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April 29, 1999
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Vol. 109 No.141
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Zac Wegner's injury woes continue. The Kansas quarterback broke his thumb.
SEE PAGE 1B
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Officers say goodbye to Senate
(USPS 650-640)
New senate begins by encouraging use of open debate
Scott Kaiser (left), outgoing student body vice president, and Kevin Yoder, outgoing student body president, prepare to move from their offices in the Kansas Union. The terms of Student Senate officers ended last night, and newly elected officers stepped into the vacated positions. Photo by Brad Looney/KANSAN
By Nadia Mustafa
nmustafa@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
The lights went out at a joint session of Student Senate last night.
It was part of an elaborate entrance by Kevin Yoder and Scott Kaiser, outgoing student body president and vice president, who walked into the Kansas Union Ballroom wearing sunglasses while wrestling music blared on loud speakers.
The Senate executive staff, including Yoder and Kaiser.
"I tried to look at people for what they thought, not who they were, and not question their motives. Sometimes, I fell below the fray. I wish I hadn't, but the very nature of Senate is politics."
delivered their farewell speeches for new and old senators before they officially left office and the new Senate took over.
Kevin Yoder Outgoing Student Body President
By Nadia Mustafa
nmusafe@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Also during joint Senate, all five standing committee chairs offered end of the year reports. Partha Mazumdar, graduate senator, announced that Graduate Affairs committee had again reelected him as chairman.
student body gets out," Maxwell said.
As Kevin Yoder and Scott Kaiser handed over the reigns of student body president and vice president last night, they kept in mind the year's accomplishments and the groundwork they tried to lay for next year's Student Senate leaders.
10er and Kaiser both said they were satisfied with most of the work they had done in office this year.
Seth Hoffman, outgoing Nunemaker senator and former Delta Force candidate for student body president, encouraged new senators to be committed and dedicated to making sure students' interests were the priority at the University of Kansas. Hoffman, who said he would probably not speak in front Senate again, received a standing ovation.
"I encourage next year to be the year of debate, arguments and disagreements because that's the way the voice of the
Former officers recall their year's successes failures as term ends
As the knock of Kaiser's gavel signaled the conclusion of this year's Senate, the non-returning senators filed out of the room, and Korb Maxwell and Dede Seibel, incoming student body president and vice president, delivered their first officer reports for the new Senate.
New Senate acclimated a resolution supporting Haskell Indian Nations University's concerns about the proposed South Lawrence Trafficway construction project. Senate also approved the following positions for next year:
State and local agencies ... Marlon Marshall, Senate executive chair; Patrick McGiffert, treasurer; Gregory Wiley, assistant treasurer; Kim Fuchs, secretary; Ben Walker, Student Legislative Awareness Board legislative director; Michael Henry, SLAB campus director; and Christina Harms and E.J. Reedy, Center for Community Outreach co-directors.
J.D. Jenkins, Kristen Chowning and Lisa Braun, holdover senators
Sarah Schreck, Aravind Muthukrishnan, Ben Walker, R.J. Woodring,
Nicole Skalla, Eric Rush, Michael Henry, Ashley Udden and Amy Cummins,
University Council representatives. Michael Henry, Ben Walker and Amy
Cummins, Faculty Senate representatives.
of Saferide.
especially with their proposal for a new $16 million campus recreation center, which the student body approved during Senate elections earlier this month.
Yoder, who will attend law school at the University of Kansas next fall, said he would continue to work on campus issues through boards and committees and would be involved with the construction of a new recreation center.
Kaiser, who will graduate in May 2000, said he would work toward his philosophy degree next year and also would continue his involvement with Senate.
Last spring, Yoder and Kaiser, who were Campus Cause candidates, promised to work on parking, online enrollment, campus safety and putting student fee increases to student body referendums.
Although he established a campus safety advisory board, Yoder said he wished there had been more progress toward a comprehensive campus safety package including a Safewalk program and the expansion
Yoder said Senate had procured more than 1,000 additional student parking spots on campus through Park and Ride, and 300 new spaces south of Robinson Center. But, he said, Senate had not secured as many student spots as he had hoped in the new parking garage.
Yoder said his biggest failure was that despite his efforts, he had been unsuccessful in gaining a solid agreement from the administration about the implementation of online enrollment.
Yoder said his favorite part of being student body president had been working with people on committees and boards, and his favorite moment was hearing that the recreation center referendum had passed. His least
See YODER on page 2A
Mentally ill slip through small cracks of legal system
By Katie Burford
kburford@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
A homeless man going by the name of Prince Don of Czech was yelling at anyone who would listen earlier this week in front of Milton's Coffee & Wine, 920 Massachusetts St. The restaurant called police to complain. When officers arrived to take him away, he asked them if they were Jews and spit on the sidewalk.
Lon of Czech, a.k.a. Mad Dog, spent about five hours in jail for disorderly conduct and then was back on the streets.
"It's not against the law to be mentally ill," said Sgt. George Wheeler of the Lawrence Police Department. "It is against the law to act out."
In some cases, though, it is an individual's mental illness that makes them act out or break the law.
"In the case where mental illness is a factor in somebody's criminal behavior, our intent is to break the cycle," Wheeler said.
One step that police can take to "break the cycle" is to have a person evaluated by a screener at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. If the person is found to be dangerous to himself or others then they can be committed to an institution.
"There was an assumption that people with mental illness would be accepted within the community," said Suzanne Boyd, assistant professor of social welfare. "But the stigma attached to mental illness resulted in them not being accepted, and there were so many of them that there wasn't adequate resources."
Margaret Severson, assistant professor of social welfare, researches mental illness and jails. She said that cases like Don of Czech's are often referred to as "mercy bookings."
"It serves to rescue the shopkeeper from an embarrassing situation," she said.
Lt. Mike Suitt, of the Douglas County Sheriff's Department, supervised jail staff for more than a year. He said that dealing with the mentally ill was challenging for jailers.
"You have to put up with the spitting, biting and banging on the walls," he said.
Suitt said that a staff nurse was available to administer medications when they are on them.
"Sometimes just talking with them for half an hour helps," he said.
He said that because Lawrence is a college town and tends be more tolerant, means that more of the mentally ill stay here.
Edited by Clint Hooker
GTAs fight for time at orientation
By Chris Hopkins chopkins@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
University policy prevents group from participating
Orientation is a time for new students to familiarize themselves with and adjust themselves to their new surroundings.
However, officials at the Center for Teaching Excellence, those who run GTA orientations, are sticking with their policy that doesn't allow organizations at orientation.
When it comes time for new graduate teaching assistants to meet the University of Kansas, the Graduate Teaching Assistant Coalition wants to participate.
Sandra Gautt, assistant provost, said that the Center for Teaching Excellence, which runs the orientation, supported the current policy.
"The decision was there are no tables for any groups," Gaunt said.
Gautt said that in recent years, GTAC had procured space for a table near the
Mark Horowitz, former GTAC president, said that members handed out fliers outside of the orientation but that he wasn't sure if GTAC had information tables. But in any case, he said, the current situation wasn't satisfactory.
orientation site, first in the Kansas Union when orientation was held there, then outside of Wescoe Hall when the orientation moved to the Center for Teaching Excellence in Budig Hall.
Gault said that the goal of the orientation was to interact with the GTAs so that they could understand the University's commitment to teaching and to give them some basic training in teaching.
"New GTAs that should come into the University should be exposed to the group that legally represents them," he said. "We want to be recognized as a legitimate part rather than on the fringes."
"Most of our new GTAs come to us with no background information," she said.
Horowitz said that it was also the responsibility of the University to teach incoming fTAs about the conditions of their job.
"Fart of that responsibility is knowing your contractual rights," he said.
Hans Hansen, school of business GTA, said the group shouldn't have their views censored, and the conditions of teaching should be covered.
Wes Beal, GTAC organizer, said that this year was particularly disappointing because of the progress the group thought they had made at a town meeting with Chancellor Robert Hemenway earlier this semester.
"We left fairly optimistic and thought we'd be able to work something out," he said.
Horowitz said that all the group wanted was five minutes of the eight-hour orientation.
"We're not asking the Chancellor if we can run the thing or have half of it, we're just asking for a small piece of time," he said.
Gautt said that the position in front of Wescoe that GTAC has used in past years gave them plenty of visibility.
As for GTAC, Secretary Amy Cummins said that they would keep working.
"We're still going to use other means to get the word out," she said.
— Edited by Melody Ard
Entertainment special
Greg Brantner (left) and Chad Cummings, Andover freshmen, joke with each other during a bike ride on the Clinton Lake State Park biking/hiking trail.
Photo by Matt J. Daugherty/KANSAN
For more entertainment coverage, see page 5A.