Wednesday January 20,1988
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Vol. 98, No. 78 (USPS 650-640)
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Gay rights bid gets no action
By Joel Zeff
Kansan staff writer
Ann Ryun embraces Nancy Liskey, both Lawrence residents, after the Lawrence City Commission voted last night to take no action to amend the existing human rights ordinance. Ryun and Liskey both opposed the amendment that would have added the phrase "sexual orientation" to the ordinance.
The Lawrence City Commission voted 3-2 to take no governmental action last night on a proposal to prohibit discrimination against homosexuals.
In taking no action, Mayor Mike Amyx said, the commission could consider the proposal again at anytime. Each commission explained his stance on the issue before the noaction vote, with Amyx casting the deciding vote.
Amryx, speaking to an overflowing chamber room, said that the vote was not a deferral on the issue but that no action would mean no change.
Commission members Sandra Praeger, Bob Schumm and Amyx opposed the city's Human Relations Commission's recommendation to amend Lawrence's human rights ordinance to prohibit homosexual discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation.
Commissioners Dennis Constance and Mike Rundle voted for the proposal.
The human rights ordinance, passed in 1983, now prohibits discrimination based on race, sex, color,
nationality, religion, age, ancestry,
or handicap.
"I'm disappointed they didn't vote in 'favor,'" said Liz Gowdy, spokesman for Citizens for Human Rights in Lawrence. "But I'm pleased there wasn't a 'no' vote. I think we've come a long way in educating the public and helping people understand about discrimination."
Amyx and Schumm said they voted against the proposal because the human relations commission didn't have enough evidence to support the claim that homosexual discrimination occurred in Lawrence.
Schumm said, "I find no documented evidence of discrimination (toward homosexuals) in housing, education, and transportation. We do need factual data."
Ray Samuel, chairman of the executive division of the Human Relations Commission, said that when people are afraid to come forward and testify, the data needed would then become unavailable.
vide leadership. We have documentation. "Fear makes it difficult to get numbers on a page."
Liz Tolbert, president of the Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas, said that the proponents of the proposal now have the opportunity to come up with the numbers needed.
Constance, however, simply asked the commission how much discrimination was enough before action could be taken.
The main opposition, Alliance of Citizens for Traditional Values, was happy with the vote.
"Somebody has to be first," he said. "City Commission should pro-
Judge denies Iran-contra petition
WASHINGTON — A federal judge refused yesterday to order the grand jury investigating the Iran-contra affair to review congressional testimony of key participants in the arms sales to Iran and diversion of profits to Nicaraguan rebels.
U. S. District Judge Aubrey E. Robinson Jr. denied the petition filed by retired Air Force Maj. Gen Richard V. Secord, a target of the Iran-contra investigation being conducted by independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh.
The Associated Press
Secord, who helped negotiate the sale of U.S. arms to Iran and the diversion of profits to the contras, had sought an order requiring the grand jury to consider the testimony of Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, John M. Poindexter and others who received congressional immunity.
Second also sought an opportunity to tell his side of the story to the group.
what he could tell the panel about the congressional testimony.
Secord had been offered an opportunity to testify before the grand jury if he confined his testimony to answering the prosecutor's questions. Walsh sought to prevent Secord from giving grand jurors a summary of the congressional testimony of immunized witnesses.
Second, North, Poindexter and Second's business partner, Albert Hakim, are targets of the investigation being conducted by Walsh. The grand jury, which has been sitting for about a year, is expected to return indictments against the four in the coming weeks.
Record, a lead witness at last
vacuum, testified
testified without an immunity grant.
Robinson gave no reason for denying Secord's request, which had been made by the defense. Thomas C. Green, he said he would probably appeal Robinson's order.
Reagan authorizes weapons airdrops to contra fighters
Congress preparing for aid battle
The Associated Press
"This is really a gut issue for the president," said Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind, an opponent of the aid renewal Reagan is expected to seek for the rebel on Jan. 26. "It is his highest foreign policy objective. The administration will pull out every stop in order to win this vote."
WASHINGTON — President Reagan yesterday authorized the CIA to resume airdrops of weapons to Nicaragua's contra rebels, as congressional opponents worked to offset an expected presidential lobbying blitz for an extension of military aid.
The House is to vote Feb. 3 on Reagan's request for an as-yet-undetermined amount of new military aid to the war zone in the Senate would vote the next day.
In a speech to administration political appointees yesterday, the president reiterated his belief that only continued military pressure on Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government will lead to peace for the region.
"We must have the courage to stand behind those who continue to put their lives on the line for democracy in Nicaragua," Reagan said.
He said his final year in office would be "the year that the United States will strongly alarm that the terrorist organisation is the future of Central America."
The airdrops had been suspended
The rebels are currently operating on a short-term infusion of humanitarian aid approved before Congress left for its holiday recess, including money to pay for CIA airdrops of previously stocked weapons and ammunition. That money is expected to last through next month.
The rebels are currently operating on a short-term infusion of humanitarian aid approved before Congress left for its holiday recess, including money to pay for CIA airdrops of previously stockpiled weapons.
for the past week because of the weekend meeting in Costa Rica of the five Central American presidents who signed a peace accord Aug. 7. To resume the supply flights, Reagan had to certify that no cease-fire had been achieved and that failure to do so was the fault of the Sandistas.
Reagan sent Congress a letter certifying that no cease-fire had been agreed to by the Sandinistas and the contras, that the failure to achieve a cease-fire "results from the lack of good faith efforts by the government of Nicaragua" and that the contras had acted in good faith.
"The time for Sandinista compliance with the (Central American peace) accord has come and gone, and the Nicaraguan people and the Central American democracies have waited in vain for the Sandinistas to carry out their promises." Reagan wrote.
"It has become increasingly clear that, without the pressure created by a strong Nicaraguan democratic resistance, the Sandinistas will not conduct to comply with compromises made in theimately made and broken since 1978."
Under the law, Reagan must ask for any new military aid next week, triggering votes in Congress.
Higher education lobbyists take their case to governor
Kansan staff writer
By Iill less
Students fill Statehouse with support for Margin proposal
TOPEKA — The mere presence of student lobbyists at the Statehouse yesterday helped the Board of Regents Margin of Excellence proposal as much as what the students had to say, legislative leaders said.
About 250 students from the University of Kansas and the other five Regents universities met with about 150 legislators in a student-sponsored effort to win support for the Regents plan.
"You can't create this kind of activity if there aren't real issues behind it," said Mark Tallman, legislative director of the Associated Students of Kansas, which sponsored the lobbying effort.
Martie Aaron, director of the KU SK chapter, said she thought the idea was well received.
"Weeks from now, when the legislators are trying to make up their minds on how to vote (on Margin of Excellence), they're going to remember, I talked to a student about that." Aaron said.
Gov. Mike Hayden, in an 11 a.m.
speech to ASK members, said he was impressed by the presence of the students.
"I'm proud of the fact that you'd come and take the time because one of the most difficult problems to overcome is anathy." Havens said.
The lobbyby consisted of telling the legislators what the problems were at the universities and why the Margin of Excellence proposal would help alleviate those problems. The students broke into groups and met with individual legislators.
The Margin of Excellence is the Regents three-year proposal to add $47 million to the Regents schools' budgets.
Laura Amber, Lawrence junior,
was one out of about 150 students who
lived in the district.
Ambler said she told legislators about crowded classrooms, overworked professors and lack of funds for libraries.
State legislators said they didn't know the effect of the lobbying but predicted that much of the Margin of Excellence proposal would be approved.
"I will support at least a certain percentage of it, but I don't think I can swing all of it," state Rep. Darrel Webb, D-Wichita, told student lobbyists.
One of the problems that many legislators cited was the lack of money to support the full Margin of Excellence proposal.
State Sen. Joseph C. Harder, R-Moundridge, said that he would support the Margin of Excellence proposal but that he didn't know where the money could come from.
Hayden's budget proposal for the coming fiscal year includes about 80 percent of the requests made in Margin of Excellence. A 5-percent increase in faculty salaries and a 4-percent increase in student and classified salaries were included, but program enhancements, such as money for Regents school libraries, were not.
Aaron said in a training session for the lobbyists Monday night, "We're happy with this, but couldn't it have been better?"
But Harder said yesterday that he
Gov. Mike Hayden spoke to students in the Capital rotunda yesterday. The students were in Topeka lobbying legislators for increased funding for higher education.
However, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate said that the
didn't think the proposal was indecdeate
"I don't think we've given them the short end of the stick," he said. "We just haven't given them as much as they'd like."
Margin of Excellence proposal could be met in full.
Senate Minority Leader Michael Johnston, D-Parsons, said that money could come from many sources. The tax windfall or carry-over money.
House Minority Leader Marvin
Barkis, D-Louisburg, said, "Sacrifice for education is a normal pattern from the past."
Not enough sacrifices are made for education, he said.
Aaron said that she was pleased with the way the day went.
Many unclassified employees unhappy with Hayden's budget proposal
By Rebecca J. Cisek
Kansan staff writer
The Board of Regents may have been happy with Gov. Mike Hayden's budget proposal for fiscal 1989, but many unclassified employees at the University of Kansas aren't smiling.
Unclassified employees are all people not part of the classified civil service and include administrators, teachers and teaching and non-teaching faculty.
Hayden's recommendations would give all unclassified employees a 5 percent cost-of-living increase, but only teaching faculty will be allowed the additional 2.8 percent Margin of Excellence increase.
Carolyn Kelly, assistant to the vice chancellor for academic affairs, said that KU employees who would not receive the Margin of Excellence increase under Hayden's plan included people such as assistants and teaching staff members at the computer center, directors of laboratories, student
The governor felt that the major emphasis after talking with the Regents. . . was that teaching faculty present the largest problem in retaining.'
- Kathy Peterson Gov. Hayden's press secretary
T
affairs employees. Watkins Hospital employees and facilities directors.
The Margin of Excellence is a proposal to bring Regents schools to 95 percent of their peer schools in overall funds and 100 percent in withheld funds. Pear schools are similar in size, scope and mission.
Kathy Peterson, press secretary to the governor, said yesterday that Hayden thought that the salaries of
teaching faculty had the greatest need for enhancement.
Keith Nitcher, director of business affairs, said analysis of the number of University employees affected was under way and he expected to know the precise number in about a week.
"The governor felt that the major emphasis after talking with the Regents, that teaching faculties, the largest problem in retaining," she said.
One group of employees unhappy with the proposal is librarians
"We're almost in a state of disbelief that librarians are not included," said Jim Ranz, dean of libraries. "I can't think of any reason for that."
In comparison to the peer schools, Ranz said, librarians' salaries are in worse shape than those of any other group of University employees. He said he had been losing librarians to Harvard, Stanford, and Northwestern universities and to the University of California at Berkeley.
Sandra Brandt, chairman of the library faculty assembly at KU, said that the group would lobby the Legislature for the inclusion of salary increases for librarians.
Ranz said the Association of Research Libraries in Washington, D.C., ranked KU 50th out of 106 member schools in librarian salaries in the mid-1970s. KU currently ranks in the low 90s. Ranz said.
Robin Eversole, director of university relations, said that University employees who did not teach fulfilled many important roles but that they did not share in the Margin of Excellence increase.
"The support staff has not received much recognition." she said.
Some of the support staff include people who provide specific services or assistance.
KU's peer schools.
"That ticks me off to no end," he said.
"I don't see any reason why we were not important when the (teaching) faculty were," he said.
Jerry Rogers, director of student financial aid, said that employees who worked in the financial aid office were one of the most underpaid groups in the Big Eight and among
Allan Long, director of cartographic services in the department of geography, is angry about the proposed budget's salary increases.
"I support any increase the faculty
but I loved it, too," Lee said.
"I don't know whether it was intentional or accidental, but it seems that a rather large part of the University was left out," he said.
Jim Stinson, assistant director of admissions, said he thought the governor's actions neglected many unclassified employees.
Correction
Incorrect information in a page one story yesterday about spring enrollment was attributed to once Lindvail, director of admission.
Lindvall clarified yesterday that 20th-day enrollment figures were usually lower than first-day figures. First-day enrollment figures increased Friday showed an increase of 688 students over last spring.
Official enrollment is calculated on the 20th day of classes. Lindvall estimated that those figures would show an enrollment increase of only 300 to 400 students.
The difference between first-day and 20th-day figures is partially due to students who go through the day of late enrollment and add-droon.