacha said in August that KU administrators
She said, however, that the contract change was made in good faith.
felt badly that the students were not included in the process.
IN HER LETTER to GradEx, Tacha wrote,
"Because of the substantial concerns expressed
by members of your group, we have given
careful consideration to the issues, and agree
that we will temporarily suspend use of the new
contract."
Tacha could not be reached for comment last night.
Berner said there were many arguments that the contract committee had against the dismissal clause. He said many graduate students at the university were angry for the administration to fire graduate students.
"But we were pleased that we were able to come to a compromise that was mutually beneficial."
BERGER SAID a University graduate would be organized soon to study graduate student appointments and recommendations. The committee would be composed of graduate students,
Despite favoring the old contracts, John Lomax, a member of the contract committee, said he thought administrators would still be able to provide students' contracts in case of financial difficulties.
"This wide-based committee is going to look at graduate assistants as *a whole* in terms of the
following:
"I don't know if students are in a better position legally with the old contract or the new contract," Lomax said. "I think the administration feels it is just as free to cancel TAS under the contract."
U. S. Senator Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan., spoke at a Law School forum yesterday before giving the keynote address at the third Conference on International Affairs last night. The conference concludes today.
But Lonax said he took Tacha at her word when she said she did not want to terminate TA
Arson, fraud charges against merchant dismissed
Bv CAROL LICHTI
Staff Reporter
Arson and fraud charges against Tom Black, owner of the Royal College Shop, were dismissed yesterday in Douglas County District Court after a two-day preliminary hearing.
Charges of arson and attempting to defraud an insurance company were dismissed because the judge said only circumstantial evidence had been presented.
Marvin Brumett, a retired district court judge from Concordia assigned to hear the case, said circumstantial evidence was not enough to prove a cause of murder cause the defendant committed the crime.
The charges against Black, 40, 322 Woodlawn
Square and 65 Park Avenue at a fire his store
at E.B. Massachusetts S.
Brumnett said, "Circumstantial evidence was piled on circumstantial evidence."
THE TWO CHARGES were dismissed after the state called 16 witnesses to testify, and presented 57 pieces of evidence.
"I'm happy, real happy. Black saxon.
Black's lawyer, John Lungstun, said, "We're
very pleased with the outcome. I'm one who is always surprised when the result is favorable because I always prepare myself for an unfavorable result."
Greg Hammel, the assistant district attorney who has been working on the case since September, said, "I felt we certainly had a case, otherwise we never would have filed a case." As I understand the law, circumstantial evidence carries the same weight as direct evidence.
"I WOULD NOT have done anything differently. We presented a lot of evidence, not all the evidence we had, but as much evidence as needed to show probable cause."
Hammel said he and the other attorneys in the district attorney's office would have to decide whether he should be charged.
Dismissal of a case by a judge can be appealed directly to the Kansas Supreme Court, he said. The district attorney's office has 10 days to appeal the decision.
Douglas County District Attorney Jerry Harper said a decision whether to appeal the case would be discussed and announced some time today.
THE ROYAL COLLEGE Shop will remain
Black has filed a $3 million dollar civil suit in federal district court in Topeca against the Northern Insurance Company of New York, because the company has not settled the claim.
Langstrum and Black would not comment further about yesterday's decision because of the pending litigation.
DURING TESTIMONY yesterday, a KU School of Business professor testified that the inventory in the shop at the time of the fire had been between $90,500 and $103,200.
Laurence Friedman, associate professor of business, said the figures were based on operating statements and department of revenue figures from Black's personal financial records.
Mary Mier, the bookkeeper at the time of the fire, testified Wednesday that an inventory of $165,000 had been recorded on the shop's monthly insurance report:
Hammel asked, Friedman whether that amount of inventory was possible considering the fact that he had a small order.
"I don't see how it could be possible to any stretch of the imagination." Friedman said.
MIER TESTIFED Wednesday that determined the inventory at the time of the fire as $191,000 using tally cards Black gave her after the fire.
Ray Creews, an agent for Northern Insurance Company of New York, testified Wednesday that Black had asked him to increase the coverage on the inventory in the shop several months before
Yesterday Clinton Daniels, a former employee at the shop, testified that a shipment of deglazing fluid, a flammable liquid, was delivered to the shop Jan. 28. Daniels said Black ordered the
Crews testified the increase of inventory coverage on the insurance policy binder went into effect Jan. 28, 1982.
UNDER CROSS-EXAMINATION, Daniels said the store had needed to reorder the fluid because the can they had been using was almost empty.
See BLACK page 5
Trade tarriffs damage U.S., senator savs
By JEANNE FOY Staff Reporter
The United States government needs to resist growing pressure to enact trade barriers against Japan to protect U.S. industry, Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan, said last night during the keynote address for KU's third Conference on International Affairs.
The focus of this year's conference, which concludes today, is U.S.-Japan relations. The conference was conducted in the Kansas Union.
Kasebamia said Congress was being flooded with bills to raise protective tariffs against
Although Americans have a basis for some of their concerns about Japan, she said, they need to keep a balanced view of the issue and not try to impose a foreign scapegoat for U.S. economic troubles.
"WE CANNOT improve our lot by restricting trade. It will lead to ruin because we produce for export." she said.
Kassebum said Japan had to export in order to pay for its vital imports. Besides being a valued ally of be United States, Japan is one of America's chief export markets.
Japan, which buys 15 percent of U.S.
agricultural and largest foreign buyer
of U.S. agricultural products.
"Before we complain too loudly about the trade deficit with Japan, we should remember our sizeable trade surplus with Europe," she said.
The problem may not be that Japan has less competition or too many trade barriers, she said, but that the yen is undervalued, making U.S. exports more expensive and its overvalued, making U.S. imports expensive.
Kassebaum said Japanese imports had expanded the range of products available to Japan.
"In short, we continue a relation of mutual benefit," she said.
CONCERN ABOUT trade relations between the two countries is not without some justification, she said, and the U.S. administration is right in urging Japan to eliminate trade
Kassebaum said Japan had been successful in keeping out unwanted imports. United States companies had sold a number of baseball bats in Japan, and a Japanese company started manufacturing them.
She said that suddenly there were certain official specifications concerning baseball bats.
She said Japan also had established barriers to the importation of 22 high-value agricultural products, including beef and citrus fruits and the Japanese consumer must pay the price.
"BEEF IN TOKYO costs four times as much as it does in New York," Kassbaum said.
Because the United States is the largest export of beef to Japan, that trade restriction has been lifted.
Kasshebaum said that if unemployment continued to grow, an unhealthy pressure to protect U.S. jobs by enacting trade restrictions against Japan would increase.
Thermostats to be lowered during break
By STEVE CUSICK Staff Reporter
Officials at the University will close 34 buildings for a week during winter break to help reduce the University's utility bill, officials said yesterday.
Some of the buildings that will be closed with 45 degree temperatures include Bailey, Blake, Flint, Fraser and Wescos halls and Hoch Auditorium, either to a statement released or Relations.
Administrators had announced last week that the temperatures would be set at 45 degrees and operations curtailed in some campus buildings, but that they would continue this week whichirtures would be affected.
WILLIAM HOGAN, associate executive vice chancellor, said that the thermostats would be turned down for the week of Dec. 24 to Jan. 2. That period includes four workdays from Dec. 27.
David Lewin, personnel director, said he did not know how many employees would have to take time off because of the closings.
He said employees who work in the affected buildings would have to take compensatory time or vacation pay for the time off.
HOGAN ESTIMATED last week that the University could save $150,000 by operating at reduced capacity during the week between Christmas and Jan. 1.
He said he would have to add up the number of employees working in each of the 34 buildings in the district.
University officials also hope to save money between now and then by keeping buildings cooler this year than in years past.
A puppy at the Lawrence Animal Shelter awaits adoption. The number of animals left in the shelter greatly outweighs those adopted. See page 107.
See CLOSING page 5
Weather
Tonight will be mostly clear with a low of 25 to 30.
Today will be mostly sunny and cool, with a high in the mid-40s, according to the National Weather Service. Winds will be variable at 5 to 15 mph.
Tomorrow will be sunny and warmer with a high in the mid- to upper 50s.
High-tech business vital to state's economic cure
Staff Reporter
By BRUCE SCHREINER Staff Reporter
Kansas' economic well-being, currently stifled by a national recession, will be revived only if the state rids itself of reliance on traditional industries and restructures its firms, economists and businessmen said last week.
The state's traditional industries, specifically aircraft and agriculture, will continue to be hampered by depressed markets, the group of economists and businessmen said.
But high-tech firms, or those using scientific innovations to produce very technical goods, could help build an almost impermeable barrier that would state from future budgetary crises, they said.
The growing dependence of Americans on highly technological products puts high-tech firms and the states where they situate in lucrative positions, said Dan Bearth, editor of the Kansas Business News, a monthly magazine circulated throughout the state.
TO ATTRACT high-tech firms, Kansas must concentrate on strengths in its higher education system and work force and reverse its reputation of being an entertainment and cultural wasteland, said Robert Premus, an economist for the Joint Economic Committee for Congress.
"We're seeing more automation in offices and factories," he said. "The reason for more automation is that for industries to keep costs to a minimum and therefore remain competitive, they have to become more automated. So there is tremendous incentive to purchase automated systems."
Premium, who specializes in high-tech firms and regional development, said an aggressive lobbying effort could result in Midwestern states like Illinois and high-tech firms that are now looking to expand.
Historically, high-tech firms have situated on both coasts; California is the current hotbed. But many firms now are looking to the interior of the United States to expand their operations, said Sam Cox.
Several factors made California and Massachusetts two of the states that reaped the highest taxes in the nation.
The overriding reason was the presence of prestigious higher education systems in Boston and Palo Alto, Calif., said James Law, corporate manager of land facilities at Hewlett Packard Co., a computer firm with headquarters in California.
Those two areas feature such highly acclaimed universities as Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and Stanford University in California.
"They had a stockpile of bright and talented people who were appealing because they tended to be very good at what they did."
THE STAKES in attracting high-tech firms are great. Premus said, because traditional industries will continue to be limited in their employment possibilities.
But, he said, job possibilities in high-tech firms will expand.
"Those industries that are utilizing the most advanced technology are the industries creating
"Right now, 60 to 75 percent of all new manufacturing jobs are being created by the high-tech firms. Within five years, about 80 per cent of them would be indirectly associated with commuters."
Early in a high-tech plant's existence, employees may have to be imported from other regions. But within a few years, a majority of its workers are freed from the surrounding community. Law said.
See FIRMS page 7