University Daily Kansan / Monday, February 19, 1990
Campus/Area
3
Med Center's future clouded by budget cut
By Steve Bailey
Kansan staff writer
Give Mike Hayden's actual shrink-age proposal will cut $2.4 million from the University of Kansas Medical Center's 1990 budget and could put the Med Center in future financial difficulty, a Med Center official said Friday.
D. Kay Clawson, executive vice chancellor at the Med Center, said $2.4 million would be taken from the Med Center's fiscal 1990 budget because of the state's revenue shortfall.
Shrinkage is the money saved when vacant positions result in fewer salaries to pay. Because of the state's budget problems, Hayden has recommended that all state agencies base their budgets on actual-shrinkage rates. In the past, projected rates of shrinkage, which sometimes were inaccurate, were used, resulting in windfalls for state agencies.
Clawson said the nursing shortage at the Med Center was a primary reason for the substantial cuts. In January, the Med Center had 74 nursing vacancies. The shrinkage is the money that was budgeted to pay the salaries of those nurses.
Clawson said the cut would not hurt the Med Center in the short term.
"If the money is restored for fiscal year 1991, then there will be no adverse effect," he said. "If it is not returned, it could be disastrous to the Med Center. We could lose recruiting power for nurses and physicians."
Clawson said Hayden's proposed
1991 budget would not restore money lost from shrinkage, making it more difficult to recruit nurses and alleviate the nursing shortage.
Michael O'Keefe, state budget director, said that someone would have to demonstrate that the Med Center would be devastated for the money to be restored.
Clawson said that Med Center officials have been talking to the Board of Regents and state legislators to emphasize the importance of the return of the money to the fiscal 1991 budget.
O'Keefe said the money was cut based on Med Center budget patterns of the past few years.
"In effect, we are giving what we estimate it will take to run the Medical Center," he said.
O'Keefe said the shrinkage cuts would not hurt the Mid Center because state civil service restrictions limited the effectiveness of recruiting. The civil service system sets a framework for the way state employees are paid.
"They are competing in a very aggressive market," he said. "The positions will not be filled until something is done with the civil service restrictions to allow them to offer competitive salaries."
O'Keefe said some legislators and the governor would support the Med Center.
"Mike Hayden will not let the Medical Center get into difficulty," he said.
Polish ambassador says reform is vital
By Carol B. Shiney
Kansan staff writer
Changes in Poland and other East European countries often are described as exciting; however, the Polish ambassador to the United States says the changes are much more than that.
"They are fundamental. They are related to the most vital interests of the people of the states," said Jan Wickersham, director to the United States since 1987.
The Polish ambassador spoke Friday to more than 60 people at the Centennial Room in the Kansas Union as part of the "S spirit of Poland," a month-long celebration sponsored by the University Concert Series and other campus and community organizations.
He said that Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika were somewhat interrelated with the changes in Poland and other East European countries but that the changes in Poland started long before Gorbachev's policies.
"I mean that Poland is sort of a test ground, a laboratory, for the other countries and probably the Soviet Union," Kinast said. "If we are successful, then probably the process of transformations with the other countries will be a little bit easier."
The changes in Poland are important in both political and economic areas.
"In the economic sense, it's the attempt to move away from the previous model, a central planned economy, to a pro-market oriented
economy," Kinast said.
He said the efforts of the Polish Parliament were concentrated on the economy.
Last year, the Parliament passed about 10 laws related to the economic framework, Kinast said. Now offence against the economy on privatization of the banking.
He said the process of privatization would be done in various forms including organizing a new banking system, changing the labor code and organizing a stock exchange.
"An important element of that overall economic program is cooperation with foreign partners," Kinast said.
As an example of that cooperation, he said the World Bank had recently approved loans of $360 million for agriculture and telecommunications.
"I'm glad to say that as far as our relations with the United States that they are really in good shape — being with political dialogue," he said.
Kinast said Poland had good cooperation with many foreign governments, especially the United States.
Kinast said Polish officials also were trying to create a favorable climate for investors.
Anna Cienciala, KU professor of history and Soviet and East European studies, said that at the moment, there was some talk about Poland How ever, she said there were many opportunities.
State senators take fact-finding tour
Kansan staff writer
By Rod Griffin
State Sen. Paul Feleciano Jr., D-Wichita, asked the same burning question often asked by KU faculty and students as he toured the Dole Human Development Center on Friday.
Harder (left), Horowitz, a Senate staff member and Feleciano are given a tour by Allen Wiechert.
"Where are all these people going to park?" he asked.
Keith Thorpe/KANSAN
Fleciano and State Sen. Joseph Harder, R-Moundridge, visited the University of Kansas on an information-gathering mission. Both are members of a Senate Ways and Means subcommittee exploring the needs of Board of Regents institutions.
Frances Horowitz, vice chancellor for research, graduate studies and public service, said Dole Center patrons would park in the new parking facility or existing parking lots.
The senators also discussed education issues with representatives of several University organizations that have been tested on the Margin of Excellence.
The Margin is the Regents three-year plan to bring the total financing of its seven institutions to 95 percent of their peer schools and to bring faculty salaries to 100 percent of their peers.
Heithem El-Hodiri, chairman of Graduate Student Executive Committee, said, "I would like to encourage you not to let the Margin stop here."
He encouraged Feleciano and Harder to recommend an increase in graduate teaching assistant stinences and tuition fee waivers
El-Hodiri said the stipends and
Sherri Swees, campus director of the Associated Students of Kansas, questioned the senators about the progress of three bills that would finance the Margin. One bill would raise about $12 million for the Margin through a tax on cigarettes and tobacco products. Two other bills would transfer funds
earmarked for the highway program to higher education.
fee waivers were important to attract graduate students to the University.
Although the Senate passed the cigarette tax, which now is being considered by the House, Feleciano offered little hope for its passage. The other bills originated in the House, and he predicted they would die there.
Feleciano said legislators were reluctant to take money from the highway program, which they approved and set in motion last year. The financial crisis faced by the state will play a major role in the passage of the bills.
he said.
"If you have been following the House, you know that it is a zoo."
"This is the worst year I have ever seen," he said, referring to the state's fiscal situation.
Hispanic conference focuses on cultural pride
By Mark McHugh
Kenanq staff writer
More than 300 Hispanic students and administrators from Kansas and the Midwest on Saturday attended a conference sponsored by the Hispanic American Leadership Organization at the Kansas Union.
George Garcia, superintendent of Kansas City, Mo., public schools, said in a speech that young Hispanics needed to return to their roots to ensure pride in the Hispanic community.
"You've got to look at your past as you help build your future," he said.
the burden of U.S. U.S.
contributed a great deal to U.S.
culture.
"Our language, culture and people were here before Anglos in the Midwest and before there was a United States," he said.
He said that Mexicans, like other
Richard Santillan, chairman of ethnic and women's studies at California State Polytechnic University, said many Mexicans migrated to the Midwest from 1910 to 1917 to escape the turmoil of the Mexican revolution.
minorities in the United States, had been oppressed by discrimination and that young Hispanics today had little to lose. The exemplary leaders in the future.
He said that the first Mexican immigrants arrived in Lawrence in
As of Fall 1989, the University of Kansas had the second largest Hispanic population among Kansas universities, said Tom Herrera, assistant director of the Office of Minority Affairs. Wichita State University had the largest population. The 368 Hispanics at KU constitute 1.4 percent of the Lawrence campus population.
Gene Chavez, director of the Center for Intercultural Communications in Kansas City, Kan., spoke about the origin and mispronunciation of Hispanic names.
He said people often mispronounced his name.
"I know, and I tolerate it because I'm in a dominant English society," he said.
Juan Andrade, executive director of the Midwest/Northeast Voter Registration Project, said it was important for Hispanics to appreciate their culture and history as a source of strength.
"In this country, there is a very strong anti-minority, anti-ethnic and anti-Hispanic movement," Andrade said. "We are not living in a bowl of cherries. You can see it in the U.S. government today, where our civil rights are under attack."
He urged the members of the audience to learn more about the Spanish language because it was a bridge to their past. He said establishing English as the official language of the United States would be ludicrous.
"Espanol is the language of the western hemisphere in the future," Andrade said.
He encouraged Hispanics to band together to conquer obstacles like racism and discrimination.
"We as Latinos need to say that we fought the good fight, that we ran the run and that we kept the faith," he said.
Saturday's program consisted of speeches, workshops and lectures. The money to finance the conference was donated by local and national corporations.
Widow of Malcolm X speaks of racism in education system
By Jonathan Plummer Kansan staff writer
The U.S. education system is socializing children against their heritage, the widow of Black activist Malcolm X said Friday.
"There is a systematic, coordinated propaganda campaign that starts at school," Betty Shabazz told more than 200 people at the Spencer Museum of Art.
"Some students in school experience a dehumanizing process of indoctrination, and that indoctrination is against themselves, to dislike themselves," she said.
Shabazz told a story of a child who were African clothing to school, and his teacher told the class about each garment. The next day another child was encouraged enough to wear clothing indicative of his heritage.
But that kind of understanding is not as widespread as it should be, she said.
She cited a study reporting that Black children entering first grade told stories that showed positive images of schools and teachers. By the second grade, these stories showed negative images.
"Very little respect is shown for the child's experience or culture," Shabazz said.
By the fifth grade, many of these children can be properly labeled cynics. Shabazz said.
We cannot continue to ignore the indicators telling us our education system is in trouble, she said.
"What are we going to do?" Shabazz asked. "Are we going to enhance development, or are we going to continue as we have?"
"How do we know that some of these very people that we have neglected are going to teach our children and our grandchildren? We see that the circle goes around and around.
"If things are going to change for Blacks, then Blacks must do it for themselves," she said.
Shabazz said that we must help a great deal of people gain a positive self-image and become productive.
After the speech, many students agreed with Shabazz and said that the indoctrination process she spoke of occurred at the University of Kansas.
"I think that this University needs to concentrate directly on the contributions of Africans and African-Americans to this society," said John Lewis, Kansas City, Kan., junior.
"In classes they make certain references to things that are black as negative," he said. "They negate themselves with a negative feeling toward oneself."
Tom Bettis, Merriam junior, said that throughout school he had received the message that anything colored black was somehow inferior.
Shabazz also spoke briefly about her husband, who was assassinated in 1965.
"I have never seen anyone who is more interpreted by others than him," she said of her husband, "Malcolm wasn't teaching hate. He was a man of great selflessness. He was a very gentle man, but he was very firm in his beliefs."
Public Lecture
"THE BACKGROUND NECESSARY TO UNDERSTAND THE EFFECT OF ISLAM ON WORLD POLITICS."
This is the first in a series of lectures sponsored by the Islamic Center of Lawrence to introduce Islam to non-Muslims.
presented by Hamed Ghazali (President of the Islamic Center of Lawrence)
Monday, February 19 at 7:30 p.m. Kansas Room, Kansas Union
She said that Malcolm X's philosophy of Blacks helping themselves often was incorrectly called bigotry.
Refreshments served
For more information call 841-9768.
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