Tomorrow's weather
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Unseasonably warm and mostly sunny.
Kansan
HIGH LOW
80 49
Thursday
November 11, 1999
Section:
A
Vol. 110 • No. 60
Inside today
Kansas representative Dennis Moore and a former POW will speak at a Veterans Day observance on campus today.
Sports today
SEE PAGE 3A
The Kansas volleyball team rallied from a 2-1 deficit and defeated Oklahoma 3-2, keeping its NCAA tournament hopes alive.
SEE PAGE 1B
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Bomb threat disrupts classes
(USPS 650-640)
Police search three buildings for explosive
By Michael Terry and Katie Hollar writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writers
The threat of a bomb yesterday afternoon at Snow Hall didn't scare Kyle Koch. The Shawnee freshman did not evacuate — he kept on studying inside.
"We have a test in 10 minutes," he said. "I guess my GPA is more important."
Koch's attitude was typical of many University of Kansas students and faculty displaced by yesterday's bomb threat. The one-hour search of three campus buildings generated more annoyance than fear.
At 3:23 p.m., a secretary at Bailey Hall received a call from an unidentified male. He said he overheard several people talking about a possible bomb at one of three locations: Snow, Wescoe or Hashinger halls.
The secretary notified the KU Public Safety Office, which dispatched officers to each site to investigate.
Sgt. Troy Mailen said the University had a policy for dealing with bomb threats. The officers followed this policy yesterday, he said, working to notify department heads, checking the buildings for suspicious devices and accommodating classes that needed to relocate.
Department heads decided whether classes could be dismissed. Several classes took advantage of the warm weather and continued outside.
Gloria Prothe, department of math administrative assistant, said her department alerted all professors about the threat. Prothe said individual professors decided whether to evacuate.
Chris Souillerigaut, Lawrence graduate student, dismissed his French 110 class from Wescoe as soon as he heard.
At 4:30 p.m., the search ended.
Malien said the next step was an investigation tracing the phone call.
Mailen said he was unsure of any connection between the three buildings, and this was the first bomb threat this semester.
"I feel a little unsafe now that housing wouldn't at least come around and notify us of the threat."
Topeka freshman
Jeff Brandsted
Most bomb threats at the University are false alarms, Mailen said. He cited students wanting to get out of an exam as a possible motive.
But a bomb threat is no guarantee that a test or a class will get canceled. Mailen said police had backup rooms available at all times for any classes displaced by an evacuation.
A speech therapy phonetics lab took advantage of the backup space, said Jill Long, Meriden junior. Her class moved down the Hill to Haworth Hall.
Jeff Brandsted, Topeka freshman and Hashinger resident, said that he was not aware a bomb threat had occurred. He was in his room at the time of the search
"I feel a little unsafe now that housing wouldn't at least come
around and notify us of the threat," Brandsted said. "I would at least like to have the opportunity to evacuate if I wanted."
Hashinger employees would not comment on the procedures taken.
Yesterday afternoon, both students and faculty at Wescoe and Snow said the threat of an explosion didn't worry them.
Mike Dennis, lecturer in communication studies, said when he worked at Purdue University last semester, bomb threats happened every other day. Dennis went outside to check on his wife, then returned to his office inside Wescoe
“It’s in the middle of a dull day anyway,” Dennis said.
Jessica Gillispie, Baldwin senior and student assistant in the department of history, remained at her desk during the search.
"I guess I'm just not in the mood to take this seriously," Gillispie said. "I get off at 4:30. I'll take my chances."
Rob Dwyer, Augusta junior, sat outside Snow Hall yesterday smoking a cigarette and waiting for the police to leave.
"I don't think there's really a bomb," he said. "I'm sure someone's having a good laugh right now."
- Edited by Katrina Hull
Kansas public safety leutnant Schuyler Bailey, left, fills out a bomb scare report with the assistance of Chris Keary, public safety office assistant director. The public safety office received a tip about a possible bomb at Wescole, Snow or Hashinger halls yesterday. No devices were found. Photo by Nick Krug/KANSAN
Professors battle commercial note-takers
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
By Nathan Willis
In an ongoing conflict with online commercial note-taking companies, University of Kansas professors are winning a few battles — but the tide of the war may be turning against them.
More companies are joining the competition to take class notes and provide them for free to students on the Internet, said Mathieu Deflem, an assistant professor of sociology at Purdue University who is leading a national fight against online note-taking ventures.
"It began about a year ago with a few companies and a few universities," Deflem said. "Now it's 10 companies with universities across the nation. In that sense, it's becoming a very extensive problem."
Despite complaints from professors and a University policy that forbids notetaking companies from entering classrooms without the instructors' permission, note-taking companies continue to have a strong presence at the University.
Juliet Kaarbo, associate professor of political science, said she wasn't aware that online note taker allstudents.com was taking notes in her Introduction to International Politics class and posting them on its site.
"They did not ask me." Kaarbo said.
"I'm not happy about that."
She said she would ask the company to withdraw from her class and would seek out which of the students in the 150-person class had been taking notes for the company.
Similar tactics resulted in success for Dennis Dailey, professor of social welfare, when allstudents.com listed his course as one it would take notes for during the semester.
"I asked my class if someone was taking notes for them," Dailey said. "The one person who was taking notes called the company and canceled working for them."
However, Dailey said, repeated attempts to contact the company were in vain.
Both Dailey and Defem said they did not think the note-taking companies took the instructors' opinions into account.
But Jennifer Keesler, an allstudents.com representative, said that was not true.
"The general policy is this: our utmost concern is for professors," Keesler said. "We'll try to work it out, and we'll absolutely take notes down if the professor requests it."
Keesler said the reason allstudies.com hadn't asked professors if it could enter their classes was that it been unaware of the University's
ONLINE NOTES
Number of KU classes for which some online notetaking sites offer notes: www.alltudents.com 2
www.versity.com: none
www.course-notes.com: none
police, without commercial note-takers. She said the company would ask professors first in the future.
Deflam said the University's policy made it easier to battle note-taking companies at Kansas than at most universities, which don't have such policies. Still, he said, legal battles would be inevitable if the spread of online notetaking companies continued.
"If you want to challenge this legally, it's a real hassle," he said. "But legal recourse may be the most effective strategy left."
- Edited by Kelly Clasen
'50s Jayhawk formidable force as '90s governor
Bv Chad Bettes
Opinion editor
The day I interviewed and observed Arizona Gov. Jane Dee Hull on the job in Phoenix, the local newspaper decided to nickname her Mrs. Mum — "mum" as she in mum's the word. The paper said she was turning down all requests for news interviews after a national controversy surrounded her earlier in the week.
Fortunately, our meeting was still on,
and during the time I spent with Hull,
I did see a little of Mrs. Mum. But I also saw a state's chief executive, a former teacher, a grandmother, a political superstar — and a Jayhawk — all wrapped up in one.
She's a little busy. Meetings, receptions, politics, speeches and more meetings. Before talking to me, Hull already had dropped by a farewell reception for friends at a local business. Then she had meetings with constituents.
When it was my turn, the governor was half an hour behind schedule. Hull came from across the office to greet me and said, "Sorry, it's been one of those kind of days around here."
Arizona Republican Gov. Jane Dee Hull sits at her desk at her office in the Arizona Executive Office Building. Hull spent her childhood and early adult life in Kansas, including four years at the University of Kansas, before moving to Arizona in the 1950s. Photo by Chad Bettles/KANSAN
The voice strikes you unexpectedly. It's deep, sandy and dry, so fitting of a governor of Arizona, where the desert terrain makes up much of the state. But the voice is not what you expect from someone so small, someone who lists "granny" on her resume.
Confident but warm. Petite but strong. Get-down-to-business type. On the policy side, Hull names education, the economy and the preservation of Arizona's natural beauty as her priorities.
Life quickly changed for Hull when she came to the University of Kansas in 1953 to study journalism. She had been the editor of her high school newspaper, a member of the yearbook staff and Quill and Scroll. Also the daughter of a newspaperman, the choice seemed natural.
But Hull found little time for journalism and extracurricular activities. She had found love in the form of Terry Hull, her high school sweetheart and a physician-to-be. Married in the first year of college, Hull and her husband had two children by the time she graduated with a bachelor's degree in education.
Jane Dee Hull, 64, is a Republican governor and self-described conservative. Since she was born and reared in Kansas, perhaps that is not such a surprise. Her hometown was Mission, and her high school was Shawnee Mission High School
— in the '50s when the town was still a sleepy suburb with one high school.
"A combination of knowing that I was married with two kids and probably more coming and it was a better life to be a teacher," Hull said.
Why the switch from journalism to education?
Being busy seems to be a lifelong theme of Hull's, especially at the University.
"I barely remember it," she said. "The only claim to fame I had in college is we lived down the street from Wilt Chamberlain."
She offered other University remembrances but of a different kind. Her grandmother was a housemom for a KU fraternity, and her father's family was from Lawrence.
Hull said her family was ready for change after Terry graduated from medical school and she taught elementary school for several years in Kansas City. So they made a big change, moving to the Navajo Nation in Arizona. There, Terry joined the Public Health
See POLITICAL on page 6A
By Clay McCuistion
Kansan staff writer
"There's a whole lot of mythology out there about the letter among non-National Merits," Wick said. "I'm hearing so much about it."
Advisers deny merit scholars treated specially
Despite perceptions among the student body, National Merit Scholars aren't receiving many special enrollment privileges, said faculty who advise them.
An Oct. 13 letter from Diana Carlin, interim assistant provost, informed the merit scholars that if they weren't able to enroll in the classes they needed, they could get a special National Merit completion form. The form allowed the merit scholars to change their schedules before the first add/drop period begins Nov. 19.
The letter said nothing about merit scholars getting into closed classes but that was still the impression many students had, said Sandra Wick, associate director of the University Honors Program.
In the letter, merit scholars are told to go to the Honors Program in Nunemaker Hall or the Freshman-Sophomore Advising Center for further help planning their schedules.
Wick said this further advising, far from being a special privilege, was offered to all students who couldn't enroll in the classes they needed. The only advantage for the merit scholars was the opportunity to change their schedules before the first add/drop period.
So far, Wick said, merit scholars who had enrollment problems were rare.
"What's interesting to me is that Diana Carlin's office put in writing things that are available for any student at KU." she said.
The special completion form was not a closed class opener, Wick said. All students — even students with the special letter — must talk to professors individually to enroll in a full class.
Kathryn Nemeth Tuttle, director of the Freshman-Sophomore Advising Center, said her office had seen only five National Merit completion forms by yesterday afternoon.
Tuttle also emphasized that extra advising was available for all students with enrollment difficulties.
"I do this kind of thing all the time," she said. "I would do that for any student, in fact."
Michelle Sippel, Sutton, Neb., junior, is a member of Wick's Honors Western Civilization I discussion section.
Sippel, who is not a merit scholar, said most of her classmates thought the merit scholars would receive preferential treatment.
Jonathan Harclerode, Emporia senior and merit scholar, said he didn't pay much attention to the letter when he received it.
"It didn't seem like it was any different from what was already in place," he said. "It didn't seem like it would change anything for me."
Edited by Allan Davis