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Vol.109·No.146
Tonight is the final quarter-dog night of 1999 at Hoglund Ballpark. Will the baseball team pull off a win?
SEE PAGE 1B
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Crash kills 2; Apache training to continue
(USPS 650-640)
The Associated Press
TIRANA, Albania — The U.S. Army won't disrupt its plans to send Apache helicopters into combat against Serb forces, despite a crash in Albania's mountains yesterday that killed two American aviators and brought NATO's first fatalities in its campaign against Yugoslavia.
The crash, during nighttime training in rugged northeastern Albania, was the second in nine days involving one of the 24 heavily armed anti-tank Apaches deployed in Albania. They are preparing for combat missions against Yugoslav forces, accused of driving nearly 700,000 ethnic Albanians out of the neighboring Kosovo province.
Training will proceed, and the Army will stick to its still-secret schedule for deploying the helicopters in combat, said Lt. Col.
Garrie Dorman, a representative of the task force that includes the Anaches.
The U.S. military identified the two army aviators as Chief Warrant Officer 3 David A. Gibbs, 38, of Ohio, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kevin L. Reichert, 28, of Wisconsin.
The cause of the crash was under investigation, but the Army said there were no indications of hostile fire.
Dornan said the helicopter crashed in remote, rugged, mountainous terrain at 1:30 a.m. local time, 45 miles northeast of Tirana's airport.
The pilot and co-pilot/gunner were dead when the first rescue team arrived within 15 minutes of the crash. Dornan said.
Reichert, who grew up in northwestern Wisconsin, had been living in Germany with his wife, their daughter and two sons.
Gibbs' hometown was not identified by
the military.
President Clinton, speaking to American troops at a base in Germany, lamented the loss of "two brave Americans."
"We grieve with their families and pray for them." Clinton said.
In a ceremony at Tirana airport, pall bearers from the dead aviators' unit carried the two caskets past about 300 soldiers and honor guards onto a C-17 transport plane, the hum of the engine drowning out the strains of The Star-Spangled Banner.
The Apache training has been deliberately rigorous in order to prepare the pilots for combat in Kosovo.
Their bodies were to be flown to Ramstein Air Base in Germany last night and transferred to a nearby U.S. military hospital before being returned to the United States, the military said.
"We are flying under total blackout conditions. We are flying in difficult terrain." Dornan said. "You cannot eliminate risk from this business. ... We are preparing for a combat operation, not a peacekeeping operation."
Last week, another Apache crashed in flames, also during a nighttime training mission in Albania. Its crewmen escaped with cuts and bruises.
Since 1985, when the Army began using the Apache, there have been 50 severe crashes and 14 fatalities, including the two latest deaths.
The $14.5 million Apaches have sighting and night-vision equipment that permits operation in the dark or in bad weather, but are vulnerable to ground fire because they stay low and fly relatively slowly.
The Apache was first used in 1899 in Panama, and flew in Iraq for the Desert Storm conflict as well as in Bosnia.
Left and bottom:
Memorial Stadium will have a new look next season after a $14 million luxury box project is completed. The project will bring Kansas' football stadium up to par with other Big 12 Conference schools. The construction should be completed by the end of August.
New skyboxes an investment in luxury
Story by Matt Tait ● Photos by Dan Elavsky
From Memorial Stadium's east stands you can see the 13 permanent theater seats in the front of the suite, the high-bar stool tables and the sink in the rear. On one side of these under-construction suites will be upholstered sitting areas where you can watch either of the televisions that will be mounted on the walls.
It's nothing more than a construction site now, but if you squint a bit you can begin to see it take shape.
The color scheme, crimson and blue, of course, will roar "Go Jayhawks!" in order to create an atmosphere perfect for rooting on the 'Hawks in style and luxury.
Out of the big picture windows that will separate these suites from the rest of Memorial Stadium, far below and a world away, will sit the common Kansas fans and - still farther below - a Kansas football game will unfold.
Welcome to the world of luxury boxes at the University of Kansas.
See ALCOHOL on page 8A
Commission's complaints rulings remain the same
By Nadia Mustafa
nmustafa@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The elections commission's rulings on Student Senate election complaints were unchanged last night at an open revoting session attended by two students.
Upon suggestion from the Douglas County Counsel Wint Winter to comply with the Kansas Open Meetings Act, the commission's five-member hearing board publicly revoted on 19 complaints it previously voted on at a meeting on April 19.
But the board did not divulge the complaints' details or the involved parties. It identified each complaint only by a random number and the section of the elections code allegedly violated.
Partha Mazumdar, graduate senator and one of the students in attendance, said the board might as well have conducted its votes in a closed session because no one from the public knew the contents of the complaints.
Mazumdar said because the board's rulings and punishments did not appear on students' academic records, the board should discuss details of complaints. He said he didn't think the elections complaints were covered by the Buckley Amendment, which prohibits universities that release student records from receiving federal funds.
Before the board voted, it discussed Winter's legal opinion and recommendations in his letter stating that the board violated the act by voting in a closed session and not formally moving to deliberate in a closed session.
Jennifer Wamelink, assistant director of student housing, and Terry Bruce, hearing board chair, concluded during the meeting that Winter's suggestions were "stupid."
In his letter, Winter had recommended that the board revote and sign a consent agreement that the commission would not violate the act in the future.
Jennifer Watkins, elections commissioner, said the commission would not sign an agreement until University General Counsel Victoria Thomas approved it. Watkins said she didn't know if this year's commission could sign a document that would bind future commissions.
She said although the board's rulings were unchanged, last night's session allowed the board to discuss Winter's recommendations and learn the correct procedure. She said the board did not reveal the complaints' details because it wanted to protect students' rights.
"We are bound under the Buckley Amendment." Watkins said. "This is not a debate; it's not open to public opinion. This is a punishment phase."
Aaron Profitt, Overland Park sophomore, said he attended the session to make sure the board's rulings did not change because it did not hear new evidence.
"The farcical part of it is watching them try to juggle the
See KU on page 2A
Student dies in one-car accident on Turnpike
By Jamie Knodel and Katie Burford
jknodel@kansan.com, kburford@kansan.com
Kansan staff writers
Dianne Haake was on the Kansas Turnpike seven miles east of Lawrence when her 1994 Chevrolet Camaro slid off the road.
A University of Kansas student who died Tuesday morning will be missed by her co-workers and classmates.
She hit a mud embankment, and her car came to a halt facing the wrong direction in the ditch at about 10:15 a.m., said Master Trooper Mike Hover of the Kansas Highway Patrol.
Haake had serious internal injuries and died in the ambulance on the way to Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
nesses to the accident, and no other vehicles were involved. The accident was reported by a man who drove by after it occurred.
Hover said the exact cause of the accident had not been determined.
Hover said that there were no wif-
"It was raining at the time," he said. "It is possible that speed was a factor."
Haake was not wearing a seat belt, Hover said.
Haake was a 21-year-old College of Liberal Arts and Sciences sophomore in pre-journalism from Leawood.
Jamie Weber, manager at Wheatfield's Bakery, 904 Vermont St., where Haake had worked for two years, said that Haake was planning to transfer to Arizona State University in Tempe,
Ariz., this fall to pursue a journalism degree.
Weber said that Haake was a special individual that would be missed.
"She was vivacious," he said. "She lit up the room every time she came in. There was nobody like her. Dianne was a kindred spirit."
Classmates said that they were saddened to learn of Haake's death.
"She was nice and a lot of fun," said Tory Macfarlane, Lawrence freshman, who was in Haake's Spanish class this semester.
A spokesperson at the Shawnee County Coroner's Office in Topeka, said that Haake's family had not yet made arrangements for funeral services.
— Edited by Kelli Raybern
Got it!
Ferran Ayala,
Torreon, senior,
senior, catches a
candy-filled pina-
ta that he tried to
hit at a Cinco de
Mayo celebration
yesterday outside
Amini Scholar-
ship Hall. Ayala
smashed a hole in
the piñata, and
students grabbed
the candy that fell
out. Photo by
Augustus Anthony
Piazza/KANSAN
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