...
Weekend wonder
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Details, page 2
Friday
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
April 24,1987 Vol.97,No.140 (USPS 650-640)
Diversion of money to contras confirmed
Government can trace the money to the contras
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Congressional investigators, relying on Swiss bank records and other material provided by businessman Albert Hakim, have confirmed the diversion of more than $1 million in Iranian arms sale profits to contractions fighting the Nicaraguan government, sources said yesterday.
"We now have a way to trace the money from Teheran" to the rebels, said one source, who asked not to be identified.
No precise estimate of the size of the diversion was available, although sources said investigators had told members of House and Senate committees that the amount was over $1 million.
It was not clear whether investigators have been able to confirm a diversion in the range of $10 million to $30 million that Attorney General Edwin Meese III referred to on Nov. 25, 1986, when he first disclosed the movement of funds.
The confirmation of the diversion by congressional investigators came as Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate investigating committee, told reporters that Senate investigators probably would never be able to completely trace the affair's complex, international money trail.
Committee weighs merits of faculty union
Inouye spoke after a closed-door committee session at which lawmakers voted to give limited immunity from prosecution to two witnesses in order to compel their testimony. He described the two as very minor figures but refused to identify them.
Inouye also said that a key figure in the case, former Air Force Major Gen. Richard Secord, may agree to testify voluntarily at committee hearings. Other principal figures, including former National Security Adviser John Poindexter and his former NSC aide, Oliver North, have cited their constitutional rights against self-incrimination in refusing to testify.
Poindexter has been granted limited immunity, and investigators are expected to begin questioning him in private on May 2 or shortly after.
The public hearings are scheduled to begin on May 5 and will last through July.
Hakim was questioned on Monday in Paris under a limited grant of immunity, and the material he provided gave investigators a major break in their effort to track money from the Middle East to Central America.
"Records that we obtained confirmed that some money was diverted," said one source. It was not clear whether Hakim, in addition to providing Swiss bank records, also handed over records from Caribbean bank accounts where money reportedly was placed for use by the contras.
Editor's note: This is the final story in a five-part series on the possible formation of a faculty union at the University of Kansas. Today's story focuses on the findings of a committee on collective bargaining. The committee presented its report yesterday at a faculty forum.
By BENJAMIN HALL Staff writer
Members of an ad-hoc committee on collective bargaining yesterday lent support to the idea that KU faculty would benefit from a faculty union.
working conditions, faculty morale and faculty governance.
Staff writer
The committee members did not endorse efforts to form a faculty union here, but they said faculty unions elsewhere had improved
The committee, which spent several months researching the effects of faculty unions, spoke to about 40 people gathered for a meeting of the Senate.
T. P. Srinivasan, professor of mathematics and chairman of the committee, said the committee members had started their work with a variety of preconceptions about faculty unions.
"We do not have prejudices that we had before our work on the committee."
One committee member, Pete Johnsen, associate professor of educational psychology and research, said one of the most striking effects of collective bargaining was that it disclosed how money was allocated within universities.
"Most of the people we interviewed said that prior to collective bargaining, these sorts of decisions were made behind closed doors." Johnson said.
John Nalbandian, chairman of the department of public administration and another member of the committee, said faculty unions improved due process and faculty involvement in decision-making.
"Where there is a low tradition of faculty involvement in decisions, there seems to be an increase," he said. "There seems to be an awful lot of attention paid to personnel matters."
"The faculty seemed to coalesce around non-monetary issues, and that's what seemed to hold the union together."
Committee member Felix Moos, professor of anthropology, said faculty unions also improved relationships between faculty members.
"We came to conclude that collegiality is probably increased by collective bargaining," he said. "People may find they have something in common that they can discuss with one another."
Srinivasan said faculty unions also had a positive influence on existing
faculty governance.
"Faculty unions have carefully avoided any conflict with faculty governance," he said.
Conflict with faculty governance would endanger the union's clout, Srinivasan said. "And any conflict between the union and governance would be exploited by the administration."
Amy Randles, student senator and student representative of the University Council, asked the committee whether an organized faculty would pre-empt student input into University decisions.
"We did not look into that specifically," Srinivasan said. "But it seems to us that in academe, the faculty and students are in partnership. It seems to us that any change that strengthens one part of the partnership strengthens the whole partnership."
Moos said, "We would do our jobs better. The administration would probably listen more. It seems to me the students would benefit."
Morris Kleiner, professor of business and a committee member, said he thought unions used their lobbying power effectively.
"We found a lot of lobbying going on," he said. "I think, in many cases, that served to increase the pool of funds into an institution."
But collective bargaining has only a modest effect on faculty salaries, KEITH M. BURKE
Jacob Gordon, associate professor of African studies, asked the committee whether it had found any negative aspects of collective bargaining for faculty.
"There is no doubt that collective bargaining brings with it a lot of bureaucratic tasks," he said. "But they may not necessarily last forever."
Nalbandian said, "Some of the people I talked to were very concerned with the over-proceduralization."
Chad DeShazo/KANSAN
Blast off
Some KU faculty members face an uncertain summer
An employee of Commercial Waterproofing Inc., Parkville, Mo., sandblasts part of a swimming pool lane marker. Two employees were working yesterday to remove old paint from the bottom of the Lawrence Municipal Pool, Eighth and Kentucky streets, in preparation for the summer.
Budget cuts reduce available summer school money
By KJERSTI MOEN
Staff writer
Some faculty members who have expected to teach summer school this year have been forced to make other plans because of cuts in the KU budget.
The budget for faculty salaries for the summer semester has been cut about 30 percent from last year, officials from the office of academic affairs said Wednesday. The cut doesn't mean faculty must take cuts in their paychecks; it means many of them won't get paychecks at all.
The $416,000 salary cut, a part of this year's overall 3.8 percent cut in state financing for the University of Kansas, has led most schools and departments to offer fewer summer semester courses and to employ fewer teachers than previous summers.
Carl Locke, dean of engineering,
said that the school's summer course
offerings had been cut almost in half
and that the school had employed
only about half as many teachers as
summer 1986.
It's most unfortunate for students who can't get the courses they need, but also for faculty who won't have the income they depend on," he said. "My impression is that there's sort of a resigned acceptance."
Teachers who won't be able to teach this summer can compensate by applying for research or teaching grants, doing consulting, taking industrial or governmental summer employment or taking vacations, Locke said.
'We never have enough money.'
Robert Adams
liberal arts and sciences
Robert Adams; associate dean of liberal arts and sciences, said the college's summer school budget had been cut almost in half. But he said there were always more faculty wanting to teach and more students wanting to enroll in summer school classes than were able.
"We never have enough money." he said.
Peter Casagrande, professor of English and scheduling officer for the English department, said the department had only about half as much money as the 1986 summer school budget.
Last year, 13 faculty taught summer courses. This summer, only six will be working, he said.
"Some have been angry. Some are wondering how they are going to supply their nine-month income," Casagrande said. "In effect, they are losing a 10th salary."
"When the rescission occurred, it was said that faculty salaries wouldn't be affected, but in effect, that's just what's happened." Casagrande said.
number of summer courses. Most affected is the political science department, where one professor is teaching, as opposed to the usual four or five, said Jarosław Piekalkiewicz, professor of政治科学.
The division of government also is offering only about half its normal
Piekaliewicz had hoped to teach at the University this summer but
"I'm upset for two reasons," he said.
One reason is concern for students, he said. Piealkiewicz teaches a course that's required for political science majors. Some students put off taking the class until the summer session as the last course before graduation, he said. Because the department will not be offering the course this summer, those students cannot graduate until December, he said.
Piekalkiewicz said he also was upset out of concern for his own financial status.
"Summer income is important financially to me," he said. "In my case, I have children at the University that I have to support."
Piekalkiewicz said he was lucky because he had received an invitation to teach part-time this summer at Princeton University, in Princeton, N.J., where he will make about half the money he would teaching fulltime at KU.
He said he thought few other faculty members were as fortunate.
"I think my chance was one in a hundred," he said. "Everybody is really upset. They're really mad."
Sciences need more good women, researchers say
By PEGGY O'BRIEN
Staff writer
As many KU fifth-year seniors have, Becky Comfort had a difficult time deciding on a major. She's a good writer with a strong interest in English and philosophy.
This is the '80s. Women in medicine, law and business have created a tidal wave washing over the workforce.
She considered herself "completely unscientific," but had always done well in math and science classes. She liked the idea of knowing something existed outside of herself and the objectivity of science.
"It is pleasant to study science and the standard for success is fairly objective," said Comfort, a Davis, Calif., senior and now a math major.
Traditional sex roles are losing their grip on women wanting to pursue careers that, until recently,
But Comfort often is the only woman in her physics classes.
were entered only by men.
But women still are underrepresented in science careers. Educators and researchers are finding that women have not entered the physical sciences and engineering in the numbers they have other fields. The statistics aren't encouraging.
Research done by the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology indicates that although the proportion of women receiving professional science degrees has
increased dramatically since 1960 women still aren't equally participating.
Numbers taken from the commission's 1986 report, "Professional Women and Minorities," show that woman are not getting close to an equal representation in math and science fields.
Marylin A. Hulme of Rutgers University and Walter S. Smith, KU professor of curriculum and instruction, used those statistics in a book
they are writing. The two concluded that "without conscientious, positive intervention on the part of educators and others," equal participation would not be achieved.
A 1986 report by the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology stated that two clear trends appeared in students who studied the physical sciences in high school and headed toward those majors in college.
Legislator donates time, expertise to KU course
See SCIENCE, p. 6, col. 3
Bv PAUL SCHRAG
Staff writer
State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-Lawrence, finds that her political experience helps her teach Sartre and other writers on the KU Western Civilization reading list.
Charlton has taught one section of Western Civilization every semester since 1973. She is one of 10 people who teach Western Civilization discussion groups for no pay.
Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre may have had a low opinion of politics, but that doesn't mean a politician dislikes teaching about him.
The other volunteer instructors are regular KU faculty or staff members. Charlton describes her position as time voluntary assistant instructor.
"I do it partly to help out the program and the University," she
James Seaver, professor of history who was chairman of Western Civilization from 1957 to 1985, said the tradition of having several unpaid, voluntary Western Civilization instructors began in 1957. He said non-faculty members such as Charlton brought a different perspective to their teaching that was healthy for the program.
said. "But I also do it for myself. It gives me an opportunity to keep in touch with college students. It also keeps me reading."
"She's an excellent teacher," he said of Charlton. "Over the years, her students have praised her very highly."
Sitting on comfortable chairs around a small fire in Charlton's softly lighted living room Wednesday night, Charlton and four class members discussed Sartre's philosophy.
"It's a more relaxed and personable atmosphere," Gay Holladay, Lawrence junior, said. "It's an atmosphere where you can stand on the sterile as in the typical classroom."
Nor is Charlton, 63, a typical instructor. She was elected to the Kansas Legislature in 1980.
"It's a good idea to elect grandmothers to the state Legislature," she said, referring to herself and State Rep. Jessie Brinson, D-Lawrence. "It's a good second career for a woman who're raised a family. We can give pretty much all our time to it."
But even during spring semester when the Legislature is in session, Charlton finds time to teach. Her political experience contributes to her teaching, she said, but she tries not to let politics dominate class discussions.
Charlton enjoys academia both as a teacher and a student. In fall semesters of odd-numbered years, when neither legislative nor campaign duties make demands on her time, she audits a class.
"I'm afraid I would tend to emphasize the political aspects too much," she said. "That's one of the reasons why I have a student start the discussion."
Charlton began teaching Western Civilization discussion sections after she received a bachelor's degree in political science from the University in 1970. She received a master's degree in political science in 1976.
Betty Jo Charlton
Closet art
Twenty-nine plaster statues that have been restored recently are being brought out of warehouses and will be a part of the new Mary Grant Museum in Lippincott Hall. See story page 3.
The ump's a bur
Verbally abusing the umpires is a baseball ritual. Kansas fans religiously practice this art at Jayhawk baseball games. See story page 11.