The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
KANSAN
Monday, February 28, 1977
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Vol.87.No.99
Having a mime "Red Meanie" from Hell can mix with the best of Heaven are Fritz Schell, Goddard sophomore, and Amy Halderman, Hutchinson ina, in a scene from PII Beta Phi and PII Gamma Delta's Rock Chalk Revue skit. The couple are two of the hundreds that participated in the Revue last week. See review page five.
Heavenly hua
Construction completion extended to June 7 for law school building
By JOHN MUELLER
Staff Reporter
The new School of Law building doesn't
have an office, but Mr. Krueger,
Klaus Krueger, state administrator, says Friday.
The $5 million building, east of Jayhawk Towers between 15th Street and Irving Hill Road, officially had been scheduled for completion by May 23. University administrators have maintained that no extension of the deadline had been given to Casson Construction Co., Topeka, the building's general contractor.
But Kruger said, "The building is not legally scheduled for completion by June 7."
MAX LUCAS, University director of facilities planning, said Feb. 15 that Casson had been denied a request for extending the May 23 deadline. The request was made at a hearing in the federal district court against Casson, the university, the Kansas Board of Regents and the state architect's office.
Speaking a week after the Feb. 8 extension has been granted, Lucas said, "I will not be giving up the time, but there has been no extension. The company legally must be done by May 23."
Luca said yesterday he hadn't known of the June 7 extension until last Monday.
"IHAVEN'T received an official letter of notice from the state architect," he said.
Krueger attended the Feb. 3 meeting. He
STATE SEN. Wint Winter, O-Rita-and chairman of both the Regents subcommittee and the full ways and means committee, said the subcommittee didn't think the Regents had justified the repair and energy conservation money.
Winter said that he agreed with the principles behind the Regents requests, but that he didn't want to see a $4.3 million capital improvements "slush fund" controlled only through the Regents office. The cuts might be restored later in the budget process, he said, if the Regents provide more reason to grant the requests.
Regents' budget faces possible cut
The $2.5 million for energy conservation projects had been requested for additional
said Friday. "We knew then we would grant the Cason request. We waited until the 8th because that's when the company asks for payments each month."
According to Krueger, "The Feb. 3 meeting was a general meeting. We just met on the Thursday of November."
TOPEKA - The Kansas Board of Regents' fiscal 1987 budget will be slashed by nearly one-third of the total approved by Gov. Mike Huckabee and his committee's recommendations are made law.
But Robert McFeeters, chief of construction for the state's division of architectural services, said, "Casson lost four or five full days because of the weather."
Kruger said Casson had received the extra two weeks "because we recognized that January was a cold month and caused a loss of days for the company."
Lucas said he had talked with Kruger and Krueger had told him the extension was to be closed.
building insulation, storm sashes on windows, window glazing, sun shades and a power management system at Emporia Kansas State College. The Regents estimated that the projects would save two years to pay for themselves in two to four years.
Staff Reporter
HE DIDN'T specify how many days Casson had lost because of the cold weather.
By STEVE FRAZIER
The cuts would include a $2.5 million request for energy conservation projects and $400,000 of a $1.75 million request for research and remodeling at Regents institutions.
The Regents subcommittee also recommended a $50,000 reduction in the Regents budget for buying slots for Kansas students in the Creighton Dental School in Omaha. Winter said the Regents had been funding the program at more than actual tuition costs and that Creighton had been refunding the difference to the students.
THE REGENTS were unaware of the refunds until a student complained to a
The Regents subcommittee, reporting Friday to the full Senate Ways and Means Committee, recommended $3.1 million be cut from the $9.7 million Regents budget approved by Bennett. The original request was for $8.8 million.
Kansas legislator that his refusal wasn't as large as another student's, Winter said. The subcommittee recommended the Regents to approve a contract with Creighton at the actual tuition cost.
Kruger, according to Lucas, felt he had be consistent because similar extensions had been taken.
Members of the individual Regents institutions subcommittees said they had recommended cuts in some of the institutions' budgets because of the central Regents capital improvements fund. One example was the University of Kansas that received a compensation that $99,000 for new curtains to be cut from the KU budget requests and that the money be taken from the capital improvements budget.
WINTER, RECOMMENDING that $500,000 be cut from $1.75 million requested for repairs, maintenance and remodeling, said, "We just didn't have any idea how these funds were being appropriated to the various institutions."
By state law, each day after May 23 that the building isn't done would've cost Casson $500. Casson saves $7,500 in possible fines because the extra 15 days it has received.
Winter said the subcommittee had recommended the money not be approved because the Regents had a staff lawyer in Topeka who was qualified and experienced.
The Regents subcommittee recommended elimination of $20,000 for labor negotiations legal expenses at Kansas State College at Pittsburg. The Regents had requested the money to hire a labor negotiations expert from Wichita to represent them in talks with the Pittsburg faculty.
THE KU subcommittee, as expected, recommended in its report to the full ways and means committee Friday that KU be allowed funds to build additions to Robinson Gymnastics and Maket Hall. Winter said the minor subcommittee had requested additional information and wouldn't report its recommendations until Wednesday.
THE FINE would have resulted from a civil law concept called liquidated damages, awarded on construction contracts to cover intangible damages whose effect can't be measured in exact dollar amounts.
Budget items that apply to all the Regents institutions—faculty salary increases, other operating expenses, library acquisitions, classroom equipment replacement and increased utility funding—weren't discussed in the subcommittees.
Krueger said that a Feb. 22 collapse of one of the building's inside ground walls wouldn't delay its completion further, but he believed the way the wall had been constructed.
"If the contractor doesn't properly brace the wall, and if the concrete blocks aren't stacked properly, it doesn't take much for it to collapse," he said. "With the winds we had that day, it's not really startling the wall collapsed."
Kruger said Casson or its insurance company must pay for replacing the wall.
JACK ENGLISH, superintendent in charge of construction at the building, has declined comment on whether the wall's collapse would delay completion of the building. He said last week that the wall should be repaired by today.
The collapse of the wall and Krueger's acknowledgment of the extension apparently confirm the views of Martin Dickinson, dean of the School of Law, who told me that the School of Law faculty-student office that the building wouldn't be finished on time.
According to the minutes of the meeting, Dickinson "indicated that, because of the continuing failure of the subcontractor to deliver the precast concrete blocks, and that we will now virtually certain that we will be building into the new building until January of 1978."
KRUEGER DISAGREED with Dickinson's views on the building until Friday. On Feb. 17, Krueger said that "to the best of our knowledge, the building should be completed on time. There is every reason to believe that there will be no delay."
Krueger also said at that time.
The sources said that defective concrete panels were being delivered to the building site, and that one panel had been dropped and broken two weeks ago.
"Dickinson obviously has a misconception about the building. The concrete blocks aren't going to delay the building. We'll be free on time."
Construction on the new building, which replaces Green Hall, began in March 1975. The new building's 95,000 square feet of floor space will accommodate an enrolment of 566,104 more students than last semester's enrolment.
Dickinson has declined to say why he doesn't think the building will be finished on time. But according to School of Law sources close to Dickinson, he has told them of persistent problems in construction related to the Casson Co.
The concrete panels were replacements for 17 other blocks provided by Casson. The company was asked last fall to replace the original blocks, which form the outer skin of the wall. After state and KU investigators decided the panels were of inferior quality.
Problems, complaints part of election litter
By SANDY DECHANT
and MARSHA WOOLERY
Staff Reporters
Three weeks ago, Harvey C. Jordon Jr., Snawnee Mission sophomore, to the Kansas University to attend what he thought was his first varsity football running in the Student Senate elections.
Jordon and a few other candidates waited there about an hour, and when no one else came
When Jordon called the Senate office next day to ask what had happened, he learned that the date in his letter was wrong and that the meeting actually was that night.
Jordon said he wouldn't attend that right's meeting, and was told he could come to the Senate office to check that his name is listed correctly and listed on the right ballot.
When he went in the next day, the ballots already had been sent to the printer.
Early Wednesday, Feb. 18, the first day of the elections, Jordan went to a poll and looked for his name on the ballot. He found it, but it was on the Liberal Arts and Sciences ballot instead of the Numeraker No. 2 ballot.
He said he called the Senate office and was assured that the ballots would be corrected by hand before the ballot boxes were transferred to the right polls. He was told new ballots would be printed for Thursday.
When Jordan checked the Oliver Hall poll that night, his name had been removed from the Liberal Arts and Sciences ballot as promised. But it had been handwritten on the ballots for the third Nunemaker district instead of the second, he said.
HE WENT by a Wescoe poll Thursday morning, he said, and found that no new ballots had been printed and that his name had never been crossed off and rewritten.
That Thursday, Jordan fled a complaint contesting the election in his district. Before the ballots were counted that night, the committee acted on Jordan's complaint.
The committee said an unfortunate mump had occurred, but thought little could be done.
Jordan finished last in his district: He got 10 votes.
JORDON ASKED that his case be reviewed, but when the committee met last Tuesday, it once again decided that it would be impossible to hold another vote in Jordon's district. The committee decided to reimburse his 45 registration fee.
Jordon had considered appealing his case to the University Judiciary, he said, but decided the time and frustration wouldn't be worth it.
Despite several problems similar to Jordon's, all three presidential candidates and members of StudEx called the election a success.
A total of 4,200 student voted in the election, breaking last year's 3,300 vote.
BY ADDING 9 polls to the 10 polls from last year, the committee hoped to make the polls more accessible to the students and reach a goal of 5,000 voters.
The committee didn't increase voter turnout by 1,700, as hoped, but members said they were pleased by the increase of 819.
Because of the expected increase in vote turnout and the additional polls, more voters are voting.
The attempt to get such a large increase in the number of voters, and still maintain fairness, caused several problems, both foreseen and unforeseen, for the committee.
Kevin Flynn, Elections Committee chairman, said last night that half as many ballots were printed in each school as the number of eligible voters.
A TOTAL OF 650 ballots each were printed for the sophomore and junior classes, and 500 were printed for senior class members.
Flym said the committee initially printed far too few ballots.
Available ballots were divided among 19 volls, aggravating the problem. Early
See ELECTION DEBRIS page eight
Interim trashman picks up realistic view of goo
By RICK THAEMERT
Staff Renorter
Steve Yeakee is an atypical trashman. Of the 40 city trashmen he works with, half are illiterate and 10 are ex-cons. Yeakee, however, graduated from KU last year with a bachelor's degree in ancient history and will enter KU law school next fall.
"Three years ago, if somebody would've asked me whether I wanted to be a trashman, I would have recoiled in horror." Yeakel said. "Being a garbage bagman was my job, though high school and college finals I thought I've got to do or I'll be a trashman."
But Yekail took the job because he needed money for law school and because hard physical work can knock out some of those defenses. He alert and keeps me from going stale."
Yeakel said they, like most people, held the opinion that "your trash is like goo, and the man who comes and gets it is an extension of the trash."
YEAKEL'S WIFE and parents at first were embarrassed when he took the job and was not able to work.
City trashmen also are the brunt of complaints because they provide the most objectionable waste.
Yeah, Yeahal, it's not uncommon to people in Caddisilla staring at garbervilles at garden parties.
BUT NOW, working behind the huge, white city garbage truck, it's clear Yeakel is unabashed about his work. He works fast, and he's methodical and tireless. His glings trash bags and cans into the truck, then on hops on the emitter, emitting a high-pitched
"Frustrate people have hung-ups and a bsnman is a good, safer lessen to take it on."
whoo to let the driver know he and his coworkers are finished.
"Trash throwing is the most fun when you really work hard, just sweat and let it fly," he said.
Veaelak told the trashman worked harder when there was an incentive system that enabled them to go home when they finished their route. He said the men would exhaust themselves to do their work in five hours instead of just working for a day, however, was killed by the city commission.
"That's the main criterion for respect around here--hard work. People down here take a lot of pride in what they do. There's a technique to doing it right."
he said he often found cans containing good things that have been discarded for apparently trivial reasons. Sometimes, he used a pair of small squirrel, a meal spawned from poverty.
"It's unusual to see people really work hard for anything, especially trash," he said.
Yeakel said the trashman he worked with were the hardest workers he'd ever seen.
YEAKEL ALONE lets about 8,000 pounds of trash fly a day. The truck on which he drives the truck makes it work and usually makes at least one trip a day to the dump. The city owns about 16 trucks.
WORKING ALLEYS is the hardest work, he said, because all the can are in a row!
Looting trash isn't uncommon among trashmen. For example, Yeakel found a garden hose in one load of trash that he needed.
See TRASHMAN page three
Yeakel said working with trash mude him aware that "an affluent society breeds a
Part of the job
staff photo by MARIANNE MAURIN
inough years ago Steve Yeakel never thought he would find himself in this ac- cupation, he doesn't mind a bit. Yeakel enjoys the physical exercise that is a part of a trashman's job.
cupation, he doesn't mind a bit. Yeakel enjoys the physical exercise that is a part of a trashman's job.