SINCE 1889
Covering all bases
Professor uses special pitch to win class to literature. See page 3.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1986, VOL. 96, NO. 143 (USPS 650-640)
Sunny
Details page 3.
Soviet reactor accident releases radiation
United Press International
MOSCOW — An accident damaged a nuclear reactor at a giant power plant in the Ukraine, the Soviet Union said yesterday. The accident sent a radioactive cloud more than 1,000 miles to Scandinavia, and Western Europe feared a high death toll at the accident site.
Moscow said that there had been injuries in the accident at the restricted Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which is 80 miles north of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.
See related story
Kiev, a city of 2.3 million people in the nation, is the country's third most populous city.
An unprecedented statement acknowledged.
ing the accident was issued by Tass, the official Soviet news agency, after Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark reported higher than normal levels of radioactivity. The accident apparently occurred during the weekend.
Scandinavian officials said the levels of radiation carried to their countries were low and were not thought to pose any immediate threat to their citizens. The levels were expected to return to normal over the next few days, the officials said.
The cloud could reach the U.S. West Coast within a week by going over the North Polar region, then south to western North America, the environmental Protection Agency said.
"We've seen it as early as three days in cases like this, sometimes as late as 14 and sometimes as early as 20."
Radiation Alert Network in Montgomery,
everything depends on the altitude of the
detention tower.
Corter said there was no way of knowing whether people in the United States would be affected by the fallout until the agency got a radiation-level reading.
White House spokesman Larry Speakes said the United States apparently was not notified of the accident through diplomatic channels.
"We understand there is no danger to the United States." Speakes said.
The Tass announcement about the incident said, "An accident has occurred at the Cheronyl atomic power plant as one of the atomic reactors was damaged. Measures have been undertaken to eliminate the consequences of the accident.
"Aid is being given to those affected. A government commission has been set up."
The announcement was the first the Soviet Union has made acknowledging a nuclear accident. That has caused Western diplomats to speculate that the accident was a serious one. One diplomat said the statement indicated that the death toll was high.
The announcement also was read on the nightly television news program Vremya, which is watched by millions of people, a furious indication that casualties were extensive.
Residents of Kiev, reached by telephone from Moscow, said early today that all bus service in the city had been stopped so that they could be evacuated people from the disaster area.
Residents of the Soviet Union's second
most populous city. Leningrad, also could be affected by the radioactive fallout, diplomats
The Soviet Union has 50 nuclear plants, including 28 with graphite-moderated reactors such as those at the Chernobyl site. U.S. nuclear industry specialists said. Graphite technology is an older method $ ^{cf} $ controlling the speed of nuclear reactions.
There is no similar plant in the United States. Many Soviet nuclear plants also do not have radiation containment walls, which are required in the United States.
Olof Hermander, chief of the Swedish nuclear inspection board, said the discharge probably occurred after a reactor overheated and that he said could be a reactor spillover.
Soviet veterans continue oath of peace
Col. Gen. Ivan Katyshkin, Soviet veteran, shakes hands with schoolchildren gathered outside the Campoanile. He took part in a wreath-laving ceremony yesterday at the Campoanile.
Men recall World War II pact during Lawrence visit
Staff writer
By Brian Kaberline Staff writer
The men first met 41 years ago amid the ruins of buildings and the dead bodies of those who attempted to escape a collapsing Germany in the final days of World War II.
Soldiers from the United States and the Soviet Union met at the Elbe River, near the city of Torgau in what is now East Germany, and swore to try to prevent any future wars.
Three of the Soviet veterans at
the Elbe that day were in Lawrence yesterday, carrying out that oath beside some of their U.S. counterparts.
The Soviet veterans were in Lawrence for two days as part of a tour of the United States. The tour was organized by Bob Swan, a local insurance agent, and Mark Scott, a KU graduate with masters degrees in Slavic and Soviet Area studies and in history.
The Soviet veterans were joined on the trip by three East Germans, including Horst Strahl, mayor of
Torgau.
The veterans arrived in Lawrence on Sunday after a short tour of Kansas City, Mo. The group was officially welcomed to Lawrence by city commissioners yesterday morning. After the welcoming ceremony, they laid a wreath at the Campanella in Lawrence where they died. World War II and participated in the Walk For Peace
other from in front of the Kansas Union, participated in the walk. The marchers met at South Park public welcome (for the veterans)
Two groups of marchers, one starting from Seventh and Massachusetts streets and the
"We are here to continue the battle which the Soviet and American troops started after the Second World War — the battle for peace," Col. Gen. Ivan Katyshkin said.
The spirit of the Elbe River is alive, katskyshin said. The Soviets and Americans came together to gain a giant victory over Hitler
and rascism. It is now time for the two nations to come together again to fight nuclear proliferation.
He said it was time for the United States and the Soviet Union to move away from living on the ground and toward peace and friendship.
Buck Kotzebus, one of the first Americans to cross the Elbe and meet with the soldiers, made as the soldiers looked out on a field of the corpses
See SOVIETS, p. 5, col. 1
Effects of crisis go far beyond the farm
By Sandra Crider
Bryan Aledec's great-grandfather began raising cattle about 70 years ago in northern Oklahoma. Since he was a farmer, Bryan's grandfather and to his father.
Staff writer
Student's farm pays off through hard work
But Alred, Lawrence law student,
has decided to stay out of ranching —
at least for the near future — because
of the poor cattle market.
"I'd like to go back to ranching and practice law," he said recently. "But that decision has been put off because of the farm economy."
For Alred and other students, the agricultural crisis has closed a once-attractive career option. They came to the University of Kansas to avoid having to invest their lives in something they think is destined to fail.
"Kids have geared their whole life toward taking over the farm, then in high school realize it a dumb idea," said Charlie Griffith, director of the Kansas Rural Wellness Center. "You go to miles northwest of Lawrence.
By Sandra Crider
Murphy. Lawrence senior, farms about 200 acres around Lawrence. During the five years the 24-year-old acre had been farmed, he raised and raised wheat, milo and soybeans.
One day last week Rob Murphy wolfed down his lunch and explained how he was putting himself through school.
Staff writer
About 7 percent of the country's farmers will go out of business this
year. In a 1985 U.S. Department of
 survey of agriculture of 1.7 million
 farms, nearly one-third of all farms
 with annual sales of over $40,000 face
"I've got more education out of working and just being around different kinds of people than out of taking classes," he said.
Farming has been Murphy's most ambitious enterprise. He found a man who would loan him equipment in return for doing farm chores, searched for people who would rent land to him and took out a bank loan.
This summer, when harvest begins, Murphy will cut his hours at other jobs and spend all day in the fields.
Murphy said he didn't regret all the work he had put into his ventures.
ment replacement, equipment upkeep and land interest rates.
But once Murphy gets his summer crops out of the fields, he will find a job with his degree in communication studies and probably never return to it.
In Douglas County, the Federal Land Bank reported last year that the value of land had dropped by 50 percent in the last five years.
He is able to make money at farming, he said, because he does not have any overflow costs such as equip-
"The farm economy has bottomed out, and you can't make money," he said. "You should, because it's so much work. But you can't."
But the state's troubled rural economy casts its shadows even on Mount Oread.
Although KU's overall enrollment has increased, the number of students from Kansas has significantly decreased, according to statistics from the office of admissions. And students from rural areas
are showing up at KU in fewer numbers.
The number of Kansas freshmen from outside Johnson, Douglas, Shawnee, Sedgwick and Wyandotte counties has decreased by about 260 between 1976 and 1984. Each of the five counties contains a large city or suburbs.
KU officials said they didn't know of any studies that related enrollment figures to the farm crisis, nor did they explain why the decline has occurred.
However, some students said their ability to attend KU had been hampered because of the rural economy.
Caroline Campbell, Lakin senior, had to get a part-time job this semester to stay in school. Her parents sold the family's farm and could no longer financially support her.
"They just kept getting deeper and deeper in debt," Campbell said, "They finally decided it just wasn't worth it."
"We always thought of that as something solid," she said. "That hurt emotionally."
Several of her brothers had stayed nearby to work on the farm. When that was gone, there was nothing to keep them there.
"You have a base you could turn to, and then when it's gone, it hurts."
See FARM, p. 7, col. 1
By Lori Poison Staff writer
New budget draws debate from officials
"We are extremely happy," said Neva Enterkin, president of KU's classified senate.
The University of Kansas budget, passed Friday and Sunday by the Legislature, drew mixed reaction among the university's administrators yesterday.
The raise gives all classified employees a 3 percent cost of living increase, and raises some employees a step on the pay scale. Entrikn said.
Under a budget plan passed Friday, KU classified employees will receive an overall pay raise of 5.35 percent next year.
"It came down to some serious negotiating," she said. "But it's more than we hoped for."
"These individuals play a critical role at KU and they deserve to be treated well," he said. "I will ask that the Regents give special attention and support to the classified employees as well."
But the salary increase for unclassified faculty and staff is too low, Budig said.
The Legislature decided to raise unclassified faculty members' salaries by 2.5 percent. The state also will increase its contribution to the unclassified faculty retirement program by 1 percent for those staff members who do not belong to the Kansas Public Employees Retirement Program. The Board of Regents originally asked for a 7 percent salary increase for unclassified staff.
"The 2.5 percent increase in salary for unclassified faculty and staff is far too low," Budig said. "It is disapproved that we are disciplinary precarious position."
James Seaver, president of KU's chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said he was impressed with the increased increase for unclassified employees.
Seaver said AAPU was especially unhappy with the one-half percent that was stripped from faculty salaries. The Senate had asked for a 3 percent increase, but in conference calls the request was dropped to 2.5 percent.
"I think we were all much more hopeful," he said.
The Legislature also designated $40,000 to the biological survey program at KU.
Ed Martinko, director of the biological survey, said the money would be used to begin a Kansas natural heritage program.
Because the Legislature approved the amount, the biological survey would try to start the program by July 1, Martiniako said.
The KU Libraries received $89,157 for new purchases, Clinton Howard, assistant dean for technical services, said the money would replace a one-time appropriation in the library's budget.
"It doesn't represent a real increase," he said. "But we would have had to decrease our budget by that amount if we did not receive the money."
The Legislature also approved $837,175 in program improvements for the University.
"This speaks well for the quality of our proposals and the effectiveness of our presentations." Budig said.
In other budget action, the Legislature appropriated $82,300 to the School of Law.
Michael Davis, dean of law, said it was the amount the school had requested.
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