Tuesday, November 23, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 3
KU students among trespassing protesters
School of Americas the focus of dispute
By Erin R. Barcomb
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Students from the University of Kansas stood alongside 12,000 protesters at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Ga. last weekend.
About 27 people, including 23 students, went with a Latin American Solidarity group from the University. The group left Friday and returned yesterday.
For the ninth year, a group called School of Americas Watch organized the protest. SOA Watch alleges the school, which is run by the U.S. Army, trains Latin American leaders to undermine democratic efforts in their countries through means that violate human rights.
Erin Harrington, a Frankfort freshman who went with the Latin American Solidarity group, said the trip took about 18 hours each way in two 15-passenger vans.
Harrington said Saturday consisted of singing and speakers who included refugees such as a Colombian journalist.
Part of the protest involved "crossing the line," or trespassing onto the school's property and risking arrest. According to SOA Watch, 5,000 of the
protesters crossed the line Sunday. Harrington said 13 of them were from the KU group.
Holly Worthen, McPherson sophomore, said she crossed the line. She said that, as had happened last year, those who trespassed were placed on buses and driven away from the protest site by police.
Worthing said the trespassers were taken to a baseball field about a mile and a half away. They then walked back to the protest.
"Last year the police approached people to get on the bus," she said. "This year, they waited for us to get on the bus of our own accord."
Matthew Koepe, vice president of Latin American Solidarity, said foreign students faced a dilemma when deciding whether or not to cross the line. He said non-citizens could be deported if they were arrested at the protest.
Koeppe said he had been told it took eight hours to process the 1,000 people who were arrested.
"Now they know everyone is going to cross the line," he said. "I think something bigger needs to be done. I think it does make progress, though, because so many people show up."
Kopep said Latin American Solidarity's money from fund raisers, such as a beans and rice dinner and a party at the Granada, helped pay for about half of the cost of the trip. The trip cost $1,000.
Edited by Jennifer Roush
The Associated Press
FORT BENNING, Ga.—More than 3,000 protesters, many wearing black robes and white death masks, marched onto Fort Benning on Sunday to protest human rights abuses they say are committed by graduates of the Army's School of the Americas.
Thousands march onto Fort Benning
Fifty-four of the most disruptive demonstrators were briefly detained by military and civilian police, post representative Rich McDowell said. The rest, including actor Martin Sheen, were loaded onto buses and removed from the base.
Many of the protesters carried coffins and crosses bearing the names of victims of violence in Latin America. Sheen made the sign of the cross above a child-sized casket while several other demonstrators lay down on a street pretending to be dead and splattered themselves with red paint.
The Army has not decided whether to press charges against the 54 for trespassing, which is punishable by up to six months in jail, McDowell said.
The Army estimated that about 3,100 of 8,000 demonstrators crossed onto the base while the rest protested outside. The group that organized the protest, School of Americas Watch, said the total number of protesters was closer to 12,000.
The School of the Americas is best
known for its training of Latin American officers who were fighting communist insurgencies. It has long been criticized for human rights abuses later committed in Latin America by some of those graduates.
The annual demonstration commemorates the Nov. 16, 1989, killings in El Salvador of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her young daughter. A United Nations panel found that 19 of the 26 Salvadoran officers involved had been trained at the school.
The Rev. Roy Bourgeois, the priest who has spearheaded the decade-long protest against the school, said he will continue to speak out as long as combat courses are taught there.
"We don't teach democracy from the barrel of a gun," Bourgeois said. "It gives me such joy to see so many people here. There were 10 people 10 years ago, and now there are 10,000."
Army officials say only a small percentage of the school's 60,000 graduates have been linked to human rights abuses.
"When you look at the curriculum of the School of Americas, we teach more human rights courses than any other school in the U.S. Army," said Col. Glenn Weidner, commandant of the school. "Lining people up and shooting them from 3 or 4 meters is not a problem of military training. It's a lack of training."
workers place and weld beams behind Joseph R. Pearson Hall yesterday afternoon, before the onset of rain. Delays in receiving materials and unusual weather have thrown the project on and off schedule since its start. Photo by Chad Cummings/ KANSAN
Building renovation slowed by brick delay
By Clay McCuistion
writer@kanson.com
Kansas staff writer
The $14 million renovation of Joseph R. Pearson Hall to house the School of Education has hit some snags but is continuing mostly on schedule, according to University officials.
The renovation began late in the 1998 fall semester and was scheduled to finish in June of 2000. Warren Corman, the University's chief architect, said a wait for appropriate bricks for the addition would delay some parts the project for up to two months.
The bricks were scheduled to arrive last April, but the kiln in Nebraska that produced them exploded. They finally came in August, but were a dark reddish color, not the tan-orange shade requested. New, correctly-colored bricks arrived at the beginning of this month.
Renovations to the inside of the 40-year-old hall are continuing, and Corman said the University's contractor — Ferrell Construction of Topeka — is trying its hardest to bring the rest of the construction up to speed.
("Ferrell is) still trying to make the original schedule," Corman said. "We have a really good contractor, and he's trying to make up for the delays."
Of the funds allocated for the project, $6 million is allotted for additional classrooms and an auditorium, and $8 million is going toward a total refurbishing of the building.
According to University Relations, when the project is
completed, the seven-story, 105,000 square-foot building will contain the School of Education in one place for the first time. The school now is shared by Bailey Hall, the Robinson Center and the Dole Human Development Center.
Corman said the delay in getting the bricks mainly affected the addition to the east and west sides of the existing building and may prevent classes from being held there. Office space for the School of Education, however, will be ready.
"We don't anticipate there will be a delay in getting them moving," Corman said. "We could get permission to move them in."
Karen Gallagher, dean of the school, was in meetings throughout yesterday and unavailable for comment on the possible delay.
Todd Cohen of University Relations said there may be extra space in the completed building not used by the school of education.
"I don't think that's been decided, all of what's going to go in there." he said.
More information about the project is available at the school's web site at: www.soe.ukans.edu. The site includes pictures of the construction work in progress.
Joseph R. Pearson hall was built in 1958 and opened in 1959. According to University Relations, the former residence hall was named for a Texas oil man who married 1901 KU graduate Gertrude Sellards Pearson, namesake for a University residence hall.
—Edited by Matt James
Students decide how to distribute technology fund
By Nathan Willis writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
A new of round of high technology is about to hit the University of Kansas campus.
A student committee has decided how to distribute among the various schools and departments at the University more than $600,000 in funds generated this year by student technology fees.
Individual departments and schools must submit applications for grants to a seven-member student committee that decides how to dole out the money.
Assistant Provost Rich Givens said 49 proposals were submitted this year requesting a total of $1.93 million. From that, the students decided to fund 31 projects with the $614,947 generated by the fee, he said.
"Many of those were not fully funded," Givens said. "They wanted to make sure that the parts of the proposals that in their view had the most impact were funded. They didn't want to pay for anything that they felt should be covered by University money or any infrastructure costs."
Projects that received funding included new equipment to go in the addition to Murphy Hall now under construction and new equipment for Joseph R. Pearson Hall, which is undergoing renovation in preparation for the School of Education's move there next fall. Also included was money for several computer labs and video equipment.
"It's much safer and much more efficient than the gas-fired floor furnaces we have now," she said. "Students will be able to cast more often, have larger pieces and do it more safely. Plus, this unit won't produce any pollution."
Judith McCrea, art department chair, said the furnace would benefit art students.
Another recipient was the department of architecture and urban design, which was given $12,393 to purchase new computers, monitors and scanners for the Bridge computer lab in Marvin Hall.
Andy Moddrell, a Lawrence junior who uses the lab frequently, said he was glad it was getting more equipment, even though access is not a problem now.
"As far as I'm concerned, the more, the better," Moddrell said. "I think it'll be great. Just people's opinion of Bridge will be enhanced by them knowing they'll be able to use more stuff."
He considers the student technology fee to be worth the money, though it may cause more problems for out-of-state student who pay more to begin with, he said.
The student technology fee is $1 per credit hour, meaning that a student enrolled in 15 credit hours paid $15 for this semester. The fee was implemented last year, and the Kansas Legislature agreed to contribute $2 for every $1 generated by the fee both last year and this year.
Half of the roughly $1.2 million contributed by the legislature goes to technology improvements deemed vital by Givens and other administrators, he said. The other half is divided among the schools on the basis of enrollment for them to use as they please, he said.
Both the number of applications and the amount of total money requested rose this year, Givens said. However, the amount of money available remained basically the same because the total number of credit hours students took was about the same, he said.
Departments within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, which contain about half the students in the University, received $365,470, while the rest of the schools at the University divided up the remaining $248,177.
"The disbursement of where the money goes is not all even," Givens said. "It doesn't cover the University in an equal way in any one year, but I think in the long run, it will even out. That's already happening to a certain extent."
However, Givens said he was pleased with the process by which the money was given out.
"The students did an excellent job in choosing," he said. "The philosophy that we've based on it is that this is the student's money, and this is about as close as we can get to giving them their say in where it's going. They deserve this input."
Edited by Jessie Meyer
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