Rays and shine
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Details, page 2
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Thursday
April 23, 1987
Vol. 97, No. 139
(USPS 650-640)
Union issue splits Pittsburg faculty
By BENJAMIN HALL
Staff writer
They also said it had divided the campus and hurt faculty morale.
Faculty members at Pittsburg State University recently said that the faculty union there had unified the campus and improved faculty morale.
Peter L. Hamlet, professor of chemistry and president of Pittsburg State's chapter of the Kansas National Education Association, the group which represents the school's faculty and students, said both bers had been treated more fairly since they formed a union in the early 1970s.
A set of rules now controls how decisions are made, he said.
"The two sides have to sit down and talk about how things ought to be done," he said. "Universities without that tend to be segmented."
Before the union, department heads at Pittsburgh State awarded merit pay increases arbitrarily and without consulting faculty. Hamlet said. The merit pay procedure under the union gives faculty an opportunity to protest.
"Everybody feels that it's much fairer. The procedure encourages communication he said. "We've been saying something that everybody can live with."
Hamlet said faculty unions improved faculty salaries in the long run.
"There is reason to believe that being organized can affect the shape of the pie somewhat," he said. "If they're organizing to get rich, they're wasting their time. But it is going to produce better pay in the long run."
But the chairman of one of Pittsburg State's departments said the union hadn't helped salaries and had complicated his job.
"Any time you have a union, your arrangements become more formal," he said. "You have more paperwork to deal with. In some cases you have a certain divisiveness on campus."
"It's just too touchy a topic here," he said.
The chairman did not want to be identified.
Department chairmen, whose jobs include both teaching and administrative work, are not included in Pittsburgh State's faculty union and would not be at the University of Kansas.
"As an administrator, it not only complicates my job, in some ways it makes me less effective," the chairman said.
The union has promoted equity and uniformity in the way faculty members are treated, he said. But he also said the union served the majority and didn't benefit all faculty members.
When Pittsburg State's faculty voted to form a union, 175 of 207 eligible voters participated. Ninety-two voted for KNEA, 47 voted for representation by the American Association of University Professors and 38 voted for no representation, which was a vote against a union.
Pittsburgh State is the only Board of Regents school that has a faculty union. But Hamlet said he would like to see the other Regents schools organize
Faculty union issue
"If all the Regents institutions are
Editor's note: This is the fourth in a five-part series on the possible formation of a faculty union at the University of Kansas. Today's story focuses on the effects a faculty union had at Pittsburgh State University.
Tomorrow: The all-faculty forum on collective bargaining.
working together, it will give us even more lobbying power," he said.
Gene DeGrunson, president of Pittsburg State's faculty senate, said that the new rule was intended to
Ron Jeffries, Douglas County resident, searches for the queen of the hive. Jeffries replaces the queen bees in his hives two years to increase honey production. Jeffries owns more than 50 hives in the Lawrence area.
"I was vehemently anti-union," he said. "I didn't feel that it had any place on university campuses. But we knew that something had to be done."
"Each person realized that he was unhappy in his academic situation. But we didn't know everybody else was unhappy."
"It has been enormously successful. The union process brought us all together with a cohesiveness that is really quite healthy," he said.
Organizing unified the faculty,he said.
Before the union was formed, the situation between administrators and faculty at Pittsburgh State was bad, DeGruson said. Administrators dominated faculty governance and failed to consult with faculty on matters of promotion, tenure, salaries and working conditions.
"That used to just come out of the blue," he said. "We now have a strong voice."
Donald Kerle, a professor of social sciences who served two terms as president of Pittsburgh's kNEA chapel and served on a union member since its beginning.
"I think it's been very successful. The administration's now aware that the faculty can have an effect on decisions." he said.
But Robert Ratzlaff, Pittsburg State's chief academic official and negotiator for the the administration, said the union had sometimes hurt faculty morale.
"Until about four years ago, we were in a very adversarial position," he said. "It was detrimental to the company and to our house we couldn't reach a contract."
Ratzlaff, a professor of history who also has been chairman of his department, said the union was successful in standardizing procedures.
"In that way, I think we're a long way ahead of a lot of other institutions," he said. "I think we've done a very good job of eliminating the surprises. You know what you need to get tenure.
"But I'm still not convinced that higher education and collective bargaining are compatible. In many ways, you would like to foster the kinds of collegiality that you don't have in a bargaining-unit situation."
"I think there's much to be said for not dealing with a backshop situation," he said.
And Ratzlaff said many faculty members belong to State's professors' college.
Beekeeper installs his new queens
By JERRI NIEBAUM
Staff writer
A Lawrence man received a living package in the mail Friday.
Stacked into a box that might have carried a pair of shoes were about 15 three-by-one-inch wooden boxes with screen lids. Under each tiny screen were about five honeybees fussing around a larger bee, their queen.
Ron Jeffries, who lives on Rural Route 1 northwest of Lawrence, was glad to get the package. He has about 50 honeybee hives at his home and at nearby farms, and he needed the 15 queens to start new hives and rejuvenate old ones.
'When they get their honey stomachs full,why, they can't bend over and sting you.'
The truck's license plate says "Bee Man." A bumper sticker on
"If you can get young queens in there, they lay a lot more eggs, and you get more honey," Jeffries said recently over the bumpy whir of his four-wheel drive truck as he drove to one of his six bee vards.
— Ron Jeffries Lawrence resident
the cab's rear window says, "Beeekeers make sweeter honeys." Jeffries started raising bees about four years ago after he took an adult education course on beekeeping at Lawrence High School.
"It itted out as a hobby, and it's progressed to where it's a little bit more than that now." he said.
Before handling his bees, Jefries took off his cap to don a veil that covered his face and head.
critter around. I've got bees now, so I've got all kinds of them."
"Some old-time beekeepers don't wear veils, but boy, I do," said Jeffries, who has suffered only minor stings. "If you get stung in the eye, it can blind you."
"I've always got some kind of
"If they think their home is on fire, they'll gorge on as much honey as they can." Jeffries said as he lit a section of a burlap bag and then put the smoldering fabric into the smoker.
"When they get their honey stomachs full, why, they can't bend over and sting you," he said.
He pumped smoke into the hive and removed the lid. As expelled the bees sucked up honour and not pay much attention to Jeffries.
He took trays of honeycomb,
See STINGER, p. 6, col. 3
Stanton passes authority
Staff writer
By LISA A. MALONEY Staff writer
With Hersey's kisses and with song, Brady Stanton and Kelly Milligan, outgoing student body president and vice president, turned over their offices last night to Jason Krakow and Stephanie Quincy.
"There are people on the Student Senate that you can fight like dogs with, and then go out and have a beer with them," said Phillip Duff, outgoing architecture senator. "And those are the best people."
Glenn Shirliffe, former elections committee chairman, passed out Hershey's kisses at the start of the meeting to "kiss Senate goodbye."
With a miniature Sesame Street Ernie perched on the lectern in front of him, Stanton told the newly elected Senate. "Details are important, but never let them get so labyrinthine that you loose sight of your original cause.
"I would suggest that you carry with you a very strong sense of humor. Take your job seriously, but don't take yourselves seriously."
Milligan said the Senate's greatest accomplishments had been the success of the Associated Students of Kansas, ASK's lobbying efforts on the fee release issue and the completion of revenue code and student organization financing.
"For every one campaign issue we didn't get accomplished, we had one barbrowner of an issue that put us on Daly University Daily Kansan," he said.
He praised Martie Aaron for her work on ASK; Clarissa Birch and Steve Gilchrist for their work on the finance committee; Michael Anderson for his efforts; and Michael Foubert, "for doing what he thought was right and for compromising the issues but never his integrity."
Then Stanton and Milligan threw their arms around each other, sang the Carol Burnett theme song, "We're So Glad We Had This Time Together," and turned over the chair to Quincy amid wild applause from the floor.
Krakow told the new senators,
"The most difficult thing to do gracefully is to get off your high horse. But let's do it from the beginning.
"Compromise is vital to our survival and success. Until you're convinced that you've looked at all sides in issue, don't jump to conclusions."
Holdover senators elected for next year were Milligan, Korey Kaul and Chris Dalton. Brian Kramer of the Rangers, who was elected for a holdover seat but was defeated
Krakow's recommendations for Senate officers were voted on and approved. His appointments were Spencer Colvin, treasurer; Matt Kerr, administrative assistant; Roger Templin, Student Senate Executive Committee chairman; Michelle Roberts, executive secretary; Martie Aaron, Associated Students of Kansas director; and Victor Osmolak and Kevin Fossland, Jaybaw Course Source directors.
Elected members of committee board were Michael Foubert, Sue Glatter, Lori Nobert, William Sanders and Stacey Walsh.
INSIDE
Plagiarism often hard to detect,but prevalent,prof says
Sunglasses are popping up everywhere with the coming of spring. Sunglasses, which can cost anywhere from $1 to $250, have become a fashion statement, but buyers also need to make sure the glasses are protective. See story page 3.
Nice shades
KU athletes are educating Lawrence school children about the harmful effects of drugs as part of an HPER class, Drug Use and Drug Prevention. See story page 11.
Making the grade pushes students to brink of cheating in preparing papers
For no drugs
By PAUL SCHRAG
When a U.S. student submitted a term paper in which labor was consistently spelled in the British-style labour, it was almost a sure giveaway of plagiarism.
Staff writer
Plagiarism, stealing the ideas or writings of someone else, often is difficult to detect and to prove. Although it's impossible to tell how often plagiarism occurs, some KU professors say it is a problem.
"It's pretty prevalent," said Anthony Genova, chairman of the philosophy department. "In my view, I'll will admit that it's fairly common."
That's a true story, said Sakari Sariola, professor of sociology, and it illustrates a serious problem.
But Michael Johnson, chairman of the English department, said plagiarism was virtually non-existent in upper-level English classes. He said he had not heard of any cases of plagiarism in the department in his three years as chairman.
Haskell Springer, director of freshman-sophomore English, said that in a typical academic year in lower-level English, one to four or five cases occurred in which students were disciplined for plagiarism. The cases almost always are resolved between the professor and the student, he said.
Usually, a student is punished by receiving a failing grade on the plagiarized assignment. Springer said. Extreme cases of academic misconduct are punishable by expulsion. But Springer said no lower-level courses will be bempelled for plagiarism in his six years as assistant director and director.
Students accused of academic misconduct can appeal cases to the University Judiciary. Sandra Wick, administrative assistant to the judicial board chairman, said the board had not dealt with any cases of pliarism this year.
But professors say that plagiarism frequently is difficult to prove. Norman Yetman, chairman of the sociol
ogy department, said a lack of time to obtain confirming evidence often prevented charging a student with plagiarism.
Yetman said most of the plagiarism he detected was the result of students re-using papers written by others.
Students who pliagiarize sometimes go beyond campus connections. Companies that sell research papers are doing successful business for years.
Bart Lowe, owner of Research Assistance, a Los Angeles firm, said his company sold academic information in the same way that a library made information available. His company is not held responsible, he said, if students plagiarize from the information they buy.
"It's not up to us to be the moral judge of that," he said.
Research Assistance advertises that it employs 75 professional writers and that its catalog contains detailed descriptions of 14,278 research papers.
Lowe declined to say how many orders his company received.
The causes of plagiarism, professors say, range from laziness to severe academic pressure.
But Lowe said the company did not sell complete research papers. Besides, no definition exists of what a complete research paper is, he said. Students who buy information from Research Assistance must sign a waiver that states they will not pliarize.
"If a student uses one of those services and doesn't list the paper that was purchased as a source, that's plagiarism." he said.
Professors remain unconvinced that research assistance companies don't expect their products to be used dishonestly. Yetman said that when students bought papers from a company, they almost always plagiarized.
"The emphasis that is placed on making a grade rather than on receiving an education is so intense and substantial that students perceive plagiarism as a short cut, and easy way out." Yetm said.
"We have preached to these students: grades, grades, grades," he said, "to the point where, frankly, it's not surprising that they make a mistake under pressure and plagiary. I'm not condoning it, but this aspect is often quietly ignored.
Genova said plagiarism didn't occur because students were immortal but rather because of the tremendous stress and energyiness in the U.S. educational system.
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"People go around deploring the ethical values of the young, but basically that's a lot of balcony. They don't understand that has the power to reward them."
Genova said it was absurd that competition, not cooperation, dominated education.
"The central principle should not be one of competition," he said. "Knowledge has nothing to do with that. Ideally, I would like a situation where people could learn for their own benefit.