Buckley amendment causes paperwork and confusion
By STANSTENERSEN
This is the first part of a two-part article on the Buckley Amendment.
Among the Uckley Amendment was passed by Congress to give students more control over their records, at the University of Kansas it has come under the attention of many administrators to tear their hair by the roots.
The amendment has brought more paperwork for administrators than benefit to students, according to a report by the National Association of Schools.
"The amendment wasn't worth it," he said. "The university already had an open policies policy and the school didn't."
Under the amendment, you have these rights as a student:
First, you may see information, including professors' recommendations, added to your file after Jan. 1, 1975, unless you specifically waive your right to do so. Even if you waive your right to see the recommendations, you can still find out who wrote them.
Second, you may decide what companies or agencies will be allowed to see your file. Unless you give permission, the University can release only students from certain classes in the place of birth, major, dates of attendance at KU, degrees and awards received, participation in officially recognized activities and the last school you attend.
The amendment has created some bizarre bureaucratic twists. For example, if you are a student and are arrested by the KU Security and Parking Department, your name can't be released to the news media. If you are arrested with a non-US security officer, you must Security and Parking files a report with the Lawrence Police Department, the police department can release your name.
Another example: If you receive an award, the Office of University Relations can tell a newspaper writer that you're the routine "... son of Mr. and Mrs. ..." can't be included unless you sign a waiver authorizing it.
The lack of a uniform policy between universities has also created the problem that a letter supposedly written in confidence at one university was sent to another university to which he applied if no waiver accompanied it.
recommendations still plagues many offices and departments at the University. Before Jan. 1, recommendations in most University files were confidential, but recommendations written after that date can now be seen by a student unless he waives his right to see them.
The Educational Placement Bureau (EPB), the University's placement office for education majors and students in its positions, has perhaps been hardest hit by the provisions of the Buckley amendment. Unlike placement services in the schools of business, engineering or healthcare, such provisions as part of its users' credentials.
Herold Regier, EPB director, said his office had to change a number of procedures to comply with the amendment. New procedures were worked out with the University attorney, he said. 2,400
registrants each were sent forms to indicate whether they wanted to control access by prospective employers to their credentials, he said. In addition, registrants whose letters of recommendation were submitted after Jan. 1 had to sign documents retaining or waiving their right to see them.
Registrants who didn't return the forms would have their credentials treated as in the past, Regier. Prospective employers would be allowed to examine credentials without prior permission.
Regier said his office had developed a recommendation form that included the registrant's preference to retain or waive his right to see the finished recommendation. A professor will thus know whether the recommendation will remain confidential, he said.
<sup>10</sup>mps effaits, Regler said, he still fears that the final guideline had not been issued by the U.S. final guideline have not been issued by the U.S.
"It's ridiculous," he said. "From January to no
haven has been in effect, and HEM has not yet given
the answer."
packets for the fall very soon, and we still don't have a final guideline will conflict with our materials.
Regier said that early responses from EPB registrants were running "high in the direction of wishing access to the files." Not enough responses have been received so how many registrants will ask for access, he said.
"I'm guessing that those who want access are responding first," he said.
Departments that keep recommendations on incoming graduate students have responded in various ways to the Buckley amendment. Some have developed no response at all.
John Landgrebe, chairman of the department of chemistry, said recommendations for incoming graduate students would be returned at the end of the summer to the professors who wrote them. The only exceptions, he said, would be recom- ments made by a waiver acknowledging their confidentiality.
(Tomorrow. How to play the "Buckley amendment recommendation game.")
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
No.147
Staff photo by DON PIERCE
Cooaan reflects
Coogan worked as a foreign correspondent for the United Press and has worked for several area newspapers. Coogan hopes to publish a book on his experiences.
Puffing on his ever-present cigar, James Alan Coogan reflects on his years in journalism and his return to the University.
Former news pros tell of past
By JENIFER OTWELI
While most journalism graduates are out struggling to find jobs, two former journalists are at the University of Kansas seeking to complete their education.
"I didn't have anything to do." Coogan said yesterday. "Besides, I have always
He said the campus was more beautiful now than when he was first here.
PROFILE
been conscious of the fact that I didn't have a degree. Everyone I know at least
James Alan Coogan, 66, and G. Ross Downing, 73, have returned to the University after being away for over 40 years, said they were bored with retirement.
Downing said that KU was lenient in giving him credit for courses he took in the
Wednesday, June 18. 1975
"I want to experiment with aging," Downing said. "I want to find out whether a person my age can pick up and begin playing again after so many years absence."
He will probably complete a bachelor of science degree in journalism this summer.
"They only had half-a-dozen buildings when I was here," he said. "Corbin was built while I here, but there were no other women's dorms and no men's dorms."
Garage site approved
"I worked down in the bottom of one of those holes throwing mud up to another guy at the end."
Coogan and Downing said that when they were younger, their memories were better than those now.
He recalled that one summer he dug holes for the foundation of the stadium.
See page 3.
Downing said students' attitudes seemed about the same, although the style of dress is different.
"There's only so much space above your cars for storage." Coogan said. "Maybe all of us are wrong."
"Some of those expressions the professors use, though. I was shocked at first," he said. "You would never have gotten away with it fifty years ago."
After he was graduated from high school in 1920, Downing worked for western Kansas harvest crews. He then began work on a six-year program at KU in law and journalism. He was editor of the Kansan for one semester.
Downing said the first story he did was a feature on Comanche, the only surviving U.S. Cavalry horse from the Battle of Little Big Horn.
Downing said he decided to drop out of KU when, because of a recommendation from Lein Flint, he was offered a job with the University of North Carolina. He spotted sportswriter there for a year and a half.
"The week I was to take my first final in law, a rum-runner was killed outside of Lawrence, and had to cover it," he said. "I flunked on it and so I flunked my law exams."
He said he told a friend at International News Services that he was interested in learning more about his work.
He had a hard time making his grades because he also worked at several colleges.
"Everyone was pretty much aware of the Communists at that time," he said, "and so there was some concern about the flag. I wrote about it for the Journal-Post for a couple of days. The rope had been cut and nobody could figure out how to get it down."
One story that Downing remembered from his college days was about a red flag that was flying on campus one morning in 1923.
"I didn't even ask the salary," he said, "it was $53, more than I thought. The first year
"It shifted from communism to, and I
couple more day's articles out of it," he
said.
Finally someone got the flag down, he said. It turned out to be a pair of red panties.
See COOGAN page 2
Ford optimistic, to help business
WASHINGTON (AP)—President Ford said yesterday America's worst recession since the 1980s was coming to an end and that he intended to help the economy by freeing businesses from excessive federal regulation.
"The time has come to cut the federal red tape that binds the hands of small businesses . . . I will not let you suffocate," the President told a conference here of the National Federation of Independent Business.
Those were words the 1,500 people in
attendance wanted to hear and they in-
*25-minute session* 26 times with paula
*and phillip*.
In an assessment of the economy, Ford said, "Now is the time to chart the right path back to prosperity without inflation and with growth."
He said some economic indicators would continue to be depressed for a few months "because they record only what is past. But I am confident we are at the bottom of the economic slide and we will soon be on our way up."
Ling still under city's eye
Kansan Staff Reporter
By LYNN PEARSON
Daniel S. Ling, associate professor of physics, has 30 days to appeal city housing inspector's orders on three rental properties before the Lawrence City Commission will seek court action against him.
The district court could assess Ling as much as $100 a day until the properties in question are brought up to city housing standards.
City manager Buford Watson told the commission last night at its weekly meeting that Ling had begun work on one of the houses and that there were only a few items in each house that did not meet city standards.
Watson told the commission that an inspection order should be sent to Ling stating specifically what items are substandard in each dwellings.
"I checked the records," Watson said, and there hasn't been an inspection order since 2016.
Watson said that Ling repaired his properties in stages and that his own pace.
Marie Hardcaste, League of Women Voters representative, said that Watson had dragged his heels on forcing Ling's compliance with the housing code.
If Ling fails to appeal the inspection order, then he can negotiate time limits with the city in which to make the necessary adjustments. He also maintains the city will take the matter to court.
Watson said it was difficult to enforce housing standards when the standards and the policies were changed constantly by both the federal and local governments.
NONICT Tomorrow's Kansan will carry the official KU summer directory—don't miss it.
NOTICE
A public hearing July 29 on two of Ling's houses, 1301 Ohio and 1312 Tennessee, will determine whether these houses should be demolished.
"Since small business exercises such a stabilizing influence on recession, that is why we are so happy with our results."
In forecasting the end to the recession, Ford cited a survey prepared by the federation as well as his own list of government statistics.
Ford also said consumer confidence was increasing and retail sales were climbing. They were up by 2.2 per cent in May. He added that the business indicators were up 4.3 per cent in April.
The federation survey reports that small farms had a sense of optimism for the coming season, but not for the coming winter.
Employment increased by 553,000 between March and May, and the inflation rate was down from last year's 12 per cent to about 6 per cent. he said.
Ford also said he was naming eight members of a new federal paperwork commission to simplify and reduce the log of federal forms and documents.
By THERESE MENDENHALL
Some local Indians say jubilee not theirs
About 200 years ago the signing of the Declaration of Independence marked the establishment of a nation of immigrants on the North American continent.
These people eventually dominated and overtook the original inhabitants of the continent.
The Bicentennial celebration launched here Saturday to mark the signing of the Declaration left many of the descendants of the continent's original inhabitants saying,
Lawrence kicked off its bicentennial celebration Saturday in a day of festivities planned jointly by the Lawrence Bicentennial Commission and the Douglas County公园仲裁委员会. About 40 area groups participated, though no Indian groups were represented.
"We don't have anything to celebrate," Mike Edmonds, chairman of the Indian subcommittee of the Douglas County Bicentennial Commission's Neighborhood Projects Committee, said Monday. "We're not interested in the many of us just don't want to participate."
According to the 1970 census, the Indian population of Lawrence is nearly two per cent more than the rest of the state.
Group tackles KU energy woes
By JACK McNEELY
"It's generally recognized that the state has a major energy problem," Max Lucas, assistant to the chancellor and chairman of the task force, said Monday. "The large state institutions must take leadership in meeting the energy problem."
The group, called the Energy Study Task Force, will coordinate efforts to deal with energy shortages at both the Lawrence campus and the KU Medical Center.
Kansan Staff Reporter
So a group of administrators and professors has been put together to figure out how KU will meet its future energy needs.
Despite conservation efforts, the Desert Kansas is having trouble moving its energy resources.
To illustrate the gravity of the energy problem facing the University Lucas
A year ago the May electric bill for the Lawrence campus was $5,500. This May bill was $5,000, even though the Lawrence camp was $20,000 fewer kilowatts of electrical power.
In a letter to the faculty and staff dated June 10, Executive Vice Chancellor Del Shankel said, "Unfortunately for the University of Kansas, an energy crisis may be closer to realization than many of us realize."
The Energy Study Task Force will seek ways for KU to conserve energy.
"Energy consumption in all agencies has to be reduced in some realistic manner for us all to continue to have enough energy," the study that can best be done.
Lucas said the task force would be around for a long time.
The task force has pulled together the efforts of hundreds of individuals individually to supply energy options.
"We may be too late."
"I hope we can move much faster now that we're together." Lucas said.
William Smith, dean of the School of Engineering and a member of the task force, has issued 6-page report on how the company is developing report comprises studies made this spring
by graduate students in a seminar taught by Smith.
It includes studies of the feasibility of running the KU power plant on coal. The power plant now burns natural gas to generate steam for KU's heating system. The Federal Power Commission estimates that natural gas supplies 86%.
The Federal Power Commission estimated recently that natural gas supplies will be nearly 20 per cent below the expected demand during the next year.
Smith's report considers coal as an alternative to natural gas. Conversion to some sort of coal-burning system would give some energy security to KU, because the gas and oil burners KU now has could be for emergency use, the report says.
The report considers the possibility of building a coal gasification plant, which would convert coal to coal gas and then burn the gas. It says that Wyoming coal has much less sulfur than Kansas coal. The gasification system would cost less if the plant is built, because expensive equipment to remove sulfur wouldn't be needed.
coal cheaply will be a problem, because transporting it is expensive.
Another option the report considers is to modify the KU plant by putting in a coal-fired boiler system. The system would burn coal directly to generate steam.
An advantage of using a coal gasification system, the report says, is that impurities can be removed from the coal gas in a closed system before the gas is burned, instead of from flue emissions when coal itself is burned.
See ENERGY page 3.
Both systems would require one or two acres to store a 90-day supply of coal and at least 10 acres on which to dispose of coal ash and other solid wastes.
The report also considers building a gasification plant that would serve both the Lawrence campus and the university center started using a new power plant in fiscal 1974, which has
A disadvantage of the coal gasification system is that it requires large amounts of water and cooling towers to control thermal pollution, the report says.
Clenice Hills, chairman of both the Lawrence and the Douglas County bicentennial commissions, said yesterday that the commission had tried to include Indian groups in the bicentennial activities, which will continue through December of 1976.
"They were invited and we have given them as much encouragement as we can," she said. "They seem to be feeling that this is something that is not worth celebrating. I certainly sympathize with them, but I don't agree."
"I prefer to believe they are not quite ready to take part. I respect those who hesitate if they have a good reason. And the Indians do have a good reason. I don't think it would be courteous of us to pressure them."
Edmonds said the idea of contributing to the celebration was discussed at meetings of the Lawrence Indian Club and of Communities in Alliance for Mutual Aid, a local organization to promote better relations with Indians and non-Indians which Edmonds heads.
Some members expressed interest in preparing educational displays, he said, but nothing was done because so many of them were not interested in conferences and baseball tournaments. He said that several other groups that might have been contacted didn't meet during the event.
Don Ahabaphan, professor of zoology at Haskell Indian Junior College, said that representatives of the college had been invited to parade but that they had preferred not to.
"We have only 250 students in the summer," he said. "Most students here are now 18 or 19."
"I don't think most people are going to antagonize about it. But it is your show." He said. "If you were Haskell, said he would have participated in the celebration if he hadn't been confused."
"When it comes to celebrating colonial events, I don't know where we fit in," he said. "What would I wear? Wear them? What would I wear? A colonial outfit? Or maybe a g-string?"
Margaret Bigs, a non-Indian member of the Lawrence Indian Club, said that she thought the celebration was a good opportunity to provide education for the non-Indian community, but that the consensus of the Indians of the club was, "It's your party."
Edmonds said members of local Indian organizations might plan activities during the remainder of the celebration. One project would run downward Indian graveyards near Lawrence so that they can be used for religious services.