THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Relays begin this afternoon
Thursday, April 21, 1977
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Vol.87, No.130
See story page six
Carter reveals energy tax plans
WASHINGTON (UP1) - President Jimmy Carter urged Congress yesterday to put Americans on a painful, mandatory energy diet including taxes that could bring $1-a-gallon gas and add $2,480 to the price of gas-guzzling cars.
He called it "a thankless job" but said that the alternative was a crisis that could have been avoided.
In a sober, nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress, Carter said Americans must be forced to save energy and take action to give up wasteful habitats voluntarily.
CARTER'S 30-MINUTE speech—the first of his presidency before Congress—presented the grand design for a national park. He called on earlier yesterday. Its central points are:
Gas pump taxes to add five cents to the price of a gallon every year for 10 years, if neces
- Hefty taxes on the 'gas-guzzling' cars,
with the 1978 models, but tempered by
rising fuel prices.
Two priorities have been set for the use of $60,000 the Student Senate allocated last week for improvements in recreational facilities.
Recreation fund priorities set
The lighting of eight tennis courts south of Robinson Gymnasium and improvements in the intramural fields at 23rd and Iowa State University are being completed, student body, president, said vexander.
Leben said the extra light of the tennis courts, which would cost $16,000,
would be available for $35.
The improvements in the intramural fields would include a new watering system, Leben said. The system will cost about $11,000.
Other possible improvements would be to plant more with sharp slopes and fertilization and seeded.
He said the leveling would cost $10,000 or more, the seeding about $3,500 and the irrigation about $8,000.
Leben said many questions remained about the improvements. The tennis court, the player's stand and the improved fields would transform and the improved fields would be used for protection, but it was still undecided. Leben said, whether the Senate or the administration would pay these additional fees.
A committee will be formed by the end of the week and will meet next week to develop final recommendations on the improvements.
The committee will send its recommendations to the Recreational Advisory Board. If the board and the administration both approve the recommendations, the Office of Facilities Planning will make finalifications and handle any construction bids.
-Taxes on domestic oil designed to drive the prices gradually up to those on the world market, and to boost consumer prices further.
- Tax credits for insulating homes and businesses and for converting to solar heat.
-STANDBY GASOLINE rationing authority for emergency use.
The President got standing ovations from his bipartisan audience before and after his address, but members of Congress predicted his program would face a tough battle from many lawmakers, lobbists and others. The president pump tax seemed particularly vulnerable.
Said House Speaker Thomas O'Neill: "The tax bill, the dams, the economic package, they were all skirmishes. This is the battle."
The proposals got kindly reviews from many Carter partisans, in industry, labor and consumer groups expressed displeasure with various points.
"ASKING AMERICA, the richest nation on earth, to start acting like a poor nation is absolutely contrary to the American way," Rep. Robert Baumman, R-Md., said
His head and shoulders framed by a huge American flag in the house of Representatives, Carter told Congress—and millions in his television audience—that he wanted to refund the billions of dollars of revenues he earned from sales, primarily through income tax credits.
But the tax credit proposals were vague, in sharp contrast to the specific proposals to collect new levies and make energy consumption more expensive.
Carter made plain at the outset of his speech that his proposals would not be politically popular one, amending his plan to say, "I don't expect much applause."
BUT HE WAS interrupted by applause seven times when he referred to stepping up domestic oil production, preventing wind turbines from being installed on synthetic fuels, shelving the plutonium breeder reactor, speeding up construction of conventional atomic plants, correcting a lack of oil industry competition and reducing companies from collecting unearned profits.
The President sought tax rebates ranging up to $410 a household for homeowners who install storm windows, weather stripping and other insulation between April 29, 1977, and Dec. 31, 1984.
Natural gas prices would go up to a maximum $1.75 a thousand cubic feet at the beginning of 1978, and federal jurisdiction would be extended to intrastate production
He said his goals for 1985 included cutting U.S. energy growth to the point where it would double every 40 years instead of every 18, reducing gasoline consumption 10 percent and reducing a cent of America's homes and putting solar energy devices on 2.5 million homes.
"I HOPE THE Congress will adopt these
See ENERGY page 10
Experienced driver
I've got a new Cougar in the carport that I hardly ever drive," says Delores Burton, for three years a driver with Union Cab
Cabbv likes her job, passengers
By RICK THAEMERT Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
In all her days of driving cabs, Delores Burton has never had anyone jump in and shout, "Follow that car."
Burton, 40, looks small in comparison with the large, yellow cab she drives daily for about 11 hours. Her sad eyes and smile reflect an aura of meekness.
In fact, after driving about three years for the Union Cab Company, Burton says her job isn't filled with late-night rendezvous with unsavory characters, but she doesn't hours, tedious waiting, interesting people and a tired rum. But she likes it.
"I've always loved driving," she says
"smiling shyly." "Me and my husband used
it to get you up and across the road."
Now, she drives about 130 miles daily and has been on every street in town. She lives in a beautiful neighborhood.
"I DRIVE MORE miles than most people so I have to be a little more alert," she says as she answers a call from the cab office. She throws several rapid glances in the mirrors, then struggles with the big steering wheel as she pulls away from the taxi stand. The work looks tiring.
"You're usually not too tired when you get off, maybe a little mentally tired. You mostly get tired of sitting," she says, stopping impatiently at a red light.
She cruises quickly down obscure streets. Bumping along between two homes where a dirt road has been worn, she says, "You kind of get used to where some of the short cuts are."
But, even the experienced compass in her mind isn't perfect. She turns one street too far and says, "I goofed. I can never get used to these streets and which ones are dead end." She makes a U-turn and chuckles to herself for about a block.
AT THE destination, she scamperms from the cab, opens the door for her passenger, then hurries back. She slips into a money meter, which begins at 70 cents.
Surprisingly, she says, most of her passengers are young and include many
Burton says she enjoys meeting the many interesting passengers, although it is difficult to get to know any of them in such a short time. However, the chatter about weather, destinations or personal experiences is an idea of their personalities, she says.
"WHEN SOMEONE'S been drinking, you usually expect that they're going to use bad language in the car. But, you just kind of ignore it." Burton says.
But not all passengers are so nice.
"people seem to be more polite to a woman."
She adds that she thinks being a woman has helped her in the job because
When she's not driving someone around, she waits sometimes for as long as an hour at taxi stands around Lawrence.
Her left arm is sunburned and much darker than the right, the result of putting it out the window as she reads, works at the desk with other car drivers to pass the time.
As she's talking, a fellow driver parked behind her sneaks out of his car and opens her trunk, an expression of cabby tolfoley.
“GET OUTTTA my trunk,” she scolds, then reprimands the culprit with a disgusted glance, then a grin.
With a grin, she says, "Only if they're hungry."
Somewhere nearby tires screech loudly. She winces, obviously able to identify with the feeling of someone who has barely escaped an accident.
One of the last calls she receives is an order to pick up some doughnuts for her employees. She seems excited to get on and run, even if she's just running an errand.
Closing the door, I ask, "Is it an emergency?"
With a grin, she says, "Only if they're hungry."
ISA alleges harassment, raps inquiry
By LEON UNRUH
Staff Reporter
Some Iranian students at the University of Kansas recently have received telephone calls warning them not to get involved in Iranian Student Association (ISA) activities, two members of the ISA said yesterday.
The spokeswoman also said the ISA began a leaflet and petition campaign yesterday to put pressure on the UK administration to release specific details about a beating incident that took place between two Iranian students near Patterson Lake Feb. 25.
The spokesmen asked not to be identified for fear of requisal.
The two men, one an ISA officer, said at a press conference in the Kansas Union that the caller had identified himself as a former state senator who had government "and once as a CIA agent."
THE SPOKESMEN SAID the ISA also was upset because the details of a March ruling by a KU committee investigating the incident weren't released.
Nether a statement released by the committee March 30, nor an April 2 letter to the ISA from two members of the committee described its action. The name of the aggressor in the attack also wasn't released.
The three-man committee composed of Del Shankel, executive vice chancellor; Donald Alderson, acting vice chancellor for student affairs; and Mike Davis, University general counsel, investigated the matter for about three weeks.
THE BUCKLEY Amendment's privacy provision prohibited the release of details of the investigation and the resulting administrative action.
One of the students involved in the incident was Kambiz Zibail, Tehran, Iran, special student. The other was an ISA student who would remain undidentified to prevent reprisal.
The ISA charged that Zibai was an agent of SAVAK, the Iranian secret police, and demanded that the University dismiss him from campus. He is still attending classes.
The spokesmen also denied charges that ISA members had harassed Zabitla before classes in Marvin Hall about two weeks ago. Members and supporters had been in the classroom talking to students about SAHAC, they said, but not harassed Zabitla.
A SPOKESMAN said the ISA members and supporters had left the classroom before
An unidentified student filed a report with KU Police April 11 stating he had been harassed and physically detained from entering class by five or six students.
Alderson said that he had gone to Marvin several times after the report was filed, but that there had been "no problems on the occasions I've been there to observe."
The University had invited the ISA to meet with the committee after the investigative statement was released, he said. The committee then approached about having the meeting.
Prisoners know freedom, at least in the classroom
Mike Gaines, associate professor
Note: This is the second of two articles on classes taught by University of Kansas professors at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.
By MARY RINTOUL Staff Reporter
In the main rotunda of the prison, visitors are met by two men in an enclosed glass cage. After securing admittance sheets, one door opens to two of sliding gates set 10 feet apart.
A small wooden box with a built-in speech greets cars arriving on the prison grounds. From the speaker, a voice asks for directions, then directs the driver to a parking place.
The Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, situated on the outskirts of Leavenworth, looks like the Topeka capitol building from a distance, but the comparison ends there.
Inmates are allowed to mill around after supper and may look through the gates to
AN UNARMED escort, G. F. Byrd,
arrives, one sliding gate opens and visitors
are led through a long corridor and up
and in stairs to the prison's education section.
Jim Spencer, college coordinator for the prison, works in the education wing, and inmates walk in and out of his office freely during night classes.
The classrooms are small likenesses of those at the University of Kansas. They have blackboards, cabinets and enough desks for the 12 inmates in a class visited one night last week. The inmates included blacks, whites and Mexican-Americans.
The class, taught by Mike Gaines, associate professor of systematics and ecology, was conducted as it is every week, but with one obvious exception. The unarmed guard remained in the room at all times at the request of C. L. Benson, warden, because of the presence of a reporter and a photographer.
IN THE BOLIogy and Society class, which lasted an hour, Gaines discussed the problems.
He obviously loved his job and often taken with the inmates, who were attentive and asian. He was a teacher.
During a break after the lecture, one of the inmates, Ed Reed, observed the visitors coffee. An unwritten rule of prisons is to decline inmates' offers and refrain from giving them anything, but the gesture was clear that any tension that might have still existed.
Another of the inmates, Reginald Chambers, struck up a conversation with a
serve another life sentence. Nonetheless, in nooth's personality indicates that he will never serve again.
ON JUNE 10, Booth, Reed and Lobomir Peicheu will become the first KU graduates from Leavenworth, and Booth is proud of that fact.
Booth will receive a bachelor of general studies degree. His attitude reflects those of most men in the classroom. All are proud of themselves.
"That's the most important thing to me-
"I feel good about graduating," he said. "My mother and myself feel real good about the whole thing because when I get out, a college degree isn't going to hurt me any."
One inmate addressed himself to the whole class, saying, "If you think I'm dumb now, you should have seen me before I started taking classes."
visitor with the proud introduction, "My name is K. Cool - King-Cool" while acting as the lead character.
Most of the inmates simply stretched their legs or got a drink during the break, but one opted to remain in class to knit a red, white and blue afghan.
CLASS RESUMED FOR an open discussion, during which it was difficult to believe that these men, who spoke thoughtfully and eloquently, were criminals, 65 to 70 per cent of them imprisoned more than once. They discussed current issues and current gripes—many of them legitimate.
The class clown was Gary Bouth, 35, who interrupted the lecture several times to make surarcistic remarks. But discussion created a serious side of his personality.
Booth is serving a life sentence at Leavenworth, and he is charged with assault in connection with a Texas prison.
to maintain my self-esteem and not lose it," Leon Jackson, another inmate, said.
One thing that weighs heavily on the inmates' minds was that at Lavenworth, a psychiatrist in the prison,
"It's better than sitting in your cell and vegetating." Dick said.
"THE GOVERNMENT allocates money to pay for our tuition, but the money goes somewhere else," Richard Dick, an inmate, said.
Booth, who addressed himself to the whole class, said, "If you think I dumb now, you should have seen me before I started taking classes."
An inmate pays $290 for five classes, and raises the money by working in one of several factories at the prison, where the maximum hourly wage is 75 cents.
The inmates said they thought the education would help their rehabilitation and they have a number of other reasons for taking classes.
THE INMATES that think advisers have been a great help in setting up class schedules. Booth said that when he first met the school district, he asked to take or the order in which to take them.
Many of the inmates blame advising problems on the relationship between the University of Kansas and the prison officials. They said they hardly recognized their own Division of Continuing Education, which run the program, because they rarely visited.
Before leaving the classroom, the inmates posed for a group picture. Then they shuffled off, and the visitors left—some feeling a twinge of guilt sensing that hundreds of confined men watched them walk out freely.
Visiting the penitentiary can be summed up in a line from a letter from one of the inmates, Lubomir Peichev, received three days after the visit.
He said, "Please let the college community know that there are people with disabilities who attend."
Forms for staff now available
Applications for staff positions on the summer and fall Kansan are available in 106 Flint Hall, the Student Senate office, the Department of the offices of the men and women.
Positions are open on both the news and business staffs. Applications must be turned in by 5pm Monday.
Summer and fall editors and business managers will interview candidates next Monday and Tuesday. Interview sign-up be posted outside 111 and 141 Flint Hall.