Warming to the task
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday
Details, page 2
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
April 27, 1987
Vol. 97, No. 141
(USPS 650-640)
All escape injury in fraternity house fire
Building is badly damaged
Bv IOHN BUZBEE
Staff writer
About 35 Lawrence firefighters battled a blaze yesterday that extensively damaged the second floor of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house.
The house's occupants escaped uninjured. "That's the main thing," said fraternity president Ken Jones, Leawood junior. "We're grateful for that."
■ See related story p. 8.
Amy Hboad/KANSAH
Lawrence fire chief Jim McSwan said that the first fire engine arrived at the house, 1645 Tennessee St., at 1:18 p.m., two minutes after firefighters received the alarm. Fraternity members fought the fire themselves for 10 minutes before calling the department, he said.
But Pete Owens, Omaha, Neb., junior, said that fraternity members stopped the blaze with a fire extinguisher but that it flared up again during the time it took the fire department to respond to a 911 emergency call.
"It would have been under control if the fire department had been there," he said.
Sigma Phi Epsilon housemother Pat Dahl said she placed the emergency call after a house resident alerted her.
"It seemed like a hell of a long time (before the fire department responded), but that's because I was shaken up." she said.
Dahl's 911 call was taken by the Lawrence police. Lawrence police officer Pkryor said that it took a few minutes to take down the infron-
See FIRE, p. 8, col. 4
Students march in Washington to protest apartheid, contra aid
Staff writer
By PAUL SCHRAG
Thirty-five KU students voiced their opposition to U.S. foreign policy Saturday as part of a march in Washington that drew about 150,000 demonstrators.
"It it was something worth being a part of," said Kevin Pyle, Palatine, Ill., senior, after he returned to Lawrence last night. "It seemed like everybody there was bonded by a common purpose."
The protesters marched in rain and drizzle from the grassy Ellipse behind the White House to the Capitol, carrying banners and chanting slogans opposing apartheid in South Africa and U.S. aid to the contras in Central America.
The KU participants felt a similar unity, student participants said.
"I could sense a niguff of the people on the bus," said Peter Hynes, Barrington, Ill., senior. "No one seemed bothered by the
See related photos p. 5.
24-hour drive."
Chandra Patel, Wichita senior and president of the April 25th March Committee, described the event as exciting, intense and dramatic. The committee raised money so the KU group could travel to Washington by bus.
"I think it sent a really direct message to the administration about the moral bankruptcy of their policies and that they don't represent the views of the American people." he said.
Hynes said that the protest was worthwhile but that he wasn't sure how much effect it would have.
"Ronnie's pretty strong-headed in his views," he said. "I don't know how well it will get through to him."
President Reagan, the object of the protests, was 60 miles north of the city in his mountain retreat at Camp David, Md.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and actor Ed Asner were among those who spoke to the crowd at the Capitol. Singer Jackson Browne presented a check for $2,000 to the African National Congress from a group he called Musicians United Against Aparteid. The ANC is the main rebel group fighting to overthrow South Africa's white minority government.
The Associated Press supplied some information for this story.
Hynes said the demonstration was well-organized and peaceful. It was divided into several sections, and the KU group marched with students from across the country.
The march began at noon Saturday, but the student section was toward the back of the line and didn't begin marching until 2:30 p.m. Hynes said the student section was more creative and direct in its chants.
Engineers play games to help charity
By TIM HAMILTON
Staff writer
Friday afternoon was one long recess for more than 200 engineering students and faculty who played games for three hours in front of Learned Hall.
The field day marked the end of two weeks of competition among the departments in the School of Engineering's second annual Engineering Olympics.
The electrical and computer engineers beat the civil engineers this year by a comfortable margin to repeat as champions.
The competition was sponsored by the KU chapter of the national engineering honors society, Tau Beta Phi, to raise money for Special Olympics
Special Olympics is a program designed to provide an opportunity for the handicapped to participate in sports.
Brian Falconer, University City, Mo., senior and coordinator of the event, said that about $600 was raised through T-shirt sales and an event in which teams bid for the right to wear their favorite color.
Falconer said. "It was really competitive this year."
Donna Mader, Garnett junior, said,
"We really talked it up this year.
Last year was the first year, and
we're trying to make it an annual
event."
This year's olympics were expanded to include more than 20 events.
"I hope the event will continue."
Volleyball, softball and basketball competitions took place between April 13 and Thursday
Friday's activities included traditional events, such as a pie-eating contest, gunny sack race, three-legged race and tug of war.
However, the competition's most popular events were a few events special to the Engineering Olympics: competition and nerd look-alike contest.
The egg-drop competition requires teams to design and construct a container that will keep an egg from falling into water. The egg is dropped, from the top of Learned.
Paul Racette, Wichita senior, won the egg-drop contest for electrical and computer engineers with his design, which consisted mainly of a plastic garbage bag. Racette said the
design took him about two hours.
Other designs varied from a plastic jar filled with popcorn to a complex design constructed of toothpicks.
One entry in the egg drop could have won the glider contest. When dropped off the roof, the entry floated on a slight gust of wind and hit a student's car about 45 feet away
Gary Guinn, Lawrence senior and winner of the glider contest, said he constructed his glider only minutes before the event out of a poster advertising the olympics.
Guinn, a civil engineering student,
said everyone enjoyed a break from
the books during the hectic end of the
semester.
"Going out and playing in the sun was a nice break." he said.
Ron Ostendorf, Kansas City, Kan. senior, said he pitched last year for the electrical and computer engineers' softball team but this year decided to help organize the event instead.
"I was a behind-the-scenes man," said Ostendorf, who organized an event in which teams guessed the number of transistors in a jar. "It's always competitive, but people do let their hair down."
KU tries to balance enrollment against budget
By CHRISTOPHER HINES
Staff writer
The University of Kansas was hit with a double whammy this year, as one KU administrator put it.
Keith Nitcher, KU director of business affairs, was referring to KU's dramatic increase in enrollment and a statewide 3.8 percent budget cut ordered by Gov. Mike Hayden, which cost KU $2.1 million in fiscal year 1987.
In addition, KU has been under pressure to raise faculty salaries to the level of its peer institutions. Board of Regents university faculty now have salaries 8 percent lower than faculty at the universities of Colorado, Iowa, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Oregon.
KU has had to make reductions in all areas of its budget and at the same time provide services for the 1,100 additional students who enrolled this year.
"Finding new, well-qualified professors is getting harder all the time," said Thomas Armstong, professor of astronomy and physics. "It's a very competitive job market
The two problems have raised questions among state lawmakers, Regents officials and KU administrators and faculty about ways to finance KU in the future to maintain high-quality education.
out there. The salaries we have to offer don't do much for us in attracting good faculty."
Stanley Koplik, Regents executive director, said, "It's clear that the former strategies aren't working. Maybe it is time to try a new approach."
State legislators and Regents officials have proposed several ways to help state universities find alternate financing.
"They did bring added focus to the problems facing the University of Kansas," said Chancellor Gene A. Budig. "We were able to underscore the problems."
The Kansas economy
The state has seen the amount of money it collects decline in recent years as the Kansas economy has not been able to sustain economic growth. Kansas personal income in
1985 and 1986 grew 3.8 percent, but nationwide, personal income grew by 5.3 percent.
"We have to be very conservative in our spending," said State Rep. Bill Bunten, R-Topeka, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
"The majority of our budget goes to financing education, but by holding the state in a sound financial situation, we're doong all Kansans a favor."
Darwin Daicoff, KU professor of economics, is one of three economists on a state committee that makes annual revenue projections for Kansas. He said the Kansas economy was hit hard by the decline of farm prices and the collapse of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which brought down the price of Kansas oil and natural gas.
"What they do in Topeka is one thing, what happens in Washington and internationally is even more important," he said. "After all, we don't have a wall around Kansas, it's part of a nation and a world."
Overall, university financing in Kansas is 14 percent lower than that
of its peer institutions.
The universities now receive money from the state's general fund, tuition, private endowments, and state and federal grants. KU receives less than 20 percent of its financing from tuition. Most of the rest comes from the state's general fund.
Operating budgets and faculty and classified salaries are paid from the state's general fund and tuition. Money for research and capital improvements comes from the state and from federal grants and private endowments.
Thus, anything that affects the state's economy eventually influences KU's budget. Diaoff said.
"The United States and Japan are holding trade talks this week in an effort to lift recently imposed American import tariffs," he said. "If this results in opening Japan's agricultural markets, Kansas would be a prime beneficiary."
"Much of EU's greatness is contributable to private sources," Budig said. "They have contributed more
But some money does come from
private sources.
Koplik said private individuals would continue to give money to KU only if the state also provided strong financial support.
than $165 million over the past 10 years. That represents more in private sources than any other Big Eight university."
And Ward Zimmerman, KU's budget director, said. "Private sources do contribute to the University's operating budget. But it's usually for a one-time deal. I wouldn't count on it to compensate for recurring expenses."
Proposed changes
See FINANCE, p. 6, col. 2
Meanwhile, some state legislators have been trying to create buffers for state universities so they might better weather Kansas' economic ups and downs.
"We just don't see the state's revenue increasing in coming years," said State Sen. Norma Daniels, D-Wichita. "We have to provide the universities ways they can raise their own funds."
INSIDE
Drought buster
The Kansas Jayhawk baseball team broke a nine-game losing streak yesterday by defeating the Iowa Hawkeys 9-8 at Quigley Field. See story page 9.
Sporting past
The Kansas Sports Bar and Grill will reopen tonight in the Eldridge Hotel The Bar and Grill, which houses KU sports memorabilia, closed with the hotel for renovation last summer. See story page 12.