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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Vol. 99, No. 57 (USPS 650-640)
PUBLISHED SINCE 1869 BY THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Tuesday November 15,1988
Police fired for union activity, lawyer says
By Jay A. Cohen Kansan staff writer
The chairman and vice chairman of the Kansas University Police Officers Association were fired this fall by KU police because of their attempts to have the group certified as an employee union, a lawyer who represents the association said last week.
The lawyer, Steve Bukaty, also accused the KU police department of using improper procedures during a recent internal investigation.
"It is the organization's position that the chairman and vice chairman were terminated illegally because of their union activity." Bukat said.
KU police director James Denney denied the allegation that police officers were fired because of union activities.
"There has not been nor will there be any action taken in the police department because of any organizing activities." Dennev said.
Denney would not say whether any KU police officers had been fired, and said he could not comment on personnel matters because of civil service regulations.
Bukaty refused to name the officers in question. However, according to public transcripts of a hearing before a representative of the Public Employee Relations Board last spring, KU Police Officer Timothy R. Cochran, Topeka, identified himself as the chairman of the KUPOA and KU Police Officer Cecil M. Leonard, rural Lawrence, identified himself as the association's vice-chairman.
Contacted at home, Cochran said he had been advised by legal counsel not to discuss the matter and would not elaborate. Leonard could not be reached for comment.
Bukaty, who is a Kansas City, Kan. attorney, said he advised the two men not to talk to the media.
KUPOA is a group of about 35 KU police department employees. The group, which is not a union, is not recognized by the state, Department of Human Resources or the University as a representative burglaring organization. It is now in the first steps of forming a union.
Bukaty also refused to discuss any specific details which led to his allegations, because he had no knowledge of the case.
through civil service procedures.
Mary Prewitt, assistant general counsel for the University, also said she could not comment on Buketu's allegations because of civil service regulations.
Ralph Oliver, KU police assistant director, said on Nov. 7 that as result of an internal investigation, changes had been made in police procedures and personnel. Oliver would not say whether the investigation was related to union activities.
KU police officer Gary Wieden, who said he was the interim chairman of the KUPOA, on Wednesday that the two officers had been fired "a couple weeks ago."
Bukaty said that improper actions taken by the KU police department while conducting the internal investigation included surveillance of police officers, late night interrogations, threats and intimidation of employees by police management.
In response to the allegations, Denney said, "It is absolutely untrue that there was any intimidation by the management of the police department by the department simply operated that man."
There was no surveillance of police offi
cers in connection with the internal investigation." Denney said.
Bukaty would not give any details on whether the two men who were fired were the subjects of the investigation, nor would he believe they were fired because of the investigation.
Denny said he objected to the term "late night interrogations," but said, "You have to realize that the police department is a 24-hour operation and you try to do things at a...
The internal investigation began in late September after it was discovered that copies of confidential criminal and investigation records, along with an unsigned cover letter alleging improper investigation process, were sent to people outside the police department.
An Attorney General's investigation into the charges made in the cover letter found that the police department investigation procedures had not been improper. Prewitt said after the investigation was completed in the first week of October.
Denney said that the KU police internal investigation had discovered who had taken
the documents and how. He said that while the primary work of the investigation has been finished, the investigation has not been completed.
According to Kansas statutes, knowingly releasing confidential information from official records is one of numerous grounds for dismissal of a public employee.
Bakaty said he expected that an election would be held before the end of the year to decide whether the KUPOA would be for president or representative of the majority of the employees.
Ray Siehndel, director of administration for the state department of human resources, said that the Public Employees Relations Board in a ruling made on Sept. 21 had determined which KU police employees would be part of the bargaining unit, the first of three steps needed to form a recognized union.
The KUPOA was appealing part of the decision. The part under appeal is the decision not to include sergeants as members of the organization. In the decision, sergeants were not included in the association because they have a supervisory role.
Court upholds abortion law
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court yesterday refused to give husbands the legal power to prevent their wives from having abortions.
The justices, without comment, let stand an Indiana Supreme Court decision that a husband has run into legal trouble and is constitutional right to abort her pregnancy.
The state court's ruling in the abortion case last July was based directly on past rulings by the nation's highest court.
Erin Andrew Conn of Elkhart,印ent went to court early last summer in an attempt to prevent her estranged wife, Jennifer. from having an abortion. She was about six weeks pregnant at the time.
A state trial judge issued a temporary order barring Conn from having
the operation performed, but a state appeals court threw out that order.
"Erin has no right to veto Jennifer's decision . . . as such decision concerns only her," the appeals court ruled.
The Indiana Supreme Court, acting on Erin Conn's subsequent appeal, then adopted the appeals court ruling as its own.
The state courts said Conti's attempt to block his wife's abortion was prohibited by prior Supreme Court rulings back to 1973, when a landmark decision by the justices legalized abortion.
In 1976, the court struck down a Missouri law requiring consolent consent before a woman could obtain an abortion, the first 12 weeks of her pregnancy
Drug testing Government orders random checks
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Transportation Department yesterday ordered a wide range of drug testing, including random checks, for more than 4 million transportation workers from airline pilots and flight attendants to truckers and railroaders.
Transportation Secretary Jim Burnley said the transportation industries were no more immune from drug abuse than other parts of society, listing a series of accidents and other indicators that he said show narcotics to be a problem among truck and bus drivers, commercial pilots and railroad workers.
He acknowledged that the tests, which take effect in a year, likely will be challenged in the courts.
The Supreme Court has before it two separate drug-testing cases, including one involving post-accident
"Random testing is a counter-productive, shotgun strategy that is at the same time an unwarranted invasion of privacy and of no significant impact in the battle against trust abuse," said ALPA President Henry Duffy.
testing of railroad workers, that are expected to be decided next year.
After Burnley's announcement, the head of the 40,000-member Air Line Pilots Association vowed to go to Congress and to the federal courts to overturn the requirement for random testing.
Also on Monday, the 9,000-member Owners-Operators Independent Drivers Association of America, representing independent owners of heavy-duty trucks and small truck fleets, filed suit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, challenging the random drug testing of commercial truckers as well as post-acident and pre-employment testing.
Enjoying the warm weather, Todd Reed, Wichita freshman, slides down the handrail on the stairs behind Carpathia O'Leary Hall leading to Potter Lake. He was on his way to class yesterday afternoon.
Riding the rails
Campus reacts to PLO vote
By Debbie McMahon
Kansan staff writer
Campus reaction to the Palestine National Council's recognition of Israel was to wait and see how Israel, the world community will respond.
The PNC, the parliament-in-exile for Palestinians, approved a United Nations resolution yesterday which recognizes Israel's right to exist.
Related story p. 6, col. 1
The council is expected today to declare the West Bank and Gaza Strip independent, after 11 months of Palestinian uprising against Israel's 21-year occupation.
Mahmoud Aïb, Irid, Jordan, graduate student, who said his home is in Nazareth, said it would only be fair to recognize the Palesinian state.
"When the Jews came from Europe, after the Holocaust, and went to Palestine and declared it their state, the United States and the United Nations recognized it, just moments after. Ali said, "Now it's the Palestinian state. It has the same circumstances."
All said he thought the PNC gave too much for not having any guarantees in return.
"I think it is kind of premature," Ali said. "They should have gotten some guarantees from Israel and the U.S. that they would recognize the PLO, and that a withdrawal from the occupied territories would occur."
He said the results of the declarations could test the PLO.
"This could be the last chance," Ali said. "If they don't achieve anything, then probably more radical actions will occur."
The declaration sets out a new political strategy by endorsing U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, thus satisfying one of Washington's key
Please see CAMPUS, p. 6, col. 1
Proposed KU budget seeking funds for minority student teaching posts
By Mark Fagan Kansan staff writer
Under the University of Kansas proposed budget for fiscal year 1990, minority students at KU have much to look forward to.
An additional $95,000 would be earmarked for student recruitment and retention, including adding an additional staff member for minority recruitment in the Office of Admissions.
The Margin of Excellence portion of the proposal calls for $7,000 to be set aside for 10 graduate minority teachers assistships.
Admission
The assistantships would offer a student a $7,500 stipend, which could be renewed for each of the next three years.
"I would like to have more," said Robert B. Sanders, associate dean of the graduate school. "But it represents a good first effort on the University's part."
KU's budget proposal is now being reviewed by the state budget office in Topeka, and the office will make its recommendations to Gov Mike Hayden later than theHayden will send his proposals to the Kansas Legislature in January.
The Margin is the Board of Regents three-year plan to increase total financing of Regents schools to 95 percent of their peer institutions and faculty salaries to 100 percent of their peers.
KU administrators are hopeful that the entire second year of the Margin of Excellence will be approved.
"The idea is to increase the pool of students who are interested and able to do graduate work." Sanders said. "We can increase the pool of people who have advanced degrees and they can take their places in society, as teachers at the University or other appropriate employments."
The proposed budget document
identified minority graduate student recruitment as particularly difficult, and said the new assistantships should be made available to minority graduate students at KU.
Nationwide, minorities earned only 10.3 percent of the nation's doctoral degrees in 1986, according to federal census figures.
The 10.3 percentage is an anomaly. Sanders said, because minorities make up about 22 percent of the nation's population.
"There are very few minority students in the University, and even fewer minority graduate students." Sanders said. "This program is an incentive for departments to actively recruit minorities."
The assistantships would be in addition to the normal allocation of departmental graduate teaching assistantship funds, the budget proposal said. Thus, competition for the awards is expected.
"Since we have more schools than we have awards for, some will have to be left out," he said. "And we have many more departments that could also use the awards."
Sanders, who is also chairman of the minority graduate student recruitment advisory committee, said the assistantships would be awarded to students based on merit, which includes scholastic achievement, grades, test scores and letters of recommendation.
He said the committee in the next few months would decide upon specific criteria for the awards.
Still, Sanders said he was unsure whether state legislators would approve the provision.
"I'm not a politician, so I don't have a feel for what they are likely to do," he said. "I hope it will pass we can implement it next year."
Minority doctorates are truly minorities
Another of the mission-related
enhancements under the Margin calls for $95,000 to be devoted to student recruitment and retention
Stephen Kline/KANSAN
The proposal would add to the Office of Admissions another staff member, whose primary concern
would be the recruitment of qualified minority students.
Marshall Jackson, assistant director of the University Placement Center, said the new staff member was needed.