The University Daily Kansan
Tomorrow's weather Mostly cloudy and warm with a high near 80 and a low near 60
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
low near 60.
Sports: Rowers recognized at an awards banquet Fridav.
SEE PAGE 12A
Inside; Provost refelcts on the high-points of the year.
MONDAY, MAY 8, 2000
(USPS 650-640) · VOL.110 NO.146
SEE PAGE 8A
Allen apologizes for poor decisions
University to hold private investigation of alleged battery
By Mindie Miller
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Kansas football coach Terry Allen apologized Friday to the school's athletic corporation for the way he handled allegations of sexual battery against two of his players.
"The situation that transpired was
wrong," he said. "I feel very,very,very,
very bad about that. I can't tell you how sorry I am."
The Kansas women's soccer player who alleged that the players battered her said Friday that she was disappointed it had taken so long for the department to admit its mistake.
"It's distressing that it's taken so long," she said. "I had to go to the media before
Allen: apologized for the way the allegations were handled
they would do something."
On April 28, the woman told Lawrence police that two Kansas football players had pinned her to the hood of a truck while they fondled and taunted her. She said the attack took place Feb. 26 in a bar parking lot.
The woman said she waited so long to report the battery to the police because her coach, Mark Francis, suggested she talk to Allen first. When she found out Allen's punishment consisted of making the players run stairs at Memorial Stadium, she decided to go to the police.
Bob Frederick, athletics director, admitted that the department made some mistakes in handling the situation.
"It is obvious that mistakes were made when the student-athlete approached members of our staff to report the Feb. 26 off campus incident," he said. "It would also be a mistake if we didn't learn from this situation."
To that end, Frederick announced Friday that Barbara K. Ballard, assistant vice chancellor for the Office of Student Affairs, would conduct an independent review of the department's procedures regarding student-athlete welfare. Ballard directed the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center for 18 years and is an expert in sexual assault issues and victim support services.
See BALLARD on page 5A
University of Kansas graduate Jamie Najim leads a group lesson with her fifth-grade students at an elementary school in Kansas City, Kan. Najim has been forced to use a mix of advice from former teachers and her University of Kansas education because some education majors and their professors say the University isn't preparing its students for real-world teaching.
Students face educational balancing act
Story by BriAnne Hess • Photos by Selena Jabara
First-year teachers weigh KU education vs.colleagues' advice
For her first three weeks as a fifth grade teacher, Jamie Najim used the skills she learned at
the skills she learned at the University of Kansas. She sent personal letters to parents explaining her expectations. Her students worked in groups to finish assignments and help each other. She gave them second chances because she thought they didn't know any better. lasc out of control
Then the class got out of control.
The kids started pushing the limits to see how far they could go. They all spoke at the same time during discussion. One student ran around the classroom with a stool on his head. Another threatened to
hit her.
So Najim turned to her principal—and she put "the smackdown" into effect.
"It's not that I wasn't going to smile until December," she explained. "But I thought I could reason with them—I can't. They need consistency and direct consequences."
She didn't get the strategies she now uses at her Kansas City, Kan., elementary school from the University. She found help in the form of a diary of a first-year teacher and from teachers she has worked with and studied under.
Naiim's storv isn't unique.
KU's student teaching isn't creating ready-to-go first-year teachers, key education majors and their professors say. Some skills the School of Education teaches don't apply in a real classroom. Students also say they get more information than they can remember, and that
KU teaching interns lose momentum when they have to break in the middle of their student teaching to go back to college for 10 weeks.
Now after 18 years, the School of Education is getting ready to revamp its student teaching. The changes won't happen for at least another year—too late for Najim.
More than once, Najim said, she spent hours working on one lesson plan in her education class, only to find out that the lesson or teaching techniques wouldn't work in the real classroom.
Real-world applications
"It wasn't bad stuff, necessarily," she said. "I just found that most of the planning I had to do was more extensive than the stuff I learned from my methods classes."
She said that seeing the lessons in action also helped.
"Now that I am in my own classroom, I am using a lot of the things that I did while student teaching. Also, I have looked through my methods notebooks for ideas or to spark a memory about something, but they are not my key resource by any means."
As a research university, Najim said, Kansas too often focused on what was published in academic articles instead of what worked in the classroom.
"A lot of the professors are very research-oriented and might lack the hands-on experiences in the classroom that might be more helpful. Research doesn't help me make it through the day," she said.
She also said she only learned one method of managing a roomful of kids, and that one didn't work.
See EDUCATION on page 6A
Tenure becoming more scarce at nation's universities
By Jim O'Malley
Kansan staff writer
By Jim O Malley
writes@lunen.com
Tenure decisions can make or break an academic career. And tenure may be getting harder to come by, both at the University of Kansas and nationwide.
The number of tenured and tenure-track faculty is dropping. This year at the University of Kansas, the tenure denial rate doubled from 10 percent to 20 percent. The numbers are small — four faculty members were denied tenure in 1999 and eight in 2000. Such small numbers may not be statistically significant, but denial of tenure is significant for the individuals.
So significant, that three assistant professors who were denied tenure have sued the University in the past two years.
Donna Euben, an attorney with the American Association of University Professors in Washington, D.C., said that nationwide, fewer tenure-track positions were available now than in the past. Universities are relying more on part-time and adjunct faculty.
But Sally Frost Mason, dean of liberal arts and sciences, said that in today's booming economy, entry-level tenure-track positions were less scarce than they were 10 years ago.
Three of the eight tenure denials this year were in molecular biosciences. Two other candidates from that department withdrew their applications after encountering difficulty, said Doug Ruden, assistant professor of molecular biosciences. Ruden was one of the applicants who withdrew.
assistant professors who were denied tenure to find other tenure-track jobs, so they are less likely to go quietly when their tenure applications run into trouble, she said.
In his case, denial of tenure doesn't seem to be breaking his academic career. He said that he had been offered a tenure-track position at the University of Houston for nearly double his $45,000 salary at the University of Kansas, and that he would be taking $1.5 million in grant money with him. He's also negotiating with the University of Alabama.
Tenured and tenure-track faculty
See WOMEN on page 5A
| year | total faculty | tenure and tenure-track faculty | number | percent of total faculty | number | percent of total faculty | non tenure-track faculty | number | percent of total faculty |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1981 | 1273 | 1105 | 87% | 219 | 17% | | 168 | 13% |
| 1990 | 1259 | 1055 | 84% | 208 | 16% | | 204 | 16% |
| 1999 | 1398 | 1075 | 77% | 200 | 14% | | 323 | 23% |
| year | tenured and tenure-track faculty | tenure-track faculty | tenure-track faculty | non tenure-track faculty | tenure-track faculty | tenure-track faculty | tenure-track faculty | tenure-track faculty |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| | total | female | female percentage | total | female | female percentage | total | female | female percentage |
| 1981 | 1105 | 185 | 17% | 219 | 67 | 31% | 168 | 62 | 37% |
| 1990 | 1055 | 218 | 21% | 208 | 78 | 37.5% | 204 | 81 | 40% |
| 1999 | 1075 | 289 | 27% | 200 | 86 | 43% | 323 | 166 | 51% |
Maggie Curry/ KANSAN
Regulations established, ban lifted on union parties
By Katrina Hull
Kansan staff writer
The ban on late-night parties at the Kansas and Burge unions was lifted Friday.
James Kitchen, dean of students, issued the party ban in January following a shooting in the Burge Union during an after-hours dance party sponsored by Phi Alpha Phi.
New regulations accompanied the resolution of the moratorium, including metal detector use, extra police officers, background checks on DJs and registration of non-student guests.
Quincy Garner, Olathe senior and president of Phi Alpha Phi, said the ban had hindered social events during the semester, but at the same time had given his fraternity an opportunity to focus on other activities, including community service.
"The ban has been long, but we've found other things to do," Garner said.
Typically, late night parties are sponsored by fraternities and sororites that don't have chapter houses.
While these groups found alternatives to social events on campus, a task force discussed the necessary safety measures for future late-night events. The task force included students, KU police, union representatives and University administrators.
Danny Kaiser, director of student organizations and task force chairman, said the new regulations emphasized a joint responsibility between the University and the student organizations who sponsored the parties.
NEW RULES
New regulations for late-night
Attendees must show a college or university photo ID for admission, be alumni of the sponsoring organization or be signed in as guests of students or alumni with a share ID.
All attendees and bags are subject to search or use of a metal detector.
There is no readmission to an event
DJs must be named in advance of events for back ground checks.
Events must be scheduled at least two and one-half weeks in advance
■ Union staffing at events will be increased.
Source: Office of University Relations
"I think that the new regulations will resolve some of the problems," Kaiser said. "But there's no safety bubble over the campus that protects bad things from happening while people are here."
However, for some, the regulations come too late and don't seem to make a significant difference.
Dion Jones, president of Iota Phi Theta, said his fraternity never had held parties on campus because of the hassle.
"The bad thing is that it actually took a shooting to make sure nothing more serious happened." Jones said.
Even Kaiser said the shooting wasn't the first incident to occur at a late-night party on campus.
"We've had situations before," Kaiser said. "This is the first time we've had anybody get shot."
Moreover, Jones said the emphasis on keeping track of non-KU partygoers gave the impression that KU students weren't the problem.
"It's kind of a feeling that KU students don't cause a ruckus." Jones said.
But the new regulations only require KU students to sign in non-student guests and for the guests to have a photo ID.
Jones said a more effective alternative would be keeping the IDs of all non-students during the party. With the new regulations, responsibility rests with the students.
However, Kaiser said joint responsibility was an important aspect of the regulations.
Both the University and the student organizations will share in the cost of extra security, although Kaiser said he didn't know what that would be.
"Everybody has a stake in this," Kaiser said. "If they have a stake, they need to be part of the process."