The University Daily
KANSAN
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Friday,February 27,1981 Vol. 91,No.105 USPS 650-640
BOB GREENSPAN/Kansen staff
Lone Star Lake, once a haven for water enthusiasts, is now a series of small puddles and dried mud. The lake is likely to remain this way until repairs are completed on the lake's dam. Story page 13.
Senate reaffirms view on fee increase
By KAREN SCHLUETER Staff Reporter
The Student Senate last night reaffirmed its $14.55 student activity fee recommendation despite advice from administrators that the request be cut to $14.
The motion to reaffirm its earlier decision passed without opposition after Loren Busy, Senate Finance and Auditing Committee chairman, told the Senate that two administrators suggested the Senate reduce its request.
Busy met with Caryl Smith, dean of student life, and David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs, earlier in the week to discuss the request. Both administrators told him that the chancellor would probably not approve the full request.
"Dr. Ambler said, 'We can fly with $14,' and that's all the justification they gave," BUSBY said. "This is not adequate justification conference." He asked for a recommendation and Senate put in to make the recommendation.
"I would like to have our position reaffirmed, or these groups will be hurting, and the blame for hurting the quality of their services will be on the Senate."
IN AN INTERVIEW Wednesday, Smith said that the administration was concerned with keeping costs down.
"I think we're trying to say, 'Hey, $14.55 is a lot of an increase. How about something in the area of $14?' she said." "That's a 31 percent increase, and that's an awfully huge amount in a year when people are concerned about how much it costs to go to school here."
Ambler, in an interview Wednesday, said he would tell the Senate what he could comfortably say.
Busby and Bren Abbott, student body vice president, plan to meet with Acting Chancellor Del Shankel today or tomorrow to discuss the increase.
Busby said that the administrators did not tell him whether they thought the increases were fair.
David Adkins, Student Senate executive committee chairman, also supported the $1.55 million investment.
what can be approved, but I think the $13 was an arbitrary decision," he said. "I hope Student Senate's not willing to lay down and die, just because Dr. Ambler said so."
"Loren and the committee looked over these requests a great deal more than any administrator could," he said. "We're ready to move on to regular budget hearings next week, and we shouldn't have the headache of cutting that 55 cents."
"I'm sure Dr. Ambler has a good feeling for
IN OTHER BUSINESS, the Senate approved a $1 increase in the Student Health Services fee. The Senate approved the $1 increase in the Student Health Services fee.
A bill to revitalize the Off-Campus Board, which represents Student living off campus, also includes
The bill moves the appointment of board members from April to November and adds a representative from the Foreign Student Service department attributed by David Zimmerman off-campus senator.
Facilities Operations short-circuits fire risk
Facilities Operations will start Monday to pull the plug on the strings of extension cords School of Architecture and Urban Design students use to light their Robinson Center studio.
After examining the studio yesterday, Robert Porter, assistant director of physical plain maintenance, said that disconnected electrical outlets would be fixed. But he said the problem was not a fire hazard as the students and school claim.
The problem in the temporary studio began last November when one of the partitions that supported electrical conduits was moved, cutting off electricity to a large section of the studio.
cords together, creating a possible fire hazard by overloading the available outlets.
Although it is an obvious inconvenience to the students, Porter said, there was no danger because most extension cords have an acceptable value of 200 percent overload.
To get light, students had to string extension
"Whether you have calculators or desk lamps, you can put several of them on extension cords and plug them into the power outlet."
"The important thing is that it is fixed," he said, "because architecture students need light to see."
Tom Anderson, director of Facilities Operations, said the request to fix the outlets was not given a high priority because there was no mention of a fire hazard.
However, such items as hot plates and coffee pots used with extension cords would create a fire hazard, he said.
hazard" since students put away their lamps and cords when they were done.
He said that of the 368 work items, a request to hook up electrical wiring was not as immediate as one to fix a stuck elevator or a flooded bathroom.
Dennis Domer, acting dean of the school, still maintains that there was a "moveable fire
"If a request had a fire hazard on it," he said,
"they have been taken care of immediately."
Decision in libel case elates former students
By Staff and Wire Reports
The Kansas Supreme Court yesterday unanimously found four former KU medical students innocent of libeling Dante Scarpelli, former chairman of the department of pathology and oncology at the University of Kansas Medical center.
The Supreme Court decision reversed an earlier decision by the Wyandotte County District Court.
"This is not to say the complaint is true," wrote Justice Harold Herd. "It is to say there is no evidence of actual malice or reckless disreceard for truth or falsity in its publication."
DELIA YOUNG, SPOKESWOMAN for the former student, said they were very elated and gratified with the decision, especially because it was unanimous.
Both factors were needed for a libel verdict because Scarpell was determined to be a public official. Scarpell's lawyers had argued that they have been declared a public official in the case.
Scarpelli, now chairman of the department of pathology at Northwestern University, first filed suit against the former students in 1978. That lawsuit was dismissed in 2004, deadlocked its, decision 11-1 in Scarpelli's favor.
Scarpell, contending that his reputation had been damaged, refiled the suit in 1797. He was convicted in 1803 and sentenced to death.
The former students appealed the lower court judgement to the state Supreme Court on the grounds that the lower court had made procedural errors.
The libel suit stemmed from a five-page complaint the former students filed accusing Scarpelli of violating KU's affirmative action complaint the university was dismissed after a University hearing.
ALL THE FORMER STUDENTS are now practicing physicians. They are Charles Floyd, a resident in psychiatry at the University of California at Davis; Charles Lee, a senior surgery resident at the KU Med Center; Nolan Jones, who is finishing a fellowship at Tufts New York Medical Center in Boston; and Ernest Taylor, a faculty member of the University of Southern California.
All of the former students were admitted to the medical school as the first of an affirmative action plan by KLU.
IN ITS DECISION, the high court said Scarpelli opposed lowering admission standards to gain minority students, "but gave lip service to the program."
"He acquired a reputation in the student body and faculty as an opponent of affirmative action."
The Court determined the students were genuinely convinced Scarpelli was dead.
Faculty Council wants athletic abuses checked
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People defended the students because of apprehension that a decision against the doctors could discourage the filing of documentation complaints, James Meyerson, assistant general counsel for the NAACP, said earlier.
By DAN BOWERS Staff Reporter
The Faculty Council yesterday approved a statement asking Acting Chancellor Del Shankel to conduct an investigation into recent charges of an unlawful academic practice involving KU athletes.
In a Feb. 6 copyrighted article, the Kansas City Times reported individual cases of academic procedures being abused to and athletes.
Lawrence Sherr, professor of math and business, proposed the statement, which asks the acting chancellor to look into the allegations and their validity.
The statement reads, "The Faculty Council requests the acting chancellor to conduct an investigation of the allegations concerning advising and grading of student athletes that recently appeared in the press, and to report the faculty for investigation to this council by April 2, 1981."
"I don't want to prejudge the situation," Sherr said last night, "but we have to find out if they're wrong."
"The faculty sets the academic standards, and has the responsibility to look into it if it is true. Sherr re-emphasized that he was not a professor when he wanted to see an investigation into the allegations.
"I'm disappointed that I haven't heard of one up to now," he said.
George Worth, faculty executive committee chairman, said Shankel told him that he was already looking into the charges and into that may be available for any student to charge.
SHANKEL WAS UNAVAILABLE for comment last night.
The council's statement calling for an investigation was related to a resolution that was developed by FaeEx last week, and also approved by Faculty Council yesterday.
The resolution denounces any "diminution of professional standards at the University of Minnesota" or rejection with reference to those standards by individuals or organizations inside or outside the University."
Council members agreed that the resolution
was a broad statement, signaling the council's disapproval not only with the manipulation of academic procedures, but also with efforts to increase standards by groups outside of the University.
James Drury, professor of political science, said he was concerned that groups such as alumni, businessmen and legislators might see the statement as a failure on the part of the KU faculty to accept input from groups outside of the University.
The latter part of the resolution refers to two bills in the Kansas Legislature that would give final tenure approval and faculty disciplinary control to the Board of Regents.
Worb said that was not the statement's intent. HE SAID GROUPS NOT directly involved with academics at the University had "no idea what these standards are."
He added that while the faculty had always been openly receptive to suggestions, it was opposed to interference affecting academic policies.
In a meeting before Faculty Council, University Council amended the Senate Code to make University policy conform with the state Open Meetings Law.
The law sets guidelines for meetings, including proper notice of the time and place a meeting is to be held, the establishment of a quorum and conditions under which a meeting may be closed. Meetings of a public body may be closed only if the discussion is over non-elected personnel.
The change affects all bodies of University governance, except Student Senate.
Because changes involving Senate must be approved by Senate, the council could only recommend that it approve an amendment regarding open meeting policy.
The recommendation to Senate was amended after discussion of section of it. The original recommendation would have required that only one member of the committee be present at a meeting to establish a quorum.
Bren Abell, student body vice president,
noted that the amendment would require only 13
student senators to be present for a quorum.
Now. 33 are needed for a quorum.
"I don't think 13 is a very good representation of the 26,000 students at the University," Abbott said.
Weather
It will be mostly cloudy today with a high of 59, according to the KU Weather Service. There is a chance of thundershowers before noon.
Meek named vice chancellor to Med Center
Tomorrow skies will be clear to partly cloudy. The high will be in the upper 40s.
Skies will clear rapidly tonight and the low will be around 40.
By BRIAN LEVINSON
Staff Reporter
KANSAS CITY, Kan.—The hand-carved Jayhawk on his desk says it all.
Meek's dedication to KU was rewarded Wednesday when he was named vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Kansas at Central Center. The job had been open for four years.
Joseph Meek, a Hiawata native, has spent most of his life in Kansas and most of his children in Oklahoma.
"I sincerely believe that KU has a commitment to the state and is discharging it," Meek, who directs the Med Center's Outreach team with its staff affairs, KU needs to be the statewide leader."
professions to rural areas to teach new medical techniques.
One way KU could do that, Meek said, would be through the Outreach program, which sends
MEEK SPOKE WITH EXCTEMENT about his new job.
"This is a big step for me," he said. "It
extends our leadership from external to
external internal affairs of the Med Center."
Meek said he would continue to direct the Outreach program while attending to his duties
AS VICE CHANCLELLOR, Meek will coordinate the efforts of the deans of four schools in the College of Health Sciences. He said in ad-hoc there were several issues that needed attention.
"I will be able to do both because the Outreach program is well established now and does not require a separate training."
"I think we need to especially support the School of Allied Health," he said. "Since it has programs on both campuses, I will work to develop ties with the Lawrence campus."
Meek said he also wanted to look at faculty standards and course accertion problems, ask if the students are ready for the job.
load off of Dr. Waxman's shoulders," he said.
Waxman is the executive vice chancellor of the KKU.
Mekke should be able to adjust smoothly to his new job. Students and staff at the Med Center must have a clean, dry room.
"I never lose sight of my interest in other people." Meek said. "I have a genuine interest in the people around me."
"That is the finest mark of a physician, the commitment he makes to the patient."
MEEK, WHO LIVES WITH his wife and
baby. Graduated from Inverland Park,
graduated from KU 1967 in
"I work hard to save time to be with my family," he said. "I think it is essential."
"That is one of the advantages of academic medicine; you have a more orderly life."
Joseph Meek