WEDNESDAY,FEBRUARY 26,2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN - 7A
Test offers alternative to proficiency requirement
By Jessica Hood
jhood@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
International students applying to graduate school at the University of Kansas may have another option to meeting the English proficiency requirement.
The Graduate School is looking to accept the International English Language Testing System
in addition to the Testing of English as a Foreign Language exam. Now, the school accepts only TOEFL scores.
The Graduate School held a spring workshop yesterday to inform the graduate faculty and staff about the new test, said Diana Carlin, dean of the graduate school.
A representative from Cambridge Examinations and International English Language Test
ing System International, Beryl Meiron, spoke about the exam and its characteristics.
Carlin said the graduate school began looking at the new test about six months ago.
"The widespread availability and the rigorous level of the test make it a good option for providing a choice to students in which exam they take," Carlin said.
Meiron said the new test was a
task-based test that assessed the real language skills students needed to study and work.
The test covers four skills—listening, reading, writing and speaking. Meiron said test takers were evaluated on the quality of language they produce.
Meiron said the test was a good alternative because testing was offered in more countries.
"While the University won't get rid of the TOELF, it would offer
IELTS as a sanctioned alternative. "Carlin said."
For the International English Language Testing System to be an alternative for the English proficiency requirement, a proposal will go to the Graduate Council.
If the Graduate Council approves using this test, it will then go to the Office of the Provost for final approval.
If it is approved, international
students applying to enroll for Summer 2004 could use it for admissions.
Carlin said the features of the new test made it a good alternative.
"The security of the testing, the accessibility of the test and the reliability of the test make it a good direction for us to go," she said.
Edited by Julie Jantzer
Hussein debate: an unrealistic fantasy
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Saddam Hussein's invitation to debate President Bush has people wondering how such an event might be pulled off.
One master of debate preparation said Saddam probably was most familiar with a shark-tank format.
"He dangles his debate opponent over a shark tank and then cuts the rope," guessed Paul Begala, who helped Democrat Al Gore rehearse for match-ups with Bush.
It happens in every campaign — the underdog agitates for an attention-grabbing debate and his opponent plays hard to get. In
this circumstance, Bush is impossible to get.
If the Iraqi president has one thing going for him, it might be low expectations. The authoritarian leader is thought to be rusty on the give and take of politics, and if he should turn out to have a rapier wit, he might win points.
Bush, for example, beat expectations in the 2000 campaign. People were sure the policy-polished and well-spoken Gore would run circles around the Texas governor, who mangles words and was making his first bid for national office. Bush surprised the doubters.
Still, much is stacked against Saddam, including the risk of
looking like a fish out of the tank.
"The problem Saddam has, is that whenever he's had to debate anybody in his life he just kills them," Begala said yesterday.
American political history offers a number of do's and don'ts that Saddam might want to keep in mind:
Shave. A five-o'clock-shadow helped sink Richard Nixon in his first match-up with John Kennedy in September 1960; Saddam also looks overly stern if not swarthy at times.
No sighing. Gore's loud sighs, indicating exasperation with his opponent, served him poorly in 2000.
- Clothes and gestures matter.
Apart from the bearded look that
hurt him in 1960, Nixon wore a gray suit that washed him out against the gray studio background. Kennedy's blue suit gave him contrast on black and white TV.
Saddam's penchant for wearing uniforms, and shooting a rifle into the air, might make him appear less approachable.
No clock watching. The first President Bush looked at his watch several times in a 1992 debate with Bill Clinton on the recession. Saddam would want to avoid coming across as similarly unmoved by the plight of average people.
The logistics of a Bush-Saddam debate would be daunting. All-American debates are tough enough.
Senate studies food inspection program
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — Food safety inspections would probably get more attention if a single state agency oversaw them, the chairman of a Senate panel studying whether to consolidate inspection programs, said yesterday.
Under a Senate bill, the state Department of Agriculture would become responsible for all food inspections effective July 1, relieving the Kansas Department of Health and Environment of its inspection duties.
Sen. Derek Schmidt (R-Independence) and chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he supported the idea but believed more time was needed to work out the details. Schmidt and committee members plan to seek appointment of a special House-Senate committee that would study food safety programs later this year and make recommendations to the 2004 Legislature.
KDHE is responsible for food safety inspections at restaurants, school cafeterias and other food service establishments and at grocery stores and its meat counters.
The Department of Agriculture, meanwhile, regulates the sale of eggs and dairy products and the sale of meat by retail counters at small packing plants and meat-lockers.
Restaurant inspections came under scrutiny last year when a state audit found that nearly one-third of Kansas' 12,000 food establishments were not inspected as required in 2001. KDHE stepped up its efforts and eventually fined more than 130 restaurants in 2002.
Schmidt said he believed such inspections could get more attention in the Department of Agriculture.
"It will ensure that food safety will have the highest priority because it will be a big fish in a small pond," Schmidt said.
Sen. Christine Downey (D-Newton) said the state's budget problems also were influencing the discussion. She said legislators wondered whether inspectors could be trained to handle duties now assigned to different departments.
House endorses bill for abortion clinics
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — A House committee endorsed a bill Monday setting minimum health and safety standards for abortion clinics.
The measure was drafted by abortion opponents, who said it was intended to protect women.
Abortion rights supporters argued the bill was designed to limit access to the procedure by making it too expensive for clinics to operate.
The Federal and State Affairs Committee's 13-6 vote sent the measure to the entire House for debate. A similar bill passed the House last year but died without a vote in the Senate.
This year's measure would require the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to establish minimum standards for the space that clinics must reserve for bathrooms, interview and counseling rooms and patient dressing rooms. KDHE also would have to set standards for equipment, lighting, ventilation and exam tables.
Some standards are specifically prescribed in the bill.
For example, every clinic
would be required to have a doctor as its medical director; to have a licensed nurse present during any physician's exam; and to have ultrasound equipment if it offered abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy.
Also, the bill spells out what physicians must ask in compiling a patient's medical history.
"It is something that protects the health of women who go through the clinics," said committee Chairman Bill Mason (R-El Dorado).
Groups and legislators who support abortion rights are wary of the measure because it deals only with abortion clinics.
Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri have called the bill burdensome and discriminatory and said there was no need for it because abortion was safer than other surgical procedures.
Rep. Rick Rehorn (D-Kansas City) who opposes the bill, said Planned Parenthood's clinic in Overland Park and the Wichita clinic operated by George Tiller could comply with regulations contemplated by the bill.
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KU's African Students' Association Presents
Door to Africa Saturday, March 1 $ ^{st} $ ,2003
Win Gift Certificates at the door from Carlos O'Kelly's & Montana Mike's!
Food, Music, Dance and Fashion From Nigeria, Cameroon, Zimbabwe Kenya, Congo, Senegal, Gambia and so many other countries. Featuring recipes such as Yasa from Mali Jollof Rice from Ghana Couseous from Senegal!!!
5pm at the ECM
and then the Kansas Union Ballroom.
$5 at the door.
Sponsored by Student Senate, Checkers, Dillons, Community Mercantile, Walmart, Target, Food 4 Less and many others.
and many others.