Rainy day.
Tomorrow's weather Showers possible with a high near 70 and a low near 48.
Kansan
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Sports: Senior Ashante Johnson got his first start of the season and the Jayhawks beat Oklahoma 53-50 yesterday at Allen Fieldhouse.
SEE PAGE 1B
MONDAY,FEBRUARY 21,2000
Inside: Bill Bradley is hoping John McCain's loss in South Carolina is his gain.
(USPS 650-640) * VOL. 110 NO. 100
SEE PAGE 7A
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Chancellor denies discrimination
Hemenway says gender wasn't factor
By Jim O'Malley
writer@kanson.com
Kansas staff writer
Chancellor Robert Hemenway testified Friday at a federal court in Kansas City, Kan., that his decision to deny tenure to a female assistant professor in 1998 was not based on her gender.
But former assistant professor Cynthia Annett testified that the discrimination took place earlier in the tenure review process, beginning in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology.
She and her husband, Ray Pierotti, associate professor in the same department. have sued both the University and department chairman, Thomas Taylor, alleging violations of federal civil-rights laws. Both the department and Taylor recommended against
tenure for Annett.
Annett and Pierotti have alleged that Taylor recommended denying Annett tenure in retaliation for opposing changes Taylor proposed in the department's graduate program. Annett and Pierotti thought those changes would harm minority and female students.
Annett testified that Taylor retaliated by filing academic misconduct charges against her, saying that she misrepresented in her tenure application some unpublished papers as published.
"I don't believe I had any knowledge of any unlawful employment practices." he said.
Hemenway testified that while he was making his decision, he called Taylor because department heads usually knew candidates best. Although he knew about the academic misconduct charges, Hemenway said he agreed with Provost David Shulenburger's recommendation that the charges should be kept separate from the tenure decision. He said the denial of tenure wasn't retaliation for opposition to discrimination.
But in question-
tennemay; Said
tenhem was denied
because of a lack
of published research
During cross-examination by Barbara McCloud, assistant general counsel, Annett said she had listed some research papers in the wrong place on her tenure application and had accidentally listed three articles twice in successive annual reviews.
The reason for denying tenure was that Annett had not produced enough published research. Hemenway said.
ing by her attorney, Alan Johnson, Annett said that even without the points for the double-counted articles, her rating on the department's annual reviews was higher than her male colleagues who were granted tenure.
A former colleague, Bob Holt, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, testified that Annett's teaching was very good to excellent and that her service to the University was excellent. Reasonable people could disagree about her research record, he said.
Under the University's "up-or-out" tenure system, denial of tenure meant the end of Annett's employment with the University. Annett testified that if not reinstated, she was seeking damages for lost future income.
Annett testified Thursday that the denial of tenure had damaged her professional reputation and that what she wanted was restatement in a tenured position with the University, although not necessarily in her former department.
Johnson said that was $2.4 million dollars across 25 years. But Annett could recover only the present value of that sum, which still could be more than $500,000. And if Annett and Pierotti win, they also could be awarded attorney fees, he said.
A tornado touches down on April 10, 1979, near Seymour, Texas. Douglas County Emergency Management wants interested people to serve as local storm spotters. Photo courtesy of National Severe Storms Laboratory archive.
Calling all Tornado spotters
County to train weather watchers
By Jim O'Malley
A tornado spirals on May 22, 1981 near Cordell, Okla. Photo courtesy of National Severe Storms Laboratory archive.
By Jim O'Malley
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Douglas County Emergency Management is looking for a few good men and women to spot tornadoes.
The county agency will hold a training session for volunteer storm spotters at 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 26 at Nichols Hall on West Campus. In addition, the public is invited to attend a public presentation on tornadoes on March 16 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds near Lawrence.
The agency needs volunteers because some of the experienced storm spotters will be retiring soon, said Marvin Wiedeman, a University of Kansas facilities operations technician who has been a volunteer spotter for 24 years.
Douglas County Emergency Management makes the decisions
on when to send out spotters — any time, day or night, said Teri Guenther, assistant director. The agency sends spotters out to known locations with a good view and decides whether to sound warning sirens based on spotters' radio reports. Guenther said.
Despite advances in radar, spotters are as important as ever because they tell meteorologists what clouds look like, said Daphne Zaras, research meteorologist with the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla.
"It's a lot of training for a day that may only come once a year," said Jay Antle, a Lawrence graduate student who has spotted for three years.
Volunteer spotters train two sessions a month almost year-round, punctuated by a few moments of excitement.
Spotters receive a lot of weather training, said Kate Dinneen, a blacksmith with Walt Hull Iron Works in Pleasant Grove who has been spotting since the early 1990s. Because tornadoes can form in seconds, the sirens will sound not just when funnel clouds or tornadoes are visible but also when the potential for tornadoes is high. So spotters have to recognize wall clouds — a kind of cloud formation that generates tornadoes — and look for cloud rotation. They also call in when high winds, heavy rain and lightning strikes occur, Dinneen said.
It's harder to spot storms at night, but spotters can see when
Antle said that sometimes spotters could track storms by flashes from power lines.
lightning strikes, Guenther said.
Dinneen said radio training was also important because new spotters tended to be excitable. It's important for spotters to not panic scanner-listeners.
See SPOTTERS on page 6A
Green transformer boxes like this one in front of Snow Hall are located throughout campus. The University is looking to improve old transformers to eliminate electrical problems until it can get money from the legislature to upgrade the electrical system. Photo by Brad Dreier/KANSAN
KU seeks state funds for electrical upgrade
By Sara Shepherd
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The University of Kansas has been requesting multimillion dollar help from the Kansas legislature to finance campus electrical upgrades for several years, officials say. But so far, their efforts have not been successful.
Eric King, director of facilities for the Board of Regents, addressed the issue at the board's monthly meeting Wednesday.
King said the University needed $6.4 million for on-campus electrical safety improvements. The University has been requesting money for the project for more than two years, he said.
The University's aging electrical system received attention after a transformer blew at Strong Hall Feb.5.
Associate provost Lindy Eakin said the University had two categories of expenses: routine operating costs, such as salaries, and capital improvements, such as new buildings. Money for electrical system upgrading is classified as a capital improvement.
Eakin said the University followed Regents guidelines for obtaining money from the legislature. But people in Topeka lately had not been generous with funds for capital improvements, he said.
"The last several years, the legislature has not been spending money on that kind of stuff," he said.
In the long run, Eakin said, it is essential that the University obtain funds from the legislature to complete large-scale improvements. Until then, it must identify the most pressing infrastructure problems and use the money it has to deal with them.
"We can't just keep waiting for the legislature to bail us out," Eakin said. "We'll have to find some way to get that done immediately."
Eakin said some routine maintenance operations had been put on hold so priority could be given to electrical equipment with the highest risk of failure.
University architect Warren Corman said a lot of the University's electrical equipment was between 40
"We can't just keep waiting for the legislature to bail us out. We'll have to find some way to get that done immediately."
Lindy Eakin associate provost
and 50 years old. Cables are worn out and undersized, while transformers and switchboards are aging, he said.
"The primary problem is very old equipment and cables — very old distribution cables that go all around the campus and in steam tunnels," Corman said.
He said the old electrical system had a capacity of a little more than 4,000 volts. The proposed new system would be three times as powerful.
"Fifty years ago, 4,000 was considered plenty and ample." Corman said.
Corman said the onslaught of technology increased the workload for campus electrical equipment, and the University was struggling to keep up.
"It's really changed," he said. "We're just starting to catch up. I guess."
Plans propose to construct a 12,000-volt electrical distribution system comprised of several loops.
"The campus wasn't laid out that way 100 years ago, and we're trying to convert it to a loop system." Corman said.
Corman said the new system would be powered by two electrical substations, one at each end. One substation already exists near the boiler plant, southeast of Stauffer-Flint Hall. A new station will be built west of Learned Hall.
The stations would enable power to constantly circulate around the loop, even if one point on the system was severed.
"It doesn't make any difference which way it's going," Corman said. "It can feed it from either way."
Corman said acquiring money for the improvements was a slow process.
"It won't get done overnight," he said.
Vote to eliminate undergraduate architecture degree postponed
Rv Kandwa Kankondo
Kansan staff writer
The faculty of the School of Architecture and Urban Design decided Friday to postpone a vote that would have eliminated the five-year architecture program, paving the way for a massive program change.
The proposal would have eliminated the undergraduate architecture degree in favor of a six-year master's degree program.
faculty did not vote because they needed input from the whole school, especially its students.
John Gaunt, dean of architecture, said the
In the meeting, the faculty agreed that a meeting should be held soon and should involve the school's students and faculty.
Earlier in the day, the dean met with students, many who had expressed anger at being left out of the decision-making process.
Gaunt said he gave the students credit for being passionate about an event that would somehow affect their professions.
"We, the students, should have a lot of say in what goes on in the architectural program," said Andy Koenig, St. Charles, Mo., senior.
Koenig said the issue was not just about the lack of student involvement.
"I personally think the program they are installing will be bad in general for the students," he said. "I actually transferred from a program that was the same way. I don't think it was a good program at all."
Koenig transferred from Washington University in St. Louis. He said the school of
Andy Koenig
"We, the students, should have a lot of say in what goes on in the architectural program."
St. Charles, Mo., senior
architectural engineering there implemented the same program that the University was trying to adopt.
He said that in the six-year program, students in the third year had a lower level of knowledge than he did at the University of Kansas. What is even more frustrating, he said, is to see someone graduate with a master's degree who had only covered the same grounds as somebody from the University of Kansas graduating with a bachelor's degree.
Seoung Lee, Seoul, Korea, senior, agreed with Koenig. He said he did not think the staff knew what the students wanted.
Gaunt said he did not think the six-year plan was indicative of any national trends.