Sun of a switch
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Details. page 2
Thursday
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Darcy Chang/KANSAN
April 16, 1987
Vol. 97, No. 134
(USPS 650-640)
Tom Wolfe, author of "The Right Stuff," compares morals and values from the 20th century with his predictions for the next century. Wolfe, a journalist and critic, spoke to about 700 people last night at Hoch Auditorium.
Journalist analyzes relearning of values
Staff writer
By JOHN BUZBEE Staff writer
Journalist and critic Tom Wolfe stood before the students of the University of Kansas last night and said condom.
Six months ago, he said, he wouldn't have done that. But the times are changing. Wolfe told an audience of about 700 in Hoch Auditorium. Condoms are discussed on the nightly news, he said. Some universities are handing them out to their students.
"This is the nature of the real revolutionary, radical developments of the late 20th century." Wolfe said.
People have thrown out their moral values, rules and regulations, he said. "It's just a matter of time."
"I propose, in all modesty, to tell
me about the 21st century," he said.
About the 21st century, he said.
After speaking for about an hour, Wolfe made his prediction. The 21st century will be boring.
Tom Wolfe
Wolfe's most recent work was "The Right Stuff," the story of fighter jocks and America's space program. He also has written about teenagers, custom-car shows, hippies, radicals and the elite of white society.
"Given the history of the 20th century," he said, "maybe boredom isn't so bad."
The 21st century is beginning already, he said, and it's a time of relearning forsaken rules governing everything from sex to furniture.
'Given the history of the 20th century, maybe boredom isn't so bad.'
German designers in the 1920s threw out the old conventions for making chairs, he said, and designed chair backs that were too vertical.
"In one stroke," he said, "they took us straight back to the medieval chair and they gave us a century of lower-back pain."
iournalist and critic
Wolfe has published criticisms of architecture, art and design. Art students today, if they want to be shocking, should emphasize sentiment and love, he said. That will be the emphasis of art in the 21st century.
The sex of the next century will be safe. Wolfe said.
"The relearning is coming very rapidly," he said. "It's like running into a stone wall. And we can sum it up in one word: AIDS."
Wolfe said that while he was searching for an aspirin in Cincinnati in the middle of the night, he went into a pornographic bookstore. He bought some methadone and a aspirin, but also clothes, panyhose and a variety of convenience items.
"I was witnessing the relearning of the virtues of the general store," he said. "It was being born in a pornographic bookstore in the middle of Cincinnati."
Sports also are set for a return to older values, he said. Although professional hockey players will be allowed in the next Olympics, the trend of sports turning professional will end, he said, because professionals have already been教 Hockey players from the Soviet Union don't have that problem.
"They go through the National Hockey League like a knife through water because they have an unfair advantage," he said. "They're not hung over."
Historically, he said, sports were a substitute for war. And paid soldiers don't fight as well as soldiers fighting for their beliefs.
"If you train your athletes not to be amateurs, not to be the athletes fighting for home . . . then you get mercenaries," he said. And mercenaries rape, loot, pillage and occasionally use drugs.
Wolfe is the chief innovator and advocate of New Journalism, which uses subjective analysis and literary devices traditionally left to novelists.
Wolfe's works include "The Electric Kool-Aid Aid Test," a 1968 book about the hippie movement, and "The Kandy-Kolorized Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby" in 1965, a book about custom-car shows. Wolfe holds a doctorate in American Studies from Yale University.
Rick Musser, associate professor of journalism, said some of the country's newspapers, such as USA Today, could learn a little from Wolfe.
"There's still a place for moving information with a little style and wit," he said.
Regents examine budget increases for universities
Bv ROGER COREY
Staff writer
A three-year plan to increase financing for Board of Regents universities will be presented today at a special meeting of the Regents in Emporia.
The plan's goal is to bring the Regents schools up to 95 percent of the financing of their peer institutions by fiscal year 1991. Each Regents university has a different group of peer institutions.
The plan also will raise faculty salaries at the Regents schools to 100 percent of their peer schools aver- increasing them to the same level.
The plan will adjust university budgets for enrollment changes, additional physical facilities, faculty salaries and improvement of existing programs and services.
At present, the Regents universities are 14 percent below the average financing of their peers. Faculty salaries are 8 percent below and the operating budget is 30 percent below the peer average.
"It will take a substantial bit of salesmanship to convince the governor and the Legislature," said Stan Koopik. Regents executive office
He said the plan would allow Kansan to remain competitive in faculty salaries.
"The faculty deserves the increase." Konlik said.
"We're not talking about high salaries, just the average." he said.
The six state universities and the Salina Technical Institute are under the Regents jurisdiction.
Tom Rawson, KU director of business and fiscal affairs, said the University of Kansas would require an additional $12.4 million over the next three years to bring it up to 95 percent of its current institutions. He said $6 million of that amount would be used for faculty salary increases.
"This amount is additional to the annual increase," Rawson said. "The peer institutions are increasing
their budgets, too."
Under the old system, the Regents schools submitted a list of program proposals to the Regents and asked for a specific amount for each proposal.
"A university might request $3 million for a program and the Regents would recommend half that amount," Rawson said. "There was a certain amount of padding involved."
Under the new system, the Regents will recommend a base budget increase for each of the Regents universities based on peer averages. The Regents will submit a proposal to the Regents stating how they intend to use the money.
"The new plan will allow the Regents to annually review university programs," Rawson said.
He said the plan also would increase equity in the system. In the past, the Regents schools were not all at the same percentage of state financing. Under the new plan, all the Regents schools will be increased to the same percentage of peer financing.
"It was only a question of a few percentage points," Rawson said. "But now, all the Regents schools will be the same."
He said the Regents would not ask state legislators to put the plan into legislation.
And in terms of new money, it will not significantly increase the Regents budget recommendations to the state Legislature, he said.
"You have to remember," Rawson said. "in fiscal year 84, the operational budget of the Regents was immediately reduced by $12 million."
The Regents hope the additional money will help Regents universities aid in the state's economic development.
He said there was a direct link between a state's economic vitality and the level at which it supports public higher education. And Kansas seems to mirror that relationship.
Filers beat midnight tax deadline
Staff writer
Taxpayers had to have their federal and state tax returns postmarked by midnight to avoid penalties unless previously had filed for extension.
Bv PEGGY O'BRIEN
A steady stream of bleary-eyed taxpayers trailed into the Lawrence Post Office, 645 Vermont, last night, coming in just under the wire for the 1986 tax return deadline.
The post office was open until midnight with two extra workers. Distribution clerks Jana Tucker and Larry Allen, who had been on duty for a day yesterday, stamped and weighed envelopes for about 100 people every hour.
Most of the taxpayers seemed to be in good spirits, said Bill Reynolds, Lawrence postmaster. Reynolds said he was surprised by many years that the post office had
remained open late. Most customers seem to appreciate the extra hours, be said.
"Usually people on the 15th owe money, but they've been in a good mood all evening," Reynolds said.
Jamestown Widow, Lawrence resi-
suit
Jamestown Widow, Lawrence resi-
suit
10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Wisdom didn't know until 1 p.m. yesterday that he uled $1,600. He said he had tried to mail his returns while in Olathe earlier in the evening, but couldn't because the Olathe post office had been closed.
This was the first year Wisdom owed money. He said he didn't think he'd file early next year because he probably would owe again and wanted to hang on to his money as long as possible.
said she would file earlier next year so she could get her refund earlier. She said she was late this year because she didn't have much time and had to send the forms home to Leavenworth to be done.
But not all taxpayers last night owed money to the government. Karen Klaus, Leavenworth senior.
Brian Courtney, DeSoto senior,
said about 10:45 p.m. that he had
almost forgotten to file his state
exam papers and has not yet
taxes at work required. Courtney
Theola Taylor, Lawrence resident, said she felt bad about waiting so long.
"I've been thinking about it since January," Taylor said.
Reynolds said that when he was working, in Wichita several years ago, a man arrived at the post office at 8 p.m. April 15th. The man sat on the floor of the post office and filled out his tax returns on the spot. The man received a post mark with two minutes left in the day, he said.
Rain forced competitors indoors for the start of the 62nd Annual Kansas Relays, and Kansas holds three of the top five spots in the women's heptathlon after the first day of competition. The heptathlon and men's decathlon will conclude today. See story page 13.
Wet Relays
Only one person voiced opposition to the proposed increase in KU parking fees at the Parking Ser. center, having yesterday. See story page 3.
Lone protester
Grad student's book studies edible plants
Bv PAUL SCHRAG
The place was Mount Oread. The time was during any of the timeless centuries before modern civilization except away most of the native prairie.
Wild flowers were sprinkled among the grasses of the treeless prairie. Kansa Indians came to the hill to collect wild onions for seasoning their stew of buffalo meat.
Staff writer
Kelly Kindersh, Lawrence graduate student, has an emotional and scientific attachment to such pastoral memories. He's studied prairie plants for more than 10 years, and his book, "Edible Plants of the Prairie," will be published by the University Press of Kansas in late May.
"I see the book and my work as a way to promote our historical past," he said yesterday. "I want to help people realize the need to preserve the prairie and be at attention to where they live.
'What's the value of a biological
Before settlement, the natural prairie stretched from Texas to Saskatchewan and from Missouri to the Rocky Mountains. Now, cities, parks and universities have restricted many prairie plants to areas such as the Flint Hills.
Edible prairie plants have been the subject of Kindscher's greatest interest. More than 120 prairie plants can be eaten.
community such as a prairie? It's too great to quantify."
He likes the taste of purple poppy mallow roots and wild plums. But others, such as white prairie clover roots, have a woody texture, he said.
"the majority are palatable, but only a few are tasty," he said.
Kindsher sampled many of the prairie's natural foods during an 80-day, 690-mile journey on foot from Montana to Wyoming to maintain foothills in the summer of 1983.
Alan Hagman/KANSAN
He didn't live off the land,but his
Phil Minkin and Pat Kehde, founders of Citizens for a Better Downtown, led the fight against a proposed downtown mall. Lawrence voters squeaked the proposal in last week's city elections.
See PLANTS, p. 6, col. 5
Mall referendum proponents consider downtown options
Staff writer
In February, Pat Kehde and Phil Minkin had a question for Lawrence residents.
They had asked many questions of the residents before in "The KU-Lawrence Trivia Quiz Book," which they wrote and published in 1984. But this question was not regarded as trivial by residents.
By TODD COHEN Staff writer
The question asked whether the city should prohibit the closing of Massachusetts and Vermont streets for construction of a proposed downtown mall. The mail would have closed both streets in the 600 block.
Last week, in a record turnout for a city election, voters answered the question. "Yes to open streets and 'no' to the $5.7 million project being developed by Jacobsi & Jacobs of Cleveland.
"Pat and I have got a lot of positive feedback that .. democracy works." Minkin said yesterday.
Yesterday, a week after their victory, Kehde, the coordinator of the KU information center, Minkin, a cook at the local Headstart program, were still unwinding from their two-month campaign.
Kehde said, "The mail that was planned for downtown would have killed downtown."
Neither had anticipated that they would get involved in a mall fight. Keisha is ready now to step back for awhile. Minkin, however, was invigorated by the landslide victory and is ready to help the city work on new downtown development.
Unknown to them, the two old friends were in a large, although at the time, silent, majority when
"I'd been in McGovern campaigns . . . it's real fun to be in the majority," Minkin said. "I thought I was in the minority."
they decided in January to do something about the mall.
"We wanted some way to let the commission know the sense of the community." Minkin said.
Kehide said, "I said," Hey, why don't we hold a meeting." We didn't know if anyone would come or not.
The group needed 2,216 signatures. In nine days, they collected 4,430.
Feb. 3, more than 200 residents showed up to help form Citizens for a Better Downtown. After the group agreed to Minkin and Kehe's proposal to have a public vote on the street closings, the two led 236 people in circulating a petition to force a vote on the mall.
"It snowballed once it got started," Minkin said. "It was widespread across the city."
Then came arguments about the petition's legality and whether the vote could be binding, as CBD
4
Kedhe said, "There was a strong sentiment from the people we talked to against closing the building, the one thing we could agree on."
wanted. Feb 24, after a three-hour debate, the city commission voted to put an advisory, or non-binding, referendum, with CBD's question and two others formulated by commissioners, on the April 7 general election ballot.
After that, the mall and the referendum issue dominated the commission campaign. CBD, the candidates, the mall developer, several political action committees and individuals joined the fight.
"There were enormous amounts of people starting to do things on their own," Kedhe said. "It was cool and funny, but a funny sense, it was real easy."
The mall was rejected easily by a 3 to 1 margin, and three mall opponents were elected to the incumbents. All the incumbents were defeated.
One of the incumbents, David Longhurst, said, "CBD didn't create this sentiment, but they did focus it.
"They may have fanned the flames a little bit."