Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1982-03-27

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74th Year No. 163 Good Morning! It's Saturday. March 27, 1982 2 Sections 16 Pages 25 Cents
HHnHlHBaiHIBHMI, IBHniHIHnHHHMIMIMHHiaBIBIKBaHHaHiaiMIIH Reagan ready to make budget changes
.1 NewYorkTimes
WASHINGTON Edwin Meese
HI, the White House counselor, de-clared
Friday that President Reagan
was no longer committed to the bud-get
he submitted last month and was
prepared to negotiate basic changes
to reduce the deGcit with Republi-cans
and Democrats in Congress.
In the most explicitly conciliatory
statement on the budget from any-one
in the Reagan administration,
Meese also said the $ 91.5 billion defi-cit
projected in early February had
grown and required changes in the
administration's budget posture.
" Some changes are necessary be-cause
during the time the budget has
been up there, the potential deficit
has grown," Meese told a session of
the National Health Council at the
Capital Hilton Hotel in downtown
Washington.
He added, " We are looking for
areas of agreement" with Congress
and that, right how, the administra-tion
was engaged in a process of
" trying to get all the various propos-als
onthe table."
At the White House, officials said
Meese's comments did not necessar-ily
signal that Reagan was ready to
make concessions now, particularly
on his insistence in sizable military
spending increases and the preser-vation
of the three- ye- ar personal tax
cut enacted last year. .
But one aide to Reagan said Meese.
was merely making explicit what
was implicit in the fact that James
A. Baker HI, the White House chief
of staff, had already begun private
discussions with Democratic con-gressional
leaders. " Meese is saying
what we've been saying in code all
week," a White House official said.
Meese's comments came as aides
Tm beginning to feel bipartisanship on both
sides,' says Sen. Paul Laxalt, the Nevada
Republican who is Reagan's closest friend.
at the White House and some sen-ators
and representatives expressed
new optimism that a budget compro-mise
can be hammered out some
time between Easter and Memorial
Day.
" I'm beginning to feel a sense of
bipartisanship- o- n both sides," said
Sen. Paul Laxalt, the Nevada Repub-lican
who is Reagan's closest friend
in Congress. " It makes me feel that
perhaps in the next few days the log-jam
will be broken. I'd like to see
things move toward a framework in
which the details could be negotiated
after the Easter recess."
At the White House, Reagan's posi-tion
on the budget is described offi-cially
as unyielding. But starting a
few weeks ago, presidential aides
said they felt personally the presi-dent
would eventually have to accept
changes in his economic program,
most obviously in trimming his mili-tary
spending increases.
When such talk of concessions first
surfaced in newspaper reports, Rea-gan
ordered it stopped. But White
House officials continue to acknowl-edge
that compromise is inevitable
in virtually every area except one:
They remain convinced the presi--
, dent will not have to give up in his
fight to preserve the three- yea- r, 25- perc-ent
personal tax cut enacted last
year.
These officials view Reagan's
stubbornness as sincere enough, but
also as a potentially useful negotiat-ing
weapon aimed at getting the
Democrats and other critics to make
early concessions of their own.
Had Reagan yielded sooner in
December, for example, or even a
few weeks ago his aides reason
that he would now be under the same
pressures to yield still more.
It is not hard for White House
aides to see the ingredients of a com-promise:
military spending cuts;
cuts in nonmilitary spending; tight-ening
of benefit formulas in food
stamps, welfare and other individual
benefits, and some increases in
taxes.
Put together, these pieces could go
far in reducing the deficit for the
1383 fiscal year below the $ 91.5 bil-lion
projected by the administration,
and certainly below the $ 120.6 billion
projected by the Congressional Bud-get
Office.
The White House, which clearly fa-vors
reducing benefit formulas in
welfare and federal employee and
veterans pensions, is not even pro-posing
any specific means for doing
so until the administration can be
more sure of Democratic receptivi-ty.
Democrats, in particular, are es-pecially
gun- sh- y about negotiating
with Reagan. House Speaker Thom-as
P. O'Neill Jr., has complained re-peatedly
that last year he entered
negotiations with Reagan on tax cut
and budget issues, and made signifi-cant
concessions, only to find the
president unwilling to make similar
gestures of Ms own.
Group tries
to resurrect
ERA vote
ByDanBalaban
Missourian staff writer
Ironton, a town of 1,700 tucked
away in the Missouri Ozarks, is not
exactly a hotbed of political activity.
But a group of University Equal
Rights Amendment supporters
wants tomake it one.
Ironton is the home city of State
Sen. Marvin Dinger, a Democrat and
the only member of the Senate Con-stitutional
Amendments Committee
who did not cast a vote on the ERA
when it came before the committee
and was defeated Feb. 10.
A small group of local ERA hold-outs
has seized on this fact and in-tend
to make his impoverished town
a battleground in their last- ditc- h ef-fort
to save the doomed amendment.
-- Members of the University Asso-ciation
for Women Students Task
Force have made Dinger the target
of a campaign to acMeve'- passag- e of "
the amendment before the legis-lative
session ends April 30.
They think they can persuade the
senator to ask for another committee
vote by enli'ding the citizens of Iron- to- n
to their cause.
Dinger, who has twice voted
against the amendment on the Sen1
ate floor, agreed at the urging of
the pro- ER- A lobby to sit out the
IssslgM
Feb. 10 committee vote and give the
amendment a chance to be debated
on the floor. But the lobby's strategy
failed when it could not persuade an-other
anti- ER- A senator to abstain
and swing the vote of the nine- memb- er
committee in favor of sending it
to the floor.
Now task force members think
Dinger's absence may have caused
him political damage. Through his
constituency, they think they can
persuade him cot only to request an-other
committee vote, but, once
called, to vote for the amendment
Two members of the task force,
University students Scott Oppen- hei- m,
an ERA activist, and Dana
Yates, a native of Ironton, traveled
to the town Feb. 17, but found that
gaining support for the amendment
would be harder than they had
thought
" The majority of the people we
talked to did not even know what
ERA meant," says Miss Yates.
" They didnt even know it was going
through the government and they
didnt know that Marvin Dinger had
anything to do with it"
But the two students persisted.
They relied on a cultural trait Miss
Yates says is characteristic of the
people: " Hillbillies cant stand some-one
straddling the fence," she says.
" I dont think the people care if he's
for or against the amendment; they
just want him to do something."
The two, with the help of Miss
Yates' cousins, canvassed the town.
They requested the same thing
wherever they went atstreetcom- er- s,
taverns, supermarkets and the
huge Brown Shoe Co. plant that em-ploys
more than 1,000 people, more
than half of whom are women. Just
write a short letter to Dinger urging
his support of the amendment, they
. asked.
At each location they patiently ex-plained
the amendment's meaning to
those who didnt understand it To
those who couldnt read it, they re-cited
the amendment And in one and
a half days, they collected more than
100 letters. In a town in which only
S50 residents voted in the 1SS0 presi-dential
election, that's a significant
accomplishment
" After they understood it, many of
them would say, ' Hey, that's a good
( See STATE, Page 8A)
I
Council lobbies clergy to promote safety
ByDanBalaban
Missourian staff writer
To the best of his recollection,
Jim Evans hasn't sat down to a
church service in almost 20 years.
Yet Evans has spent a good deal
of time since his retirement seek-ing
the help of local clergymen in
his effort to reduce accidental
deaths and injuries in the commu-nity.
For seven years, Evans has do-nated
20 hours a week to the Colum-bia
Safety Council. He answers the
phone, types up announcements
and refers the safety conscious to
information on the subject. And
during the last four years, he's
made visits to churches of every
denomination.
" The church is the only form of
adult education for many people,"
he says -- candidly. And what better
way to get the message across
about safer driving and work habits
than in a church service?
So Evans, periodically visits
- ehurdsesinthe vicinity of the coun-cil's
office at Ninth and Broadway.
On such outings, he carries in one
hand a copy of the National Safety
Council's " Accident Facts," in the
other, citations to Scriptures that
relate to safety in daily life. Both,
he suggests to the clergy, may be
used in a sermon on safety.
But his results, he says with
equal candor, have not been en-couraging.
" WelL ni be honest with you,"
he says. " A total flop."
To his knowledge, in the four
years that he and other members of
the council have called on local
clergy members, not one has talked
about safety in all or part of a ser-mon.
By his count, Evans says,
there are more than 100 clergymen
in the community, but the council
has even had difficulty persuading
churches to mention the subject at
any length in their bulletins.
He asks that the clergy forward
to their congregations three safety
tips to reduce automobile deaths
and injuries, which currently ac-count
for more than half of all acci-dent
casualties: Keep the drunk
driveroff the road; while riding in a
vehicle, keep children under five in
a safety seat in the back seat; and
wear safety belts at all times.
Evans made another round of
visits to churches and a synagogue
early in February to drum up sup-port
for " Safety Sabbath," which
was sponsored Feb. 12-- 14 by the
National Safety Council. At that
time, he carried with him copies of
the Columbia council's newsletter,
which be wrote himself, urging
clergymen and leaders of religious
organizations to " implore their
congregations" to. follow the three
precautions. In the newsletter he
asked for help in energizing " one of
the largest support groups, the reli---
giouscomflnfixSy."
None of the local clergy respond-ed,
Evans said.
" 11 we even get one out of the 100
well feel like we've done a good
job," he says. " K we even get one
more item in a church announce-ment
or just one mention in a serv-ice,
well be happy."
Many of the churches have gone
only as far as putting notices in
their bulletins announcing Safety
Council events.
" I just dont think it's appropri-ate,"
says the Rev. Thomas E.
Frank of the United Missouri Meth-odist
Church, 204 S. Ninth St..
" There are a lot of valid concerns
in the community, but I dont think
it's one we'd do frcerthe pulpit."
The Rev. Sam S. Langley of the
First Christian Church, 101 N.
Tenth St, said he mentioned the
subject in a service " years back."
Others say that their programs
were full during the Safety Sabbath
Safety advocate Jim Evans is trying to get more church support '
this year, or that they never got
word of the event.
But Liz Schmidt, president of the
Columbia Interfaith Council, said
that at the prodding of the council
she sent about 60 letters to local
houses of worship announcing the
Safety Sabbath.
She said members of her organi-zation,
a conference of local lay
leaders and clergymen, also dis-cussed
the event at their January
meeting. She says she doesn't know
if any church, synagogue or mos-que
has acted en the Safety Coun-cil's
suggestions.
" They're flooded with informa-tion,"
says Mrs. Schmidt of the pos-sible
reason many clergymen
failed to learn of the event. " You
just cant absorb everything that
comes across your desk."
Another Safety Sabbath is sched-uled
for the Labor Day weekend,
which is one of the deadliest week-ends
for motorists. The Rev. Nor- -
man Vincent Peale chairs the event
nationally. On a four- pag- e program
planning guide, he tells clergymen
and leaders of religious groups how
to observe the Sabbath. Evans said
he took the guide to many of the
churches he visited.
The guide provides prayers for
safety, safety quotes that can be in-serted
into the church newsletter,
and biblical citations and accident
statistics on which to base a safety
sermon.
M. U. curators criticize med school cuts
By BryanBurrough
Missourian staff writer
ST. LOUIS The University
Board of Curators Friday tabled a
proposal by Chancellor Barbara
Uehling to decrease enrollment at
the University School of Medicine
beginning in 1383.
Spiraling costs and deep cuts in
federal funding at the medical school
prompted the administration to urge
a reduction in class size from 110 stu-dents
to 100, a 9 percent decrease.
Speaking before the board at the
University of Missouri- S- L Louis, Dr.
Uehling further supported the cut by
citing figures that predict the num-ber
of doctors nationwide will double
by the year 2000. The medical school
would save an estimated $ 120,000 un--
der the proposal, not nearly enough
to compensate for the loss of federal
funds. Dr. Uehling said.
" We've reached a point where we
have to stop and say, " We cant af-ford
to do this for all these stu-dents,'
" she said. " There comes a
point when you just have to cut
back."
The medical school already is un-derstaffed
and suffering from a se-vere
space shortage, Dr. Uehling
said.
But two curators immediately crit-icized
the chancellor's plan on the
basis that cutting enrollment would
inflict a deep wound on a state al-ready
short on doctors in many rural
areas.
SSkeston, Mo., curator Robert
Dempster, who termed the proposal
" a serious, serious wrong," moved
that the plan be defeated.
. " If this board decreases the size of
the medical school, they're doing
this state a great disservice,"
Dempster said.
St Louis curator William Cocos
further admonished Dr. Uehling.
" I would be totally opposed to cut-ting
the enrollment of the medical
school," Cocos said. " We've had this
size for 10 years, and all of a sudden
we dont have enough space, insuffi-cient
faculty and quality is down.
Have we been graduating inefficient
doctors?"
Without information on the sub-ject,
the board was caught flat- foote- d.
Aggravating the matter, Dr.
Uehling was unable to tell the cura-tors
where the savings accrued by
the enrollment cut would be used.
She said that faculty inevitably
would be cut
" You're asking us to reduce ( en-rollment)
without a decision being
' made ( on where the savings will
go )," Dempster said.
That note struck a respondent
chord with newly appointed curator
Doug Russell of Lebanon, Mo., who
was attending his first curator meet-ing.
Russell asked for more informa-tion,
and curator Marian Oldham
then moved to table the administra-tion's
proposal.
Mrs. Oldham later successfully
called for future administrative pro-posals,
chiefly those dealing with
program reductions and elimina- -
uons, to be forwarded to curators for
consideration at least 10 days prior
to board meetings.
University President James Olson
said the amount of information given
the board on the proposal was
" about the same" as on other mat-ters,
but the board's degree of inter-est
was higher.
" Obviously, we didnt do a partic-ularly
good job of documenting our
suggestion," be said.
Olson said the enrollment cut en-dorsed
by medical school adminis-trators,
wouldn't affect the quality of
Missouri health care.
In other business, administrators
revealed extensive cuts in the Uni-versity's
cooperative extension serv--
( See EXTENSION, Page 8A)
Citizens want trustees to listen
ByJoeLambe
Missourian staff writer
FAYETTE Another act opened
Thursday in the drama surrounding
Keller Memorial Hospital, as about
100 citizens crowded into the Howard
County Courthouse to discuss how to
communicate with the hospital
Board of Trustees and make it more
accountable to the public.
They elected four representatives
to meet as a group with the hospital
beard. There is no assurance, how-ever,
Shat the board will agree to the
meeting.
Eleven of the hospital's 14 regis--'
tered nurses submitted their resig-nations
on March 8 after the board
refused to meet with them publicly
to discuss nursing concerns about
staff size and patient care.
On March 13 the Columbia Mis-sourian
reported that the hospital
was violating state law by repeated-ly
refusing to surrender control of
$ 1.03 million in investment funds to
- the county treasurer. The money
came from excess funds the hospital
received from the county each year,
and the investment return on it
The board also did not have a copy
of its 1S80 financial report on file at
the courthouse until March 10, more
than a year after it was due.
Sarah Morrow, who organized the
meeting, said she wanted to look to-ward
the future and stress positive
goals for the hospitaL She wanted to
give citizens a chance to commu-nicate
with each other and with the
board.
Hospital board under fire
Marilyn Linhart, who assisted
Mrs. Morrow in arranging the meet-ing,
said, " We want to open up posi-tive
channels of communication so
board members feel they can com-fortably
talk to the community."
Because the nurses have decided
not to return to Keller, no discussion
of their situation was allowed, and
speakers were restricted to five min-utes
each to comment on the hospi-tal's
financial situation and the ques-tion
of the board's access to the
public.
The board meetings have been
closed, and some county residents
said board members have refused to
discuss the hospital's financial situa-tion
with them.
" It appears to me the board has
been unreasonable by not agreeing
to public meetings," said George
Vaughan. " If we can just avoid per-sonalities
and be reasonable, we can
solve this problem."
Others spoke out in favor of the
board, and against the idea of town-ship
representatives.
" It's not fair just to set watchdogs
over the men we elected," said Steve
Sartain. " The board should just have
an open meeting with the public ev- -
( See COUNTY, Page 8A)
i
lis tewm ttay
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at 3 p- m- .. Tickets $ 4 in
advance and at doer, $ 2 for
children under 12.
8pja. Chestnut Brass, clas-sical
music, Fine Aits Recital
EaH at the University, free.
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