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University Daily Kansan
Monday, Feb. 18, 1963
WU Bill Begins Trek Over Long House Road
By Blaine King
The controversial Wichita University bill faces its first round of committee hearings in the House of Representatives this afternoon.
Proponents of the bill, which would bring Wichita into the state school system as a full, four-year university, will testify before the House State Affairs Committee starting at 1 p.m.
OPPONENTS OF the bill will have their chance tomorrow afternoon.
What happens to the bill then will be up to the committee, which could recommend the bill for passage, kill it, or amend it.
If State Affairs committee approves the bill, either as is or with modifications, the bill will go to the House Ways and Means Committee. Either committee, acting independently, could kill the bill.
The bill faces other problems, too.
The bill faces other problems, too. Even though the bill makes no mention of finances, supposedly because the state would not take over control of Wichita U. until the start of fiscal 1965, its opponents point out that even the most conservative estimates say the first year of state control would cost about $3 million.
Consequently, revenue-producing bills have been introduced in the House to take care of the increased cost, and not even the most avid supporter of the Wichita bill likes the idea of tax increases.
THEY LIKE IT even less when one of the bills calls for a one per percent severance tax on gas and oil, and the severance tax becomes even more unpopular when legislators remember that Wichita is the center of the state's oil and gas industry.
Another bill would raise the state ad valorem tax, revenue from which goes into the educational building fund.
Many legislators don't like that bill, either. The present ad valorem tax is the only state-wide property tax to be passed in Kansas.
Another bill would bring Wichita U. into the state system as proposed in the Eurich report, a study which the Legislative Committee rejected almost as soon as the bill was approved by the Board of Regents in November.
ANOTHER BILL, introduced by
Rep. Skoogs of Topeka, would bring Washburn University into the state system under the same terms as Wichita U.
What else might happen to the current Wichita bill, which was passed by the Senate 21-19, is anybody's guess.
Some legislators have suggested that Wichita U. be admitted as a four-year college, with all graduate programs to be centered at the present state universities.
Other legislators and many citizens have suggested that Wichita U. be admitted, but that a reorganization of the entire school system follow, in order to eliminate duplication.
BUT AS REP. Frank Lill, D-Emporia, said, it is easier to move a cemetery than it is to lop a department off a school's curriculum, even if the department is consolidated with another school.
But not even the most optimistic of the bill's supporters give it a chance to get by the House without some amendments.
Rep. Odd Williams, R-Lawrence,
is strongly opposed to the bill,
and it was Williams who led the fight
to kill a similar bill two years ago.
THE SPEAKER of the House, Rep. Charles Arthur, is from Manhattan. How actively he will oppose the bill, or even if he will, is not known.
But since Gov. John Anderson has said, quite bluntly, that he is going to lay his prestige on the line to get the bill through, leaders in the House may find themselves in a rather awkward position if they decide the fight the bill.
About the only thing people outside the legislature can do now is wait, and watch the committees who now control the fate of the bill.
32-Wear-Old Retires
BIRMINGHAM, England — (UPI) — Carpenter Leslie Cox, 32, has been pensioned by the Parks Department at a salary of $8.40 a week for the next 33 years whether he works or not.
Cox was an emplove for 14 years before it was learned he was allergic to some kinds of wood. The pension was decided on when the department failed to find him another job.
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