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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Vol. 86 No.73
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Welcome Back
Tuesday, January 27.1976
Staff photo by JAY KOELZER
Med faculty laments bad publicity
Loaded down
Bracing himself against a load of books, Edgardo Aguila, San Juan, Puerto Rico junior, finishes builing books at the Union. See story page eight.
By BILL SNIFFEN
Staff Writer
KANAS CITY, Kan.-Bad news has recently tarnished the KU Medical Center's reputation—nurse walkouts, HEW charges of discriminatory admissions policies, $26 million in malpractice lawsuits, bribery charges against several of the Med Center's architects resulting in one conviction and the halt of open-heart surgery.
One of the most widely circulated stories was the halt of open-heart surgery, ordered by David Robinson, acting executive vice chancellor, on Dec. 6, after Robert L. Reis, a surgeon, died while performing any more open-heart surgery. Reis said that operating-room conditions were unsafe. A panel of specialists, selected by the Med Center last month to investigate the accident, joined in the investigation of the operating facility's report is expected within two weeks.
That opinion is held by the Med Center's assembly which, on June 14th, adopted a resolution.
"《the resolution》 was a result of the fact that we had such adverse publicity from people going unilaterally to the press, and the press not giving a damn about what it writes." Pete Cupage said yesterday. Cupage is a Med Center pathologist and chairman of the faculty assembly steering committee that sponsored the resolution.
who went directly to the press with complaints inside the building through the proper channels.
Cuppage said the resolution wasn't
Cupage also said the press didn't cover the entire story.
Present enrollment estimates indicate that 21,356 students are enrolled at the University of Kansas for the 1976 spring semester. This enrollment marks a 6.7 percent increase over last spring's first-day enrollment of 20,008.
Enrollment jumps 6.7%
A total of 19,589 students are enrolled at the Lawrence campus, and an additional 1,767 students are enrolled at the KU Medical Center.
Gil Dyck, dean of admissions and records, estimated yesterday that the final enrollment at both campuses would be 22,550, a 5.4 per cent increase over last spring's official enrollment of 21,483. Dyck said the official figures would be compiled by the Board of Regents on a daily basis designated by the Board of Regents as the official counting and reporting date.
Dyck said the 20-day "shake-down
Rock Chalk entrant added after mistake
Staff Writer
By KELLY SCOTT
A clinical error has resulted in the
burn of a child taken in this year's
production of the Rock Chuck.
Five live groups, instead of the traditional four, will each produce a 20-minute musical skit for performances March 5 and 6.
"The only fair thing to do was to let the fifth group in." he said.
The four groups with the highest point totals on their judging sheets had already been notified to begin work on their productions. Schwartz said.
John Schwartz, director of this year's Revue, said yesterday that a two-digit number was misread as a one-digit number on a script scoring sheet. The judge whose handwriting was misreceived the error and reported it to the production staff.
The theme of the 1976 Rock Chalk Revue
*Bicentennial* is the word, *reliving* stories over
400 years.
Most of the time, the information center's eight student assistants answer questions on KU activities. Hoggard said. Sims said there were far more one- or two-sentence answers to calls now than when the center was started in the spring of 1970.
KU Information Center callers range from bizarre to mundane
Then, Hoggard said, the information center was set up in the Dean of Women's office as a rumor control station for demonstrations and protests. Student
"They're just looking for a sympathetic ear," she said.
Hoggard said most such calls came druing fall semester final exams.
Executive Vice Chancellor Del Shankel said the 6.7 per cent spring-to-spring enrollment increase "demonstrated that a university is working toward creating KU is a place to obtain a good education,"
By PAUL SHERBO
Perhaps once this year, in the mass of nearly 900 calls a day, will come the voice of a human being who wants to commit suicide. At that moment, the University of Kansas Information Center will again bring more than a handy reference source.
Staff Writer
Shankel attributed the increase to an unusually large group of new freshmen,
period" accounted for late enrollments and dropouts.
Most of the calls the information center receives, Hoggard said, are for simple information or answers to trivia questions. The information center will not about 10,000 calls.
The last such call came in December 1974, Kathy Hoggard, director of the information center, said yesterday. The information center tried to calm the caller and get him to talk to professional counselors who allow an information center to call them 24 hours a day.
The identity of all who call the information center—whether for suicide or for the top speed of the "Star Trek" leadership—is kept confidential. Hoggard said.
"We are not professional counselors," Howard said. "We can listen."
"The fact that we're anonymous helps a lot." Sims said.
Personal calls may be for information or referrals on birth control, abortion, human sexuality and gay liberation counseling, childbirth education or consumer protection. Hoezzard said.
People also call because of loneliness, Chris Sims, student assistant at the information center, said. Sims said he thought personal calls were from lonely people.
Schwartz said that aside from less space to store each group's sets backstage in Hoch auditorium, he foresees few wrinkles in the normal procedure of Rock Chalk production.
Alpha Gamma Delta-Alpha Kappa Lambda, Alpha Chi Omega-Gphi Phala Delta, Gamma Phi Beta-Beta Thea Pci, Chi Sigma Chi and Pi Beta Phi-Delta Upsilon.
Now the information center is funded through the Office of Student Affairs.
volunteers made up the information center staff.
The information center is in a 13-foot-square room in 105 Strong Hall. The office has three telephone lines, two cabinet machines, a refrigerator and a waterbed. The bed is for the student assistants who work all-night shifts. Hogard said.
"One of the biggest problems that we have here is that many of the departments—the athletic association and so on—that we get 10,000 calls in a month," he said.
Each group will receive a $30 rebate awarded by KUY for its script. Schwartz
The result, Sims said, is that the information center must make calls to keep abreast of what is happening on campus. If departments sent in information, it would
"I don't really see a lot of people functioned before we were here," he said.
Cassie Johnston, student assistant, said she enjoyed helping people find information. She said she preferred trivia questions.
The information center sometimes has public relation problems. Sims said.
be easier for the information center to help students, he said.
Virginia Pope, another student assistant,
sh said sometimes helped callers with
retrieval.
Pope said that there were sometimes callers who used abusive language and that they were uneducated.
All five participants this year are
sorority-fraternity pairs. They are:
The slowest time of the year, Hoggard said, was between the spring and summer sessions. She said no one took calls between the fall and spring semesters.
"We hate the TV Guide questions," she said.
There will be increased production costs for KU-Y, but competition from the extra group should generate enough extra ticket sales to cover them, he said.
Schwartz said the increased costs would come from more trophies awarded and more time spent by Buildings and Grounds staff. In contrast, while the grounds were rehearsing in Hoch.
See INFO page 5
Shankel, who walked into Allen Field house each day during enrollment, noted an illness.
The professional arranger whom KU-Y hires to adapt each skiff's music for the Rock Chalk orchestra will also be to be paid for extra music arrangements, Schwartz said.
None of the extra production costs will be charged to the participants, he said.
He said a mandatory point penalty for skits exceeding the established 20-minute time limit would be strictly enforced. In case of a break he would be held to a minimum of performance time.
Because of the added contestant, Rock Chalk will start at 7:30 p.m., instead of 8 p.m., Schwartz said, but shouldn't last more than three hours.
The in-between events are necessary, Schwartz said, to cover the time needed to complete a project.
Schwartz said he had arranged for two more rehearsal days in Hoch even before the mix-up that led to the addition of the fifth group. That arrangement would have given four groups more rehearsal time and provided the performances than in previous years.
The five groups now will have only slightly less time than is customary, he
"There will not be any script altering or cutting." Schwartz said.
Interterm's success beyond expectations
Hutchison said about 350 students had been expected to enroll in the program, offered Jan. 5 to 16. But he said enrollment may have exceeded 650.
The first intersession program sponsored by the University of Kansas was termed an "unqualified success" yesterday by Jerry Hutchison, chairman of the intersession committee and associate vice chancellor for academic affairs.
courses were offered for one or two credit hours.
The unexpected surplus of students didn't cause any problems, he said, because class was very large.
Hutchison said the courses were divided into three categories: unique courses that weren't offered during the regular session, studio courses that were denied to some students during the regular semester because of limited enrollment; and courses such as workshops, field trips and internships.
Hutchison said the intent of the program was to provide students the opportunity to meet some personal goals by taking a course. Students offered during the regular school year.
"All had enrollments up to expectations,
if not higher." Hutchison said. "The general, more traditional courses were just as popular as the field and studio courses."
"Comments and letters from faculty and students have all been very positive," Hutchison said, "and I have received some informal inquiries about other intercession."
The continuation of the program is, in part, contingent upon support from faculty members and deans, he said. The inter-session committee that established the program to conduct a survey next week, he said, to determine the program's success or failure.
Hutchison also said the program's longevity depended on the availability of
The 34 intercession courses offered for area residents and regular students ranged from "Ethnographic Research Methods" to "Suicide and Sucicide Prevention," and from "Brain and Behavior" to "Understanding Young Children and Their Parents." The
To reserve energy this year, courses on the Lawrence campus were in two buildings—Summerfield Hall and Robinson Gymnasium—that were already scheduled for constant operation. Summerfield was kept open because of the Computation Center and Robinson was kept open because of its recreational facilities.
1. I support all these are indicators of a successful program and one that ought to be supported.
The program was budgeted through the Division of Continuing Education, Hutchison said. Although the cost of the program hasn't been determined, it would would break even.
"We didn't ask any faculty members to teach," Hutchison said. "We invited them to make proposals through their deans and then the course selected 37 courses."
He said that the instructors were paid by Continuing Education and that salaries varied according to such things as the level of the course and where it was offered.
However, he said. "There was quite a jam Wednesday afternoon. It looked like about 35 to 40 per cent of the student body was eligible or managed to get in at that time."
Although the 21,536 figures is a 3.8 per cent decrease from last fall's first-day enrolment, Dyck said this was not unusual. He said that there were an end of the fall semester or dropped out.
"This has been happening for years and years, and years." he said.
Three courses were dropped because of low enrollments.
In 1972, 969 fewer students enrolled in the spring semester than in the fall semester; in 1973, there were 1,286 fewer; in 1974, there were 1,250 fewer; and in 1975, there were 2,058 fewer.
Dyck said the projected figure of 2,565 may be too low because only about 400 fewer students enrolled this semester compared to last fall's official enrollment of 2,354.
centered on any particular action by one faculty member, but was a reminder to all students to participate.
But Reis said that the nature of the resolution and the timing of its introduction to the faculty assembly led him to think there was a connection between Cuppage's
Antoni M. Diehl, chief of pediatric cardiology, agreed with Reis.
The resolution states that the Med Center's facilities, although occasionally subject to "technical engineering, in the best in the region," are the best in the region.
It says recent publicity appeals to the "emotion of the public who don't know or cannot understand all of the facts or technical questions involved."
"In addition," the statement says, "such inappropriate statements create pressures for premature and emotional solutions to problems and at the same time carry inferences that other or all services of the Med Center aren't of quality."
"Recent publicity in the press," the statement says, "has impaired credibility of the institution."
Problems are best solved within the Med Center, by specialists there, according to
Diedhill that solving problems within the Med Center was effective in most cases. But some problems require a public hearing, he said.
"If we are being told that we don't have the right to go to the press, or to anybody else, then that potentially interferes with our ability to meet Amendment of the constitution, he said.
"Particularly because this is a public institution, the citizens of the state of Kansas have an especial vested interest in what really is going on."
Reis said the diminution of the Med Center's credibility wasn't a result of the publicizing of the Med Center's problems after a result of the problems themselves.
"The way to improve the Med Center's credibility is to solve the problems," he
See FACULTY page 5
Skier's lament
Staff Photo by DON PIERCE
Midway through a climb to the campfire hill, Yoshinaka Nishimura, Tokyo freshman, pauses to refresh himself with a handful of snow. Nikisha makes several two-seconds runs and sprints before she returns to the campfire.