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Tomorrow's weather
The University Daily Kansan
Mostly sunny tomorrow with a high near 54 and a low
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
near 37.
Sports: The baseball team's bats came alive in a 8-1 victory against Texas A&M yesterday. SEE PAGE 1B
BETTER I DON'T CALL THE PLAYER TO STOP IT.
MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2000
(USPS 650-640) VOL.110 NO.124
Inside: The Twinkie, which turns 70 this week, was celebrated Saturday in Chicago. SEE PAGE 7A
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Leap year triggers enrollment glitch
By Ryan Blethen
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
The University of Kansas's computer programs rolled past Y2K unscathed. But leap year was the next test, and this time, the calendar won.
When permits to enroll were sent to students on March 6, 6,000 of them were wrong. Students' enrollment times were during their classes or within 10 minutes of the start or finish of a class.
Richard C. Morrell, university registrar, said the program was supposed assign students a time that did not conflict with their classes.
"The program is set up not to let that happen," he said. "We've had
this program for years, and this has never happened."
The program the registrar's office uses to assign enrollment times read the wrong day because this year is a leap year.
The registrar's computers were tested for the Y2K bug, but the leap year problem was missed, Morrell said.
"It was tested thoroughly for Y2K, but this is not a Y2K problem," he said.
To avoid confusion, the registrar's office sent e-mails Thursday explaining the problem to 5,000 of the students who received the wrong time to enroll. The other 1,000, who did not have e-mail, were sent a letter explaining the confusion and telling them not to skip class to register.
but to enroll after class.
Enrollment began Fridav
Brandon Haberman, Topeka senior, who was waiting in Strong Hall to enroll Friday, said that some of his friends had received the wrong time to enroll but that he had not. He said he didn't think it was that big of a problem.
"As long as it was on the same day it wouldn't be too big of a concern." Haberman said.
Brad Howard, enrollment center supervisor, said some students had come to the center asking about their times but were understanding about the problem.
"We've had a fair number of people come in and ask about it," he said. "But it hasn't been an overwhelming amount."
Senate coalition banners stolen
Thefts could mark first major violations
By Erin R. Barcomb
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Residents of several fraternities found Student Senate campaign banners missing from their houses Saturday morning.
Triangle, 1144 W. 11th St., and Phi Kappa Theta, 1941 Stewart Ave., fraternities discovered their Students First banners were zone.
Sam MacRoberts, Students First presidential candidate, said he was disappointed by the incidents.
MacRoberts said that he did not know who took the banners and that he did not want to make false accusations.
"The tone changed this morning." MacRoberts said Saturday. "This is exactly why people are fed up with Senate."
Students First wasn't the only coalition whose banners were missing.
A United Students banner disappeared from the Lambda Chi Alpha
fraternity house Saturday morning. lambda Chi Alpha is the fraternity of Ben Walker, United Students presidential candidate.
Lambda Chi Alpha is located at 1918 Stewart Ave., on the same block as Phi Kappa Theta, where a Students First banner was torn down.
"It really casts a Walker said. "It shifts the focus of the election."
Zora Mulligan, elections commis
sioner, said any disciplinary action concerning the banner thefts would be decided by the hearing board.
"Obviously someone is at fault, but we don't want to jump to conclusions." Mulligan said.
Ben Burton, presidential candidate for Delta Force, said a Delta Force banner had been removed Friday from Oread Apartments, 1205 Oread Ave. Burton said but he didn't know why the banner was removed. He also said he doubted it was the action of another coalition.
Mulligan said there had been very few campaign violations. Until this weekend's apparent thefts, most violations had been minor and had been
committed by different coalitions, she said.
"Thus far they've been small violations — more interpretations of the code than deliberate attempts to break the rules." Mulligan said.
MacRoberts said he had received an e-mail Friday from Walker saying that Students First had filed many complaints against United Students. Walker wanted to make an agree-
approach one another before filing complaints with the commission.
Walker said the e-mail was prompted by
several small complaints filed against his coalition.
"I do feel that it was trying to be intimidating," MacRoberts said of the e-mail. "I think they should go through the commission. I don't like the idea of closed-door agreements."
Walker said the e-mail was not intended to be intimidating. He said he hoped to establish an agreement with Students First similar to one his coalition has already made with Delta Force.
Cleaning up Mt. Oread
Cari Scalotty, Olathe freshman, Lindsay Demarais, Apple Valley, Minn., freshman, and Stocie Benson, Lenexa freshman, search for trash and litter yesterday in front of Watson Library. All three are members of Kappa Delta Sorority and were participating in a Greek campus clean-up day. Photo by Craig Bennett/KANSAN.
David Burnham, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum, examines the bone structure of the Bambiraptor feinbergi, using a replica in his office. The fossil is a missing link between raptors and birds. Photo by Aaron Lindberg/KANSAN
BAMBIRAPTOR
Part dinosaur, part bird; fossil is an unusual find
Skeleton named after cartoon fawn
By Jim O'Malley writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
A paleontologist at the Museum of Natural history has assembled one of the best-preserved, most complete fossil skeletons ever found.
It's a significant find because the three-foot-long skeleton has traits of both dinosaurs and birds. David Burnham, who spent 5,000 hours putting the skeleton together, said the fossil, named Bambiraptor feinbergi, was about 97 percent complete.
"It's a once-in-a-century find," said Burnham, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum.
Larry Martin, senior curator at the Natural History
Bambiraptor is named partly after the Disney character because it's a yearling like the animated fawn and because Bambi means baby in Italian.
Raptor means thief. Burnham said the small dinosaur probably made its living robbing the nests of other dinosaurs, making it a baby thief.
And feinbergi comes from Florida philanthropist Michael Feinberg, who bought the skeleton for the Graves Museum of Archeology and Natural History in Dania Beach. Fla.
But it had many birdlike traits. Bambiraptor had a birdlike wishbone and breastplate and long arms with a shoulder mechanism that let the arms be folded back like a bird's wings. Larry Martin, senior curator
Bambi had serrated teeth and a tail like a dinosaur. And it had a big claw on each foot like the velocipiters in the movie Jurassic Park.
"What's happening is that we are progressively losing the features that identify an organism as a bird as we go back in time."
Larry Martin senior curator at the Natural History Museum
Museum, said that scientists who specialized in dinosaurs tended to think that birds were directly related to dinosaurs but that bird specialists tended to think birds were already a separate lineage before dinosaurs. He said whether Bambi was a bird or a dinosaur depended on how bird was defined.
The characteristics that distinguish all living birds from other animals include a horny bill without teeth, saddle-shaped vertebrae, and feathers, he said.
"But if we go back to Kansas 80 million years ago and collect a bird, we'll find out that birds then have teeth instead of a horny bill," Martin said. "If a complete horny bill is needed to be a bird, these aren't birds. But they have saddle-shaped vertebrae and feathers, so if that's enough to be a bird, they're all still birds."
Martin said the famous 140- million-year-old Archaeopteryx fossil had feathers but lacked a horny bill and saddle-shaped vertebrae. If feathers are the defining characteristic of a bird, it's a bird, but if feathers aren't enough, it's not.
"What's happening is that we are progressively losing the features that identify an organism as a bird as we go back in time."
Martin said. "The things that make something a bird were not specially created at one time, but were progressively accumulated through time."
Whether Bambiraptor had feathers and could fly is unknown. Burnham said. There were no impressions of feathers in the rock, but the length of the arms was consistent with wings. The skeleton also had bird legs.
And Bambi was a birdbrain. Burnham said Bambi had the highest encephalization quotient — the ratio of brain size to body size — of any dinosaur in the Cretaceous era. Bambi's EQ is in the bird range, much higher than dinosaurs'.
Burnham said a high EQ was consistent with flight because navigation in three dimensions required more brain power.
Bambi was a juvenile, about 75 percent grown, Burnham said. He could tell Bambi wasn't full-grown because adult bones were found in the same Montana quarry where Bambi came from.
He said it was surprisingly hard to assemble the skeleton, considering he had nearly all the parts. It was like building a 3-D puzzle without a picture on the box, he said.
Burnham said Bambi was only about 75 million years old, not old enough to be an ancestor of modern birds. But it is a descendant of the ancestor of modern birds — more like a cousin than a great-great-grandparent.
Ed Wiley, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, said whether Bambi was a bird was not of scientific interest.
"What we're about is trying to discover the tree of life," he said. "Names are a vehicle to describe the tree of life, but names can be misused, especially if you're old fashioned."
School of Business announces new dean; administrator will begin post in July
By Ryan Devlin
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The School of Business has found a new dean, University of Kansas officials announced Friday.
will become dean of KU's School of Business July 3. Provest David Shulenburger announced. Fuerst will succeed dean Tom Sarowski, who will retire at the end of this year.
William L. Fuerst, associate dean and professor at Texas A&M's Lowry Mays College and Graduate School of Business.
"Bill Fuerst is just the person needed as dean at the School of Business at this time," Shulenburger said. "He has strong academic values to guide the school's education and research activities, and he also
has a thorough understanding of the needs of business constituents of the school." Fuerst said he was delighted to accept the position.
"KU's School of Business has a great reputation for quality both nationally and internationally," he said. "I was very impressed with the school's faculty, staff and students."
Fuerst said he would continue to carry
out the school's seven-year Plan for Excellence, a $2.1 million vision and goal-setting plan that began in 1998. The school's primary goal under the plan is to become nationally ranked among the top 10 business schools in the country.
"I'd like to focus on recruiting and retaining high-quality faculty and students and on ensuring the students are getting the value and training they need so they can
go out and get the good jobs," Fuerst said.
go out and get the good jobs. Fuerst said. Fuerst holds a doctorate in management information systems from Texas Tech University, a master's of business administration from Northern Illinois University and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Knox College.
See NEW on page 3A