University Daily Kansan / Monday, December 8, 1986
3
News Briefs
Angino announces plans for re-election
Lawrence City Commissioner Ernest Angino said yesterday that he would run for re-election, making him the first candidate to seek one of the three seats available in the April general election.
Angino, a professor of geology at the University of Kansas, has served on the Commission since 1983 including a one-year term as
Two other commissioners' terms expire next year. David Longhurst's four-year term will end, and Howard Hill, general manager of KANU-FM, will end his two-year term.
Neither Longhurst nor Hill have announced plans to run again.
In Lawrence, the two candidates with the most votes win four-year terms, and the third place candidate wins a two-year term.
Angino was not filed for candidacy with the city clerk's office, but said he would do so before the Jan. 23 filing deadline.
Judge sets trial date
A Douglas County district judge Friday scheduled a Jan. 21 trial for a 22-year-old Lawrence man accused of setting a house fire that killed a firefighter and threatened the lives of the man's parents.
David Winebrenner was charged with aggravated arson, first-degree murder and two counts attempted first-degree murder in a July 17 fire in southwest Lawrence that killed firefighter Mark Blair, 34.
Authorities said the fire began in the garage of the home of Douglas Winebrenner. Winebrenner and his wife, Marliee, were sleeping in a bedroom above the garage. The Winebrenners were named in court documents as the intended victims.
Clarification
A headline and story on the front page of Friday's Kansan about proposed KU budget cuts may have been misleading. The Kansan did not intend to imply that individual' salaries would be cut. KU officials have said that the University probably would absorb most of a proposed cut of almost $1.8 million in its fund for salaries and wages by not filling many vacancies that occur between now and June 30.
Weather
Skies today will be cloudy, and light rain is possible. The high temperature will be in the mid 30s. The winds will be variable 5 to 15 mph Tonight, the skies will be cloudy. Continuing rain will change to snow. The low temperature will be in 20s. Tomorrow will be cloudy with a 30 percent chance for light snow or flurries. The high temperature will be in the 20s.
From staff and wire reports.
Despite wanderlust, rural life still beckons
Randy Gress, Sensea junior who is planning a career in computer science, was ready to leave the farm and see the world when he came to the University of Kansas.
By NANCY BARRE
Staff writer
but after being away from the family dairy farm where he grew up, fond memories of his childhood have returned.
choked on it. "Now I like the farm," Gress said. "But I didn't like it then because it was too much work.
"In fact, I think I'll probably miss the farm after I've been working for a while, and I hope that maybe I'll eventually be able to live on a small farm, while working on my job at the same time."
Two Kansas State University professors said recently that young people leave rural areas because of the gloomy economic outlook and because of a desire to experience the outside world.
But some may decide to return to the atmosphere of their childhood when they realize that the positive aspects of rural life outweigh the pressures of urban life.
Cornelia Flora, a K-State professor of sociology and a researcher at the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station in Manhattan, and Tony Jurich, a K-State professor of human development and family life, said the potential return of young, educated people to rural areas offered a ray of hope in a period of economic crisis in agriculture.
LIKE Gress, several other KU students who grew up on farms also plan to make careers outside farming.
Tom House, McCracken senior, plans a career in advertising instead of returning to work on the family farm in western Kansas, where he grew up.
Beverly Finger, Rozel junior, whose family's farm operation recently went bankrupt, wants to leave the state after graduation to pursue a career in broadcast
KU students gave two reasons for leaving — a desire to experiment with a lifestyle other than farming and the depressed state of the farm economy.
sales.
Flora said that a long-term trend of young people leaving farms had existed since the 1930s and that the exodus had recently accelerated because of the farm crisis.
But KU students aren't the only young people who are leaving. rural areas.
According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture farm population report released in July, 2.2 percent of the nation's population live on farms. In 1920, 30.2 percent lived on farms.
In addition, the average age of the farm population has increased to 36.5 in 1985 from the 1920 figure of 20.7 years.
According to the report, "Young family members may be more likely now than in the past to move off the farm and pursue non-farm activities in the face of current economic uncertainties."
Jurich agreed that there was an exodus of young people from rural areas and offered several possible reasons for the trend. He said students were leaving for psychological as well as economic reasons.
"With the present farming situation, including foreclosures and low prices, it's hard to be successful," he said. "In order to be successful in farming these days, you have to be established. The problem is very few people are both young and established. That's why young people shy away from farming."
"Adolescents often need to strike out on their own and be their own people for a while. It's only natural, but that's another reason why they're leaving the farms. They want a chance to see what the rest of the world is like."
But Jurich said the reason people left was also part of the normal developmental pro-
blem.
KU students who have decided to leave farming seemed to corroborate Jurich's and
House said he hadn't ruled out the possibility of eventually returning to farming, but for now, he wanted to try something other than farming.
"It's something I could fall back on, but I just didn't want to be stuck there forever." House said. "And right now, it's not financially attractive."
Finger said, "I came to KU because I knew there was more to the world than the farm and I was bound and determined to find out what it was — and I still am."
Flora's findings.
Gress said he thought that he and other students from rural areas might have considered farming as a career option if money could be made.
"I think quite a few people would be willing to farm if they could make some money, but right now, it's just not economically feasible." Gress said.
A more relaxed pace
But Rob Sorem, Jetmore graduate student, like other KU students who grew up on farms, said that although he was anxious to leave the farm when he was in high school, he now appreciated his childhood on the farm and enjoyed the peacefulness there when he returned for vacations.
"I wouldn't trade it for anything," he said.
"It's a rat race up here at school, but you can go back home and relax — the pace is much easier."
Finger, House and Gress agreed with Sorem that they have grown to appreciate the farm.
Jurich and Flora explained why farm children sometimes returned to rural areas after experiencing the outside world.
"Television and other modern forms of communication make the outside world look better than it is to young people from farms." Jurich said. "Then, they get out for there a while and want to move back after they realize the world isn't naved with gold."
Flora said that young adults who grew up on farms didn't appreciate what she termed
the "wholesomeness," and "familism" of their unbearing until they grew older.
Flora said the closeness and smallness of rural communities could be perceived in two different ways.
"In small towns, everybody knows everybody else's business," she said. "If you are young, and in a dating situation, for example, reports to your parents about your behavior seem oppressive and malicious.
"But when roles are reversed, and you're in the parenting situation, news about your children from neighbors seems protective and neighborly."
Hope for the future
The return of young, educated people would gradually stimulate the rural economy, they said.
Flora and Jurich said the trend of young people leaving farms would continue, but it might be slowed by young people eventually returning to rural communities.
Although Flora said she didn't think a rapid improvement in the economy would occur without increased aid from the federal government, she said the gradual return of young people might lead to eventual improvement in the farm economy.
"I think we'll see a big increase in the service industry in rural areas," she said. "People without location-specific occupations will move back to rural areas and work in the service industry part-time, and farm part-time."
Jurich agreed that economic stimulation of small towns would help ease the farm crisis.
He said that if young people brought their businesses and skills to rural areas, it might create a domino effect in which people would be attracted to a community with more businesses. It would then spend money in the community, control buried funds to the rural economy.
Budget to be big issue tackled by Legislature
Flora said, "If there is a lot of local effort, combined with the return of young people, it could help to stem the tide of the farm crisis."
Staff writer
By KAREN SAMELSON
The most important issue facing the 1987 Kansas Legislature shouldn't come as a surprise to many people.
prize to many people.
State Sen. Wint Winter Jr., R-Lawrence,
said, "I think there are three issues: budget,
budget, budget."
But dealing with that financial issue won't be the legislators' only significant task of the session.
"It promises to be a very,very heavy session," State Rep. Jessie Branson, D-Lawrence, said yesterday.
The four Lawrence legislators agreed that the first priority would be tackling the state's projected $13 million revenue shortfall. But they said that other issues, such as enacting the "sin" amendments, also would appear high on the agenda.
When the session began in early January, Mike Hayden, the new governor, will ask the Legislature to authorize immediately the 88 bills passed on February 14, the rest of fiscal year 1987, which ended June 30.
State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-Lawrence, said, "I don't think there will be a lot of haggling. If the money isn't there, you can't spend it."
on the status of the state's revenues and economy
Charlton also said she thought the Legislature would not act on the fiscal year 1988 budget until it received spring estimates
The next big issue, Winter said, will be what the state should do with the tax windfall that it is expected to receive as a result of federal tax reform.
Officials estimate that Kansas would get about $13 million extra for fiscal year 1987 and about $140 million for fiscal year 1988.
Before the election, Hayden and other legislators said they wanted to return the money to taxpayers, but now many lawmakers may consider keeping the money, at least for a year, to see what the actual amounts will be.
Finances will play an important role in the consideration of other bills, even those not directly linked to budgetary matters.
As a result of the Nov. 4 general election, lawmakers will need to form legislation that would enact the three "sin" amendments — ones allowing liquor by the drink in public places, a state-run lottery and pari-mutuel betting on dog and horse races.
Winter predicted that legislators would waggle over the budget implications of the lottery, such as where the state would get the seed money to set it up.
State Rep. John Solbach, D-Lawrence, said that legislation providing for liquor-by-the-drink would be the easiest.
Some programs spared legislative budget cuts
By PAM MILLER
Staff writer
However, David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs, said students still would feel the pinch in one way or another.
Although the University is working to trim $3.16 million from its budget, some areas that directly affect students' way of living will not be drastically cut.
"That would mean that the student union, student housing and health services by and large would be exempt from the cutback." Amber said. "When I say by and large, I mean these services would not be affected directly as opposed to indirectly.
But Ambler gave an example of how the cuts would affect those areas indirectly.
"If, for instance, I lose all student hourly help or a graduate assistant. I wouldn't be as helpful," he said.
Student activities and the Athletic Department also will not be affected
With the budget cuts, fewer people will be performing more duties, he said. The result will be a slow-down in services to students.
"We ask for their patience, 'Ambler said, Ambler said he had not asked administrators in those areas to cut their budgets for next year. But he also said, 'They're not going to spend like the last of the great spenders, either. It wouldn't be
good for morale?
Areas that are not being cut are exempt because they don't receive money allocated by the Legislature from the state's general fund. The money that provides those services comes from students' fees, he said.
Ambler also said some research grants and scholarships from private donors or the Kansas University Endowment Association would not be affected.
The areas under Ambler's supervision that eventually will be cut haven't been determined, but his office will try to shrink its part of the budget budget by $205,000.
The decision could depend on whether the University gets some financial relief in the form of fee releases or fee increases. The Legislature will decide whether the University gets to spend $1.5 million in excess fees generated by a record enrollment
Ken Stoner, director of student housing, said that the money his department used did not come from the state and that the money his department would save wouldn't go back to the state fund.
However, Stoner said, the housing department is affected by being unable to hire or give salary raises.
Stoner said that students shouldn't worry that services contracted to them, such as a pharmacy, are unaffordable.
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