THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
WARM
KANSAN
Undergrads get research grants
Tuesday, July 26, 1977
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
See story page three
Vol.87,No.166
Staff photo by RICK PADDEN
Gunn prolific
Sitting in front of a part of his collection of books is James Gunn, professor of English and journalism and a science fiction author. Gunn has written 16 books, a number of screenplays and radio scripts, and has had over 70 stories published in various magazines and books.
KUAC has budget surplus
By RICK ALM
Staff Writer
Preliminary accounting figures indicate that the Kansas University Athletic Corporation (KUAC) showed a budgetary surplus between $200,000 and $250,000 last year. Doug Messer, assistant athletic director for business, said yesterday
The exact amount of the surplus, however, will not be determined until next
Messer said this year's surplus was comparable to last year's, when the KUAC closed its books with revenues of almost $253,000 more than operating expenses and payments for interest and capital improvements.
month, when an independent accounting firm finishes its final audit for the fiscal year.
Anv world possible in Sci Fi
See BUDGET page 4
By DAN MCGINLEY
Staff Writer
James Gunn writes science fiction novels about the future. That includes his latest book, "Kampas." But he says he isn't concerned with predictions.
"Predicting." Gun said, "is an overrated commodity."
Gunn, professor of English and journalism, has written 18 books, including *The Writer's Handbook*.
"KAMPUS" IS ABOUT college in the mid-1900s. The setting is the University of Kansas.
One criticism that reviewers had of the book, he said, was that the world wasn't protesting what Gun described in it. He added that what didn't he was trying to do.
He was more interested, he said, in writing about a possibility, not a chance.
"Science fiction writers don't want people to say, 'Yes, that will happen,' but, 'Yes, that could happen.' " Gunn said. "One thing that you can do in science fiction that you can't do in other types of fiction is to isolate a situation any way you want."
IN "KAMPUS," Gum eliminates the current problems of pollution and fuel shortages. There is also no unemployment because no one has to work and everyone is
"The removal of these problems." Gunn said, "allowed me to deal with the question of whether I would go to jail."
"Everybody has a basic income, which removes the need for laws and cuts down on criminal activity, except those with certain criminal quirks.
"The characters in 'Kampus,' aren't forced to accommodate themselves to the environment."
IN HIS BOOK, there are no police except for those on the campuses—the "kampuskops"—and the only crime is consiracy.
Gunn said the university portrayed in *Kampus* 'is in some ways the same one that he had in *Education*.
The students in "Kampus" acquire knowledge through pills and through blood transfusions from the learned. Gavin, the professor of law, and kills his professor for his knowledge.
"Somehow some students thought they could gain knowledge painlessly just by reading."
"GAVIN WAS A metaphor of a student with an obsession for learning," Gunn said.
The world he portrays, Gunn said, could have been a possibility had the campus
rebels seeking changes in the late '60s and early '70s been successful.
He said he wanted to illustrate that the problems he creates at his mythical college of the future don't occur overnight, just as he did once existed and didn't happen overnight.
"I what I tried to show in 'Kampus,'" he said, "is that these things happen naturally, that it happens matter-of-factly. Nobody is to blame.
"KAMPUS' IS A satire, a social comment and a lot of exasperation."
He said the title was purposefully misspelled to emphasize the loss of basic academic skills that had transpired over many years, and which he thinks is happening now.
"It's hard to say how successful it will be. Gunn said, "I think it has a lot of appeal to respect."
The book was completed in 1974, but continual delays in printing kept it from publication.
The Town Crier in the Malls shopping center and Adventure Bookstore in the Hillcress shopping center say they have the book on order.
**BOOKSTORES** IN Lawrence say "Kampus" in selling very well. The Oread Bookshop has sold about 159 copies, and the Barnes & Noble says they have sold 42 copies in three weeks.
Gunn began writing science fiction in 1948 after receiving a B.S. degree in journalism
His first copyrighted story was called "The Communicators," and was printed in September 1949 in a magazine called Startline Stories.
HE THEN DID graduate work in theater before receiving his master's degree in theater.
Although he is primarily a science fiction writer, Gunn has written plays, screenplays, radio scripts and articles and has had 70 stories published in magazines and books.
He was president of the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1971 and 1972.
Gum says he doesn't really have a favorite book.
"THEE ARE DIFFERENT things I like about different books." he said. "They're a lot like children; You like them for different reasons."
One of the books he did name, however, was "The Immortals," probably his most famous work. It was made into a television movie and later into a series.
He wasn't involved with the series, he said, which was altered drastically from his own.
To illustrate how it was changed, he said, the character upon which the series was
IN THE FIRST SCREEN, Gunn said, the man appears to sell a pin of his blood, which was used as a bullet.
based appeared in only the first and last scenes of the book.
"I speculated on what might happen to people and society if immortality were a reality."
Gunn said that although he has no favorite book, the novel he is working on at the moment always assumes that position. What that is a book called "The Dreamers."
He said "The Dreamers" would probably be published in the fall of 1987 or the spring of 2001.
IT IS DIFFERENT from anything he has written before, he said.
"The Dreamers," is an exploration of the relationship between dreams and reality." Gunn said. "It's in the form of several different love stories placed in a world in the future that is built around chemical learning."
Another story he recently completed is called "IF I Forget Thee." It will be released in December and will be published with two other stories in a book called "Trix."
Gunn, who admits to having had an obsession with science fiction at an early age, teaches courses in fiction writing and the literature of science fiction.
"If they have the ability, the opportunity and the need, they turn to write."
"I think every science fiction writer in love with reading science fiction when they write it," she said.
Sanitation equipment bond topic for city commission
By ROBERT GODFREY Staff Writer
Staff Writer
City commissioners tonight will consider authorizing the issuance of a $150,000 bond to temporarily finance the purchase of new equipment for the city sanitation department on behalf of the fourth floor of the First National Bank Power, Ninth and Massachusetts streets.
Also on the agenda is discussion of a proposed site plan for a shopping center development on the northeast corner of 23rd and Iowa streets, selection of architects for various planned building sites and a number of street improvement plans.
Because of the time element involved in ordering and receiving sanitation equipment, the city is considering issuing a bond to allow equipment orders to be placed now so that new equipment could be delivered for use in 1978.
Higher sanitation rates for 1978, if approved after the city budget is settled, might later be applied to financing the new equipment.
Approval of the shopping center site plan by the commission is in doubt because of the already high traffic volume at the Iowa and 23rd streets intersection. The Lawrence-Planning Commission staff has recommended the Plan site be denoted for this reason.
Commissioners also will discuss selection
of an architect for the East Lawrence
Recreation and Senior centers and a
sports facility.
An engineering proposal for sidewalk and storm sewer improvements on 18th Street between First and Second Heights and review plans for Maine Street improvements from Second Street to Fourth Street.
An architect is also needed to study animal shelter expansion for the Humane Society, which was authorized $50,000 in 2013 and works at a last week's budget study session.
Other items to be considered will be:
—the final authorization of an ordinance prohibiting firing of bottle rockets within 60 miles.
—the rezoning of 1.21 acres 400 feet north of East 23rd Street and 3,300 feet east of West 23rd Street.
—the rezoning of 7.1 acres at 2412 Alabama St. from RM-3 to PRD-3.
—setting of August 30 as a bid date for the Clinton water treatment plant.
—the designation of September 6 for a paint station on the demolition of a house at 138 New York Avenue.
—the petitions and guaranty of payment for Commerce Park East and Orchards No.
the plans and specifications for streets,
sidewalks and water lines at Orchards No. 2.
—a request for a sign variance from Crafts and Hobbies, 711 W.31rd Street.
Two proposed salary increases, a 7 per cent cost-of-living increase and longevity pay for officers in their sixth through twentieth years on the force were discussed at length at yesterday's meeting between the Lawrence Police Officers Association.
Another meeting was set for Aug. 3 to resume talks.
However, the association dropped its original ten-cent-an-hour wage to hasten an agreement.
Last year, negotiation lasted eight
before a compromise could be
reached.
Reavis, chairman of the police association,
talks this year should go faster.
The association submitted a memorandum with their requests yesterday to Mike Pitkin.
Wildgen said that he would give the city commission a copy of the memorandum but that the budget would still be published as it was. The commission cannot be increased once it is published.
Reavis said that if the commissioners will have to have a vote within our membership,
cited a survey made by the Fraternal Order of the Police that showed salaries of policemen in 144 cities with populations between 50,000 and 100,000. The starting wage averaged $11,200, compared with a starting salary for Lawrence police officers of $9,713.
Wildgen said that although he had not seen the survey, he thought the cities surveyed were located on the East and West coasts.
"We will react to what they do," he said. Arnold Berman, the association's attorney.
"I think we're very competitive in this area," he said.
The police officers aren't looking at the fringe benefits they receive, Wildden said.
such as health insurance and work compensation. The city's cost of living package, including these benefits, already accounts for more than 8 per cent, he said.
A two-part longevity pay plan also was included in the memorandum to Wilden.
The first part of the plan states that an officer will be eligible for a 2.5 per cent annual increase if he meets required standards on his yearly evaluation. This procedure would start in his sixth year and continue through his sixteenth year.
A 5 per cent increase continuing through his twentieth year has been requested for an officer who meets the same standards after beginning his seventeenth year.
Tuesday
From our wire services
WASHINGTON—President Jimmy Carter, in an aggressive defense of his domestic policies, promised the National Urban League yesterday that a flood of new programs to help the nation's poor would emerge from his administration.
Programs for poor promised
Ticking off a list of job-create programs he has supported during his first six months in office, Carter said, "We're committed to the poor, the poor."
The league's director, Vernon Jordan, had charged Sunday that many black people felt their hopes and their needs had been betrayed by Carter.
WASHINGTON—Budget Director Bert Lance spent two hours yesterday explaining to a Senate committee why his multimillion dollar personal financial situation was nothing unusual and no additional congressional scrutiny.
Lance explains his finances
"A flood of new programs will be coming to your communities in the coming weeks and months," Carter said.
hungry, the timid, the weak, and the unemployed."
Addressing the Senate Government Affairs Committee, Lance laid out point-by-point several financial dealings, in-
The President said he had no apologies to make.
NEW YORK—In a remarkable round table discussion with the press last night, New York Yankee owner George Steinbrumberg gently called Billy Martin a liar and said that a decision on the Yankee manager's dismissal would be left completely to Gabe Paul, the team's president.
Baseball
Lance had promised the committee he would sell his 21 per cent interest in the Georgia bank by the end of this year. But Mr. Lance said he did not price the stock of the plumber had plumbed.
chiding his well-reported stock to sell about 200,000 shares of stock in the National Bank of Georgia and a $5.4 million loan from the First National Bank of Chicago.
Weather
Today and tomorrow will be pleasantly warm. The highs will be in the upper 80s today and in the mid-80s tomorrow. The probability of precipitation is less than 20 per cent today, according to the National Weather Service in Topeka.
Little rocks crowning touch
Making the best out of what they had available, first year med students Bob Ardis, Lawrence, (left) and Kevin Haibert, Toppea, used rocks as checks on one of the
Staff photo by RICK PADDEN
checkerboard tables outside on Wescoe Terrace yesterday. The two were playing what Ardis called reverse checkers, a game in which the first player to lose all his pebbles wins.