Page 4-Friday, May 7, 1982--The Michigan Doily
Tenured profs
in California
suffer lay-offs

From theAssociated Press
ROHNERT PARK, Calif. (AP)- Two
dozen professors at Sonoma State
University have been given a painful
economics lesson-just because they're
tenured doesn't mean they have
lifetime jobs.
The 24 professors, with an average 10
years experience at the university,
have been notified they will be laid off
effective Aug. 3 because of lower,
enrollment and shifts in course
preference.
THE LAYOFFS at the campus 50
miles north of San Francisco are the
first in years within the California State
University system, the nation's largest
with 319,000 students.
At the same time, Sonoma State is
hiring personnel in other departments,
including three football coaches.
"I'm mad," said John Kramer, a
political science professor being laid off
after 12 years. "It may be that there is a
necessity for some layoffs at Sonoma
State. But the situation is being used by
the administration as a vehicle to
reward favorites and punish people
they don't like. There's no sense of fair-
ness."
Kramer is among several faculty
members to file grievances with the
American Ass9ciation of University
Professors, which represents 70,000
professors across the nation.
TRADITIONALLY, professors gran-
ted tenure are assured of lifetime em-
ployment, barring grave misconduct.
But state law now permits layoffs of
tenured faculty for "lack of funds or
Hinck ley 's
testifies at
WASHINGTON (AP)- The son
fidgeted and flushed, the jury listened
intently and the mother of John Hin-
ckley Jr. broke into tears Thursday as
she told how she learned "your son ...
is the man they identified as shooting
the president."
Hinckley, on trial for the shooting,
covered his face with his hands as
JoAnn Hinckley spoke. When he was led
out of the hushed courtroom moments
later, Hinckley's face was beet red and
it looked as if he had also been crying.
UNDER CROSS examination, Mrs.
Hinckley revealed she's never heard
her son play the guitar, although he
aspired to be a musidian; nevervisited
him in college, although she deplored
how he lived; and when John com-
plained of one ailment after another
"we just felt like John was bringing
miseries upon himself."_
When asked whether her son's tor-
mented letters prompted her to con-
sider psychological help for John, she
said, "We should have, we should have,
but we didn't." Mrs. Hinckley will
return to the witness stand Friday. Her
husband is waiting to testify.
Mrs. Hinckley had testified on direct
examination that John "seemed to be
going downhill, downhill, downhill" in
the previous years.
It was in line with the defense conten-

lack of work."
Fred Dorer, acting vice president for
academic affairs, said Sonoma State
"went over the precipice. We no longer
have enough funds to support the
tenured faculty on hand."
Barbara Nielsen, an AAUP executive
president in San Francisco, said,
"Before laying off tenured faculty,
there should be a thorough in-
vestigation of any and all possibilities
before you need to reach that last
resort. From what we see so far, that
was not the case at Sonoma State."
Robert Brown, a history professor
and chairman of the faculty Academic
Senate, said the university is hiring in-
structors in biology, computer science
and media studies, as well as coaches.
"IT MAKES no sense to' announce
that we have a financial crisis on our
hands, therefore, we have to lay you off,
when at the same time, they're adding
staff in another area, academic or not,"
Ms. Nielsen said.
Sports information director Jay Pot-
ter confirmed the athletic department
plans to hire soon three part-time foot-
ball coaches.
"It's our belief in the athletic
program that if any program is going to
save this university, it's going to be
athletics," he said. "You don't hear too
much about the great English professor
in the daily paper, buy you sure hear
about the great athletic program."
CAMPUS enrollment, which peaked
at more than 5,000 in the mid-1970s, has
dropped to less than 4,200 this year.
mother
son's trial
tion that Hinckley was insane last year
when he set out to assassinate the
president to impress an actress he had
never met. The prosecution must prove
that Hinckley was sane in order to con-
vict him.
Mrs. Hinckley said her son never
mentioned his fascination with actress
Jodie Foster. In fact, she said they had
discussed the movie "Taxi Driver,"
which starred Miss Foster, but not the
actress.
Again and again, Mrs. Hinckley said:
"John was very discouraged. He had no
direction in his life. He was sad and
depressed and rather down on him-
self."
The mother of the 26-year-old man
accused of trying to kill President
Reagan and three others was the first
witness in his defense.
Mrs. Hinckley set the stage, ina story
spanning Hinckley's childhood to his
manhood, for the insanity defense Hin-
ckley's lawyers are offering.
The prosecution rested its case after
calling 16 witnesses and offering nearly
200 exhibits. U.S. District Judge
Barrington D. Parker denied a routine
motion by the defense that he dismiss
the case because Hinckley's own
writings show he was insane when he
shot the president and the others on
March 30,1981.

In Brief
Compiled from Associated Press and
United Press International reports
Walesa's wife denied visit
WARSAW, Poland- Poland's martial law authorities denied Danuta
Walesa permission to visit her husband, Solidarity union chief Lech Walesa,
during this week's rioting, government spokesman Jerzy Urban said yester-
day.
Mrs. Walesa has been allowed regular visits with-her husband, interned
since the start of martial law last Dec. 13.
Urban told The Associated Press the government did not feel a visit was
appropriate while "disturbances" swept Warsaw and at least 12 other Polish
cities Monday and Tuesday.
He denied a Swedish report that Walesa had been moved to a new secret
location during the riots, and said the sequestered union chief remained
isolated at a villa in Otwock, a Warsaw suburb.
"We didn't agree to (Mrs. Walesa's) visit. . . as she wanted to go there
during the days of disturbances," Urban said. "But I understanda new date
for the visit has been set and it will take place soon."
Mrs. Walesa's request to see her husband had been her first planned visit
since Easter when the entire family, including all seven of the couple's
children had been together for the first time since Dec. 12.
Walesa was not among 1,000 Solidarity members and supporters released
by authorities last week in an easing of the 5-month-old restrictions.
'82 retail sales sluggish
NEW YORK- Most major retailers reported yesterday that they finished
the first quarter with only modest sales gains from a year before, as the
freak spring snowstorm and faltering economy further eroded business at
big department and discountstores in April.
Two of the large general-merchandise chains, J.C. Penney Co. and Mon-
tgomery Ward & Co., had lower sales in the past 13 weeks than in the com-
parable period last year. Sears, Roebuck and Co. sales increased only 1.6
percent for the quarter, and F.W. Woolworth Co. sales advanced a mere 0.6
percent for the year so far. Quarterly gains were higher at K mart, 8 per-
cent, but that was lower than expected.
"The recession, high unemployment and high interest rates continue to
erode consumer confidence," said Jeffrey Edelman, an analyst who follows
the retail industry for Dean, Witter, Reynolds Inc.
With the inflation rate running about 5 percent in the retail industry,
chains neither expanding rapidly nor closing stores aim for monthly sales'
gains of 8 percent or 9 percent, according to Monroe Greenstein, an analyst
with Bear, Stearns & Co.
Laser treatment stops blindness
WASHINGTON- A laser treatment for a leading cause of blindness works
so well that eye doctors should adopt it immediately, saving up to 13,800
Americans from losing their sight in the next year, the National Eye In-
stitute said yesterday.
Dr. Stuart Fine of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, where
the government-funded study was coordinated, said laser treatment stopped
blindness in up to 70 percent of the cases if used in the early stages of the
disease, known as senile macular degeneration-the leading cause of blin-
dness in people over age 50.
Dr. Carl Kupfer, director of the institute, said a five-year comparison test
of the technique with more than 200 patients at 12 medical centers has been
cut short after three years because the method is so effective.
"The trial yielded results far sooner than we had expected and we believe
that these findings may save as many as 13,000 older Americans from going
blind in the next year," Kupfer told a news briefing.
"That would mean that the expected nationwide incidence of blindness can
be reduced by almost 14 percent over the next year."
The results of the study are to be published soon. But advance copies of the
study have been sent to every eye specialist in the country so that those
capable of performing the treatment can start as soon as possible, Kupfer
said.
Parolee reforms, then vanishes
BOISE, Idaho- When James Hayden confessed to killing his wealthy un-
cle 15 years ago it appeared his future would be played out in the stark con-
fines of a prison cell
But after being sentenced to 40 years ina Washington state prison, Hayden
became a model prisoner, won parole in sevenyears, remarried and forged
a new and successful life in southeastern Idaho.
Reformed and respected for it, Hayden appeared to have it made.
But one day last month, the 49-year-old Preston farm implement salesman
apparently faked his own auto accident death and vanished, baffling his wife
and Idaho friends. Old acquaintances in Washington, however, say they
aren't surprised.
"Even the prison guards thought he was the greatest thing since sliced
bread," said Jack Berry, a former Washington parole board member. "I
thought he was a Jekyll and Hyde. I voted against his parole the three times
it came up while I was on the board."
On April 2, Hayden's pickup truck was found submerged to its windows in
the Bear River near Thatcher, Idaho, 30 miles north of Preston.
At first, it appeared to Franklin County authorities that Hayden had
driven off a small county road and drowned. But they later concluded the
wreck had been staged and that Hayden had fled on a motorcycle to Logan,
Utah.

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