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CAMPUS
SPORTS
A KU professor recommends billboard restrictions on 23rd Street to reduce distractions for drivers. PAGE 3A
The Kansas cross country teams will compete in a national meet this weekend. PAGE 1B
in a national meet this weekend. PAGE 1B
SUNNY & MILD High 59° Low 38° Weather: Page 2A.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KAN
KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA, KS 66612
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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
VOL.104, NO.63
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER18. 1994
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS: 864-4810
April 17 will be decision day for GTA union
Time needed to publicize election
By Colleen McCain Kansan staff writer
KU graduate teaching assistants moved another step closer to forming a union yesterday.
Scott Stone, chief counsel for the Kansas Association of Public Employees and the GTAs' attorney,
and Karen Dutcher, KU's associate general counsel, determined which GTAs would be eligible to belong to a union and set a date for a union election.
Stone and Dutcher agreed that all GTAs except one — a senior instructor in Western Civilization who serves in a supervisory role — would be eligible to be union members.
Stone and Dutcher agreed on an election date — April 17 — while Monty Bertelli, the Kansas Public Employees Relations Board hearing
officer who presided over yesterday's hearings, disagreed.
Bertelli told both sides that an earlier election date should be set.
"I cannot imagine that there's not one day between now and April when there's not a holiday or finals," Bertel-
li said.
Stone said the GTAs had requested a date after spring break so that they would have time to publicize the election. Finals, winter break and spring break eliminated many potential election days.
In response, Bertelli rolled his eyes and let out a long sigh.
"I cannot fathom why something that has taken two years to get to this point will take another six months to get an election," Bertelli said.
Bertelli's request was ignored, however, and the April 17 election was not changed. On that day, GTAs will decide between having the Kansas Association of Public Employees represent them as their bargaining unit or having no union. A simple majority of GTAs who vote will decide the election, and all GTAs on KU's February payroll will be eligible to vote.
On Oct. 18, KU GTAs were declared public employees entitled to unionize, negotiate contracts and bargain for employee benefits.
But the University still could appeal
the Oct. 18 decision.
Despite the agreements reached yesterday, Dutcher said an appeal remained a possibility. The University could file an appeal after the unit determination order is issued. The order, which should be issued within the next month, lists which GTAs could belong to a union.
"No decision has been made on whether an appeal will be made," Dutcher said. "After the unit determination order has been issued, then an appeal will be considered."
Sean Crosier / KANSAN
Mini-Jayhawks
Carson and Chamberlain Fritzel, 4-year-old identical twins, prepare to cheer on the Jayhawks. KU played Marathon Oil last night at Allen Field House, winning the game 114-57.
By Ashley Miller Kansan staff writer
By Ashley Miller
Students interested in social work will have the chance today to visit with more than 65 agencies involved in the field to learn about job and internship opportunities.
The Social Work Practicum-Career Fair, sponsored by the School of Social Welfare, begins at 2:15 p.m. today in the Kansas Bulldoor of the Kansas Union.
The school is expecting about 300 students to attend the fair, said Jan Jess, assistant director of field practicum. Although the majority of the students attending the fair are in the school, the fair is open to all KU students.
Jess said she also expected students from other universities in Kansas to attend the fair.
Although there will be information about jobs at the fair, Jess said the majority of the agencies would have information about practicum work for students.
Curriculum in the school requires students to complete a practicum, or internship, before getting their degree. The fair will give them a chance to see what kind of internships are available, Jess said.
Jess said Judith Lee, professor of social work at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work in Storrs, Conn., also would be speaking as part of the fair. Lee's lecture about how social workers can help their clients will kick off the fair, Jess said.
Lee will speak at 1:30 p.m. today at the Kansas Room in the Union..
"They can come in and browse to their heart's content," she said.
The majority of the agencies would represent hospitals, correctional facilities and hospices. Garfield said.
price Inc., Kansas Department of Corrections and the Meninger Foundation, said Goodwin Garfield, director of field practicum.
Agencies attending the fair include Hos-
"The first purpose of the fair is to introduce them to the range of opportunities out there," he said. "Sometimes students will click. They have a name and a face to connect."
Although the fair gives students an opportunity to find a job, they rarely find one at the fair.
Garfield said the fair also was an opportunity for students to begin looking for internships for next year.
Peter Thomas, Lawrence senior in social welfare, agreed that the fair gave students interested in social work a
Job fair schedule
The Social Work Precticum-Career Fair begins at 1:30 p.m. today in the Kansas Union Ballroom.
The fair is open to all students interested in social work.
Judith Lee, professor of social work at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work in Storrs, Conn., will speak about how social workers can help their clients at 1:30 p.m. today at the Kansas Room in the Kansas Union.
"It's a good opportunity for a lot of different leads." Thomas said.
chance to check out the practicum and job markets.
Regents ponder importance of job evaluations
By David Wilson Kansan staff writer
Every semester, students are given an opportunity to heap praise — or exact revenge — on their instructors by filling out class evaluations.
But whatever becomes of those evaluations? Does filling in all those little circles marked "never," "sometimes" and "almost always" really amount to anything?
Absolutely, said John Hiebert, a member of the Board of Regents committee on faculty evaluation. Students' evaluations of professors, along with departments' evaluations, can affect the size of a professor's paycheck, requests for sabbaticals and recommendations for tenure.
But concerns about whether students and departments' evaluations are effective prompted the Regents to set up a task force last November made up of students, faculty and administrators from Regents schools.
At their monthly meeting in Topeka yesterday, the Regents released a list of recommendations on how to improve the faculty evaluation process. The Regents will vote to approve the list at their meeting next month.
Among the recommendations:
- Let students know on the class syllabus how their ratings will be used.
- Supplement student evaluations with peer evaluations, such as reviews of graded papers.
- Set up meetings between administrators and student representatives to discuss the faculty evaluation process in each department.
Reward faculty members who have been promoted by giving them raises.
Assist with improving faculty performance and set up policies to address the dismissal of professors who exhibit chronic low performance.
Outside the Regents meeting room, Joyce Cavarozzi, an associate professor of theater at Wichita State University, told a group of people that she doubted the validity of some students' evaluations.
T. P. Srinivasan, presiding officer of University Council at KU, told the Regents he welcomed the recommendations but wanted them to stress providing help to lowerforming faculty members before firing them.
Cavarozi said that a professor shouldn't be held accountable for not promoting class discussion in a class of 200. for instance.
Charles Himmelberg, head of the department of mathematics at KU, said student evaluations weighed heavily in the overall evaluation of professors.
And students shouldn't think that the written comments on their evaluations aren't taken seriously, he said.
"I read with great interest the comments on the flip-side of the evaluation," he said.
Hoops blowout
The Kansas men's basketball team defeated Marathon AAU 114-57 last night at Allen Field House
Page1B.
Construction on Budig Hall continues
By James Evans
Kansan staff writer
Demolition of burned-out auditorium will proceed through mid-December
Sparks flew from the third floor of the former Hoch Auditorium yesterday.
Construction workers from DiCarlo Construction Company of Wichita cut and removed four, 2,800-pound metal beams that formerly held up the third-floor balcony.
The removal of much of the auditorium, now called Budig Hall, is going smoothly, said Rick Mitchell, project superintendent for DiCarlo Construction.
"We hope to have all the demolition of the old building done by the second week of December," he said.
Mitchell said there were initial concerns that the building would be difficult to work on because it had been burned.
"In a burned-out building, you don't know what the structure will do," Mitchell said.
The strength of the old building materials can slow the progress of work because of safety reasons, he said. So far, things have run smoothly.
Because the crew works daily from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., another concern for the project is channeling students away from the construction site, Mitchell said. During the height of construction, 100 to 150 workers will be employed for the project.
Now most students are used to not walking or driving near the work site, but he said that others still were getting too close to the site where they were using heavy machinery.
Workers on the second level of the structure worked yesterday to remove old concrete floors with jackhammers, Mitchell said. On the ground level, the concrete is being put into trucks and removed from the site.
By the first week in February, workers will start pouring cement for the basement, which will house the lower level of the building and connect Budig Hall with Anschutz Science Library.
The first step in the 22-month rebuilding process of Budig Hall will be to put in the concrete steel footings for the structure. The holes for the footings, which support the hall, will be dug in the second week of December and will be 30 feet deep.
When completed it will house an 1,000-seat lecture hall and two 500-seat lecture halls.
Mitchell hopes to have a roof on the new hall by next November. The building completion date is July 8, 1996, and it will be open for classes for the Fall 1996 semester.
Daron Bennett / KANSAM
Construction crews finish demolition on Budig Hall, which is scheduled to be completed by Fall 1996.