THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Vol.87 No.9
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Thursday, September 2, 1976
Grad job problems to be studied
Bv JERRY SEIR
Staff Writer
Within the next week, Del Shankel, executive vice chancellor, will appoint a task force to study the problems of graduate student employs.
Shankel said last night that the task force would investigate the wages and working conditions of graduate students working as teaching assistants (TAs), assistant instructors (AIs) and research assistants (RAs).
The task force will have about nine members, Shankel said, including faculty members, administrators and graduate students. The group will work with the offices of academic affairs, student affairs, and studies in preparing a report to Shankel)
Shankel said it would take the task force several months to prepare its report.
THE TASK force has been planned since May, when Shankel sent a letter to the Graduate Student Council (GSC) requesting nominations for the group.
That letter said the task force would consider wages, fee waivers, training programs, fringe benefits, grievance procedure and affirmative action policies.
Ellen Reynolds, executive coordinator of the GSC and a Lawrence graduate student, said yesterday that she hoped the task force would establish minimum salaries and hiring guidelines for graduate student employees.
Reynolds said the GSC had received complaints about hiring practices in the region.
"Students had been told they were hired
in the spring," Reynolds said. "Then they may or may not be hired after enrollment this fall."
OTHER STUDENTS reported they were asked to work more hours or were being paid less than that they had been promised, she said. One solution to the problems, Reynolds said, would be to require departments to make, and honor, written agreements made when hiring graduate students.
Some departments in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences already make written agreements with TAs and AIs in the spring, she said.
Salaries for TAs and Als are now determined by individual departments and vary widely across campus. Reynolds said. Students in the program showed salaries for graduate students
working as half-time employees ranged from $320 in a month in a department of the college to $475 for some electrical engineering graduate students.
SOME RAs are paid less, Reynolds said, because their wages are set by grants that were received several years ago. Students at a local college get no cost-of-living raises, she said.
"I would like to see minimum standards set and followed for RAs as well as TAS and Als," Reynolds said. "I've been told it's a supply and demand situation. Some departments pay their students more to get good students."
Reynolds said she also thought the task force should establish advertising guidelines for graduate student positions. He said he would create a credible effort to advertise jobs, she said.
Parched crop
Lawrence in Douglas County is an example of what may be a sad crop. See story page three.
Because of a summer that was mostly dry, much of the midwest's corn crop has suffered extensive damage. This corn south of
"In other departments, it almost seems these positions belong to individual students," she said. "Others don't know the positions are available."
The task force should require departments to include the criteria for jobs in advertisements, Reynolds said, to prevent favoritism in awarding positions.
KATHY DUGAN, GradEx member and a Western Civilization AI, agreed that establishment of wage and hiring guidelines should be a bish priority of the task force.
"In one department you may work 14 hours a week in the classroom and get $200 a month, which is ridiculously low, and in another department you do the same work and get $400," she said.
Department chairmen, who set graduate student salaries, now have no way of knowing what other departments are paying, Dugan said. The task force should set a minimum salary, she said, but the department's salary schedule for all graduate students.
"There are reasons to make the decisions within the departments," she said. "What we need is a clearing house to make information available to departments."
Staff photo by JAY KOELZER
Fore-lorn
Gary Cilton, Wichita senior and KU golfer, grimaced yesterday as his approach shot missed the green at the fifth hole in the Kansas Open at Alamacar. Chilton shot an 80 which, combined with a his first-round 72 on Tuesday, qualified him for today's final round. See story page six.
Med center deposits $22 million toward clinical facility structure
By BARBARA ROSEWICZ
The KU Medical Center took control yesterday of $2 million in revenue bonds for the construction of the new clinical facility.
Bike paths await federal money
Staff Writer
Bv CAROL LUMAN
If a federal grant is approved, the tensive bike path system—"Pedalplan for Lawrence"—might soon criss-cross the city.
Myles Schachter of the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Office wrote the plan and said if the grant was approved the condition could start as early as next spring.
City commissioners have tentatively approved the plan and have agreed to pay $21,382, 20 per cent, of the costs for phase one of the five-phase project.
The application to the U.S. Department of Transportation asks for $85,527 for the first phase, Schachter said. He said funding for the last four phases would be secured later.
Because each phase costs less than the preceding one, Schachter said, the city might be able to finance them, although it was hoped federal money might be
PHASE ONE of the plan is the most
important. Schachter said, because it
half of the faculty and some of the
major research
Schachter said if the grant was approved, he hoped construction of the first phase would be completed.
"A far as the other phases," he said, "it hard to say when we're going to put them in, because of a lot of variables. We are hoping for the entire phase, or 20 years for the entire project."
The current bicycle route system in the city consists of two major routes—one on either side of Mt. Oread and a short connecting route on campus.
There are also three planned bikeways that are included in other capital improvement projects in and around Lawrence.
THESE INCLUDE a stretch along the new Clinton Parkway from Iowa Street to Clinton Reservoir, a path along the new stream. The tower of the levy on the Kansas River
Although funding and construction of
those bikeways are separate from the Pedalplan, they eventually will be worked out.
Current plans call for the future maintenance and extension of those systems in conjunction with the new routes in Pedablan.
If Pedalman becomes a reality, the current Oread (or eastern) bike route will be continued to 10th and Tennessee streets. The Harvard Road (or western) route runs from the Old Route Road to provide access to the growing Pioneer Ridge population, the plan says.
A SERIES of lightly traveled streets, including Second, Arkansas and Alabama streets, probably will be used to provide a Deerfield route, the plan says, which is needed because it, too, is a rapidly growing area.
Eighth Street, according to the plan, could be used to connect the Deerfield route to the central business district. It would also connect Central Park to a path that would draw Tommy Constant Park and Burcham Park into the system.
The amount of time granted, Dibbern said, would be determined on the basis of how extensive violations were. What types of buildings were involved and what types of buildings were involved.
In addition, Dibbern said that older fraternity and sorority buildings with open stairways might be allowed an alternative entrance to the building. In some stairs, depending on individual buildings.
Spot checks by the fire marshal have been conducted in past years at varying intervals. Dale said. State officials hadn't visited the park but the park administration, of campus housing was located, he said.
CHANCELOR ARCHIE Dykes said the bonds would't cause an increase in patient-care rates even though more revenue would be needed to retire the bonds.
Illinois Street, from Eighth Street south,
The bonds, authorized by the Kansas Legislature, will be paid back over 20 years in payments of more than $1 million a year. Nichter said the first six month's payment would be close to $795,000. The payments on the bonds will be financed by charges for patient services, including room fees, X rays and lab work.
See BIKE page three
The KU inspection will be one of several planned for coming weeks at Kansas college and university campuses. Dibbern said inspectors also would examine student universities in University in Topeka, Emporia Kansas State College and Baker University next week.
Local fire departments will help state inspectors student living quarters.
THE REMAINER of the money for the almost $55-million hospital was appropriated by the Kansas Legislature in its last session.
Nitcher said the money was deposited in the Kansas State Treasury yesterday and then invested by the state board. Under the plan, University can't invest the money itself.
Installation of fire-alarm systems might be one option, he said.
When the new clinical facility opens, there will be almost 200 more hospital beds and, therefore, more revenue, he said.
Dibbern said the investigation would concentrate on fire escapes and early-warning alarm systems. He said that his office had begun the inspection program before five persons were killed Sunday in a Baker University fraternity house fire, but that "we're stepping up the program to get this done a little faster."
Nicher said the Board of Regents sold the bonds at an average interest rate of 7.14 per cent.
Keith Nitcher, director of business and financial affairs, said the money already had been deposited in several Kansas banks to start earning interest that would amount to more than $1 million.
Fire check starts Monday for KU off-campus housing
He said that the money, invested in both short- and long-term securities, would earn about 6 per cent interest.
The Bird Center now has 500 beds. The bond money was invested by the State Pooled Money Investment Board. The money and interest will be drawn out as
The state fire marshal, Floyd Dibbern of Topoka, said last night that his office would work closely with the Lawrence Fire Department in a comprehensive study of fire safety at KU's fraternities, sororities and threestone apartment buildings
needed for the construction of the clinical facility, which is scheduled to be completed
Robert Kugel, executive vice chancellor for the Med Center, said the Regents selected the financial bond firm on the basis of bids submitted in August.
and therefore, more revenue. It is also
The Med Center now has 540 beds.
Starting Monday, off-campus housing at the University of Kansas will be inspected by state officials for possible violations of the Kansas fire code.
Next week's inspections will be more detailed than those of the past, Dibbern said. Owners of buildings that are found to contain toxic gases were given time to comply with the state code.
He said individuals or other brokerage houses often invested in such bonds because they were more liquid.
By ROB EMBERS
Neuter words suggested to sub for sexist pronouns
Everyone should watch his language
Grammatically, this is a correct sentence. But some feminists consider it sexist, and prefer to use “this or her”. Some have tried to solve the problem by changing the word "is" to "it", which doesn't agree with the singular "everyone".
Charles Lacey, director of production at Centron Film Corporation, has introduced three new pronouns as a solution to the argument. In place of the nominative "he" or "she", Lacey would use "re." "Herm" would replace the accusative "his or her"; "his or her" would be replaced by "share."
Lacey had he selected words that could be easily pronounced and remembered.
"Re' is very much like we, which we are accustomed to, and it sounds very much like 'he' or 'she'," he said. "When you get the accusative case I suggest you use the word 'herm', which obviously is a combination of the two pronouns 'him or her.'" Lacey selected "hare" because it rhyme with "their" and has the "h" common to "his" and "her."
Using his pronouns, Lacey scribbled the sentence, "Each student, whether re is a freshman or a member of an upper class, should pay have tuition promptly, so that university authorities may be spared the trouble and expense of additional communication with herm."
Lacey said he doubted the pronouns would be adopted, but thought change was necessary so that women wouldn't be incorrectly referred to as "he" or "him."
**IF WE'RE GOING to change the language we ought to change it so it will be easy for people to understand.**
Thinking a poem might help people remember the story. Lacroix wrote a five stanza limerick to introduce it.
The feminists' modern conceit
Has made the old order obsolete.
From London to Texas
below is a strategy
is bound to go down in defeat.
Frustrated folks everywhere
Are fed up with the singular "their."
Grammaticians concur
"He or she" of her.
Though so used by some who don't care.
won associates I long have conferred
On the need for a new kind of word.
Not really complex.
Couldn't cither her sex
So let this proposal be heard.
For 'his or her' we'll say 'hare'
For 'him or her' 'herm' everywhere.
To mean 'he or she' we'll always use 're'
To both sexes we'll always be fair.
Let each person hare prejudices cease
Until to him comes precious peace
Re awaits that great day,
that only man can have
That hate sex-hate is on the decrease.
Staff photo by GEORGE MILLENER
Charles Lacey—pronoun creator