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BLAZING
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
No.156
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
The next issue of the Kansan will be published Tuesday, July 8.
Thursday, July 3, 1975
Magic carpet
A large Persian carpet dominates the scene of the "Magle Me"
coursed design for four- to eight-year-old children. The two-
week course encourages the youngsters to act out their imaginations. See story page 4.
KU grant to aid disabled
By PETER PORTEOUS
The University of Kansas has received a $240,000 federal grant to help eliminate architectural and transportation barriers to the handicapped.
Approval of the grant was announced yesterday by Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan. KU's grant is one of three such grants, totaling $15 million, approved for public agencies in Kansas.
The grants comprise 80 per cent federal funds matched by 20 per cent from the recipient agency. The funds will come from HEW and will be administered through the state Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. Dr. Fuchs will serve as the University Committee for the Architecturally Handicapped, said yesterday that it was appropriate that the grant had been approved now, during the National Awareness Week for the handicapped. The observance is part of a national observance and rehabilitation program, he said.
The grant approval was the culmination of more than two years of discussion and preparation.
Williams said the grant's approval was achieved through the cooperation of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.
"This will mean a tremendous acceleration of our program in opening all of the University's facilities to everyone," he said.
The grant will probably advance KU's program on the handicapped more than WKU's. If the kid was
The grant will allow the University to install new elevators and continue its program to eliminate barriers such as stairways without ramps and restroom doors too narrow to admit a wheelchair, be said.
The new elevators are the most important improvements to be made, according to Williams. Bailey and Fint halls will have elevators at the elevator in Snow Hall will be renovated.
"The elevators will open up entire schools and programs for people who were previously excluded from the buildings," Williams said. "The one in Bailey will made academic counseling services, which are on all floors, available to many more people."
Planned improvements include renovated restrooms in Melott, Snow and强壮 halls and Robinson Gymnasium, new grade-level buildings and additional curb cuts.
There are 40 or 50 "severely handicapped" persons on the KU campus, according to Williams, and an unknown number of handicapped persons have been prevented from enrolling because of numerous barriers to wheelchair travel.
The University is now in the middle of a fiveyear program to eliminate archaeological gaps.
As well as making physical changes, he said, the committee for the handicapped is researching modes of transportation for wheelchair users.
Union reps hear faculty appeals
By JACK FISCHER
Kansan Staff Reporter
These two groups waived their right to present their pleas in open session before the board to speed up the hearings because a lengthy presentation by the School of
Representatives of the University of Kansas School of Law and administrative representatives met in closed bearings last night and agreed on working terms in their opposing appeals before the Kansas Public Employer-Employee Relations Board (KPERB).
Engineering threatened the possibility of reconvening today.
The law school submitted a statement of facts to the board supporting its request for a separate bargaining unit. That, and the administration's response, was acceptable to both parties. The board will determine who will make up the bargaining unit.
The administration and the law school agreed to submit final drafts of their statements to the board within five working days.
Housing muddle blamed on code
By MARK PENNINGTON
The vagueness of the Lawrence Minimum Housing code is probably responsible for much of the confusion in decisions to rent to students at Oxford Watson, city manager, said Tuesday.
In addition, both waived the presentation of closing arguments until they received written transcripts of the hearing, after which they were to return written briefs stating their final positions to the board. The briefs must be turned in by September
"I think there's too much interpretation on the part of any individual," Watson said. "What is dangerous, what is unsafe and what is against the general welfare of the nation?" I think the more specific we can on uniform standards the better off we'll be."
Watson said the housing code would be enforced as uniformly as it could be.
"What happens is that the inspector goes in and makes an inspection, and be finds
He disputed charges made by Ed Covington, former minimum housing inspector, that the code wasn't enforced uniformly. Covington resigned yesterday.
something that he thinks is dangerous or unsafe," Watson said. "He tells the people about it. Some people fix the problem, but some other people don't think that the person is dangerous, and they appeal to the Minimum Housing Code Board of Appeals.
Watson said he had asked Covington what Covington meant in a previous statement in which he accused Watson of not letting him do his job the way it was supposed to be
"If the board agrees that the problem isn't dangerous, then the code hasn't been interpreted uniformly. But everybody has no right to go through the appeals process."
"He really wasn't directing at me so much as he was all of these different interruptions. He didn't direct."
Watson said he had never told Covington how to do his job.
Housing inspector resigns
★ ★ ★
Ed Covington, Lawrence minimum housing inspector, submitted his resignation to City Manager Buford Watson yesterday, saying that he had endured "mental agony" from the frustration of not being able to do his job efficiently.
Watson said he was sorry that Covington the way he did about his job as housing manager.
"He feels strongly that he is correct in his assessment of how the housing code should be implemented."
wanted to enforce the code only against unhealthy and dangerous conditions. That's the policy that we have to work with and that's what we have to carry out."
Watson said there had been a high percentage of success in bringing houses up to standard in the Hill Target area. The Hill Target area is immediately east of campus. Students who want to attend were in compliance with the code and 15 more should be in compliance shortly.
"I've tried to tell him that the enforcement of the code is a policy of the company."
The position of city minimum housing inspector will be filled as soon as the city can get out notice of the position and take applications, Watson said.
"The thing that has happened," he said,
"is that as they get into situations where there are legal problems, then the legal requests have to come through me."
Under cross-examination by Michael Davis, attorney for the administration, all of the witnesses conceded to links between the engineering school and the administration in such vital matters as control of salaries and internal governance.
Watson said Covington had delayed a long time in inspecting some houses, so the first thing that should be done would be a complete reinspection.
"Some of these houses haven't been inspected since 1973," Watson said.
"It been hard for me to understand why the city has been so much more concerned with the pollution that comes out of the wrong type of a trap under a sink than with the pollution that comes out of an industrial plant."
Six houses ordered held from placarding last December would be reinspected and placarded if necessary, he said. When a sign is placed on it declaring it unsafe.
City Commissioner Carl Mibek, who is chairman of a committee that is revising the housing code, agreed with Watson that it should be implemented in some areas and too general in others.
However, Mibkeck said there was a difference between owners of old houses that tried to comply with the law and owners who did nothing.
"Some owners in the city, after having received a citation from the housing inspector, have fixed up things in their houses that I considered to be needless expenses," he said. "They just did it because they felt it was the law. I consider this to be grossly
"The code as it is now enforced is just too strict for old houses," Mibuck said. "Our committee is trying to come up with a different approach for houses built before the construction and that to be on the very minimum that affects the health and safety of the occupants.
The question of whether the engineering school's methods of accreditation were different from other schools and departmental methods was answered swerved because Haynes, in an unexpected move, requested information from the administration about all the other methods of accreditation within the University. The information will supply the information in two weeks.
Donald Hoffman, assistant attorney general and KPERB hearing examiner, said the board would be flexible in answering questions after arguments after the briefs were hurried in.
unfair when there are guys who won't even do the minimum."
Mibek said it made sense to him for the commission to be lenient with owners who tried to improve their properties. Low-cost care is essential for families that is desperately needed, he said.
Mibeeck said he didn't think the city administration would allow fororing the favoring of the code, because of fewer
"I just think the city manager has tried to go the last mile with some of these people," Mibeck said. "I think they re reluctant to go out and spend time out to come out to be expensive for both parties."
"This has probably been the most elaborate unit determination ever before the board," Hoffman said at the conclusion of the hearings.
He also said the board had collected a good factual record of the petitioners
William Haynes, representative for the School of Engineering, called five witnesses to testify that the school needed a separate bargaining unit because many of its functions were independent of the rest of the University.
In her close statements regarding the inclusion of department chairmen in the bargaining unit, Inara Horton, representing the American Association of University Professors, said that because chairmen are not at all the same cities as other faculty and didn't formally allotted to administrative work, they should be included in the unit.
In addition, she said, the duties of the chairmen vary greatly in different departments. Excluding chairmen would normally only represent in bargaining disputes.
Davis said that although chairmen didn't precisely fit the state statute defining a supervisor, they did have power to run their departments.
He said chairmen usually carried only one-third of the normal faculty course load because they were engaged in administrative work.
Regents deny fee waiver request
By.JACK McNEELY
Kansan Staff Reporter
A request by the University of Kansas to waive tuition payments for graduate teaching assistants and assistant instructors was among items cut from the fiscal year 1977 budget by the Kansas Board of Regents
KU had submitted the request to waive
FIREWORKS
The Kansan wishes everyone a happy Fourth of July and reminds everyone to observe the rules concerning fireworks. Fireworks can be shot off today and tomorrow from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Please observe the law.
tuition payments so that it could compete for the best teaching assistants with other major universities, most of which waive tuition. This is according to Chancellor Archie R. Dykes.
Iowa State University, for example, not only waives fees for teaching assistants, but also pays them higher salaries than KU pays.
"With whatever salary increase money we get for next year, we'll do the best we can for the teaching assistants." Executive Vice Chancellor Del Shankel said Tuesday.
Shankel didn't know the Regents' reasons for denying the request to waive fees for training.
"I suppose they're a pretty autonomous board," shankel said. "I think it's fair to say that they don't have to justify their actions."
But, Shankel said, the Regents are set up by statute to be a group of responsible
citizens whose purpose is to advise the governor about the needs of higher education.
KU's budget, as cut by the Regents, will be reviewed by James Bibb, state budget director, and Gov. Robert Bennett in late November or early December.
Bennett will then pass KU's budget to the legislature for final consideration.
The Regents cut $460,390 that KU had requested to handle an expected increase of enrollment. KU expects enrollment in the program at per cent higher than enrollment next fall.
The Regents decided to postpone a decision on the money requested to handle the expected enrollment increase. The reason for the postponement was that preliminary figures for next fall's enrollment would indicate the enrollment increase for the fall of 1976 will be higher than 1.3 per cent, Shankel said.
Decriminalization of marijuana to be legislative topic
By CONNIE BRUCE
Kansas Staff Reporter
Kansans may have marijuana by the toke before they have liquor by the drink, if the toke is a prescription.
A proposal has been drawn up to legalize small amounts of marjuanja for private use in the home. The proposal drafted by State Representative James Cornish, Kansas director of the National Organization for Reformation of Marijuana laws (NORML), and Lance Burr, Lawrence attorney, will be heard by a Joint Committee. The exact date will be set July 10.
MARJUANA POSSESSION is cond-
dered a criminal offense in Karaas and
Arabia.
Some people say decriminalization will encourage marijuana use. Health hazards such as birth defects, sexual impotence and other psychological problems have. However, the President's Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse reported in 1972 that it could curb criminal activity and minimize health damage.
Glover said yesterday that although 26 states had attempted to soften marijuana laws, only five had succeeded: Oregon, Alaska, California, Colorado and Maine.
A survey taken by an Oregon legislative committee a year after the abolition of marijuana in 2010 showed that 52 per cent of those using marijuana reported no change in the frequency of usage, 40 per cent decreased usage and only 5 per cent increased their use.
CORNISH SAID that it was the right of the individual to control the biochemical and psychological effects of something on himself
If the present proposal becomes law it will remove criminal penalties for possession of
two ounces or less by an adult in non-public places. Two ounces of marjuana could be distributed among adults but it would still be a crime to sell it for nwort. Cornish said.
- felony penalties for sale of any amount for profit.
——misdemeanor penalties for possession
or distribution of more than two ounces
—distribution by adults to minors would be a Class A misdemeanor.
In addition, the proposal includes the following:
- possession of any quantity by a minor would be a misdemeanor.
- -distribution or consumption of any quantity in public places would be a crime.
- transportation of permissible quantities placed in the same category as transported
—the same penalties would be placed on
driving under the influence of marijuana as driving under liquor.
THE KANSAS PROPOSAL is based on an Alaska Supreme Court decision, Glover said. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in May that possession of marijuana by adults at home for personal use was cannibally protected by the right of privacy.
In 1973, Glover introduced a bill to
pass legislation that the bill was killed in
committee by a vote.
During the last session a proposal to set up a study committee on the public's interest in removing criminal penalties for marijuana and possession of marijuana was approved.
The 13-member committee hearing the proposal in September will listen to testimony of witnesses arguing for and against decriminalization. If the committee
decides to act on the proposal, a bill will be drafted.
He has received one letter supporting the proposal.
John Hayes, chairman of the Joint Special Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that he had received several letters from members of the medical profession opposing the proposal.
"I don't make up my mind one way or another until the witnesses are heard," he said.
WITNESSES FAVORING decriminalization will include representatives from the Meninginger Foundation, the University of Kansas Medical Center, law enforcement agencies and the judiciary, Glover said.
"Alaqua hung the right to smoke pot on the right to have privacy in the home," Cornish said. "We're not saying that the Constitution explicitly grants the right to
smoke pot but it does say that before the government bursts into your home they have to prove why they're there. It's simply too hard to say this drug might be dangerous."
CORNISH SAID there were no laws prohibiting cyclamen or birth control pills in the home. The framers of the Constitution, he said, tended to preserve more than an individual's private affairs than an individual operating in public commerce.
"The whole issue is the conflict between securing the right of the individual against the assertion by the state of protecting the public welfare." Cornish said.
The question is more one of law and order than one of the individual's right to "get high." The present law has utterly failed, he said.
"It hasn't deterred use," said Cornish
See MARIJUANA page 3
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