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University Daily Kansan
Opinion
Wednesday, June 4, 1986
Half better than whole
Chancellor Gene A. Budig has requested that the Board of Regents decrease his raise in pay for next year. The Regents had planned to give him a 5.2 percent raise, more than double the 2.5 percent raise the Legislature allotted to faculty members. In a letter to the Regents last week, Budig asked the Regents to limit his raise to 2.5 percent, too.
Good for Budig.
The state's economy is stagnant and government revenues are falling short of expectations again and again. Students are facing another round of tuition hikes this fall. KU faculty members, like other state employees, have been told there is little money for pay raises. Whatever Budig's reasons were, it was the right thing to do.
Some have suggested that Budig asked for the smaller raise, which would increase his salary to $88,400, to avoid the notority of becoming the first university president in Kansas to be paid more than $100,000. That motive seems unlikely. The raise was offered legitimately and openly. Congress and the state legislature have at times sneakily approved their own pay raises in terrible economic times. Those are the cases that provoke outrage. The public reaction to Budig's raise, in the long run, would have been nil.
The reaction among KU faculty members, however, might have been resentful and
longlasting. The Regents said they thought Budig deserved the 5.2 percent raise because he had done a good job. Were faculty members to assume that they had done only half as well as they should have?
In his letter to the Regents, Budig said the administrative officers at KU should be there at all times as was during this difficult period.
Did Budig want equal treatment out of loyalty to the faculty? Or did he want to preserve a close relationship with the faculty out of interest of his own administrative career? Only Budig knows the answer.
In either case, the result is the same: better faculty/administration relations than there would have been had Budig accepted a pay raise twice as big as his faculty's. In declining the Regent's offer, Budig was doing the good job for which they wanted to reward him.
Last week Regent Frank Becker, El Dorado, said, "We have to take care of our top administrators or we will lose them to other institutions."
But the problem doesn't end there. Budig knew that the Regent's offer presented the potential for antagonism because the faculty hasn't been getting salary increases that are competitive with other universities.
Budig's real job is to make the Regents and the Legislature take care of the University's top faculty members.
A reconciliation
The University of Kansas, a hotbed of protest against the Vietnam War 15 years ago, now has a memorial to the KU students who died or are missing in action in the war.
The memorial is similar to the national Vietnam Veteran Memorial in Washington, D.C.
— two low walls that run not parallel and separated, but together to form an open angle. Etched in one wall are the names.
ciliation. It seems fitting that a symbol of reconciliation for Kansans should be here where the confrontations were angriest and the divisions deepest.
We hope the KU memorial can evoke the same emotions that made the national memorial a symbol of reco-
Now, when quiet reflection seems possible, perhaps each side — the people who believed in the war and the people who protested against it — can see some merit in the other side. The men who are remembered in the names on the wall made a great and terrible sacrifice. And perhaps the wall has fewer names on it because students spoke out against the war.
Social Security failing
We must pull our heads out of the sand and demand changes in Social Security. The system we support increasingly takes money from the poor to give to the rich, and it will drive either itself or taxpayers to insolvency.
Those who pay Social Security taxes today aren't investing in their own retirement; they are paying, barely, for the benefits of people already on Social Security.
The burden on wage earners will grow heavier. The percentage of our population over 60 years of age is growing. People are living longer and collecting benefits for more years.
In the meantime, it is political suicide for a politician to suggest change. In fact, Congress is preparing a 2 percent cost-of-living increase in
Social Security payments in this election year, during which the Consumer Price Index so far has decreased 2.3 percent.
But many of the 37 million people who will get the cost-of-living increase, if it is passed, are not on small, fixed incomes. Senior citizens no longer make up the poorest segment of our society. The poorest people in our nation are children. Many of them belong to single parents who, if employed, will have to pay higher Social Security taxes.
To restore viability and fairness to the system, Social Security must be limited to the elderly who need money. Our politicians aren't going to make the necessary changes until we take a look around and tell them to.
News staff
Cindy McCurry...Editor
Kady McMaster...Managing editor
Shawn Aday...Editorial editor
Grant Butler...Campus manager
Sawan O'Malley...Sports editor
Shauna Norfleet...Photo editor
Susanne Shaw...General manager, news adviser
Business staff
David Nixon...Business/production manager
Beverly Kasten...Retail sales manager
Denise Stephens...Campus sales/bio sales manager
Charlotte Carter...Self-led manager
John Oberzan...Sales and marketing adviser
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Women panicking over slim pickings
There can be no doubt that this country is facing a grave new domestic crisis. It's on the cover of Newsweek magazine and on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. Even that most intellectual of publications, People magazine, has taken note.
The crisis came to light when a scholarly study revealed that white, college-educated women who are still married and have a percent chance of getting hitched.
He may be right. I sometimes
As Pete Axhelm, the sportswriter, points out, you can look in the personals and never find an ad that sounds like this:
"Rich, wittery and beautiful career woman — craves baked, cigars-smoking sportswriter who enjoys hanging out until closing time in smoky saloons, picking up large inquiries about her work or videoting day trips to ra寇racks."
How did this come about? Some say it's the fault of modern Yuppie females. They are too choosy.
At 35, only one out of 20 will ever marry. If they don't make it by 40, they can just about forget it.
Mike Royko Chicago Tribune
Those who blame the females for their own plight also say that Yuppie materialism is at fault. The females, they say, were so busy with their careers and buying their own condos and Japanese cars they didn't notice
As Slats Grobnik put it: "If my old lady had been that fussy, she'd still be living with her ma and pa and working at the Jewel, instead of having to get help from me and doing my laundry while I'm sitting here here this beating you with"
glance at the personalis and they always say things like：“Single, professional woman, 32, wants to meet single, professional man, 32 to 39%”, tall, handsome, humorous, youthful mature, energetic, sensitive, open, caring, who enjoys long walks on beaches, art, music, Woody Allen movies, cross-country skiing, scuba diving, tennis, gourmet dining, Sundays at the zoo, world travel, cats, foreign sports cars, and restoring old mansions. No smokers, drinkers or bowlers need reply.”
hate the young men at the health club
were being snatched off by those who
were more alert.
Chicago Tribune
But whatever the causes are, the study has reportedly brought panic to millions of women. They are now an important ground for any eligible warm body.
At the same time, it has brought joy to Yuppie men who now find themselves in even greater demand.
As one Yuppie man told me "This is terrific. I don't even have to pretend that I'm open and caret anmore."
Even nerds, wimps, fatties, baldies and geezers are being seen in a new light.
"I went into a singles bar the other day," "a life-long nerd related, 'and an attractive Yuppie female said to me, 'Do you like skating at Aspen?' I said, 'No, I collect stamps.' She said, 'God, that's erotic.'
But the experts say that even if the previously unwanted pool of males is tapped, the crisis will not be eased. There just aren't enough unmarried males, especially with so many men now holding hands.
So how is this nation to avoid a future filled with biddles who have only their cats for company?
The only sensible solution that I see
is some form of polygamy.
I'm not saying that men should set up households with two, three or four wives, living together. That's not practical. Too much squabbling over who uses the bathroom first. It might be a woman, but it also makes the man and cut into his golfing time.
the room and carry this gobble-sack.
But some form of time sharing, as is done with vacation retreats, might work.
A man might be married to two women and spend alternate weeks with each of them. That's probably as much time as many men now spend with their wives, if you consider the demands of watching TV, having a couple after work and not talking after arguments.
It would probably lead to more stable marriages and less divorce since a couple would be assured of regularly having a week apart to cool down from whatever they have been fighting about.
I mentioned my idea to a female, age 32, professional, who likes long walks on the beach, skiing. Woody Tucker, a former travel Sundays at the zoo, etc.
She said: "I think you are a jerk. Huh! With that attitude, she'd bet her get used to her cats.
LaRouche makes farce of U.S. politics
Lyndon LaRouche. If the name doesn't ring a bell, it should. He and his followers are on the fringe of lunacy, but victories in primary races this year have brought them to national attention.
LaRouche would be ludicrous if he didn't have enough support to make him frightening. Although he used to be on the far political left, LaRouche moved to the far right in the early 1970s and continued national Democratic Policy Committee. He and his followers have uniquely warped views.
LaRouche also has named our common enemy as the "Zionist-British organism" which must be destroyed so that humanity might live. He has called for the immediate elimination of Jewish influence in business, government and labor. He wants to establish a prosecutor's office to try Jews for treason. His branch organizations have been connected to the Klu Klux Klan and other radical groups.
LaRouche has charged that Henry Kissinger, Daavid Rockefeller, the International Monetary Fund, the FBI and others have cooperated with Queen Elizabeth II of England to spur world holocaust through drug addiction, global famine, the ubonic plague, and the willful and systematic destruction of the human mind.
Ion Gregor
Staff Columnist
'When the LaRouches of our nation win, we lose more than political battles.'
It is clear that LaRoche and his ideas are lunatic and potentially harmful. Nevertheless, LaRoche has found substantial support. He has even made himself a prime time, network television for his wacky plays; his party has run
According to LaRouche, correct military policy has always centered on viewing warfare as the work of God. He has framed his own military doctrine which combines atomic, bacteriological and chemical attack against targets of up to 180 million and 180 million U.S. citizens would die in the initial exchange.
Hitler would be proud.
n hundreds of candidates for municipal and state offices, and through air solicitation, he has grossed as much as $60,000 a day.
His National Democratic Policy Committee won two shocking victories in Illinois; the Democratic governor and secretary of state.
One of the victors, Janice Hart, said, "Moscow is trembling in their boots."
In Ohio, LaRoche follower Don Scott ran against Sen. John Glenn for the Democratic nomination and got all of 13 percent of the vote. Twelve other LaRoche followers lost in Ohio and were also running the same in North Carolina and Texas.
In Indiana, Jill Long, an unknown,
faced a LaRoche follower who
enjoyed top billing on the ballot. Long
won 74 percent of the vote.
The victories in Illinois were flukes. In highly publicized primaries in Ohio, Indiana, Texas and North Carolina, the only LaRoche followers who won ran uncontested.
We are the ones who should be trembling.
The spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, Terry Michael.
Although the situation in Illinois was a rare occurrence, it should not have happened at all and the blame can be shared by everyone. Perhaps it has taught us a needed lesson in voting responsibility.
said that LaRouche had "zeroed out." LaRouche followers are, of course, investigating the possibility of fraud.
It seems as if LaRouche's true colors have finally been exposed, however late. When the LArouches of our nation win, we lose more than money and battles. We lose the dignity and respectability of our political system.
Although we have come to expect some bungling and disorganization in the Democratic Party, we are not accustomed to the near disastrous results that occurred in Illinois. The Illinois fiasco was due mostly to the inaction and unconcerned attitude of the party leaders. If such fanatic ideologies are to be thrust to the forefront of local, state and federal races, it is the job of the voter to become informed about the fanatic fringe. And the job of the political leadership to point out the danger before the situation becomes desperate.
Mailbox
Phone rates debated
Please allow me to set the record straight in response to a recent editorial in the University Daily Kansan.
Contray to the assertions in the editorial, in the past two years AT&T has lowered its long distance prices by 11 percent. On April 24, AT&T filed a proposal for another decrease of 11.4 percent of daytime and evening rates, to be effective June 1. Prices for night and weekend calling would be reduced 2.7 percent, which will
AT&T's request to change the nightweekend discount to 55 percent came just prior to this latest request to lower prices. That request was rejected by the Federal Communications Commission for a technical reason. Remember, our current phone number is if you phone who call during that time will still see a decrease in the price.
drop the discount to 56 percent for that time period. The 40 percent discount for evening calls would remain the same.
The need to change the discount
is simple. If our current request is approved by the FCC, AT&T will have lowered its daily timeprice by 20.5 percent since Jan. 1, 1984. Taking an additional 60 percent off that amount would be unprofitable. In today's competitive long distance market, AT&T has every incentive to keep its prices low, but it is illegal for us to offer services for less than what it costs to provide them.
would show that we are not one of the most profitable companies in the country.
Finally, our profits are regulated at both the state and local level. Comparisons of our net profits with many other companies
The one thing I agree with in the editorial is that the customer can chalk one up. When we reduce prices for the third time on June 1, our customers will be seeing an increase of $10 per cent since Jan. 1, 1984. That certainly is giving the customer a break.
W. W. Schultz
W.W. Schultz
AT&T district manager
Toneka