THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
The University of Kansas—Lawrence. Kansas
No. 167
Another family of Viet refugees comes to the city
Wednesdav. July 23, 1975
See page 4
Stricter gun control proposed by Ford
WASHINGTON (AP)—The Ford administration yesterday proposed FBI checks on people who want to buy handguns or bullets, an agency who commal a crispe with a dangerous weapon.
The proposals were contained in an outline given the Senate juvenile delinquency subcommittee by Atty. Gen. Edward Levi. He said the administration's gun control bill would be submitted to Congress soon.
Levi said the proposal contained neither a regionally triggered ban on the sale or possession of weapons, as he had suggested in his speech. nor a national gun registration provision.
Instead, the bill would authorize 500 more U.S. Treasury Department agents to combat the black market for guns in 10 metropolitan areas where the problem of handgun violence has reached crises. Levi said. He didn't name the 10 areas.
The bill also would eliminate "Saturday high specials," a type of gun Lavi described as "cheap, highly concealable, inaccurate, dangerous." The bill would give the possessor and to the citizenry at large.
The bill would ban importation, domestic manufacture, assembly, and sale of
their products.
Levi said the administration wanted to require handguns to have a manually operated safety catch and a minimum length and height.
The weapons would have to be at least four inches tall and at least six inches long (except for the rifle).
Revolvers would have to safety a test痒 to assure that they wouldn't fire if dropped. They would have to have at least a four-inch barrel and four-inch frame.
FBI Director Clarence M. Kelley said he was assigning two FBI agents to each of four areas in what he called "a new assault on crime."
The program, announced after new FBI statistics showed an 18 per cent rise in the nation's crime rate, is designed to provide FBI assistance to local police in enlisting citizen aid in the fight against crime.
The areas are Wilmington, Del., Birch Grove, Camden County, Ga., which covers much of Alamance.
Levi told the subcommittee that the administration's gun control bill would tighten up the purchasing process by requiring gun buyers to wait for 14 days before delivery. The delay would give the dealer time to clear the sale through the local police, who would run an FBI name check on the potential buyer.
The proposal would also ban the sale of two or more handguns to an individual within one month and would tighten security for becoming a licensed gun dealer.
Med Center hopes to nip malpractice suits in bud
BY IAN KENNETH LOUDEN
Kansas City, Kan.—The University of Kansas Medical Center is considering an ombudsman system to help prevent future malpractice suits.
Lee J. Dumr Jr., legal counsel for the Med Center, said yesterday, the system would include a rigorous internal policing of the doctors and strong patient advocacy program.
"The patient advocacy program would be a mechanism by which patients who are
Hathaway in clinic; position in question
However, the spokesman denied reports that Hathaway submitted an official letter of resignation and said that Hathaway would remain in office.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Interior Secretary Stanley K. Hathaway is undergoing psychiatric treatment at Bethesda Naval Hospital for "moderate depression" and made internally offered his resignation. Mr. Ford, an Interior spokesman said yesterday.
Asked whether Hathaway informally offered to resign the spokesman, "1 answer was that I am not."
White House spokesmen declined comment.
A statement released by the department said Hathaway himself decided that he required treatment. Doctors at the hospital "have advised him he is suffering from physical exhaustion" session brought about by physical exhaustion and fatigue," the statement said.
A hospital spokesman was quoted as saying Hathaway is "progressing well and is making progress."
Hathaway, former governor of Wyoming, was sworn in June 13 as Interior secretary, 43 days after he was nominated for the post. His confirmation was prolonged by op-eds and environmental groups and he underwent questioning in the Senate hearings.
still in the hospital could take their complaints to a go-between," he said. "This way, patients would solve their problems in the hospital instead of going to lawyers."
Dunn said he was working with representatives from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the New York City hospital, who have had a successful ambulance program.
Earlier in the day Dunn appeared before a special interim Kansas legislative committee on medical malpractice in Toneka.
Dunn told the committee, which is headed by Sen. W. H. Sowers, R-Wichita, that most of the proposals he had seen that were allegedly designed to deal with the malpractice problem didn't come into play until after the injury had taken place.
He recommended that methods be developed to prevent injuries from occurring in the first place. This would involve the internal policing of physicians.
Dunn said that proposals to limit the amount of injury awards in malpractice cases, to shorten the statute of limitations, and to restrict the extent of contingency fees were all designed to treat the symptoms
"Thebasic cause of malpractice litigation is medical injury, not all of which is the responsibility of the doctor."
WASHINGTON (AP)—The House rejected yesterday President Ford's gradual decontrol program that would have controlled theoline at the pump. The vote was 262 to 167.
White House officials said gasoline would go up to about seven cents a gallon by the end of 1977 if the plan were passed, but critics cut the figure as high as 15 cents.
House rejects Ford's oil plan
"As long as medical injuries exist, medical malpractice suits will exist, and treatment of the symptoms alone won't alleviate the problem."
After the vote, Democratic Leader Mike Manfield said that Congress and the President "have a duty to get together" to break the deadlock.
Dunn said he was surprised by what he called a virtual nonexistence of sponsored loss-prevention programs in the medical malpractice area.
He pointed out the loss-prevention programs that are traditionally conducted in industrial accidents and fire insurance companies.
'One wonders how an industry can bemoan a crisis when it does little to help.'
Let's look at the first word in line 2. It is 'bemoan'. The 'o' and 'n' are not italicized, but they are clearly written.
The second word in line 2 is 'crisis'. It is also clearly written.
Wait, the prompt says "Maintain the original reading order."
So I should start with the boldest words.
One wonders how an industry can bemoan a crisis when it does little to help.
One wonders how an industry can bemoan a crisis when it does little to help.
Dunn said that few malfunction actions had included the Med Center as a defendant, mainly because governmental immunity rendered the center immune to suits by the court. However the law was upset on June 9, 1975, by a Kansas Supreme Court decision.
He said he thought some kind of tort claims act or some other kind of statutory protection for valid governmental functions would be appropriate.
Staff photo by DON PIERCE
Ten-year-old Russell Williams gets the upspit of the situation yesterday when he releases one of the sorters that feed the Chi Omega fountain.
Keepin' cool
Commission shuffles post of inspector
The Lawrence City Commission last night authorized City Manager Buford Watson to switch the position of minimum housing code inspector from the public works department to the community development department. The position was vacated three weeks ago by Ed Covington.
By LYNN PEARSON Kansan Staff Reporter
The purpose of the move, Watson said, was to make the housing inspection program more efficient.
He said the expertise of Kyle Andregg, director of the neighborhood development project, would help the housing inspector, since Andregg deals daily with housing rehabilitation in various Lawrence neighborhoods.
"With the new housing ordinance being prepared by Commission Mibeck, we feel that close supervision of the housing inspection program will make a needed improvement." Watson told the commission.
In time, the entire inspection program will be developed in development department, Watson said.
Mayor Barkley Clark agreed that community development and housing inspection
"Many of the grants and loans sought by residents of the neighborhoods through community development are for bringing houses up to the code," Clark said.
With housing inspection in the same office as community development, he said, persons who are having difficulty keeping their houses up to city standards can obtain insurance and pay a per cent loans and outright grants available through community development.
The addition of an administrative assistant position, which will be filled by a KU law student, was another change asked by the department for inspection program Watson asked for.
The commission unanimously agreed to
position Watson expects to fill it
it sometime.
The law student will be responsible for checking procedures in housing inspections to ascertain that all items specified by ordinance have been completed.
"When things are not followed to the letter, we have difficulty in conducting训语."
Campus Vets fight new GI Bill
By CONNIE BRUCE
The latest version of the G.I. Bill doesn't extend benefits for graduate students-a situation Campus Veterans are trying to change.
An amendment to the G.I. Bill last December extended benefits to individuals.
Some veterans at the University of Kansas and many vets across the country would like to see the deletion of the word "veterans" in substitution of the words "all veterans."
Federal legislation has been introduced in both the House and Senate to amend this eligibility provision. Paul Bylaska, the vice president of Campus Veterans, said Monday.
"They are giving us the money but they're not helping the people who would be most helped by it, namely, graduate students." Bylaska said.
Most students finished in 36 months, Bylaska said, and veterans who are able to finish within 36 months are punished by this bill.
Nine months of financial assistance would be a great help to graduate students, he said, because the initial year is very important.
Tom Donaldson, member and past president of the Graduate Student Council said the council strongly supported the graduate students under the G.L. Bill.
More and more people are opting for further education, Donaldson said, and a
graduate degree is not the luxury many people once thought it was.
Bylaska said that the bill had financially insured that an undergraduate degree could be obtained by veterans, but that graduate students were left out.
The Campus Veterans office is doing several things to promote an awareness of the equity to graduate students in the last amendment (Public Law 93-088). Bylaska
Graduate students who are veterans are encouraged to write letters to their congressmen explaining their personal situation and why they need the benefits, shanka said.
Campus Veterans is compiling a list of the people who have been cut off by the bill.
Bylaska said he would help anyone write
to a senator or do anything that could rectify the situation.
"We would also like to assure that people who were cut off originally get benefits," he told reporters.
Donaldson said the only way to make a change in a democratic system was to be open and accountable.
Enlightening people of what graduate school means would be another way of being educated.
Besides the 45-month entitlement of funds to undergraduate students, the bill that became law in December provided a 23 percent increase in assistance, a $600 loan program and an increase in tutorial assistance.
The amendment was retroactive to Sept. 1, 1974.
Alcoholism among KU students an unknown quantity
By BILL KATS
The phenomena of the beer blast and the weekend drunk are well-worn traditions of college life. But whether or not there is really a student alcohol abuse problem at the University of Kansas is somewhat of a mystery.
While administrators, student researchers and health authorities at KU all admitted that a problem existed, the scope of the problem isn't readily apparent.
Pam Byer, graduate student in counseling and guidance, said Friday that she thought the problem of student alcohol abuse was increasing.
Byer said her masters thesis would deal with the problem of alcoholism in residence halls. The thesis will include results from a study on alcoholism in residence hall staff members, she said.
The survey will also present resident directors', resident assistants' and other staff members.
done and what proposals I can make," she said.
Although similar research on the problem has been conducted at Yale, the University of California at Berkeley and at the University of Indiana, Byer said she wasn't aware of any official study ever having been done at KU.
I'm trying to show that there is a problem of alcohol abuse, what is being
Higgins is currently working on a study of alcohol use. He is examining what conditions increase alcohol use and the motivation for its use.
Higgins said he thought there had been an increase nationally in the use of both alcohol and drugs such as marijuana. While in the past the tendency was to use either one or the other but not both, the situation has changed, he said.
Ray Higgins, assistant professor of psychology, said that drinking was high in sugars.
"How many universities want to publish that they have a problem?" she said.
Dean Kerkman, clinical psychologist at the Mental Health Clinic at Watkins Hospital, agreed that there was a student alcohol problem, but said identifying it was
Some of those who previously used only other drugs now have become the heaviest users.
While college-age students are a little more open than others in seeking help, the Mental Health Clinic still has seen few alcohol cases, he said.
"We don't know the dimensions of the problem yet," he said.
Alan Johnson, a volunteer at Headquarters, said that although Headquarters code calls a few calls for help, the college probably very few students came in for counseling.
Most are referred to the Mental Health Clinic and other professional organizations.
The Douglas County Citizens Committee on Alcoholism, Inc., is a state and locally financed guidance center and clearinghouse for information on alcohol abuse.
It has sponsored several educational and rehabilitative programs for people with disabilities.
halfway house for alcoholics, a series of classes for those who have legal problems connected with alcohol use, a program for inducing a ministerial alliance and local church
David Turner, counselor and head of the citizens committee's office, said that they were seeing only a small percentage of those students who have a problem.
Turner estimated that the is University had alcohol abuse patterns similar to the rest of Douglas County, about five per cent more severe and or would have serious alcohol problems.
The citizens committee hasn't been seeing more students because many refuse to admit they have drinking problems, Turner said. He said that although friends or relatives of abusers may call for inquiries, the authorities have until the person admitted he had a problem.
said. The rest have been referred to them, he said.
Kerkman that in the course of seeing students for other problems, the Mental Health Clinic would uncover alcohol abuse and its impact on the lives served by the clinic come in on their own, he
Boyer agreed that evidence of alcohol abuse was often discovered when working in the kitchen.
University life often exerts pressures upon students to participate in a social scene where patterns of heavy weekend drinking is socially acceptable, Higgins
Byer said continued drinking would affect one's life one way or another. The number
Higgins said the majority of student drinkers could be called social drinkers But there are forces within the University that have been working to ensure they had a social drinking problem, he said.
Carly Smith, acting dean of women, said the pressures to participate in the syndrome of Saturday night drinking were especially acute for vount students.
Higgins said some problem drinking was bound to occur in the University simply because of the stress involved. Alcohol is a common issue, he said, increasing in periods of strain
of poor grades and social problems caused by alcohol in the student community is still not well understood.
There are several University organizations for students with alcohol
The Mental Health Clinic at Watkins Hospital has free medical facilities staffed by psychiatrists, social workers and clinical psychologists.
The Psychological Clinic in Fraser Hall University Counseling Center in Bailen Hall
In addition, the student may choose from several outside local organizations such as Headquarters, Alcoholics Anonymous and County Citizens Committee on Alcoholism.
Smith said two training programs were held here in February in conjunction with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
The programs were designed primarily to make residence hall staff and student leaders more aware of how to handle potential problems, she said.