Winter heat wave
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Friday January 30, 1987 Vol. 97, No. 85 (USP5 650-640)
Details, page 2
2nd vote gives House approval to death penalty
Staff writer
By JOHN BUZBEE
TOPEKA — The Kansas House yesterday gave preliminary approval, 68-56, to a bill that would reinstate the death penalty, but legislators say that the final vote planned for today may be closer.
The House narrowly defeated approval of the same bill Wednesday. But yesterday the bill remained on the floor as a steady stream of legislators spoke against it.
Supporters were relatively quiet, but the legislation's chief sponsor, State Rep. Clyde Graber, R-Leavenson, said he support when he called for the vote.
As the vote was being taken, the opposition lost more votes after the first tally, 64-60, made approval imminent.
"I feel in my heart that it is a
treat I feel this that.
if expected, can save my life."
But State Rep. John Solbach, D-Lawrence, said, "It will make us subject to more meanness and retribution, not less."
Solbach said the Republican leadership pressured at least two Republicans, whom he predicted would vote against passage today, to support preliminary approval just to end debate.
State Rep. Jessie Branson, D-Lawrence, said, "It's obviously going to pass, but I feel some people were outmodating the governor and the speaker."
"There were some arms twisted over there." he said.
During debate, the House rejected an attempt to return the bill to a committee and an amendment to allow public admission to executions.
"It certainly allows it (the execution) to be open so we can see what we're putting into place," said the amendment's sponsor, State Rep. Joan Wagnon, D-Topeka. Wagnon voted against the death penalty bill.
Legislators also defeated an attempt to make felony murder a crime.
Felony murder is charged when
someone is killed during the commission of a felony. It was included in the original bill but removed Wednesday.
Democrats denied Republican allegations made Wednesday that they had voted against the death penalty to flex political muscle.
"The political thing for us to do would be to roll over and vote yes," said State Rep. Marvin Barkis, D-Louisburg.
Some Democrats who had supported the death penalty in past years voted against it Wednesday because of its cost, Solbach said.
Graeber, a Republican, said, "I don't think there is any issue that is more apt to cause a feeling of unrest within our ranks."
"I'm very disappointed," she said. Solbach said that if the death penalty did pass the House, its going could be rougher down the road.
Branson, who opposes the death penalty, said the vote didn't surprise
"The Senate has seen that it's a much more controversial issue," it
Public opinion polls have indicated that Kansas voters want a death penalty. But Solbach discounts the importance of those polls.
Most people who support the death
priority care more about other law
problems.
"There is very little information that people have regarding the death penalty."
Legislators have difficulty going against the wishes of voters, he said.
"People have to vote their con-
vence their beliefs. People cannot exe-
pt constituents why they voted against the death penalty." Solbach said.
Solbach said Gov. Mike Hayden's support of the death penalty might make the vote more difficult for some. Former Gov. John Carlin vetied the death penalty four times in the last eight years.
"No one can hide behind a gubernatorial veto." Solbach said.
Gareth Waltrip/KANSAN
High dollar
Andre Timmons, Lawrence resident, strains to reach a dollar bill stapled to the front of the Rock Chalk Bar, 618 W. 12th St. Timmons, a bartender at the bar, was working Wednesday afternoon.
Shultz says no dealing for captives
The Associated Press
Shultz said of the groups claiming responsibility for abducting three Americans and eight other foreigners in Beirut, "It is our basic information that whatever names may emerge they are to a substantial degree linked together.
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State George Shultz said yesterday that there were strong ties between Iran and the kidnappers of three Americans in Beirut and he ruled out any deal to win the captives' freedom by dropping prosecution of a Lebanese terrorist suspect.
"And we also observe some very strong ties to Iran," he added.
Shultz's comments, in a satellite news conference with reporters in Europe, Israel and Japan, supported a White House official who said Wednesday on condition he not be identified that the latest round of kidnappings were the work of a cell within Hezbollah, or party of God, a militant Muslim group with acknowledged ties to Iran.
Officials had said previously that they were not sure who was behind the latest abductions.
Shultz's spokesman, meanwhile,
brushed aside a threat by the group
holding the three Americans to kill
them in Iraq. The United States
retaliates with military force.
"Our position concerning terrorism and hostage-taking is firm. We're not going to negotiate, make concessions, give in to terrorists' demands," said State Department spokesman Charles Redman.
As for whether the administration has decided to retaliate if the hostages are killed, White House spokesman Larry Speaks said "There are many options that are certainly available to us, but I would not comment on any of them, particularly that one."
The Pentagon said U.S. naval forces had bolstered their visibility in the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf as a show of support to our friends in the region in light of intense fighting between Iran and Iraq
See BEIRUT, p. 6, col. 5
Federal student aid safe, Budig reports
Staff writer
Rv RFNIAMIN HA11
The U.S. Congress will protect federal aid to students, Chancellor Gene A. Budig said yesterday.
Budig returned from Washington. D.C., Wednesday after a two-day visit with members of Kansas' congressional delegation.
Kansas' delegates do not support the Reagan administration's formula for cutting student financial aid, Budig said.
The administration is requesting a 45 percent cut in student financial aid for fiscal year 1988, which would total $3.687 billion.
"Student financial aid programs will not be dismantled by Congress," he said. "I left the Capitol reassured."
Members of Congress consider the administration's proposals to be extreme and not in the national interest, Budig said.
student aid had never been more important.
Budig said he told lawmakers that
"I said I thought it was important that the federal government encourage, not discourage, the development of young minds," he said.
Young people are in danger of being priced out of higher education, and the proposed cuts will especially impact them. But this part of the country, Budig said.
"The administration's proposals would be a disaster for students in
the Midwest," said Budig, who visits the Kansas congressional delegation once a year.
"This particular trip, I gave special attention to the issue of the financial needs of Kansas college students," he said.
"I emphasized that the economy remains in difficult shape in Kansai."
Renee Wessels, press secretary for
See BUDIG, p. 6, col. 3
Salary reduction could induce faculty members to form union
By CHRISTOPHER HINES
Staff writers
And some members of the University Council said in a meeting yesterday that the bill could push KU faculty members to hold union elections.
A bill that calls for a 3.8 percent reduction in the salaries of state employees who earn more than $50,000 is a betrayal of higher education, several KU faculty members said yesterday.
"The genesis of the bill is an attempt to solve the state's fiscal problems," said State Sen. Wint Winter Jr., R.-Lawrence."Viewed in light of its origins, its positive fiscal impact on the state is that of a pogun, but the negative educational impact is that of a blunderbuss."
"There are some members of the faculty that are going to seek a union election because their positions are in danger," Mel Dubnick, chairman of the University Senate Executive Committee, said at the meeting.
Robert Hohn, president of the KU chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said, "The state's not saying these people are incompetent. They're just saying they make a lot of money, and that violates every principle of economic fairness in this country."
Don W. Green, Conger-Gabel distinguished professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, said, "I would love for the Legislature to track my time. Most of us put in well over 40 hours a week and that's not
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Bob Frey, R-Liberal, would affect 451 employees of the state Board of Regents system, 126 of them at KU.
Many of the professors who would be affected by the bill make less than $50,000 but have their salaries supplemented by money from federal grants or private organizations in the form of distinguished professorships.
The way the bill is written, the 3.8 percent salary reduction would go back into the Regents budget instead of into another state fund, he said.
Winter said other problems in the bill's basic design would make it work in a way completely different from how Frey had intended.
Because these funds pass through the University of Kansas Endowment Association, they are considered state funds by the bill, even though their original source is private. Winter said.
Takeru Higuchi, Regents distinguished professor of chemistry and pharmacy, said, "Many of the people who were there will be somewhat demoralized."
Arthur L. Thomas, Arthur Young distinguished professor of business administration, said word had spread to other universities about KU's financial problems. Several KU have already have received calls from other institutions asking whether they would be interested in changing jobs, he said.
with outside consulting."
Clifford Griffin, professor of history and a member of the University Council, helped to organize a faculty election petition drive Tuesday under the direction of the Kansas National Education Association. Griffin said the bill would provide impetus to an already growing interest in a union.
"Griffin, a member of the organizing support group of the KNEA, said, "I think the budget cuts and the general financial situation the state has put itself in will make the faculty do something to protect itself."
The University Council is not involved with the petition drive. Dubnick said.
The group has 180 days to acquire about 400 signatures, or 30 percent of the KU faculty, to decide whether to hold elections to start a faculty union at the University.
INSIDE
Last swim
The college swimming careers of 10 KU senior swimmers and one senior diver will end tomorrow as they compete for the last time in a dual meet against Iowa State. Story on page 9.
Sick drug
A KU professor has been studying a drug used to treat alcoholism, because the drug can make people violently ill if they take the drug and then drink alcohol. Story on page 12.
Braa falls to pressure resigns GradEx post
Staff writer
Braa's resignation broke a monthlong impasse between Braa and GradEx that members said had incapacitated the committee.
By PAUL BELDEN
Dean Braa resigned his position yesterday as executive coordinator of the Graduate Executive Committee, and a GradEx member who had helped force Braa's resignation called for all members of GradEx to resign.
"I thought about it for over a week, and I finally decided that somebody's got to transcend all this, somebody's got to stop it," Braa said. "It is an extremely reluctant compromise on my part."
In a letter dated Jan. 21 and addressed to GradEx, Braa stated that he would resign his job if three conditions were met by GradEx.
Braa asked that he be given another job in the graduate school with the same pay and that his position be filled by two GradEx co-coordinators as inter-act co-coordinators. One of the two must be supporters of Braa.
His third condition was that no current GradEx member would be eligible for the job of coordinator until July 1988.
Michael Foubert, GradEx chairman, accepted those conditions in a letter dated Jan. 25 and addressed to Frances Horowitz, dean of the graduat-
Foubert and John Richards,
GradEx member, will act as interim
Braa said his resignation would be effective this morning.
Hardy said that more than anyone else, Foerther and GradEx members would have to be present.
was the leader of the GradEx movement against Braa, and Vaggalis is Braa's biggest supporter, he said.
"We really need a clean sweep in GradEx." he said.
But David Hardy, a GradEx member who in December signed a letter calling for Braa's resignation, said he planned to resign from GradEx and called on the other members of GradEx to do the same.
Vaggailis said of Hardy's comments, "That's really weird. After all the trouble that he and the others have raised, that's just sheer hypocrisy."
Foubert said he would have no comment until after he had talked to Hardy.
With the Kansas legislative session under way and the Student Senate planning to conduct revenue code hearings Feb. 21, Vaggalla, Braa and GradEx was not prepared to represent graduate students' interests.
Hardy said that inability was because of Braa's poor job performance last semester. Vaggalis said it was because of the time GradEx lost trying to fire Braa.
"Out of this whole mess, the compromise that Dean hammered out only goes to show that Dean was the one who was truly concerned about the interests of graduate students," Vaggail said.
Braa said he thought his resignation would not affect his ability to find a job once he completed his doctorate.
"But that doesn't mean I don't take this seriously," he said. "I take this very seriously. It's very galling. It's like agreeing there's some reason for me to leave, when in fact I feel there was no reason at all."
Hardy also criticized Horowitz, who had encouraged GradEx to seek a compromise with Braa.
"Her actions during the Braa thing were — well, I won't say miserable, but she just absented herself from the whole thing," he said.
Horowitz was out of town yesterday and could not be reached for comment.
Vaggalis, however, said, "I think that Frances, given the circumstances, handled this thing very well."