Wednesday January 27,1988
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Vol. 98, No. 83 (USPS 650-640)
Lawmaker criticizes Washburn proposal
By Stacy Foster
Kansan staff writer
A local legislator fears that Gov Mike Hayden's plan to have the Board of Regents begin administering some of the state funds given to Washburn University could eventually result in less money for Regents schools.
The legislator, State Sen. Wint Winter, R-Lawrence, criticized Hiden's plan yesterday and said that it could be a disastrous move.
Hayden's plan calls for the state board of education, which currently governs Washburn to allow the school to teach English and the school receives from the state.
The state already has enough on its hands with the seven regents schools, Winter said. "It would be like adding a million to an already malnourished family."
Winter said he saw the proposal as an attempt by Hayden to bring Washburn closer to becoming a Regents school.
About 22 percent of Washburn's funds come from the state. The school gets the rest of its money from property taxes and tuition.
Stanley Kopik, executive director for the Regents, said that Hayden's proposal would help Washburn financially by keeping its tuition at a competitive level with the other Regents schools.
David Monical, vice president of planning and governmental relations at Washburn, said that it was time his school became a Regents institution.
"Washburn is supported by a property tax in Topeka," Koplik said. "The proposal would change that, and the school would be supported by the state."
He said that changing Washburn to a Regents school would cost the state between $5 million and $12 million. If the school changed gradually, that would keep the cost down.
"Washburn needs to be assessed according to the other Regents schools. We want to move to more appropriate funding," he said.
Winter said tighter controls on how Washburn University spends its state money were necessary.
"They are getting millions of dollars of the state's money, but the Board of Regents has not one ounce of control on how they use that money," he said.
Winter said he thought the Regents could provide tighter control but he worried that Washburn might become too cozy with the Regents system.
direct competition with the Regents schools for financing and that could compromise the academic programs for all the schools.
He said that adding Washburn to the Regents system would put it in
"Washburn University should not become a full-fledged sister institution because it duplicates programs that are available at the other institutions," Winter said. "We are not talking about an area that is in need of accessible universities. This area of the state is well served by academic institutions."
Monical disagreed. "The change wouldn't make us a sister institution; it would make us a cousin," he said.
Winter said that funds should be appropriated according to the basic operating rates of the Regents schools but that Washburn's funds should not increase.
Monical said that it would benefit the state to have Washburn's academic programs coordinated with other Regents schools. He said that if Washburn were to become a Regents member, Kansas would have all its public universities under the same governing body.
Kopilak said, "The proposal doesn't increase state aid. And many people would think this is an important symbolic step to becoming a Regents school, but you can't say for certain that it will be a Regents school."
Mike May, Chicago senior, forms a project called "Electric Surge" for a sculpture class. May would not identify the artist depicted in the sculpture. He said the idea was to leave the identity to the viewer's imagination. The class met last night in the Art and Design building.
Electric art
Margin support
Chancellor Gene A. Budig speaks with a state legislator during a luncheon in Topeka. The event yesterday was sponsored by the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce and the KU chapter of the American Association of University Professors. See related story p.6.
KUEA donations decline
By Elaine Woodford
Kansan staff writer
The Kansas University Endowment Association has recovered about a third of the $8 million it lost during the stock market crash in October, the president of the association said yesterday.
But donations to the Endowment Association have been affected by the unstable economy, said Todd Seyourm. The organization is still in need of funding.
"If people think they have been hurt economically, they will quit buying, which affects the amount of dividends that companies can afford to pay." Seymour said.
Jeff Davis, the association's treasurer, said that if the economy continued to decline, donations could decrease even further, resulting in a loss in the total value of the Endowment Association's assets.
"The stock market predicts what direction the economy will take and how much money will be contributed." Davis said.
During the crash, the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 508 points and the value of U.S. stocks
decreased by about $503 billion. The Endowment Association had about $90 million of its total $200 in assets invested in various stock pools.
"It was a very unsettling time," Davis said.
Seymour said, "The losses are only on paper, but I can say that we are not at the same place that we used to be." A stock market loss is often described as a loss only on paper.
Thomas Weiss, professor of economics, said that a loss on paper described the devaluation of the stock. But he said that for the owner, the loss would be felt only if the investor had decided to sell stock after the price dropped.
Davis said that it would be difficult to precisely determine how much of the stock portfolio had been recovered because the value of the stocks were calculated in different ways.
"It would be safe to say that we have recovered a portion of the loss that was sustained in the crash," he
The Endowment Association is separate from the University, and it receives funds from private sources.
College develops computer advising
Experimental system would help students with schedules, requirements
By James Buckman
Kansan staff writer
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is developing a new computer advising system that could be ready for experimental use this semester.
"The purpose of having the students up on Monday is to provide suggestions for the refinement of the system before we go public with it," he said.
Bob Adams, associate dean of the college,
said a small group of students would try the
new system Monday in Strong Hall. He said
the college wanted students' ideas about the
system in order to perfect it.
Students using the new system would have their academic records printed on a computer disk. Students would have to pick up these disks the same way they currently pick up their confidential folders, Adams said.
The new advising system is being studied this spring. KU administrators have not yet approved the plan.
Dave Mannering, systems analyst for the college, said the information on the disks could be taken from the University's mainframe computer system and given to the student in less than five minutes.
Students would go to special advising computers to complete their schedule. The computers would not be linked to the main computer, and many problems with the system, Mannering said.
Advisers want to talk about the content of courses. They want to do more academic advising and get away from the administrative aspects of it.'
'A
assistant to the dean of liberal arts and sciences
With the information on the student's disk, the advising computers would tell the student which of the school's class requirements he had fulfilled. It also would tell him what remaining requirements he needed to meet and which classes would meet them. The student's disk wouldn't list class sections that were closed.
The process would start with a blank time schedule on the computer screen. Students would be able to adjust their class schedules until they were satisfied.
The location and time of classes would be listed on the screen, along with the number of spaces left in the class. When finished, students would be able to get a printout of their desired schedule.
For electives, the computer would list the available classes in the various departments that would count toward graduation, allowing the student to choose between them.
He said the advising computers could be placed in locations such as residence halls for students' convenience. The computers could be operational 24 hours a day.
To keep enrollment data current, the system would be updated daily. Adams said.
Students would still need to enroll at their appointed time, but the system should help that process run more sn. smoothly by preventing students from selecting classes that are filled, he said.
Mannerly said that the new system was not designed so that students could complete the entire advising process by themselves.
"It certainly is not meant to replace advisers, but it will help with the more mundane questions advisers get," he said.
Pam Houston, assistant to the dean of liberal arts and sciences, said the system would free advisers from spending most of their time flipping through the timetable to tell students whether classes met requirements.
"Advisors want to talk about the content of courses," she said. "They want to do more academic advising and get away from the administrative aspects of it."
Adams said that the college was still in the process of refining the program and that the system could be used with a limited number of students this spring.
KU business, education enrollment matches trend
By Kathleen Eaddis
Kansan staff writer
KU freshman enrollment reflects a national trend of increased business and education majors but contradicts another national trend by showing an increase in engineering and computer science majors.
The 22nd annual UCLA-American Council of Education study, released Jan. 13, showed a significant increase in interest in business and teaching and a continued decline in the number of engineering and computer science majors.
The survey found that 24.6 percent of freshmen planned to major in business, more than double the 1966 figure of 11.6 percent who were surveyed in the national study.
Dave Shulenburger, associate dean of business, said the summer orientation for pre-business majors was well attended. The number of freshmen indicating their intention to major in business increased from 22 percent to 22 percent in 1986. Shulenburger said.
Although it has been said that there is a trend away from material interests, the choices students are making for degrees don't indicate that Shulenburger said.
The UCLA study also found that 75.6 percent of the students surveyed said their most important life goal was to be well off financially. This was up from the 39.1 percent recorded in 1970.
Brent Remer, Kansas City, Mo., freshman, a pre-business major, fits the recent trend.
"I've always wanted to work for a big corporation," he said. "I want to become part of a corporation, become successful in it, and one day become chairman of the board."
His motivation for entering business?
"If no money is required."
The UCLA study also showed a surprising, increased interest in teaching, a relatively lower paying field. In 1987, 8. percent of the freshmen surveyed planned careers in teaching, compared with only 4.7 percent in 1982.
"We've got more students in freshman courses than we've ever had before," said Rashad Baldwin, the associate head of the college.
"I think part of it is because of an overall societal increase in awareness of a need for quality people in the classroom," said Bailev.
Tara Whitworth, Iola freshman, is planning to become a teacher because she thinks the job is prestigious, even though it doesn't pay well.
"There will always be a need for good teachers," Whitworth said. She said that teachers were responsible for the education of the next generation.
See BUSINESS, p. 6, col. 1