ku
Kansan
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Entertainment: Muscle-enhancing Creatine use is widespread despite doctors' warnings.
SEE PAGE 1B
(USPS 650-640) • VOL. 110 NO. 150
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 2000
Inside: KU physics department succeeds in recruiting female faculty.
SEE PAGE 3A
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Tuition hike more for out-of-staters
- The percent increase is based on the 2000-01 tuition rates minus the $1 per credit-hour library fee and the $1 per credit-hour technology fee.
Bv Karen Lucas
By Karen Lucas
writer@kanson.com
Kansas staff writer
Tuition for KU students will rise in the fall semester of 2001 at a lower percentage rate for nonresidents than for residents.
At its meeting last week in Topeka, the Board of Regents decided to raise KU tuition by 3 percent for in-state students—$2.20 for undergraduates and $3.25 for graduate students. Out-of-state tuition will increase by 2.5 percent for undergraduates and 2.2 percent for graduate students—an additional $7.50 per credit hour.
A nonresident undergraduate will be billed an extra $112.50.
When the new rates go into effect, the University will charge a resident undergraduate student enrolled in 15 credit hours an extra $33 per semester.
Kansas residents at the other universities in the Regents system also will have a 3 percent tuition increase while increases for nonresidents will range from 2.2 percent to 3.1 percent.
"We feel that we have virtually maxed out the magnitude of nonresident tuition, said
Bill Docking, outgoing board chairman. "If we had increased tuition any more than we had done, then the effect would be we would lose nonresident students."
Tuition for resident undergraduates taking 15 semester hours has risen from $613
in Fall 1990 to $1,045 in Spring 2000, an increase of 71 percent. Tuition for nonresident undergraduates nearly doubled from $2.175 in Fall 1990 to $3.437 in Spring 2000.
Regent Fred Kerr, regent, voted against the board's plan to raise tuition at different percentages for residents and nonresidents.
"My preference was simply to treat all the students — resident and nonresident — the same," he said. "I just think that it is more acceptable to the public and the students in general."
Kerr had favored a plan that would raise
the base tuition by 2.85 percent for both resident and nonresident students.
Ben Walker, student body president, also was disappointed with the approved tuition plan.
"I think under normal circumstances, it might be considered a reasonable step," he said. "But coming on the heels of last year's dramatic increases in tuition, that becomes a slap in the face to students. And it symbolizes the Regents' use of students as a political card in their game with the Legislature."
Last June, the Regents approved a 2.5
percent tuition increase for residents and nonresidents and an additional $3.20 per credit hour increase in December. Those increases will take effect this fall.
Chancellors aet pav raise
The Board of Regents also approved a 2.5 percent raise for Chancellor Robert Hemenway, boosting his salary from $202,428 to $207,489.
The presidents of the other Regents institutions also received a 2.5 percent raise, with the exception of Donald Beggs, president of Wichita State University. The Regents raised Beggs' salary by 3.5 percent so that it would be more comparable to those of presidents at peer institutions, said Regent Clay Blair, the newly elected board chairman.
He also said he wanted to push for higher pay during his tenure as chairman.
The salary increases for the chief executive officers were similar in percentage to those received by other unclassified university employees. Blair said.
"We believe our university presidents and chancellor are doing a fine job, and we need to work with the Legislature to find more ways to compensate them better," he said.
— Edited by BriAnne Hess
REGENTS' ACTION
The Regents voted to add sexual orientation to their affirmative action and equal opportunity policy.
the Board felt it was important to be inclusive in their non-discrimination policy, and this is an attempt to ensure that," said Kim Wilcox, executive director of the board.
In response to Emporia State University's removal of sexual orientation from its equal opportunity policy in spring 1999, Korb Maxwell, former student body president, presented a proposal to the Student Senate that called for sexual orientation to be included in the Repeats' policy.
In addition to being approved by Student Senate and Faculty Senate, the proposal received endorsements from the KU University Council and the Regents Student Advisory Committee before it was presented to the Regents, said Ben Walker, student body president.
"I think it's a step in the right direction toward equality in the higher education system in the state of Kansas," Walker said. "Secondly, I think it's a good example of a student-initiated proposal passed at the Reagents level."
Maurice Bryan, director of the KU Equal Opportunity Office, said the action taken by the Regents would not affect the University because KU already included sexual orientation in its non-discrimination policy.
Drivers, cyclists strike a compromise
City commissioners adopt safety measure to protect bikers
Gun Club Hill on County Route 1055 south of Lawrence is the scene of frequent conflict between cyclists and motorists. The Douglas County Commission voted last week to require cyclists to ride in single file on a one-mile stretch of the road. Photo Illustration by Craig Bennett/KANSAN
By Jim O'Malley editor@kansan.com Kansan co-editor
The Douglas County Commission last Tuesday adopted a measure intended to ease tension between drivers and bicyclists on County Route 1055 south of Lawrence.
The commission approved a resolution requiring bicyclists to ride single file on a one-mile stretch of County Route 1055 between N. 800 Road and County Route 458 near Vinland. The commission also directed the county public works department to place signs along the road advising cyclists to ride single file. The county already had paved a two-to-three foot shoulder on parts of the road to improve safety. County officials said that if the measures worked, they would consider extending them to other trouble spots, such as Palmyra Hill north of Vinland.
State law allows cyclists to travel two abreast, but lets local governments regulate the operation of bicycles and prohibit the use of heavily traveled roads by any kind of traffic incompatible with normal and safe traffic movement. The county could have done what DeSoto did last year when it closed a section of 83rd Street to cyclists.
The curvy, hilly stretch of Route 1055 on Gun Club Hill in Douglas County has been the site of conflict between cyclists and drivers for about a year. Last summer, a near-collision involving two cars and cyclists riding three abreast led to a heated exchange of letters in the Lawrence Journal-World. Baldwin resident Dick Walker wrote that the slow-moving cyclists forced him into the left lane where he nearly hit an oncoming car. He wrote that he wouldn't protect cyclists' lives the next time it happened.
Eric Struckhoff, research assistant in molecular biosciences and president of the Lawrence Bicycle Club racing team, wrote that overtaking drivers had the responsibility to avoid colliding with traffic in front of them.
"I did not realize 'motorists' were free to kill at will those they consider in their way," he wrote.
"Nobody forced him to go into the left lane," Struckhoff said. "That was his choice."
He could have slowed down, Struckhoff said.
Struckhoff said Monday that he took Walker's letter as a threat and filed a complaint with the sheriff's department.
"And I've seen it myself," he said
Tom Taul, Douglas County commissioner, said he had heard complaints about cyclists slowing traffic.
"I like to bicycle myself, but cyclists on the road are my pet peeve."
But he said he realized that a few unsafe cyclists could give all cyclists a bad reputation and that drivers' impatience was a problem, too.
"It's a shame that everybody's in such a big hurry now," he said.
Another underlying problem was that county roads weren't designed for the volume of traffic we have now. Taul said.
Kvle Ramsev/KANSAN
Taul said the commission worked
"I did not realize 'motorists' were free to kill at will those they consider in their way."
Eric Struckhoff
Lawrence Bicycle Club racing team president
with the Lawrence Bicycle Club to reach a win-win situation by widening the road as much as it could and adding signs.
Charles Jones, county commissioner, said he met with the club last fall to discuss safety issues.
"My goal was to come up with an arrangement that makes it safer for cyclists and car drivers," he said.
He called widening the road, requiring cyclists to ride single file and putting up signs a bike-friendly compromise.
Leonard Krishtalka, director of the Natural History Museum and an avid cyclist, called the commission's action a wonderful proactive step to promote safety.
Dan Hughes, general manager of the Sunflower Bike Shop. 802 Massachusetts St., said he often rode on the county roads south of town. He thought the real problem was that Kansas had a heavy car culture. He said he wished drivers would realize that every bike on the road meant one less car. Hughes said he considered the commission's action an acceptable compromise.
"It's not a knee-jerk anti-cycling reaction like in DeSoto where they closed a road last year," Hughes said. "If somebody says you can't ride on this road—hey you'll have a fight on your hands."
- Edited by Ben Embry
Leawood man faces hearing in rape, assault of 2 KU women
By Phil Cauthon editor@kansan.com Kansan campus edito
The preliminary hearing for a 21-year-old Leawood man charged with raping a KU student and sexually assaulting another on Halloween has been set for 2 p.m. July 26 before Michael Malone, Douglas County District Court Judge.
The alleged assaults occurred between 7:10 p.m. Oct. 30 and 3 a.m. Oct. 31 during a party in the 1600 block of Tennessee Street.
"We were just getting really hammered and I passed out in my friend's room."
The victims, a 20 year-old woman and 21-year-old woman, both KU students, told police that the assaults happened after they had retreated to separate rooms in the party house to nap.
Rape victim
"We were just getting really hammered, and I passed out in my friend's room," said one of the victims. "I knew something was going on because I was kind of waking up as he was touching me. I just didn't know how long he'd been touching me."
She said the man — whom she had met for the first time at the party — was a friend of her best friend.
The victim said that she couldn't pick the man out of a crowd but that the other victim — her roommate — had identified the man's shoes. Ten witnesses are listed in court records.
The second victim is in Los Angeles for the summer and could not be reached for comment.
The first victim said that she had discussed a plea bargain with Christine Tonkovich, Douglas County district attorney, but that nothing was official yet. Tonkovich declined to comment
Tonkovich declined to comment on the case.
- Edited by Mindie Miller
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