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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Jan. 6, 1965
Education
Financial Dilemma
FACED WITH AN INADEQUATE SOURCE of revenue for higher education in Kansas and faced with rising costs brought on by the tide of new students seeking admission to colleges and universities, the Kansas Board of Regents voted last week to raise fees charged at state institutions.
At present there is not enough money made available to finance the quality of education that Kansas people seem to want and their sons and daughters have a right to expect.
YET THE STATE PROVIDES only 44 per cent of the total operating income for KU and only about 38 per cent if contributions from private agencies are included. Thus, though state-governed, the state institutions are only assisted not supported.
The problem is a complex one. A large part of the responsibility for the present mess must be placed in the lap of the governor and the state legislature. State institutions are a direct, historic, and total responsibility of the state of Kansas. The schools are financed, audited and controlled directly by the elected and appointed officers of the state of Kansas.
This situation is almost unique and is, at the same time, tragic, for the state institutions are children of the state, yet the state fails to be responsible for its welfare.
MORE AND MORE KU is becoming dependent on funds made available through private donations and federal money. However, these sources presently do not fill the gaps left by a state legislature, that, like others, has been jealous of any Federal intrusion into their private domain.
Here are some facets of the problem. The Board of Regents earlier this year set down the following guidelines for general budgetary requests of the six institutions under its jurisdiction.
1) NO NEW PROGRAMS ARE SUGGESTED. This alone curtails the required development and expansion of activities and aims that are needed to meet the challenges of a present-day world crisis.
2) NO PRESENT PROGRAMS ARE EXPanded. Here again unnecessary limitations are placed on our institutions that prevent them from playing any dynamic, forward-looking role at all. We are foolishly closing the doors to the world of new knowledge and discovery.
3) FACULTY SALARY INCREASES ARE held to a total of four per cent. A $1.4 million faculty salary increase was among the items cut from the proposed budget by state budget director, James W. Bibb. That four per cent increase, had it been granted, would not have prevented a relative decline in KU's competitive salary position.
This university's average compensation of its faculty-(including non-salary benefits) is woefully behind many other state institutions that lack the academic quality KU has been long noted for.
In this year, as in past years, KU has lost some of its finest professors to competing schools that could and would pay them adequately. This exodus of talent deprives Kansas of one of its most valuable resources. Can the state really afford such a loss? I think not.
4) ADDITIONAL FACULTY POSITIONS are computed on a basis of one position for every 25 new students. This would provide an over-all ration of 16:1; yet the usual student-faculty ration for comparable schools is 9:1 or 11:1. This seems to be a dangerous trend in an institution with a continuing and growing obligation for research and graduate instruction.
5) IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS, the Regents also placed restrictions on the financing of repairs on old facilities and on building new ones. This means more students jammed into already over-crowded facilities.
The nature of the problem, unclouded by more statistics, is quite clear. The state schools cannot now, or in the future, under present conditions, meet their responsibilities to Kansas and the nation and to their students as long as they remain too poor to do so.
The problem will grow. Because of increased enrollment the financial needs are growing by 10 per cent each year and will continue to do so for the next decade or two.
SOMEONE HAS TO PAY for quality education. And now it is the student who is being burdened beyond his means in a stop-gap measure. The fee increase will solve the problem. Chancellor Wescoe stated the situation precisely when he said after last week's meeting:
"As it is now there is no change. We raised fees to maintain the status quo.
"There is not a one of us (the heads of the state schools) who believes this is the way our program should be financed," he said.
Since present federal and private funds are not closing the gap fast enough to hold the line, the solution to financing education must come from the governor and the legislature. The problem is complex, but it is, nevertheless, their problem and it is high time that they stopped their heel-dragging on this issue and find some solution or combination of solutions.
THE SOLUTION seems to be in some form of increased taxation. And any such suggestion immediately brings anguished cries of outrage. Some are from already taxed-to-death lower-income wage earners. Others come from the natural gas and oil interests in this state that are entrenched firmly behind protective statutes and they, though able to afford it, resist any effort to increase their taxes.
Understandably most legislators are reluctant to raise taxes. Some are concerned about the already high rate of taxation on certain segments of the population; many of them are vested and selfish interests themselves or products and puppets of vested interests and refuse to raise tax revenues out of their own pockets.
HOWEVER, this issue is one that should supersede selfishness and petty motives for brainpower and intellect are perhaps America's most precious resources; higher education is this country's most vital investment in the future.
Let it be hoped that the Kansas legislature and Gov.-Elect William H. Avery realize this fact and act accordingly and promptly to rectify the present neglect.
THE PROBLEM DEMANDS an answer; it is the responsibility of those dedicated public servants to find it.
Cambodia: Art of Survival
— Rick Mabbutt
By Phil Newsom
PRINCE NORODOM SIHA-nouk, who rules pint-sized Cambodia in the midst of the Southeast Asian trouble spot, must be conceded a very smart man or one in immediate need of a psychiatrist.
Since renouncing U.S. aid a year ago, he successfully has replaced it with financial help from France and military help from both Red China and the Soviet Union.
With recurrent threats to break off diplomatic relations with the United States and to recognize Communist North Viet Nam, he also has succeeded in
But bother the United States does and it was at United States suggestion that a new attempt at smoothing over troubled relations will be made at a meeting of Cambodian and U.S. representatives to be held on the neutral ground of India.
AS RULER OF A STATE comparatively insignificant both in size and population, the natural question is, why bother at all with this troublesome little man?
keeping the United States off balance in an area in which the United States has much at stake.
Sihanouk's importance to the United States stems from the fact that Cambodia borders upon
AND WHAT MAKES SIHA-nouk troublesome is that he has far less interest in the East-West struggle than he has in a conviction that both South Viet Nam and Thailand are anxious to slice up Cambodia between them.
South Viet Nam, Laos and Thailand, all of which the United States is pledged to protect against a Communist take-over.
It may be added that Thailand has similar suspicions concerning Cambodia and accuses Sihanouk of courting favor with Peking in the hope the Red Chinese will help him take over several Thai provinces.
"Forget That You're Not Supposed To Forget!"
Top State News
THE RECENT KIDNAPPING and slaying of Gladys Johnson, a Negro girl from Topeka, was one of the top news stories in Kansas in 1964.
The kidnapper, William F. Zimmer of Kansas City, aided in the search that blanketed six counties. Connected with this story was the story concerning the effectiveness of the Topeka Police Department.
Other top news stories in Kansas this year were:
The nation-wide defense spending cut which will close Schilling Air Force Base in Salina and the missile complexes at Forbes Air Force Base in Toneka.
EIGHT MEN—Paul Wunsch, William Avery, McDill Boyd, William Ferguson, Grant Dohm, Harold Chase, Jules Doty, and Don Smith—entered the race for the Republican nomination for Governor.
The Democrates took the electoral votes and the Republicans took the elected offices this year. William Avery was elected governor and Lyndon Baines Johnson was the first Democrat in 28 years to receive Kansas' electoral votes.
The Kansas Senate Reapportionment Committee conducted a study on reapportionment in light of the Supreme Court decision on reapportionment. The governor signed the law, which gave one seat to each county and 20 seats to be divided among the more populous counties. Atty. Gen. William Ferguson stated he believed it was unconstitutional to reduce the membership of the
Kansas House of Representatives to one seat per county.
Riots at the Garnett races caused the town to decide to cancel the annual racing event. Forty-six fans received fines amounting to $4,550.
THE CONTINENTAL GRAIN Corp. sold 78.5 million dollars worth of surplus wheat to the Soviet Union Jan. 4, 1964. The Russians reportedly want more than $250 million worth of the surplus.
The Kansas controversial Sunday Closing Bill was declared unconstitutional by the Kansas Supreme Court. Only one year old, the law was charged by the court as too general, and the court said the law did not operate uniformly.
Gov. John Anderson received his worst political defeat when the state Republican party did not name him as a delegate to the Republican National Convention.
The sheriff of Shawnee County, Vernon L. Robinson, was removed from office, 3 months and 24 days before his term expired by the Kansas Supreme Court. The new appointee, Lewis H. Falley, fired several staff members.
F F
AMONG THE VISITORS to the state of Kansas this year, because of the presidential election, were William Scranton, Barry Goldwater, William Miller, Hubert Humphrey, Mrs. Humphrey, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson stopped off in Kansas City to visit the ailing Harry S. Truman.
Jim Langford and Don Black
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Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908,daily Jan
Jim Langford and Rick Mabbutt ... Co-Editorial Editors